DVD Roundup (Friday Night Lights, Troy, The Village)

Since I can rent DVD's for free now, it seems like a good opportunity to drop some quick reviews on you from time to time. I'll try to keep them brief as I should be doing 3 or 4 at a time each time I do a DVD Roundup.


Friday Night Lights

I saw this in the theater the night it came out, but that seems like forever ago. So I was excited to pop in this DVD and see if I liked "Friday Night Lights" as much this time as I did in the theater. This movie definitely does the book justice, it stays true to the intentions of the book even when changing things around to help the movie. It didn't sensationalize and sugar coat the story like "Varsity Blues" did. What makes "Friday Night Lights" so good is that it isn't really about football. Stop looking at me funny and let me explain. There is certainly a lot of football in the movie (real looking football at that), but at it's heart this movie is a morality play set with football as a backdrop. That is what made the book great and it is also what makes the movie work so well. The acting in this movie is the best I can ever remember seeing in a sports movie. Billy Bob Thorton is very good as the coach in over his head and all the kids are very believable. Derek Luke turns in an especially great performance as Boobie Miles, the doomed star player. Derek Luke is one of the great young actors today. So if you are into sports movies, do yourself a favor and give this one a rent. If for no other reason than to see just how crazy Texans can be.

Troy

"Troy" is another movie I had already seen in the theater, but my dad hadn't seen it so I went ahead and watched it again. I enjoyed the movie when I saw it in the theater but it wasn't exactly something I was clamoring to see again. "Troy" works well as a "Gladiator" clone with more action and less substance, which is kind of sad considering it is based on a treasured piece of literature. This retelling of the "Iliad" worries more about what happens and less about why. Giving us great action scenes and tough characters, but no real substance behind it all. Brad Pitt is perfectly cast as Achilles the great warrior and Eric Bana lights up the screen as Hector of Troy, the head of the Trojan army. This is a perfectly good action adventure film and worth renting as long as you don't compare it to the book.

The Village

So after "The Sixth Sense" and "Unbreakable" I was pretty much buying what ever M. Night was selling. That is until I spent 8 of my not so hard earned dollars to see "Signs", a film that spends the first hour building up something great and then spends the next hour not delivering on it. "Signs" was just a complete 180 degree turn from the other great M. Night films. Sure it followed the same formula with the building of suspense and trick ending, but it just seemed so much more sloppy and unsubtle. All that said I had been putting off seeing "The Village" since it came out. I was pretty sure I was not going to like it and it's lackluster reviews only backed up my assumption. Tonight though, I finally sat down and gave it a whirl and boy am I glad I did. While it isn't as good as the early M. Night classics, it is a far superior film to "Signs" and reaffirmed my belief that M. Night Shymalan was a very good film maker. I won't go too into the plot because I don't want to spoil it by giving anything away. I loved the plot turns in this and even though everyone I talk to tell me they saw everything coming, either they are lying or I am a moron because it was constantly ahead of me. Deffinalty worth a rent.


I'll be back in a week or so with another rundown of DVD's for you to check out or avoid.