DVD Roundup (Control, Cube: Zero, I Heart Huckabees)

Control

You have to be real careful when it comes to renting stuff you have never heard of. Especially if you are me, and you have heard of pretty much everything. Most B-movies didn't play in theaters for a reason, and most of the time you find out why 5 minutes or so after starting the movie. This of course, is not always the case. Occasionally a straight to video movie will come out of nowhere and be good, even some have become hits. I remember the first time I rented "The Boondock Saints" I had no idea what it was, but the box looked cool. So it is possible for a movie to be good out of nowhere, just not probable. Fast forward to me wandering aimlessly through the video store looking for something I haven't seen. Usually the stuff I haven't seen, is unseen for a reason. For instance I haven't seen "White Chicks". Finally, after much wandering I came across "Control" and even though I had never heard of it, I decided to give it a try. It had Ray Liotta and Willem Dafoe in it, how bad could it be? I know you, my faithful readers are expecting me to tell you it sucked now, but actually it wasn't bad. It wasn't particularly good either. It is the kind of movie where seeing it once, pretty much does the trick. Your not upset at losing 2 hours of your life to it, nor do you ever really need to see it again. The story is about a man on death row (Liotta) who instead of being put to death, he is put into a government program to test a drug that controls anger. Dafoe plays the doctor running this little experiment. Much to everyone's surprise Liotta soon becomes a model citizen. Of course it's not quite that simple or else we wouldn't have a movie. It is a bit far fetched, but better than half of the junk dumped into theaters.

Cube: Zero

I am a big fan of the original "Cube". It is a very smart psychological horror film. It was followed by an average sequel called "Hypercube" that got away from the claustrophobic horror of the first Cube film. So "Cube: Zero" really could have gone either way. Thankfully it is much more like the first film, and not so much like the sequel. This movie is a prequel that takes us out of the cube some of the time and into the room of the people who control it. This finally gives some answers as to how and why people are randomly appearing in the cubes. Setting a good portion of the film outside of the cube could have been a real disaster, but it works very nicely here. We get all the good horror of the first Cube, and also get a side story that works well in the film and gives us answers to some of the questions. If you liked "Cube", then "Cube: Zero" is certainly worth a rent.

I Heart Huckabees

David O. Russell has an ability to make comedy work in pretty much any situation. I guess when your first film is a quasi-comedy about a 17 year old kid who has sex with his mother, then you can pretty much make anything funny. "I Heart Huckabees" is a broad comedy about odd subject matter. It is about existentialism and psychology, but also surprisingly easy to follow. Albert Markovski (Jason Schwartzman) goes to existential detectives (Dustin Hoffman and Lilly Tomlin) to find out why he keeps seeming the same man over and over. Hoffman and Tomlin are very funny, as a married couple with differing views on how to get the job done. Between this and "Meet The Fockers", Hoffman has proven to be a solid comedic actor. Albert becomes friends with Tommy Corn (Mark Wahlberg) a fireman with an unhealthy obsession with petroleum. Things get crazier by the minute, but this is always funny. Especially Wahlberg, who is laugh out loud funny all through the movie. Jude Law and Naomi Watts also prove they can do comedy, and even Shania Twain pops up by the end. "I Heart Huckabees" is definitely worth checking out, even if you don't know what the heck they are talking about half the time, you will still be laughing.