Film Review: 007 on Blu-Ray

Did you ever watch the first four Bond films on the big screen or were you too young when they hit the cinemas around the world, just as I was? Either way, if you have a decent home theatre setup (I am watching on a FullHD BenQ W6500 DLP projector with a Pioneer SC-LX82 / BDP-LX52 combo) and if you like your early Bond films (I am talking about Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger and Thunderball), then I strongly recommend buying these Blu-Rays. The restoration used the almost legendary Lowry process, now owned by Reliance MediaWorks, who have just finished the Blu-Ray transfer of the Star Wars franchise with excellent picture and sound quality and hence become accomplices in Lucas' misguided efforts to ruin the original trilogy through intrusive editing - just imagine Felix Leiter in Goldfinger being digitally replaced with the Jeffrey Wright Leiter from Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace to make it more "relevant" to younger audiences... Anyway, the restoration resulted in a pristine re-master with an image that is as clear, sharp and colourful as most films that have been released over the last few months - well, actually better than some of those! The sound has been updated as well and sounds better than ever, but the picture quality is the real winner. At least Goldfinger and From Russia With Love (the best Bond movies IMHO) should belong to any good Blu-Ray collection.

And while we are on the subject of quality restorations: check out Zulu on Blu-Ray, it's been restored to an eye-popping quality, with breathtaking colour, excellent contrast and great detail.

Film Review: An American Crime (Blu-Ray)

Ellen Page and Catherine Keener headline the cast in this film which is based on true events that took place in Indiana, USA, in the mid-60s. The film is horrifying, sad, upsetting and almost unbearably intense, but it asks a range of painful and important questions about why people look the other way or even willingly participate in obviously wrong acts of cruel violence. Keener is one of the top Drama actors of her generation and her performance in this film is again flawless. The real discovery though is Ellen Page, who starred in this film in 2007, the same year that she had her breakthrough with Juno. She walks a very thin line in her portrayal of Sylvia Likens and manages to get the balance right through an almost underplayed approach to the role that is unsettling and almost heartbreaking. The casting of the support roles is very solidly done, too, with James Franco (127 Hours, Spiderman 1-3), Bradley Whitford (Josh from The West Wing) and Ari Graynor (who also starred with Ellen Page in Whip It!) being the most prominent names perhaps. 8/10, but be prepared for your mood to sink significantly.

Future Female Film Stars: Top 10

If you're a film buff, you will probably not find any surprises here and you will probably counter with some other names which are still much more unknown. If you enjoy movies and look for some suggestions, which actors that are currently launching their career are worth looking into, here are my current Top 10 future female stars:

10) January Jones (Mad Men, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, Unknown, X-Men: First Class)

9) Mila Kunis (Family Guy, The Book of Eli, Black Swan, Friends with Benefits. Next: The Muppets)

8) Rose Byrne (Damages, 28 Weeks Later, Knowing, X-Men: First Class)

7) Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit)

6) Rebecca Hall (The Prestige, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Frost/Nixon, The Town. Next: The Awakening)

5) Olivia Wilde - Born 1984 in New York, Ms. Wilde developed her career both on television (The O.C., House) and the silver screen, the latter with appearances in a wide range of films from independent productions such as Nick Cassavetes' Alpha Dog in 2006, to silly teen horror flicks (Turistas, in the same year) and more recently big budget productions such as TRON: Legacy and Cowboys & Aliens. Her name is already attached to 10 future projects, including Andrew Niccol's In Time (with Justin Timberlake - Mr. Niccol is best known for his brilliant first film, Gattaca) and a rumored remake of Tomb Raider.

4) Elle Fanning - the youngest in this list, at 13 years old four years younger than her sister Dakota (War of the Worlds, the unbearable Twilight Saga), this is probably the biggest gamble. Although Elle Fanning has already appeared in 18 feature films, that includes films as early as 2001 (I Am Sam) when she was three years old. Her breakthrough came with Sophia Coppola's wonderfully slow paced and melancholic film Somewhere, in which she played Stephen Dorrf's character's daughter Cleo. She since appeared in Super 8, JJ Abrams and Steven Spielberg's summer movie that pretty much tanked at the Box Office, and will appear soon in Ms. Coppola's Dad's latest film Twixt, followed by Cameron Crowe's (Say Anything, Singles, Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous) newest film, We Bought A Zoo alongside Matt Damon. I think Ms. Fanning will be the much better actress in the family if she picks her films carefully - with directors such as Sofia Coppola and Cameron Crowe, she should be doing very well!

3) Chloe Grace Moretz - Born in 1997 in Atlanta, Ms. Moretz wowed the world when she dropped the C*Bomb in a very unexcited way in the 2010 Kick-Ass. Since then she has been in four more films, including Let Me In, which would be a great film if it wasn't for the much better original Let The Right One In.  She is already linked to seven new projects, including Martin Scorsese's Hugo, co-starring Jude Law, and the currently filming Dark Shadows, directed by Tim Burton and co-starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Michelle Pfeiffer and Eva Green. One to watch very closely.

2) Saoirse Ronan - Born 1994 in New York, but raised in Ireland, Ms. Ronan starred in 10 feature films so far, including Atonement, Death Defying Acts, the rather disappointing The Lovely Bones (not her fault though), The Way Back and Hanna. She delivered great performances in each of these films, and the roles she played were all rather demanding and versatile. She also doesn't fit the usual bill of the Hollywood beauty, which makes her interesting and immensely promising.

1) Ellen Page - the 24 year old Canadian had her breakthrough with Juno, in which she starred in the title role. Before that, she delivered a brilliant performance in the horrifying An American Crime alongside Catherine Keener, a shocking and thoughtful film based on a true story but unfortunately unknown to wider audiences. After Juno, her most prominent role was as Ariadne in Inception, but she also starred in smaller films such as the funny Smart People, the surprisingly entertaining Whip It  (a film about the Roller Derby League directed by Drew Barrymore - really??) and, perhaps her most whacky and surprising role to date, as Libby (aka Boltie) in the hilariously strange Super. We will see her next in Woody Allen's new film, The Bop Decameron, alongside Jesse Eisenberg (he will appear in my Future Male Stars Top 10). Way to go, Ellen!

Film Review: Hanna (Blu-Ray)

So in my last post I sang the praise of British film makers. Next thing I watch is Hanna, directed by Joe Wright, born 1972 in London. Mr. Wright previously directed Pride & Prejudice and Atonement (both with Keira Knightley), followed by the American film The Soloist with Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey jr. A talented actor, no doubt. but somehow a little trapped in the "emotional drama" category? Well, if he ever was, he's not any more. Hanna is a brilliant action film starring Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett and Tom Hollander. I won't give any of the plot away on this one, and I hope you haven't read anything else about the film or even seen a preview. Despite the action scenes, Hanna is still a character movie, with a deliberately obvious fairy tale backdrop (which is explained quite well in some of the documentaries that accompany the Blu-Ray release). The music is written by the Chemical Brothers, which works exceptionally well for this film. The Blu-Ray delivers a crisp picture combined with a powerful soundtrack and is absolutely worth the extra money in comparison to a DVD. More about Saoirse Ronan in my next post. Absolutely recommended, 8/10.

Film Review: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

British film makers seem to offer the best, most intelligent "popcorn movies / summer blockbusters" these days: Christopher Nolan (Inception, The Dark Night) and Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code) have shown how to do it, and Rupert Wyatt is following in their footsteps, without being a copy cat. His first feature film "The Escapist", a small independent UK production, seemed to be just another prison break film; it was much more than that though, and despite the underlying action a very emotional and engaging story (8/10 - the best prison film since Shawshank Redemption). Equally, Rise of the Planet of the Apes is not just another big Sci-Fi action flick, but indeed a moving story about sickness, death, friendship, betrayal and corporate greed. The best thing is: it works! For fans of the franchise the film offers a "how it all started" account that fits perfectly into the lore, for everyone else it provides two hours of clever entertainment. There is really only one fly in the ointment, which I think can be easily forgiven: why the apes keep flying through window panes completely effortlessly without taking even the tiniest cut is completely incomprehensible. Other than that: Enjoy!! 7/10

Film Review: Mad Men (Seasons 1-4) Blu-Ray

OK, I admit it - at first I didn't get the whole hype about Mad Men. I watched a few episodes of Season 1 last year and, fair enough, the reviews were right in that the show was very stylish. But every single character on the programme was somehow... well, kind of horrible. And the whole idea of a programme about a marketing agency just seems alien, unless it would be done by Ricky Gervais. So after three episodes or so I gave up.

And then a few days ago I started over. And gave it a bit more time. And as the first season progressed it was getting better. The show looks great, the production value is fantastic and the USA of the early 60s come to life on your television like never before in a contemporary programme. But that's not it - the weird thing is that the apparently horrible characters over time just prove to be damaged people, flawed, weak, sad and sometimes just misled. And that is what makes these characters real - behind the façade of the smart creative director, his beautiful wife and so many other characters you discover people who you can't help but care for, not despite of but because of all their faults. The show has a few funny moments which are not very obvious and not laugh-out-loud funny, but it's mostly serious drama you're in for. An investment worth making though, stay with it into the second season and you will be hooked, too. 9/10

Film Review: Unknown (Blu-Ray) - and The Tourist, in one half sentence

Unknown is everything what The Tourist probably tried to be: It's elegant, suspenseful and filmed 50 years earlier could have fit in seamlessly with the best of Hitchcock's thrillers. Liam Neeson leads the cast as Dr. Martin Harris, a Biologist visiting a conference in Berlin with his wife (rising star January Jones from Mad Men and X-Men: First Class). After an accident he loses his short-term memory and nothing is the same anymore. The whole film takes place in Berlin and was shot on location and in the Babelsberg studios. It manages to keep you interested at all times and moves at a good pace while keeping you guessing what is actually going on. Other than Neeson and Jones, the cast includes the German actors Diane Kruger (playing a woman from Bosnia - you may remember her from Inglorious Basterds, the two National Treasure flicks, Troy and The Piano Player), Bruno Ganz (actually Swiss, but led the cast in many German films from Wim Wenders' classic The American Friend to Downfall - Der Untergang)  and Sebastian Koch (The Loves of Others) as well as Aidan Quinn and Frank Langhella. The film is reminiscent of some of Hitchcock's work such as North by Northwest or Torn Curtain, but in a modern packaging. 7/10

Film Review: Eat Pray Love (Blu-Ray)

I'll be brief - very much unlike this film: Eat Pray Love was the first film in quite a while that I didn't finish watching. After about an hour I gave up. And even then did I make it through the last 30 minutes or so merely hoping that Javier Bardem may finally appear in a desperate attempt to save the film - he never showed (well, not within the first hour anyway). I wonder whether part of the problem was the casting - Julia Roberts does not fit into the role of the somewhat annoying high maintenance lead character. Julianne Moore or Julia Dreyfuss could have given this film a different perspective, the former with a much more edgy presence, the latter with her trademark sardonic sense of humour. Don't get me wrong - I love Julia Roberts in films such as Erin Brokovich, but this one doesn't work. Give it a miss. 3/10

Film Review: X-Men - First Class

After the somewhat disappointing X-Men Origins: Wolverine, this film is really showing the origin of the X-Men: after an introduction, that is practically identical to the first scenes of the first X-Men movie, we learn about how the friendship between the young men Charles Xavier (Professor X) and Erik Lehnsherr (Magneto) begun. This film pretty much does what it says on the box: it "reboots" the X-Men franchise by introducing younger actors, new characters and therefore provides the opportunity for another few X-Men sequels. Most of the special effects are of the usual high quality, the story is engaging but not without some lengths, and the cast assembles a lot of talent from different generations: The youngest include the wonderful Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone), the lovely Zoë Kravitz (Californication - and yes, she is Lenny Kravitz's and Lisa Bonet's daughter - and I predict she is someone who we will see rather frequently on the big screen), "veteran" actor Nicholas Hoult (About a Boy, A Single Man) and the All-American butch Lucas Till. The 30-40 generation is represented by the leading men, Scotsman James McAvoy (Atonement, Wanted, The Last King of Scotland) and Londoner of German/Irish descent, Michael Fassbender (Band of Brothers, 300, Inglorious Basterds) as well as the voluptuous January Jones (Mad Men, Love Actually, The Boat that Rocked) and the great Rose Byrne (Damages, Knowing, 28 Weeks Later, Sunshine). The 40+ generation finally is led by the brilliant Kevin Bacon and a great support cast including Oliver Platt, Rade Serbedzija, Ray Wise (Twin Peaks) and Michael Ironside. Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake, Stardust, Kick-Ass) directed a typical American popcorn movie and, despite the partly British cast, unfortunately failed to re-create the brilliant mix of American production value and pop culture with a quirky English sense of humour that made Kick-Ass such an enjoyable film.

6/10 - Good summer popcorn movie, watch this if you enjoyed X-Men 1-3 or Heroes

Film Review: The Way Back (Blu-Ray)

After a seven year break, Peter Weir returns to the big screen with a film that is reminiscent of some of his best work - unlike his previous film of 2003, "Master and Commander", which was unusually loud and fast paced. Weir's greatest films include, in my opinion and in this order, Fearless, Witness, The Truman Show and Dead Poet's Society and The Way Back fits right in as yet another captivating, beautifully shot character drama. Jim Sturgess, Ed Harris, Colin Farrell and raising stars Saoirse Ronan (Atonement, The Lovely Bones, Hanna) and Mark Strong (RocknRolla, Body of Lies, Sherlock Holmes, Kick-Ass) lead the cast in a story about a group of men who escape Gulag 105 during WW2 and their 4000 mile walk to India. There is some dispute whether the story is actually based on real events or not which is actually irrelevant for the enjoyment of the film. The first half of the film is dark, bitter and strangely claustrophobic, spaninng the arc from introducing the characters to escaping the Gulag and making their way to Mongolia. At this point, the film visually opens up, colours brighten and the second half is truely breathtaking, with some of the most beautiful cinematography (courtesy of Russell Boyd who also filmed "Master and Commander") I have seen in the last few years. Many directors would have pushed helicopter shots and a bombastic soundtrack à la "Lawrence of Arabia" down your throat, but Peter Weir maintains his almost underplayed style and sticks to quiet, intense scenes, carried by the exquisite cast which holds its own against the magnificent backdrop of the Mongolian wastelands, the Gobi Desert, the Chinese Wall and the Himalayas.

The Blu-Ray does the beautiful images justice and is worth every penny. Extras include a Making of, Interviews and some Deleted Scenes.

7.5/10 - Peter Weir is back to top form and this Blu-Ray should be in every good collection.

Film Review: Get Carter (1971)

I think few people would disagree with me that Mike Hodges' first feature film, both written and directed by him, is also his best film so far - he is certainly less remembered for the 1980s Flash Gordon (sing: Flash, ahaaaa) or the sadly overlooked A Prayer for the Dying (1987). His latest fictional feature film was I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, released in 2004 and starring Clive Owen, which 33 years after his debut seemed like a faint memory of what once was, plotting a similar story line as the 1971 classic did, but without having the same impact or, frankly, even playing in the same class.

Get Carter is a classic in its own right. The brilliant Michael Caine starrs as Jack Carter, a killer working for the East London mob, who travels to his home town to revenge his brother's dead. The film is mostly filmed on location in Newcastle, which in the early 70s provided an extremely bleak and rather depressing backdrop for Carter's search for revenge (some would say that Newcastle hasn't improved much since - I will stay well away from that one!!). There is nothing charming about any of the gangsters in this film - Carter lives in a world of filth, corruption, hate and violence, which was quite a tall order for the early 70s: until then, few gangster films, if any, have been so rough-edged and gritty. The film includes some very memorable lines and images (I don't want to give them away so see for yourself) and has aged very well. The DVD looks reasonably well (only a few shots, including the opening shot, look a bit dodgy) but the sound could do with a bit of a clean-up job. Perhaps MGM or someone will sponsor a 40th Anniversary Edition...?

8/10 - Highly recommended if you like the Gangster film genre and don't mind the violence (which is not very graphic)

Film Review: Source Code

First of all, apologies if some of the things I am saying in this review are a bit cryptic, but I want to stay true to my ambition to give away as little of the plot of a film as possible - and especially with this film I wish I could have watched it without having seen the preview before.

After the brilliant "Moon", Source Code is Duncan Jones' (David Bowie's son if you must know) second feature film, and boy is he pushing the boat out with this one! Source Code is, just as Moon, a Science Fiction film. And, just as Moon, the Science Fiction aspect of the film is pretty much irrelevant. Jones is extremely ambitious in his film making, because he combines an intelligent plot with the exploration of big ethical issues and deeply emotional character development. And he succeeds in all three. The one mistake you must not make is to question the Science in the Science Fiction too much. One of Jones' underlying premises in Moon is actually scientifically plausible: there is a wide-spread view that Helium-3 is present in significant amounts on the Moon and there is a wide-spread view that it could potentially be used to enable nuclear (cold) fusion. You may not have watched Moon yet (what are you waiting for - get the DVD or Blu-Ray!), so I will not elaborate on why the second underlying scientific theme is much less plausible, at least with our current understanding of the human condition. In Source Code, the underlying scientific principles are a bit wobbly and the biggest mistake is to think too hard about the science and ignore the more important aspects of the film over it. I think the best way to make this film work scientifically is to imagine that the scientist in the film have actually just begun to understand a phenomenon and are misinterpreting it quite badly. Just imagine Marie Curie as she experimented with radiation - if she had actually understood what she was dealing with from the beginning, she certainly wouldn't have died from the consequences of radiation exposure. So, if you're looking to pick holes into the science aspect of the film, don't bother and go back to re-watching Star Trek Voyager for the 10th time. Otherwise enjoy the carefully developed plot progression, the strong performances provided by all lead actors (Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga and Jeffrey Wright), the powerful soundtrack by Chris Bacon and, most importantly, explore the emotional and ethical dimensions that the film invites you to consider.

7.5/10 - watch this if you liked Moon, Inception and I, Robot.

Film Review: North by Northwest (Blu-Ray)

I never had the pleasure of watching North by Northwest in a theatre, but with the 50th anniversary release of the film on Blu-Ray, I am getting close - watching the remastered film on my home theatre setup made me appreciate the film even more than before. This has always been one of my favorite works of Alfred Hitchcock - it's very funny (this is probably one of Cary Grant's best performances), very suspenseful, fast paced, beautifully shot, featuring a great score written by the wonderful Bernard Herrmann and sporting two of the most memorable action scenes in film history (I don't want to spoil it for you in case you haven't seen the film, so let me just say crop duster and Mt. Rushmore). The Blu-Ray release looks fantastic - the colours are vibrant, the picture is as sharp and crisp as can be expected from a film shot in 1959 and the remastering is very successful in avoiding that artificial, overly smooth look you often find with remastered films; in the contrary, the picture shows a good level of fine granularity that you would see in a non-digital projection as well. I wish much more recent films (such as Heat) would have received that kind of treatment before transferred to Blu-Ray!! The soundtrack (presented in TrueHD 5.1) blows you away as Herrmann's score is opening up the film with a horn section only bettered by the soundtrack to Cape Fear (by the same composer). The extras are plentiful and very interesting, including a brilliant Audio Commentary by the screenwriter Ernest Lehman (84 years old when he recorded the commentary), a 90 minute documentary on Cary Grant (many Non-English people may be surprised to learn that the "American Icon" Cary Grant was really born in Bristol, England), a 40 minute Making of, a 60 minute documentary about Hitchcock's style and finally a 25 minute feature with contemporary directors including William Friedkin (The French Connection, The Exorcist) and Guillermo Del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy 1&2). One of the best Blu-Rays I own!

10/10   It doesn't get much better than that, highly recommended!

Film Review: A Single Man (Blu-Ray)

Colin Firth is George, an English Professor living in Los Angeles. It's 1962, the Cuba missile crisis is looming and George has just lost the love of his life, Jim, in a fatal car accident while being away from L.A.

A Single Man was co-written (an adaptation of Christopher Isherwood's novel) and directed by Tom Ford, an American fashion designer who previously worked for Gucci and is now running his own fashion label (Colin Firth is of course wearing Tom Ford gear in the film). This is Ford's first film, as a writer, producer and director. That bio made me expect the worst and I was very pleasently surprised. A Single Man is a beautiful, sensual, sad and romantic film: slowly paced and yet fully capturing your attention, you feel compelled to step into George's emotionally upset world while he is trying so hard to convey the image of control on the surface. The fact that George is homosexual is mostly irrelevant; this is the portrait of a lonely man who lost his love of 16 years and stands at a breaking point in his life.

The film is beautifully shot and scored and Colin Firth delivers a stunning performance - his subtlety, the nuances in his play, conveying deep feelings with so little effort, earned him an Acadamy Award nomination in 2010 (he lost to Jeff Bridges, who got the award for his performance in Crazy Heart - not undeservedly, I may add), of course followed by winning the award one year later for "The King's Speech". Firth carries the film, but he is supported by the brilliant Julianne Moore and two young talented Englishmen, Matthew Goode (Match Point, Watchmen, Cemetery Junction) and Nicholas Hoult (About a Boy, The Weather Man, the Channel 4 programme Skins, and soon to be seen in the prequel X-Men: First Class). Tom Ford has given us a beautiful work of art - I am looking forward to his future work!

The Blu-Ray provides very good picture and sound quality - this is obviously not a disc to show off your home cinema system, but I think it's still worth the upgrade from the DVD. Only extras are a 16 minute "Making of" and an Audio Commentary by Tom Ford.

7.5/10 - watch this if you liked American Beauty. If you felt uncomfortable watching Brokeback Mountain or My Own Private Idaho, get some therapy to sort out your homophobia and then watch this film.

Film Review - Sucker Punch

Don't trust the write-ups on this one!! Not a clever way to start my own write-up you say? You may be right, but I rather have you ignoring my write-up as well and go and see for yourself what you make of this film.

Zack Snyder wrote (with Steve Shibuya) and directed "Sucker Punch" - Mr. Snyder's pervious body of work includes "Dawn of the Dead" (the 2004 remake, kind of an instant classic despite it being a remake), "300", the brilliant "Watchmen" and "Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole" (can't comment on that one, I tend to avoid films starring speaking animals like the plague). You may have read that Sucker Punch did badly at the box office so far and that about 60% of the reviews are pretty bad. So what. If you rather want to wait for the fourth installment of Pirates of the Caribbean, or the prequel of X-Men or some other safe Hollywood bet, milking previously successful franchises, then you better unsubscribe from this blog.

Sucker Punch features a great soundtrack: cover versions of 80s and 90s classics from Pixies (Where is my mind?) and Björk (Army of Me) to name only a couple of highlights provide a great musical atmosphere, which was also one of the strong points of Watchmen ("All along the Watchtower". Enough said!). The opening scene sets the tone for the film - the curtain lifts (literally - Snyder is telling a story after all) after the Production logos and the events leading to the main plot unfold in video clip style to a cover version of Eurythmics' Sweet Dreams (sung by female lead Emily Browning). The film tells an original story on three different levels of reality (or fiction, whatever you prefer), so you need to pay some attention - this is not Transformers 3 although the action scenes dominating the trailers may attract that kind of audience. Speaking of which - the action scenes are in a class of their own and obviously not meant to be realistic, they are a visual feast and clearly influenced by the pop culture (films and video games) of the last 15 to 20 years. Some of the board postings you can read on IMDB are shocking - a lot of people had no idea what was going on in the film although it really wasn's so difficult to figure out.

Snyder said in an interview that he wanted to make a film with cool action sequences as in "Ultraviolet" but with a meaningful, capturing story. I would say he succeeded in trumping Ultraviolet in the Audio-Visual department and managed to come up with an interesting story that kept me engaged throughout the whole film.

8/10 - watch this if you liked One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, Brazil, Matrix, Lord of the Rings, Watchmen and... Piranha 3D (that last one is an inside joke! The other ones, other than Watchmen, aren't really all that serious either, but I'd like to think that all of them had a bit of influence on this film)

Film Review - Whip It (Blu-Ray)

I admit it - I was never a big fan of Drew Barrymore nor did I dislike her much. She was cute in E.T., but how about Charlie's Angels? She was good in Donnie Darko (and co-produced the film!) but that was a rather small role. So, why would I buy a Blu-Ray called Whip It, a film about Roller Derby (a bunch of women racing round a small track on rollerskates), starring and directed by Drew Barrymore? Mostly because the film has Ellen Page (Juno, Inception) in it! I have to give Ms. Barrymore credit though: she did extremely well with her first feature film a a director: she picked an exotic, but entertaining backdrop (Roller Derbies in Austin, Texas), a great cast led by Ms. Page (who is again great as a rebelling teenager, picking up from her performance in Juno) and including Juliette Lewis, Marcia Gay Harden, Daniel Stern (looking much older since I have last seen him... which was probably in City Slickers) and Zoe Bell (who I think has a great future if she learns to pick her roles a bit more carefully - she has come a long way already from a stunt woman who worked on Tarantino's Kill Bill, Grindhouse and Inglorious Basterds), a good indie-soundtrack and a very good script, written by Shauna Cross, who wrote the novel of the same name.

The Blu-Ray itself comes at a good picture and sound quality but I guess the DVD would have done just as well. There very few extras (Deleted Scenes, which I did not watch - I trust they have been deleted for a reason) and some cast interviews during which I fell asleep (probably due to jet lag, they weren't completely boring...)

7/10 - recommended if you liked films such as Juno or Little Miss Sunshine.

PS If you are looking for plot summaries, go check out IMDB or Wikipedia. I won't provide any plot summaries since I think they tend to provide too many spoilers - that's why I love Sneak Previews so much!!