Movie Rental Recommendations -- W
Wag the Dog
The slickest farce I've seen since "Dr. Strangelove." You can just tell that David Mamet wanted to make this movie for a long time because it is tight from beginning to end and always seems to know where it's going. Sure, there are scenes where it doesn't fit (where was the pilot when the plane went down?) But it just doesn't matter. This is the kind of comedy where you rarely laugh out loud, but smirk inside throughout the whole picture. Well worth a weekend feature.
IMDb | Other Reviews Parker Hodges
Great actors, great story. The tale about a president who stages a fake war to cover up scandal was especially timely in regards to the Clinton administration. It held my interest and kept me laughing until near the end, where the plot became ridiculously unbelievable. It left me wondering why such a crafty movie could lose it all in the final minutes.
Erik Nelson
This ultra-satirical comedy has a great writer (David Mamet), an exemplary cast (including Robert De Niro, Anne Heche and Woody Harrelson), and a killer hook (in order to get a struggling president re-elected, Hollywood and Washington team up to declare war on an unsuspecting Albania) -- so why does the end result feel slightly unsatisfying? Director Barry Levinson, whose comedic sense has drastically slipped since the days of "Diner" and "Tin Men," struggles to find the right tone here, resulting in a film that, for every scene of genuine hilarity, all too often just lies there smirking at itself about how darn clever it is. Still, there are some truly inspired bits, and Dustin Hoffman does his best work in years as a thinly-veiled caricature of the legendarily egomaniacal producer Robert Evans. If for no other reason, see it for William H. Macy's cameo as a secret agent with some definite views on Mexican desserts.
Andrew Wright
Waking Ned Devine
There are very few movies that that truly earn the label "charming," but this is definitely one of them. It's a story about how a tiny Irish town made up of mostly older people pulls together to collect the lottery winnings of a recently deceased resident. In the midst of the antics of the two lead characters attempts to scam the lottery official, the audience is given insight into the history behind the characters and the town. A great Saturday afternoon treat.
IMDb | Other Reviews Denise Felder
Waiting for Guffman
I am the type of person that has to see how a movie ends, even if I hate it. Well, I stayed up to watch the end of this and should have gone to bed. It seemed like this movie was building up to something, but I have no idea what it was, I'll still waiting. Catch it on USA or TNT when you're home sick from work on Monday.
IMDb | Other Reviews Jon Errickson
You've got to be in a "This Is Spinal Tap" or "Strictly Ballroom" kind of mood to enjoy "Guffman." All the characters in this mock documentary are over-the-top representations of townies who get a taste for Hollywood when a "big-time" director is called in to lead a really bad community play. It's worth renting just to a hilarious Christopher Guest practice his choreography. Definitely a weekend-night feature.
Denise Felder
The Waterboy
Do you like Adam Sandler humor? If so, this is a decent movie. If not, don't waste your time. This flick doesn't rise above the level of any of Sandler's previous movies. It's your basic underdog-becomes-the-hero story, but it does provide a lot of laughs. If you're in the mood for a light-hearted comedy, it's worth a rental.
IMDb | Other Reviews Erik Nelson
The Wedding Singer
A totally enjoyable piece of mind candy. If you like Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, and the 80s, then you'll like this movie. Trying to catch all the pop culture references could turn into a motion picture version of "Where's Waldo," but the sweet, predictable love story between Sandler and Barrymore does well to keep your attention.
IMDb | Other Reviews Denise Felder
Welcome to the Dollhouse
This 1995 film from one of Hollywood's most talked-about directors, Todd Solondz, is a comedy about suburbia. Heather Matarazzo stars as Dawn "Wienerdog" Wiener. Matarazzo is an 11-year-old geek who has dreams of becoming popular. She's tormented, teased and bullied, but all the while she develops a plan to seduce the good-looking star of a garage band. This bitingly sarcastic and funny film about misery and junior high is one you should pick up and not pick on.
Other Reviews Shelby Strudler
Wild Things
It's the movie that just won't end, which is part of why it's fun. Matt Dillon plays a frisky guidance counselor in a well-to-do Florida town. He's accused of rape by a student, whose mother he had an affair with. The police detectives called in to investigate uncover more plot twists than I have time to mention here. It's very sexually explicit and violent, but at least it's not predictable. Bill Murray is a standout in his cameo role.
IMDb | Other Reviews Erik Nelson
Depending on your point of view, this ultra-tawdry tale of murder, sex, seduction, sex, gratuitous shower scenes, sex, deceit and sex is either the most lunkheaded film to be excreted by Hollywood in quite some time, or a brilliantly stonefaced parody of the patented Joe Ezterhaus/Zalman King style of erotic thriller. (The movie does tip its hand towards the latter theory once or twice, particularly during an uproarious cameo by Bill Murray.) Director John McNaughton drags a game cast (including Neve Campbell, Matt Dillon, Kevin Bacon and the pneumatic Denise Richards) through the muck and all but dares the audience to blink; you may hate yourself in the morning, but just try to look away while it's on the screen. That faint scratching sound you hear is Russ Meyer & Ed Wood digging themselves out of their crypts in order to go rent themselves a copy.
Andrew Wright
Wizard of Oz
What need I say about this one? Not only among the most fun movies ever made, it's probably the greatest "campy flick" ever.
IMDb | Other Reviews Parker Hodges
What Dreams May Come
This movie was amazing to look at, but the plot was much less impressive. The love story between Robin Williams and Annabella Sciorra was obsessive and, according to how they conducted themselves in the afterlife, every other character completely revolved around Williams'. Save it for a boring, rainy day.
IMDb | Other Reviews Denise Felder
Ever wanted to know what heaven and hell look like? This movie certainly paints and interesting picture. It does so beautifully, with exquisite special effects. But the relationship between the two lead characters is never quite believable, and in the end everything is resolved just a little too easily. See it for the imaginative visions, not thin script.
Erik Nelson
This movie certainly gives hopes that life after death can be beautiful -- if you don't screw up. It's a movie I'd want my kids to see so they know that even after death there is a price to pay if you don't play your cards right. That message was loud and clear, and certainly a welcome one. The cinematography was another welcome. The colors in some scenes were so vibrant and the imagination behind the sets were just as incredible. But I have a pretty good guess why the movie wasn't a hit in the theaters. With big explosions and roller coaster action dominating the screen these days, this movie was comparable to a slow Ferris wheel ride. Slow enough for you to enjoy the scenery, but at a pace where you were still interested because you knew the ride wasn't going to have to end some time.
Garmen Shiu
What's Love Got To Do With It
Now here's a movie that will inspire you, drain you and make you angry enough to pull yourself out of a bad situation and explore your opportunities. I watch this Tina Turner biography when I'm cleaning my house, eating ice cream or when I've had a bad day and need some quick inspiration. The dialogue in this film is top-notch. And although some of the domestic violence is a bit too much to watch at times, the make-up artist doesn't take bloody faces and broken noses to the extreme. Every time I watch this movie I find myself wondering what's going to happen next, and that's because Tina's story becomes so real. I think: "Maybe she wont leave. Will she make it without Ike? Will she every divorce that jerk? A chick film? I don't think so. It has something for everyone. It pulls you in from the start when Tina is abandoned by her mother, and it gives you a wild roller coaster ride until the end when she finally realizes her inner strength.
IMDb | Other Reviews Yvonne Gay
When Harry Met Sally
Who knew this would be the movie that would spawn a thousand imitators? And few post-modern romantic comedies have come close to recreating the on-screen chemistry and crisp writing of this "original." One reason it stands out is because Billy Chrystal and Meg Ryan's relationship is shown as it fully develops, over the span of years. First they hated each other, then they were friends, then they weren't speaking, then they got together. Other romances take the easy way out -- put two semi-interesting characters into semi-unusual circumstances and let the magic begin. This is the ultimate date movie.
IMDb | Other Reviews Denise Felder
Where The Heart Is
Starring Natalie Portman as the very pregnant 17-year-old, this movie is full of heavy-handed metaphors. Abandoned by her boyfriend at a Wal-Mart in the middle of Oklahoma, Novalee is welcomed into town by Sister Husband (Stockard Channing), whose truck literally has "Welcome Wagon" painted on its side. Novalee accidentally stays in the Wal-Mart after closing time and finds it a suitable home for six weeks. Five years pass during the length of the film, during which Novalee gets close to Sister Husband and Lexie (Ashley Judd), the maternity ward nurse who can't seem to stop having children. Yet the movie's pace is so slow that in the final scene, you sigh rather than feel triumphant. Joan Cusack, playing Willy Jack's ruthless music agent, offers the film's few signs of life. "Where The Heart Is," based on the "Oprah Book Club"-approved novel by Billie Letts, tries too hard to be inspirational.
Full Reviews | IMDb | Other Reviews Nancy Bresson
Wings Of The Dove
Helena Bonham Carter should have won the Oscar she was nominated for with her utterly naked (in every sense of the word) performance in this gripping, sumptuously lovely adaptation of Henry James' classic novel, set at the turn of the century. Carter plays a woman living above her means whose love for a man of lower class causes her to hatch a desperate scheme involving the befriending and seduction of a terminally ill heiress (Allison Elliot -- heartbreaking in a role that could easily have turned mawkish). Director Iain Softly, redeeming himself in a big way after "Hackers," invests this film with an energy that's unusual for the genre, but Carter's horribly sympathetic characterization is what makes it stick in the mind; she gives this period piece a pulse.
IMDb | Other Reviews Andrew Wright
The Women
It's easy to pretend that al women characters on the silver screen before the Sexual Revolution were just giddy housewives or hapless victims. But the truth is, there were plenty of strong women in the movies back then -- probably more than there are now. Take for example, the 1939 comedy "The Women." An all-female cast tells the story of a New York socialite who tried to save face and her marriage after her gossipy friends find out about her husband's not-so-secret affair. Joan Crawford plays the villainous other woman, Oscar-winner Norma Shearer is the strong-minded, virtuous wife.
IMDb Denise Felder
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