This Week’s DVD Releases / The Pajiba Staff
DVD Releases | July 22, 2008 | Comments (23)
This is amusing — even the folks responsible for assigning release dates to DVDs were smart enough to avoid the wake of The Dark Knight, presumably knowing that few people were going to plant their asses on the couch when Batman was on the big screen. So, there’s only one major new release. And it’s mediocre, at best. I do wonder, though, since I stopped reading The Sports Guy around the time the Patriots won their last Super Bowl and he’d made his 4,987th “Beverly Hills 90210” allusion: Has Bill Simmons at least added 21 to his arsenal of poker movie references? And by arsenal, I mean Rounders.
Ah, here it is.
21: Dan was flabbergasted with the way the filmmakers took an interesting story about card counters screwing Vegas and blanding the hell out of it. He writes, “I mean, it’s based, however loosely, on things that really happened at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where a long-running group of current and former students pooled their mental firepower in a team-based ploy to count cards at blackjack. And they won. A lot. How do you make that boring? I can do nothing else but tip my hat to screenwriters Peter Steinfeld and Allan Loeb, who have taken a unique story and beaten it until it fit easily into a boring and predictable mold. But they also share the blame with director Robert Luketic, best known for Legally Blonde and Win a Date With Tad Hamilton! and whose marginal talents as a romantic comedy helmer melt away completely when faced with anything resembling drama, suspense, or characterization. Everything about 21 is a little too easy, even the ungainly double-crosses and change-ups that are tacked onto the screenplay as it makes its labored way across the finish line.”
Also, FYI: “Spaced: The Complete Series” also hits shelves today.
Stick around for another hour, folks. We got something good brewing. In the meantime, here’s a fun fact, and possible topic of conversation to get you through the next 60 minutes: At one point, The Dark Knight was in production under the fake working title, Rory’s First Kiss. Why that title?
← Watchpajibas | Pajiba Love 07/22/08 →
Comments
Posted by: Melody at July 22, 2008 12:05 PM
Has Bill Simmons at least added 21 to his arsenal of poker movie references?
Not yet. I think that he is anticipating the new 90210.
One hour? Why not now?
The title is a Gilmore Girls reference? I have no idea.