Not-So-Fresh New Releases #3

As we head towards the fall movie season, historically the time of the year when the most interesting and high-quality films are released, I'm looking forward to going out to the movies again. The films currently in theaters just haven't captured my interest, and according to the Rotten Tomatoes ratings, they haven't impressed the critics either. So I've picked out a few of these not-so-fresh new releases and devised some alternate viewing choices. All the recommended films are available on video, so you can save yourself the price of a movie ticket and support your local video store instead.

The American - 62% freshness rating

• Many aspects of this film starring George Clooney as a solitary assassin, from the poster art to the deliberate pacing, have inspired comparisons to politically-themed thrillers from the 1970s. I know I immediately thought of The Day of the Jackal (1973). Not to be confused with its inferior 1997 remake The Jackal, this methodical thriller follows the man hired to assassinate French president Charles DeGaulle, as well as the policeman on the killer's trail.
• Another obvious point of comparison for The American is the French film Le Samourai (1967), directed by Jean-Pierre Melville. An even-more-handsome-than-Clooney Alain Delon stars in this character portrait of a hit man who may have made a fatal mistake. This film is slowly-paced and unafraid of silence, but it is not boring. It elegantly captures the isolation of a lone gunman.

The Virginity Hit - 50% freshness rating

• Finally, the faux-documentary version of American Pie that we've all been asking for! What, you didn't ask for that? Yeah, me neither. The Virginity Hit follows a teenage boy in his increasingly adventurous attempts to lose his virginity; this topic seems especially stale since some guy desperately trying to have sex has been a plot point in nearly every teen comedy since the '80s. So, let's look back to that decade and watch Rob Reiner's film The Sure Thing (1985), a teen comedy that is ostensibly about sex, but is actually a love story in the tradition of It Happened One Night.
• For a more cautionary take on the subject, go back even further to 1961's Splendor in the Grass. Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty star as teens whose lives are ruined by his desire for pre-marital sex - and some seriously questionable fatherly advice.

Going The Distance - 51% freshness rating

• In Going the Distance, Drew Barrymore and Justin Long employ various means of communication to conduct a long-distance relationship. If you want to see a relationship with serious distance issues, just watch the romantic musical

Brigadoon (1954). Gene Kelly lives in New York, Cyd Charisse lives in Scotland...in a village which appears for one day every 100 years. It's going to take more than a plane ticket to keep these two together.

Commercials for Going the Distance have featured scenes of Barrymore and Long attempting some awkward phone-sex. 1959's Pillow Talk makes witty use of double entendre and a split-screen to create sexual tension during Doris Day and Rock Hudson's phone conversations.

Takers - 30% freshness rating

• I love a good heist movie, but, sheesh, even the title of this film is idiotic. It seems like this film wants to be Ocean's Eleven for a slightly younger generation. Steven Soderbergh's 2001 film, starring George Clooney as suave thief Danny Ocean, is stylish, sophisticated, and clever. Takers has Hayden Christensen in a porkpie hat. Which would you rather watch?
• I'd also like to recommend another Melville film starring Alain Delon, Le Cercle Rouge (1970). Look no further for a truly cool, suspenseful heist picture.
  

For more rental recommendations, check out my previous posts: Not-So-Fresh New Releases and Not-So-Fresh New Releases #2.