Search - Critics Choice Collection (Thank You for Smoking / Sideways / Waking Ned Devine / Garden State) on DVD

K. K. (GAMER)
Reviewed on 11/14/2022...

Thank you for Smoking - Snap, Crack, Pop and Fizzle out!

Waking Ned Devine - The beginning was fun and then it went downhill. The rating is most definitely inflated. Avoid this!

A perfect movie marathon in one

Ephraim S. Lee | Buena Park, CA USA | 11/11/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you ever have a nice rainy day when you can just kick back and drink some hot cocoa while watching some excellent movies, this collection is perfect for you. Who am I kidding? These movies are great anytime (though the scenario I mentioned is ideal for me, personally). Before purchasing this, Thank You for Smoking, Sideways & Garden State were already in my list of my favorite movies... so I knew this wasn't one of those DVD collections where they try to give you one good movie and rip you off with the rest.



I opened it up during a cold Sunday afternoon to have a nice little movie marathon for myself. The first movie I dove into was Waking Ned Devine... the second movie I watched was Waking Ned Devine 1 more time. It was an excellent movie, and I felt sad I wasn't aware of its existence beforehand, but I also ended up feeling incredibly joyful that I knew about it now. After that, I proceeded to watching Thank You For Smoking for my 5th time, Garden State for my 4th time, and Sideways for my 2nd time... and all three were still great movies to me even though I had seen them so many times.



Waking Ned Devine was a great black comedy. Thank You For Smoking is a very smart film with a lot of good laughs and undoubtedly Aaron Eckhart's best performance up to date. I am waiting in anticipation to see him play Two-Face in the new Batman movie. The first time I watched Garden State, I was still a teenager and the movie meant a lot to me because of how much it understands the confused mind of a young adult. Having grown up, it's still a great film to me - and Zach Braff & Natalie Portman's superb (as usual) performances don't hurt too much for making the film great either. Sideways is an amazing film as well... one that pleases both critics and the film festival crowd. At moments while watching it, I often forgot I was watching a film because of how genuine the actors & actresses' portrayals of the characters was. I think from teens to seniors, these films have something for everyone.



All-in-all this is an excellent collection. Don't expect your run of the mill collection where you get one movie & three mediocre attempts at movies. All four films are bound to become classics in the eyes of society, and they already are classics to me. I've seen all four movies multiple times, and expect to watch them again sometime... and enjoy them thoroughly as much as I did the first time. I undoubtedly got my money's worth with this collection."

Glad I only rented it

Gary L. Herstein | Prescott, AZ USA | 07/11/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I will have to stand in the minority on this film, a "road story" about a shallow loser and a superficial swine. I spent the first hour of the film wondering who was the more contemptible character, and ultimately had to go with the loser -- the superficial swine, at least, has a degree of honesty, even though this is bred primarily from his complete inability to think reflectively upon anything.



Full disclosure: I gave up watching after the first hour. It quite beggars my imagination why I would want to spend even that much time with such monstrously stupid, viciously self-deceiving hypocrites. I mean, don't we get enough of that in the workplace? Anyway, this is why I'm glad I only rented it.



And, I'm sorry, but in what imaginary universe does a trip to the "California Wine Country" get no further North than Santa Barbara?"

Really good movie

Timothy Brophy | las vegas | 11/17/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I thought this movie was interesting from front to back. I loved the interacting of characters. The only problem was that I wanted to drink throughout this movie."