JBO: Joystiq Box Office, June 22 - 26
We can't be gaming all the time, despite our best efforts, and from time to time we'll actually take advantage of the movie-playing abilities on our gaming systems. JBO features our top picks for XBL, PSN, Netflix's Watch Instantly, and Blu-ray each week.
Recommendation of the Week:
The Girlfriend Experience
(XBL to rent: 480 MS points for HD, 320 for SD): Steven Soderbergh returns to his indie film roots with this character study that was shot on one of the new RedOne HD cameras for only $1.3 million dollars. Real-life porn star Sasha Grey stars as Christine; an escort who offers the full "Girlfriend Experience" for a high price. Her boyfriend is okay with the arrangement on the surface, but underneath he's struggling. The film follows both of them as they deal with the reality of her job, and how they each handle the repercussions.
Read for the full list on a system by system basis just after the break. As usual, we'll see you at the popcorn st ... well, actually we won't see you at all. But you catch our drift.
Xbox Live Video Marketplace
Lost Treasure of the Grand Canyon
(320 MS points to rent, SD)
We know you've been missing Shannen Doherty terribly since she left 90210 back in the day, and Charmed later on. Well, you can stop crying into your Brenda-themed bedsheets, because she's back and starring in this film, which sounds like it was pieced together from rejected scripts for National Treasure sequels. Oh, there's also an ancient Aztec City and a flying serpent involved. Seriously. We're only recommending this for the "what the?!" value.
Netflix Watch Instantly (Xbox Live)
The Cider House Rules (Watch instantly through Xbox Live via Netflix, subscription required: starts at $4.99 per month)
A Pre-Apatow Frat Pack Paul Rudd. A somewhat whiny Tobey Maguire. Charlize Theron without clothes on. Macaulay clone Kieran Culkin. Plus an ether-sniffing, diploma-forging Michael Caine. What's not to love? Although John Irving's novel is far superior, this coming of age story is a decent movie that does its best to tug at your heartstrings and succeeds for the most part. If you were ever going to get stuck in an orphanage, this is where you'd want to end up. Well, that is if you didn't mind the "special work" that the medical staff is involved in.
PlayStation Store
Fletch
($4.50 HD or $2.99 SD to rent, $9.99 to own in SD)
Arguably Chevy Chase's finest film next to Caddyshack, Fletch is actually based on a series of mystery books by Gregory McDonald, and is a very loose adaptation. For years different directors, including Kevin Smith, have tried to revive Fletch, but it seems like it might never happen, leaving us with this note-perfect original. Newspaper reporter Irwin M. Fletcher unravels a conspiracy linking the chief of police and a local millionaire to drugs on the beach, and jokes the entire way through. You'll never listen to "Moon River" the same way again.
Blu-ray Disc
Waltz With Bashir
($39.95)
This is a powerful documentary about one man's experience during the 1982 Sabra and Shantila massacres in invasion of Lebanon. Instead of a film full of talking heads reminiscing about the experience, director Ari Folman uses animation to tell the story, allowing you into the surreal events as he remembers them as a 19 year-old soldier in the Israeli Defense Force. It's one of the first animated feature films from Israel to be shown theatrically, and is surprisingly moving: the animation is at times both poignant and horrifying.
What will you be watching?
