Ethan Hawke

Tape
$14.98
Richard Linklater has long been known for his knack for getting a lot of a little. Movies like "Slacker" pushed the boundaries of conventional filmmaking, and took your preconceptions and stomped them to dust. Even his mainstream breakthrough "Dazed and Confused" seemed surreally barebones in its structure. However, with "Tape", Linklater took his style to whole new heights of complex simplicity (yes, that was an intentional oxymoron).

Unfolding like a modern day Samuel Beckett play, "Tape" revolves entirely around only three characters, and takes place entirely in a hotel room. The central character, Vince (played brilliantly by Ethan Hawke) is meeting up with two old friends from high school (Uma Thurman and Robert Sean Leonard). It seems like an innocent friendly reunion at first, but soon it's apparent that Vince has ulterior motives for getting the old gang back together.

For its rather sparse arrangement, this is an intense, intelligent, highly complex, and extremely engaging story. All three performances are great, but Hawke definitely stands out, bringing such vivid dimension to a highly erratic and delightfully devious character. This is definitely among the best performances I've seen of his. It's also worth mentioning that this movie was filmed not in a real hotel room, but on a very convincing soundstage. To those interested in stage design, the attention to detail here is pretty impressive.

Like most of Linklater's movies, this is definitely not for everyone, but if you dig his style, you definitely need to see this.

Great Expectations (1998)
$9.98
the dvd i received was in excellent condition! arrived in timely fashion and i was very happy with this purchase!

Explorers
$9.98
A good movie, cute, fun, corney, very 80's. I think the target audience for this movie would range from 5 to 13 years old but will still be fun for parents. The scene with beer may put off some parents, but it's brief, and kids will understand that it was wrong for the boys in the movie to have the beer if it's explained to them. When I was a kid, me and my friends acted out the creation of the spaceship for weeks and this "social huckup" was never mentioned. I especially remembered the fantastic scene where the alien was singing a recording of "All Around the World" by Little Richard. A fun side note, the actor that played the male alien "Wak" is the same actor that played the "Star Killer" character in the drive-in movie scene.

Before Sunset
$19.98
I absolutely enjoyed this movie. You must watch the Before Sunrise first. It's more than your typical love story. The intelligent and candid dialogue makes the movie so intriguing and realistic.