Random Netflix Movie #2: I'm Reed Fish

I ventured into Netflix again today, and watched another random movie, so here is my second entry in the Random Netflix Movie journal.

I'm Reed Fish is a movie with a lot of recognizable names in its cast. The main character Reed Fish is played by Jay Baruchel (Knocked Up). Kate is played by Alexis Bledel (Gilmore Girls), Schuyler Fish (Orange County) plays Jill, Katey Sagal (Married With Children) is Maureen, and for the second Random Netflix Movie in a row, D.J. Qualls (The Core) plays Andrew.

I know what you're thinking, I have some fetish about D.J. Qualls, but honest to God I had no idea he was in this movie, nor the one I watched before. Just proved to be coincidence.

OK, on to the movie. Well, I'm Reed Fish is a pretty odd tale. There is a pretty random twist which you find out right away, that the story being told is, in fact, a story. Reed Fish made a movie about his life, and is showing it to the town in which it took place. So this is a movie within a movie (do ya understand?).

Anyway, Reed is from a very small town and is the local radio personality, along with Mayor Maureen (Sagal). Reed's father was the voice of the town before Reed took over. His parents were both killed in a car crash, along with his fiance's mother. Reed's fiance in the movie is Kate (Bledel).

This is sort of a Sweet Home Alabama-type movie, but played in the opposing viewpoint. Instead of seeing the person coming back from the 'big' city, you see the person who never left be infatuated with the girl who did. Jill (Fisk) is a girl that graduated high school with Reed, but moved away to go to college. When she returns, things sort of get thrown for a loop, as Reed starts to realize that his life has sort of been planned out for him due to his father's death.

In a drunken moment, one night, Reed plants a kiss on Jill, who returns the favor. It is sort of to be expected, Reed had never seemed like he wanted to get married to Kate anyway, but was just going through the motions. Well, after telling Kate, she ended the wedding - and due to the small town they lived in - Reed became hated by everyone.

But, who would Reed end up with in the end? The girl he had been friends with all of his life (Kate), but accidentally ended up hurting. Or the girl who woke him up from the already-picked-out life he had been leading?

That's up to you to find out, if you wish to check out the movie. The whole movie-within-a-movie thing kind of confuses you a bit, because you associate Bledel as Kate and Fisk as Jill. But, they are only actors in Fish's movie. Kate ends up being Valerie Azlynn in the end of the movie, and the 'real' Jill is played by Shiri Appleby - confusing? Yes, but it all sort of makes sense - I promise.

This movie was not as good as Lone Star State of Mind nor was it nearly as funny. Baruchal, I feel, is not really a leading man, but more a secondary character. Bledel was pretty good as usual, and Fisk really surprised me - I was not a fan of hers in Orange County, but she was a lot better in this one. Qualls was again the comic relief in the movie, but they didn't use him as well, nor as much as they should have.

Until next time.

Random Netflix Movie #1: Lone Star State of Mind

I have been a Netflix user now for about 4 or 5 years. It's a pretty decent service for the price that you pay. They send you three movies at a time and when you are finished with them, you send them back and three more are sent to you. If you time things right you could get up to 12 movies a month, plus get newly released movies the day after they come out.

Anyway, about a year ago, with the whole automatic viewing thing going down, Netflix started allowing users to watch movies directly from their website, whenever they felt like it. Now the selection isn't complete, so you can't just select any movie, but when you're bored and looking for something to watch, it's a free movie to watch.

I have not taken advantage of this until recently, so I thought that I would begin a semi-annual blog post about a Random Netflix Movie that I have watched. I just completed Lone Star State of Mind a movie made in 2002 that stars Joshua Jackson (Dawson's Creek), Jaime King (Pearl Harbor), DJ Qualls (Road Trip) and Ryan Hurst (Remember the Titans).

The movie is based in Bennett, Texas and is about Earl (Jackson), whose mother marries Baby's (King) father, played by a surprise performance from John Mellencamp. Anyway, Earl and Baby have been dating since the 11th grade, but now technically he is dating his step-sister, which is a joke throughout the movie.

Baby's cousin Junior (Qualls) is a bit of a dumbass, who is constantly getting into trouble. After getting thrown in jail, Baby makes Earl promise to look after Junior, and make sure he doesn't get into any more trouble - which is where the story really begins.

Junior and Tinker (Hurst) decide to rob a pizza delivery boy one night, which turns out to be a front for a drug dealer. Junior steals a bag out of the pizza guy's truck with a lot of cash and drugs in it. Thinking they hit the jackpot, Junior goes out and buys some expensive boots, and Tinker calls a friend from jail about purchasing the drugs. Earl gets wind of this and gets himself involved.

To sum up the story, Baby and Earl are four days away from moving to LA when all of this goes down. The drug dealers find out who stole their money and, obviously, try to get it back from them. But, the guy from jail that Tinker calls also tries to get the money and drugs from Junior, and thus thrusting Earl and Baby in the middle of a shootout.

I won't spoil the ending, but for a movie that I had never heard of and wasn't expecting much it was pretty decent. The star power was pretty good, with a surprise appearance from Thomas Haden Church as well. The accent used by Jackson was pretty annoying though, but you can get by that. The movie in all was pretty good, and worth a watch. If, of course, you have time and are bored. The movie isn't winning any oscars, but Hurst and Qualls were pretty hilarious in their roles, so for that alone I would recommend it.