There are a lot
of movies that “get away” now-a-days. You see a preview for a movie – not a big
budget movie, a little indie movie – and it looks good, but you never hear
anything about it again. Often times that movie is lost forever, never to be
thought of again, and it isn’t even really missed hat much. Sometimes though
you come across that movie later and you recall the preview and you think that
you will finally get to see that movie that looked good so long ago.
That happens a lot living in
Wichita, Kansas. Not may independent movies make it out here. I don’t think my location has a
whole lot to do with it though, many of these movies just plain don’t see the
theatre much, and even if they did would one go to the movies for an indie movie
that had the odds against it that it would be any good?
Before Video On Demand, and even
Netflix, straight to rental movies had a bad stigma, and it was difficult to
argue that a movie like that was good. It certainly wasn’t balanced, the ratio
of good to bad movies that went straight to rental. Now, though, it seems like
the better movies are the ones that aren’t released in the theatre but instead
by other means.
This is one of the better movies
streaming on Netflix now. When I hear people complain about Netflix and how
nothing good is streaming I mention The Perfect Host, Absentia, and Pontypool;
three reasons to keep streaming Netflix long enough, at least, to see these
movies. Of course, if these movies are streaming, and good, imagine how many
others are out there that haven’t been found yet (yeah, not many, I know, but there's got to be more, right?). It’s not the best way to
spend one’s time, watching a few minutes of movies until you find one that is
good / bearable, or you fall completely out of the mood and either find something
else to do or go to bed defeated, I agree, but that’s where we are – and that’s
why I started this blog, I suppose, to suffer so you wouldn’t have to. Also
because I’m bored, I like movies, I like to write . . . but mostly because I’m
bored.
The Perfect Host is a movie that has
a lot going for it and doesn’t drop the ball once. The whole time you think you
know what’s going on, no matter how weird and off the wall things are, you’re
pretty sure you know what’s going on, and then the movie starts to wrap things
up and that’s when you realize you don’t know what’s going on. It never feels
like cheap tricks, you’re never annoyed with the sort of things that happen,
it’s all done in a way that keeps you steady and on track with what is going
on.
I was a bit disappointed by the
preview for the movie, because as is often the complaint, it gives away too
much of the movie. I knew more than I wanted to know going in, but then while I
watched the movie I found out that the story still had a few tricks that weren’t
in the preview so that was a pleasant surprise.
My wife hadn’t seen the preview;
she’s a fan of David Hyde Pierce and knowing this I suggested the movie and she
went for it and she loved it. The guy is a great actor. I mean, I liked him
enough, he was funny on Frasier, and anything else he was in he was always
funny and likable, and boy does he blow that whole persona out of the water
with this movie. Anyone that can be as likable and funny as he is in
everything he does, and then act out the character in The Perfect Host so
perfectly that it’s almost shocking is cool-cool in my book. The creepiest thing about this movie is
that David Hyde Pierce is such a great actor, and does such a good job being a
psycho.
That’s not a slam against the movie
either. The movie is great, the story and acting by everyone is great, but man
David Hyde Pierce is something else. The other guy, Clayne Crawford works off
of David Hyde Pierce perfectly, and he has a tough job of mostly just reacting
to everything that is being thrown at him, but he does it and makes it look
easy, and his own story of why and how he ended up in that house is one of the
surprises that this movie has for you.
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