Having recently signed back up for Netflix (and perhaps having a bit of buyers remorse over same since they've left me buying the first few movies I had really intended to rent from them), I was left looking for some movies that I haven't seen yet to toss into my que.
Netflix passed me over for Ratatouille in Blu-ray, which was the number one title in my que 
and then delayed on shipping out I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, which I intended to buy anyway, but they did bring back my previously populated que and in that que were a few titles I had not gotten over the last few months, including the one I'm going to detail here...
I got Reign Over Me, with Don Cheadle and Adam Sandler. Directed by and written by Mike Binder, who shows up in the film as a minor character. Blu-ray only for that movie (sorry HD-DVD fans).
The story of the movie is that Sandler's character, Charlie Fineman, lost his wife and children in one of the planes that was crashed on 9-11. Cheadle's character, dentist Alan Johnson, is a former college roommate of Sandler's character, with both having lost touch for several years before a fairly random passing on the street that is repeated a few days later when both finally come together and start to catch up with each other.
Johnson knows what happened to Fineman having seen the story in the newspapers, but otherwise knows little about his former roommate.
From the beginning of their meeting you realize that Charlie Fineman is a strange character and apparently has issues with everyone else's reality, instead living in one of his own which few people get into. Johnson starts talking with him and the two resume their friendship over time with both helping each other with their communication problems with everyone else in their lives.
The movie runs about 2 hours total, and at times seems long and somewhat cliched and engineered to the outcome that is somewhat predictable. There are other characters mixed into the story in minor roles, somewhat for comic relief, somewhat to help set up some characters we will see later on in the movie. The movie carries a serious overtone throughout and though Binder talks in a long interview in the extras on the disc about having ideas of this being a comedy to begin with, it never loses the seriousness and the comedy that shows up feels at times a bit out of place. I think that is because it is trying for realism and given the characters we have, they can't quite leave behind the seriousness even as a joke or two, or a laugh or two come through.
The film looks great on Blu-ray. It was filmed with newer equipment that does a great job of capturing the targets of the director's cameras. Binder talks about that technology in the segment in the extras mentioned above. Much of the film is based at night, so it's somewhat dark, but the neon lights, and other bright colors from lights and signs seen on the streets come through clearly here. Interior shots are bright and detailed as well.
Liv Tyler and Jada Pinkett-Smith are here in small roles, as are Robert Klein, Saffron Burrows (hawt! with a twist), Melinda Dillon, Rae Allen and others.
Well worth a rental. Not the type of movie that I would own, as it isn't the type movie that I see myself watching repeatedly. The rental copy I got from Netflix was finger printed pretty harshly, but otherwise seemed in good shape. A nice dish soap and water washing in the kitchen sink removed the oily fingerprints and my PS3 never hiccuped at all about playing the disc once dry.
