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Sideways (Widescreen Edition) | 
 enlarge | Director: Alexander Payne
Actors: Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, Virginia Madsen, Sandra Oh, Marylouise Burke
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy Used: $0.93
You Save: $14.05 (94%)
New (72) Used (123) Collectible (3) from $0.93
Avg. Customer Rating:  510 reviews
Sales Rank: 1471
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), Armenian (Original Language), English (Original Language), English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 127
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: D2227578D
UPC: 024543175780
EAN: 0024543175780
ASIN: B0007TKOAA
Theatrical Release Date: January 21, 2005
Release Date: April 5, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: **NO ARTWORK - NEW BLANK CASE** Guaranteed to play. Normal case wear with stickers, very slight scratches. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed.
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Amazon.com
With Sideways, Paul Giamatti (American Splendor, Storytelling) has become an unlikely but engaging romantic lead. Struggling novelist and wine connoisseur Miles (Giamatti) takes his best friend Jack (Thomas Haden Church, Wings) on a wine-tasting tour of California vineyards for a kind of extended bachelor party. Almost immediately, Jack's insatiable need to sow some wild oats before his marriage leads them into double-dates with a rambunctious wine pourer (Sandra Oh, Under the Tuscan Sun) and a recently divorced waitress (Virginia Madsen, The Hot Spot)--and Miles discovers a little hope that he hasn't let himself feel in a long time. Sideways is a modest but finely tuned film; with gentle compassion, it explores the failures, struggles, and lowered expectations of mid-life. Giamatti makes regret and self-loathing sympathetic, almost sweet. From the director of Election and About Schmidt. --Bret Fetzer
Description
ACADEMY AWARD WINNER BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY WINNER OF 2 GOLDEN GLOBES, INCLUDING BEST PICTURE (COMEDY / MUSICAL) In this intoxicating, intelligent comedy, director Alexander Payne (Election, About Schmidt) serves up "one of the best movies of the year" (Entertainment Weekly) about the ups, downs and sideways journeys of life. A wine-tasting road trip through California's famed Central Coast takes an unexpected detour as Miles (Paul Giamatti) and Jack (Thomas Haden Church) hit the gas en route to their mid-life crisis. The comically mismatched pair soon find themselves drowning in wine, women... and laughter!
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| Customer Reviews: Read 505 more reviews...
 Best movie since Midnight Run April 23, 2008
I don't know why such a large amount of people don't like this movie. I guess it's not for everyone. I'm tempted to say, "If you don't like this, you're an idiot!"... but I can't say that... I guess.
This movie is slow, but well-paced, and I think to get the most of it you have to be able to identify with Miles (Giamatti), because this is his story. If you're like Jack (Church) - completely happy and carefree, fun, superficial, shallow and immoral - you probably won't get the movie. But if you're like Miles and you've struggled with off-the-beaten-path ambitions, anxiety, heartbreak, sexual frustration, etc., you're at the center of this comedy and you can really appreciate how it seems to "nail" the subtleties of life in such a lighthearted, humorous way. It's a pleasure to see the contrast between the complicated, depressed Miles, and the simple, happy Jack. I'm not sure Sideways is a movie that women will really appreciate, even though there are significant female roles... they're just more of a backdrop for the Miles and Jack characters and their dysfunctional "buddy" adventure.
The scene where Miles summons the nerve to get out of bed and visit Mia at the Hitching Post, ends up ordering an entire bottle of wine, finds out she's not working, drinks the whole bottle by himself, stumbles home tanked? GENIUS.
 Achingly boring April 12, 2008
0 out of 6 found this review helpful
First just let me start off by saying that I own this movie. I bought it for a buck on here. But I bought after I watched it with a friend, and not only that, I bought it knowing full well that I absolutely despise this movie. I loathe this film. The characters are meaningless, so meaningless that the entire film with such sincerity totally nails what it is to possess absolutely no life in the real world. The characters are also pretty disgusting and pathetic, especially the male ones and it makes no sense to have a movie about 2 men who aren't entertaining, aren't lovable, and who aren't interesting whatsoever. As a young woman, I couldn't believe the obnoxious message this movie was cramming down my throat, in fact this movie seems to succeed in making one feel pretty awful and unclean. But that's just the thing...this movie is just so real in its utter awfulness. I felt such raw hate for it that I had to buy it - 1) because it elicited such strong disgust and abject hatred and 2) because I am happy to have found a movie that perfectly exemplifies just how terrible, inferior, and worthless a movie can possibly be.
In short, don't bother with this until you need to get pissed off for whatever chooses to afflict you at the time.
Finally a relief from immature slap stick humor April 4, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I picked this up for $5 at target after hearing some what mixed reviews from friends. After watching it, it easily made my top 5 all time fav. comedies. Alexander Paynes stoying telling is un matched in sideways. Giamatti and Haden-Church fit prefectly together. The acting is top notch and the story doesn't lag at all. If your into wine you'll love sideways, unless of course your a merlot drinker. If your sick of slap stick immature humor then sideways is your best bet. Easily one of the best comedies out there.
Sharply Observed Road Trip With Finely Etched Performances March 26, 2008
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
In director/co-screenwriter Alexander Payne's hands, the buddy picture takes on deeper shades of complexity and vulnerability. Adapting Rex Pickett's 2004 novel with Jim Taylor, Payne continues on the particularly idiosyncratic filmmaking path that he started with the hilariously acidic Citizen Ruth and Election and seemed to deepen with the meandering About Schmidt. The premise of this 2004 film sounds flimsy on the surface - two guys, one about to get married, take a week-long trip through the Santa Barbara wine country as a last hurrah celebration filled with fine wine, good food and golf. But the execution of this plot is full of shrewd observations and so many delightfully unexpected scenes that seem like non-sequiturs at first but somehow mesh into a story that keeps you guessing what will come next. It's a fascinating journey, often hysterical, sometimes painful, about lost opportunities and facing one's deep-seeded fears.
The characters are familiar and unpredictable at the same time, and the actors inhabiting them are terrific. In a relatively understated, finely detailed performance, Paul Giamatti provides the emotional core of the story as put-upon, unrelentingly dissatisfied Miles, the pinot wine aficionado so caught up in his passion for the grape he has no idea how pretentious he sounds. His character's aching, post-divorce vulnerability and decreased sense of worth wring truthfully through his hound dog expressions, excessive drinking and pained fits of anger. A failing novelist and quite likely an alcoholic, Miles hides behind his extensive wine knowledge to avoid getting hurt again even when confronted by a beautiful woman open to the possibility of starting a relationship with him. After years of medium-level success in TV sitcoms, Thomas Haden Church makes the ideal comic foil as Jack, a has-been soap star and self-proclaimed ladies' man who is not nearly ready to face commitment at the altar.
The two actors have an easy and sometimes tense rapport as best friends with opposite approaches to life but a strong sense of devotion to each other. Their wine tasting scenes with a liberal use of jargon, in particular, are hilarious in that only-in-California sort of way. Of course, women complicate the journey. Sandra Oh shows surprising female swagger as wine pourer Stephanie, who blindly falls for all of Jack's lines. And it's gratifying to see Virginia Madsen make the most of a good role. This beautiful, searingly intelligent actress had been kicking around bad potboilers and horror flicks for over two decades, and it's about time someone saved her from Lifetime TV-movie hell. She plays the smart, wine-worshipping waitress Maya with lovely subtlety and has a wonderfully transfixing, wine-as-life monologue that makes Miles look all the more foolish for not capitalizing on the moment.
But like a wine that peaks and fades, as she seductively describes, so does Miles in fits of depression that make his search for love and fulfillment an evasive proposition at best. The 2005 DVD package provides a wonderfully hilarious commentary track courtesy of the improvisational wit of Giamatti and especially Church, who seems to be a treasure trove of erudite trivia. Make sure to have the English subtitle feature on as they talk non-stop over the film. Their natural chemistry is unforced off-screen. Eight deleted scenes are included with Payne's written descriptions of what function they served and why they were ultimate excised. My favorite is a side trip to the mall to shop for a pair of sporty sneakers for Miles. There is a brief making-of featurette, totally dispensable, and the original theatrical trailer.
 Middle-Aged American Pie March 17, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
I really enjoyed this film. I think it's one of the most beautifully shot films as far as scenery. The hills and grape fields look so inviting that it just makes you want to take a visit.
Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church had great chemistry together.
Some of the scenes were a bit unnessesary, like the naked guy (fully naked) running after Paul Giamatti to snatch the wallet was not something we cared to see. I have no clue what they were thinking about leaving that scene in or even filming it.
Anyway...this movie gives you a reality check about life, having friends, and all the drama that comes with it. Overall this was good solid entertainment and I really recommend it to anyone who not only appreciates wine tasting, but also appreciates a film that has great acting and a story that mostly everyone can relate too!
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