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 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: $0.64
You Save: $14.34 (96%)
New (78) Used (170) Collectible (6) from $0.64
Avg. Customer Rating:  615 reviews
Sales Rank: 2908
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: Armenian (Original Language), English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), 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: 024543175780
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: Used DVDs may not have original jacket cover Used items may have grease marker or sticker on cover. Satisfaction guaranteed on all purchases. ** Possible marking on cover. 100% Satisfaction guaranteed on all purchases. Delivery is 7-14 days for standard mail. **
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| Customer Reviews:
 4 1/2! I Loved this movie but it isn't for everyone May 16, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
"Sideways" based on the novel "Sideways: A Novel" by Rex Pickett. Directed by Alexander Payne.
Miles (Paul Giamatti) is the guy that just can't seem to win. He is something of a middle aged Charlie Brown. He is in what appears to be an unfulfilling career as a school teacher and he has recently gotten divorced. Miles last hope for redemption in life is that his novel will get published which is currently being shopped around by his agent. Miles can't worry about that now though because his best friend Jack (Thomas Haden Church) is about to get married and Miles plans to take Jack out to wine country as a sort of one on one bachelor party. Miles has plans of a week long low key male bonding trip but Jack has different plans. Jack envisions a week of chasing women and cutting loose and the contrasting bachelor party ideas collide as the two head out to wine country...
"Sideways" is not for everyone but I loved this movie. Although classified as a comedy I think of this as more of a character examination movie. Sideways is a character driven movie and is primarily about Miles as he attempts to deal with the shambles he feels his life has become while at the same time trying to be a gracious host to Jack as Jack stomps all over Miles plans for their week in wine Country. As you watch you see Miles go through an emotional roller coaster ride as he deals with Jack who is almost his polar opposite, tries to get over his ex wife and looks for something positive to hope for in the future as he indulges in the last thing he truly enjoys which is drinking good wine.
The Good: The acting all around was great. Paul Giamatti was absolutely perfect for the Miles character and Thomas Haden Church was a perfect to play off of Gimatti's Miles and the character dynamic between the 2 was great. You can't help but to pull for Miles as runs into one pitfall after another usually created by Jack.
The score for this movie was superbly done. The music perfectly accents Miles and his moods and feelings. With the combination of Gimatti's acting and the score I felt like I knew exactly what was going on in Miles' head.
The Bad: Nothing memorable.
Overall: This is not for everyone so be warned. This is not an overtly funny movie even though it is labeled as a comedy. If you want to watch a movie about interesting characters and don't require big explosions or slap stick comedy then pick up Sideways and give it a try.
 Best movie since Midnight Run April 23, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
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
1 out of 10 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 3 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
5 out of 8 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.
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