I got V for Vendetta from Netflix over a week before actually watching it, which is unusual for me. It’s probably unusual for any Netflixer or film buff to hold a movie so long before watching. Occasionally I wait and wait and wait to watch a movie that I am curious about but not yet ready to watch ’cause I really don’t want to be disappointed. I think many Netflixers do this. Anyway, I have been burned time and time again waiting to watch a movie from Netflix that’s been sitting on top of my TV for days. The movie often turns out to be anything but entertaining. I was, however, very pleasantly surprised by V. Not only was it entertaining, it was well done, thought-provoking and well acted. Usually action films are one, never all, of these things.

“From the pages of David Lloyd and Alan Moore’s groundbreaking graphic novel springs the enigmatic “V” (Hugo Weaving of The Matrix), a masked freedom fighter who’s taken up arms against the totalitarian government in a futuristic Britain. Finding an unlikely ally in a young woman named Evey Hammond (Natalie Portman), V urges the citizenry to fight the oppression of the state. John Hurt and Stephen Rea also co-star.” –from Netflix.

James McTeigue’s exceptional directing and the Wachowski brothers’ solid screenplay adaptation from David Lloyd’s graphic novel both do wonders for waht could have been a sloppy, ridiculous and stereotypical dystopia film. I think one major factor in the success of this film is that the director is Australian and not American. I imagine a V for Vendetta directed by an “blockbuster” American director where Natalie Portman’s Evey does not shave her head, shows some ass and boobs, where the villain is less successful in his murderoud vendetta against politicians, media moguls and even a perverted bishop, Evey and V have sex, and the lesbians depicted would be lipstikc lesbians bare boobed and going at it…constantly.

What makes this film great is that it just told the story without catering to the dumb, dumb, dumb masses (and dumbasses). The story of a world gone loco. A world where big brother has a big head and ears everywhere. Where censorship is the norm and anything “different” will not be tolerated and is punishable by imprisonment, torture and finally death. Evey was afraid, like everyone else of standing up for the current and perpetual state of injustice, until she learns, with V’s help that fear makes prisoners of us all.

V for Vendetta was also great ’cause I recognized alot of foreign (mostly British) actors who I enjoy watching. Not an American insight, save for Portman I think. Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith from the Matrix trilogy, Lord of the Rings), Stephen Rea (Interview with the Vampire, The End of the Affair), Stephen Fry (Blackadder, Wilde), John Hurt (John Merrick in The Elephant Man, Alien, Rob Roy), Sinead Cusack (North & South), Rupert Graves (The Forsyte Saga, Mrs. Dalloway), Natasha Whightman (Gosford Park) and so forth. The British and the Aussies know how to make a movie! Anyway, V for Vendetta’s a solid, fun, smart and engaging film. Rent it!!