****new release list no. 149

Everyone just about back to school? Work as normal? Vacations over? Real life back to center stage? Ahhh, must be mid-January. 2008. Damn, huh? This decade is in its last few years. That is so weird. And with this current one never really getting a name. It’ll be so nice in 12 years when we get to a decade that just has a specific name that we can use from day one until Dec 31st, 2029, right? Okay, I’m rambling.

This week is not a huge release week, probably the biggest two titles are the understated dark comedy HE WAS A QUIET MAN (one of two this week starring Christian Slater) and the overstated raunchy comedy THE TEN. However, this winter is going to be huge here at Four Star, with massive releases many weeks in a row. So bundle up, turn on the heat and get ready to watch some movies.

Oh, and by the way, I am doing a small experiment in the next month or two of buying a few copies of Blu-ray titles. I heard Warner Bros. are only making them now, and I think they may be winning the Blu-ray vs HD DVD battle. I also heard that Sony’s Playstation 3 (PS3) plays Blu-ray and that Blu-ray players can also play regular DVD. Lastly, I heard that Blu-ray has a bit of a protective coating which makes it less easy to scratch and that sounds good to me. So let me know what you think about this, and I will let you know when I get them in and which titles are available in Blu-ray.

Righteo.

Ken

............//NEW ARRIVALS//............

DRAGONLANCE: DRAGONS OFAUTUMN TWILIGHT.
Animation/Action/Adventure.
Lucy Lawless/Kiefer Sutherland.
Directed by Will Meugniot.
* Dragons.

GOOD LUCK CHUCK.
Comedy/Romance.
Dane Cook/Dan Fogler.
Directed by Mark Helfrich.
* Cook plays a guy who is the penultimate lay before someone finds true love. He longs to change that trend.

HE WAS A QUIET MAN.
Comedy/Drama.
Christian Slater/Elisha Cuthbert/William H. Macy.
Directed by Frank A. Cappello.
* He was a psycho! Maybe, maybe not. The key to this film is the psychological twists and turns. Bob Maconel (Slater) is your typical office enigma; living below the radar, lunching alone, contemplating mayhem, and perhaps making plans for a big day that will leave everyone remembering his name. However, when that day arrives, the plans change…or do they?

JIMMY & JUDY.
Action/Drama/Thriller.
Edward Furlong/Rachael Bella.
Directed by Randall Rubin and Jon Schroder.
* One of those destined-to-be-a-cult-classic type pictures about a couple of truly messed up kids who go seriously off the deep end and document their decline with their video camera.

KILLER DILLER.
Drama/Rock and roll.
Lucas Black/William Lee Scott/Fred Willard.
Directed by Tricia Brock.
* Some troubled youth and halfway house residents get together and form a blues band.

LOVE LIES BLEEDING.
Action/Drama/Thriller.
Christian Slater/Jenna Dewan/Brian Geraghty.
Directed by Keith Samples.
* Well, my mama told me when love lies bleeding, leave it lying there, but I guess nobody done told that to these fools. When they find a sack of cash after a shootout, they think “whoop-whoop” and my guess is that is the wrong kinda thinking in them circumstances. Didn’t they see SHALLOW GRAVE? This is the second new release this week that sees Christian Slater wielding weaponry.

MR. WOODCOCK.
Comedy.
Billy Bob Thornton/Seann William Scott/Susan Sarandon.
Directed by Craig Gillespie.
* No, we are not going back to the days of adult videos at Four Star, this is simply a comedy about a badly named (and mannered) gym teacher who is marrying the mother of one of his old students. What is it about gym teachers? I actually had one in 9th grade named Mrs. Cabinass. Life!

NAKED PREY.
Criterion/Adventure.
Cornel Wilde.
Directed by Cornel Wilde.
* A totally harrowing and insane tale of a group of hunters who offend a tribe in Africa and are murdered for the offense. All, except one, that is, who is set loose naked to be hunted by the tribe through Africa.

NOT FOR OR AGAINST.
Crime/Drama/Foreign (French).
Marie Gillain/Diane Kruger/Vincent Elbaz).
Directed by Cedric Klapisch.
* The fall of the media, in this case a camera woman (Gillain) who throws in with some petty thieves who convince her to film a bank robbery.

SCENES OF A SEXUAL NATURE.
Comedy/Drama.
Hugh Bonneville/Ewan McGregor/Adrian Lester.
Directed by Ed Blum.
* A treatise on love and sex expounded upon one afternoon in a park outside of London through the separate interactions of six or seven couples.

SEE HOW THEY FALL.
Suspense/Foreign (French).
Mathiew Kassovitz/Jean Yanne.
Directed by Jacques Audiard.
* A psychological thriller about an older man who throws his career away to find the killers of his friend.

SUBURBAN GIRL.
Comedy/Drama/Romance
Sarah Michelle Gellar/Alec Baldwin.
Directed by Marc Klein.
* This is a tale of a book editor (Gellar) who is the objet d’attention of an older gentleman with cash (Baldwin). Truth be told, I read something regarding the “lukewarm, insincere acting by Alec Baldwin”, but I am sure that was written by some mean mean person who was just jealous. It may be fluff, but sometimes fluff is wonderful.

THE TEN (07).
Comedy.
Jessica Alba/Paul Rudd/Adam Brody/Famke Janssen/Liev Schreiber/Winona Ryder.
Directed by David Wain.
* Ten tales of biblical proportion about people behaving poorly. What a cast, though. I, mean seriously, how often do you get Winona Ryder and Famke Janssen in the same movie. My guess is that this one flies under the Oscar radar, maybe even never gets mentioned. But, I’ll probably see it. Maybe twice.

YES, BUT...
Comedy/Drama/Foreign (French).
Emile Dequenne.
Directed by Yves Lavandier.
* A 17-year-old girl, under-supervised and involved with an older and READY boyfriend, seeks professional advice from a therapist about sex.

............//TELEVISION//............

BALLYKISSANGEL: COMPLETE SERIES (ALL SIX SEASONS).
Television.
Created by Kieran Prendiville
* Much loved UK series about an English priest in a small Irish village. Colin Farrell starred in this show for a few seasons.

FAMILY GUY: BLUE HARVEST.
Television.
* Blue Harvest was the code name when they filmed the Return of the Jedi. I’m not sure what the code name was when they filmed this.

ROBOT CHICKEN: SEASON 1.
Television.
* Demented stop motion animation series from Seth Green, Mike Fasolo and Matthew Senreich.

............//FAMILY//............

DORA THE EXPLORER: UNDERCOVER DORA.
Family.

............//RECENT ACQUISITIONS//............

AMERICA BROWN.
Replacement DVD.

BREAKER MORANT.
First DVD or VHS of this classic Australian war movie from 1980.

BUS 174.
First DVD of this for us.

JOHNNY SUEDE.
First DVD of this early Brad Pitt rocker film that also stars Nick Cave!

MARCH OF THE PENGUINS.
Replacement DVD.

POINT BLANK (67).
First DVD of this Lee Marvin and Angie Dickinson flick.


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