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Does everyone out there know what a Blu-ray disc is? Have you seen one? Blu-ray is the hi-def format that has won the format war. And suddenly, they are putting nearly all new movies (and tons of old ones) out on this format.
I have only seen them while loitering at big yucky stores like Best Buy and Circuit City. I have not yet watched an entire movie on one of those discs. Even my hi-def television experience thus far has been quite limited. Last fall, I sat and watched football at my father-in-law’s house, flipping back and forth watching the same game on one channel as I have always watched it (lo-fi, I guess) and then in the hi-def digital format. I was stunned at how different it was. Seriously, it took my eyes about ten minutes to adjust to the new format, and even then it was disconcerting how much I could see.
Anyway, I bring it up, because my experience thus far has been limited, and I am wondering who is watching these discs? Are you? Tell me, if you are. I have been slowly cranking up our Blu-ray library, including adding six titles this week (THE FIFTH ELEMENT, CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER, BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA, CASINO ROYALE, KUNG FU HUSTLE, and PAPRIKA), bringing our collection total to somewhere around 30 titles. If you are a Blu-ray renter, let me know what you wish we had, and I will look into accommodating you.
Soon, I will be getting a Blu-ray player at the store, and then we can all see what all this hubbub is about. I would have done it already, but like many of you have discovered, the cost of the television is quite high, and is really the most prohibitive part of the equation. I am guessing that we are going to see a price decrease in these coming up soon, definitely in time for next holiday season.
There’s a bunch of titles this week that may interest you, including the silly new Michel Gondry film, BE KIND REWIND, focusing on some very ingenious video store clerks, who do whatever it takes to keep their favorite customers happy. That story sounds pretty familiar. Other silly comedies this week include MY MOM’S NEW BOYFRIEND, JUST ADD WATER, WELCOME HOME, ROSCOE JENKINS, LOVE AND OTHER DISASTERS, and FOOLS GOLD. We also have some great sound foreign films like CARAMEL (Lebanon), UNDER THE SAME MOON (Mexico) and MY VOICE (Portugal and Guinea Bissau). There is also some good docs (SUPER HIGH ME {which we screened here on April 20th}, JOY DIVISION and TO DIE FOR: IMAGES OF PETER KENNARD & CAT PICTON PHILLIPPS), some anticipated television (CALIFORNICATION, BLOOD + V02, DR.WHO: BENEATH THE SURFACE, INVADERS: SEASON ONE) and the usual batch of new additions.
Love and kisses,
Ken
............//NEW TITLES//............
BE KIND REWIND.
Comedy.
Jack Black/Mos Def/Danny Glover/Mia Farrow.
Directed by Michel Gondry.
* Two video store clerks set out to remake all of the stores films after they are accidentally all demagnetized.
CARAMEL.
Comedy/Romance/Foreign (Arabic and French).
Nadine Labaki/Yasmine Elmasri.
Directed by Nadine Labaki.
* This is sort of a Lebanese BEAUTY SHOP, about the love lives of five women living in Beirut.
CLASSE TOUS RISQUE.
Suspense/Criterion/Foreign (French).
Lino Ventura/Sandra Milo/Jean-Paul Belmondo.
Directed by Claude Sautet.
* Tight 1960 crime story.
FOOLS GOLD.
Comedy/Adventure.
Matthew McConaughey/Kate Hudson/Donald Sutherland.
Directed by Andy Tennant.
* A treasure hunter, who’s failures have brought him to the edge of despair and cost him his marriage has found perhaps the one last clue that will bring him that much closer…to that aforementioned precipice and potentially more failure.
JUST ADD WATER.
Comedy/Romance.
Dylan Walsh/Tracy Middendorf/Danny DeVito/Jonah Hill.
Directed by Hart Bochner.
* And plot, and character development, and motivation, and common sense.
LOVE AND OTHER DISASTERS.
Comedy/Romance.
Brittany Murphy.
Directed by Alek Keshishian.
* Kind of a silly romantic comedy about an American interning at UK Vogue and the comical dalliances that keep her occupied.
MY MOM’S NEW BOYFRIEND.
Comedy.
Antonio Banderas/Meg Ryan/Colin Hanks/Selma Blair.
Directed by George Gallo.
* An FBI agent is given the wonderful task of spying on his mommy and her new boyfriend, who is suspected of sleeping with his mom – I mean being an art thief.
MY VOICE.
Comedy/Musical/Drama/Foreign (Kabuverdianu).
Fatou N’Diaye.
Directed by Flora Gomes.
* A young woman, whose family is convinced that any of them who sings, will die, comes up with a method of informing her mother of her singing success.
RAILS & TIES.
Drama.
Kevin Bacon/Marcia Gay Harden.
Directed by Alison Eastwood.
* A train engineer becomes bonded with a young child who survives a wreck with the train and an automobile.
UNDER THE SAME MOON.
Drama/Foreign (Spanish).
Kate del Castillo/Eugenio Derbez.
Directed by Patricia Riggen.
* A young Mexican boy crosses the US-Mexico border to try to re-unite with his mother who is working in the US to support her family back home.
WELCOME HOME, ROSCOE JENKINS.
Comedy/Romance.
Martin Lawrence/James Earl Jones.
Directed by Malcolm D. Lee.
* Roscoe Jenkins (Lawrence), successful talk show host in sunny Los Angeles, goes home to reconnect with his family down south.
............//DOCUMENTARY//............
JOY DIVISION.
Music Documentary.
Directed by Grant Gee.
* The companion piece to CONTROL, this is the story of the late 1970’s English rock band Joy Division.
SUPER HIGH ME.
Documentary.
Directed by Michael Blieden.
* Doug Benson, stand-up comic and true scientist, uses himself as a test dummy to determine the effects of marijuana on the human body. Using SUPER SIZE ME as his example, he smokes as much as he can over 30 days to determine how just high as can get he, while he’s…uh, he’s…shit…where’s my lighter?
TO DIE FOR-IMAGES OF PETER KENNARD & CAT PICTON PHILLIPPS.
Documentary.
* I found this description somewhere on the net: “Known throughout the world for his satirical montages, London-based photographer Peter Kennard teams up with artist Cat Picton Phillipps for this unique collection. An impressive assortment of compelling, eye-popping images, compiled from their 2007 show, cast a critical eye on contemporary politics, art and society. At times alarming but always engaging, Kennard and Phillipps's work turns your screen into a canvas of unmistakable power.”
............//TELEVISION//............
BLOOD +: V02.
Television/Animation.
* The further adventures of Saya, the demon-fighting little girl of Okinawa.
CALIFORNICATION.
Television/Showtime.
David Duchovny.
* Duchovny plays a lusty writer in this calipornification view of life in the SC.
DOCTOR WHO: BENEATH THE SURFACE.
Television/Sci-Fi
* 400+ minutes of early 1970’s and mid 1980’s Doctor Who action spanning both the Jon Pertwee and Peter Davison eras.
INVADERS: SEASON ONE.
Television/Sci-Fi.
Roy Thinnes.
* Something like 900 minutes of this show about a guy trying to convince the world that some not nice aliens are here to take over the world (don’t you feel like that sometimes?).
............// FAMILY//............
SWORD IN THE STONE: 45th ANNIVERSARY EDITION.
Family/Disney.
Directed by Wolfgang Reitherman.
* Oscar nominated Disney film from the 1960’s about Merlin and King Arthur.
............// NEW ADDITIONS//............
BLACK CHRISTMAS (SPECIAL EDITION).
Horror/Mystery/Thriller.
Olivia Hussey/Margot Kidder.
Directed by Bob Clark.
* The original Sorority house thriller from 1974 about a bad, bad Christmas break.
HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL.
* Two replacement DVD copies.
JUNGLE BOOKS 2.
* Disney’s vault opens up, allowing us to get some replacement DVD’s of this kids favorite.
LOST HORIZONS.
Adventure/Drama.
Ronald Colman/Jane Wyatt.
Directed by Frank Capra
* When a British diplomat (Colman) and a small group of survivors crash their plan into the Himalayas, they are rescued by people who appear to be from the eternal paradise local of Shangri-La.
QUILLS.
* Replacement DVD.
SPY KIDS 3.
* Replacement DVD.
THE UPSIDE OF ANGER.
* Replacement DVD.
............//NEW BLU-RAY ADDITIONS//............
BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA.
* First Blu-Ray copy.
CASINO ROYALE.
* First Blu-Ray copy.
CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER.
* First Blu-Ray copy.
THE FIFTHE ELEMENT.
* First Blu-Ray copy.
KUNG FU HUSTLE.
* First Blu-Ray copy,
PAPRIKA.
* First Blu-Ray copy.
****
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