THIS WEEK: We are having another DVD SALE! July 4th weekend, from Thursday July 3rd through Sunday July 6th, used DVD’s are BUY ONE, GET ONE FREE! We have over 300 titles on sale, so come on down and get some movies. To respect the entire community, there will be no “reserving” DVD’s for sale, so come early and get what you want. Sales are first come/first serve and all sales are final. Whoop whoop!It is July, and that means it is a new monthly edition of Highlighted New Additions. This month’s movies are brought to you by Rachel S, and they are a combination of films that we have only had on VHS, classics of the old and new variety, as well as some terrific completely new additions to our library. I notice there is also a pretty wide variety of television and films from the mid-90’s, stuff we are really psyched to have in our DVD film collection. Thanks to Rachel for bringing us these great titles. We hope you enjoy them.
I am on vacation in Southern California as I type. Kinda strange to be down here and have the air be better quality than home! But it’s true right now, as the wildfires continue to burn up north. It is hot in LA today, and it should stay hot as we migrate south to San Diego later in the week. I plan on checking out WALL-E with the family this week, so I will give you the report on that next week.
In the meantime, happy July 4th, come see TEAM AMERICA at our backyard screening room. Call the store, or check in while you are there for a starting time for the movie.
Alrighty then, see you next week!
Love and kisses,
Ken
............//NEW TITLES//............
DRILLBIT TAYLOR.
Comedy.
Nate Hartley/Troy Gentile/Owen Wilson.
Directed by Steven Brill.
* Another from the Apatow comedy production team, this features some nice kids who hire a bodyguard (Wilson) to protect them from a schoolyard bully.
MISHIMA: LIFE IN FOUR CHAPTERS.
Drama/Biography/Criterion/Foreign (Japanese and English).
Ken Ogata.
Directed by Paul Schrader.
* Yukio Mishima was one of the world’s great 20th century writers. This 1985 film celebrates his life and death while contrasting his personal history with the stories of some of his novels.
MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS.
Drama/Romance.
Jude Law/Norah Jones/Natalie Portman.
Directed by Kar Wai Wong.
* From the writer and director of 2046 and THE CHUNG KING EXPRESS comes this offbeat, traveling tale of Elizabeth (Jones) a young woman traveling around the country trying to understand love and cope with the loss of it.
PATRIOTISM.
Drama/Criterion/Foreign (Japanese).
Yukio Mashima.
Directed by Domoto Maskai and Yukio Mishima.
* Another one from Mishima, this is a short rumination on sex, death, suicide and patriotism. Made especially poignant after Mishima’s actual suicide in 1970.
SUNFLOWER.
Drama/Romance/Foreign (Mandarin).
Joan Chen.
Directed by Yang Zhang.
* Tale following three generations of a family in Beijing. Well acted.
TYLER PERRY’S: MEET THE BROWNS.
Comedy/Drama.
Angela Bassett/Tyler Perry.
Directed by Tyler Perry.
* Another adaptation by Tyler Perry of one of his stage plays, this follows a single mother who discovers that her father, who’s she’s never met, has died. She brings her family to Georgia to meet the family she has never known.
VANTAGE POINT.****ALSO IN BLU-RAY****
Drama/Suspense.
Dennis Quaid/Forest Whitaker/Matthew Fox/Sigourney Weaver/William Hurt.
Directed by Pete Travis.
* Hurt plays an American president in this perspective piece about an assassination attempt and the many possible things that might’ve happened, depending on the way you look at them.
............//DOCUMENTARY//............
DOWN THE BARRELL.
Sports Documentary.
Kelly Slater/Bob Machado.
Directed by Steve Lawrence.
* A treatise on the essence of surfing as spoken by the surfers themselves. Do you surf? Or have you spent time with surfers? It is an intensely spiritual experience and the people who enjoy it have the opportunity to achieve a nirvana that is not available in most sports. This movie attempts to expand upon this. Dude.
GANGES.****ALSO IN BLU-RAY****
BBC/Nature Doc.
* Another in the breathtakingly beautiful BBC nature series about our faire planet, this tells the story of the river Ganges, and the people whose lives are affected by it (nearly a tenth of all people on Earth live within the Ganges’ basin).
............//TELEVISION//............
THE CLOSER: 3RD SEASON.
Television/Crime.
Kyra Sedgwick/.
Directed by.
* Sedgwick plays LAPD Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson in this popular crime series. And she’s married to Kevin Bacon to boot!
MAD MEN: SEASON 1.
Television/Drama.
Jon Hamm/January Jones/Michael Gladis.
* Just last week, our hipster NY friends were raving about this show! The “mad” in the title refers to Madison Avenue and this story follows a fictional ad agency in the 1960’s and some of the mysterious geniuses who ran the show.
THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO: SEASON 2 VOLUME 1.
Television/Crime.
Karl Malden/Michael Douglas.
Directed by.
* Season two in this hard hitting crime show featuring lots of fights and car chases along the streets of our glorious city. Featuring a super young Michael Douglas.
30 DAYS: 2ND SEASON.
Reality-ish TV.
Morgan Spurlock.
* In this “show” they take someone and make them spend 30 days doing something quite antithetical to their entire belief system. Fun!
............//FAMILY//............
FIREMAN SAM: TO THE RESCUE!
Sam/Other Firemen.
............//HIGHLIGHTED NEW ADDITIONS//............
THE ADVENTURES OF BRISCO COUNTY, JR: THE COMPLETE SERIES.
Television/Western/Sci-Fi/Action/Adventure.
Bruce Campbell/Julius Carry/Christian Clemenson.
* This is the entire 27 episode set of the adventures of a bounty hunter riding through a new version of ye olde west, complete with 21st century gadgetry and perhaps even some 22nd century doodads. It’s a fun and futuristic romp.
DIRTY WORK.
Comedy/Revenge.
Artie Lange/Don Rickles/Chevy Chase/Norm MacDonald.
Directed by Bob Saget.
* A couple of losers open a “revenge-for-hire” business and all hell breaks loose.
FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH.
Comedy/Drama/Iconic.
Sean Penn/Jennifer Jason Leigh/Judge Reinhold/Phoebe Cates.
Directed by Amy Heckerling.
* California teenagers on sex, drugs and rock and roll. This movie contains so many quotable lines and is truly a work of brilliance and a must-see if only because of its role as an early Sean Penn film that helped catapult him into stardom. This is our first DVD copy.
HARVEY.
Comedy/Drama.
James Stewart.
Directed by Henry Koster.
* It’s kind of a mental health meets faith movie about a lovable guy (Stewart) who has a best friend that happens to be a mostly invisible 6 foot tall rabbit named Harvey. This is our first DVD of this fine flick.
NORTHERN EXPOSURE: THE COMPLETE SERIES.
Television/Quirky/Comedy/Drama.
Cynthia Geary/Barry Corbin/John Cullum.
* Northern Exposure was one of the first of the really weird off-beat television shows that defined 1990’s television. My family was totally ga-ga for this show back then, but alas, I was living the artist life, and didn’t have time or desire to watch any TV at all. Now, I wish I had, and maybe I will, as we add the entire six season set to our collection. We had season one, and Rachel requested a couple more for her month, but we thought what the hell, let’s get it all. Here they are. Devour them.
PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE.
Adventure/Comedy.
Paul Reubens/Elizabeth Daily.
Directed by Tim Burton.
* Pee-wee embarks on a journey around the country searching for his stolen bike and armed with his borderline personality and his wonderful ability to exist somewhere between man and child. This is our first DVD copy of this movie.
THE PHILADELPHIA STORY.
Comedy/Romance/Classic.
Cary Grant/Katherine Hepburn/James Stewart.
Directed by George Cukor.
* Nominated for 6 Oscars, and winning 2 including a Best Actor for Jimmy Stewart, this charming and beautiful film follows the romantic exploits of a rich woman and her ex-husband and a tabloid news reporter all stirring up trouble as the eve of her 2nd marriage approaches. Everyone is terrific in it, and this is our first DVD of the film.
PUMP UP THE VOLUME.
Drama/Comedy.
Christian Slater.
Directed by Allan Moyle.
* One of Slater’s more pivotal roles, he plays Mark Hunter, a kid running a pirate radio station and thus having the freedom to truly speak his mind. First DVD for us.
WHAT ABOUT BOB?
Comedy.
Bill Murray/Richard Dreyfuss/Julie Hagerty.
Directed by Frank Oz.
* A psychiatrist (Dreyfuss) is driven crazy by one of his patients (Murray) as he tracks him down on a family vacation. This is our first DVD of this kooky comedy.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S ROMEO & JULIET.
Crime/Tragedy/Romance.
Leonardo DiCaprio/Claire Danes/John Leguizamo.
Directed by Baz Luhrmann.
* Modernized and updated version of the classic, retaining the original dialogue but taking place in the present with all its trappings, i.e. guns, sex and rock and roll. First DVD.
............//NEW ADDITIONS//............
HEATHERS: 20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION.
* New edition of this fabulous parable of societal disintegration. This movie is kind of DONNIE DARKO’s older sister.
KAMAKAZI GIRLS.
Comedy/Foreign (Japanese).
Kyoko Fukada/Anna Tsuchiya.
Directed by Tetsuya Nakashima.
* A trippy surreal coming of age story about two girls in Japan not fitting into the “norm” in a gigantic way.
ONLY THE VALIANT.
Western.
Gregory Peck.
Directed by Gordon Douglas.
* 1951 film about a much hated Captain (Peck) and the stand he takes with his mutinous troops against who have every reason to wish him dead.
SAN FRANCISCO.
* Replacement copy of this classic film.
****
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