Monday, July 7, 2008

****new release list.174

THIS FRIDAY, JULY 11th: come see INDIANA JONES & THE RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK at our backyard screening room. Doors open at 8:30pm, show starts at 9pm sharp. $5 suggested donation. We are at 402 Cortland Ave. 415.641.5380.

Speaking of screenings, has anyone else noticed the signs are up for the 2008 BERNAL HEIGHTS OUTDOOR CINEMA? This is a grass-roots festival featuring Bernal Heights filmmakers showing their stuff in wonderful mostly outdoor locations, such as Precita Park, and Holly Park. It is run by Leslie Lombre and Anne Batmale who year in and year out give their all to make this a great experience. This year will be no different. You can submit your film or read about the festival here.

Another local film festival to keep in mind is VideoFest EXISTENCE-CO-EXISTENCE. They have just announced that Peter Bratt, the Writer/Director/Producer of the critically acclaimed independent film “Follow Me Home”, will be the Juror for this year’s festival. Bratt received the Best Director award at the 1996 American Indian Film Festival and the Best Feature Film Audience Award at the 1996 San Francisco International Film Festival. Bratt is also the Writer/Director/Producer of MISSION STREET RHAPSODY, an upcoming full length feature film. Read about VideoFest here.

Lots of movies this week. We’ll see you at the store.

Love and kisses,
Ken

............//NEW TITLES//............

BAT WITHOUT WINGS.
Action/Foreign (Cantonese).
Directed by Yuen Chor.
* Freaky 1980 Shaw Brothers film featuring a villain who flies through the skies killing, abducting and doing all the kooky things killers like to do.

BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHT.
Animation/Action.
Directed by Many.
* Six interlocking chapters telling the story of the rise of Batman from bat child, through his angry bat teenage years, into his early batty 20’s (officially known as the dirty hippy period), and finally into his established success and wealthy period as Batman, champion of the night, and defender of the peace, borderline schizophrenic, etc. etc... If only that was true. As it is, you can disregard most of this review. Except the part about the six chapters telling Batman’s story. About being a bat man. And growing up. Batlike.

BLOOD AND WINE: A BRAZILIAN STORY.
Drama/Foreign (Portuguese).
Mario Cesar Camargo/Marcos Cesana.
Directed by Joao Batista de Andrade.
* A violent arrest witnessed by a family just opening a grocery story in Goiania, Brazil changes the family dramatically.

BLOOD BROTHERS.
Drama/Crime/Action/Foreign (Cantonese).
Andy Lau/Jacky Cheung/Edison Chen.
Directed by Ching-Po Wong.
* A gangster considers getting out of the game upon the birth of his child, but unfortunately it is easier getting in then getting out.

CITY OF MEN.
Crime/Drama/Foreign (Portuguese).
Douglas Silva/Darlan Cunha.
Directed by Paulo Morelli.
* Actually got this last week, but forgot to write about it. In this, a couple of great friends in the latter portion of their teenage years seek out the truth of what happened to their missing fathers.

FLAKES.
Comedy/Indie.
Aaron Stanford/Zooey Deschanel.
Directed by Michael Lehmann.
* Goofy comedy about nuts and fruit.

MON ONCLE ANTOINE.
Drama/Criterion/Foreign (French).
Jacques Gagnon/Lyne Champagne.
Directed by Claude Jutra.
* 1971 film just being re-released by Criterion, it follows a boy’s coming of age in Quebec during Christmas time. Billed as Canada’s greatest film, which I had thought was THE ADVENTURES OF BOB AND DOUG MCKENZIE: STRANGE BREW, but hey, I’ve been wrong before, and I’ll be wrong again.

THE PLEASURE FACTORY. IN STORE THURSDAY
Drama/Foreign (Mandarin/Tagalog).
Isabella Chen/Ananda Everingham.
Directed by Ekachai Uekrongtham.
* Three stories focusing on the pleasure seekers in Singapore’s red light district. Chicka-wow chicka wow-wow. No seriously, this isn’t soft-core porn. I am almost sure.

THE PLEDGE.
Western.
Luke Perry/C.Thomas Howell.
Directed by Armand Mastroianni.
* A sheriff goes after a killer after his wife and young child are murdered.

THE RUINS.
Horror.
Jonathan Tucker/Laura Ramsey.
Directed by Carter Smith.
* A clearly dopey group of leisure set vacationers have a bad bad time when they accompany another tourist on an archeological dig that uncovers some bad bad evil.

SLEEPWALKING.
Drama.
Charlize Theron/AnnaSophia Robb/Woody Harrelson/Dennis Hopper/Nick Stahl.
Directed by Bill Maher.
* A child (Robb) struggles to deal with her mother (Theron) abandoning her.

STOP-LOSS.
Drama/War.
Ryan Phillippe/Abbie Cornish/Channing Tatum.
Directed by Kimberly Peirce.
* The total nightmare occurs for Sgt King (Phillippe) when he is ordered back to Iraq arbitrarily after completing his tour of duty.

SUPERHERO MOVIE.
Comedy/Farce.
Drake Bell/Sara Paxton/Leslie Nielsen.
Directed by Craig Mazin.
* From the SCARY GUYS peeps comes this farcical look at the superhero movie genre. May be funny, but you won’t find The Kind Green Menace in this flick.

THIS KISS.
Romance/LGBT.
Mel Lockman/Tamsin Gatewood.
Directed by Kylie Eddy.
* A couple of childhood friends who haven’t seen each other in a decade struggle to deal with the lost years and the events that caused their estrangement.

305.
Comedy/Farce.
Tim Larson/Brandon Tyra.
Directed by Daniel Holechek and David Holechek.
* Like 300, but five more.

THE TRACEY FRAGMENTS.
Drama.
Ellen Page/Libby Adams/Shawn Ahmed.
Directed by Bruce McDonald.
* This film won a bunch of film festival awards and most likely was made before Page hit it big with JUNO, the film that probably will catapult her into stardom. In this, she again plays a potty-mouthed teenager, but one dealing with a bit more traumatic events that just a little teen preggers.

2 MINUTES LATER.
Action/Drama/LGBT.
Michael Molina/Jessica Graham.
Directed by Robert Gaston.
* Detective tale pairing a lesbian detective (Graham) with a man (Molina) whose twin brother is missing.

............//DOCUMENTARY//............

CHOP SHOP.
Documentary.
Alejandro Polanco.
Directed by Ramin Bahrani.
* The life of a teen Latino orphan working in an auto-body shop in a junkyard in Queens is examined in this documentary.

THE GITS. IN STORE THURSDAY
Roc-Doc.
Joan Jett/Valerie M. Agnew.
Directed by Kerri O’Kane.
* Do you know about this band? They were a post-punk rock band from Seattle in the late 80’s early 90’s. They were a very influential band that was getting bigger and bigger when, tragically, in 1993, their lead singer Mia Zapata was found raped and murdered. This doc interviews many people who were influenced by this band, and examines the impact Zapata had on the people around her. I was lucky enough to see them play when my band in Santa Cruz opened for them at some dinky club in 1992; they ruled!

JOE STRUMMER: THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN IN STORE THURSDAY
Music Doc.
Bono/Brigitte Bardot/Steve Buscemi.
Directed by Julien Temple.
* Made by the man who made the video of Come On Eileen for Dexy's Midnight Runners (yeah, baby) this doc is the definitive word on Joe Strummer, the front man for 70’s and 80’s punk/reggae/rock innovators The Clash. The film focuses on the world wide influence that Strummer has had.

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

DAE JANG GEUM: SEASON 3.
Television/Foreign (Korean).
Yeong-ae Lee/Jin-hee Ji/Ri-na Hong.
* The final season of the greatest Asian soap opera ever to air. I LOVED this show, even though yes, it is a soap opera. But it features just enough food porn, schmaltz, and strong characters to have kept me junked out on it for a solid 54 hours! It’s a guilty pleasure, but pleasure is good.

THE DOG WHISPERER: COMPLETE 3RD SEASON.
Television.
Cesar Millan.
* Shhhhh, I’m trying to hear him. Whhoooof. Whoooooof.

MONK: SEASON 6.
Television/Comedy.
Tony Shalhoub.
* Season six of the San Francisco based detective comedy series.

WIRE IN THE BLOOD: THE COMPLETE 5th SEASON .
Television/Crime.
Robson Green.
* Season five in this gnarly murder investigative series.

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

FIREMAN SAM: TO THE RESCUE!
Sam/Other Firemen.

............//NEW ADDITIONS//............

BATMAN BEGINS.
* Adding another DVD to the Batman collection in anticipation of the DARK KNIGHT.

PUSHING HANDS.
Comedy/Drama/Foreign (Mandarin/English)..
Directed by Ang Lee.
* 1996 Ang Lee film about a Tai-Chi master who comes to New York to live with his son and his family. In classic Ang Lee style, east meets west and cultural conflict is explored intimately.

TOPSY TURVY.
* Replacement DVD.

****

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