****new release list no.181

THIS FRIDAY, Aug 26th: come see BEYOND THE CALL as part of the Bernal Heights Outdoor Cinema festival at our backyard screening room. Doors open at 7:00 with musical entertainment provided by an electric guitar duo. The film, a documentary about three good Samaritans, will start around 7:45pm. Please come early to get a seat.

Lots of movies as always this week. ENTOURAGE: SEASON 4 is bound to be quite popular, as will be the mostly animated documentary CHICAGO 10 about the anti-war protesters who got busted livening up the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Also likely to garner interest is David Mamet’s new movie REDBELT which is improbably about ultimate fighting! There may be those out there who have heard of SON OF RAMBOW, a very entertaining indie film about some young boys out to re-film RAMBO with themselves starring in it. Oh, and I mustn’t forget HEROES: SEASON 2, the continuing saga of mass supernatural power training.

We have some great foreign films, led by BOATS FROM WATERMELON RINDS, a sweet coming-of-age tale from Turkey, as well as SALO OR THE 120 DAYS OF SODOM, a Criterion release guaranteed to outrage most.

For you parents out there, some excellent kids movies, led by ARTHUR AND THE INVISIBLES and being rounded out by that ARIEL movie you’ve seen on billboards around lately. I gave it a whirl. Yup, my 3-year old loved it.

What more can I say to you?

Love and kisses,
Ken

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

ARTHUR AND THE INVISIBLES.
Family/Animation.
Mis Farrow/Freddie Highmore.
Directed by Luc Besson.
* Fantasy about a little boy trying to find treasure to save his grandfather’s home.

AUGUST.
Drama.
Josh Hartnett/Adam Scott/David Bowie.
Directed by Austin Chick.
* 2001, that is. August, 2001, where two brothers are trying like hell to make their start-up company survive on Wall Street. Little did they know what would happen in September.

BANGKOK LOVE STORY.
Drama/LGBT/Foreign (Thailand).
Rattanaballang Tohssawat/Chaiwat Thongsaeng.
Directed by Poj Arnon.
* Award winning indie-festival circuit flick.

BEST OF COMEDY CENTRAL PRESENTS II.
Stand up Comedy.

BOATS OUT OF WATERMELON RINDS.
Drama/Foreign (Turkish).
Fizuli Caferof/Mustafa Coban/Gulayse Erkoc.
Directed by Ahmet Ulucay.
* The story of two adolescent boys living and working in a small village and dreaming of being movie directors.

FISHTALES.
Family.
Billy Zane/Alki David/Kelly Brook.
Directed by Alki David.
* There’s a mermaid involved. Kids love mermaids.

PURPLE VIOLETS.
Drama/Romance.
Selma Blair/Patrick Wilson/Edward Burns/Debra Messing/Dennis Farina.
Directed by Edward Burns.
* Besides being a relatively benign romance about a writer struggling with the pressures and trappings of success, this film also was the first to be released exclusively on iTunes. But we won’t hold it against them.

REDBELT.
Action/Drama.
Chiwetel Ejiofor/Tim Allen/Emily Mortimer.
Directed by David Mamet.
* And now Mamet has focused his attention on the wide world of ultimate fighting. I am not sure, but I hear there isn’t a lot of dialogue in ultimate fighting. I am not sure how this will translate into the Mamet world, but as he was successful making real estate agents seem interesting, I am sure he will do the same for mixed martial artisans.

SALO OR THE 120 DAYS OF SODOM.
Drama/Horror/Criterion/Foreign (Italian/French/German).
Directed by Pier Pasolini.
* This is one of those movies that are just lightning rods for internet debate. It is the story of 9 kids who have been rounded up by fascists and are tortured for 4 months. Released in 1976, it has been banned in some countries and has at least one controversial segment that is not included in this release.

SCORPION KING 2: RISE OF A WARRIOR.
Action.
Michael Copon.
Directed by Russell Mulcahy.
* This prequel is an equal to the sequel.

SON OF RAMBOW.
Comedy.
Neil Dudgeon/Bill Milner.
Directed by Garth Jennings.
* Two kids growing up under challenging circumstances, set out to remake RAMBO with there own self-created special effects. This was a favorite on the film festival circuit.

THREE STOOGES COLLECTION 1940-1942.
Comedy.
Moe/Curly/Larry.
* 23 shorts from the golden age of the Three Stooges. Curly taught my Grampa to play the ukulele.

VAMPIRE DIARY.
Horror/Suspense.
Anna Walton/Morven Macbeth/Jamie King.
Directed by Mark James and Phil O’Shea.
* Holly (Macbeth), a young filmmaker, is making a documentary about the Goth underworld in London when she meets Vicki (Walton) who bites her neck and sucks her blood.

WALKER PAYNE.
Drama.
Jason Patric/Sam Shepard/Drea de Matteo/Bruce Dern.
Directed by Matt Williams.
* Don’t quote me on this, but I think the main character gets into illegal dog fighting to raise the money it will take to avoid selling his daughters to his nasty ex-wife.

WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS.
Comedy.
Ashton Kutcher/Cameron Diaz.
Directed by Tom Vaughan.
* Stays in Vegas. So I can’t tell you any more about this one. Cuz I promised. Maybe if you get me drunk I’ll tell you.

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

CHICAGO 10.
Documentary/Animation.
Mark Ruffalo/Jeffrey Wright/Leiv Schreiber/Nick Nolte/Hank Azaria.
Directed by Brett Morgan.
* In this engaging documentary about the trial of the eight anti-war protesters following the 1968 Democratic National Convention, animation and archival footage are employed to create a psychedelic backdrop to the farcical circus that the trial became.

GYPSY CARAVAN: WHEN THE ROAD BENDS.
Documentary/Music.
Directed by Jasmine Dellai.
* A musical exploration of the gypsy culture as five famous Romani groups tour the United States.

UNCOUNTED: THE NEW MATH OF AMERICAN ELECTIONS.
Documentary.
Directed by David Earnhardt.
* Seriously, these days, 1,000,001 Democrat votes versus 1 Republican vote = a tie. So vote in force this November.

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS OSAMA BIN LADEN?
Documentary.
Directed by Morgan Spurlock.
* If you know, you just might be a terrorist.

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

ENTOURAGE: COMPLETE 4^th SEASON.
Television/Action.
Created by Doug Ellin
* Season four in the show that answers the question: What price fame?

HEROES: SEASON 2.
Television/Action.
Created by Tim Kring.
* The second season of the cult phenomenon about people all over the globe who discover that they have super powers. I, myself, discovered certain superpowers that I am unable to disclose, except to tell you my superhero name is The Kind Green Menace.

THE SHIELD: SEASON 6.
Television/Action.
* The sixth season about good and bad cops in Los Angeles.

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

BOB THE BUILDER: ON SITE HOUSES AND PLAYGROUNDS.
Family.

GO DIEGO GO: DIEGO’S HALLOWEEN!
Family.
* Let the holiday movies start to roll on in.

LITTLE MERMAID: ARIEL’S BEGINNING.
Family.

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

THE BELLES OF ST. TRINIAN’S.
Madcap Comedy.
Alastair Sim.
Directed by Frank Launder.
* Our first of a batch of the zany British St. Trinian’s films from the 1950’s.

THE BIG LEBOWSKI: COLLECTOR’S EDITION.
* The dude abides.

CAMP NOWHERE.
Family/Adventure.
* First DVD copy of this movie that we probably didn’t need to buy.

REAL GENIUS.
* Our first copy of this early Val Kilmer film.

THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY.
* First DVD of this Cameron Diaz comedy.

WANDERERS OF THE DESERT.
Drama/Foreign (French).
Nacer Khemir..
Directed by Nacer Khemir.
* The first of Khemir’s Desert Trilogy, including THE DOVE’S LOST NECKLACE. This is a striking and poetic film.

............//REPLACEMENT DVDS//............

EVE’S BAYOU.

****

****new release list no.180

THIS FRIDAY, AUGUST 22nd: come see THE BIG LEBOWSKI at our backyard screening room. You can quaff up some White Russians and watch as the Dude abides. Doors open at 8:45, film starts at 9:00pm. Next week we are taking part in the Bernal Heights Outdoor Cinema festival. We hope to see a bunch of you out at one of their awesome events.

Anyone catching any Olympics? Something about the massive time difference and the knowledge of what already happened makes it hard for me to desire to make time to watch any of the competitions. The time difference, that is, and the lack of a working television. Ah, yes.

I have been so on the verge of buying a nice fat hi-definition television set, but somehow, haven’t convinced myself to pull the trigger on anything specific yet. Do you have one? Do you have a link I could just click and buy one or two of these? Send it to me! Ayyy. I can file documents with administrative acumen, but buying electronics? Not my forte. Still, it is time to buy one. And then buy the Blu-ray player that has also been eluding me. Just today I was looking at one on Amazon and the price was right ($315) but the lack of the proper television that could actually reproduce the images that are imbedded on those little discs just made it seem stupid to purchase. Like melting the butter before growing the artichokes-or some such yummy steamed vegetable that tastes good with a little melted butter maybe with a splash of squeezed lemon in there. Uh, yeah.

I just came back from Seattle, which is a really lovely city. They say it is grey and rainy but it always gets super sunny and hot when I’m there, so I can’t verify it. We spent the week wandering around the city, admiring all the cute little named apartment buildings (The Karma House, Holly Manor), enjoying the city parks with their funky fountains and wading pools and Astroturf playing fields, which by the way, are quite slick these days. We checked out the library there, which is a masterpiece of angles and exposed metal beams in wild geographic patterns housing a massive but well-organized collection and reading rooms, piano playing rooms, temperature controlled rooms, and crazy art installations along the walls of the escalators that take you up up up.

We even went up the Space Needle (41-second ride) then back down for $40 (worth every penny). We checked out Pike’s Place market. Damn, why can’t Fisherman’s Wharf be like that? Fresh fish, jams, fruit, veggies, custom leather belts, beads, art, knick-knacks, flowers in abundance, pastries both high and low-brow, and people, moving through, both tourists and locals alike. A seriously nice place that I highly recommend.

Unfortunately, we did not end up going to the yummy restaurants we fantasized about hitting (Salumi, Tilth, Impromptu). Such is life with children, eh? I really loved Seattle, but it just gave me more perspective on what a fantastic city we live in. I love vacating, but I think even more I love to come home. There’s no place like it.

Lots of good movies this week, highlighted by RECOUNT the painful reenactment of the 2000 Presidential election. I hope history treats that episode very harshly.

In the meantime, as our Presidential election approaches, I can only think:

President Obama: Say it Aloud.

Peace and love and stuff,

Ken

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

AN AMERICAN CRIME.
Crime/Drama.
Catherine Keener/James Franco/Ellen Page.
Directed by Tommy O’Haver.
* Based on a true story (the WORST CRIME to ever GET COMMITTED in INDIANA) this film tracks a very very seriously not nice woman pushed to the breaking point (by her like, 47 children) who badly damages a couple of nice children left in her care by their carnie parents. Featuring the soon to be overexposed Ellen Page.

CAMP ROCK.
Comedy/Family/Musical.
Nick Jonas/Joe Jonas/Kevin Jonas.
Directed by Matthew Diamond.
* How many Jonas brothers does it take to screw in a lightbulb? None. None more black.

HANNAH MONTANA CONCERT MOVIE: 3D.
Uh….
Miley Cyrus.
Directed by Bruce Hendricks.
* Is there anything to say here? We watched it in the store today and it was very entertaining. And you get the awesome 3D glasses too!

IMMORTAL (2005).
Sci-Fi/Adventure.
Linda Hardy/Thomas Kretschmann/Charlotte Rampling.
Directed by Enki Bilal.
* Super trippy sounding flick about some chick wandering NY with blue hair and crazy genetics and maybe blue tears and a floating pyramid in the sky with perhaps some Egyptian gods hanging round? Oh yeah, and its 2095.

LIFE BEFORE HER EYES.
Thriller.
Uma Thurman/Evan Rachel Wood.
Directed by Vadim Perelman.
* Uma plays a woman whose life is kinda falling apart twenty years after surviving a school shooting that claimed the life of her young friend, played by Wood.

MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY.
Comedy/Romance.
Frances McDormand/Amy Adams/Shirley Henderson.
Directed by Bharat Nalluri.
* Very joyfully performed tale of a governess in London (McDormand) who becomes caught up in the whirlwind life of an American star (Adams).

NEVER BACK DOWN.
Action/Drama/Martial Art.
Sean Faris/Amber Heard.
Directed by Jeff Wadlow.
* I dunno, FIGHT CLUB meets THE KARATE KID?

PROM NIGHT (2007).
Horror.
Brittany Snow /Dana Davis.
Directed by Nelson McCormick.
* Let’s face it, it’s generally a bad night, whether you are being dumped by your chappy, throwing up on the side of the road, dirtying your rented party outfit or being pursued by a psychopathic killer.

RECOUNT.
Drama.
Kevin Spacey/Laura Dern/Tom Wilkinson/Denis Leary/John Hurt.
Directed by Jay Roach.
* And just keep recounting until a Democrat wins! Star studded cast reenacting those sad sad days and weeks after the 2000 election when Florida proved that it was unable to count or recount.

SMALL BACK ROOM.
Drama/Criterion/Foreign (English).
David Farrar/Kathleen Byron/Jack Hawkins.
Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.
* 1950’s film about a bitter bomb expert in WWII who is also a drunk.

STREET KINGS.
Suspense/Crime.
Keanu Reaves/Forest Whitaker/Chris Evans/Hugh Laurie.
Directed by David Ayer.
* Familiar tale of violence and corruption in the LAPD, starring Keanu as a cop implicated in the death of another officer of the law.

TWENTY FOUR EYES
Drama/Criterion/Foreign (Japanese).
Hideko Takamine/Yumeji Tsukioka.
Directed by Keisuke Kinoshita.
* This is the story of a young schoolteacher, struggling to educate her students during WWII with the knowledge in her heart that many will die in the war.

WIZARD OF GORE
Horror/Gnarly.
Crispin Glover/Bijour Phillips.
Directed by Jeremy Kasten.
* Remake of the 1970 classic about a magician whose on-stage tricks may not actually be illusions afterall. He may really be sawing those nice young women in two! Starring super-freak Glover as the evil magician Montag the Magnificent.

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

PRIMO LEVI’S JOURNEY.
Documentary.
Chris Cooper.
Directed by Davide Ferrareo.
* Doc looking at the life and travels of Primo Levi the Italian born author and survivor of the holocaust .

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

BURN NOTICE: SEASON ONE .
Television/Comedy/Drama/Thriller.
Jeffrey Donovan/Bruce Campbell/Gabrielle Anwar/Sharon Gless.
Created by Matt Nix.
* So, your basic burn notice (for a spy, that is) means you’re a persona non gratis to the government; you have no money, no identity, no support, no job history, no credit, no 501 button fly blue-jeans (just seeing if you are still paying attention) (do those still exist?) and everyone you used to know is trying to kill you.

DEXTER: COMPLETE SECOND SEASON.
Television/Susense.
Michael C. Hall/Julie Benz.
* Season two of the story of th dice-em slice-em serial killer with an ethical heart and skilled hands.

GOSSIP GIRL: SEASON ONE .
Television/Drama/Gossip.
Blake Lively/Leighton Meester/Chace Crawford/Taylor Momsen.
* Snotty rich kids in some elite NY school talking shit about one another.

HOUSE: SEASON 4.
Television/Drama.
Hugh Laurie/Lisa Edelstein.
* Fourth season about Dr. House and his weird team of strange-case solving doctors.

TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES.
Television/Action/Drama/Fantasy.
Lena Headey/Thomas Dekker/Summer Glau.
* This series is set after the second TERMINATOR film but before the third and focuses on the Connors attempts to prevent the creation of the Skynet program that will eventually destroy humankind.

TRANSFORMERS ANIMATED SEASON ONE.

............//BLU-RAY NEW ADDITIONS//............

JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK.

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

WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE.
* First DVD copy of this 1996 Todd Solondz (PALINDROMES, HAPPINESS) flick about the painful realities of life in Junior High.

****

****new release list no.179

THIS FRIDAY, AUGUST 15th: come see AIR GUITAR NATION at our backyard screening room. This move is one of the funniest and most brilliant documentaries you will ever see. Each time C-Diddy performs you will ask yourself, can it really be this awesome? Yes, it can. Doors open at 8:45, film starts at 9:00pm.

Hey checkit! One of our customers blogged about us: Read her excellent well-informed anti-consumption blog here.

Can you believe it is mid-August already? 2008? Not only is the year whipping by, but somehow even the summer is coming to a close. Camps are in their last several weeks, summer programs have reached their finals, school is starting at every level, hell, even baseball is winding down. Yes, it is mid-august and that can really only mean one thing:

THE WIRE: THE COMPLETE 5^th SEASON is here! Yes, let the rush begin. The final season of the most popular show of all time is in circulation and that means the frenzied run on this show will make its final savage attack. We are locked and loaded, so come on in. Sadly, I will miss this first week, as the Shelves are on vacation in Seattle (on the plane as I type).

Lots of other movies out this week, starting with the somewhat erroneously named SMART PEOPLE starring Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Thomas Haden Church and it-girl of the moment Ellen Page. Also some new stand-up comedy (BRIAN REGAN, and VINCE VAUGHN’S WILD WEST), as well as a beautiful looking Italian comedy (THE ORANGE THIEF) and a pair from acclaimed Russian director Larisa Shepitko. There is also some indie comedy (ELECTRIC APRICOT: QUEST FOR FESTEROO and THE TROUBADOURS).

We have a little batch of family movies led by a domestic doggy film (FRANK) and a foreign ubiquitous alien film (CJ7), and a smattering of other kids stuff like MULAN, MULAN 2, PLAY WITH ME SESAME and NI HAO KAI-LAN: SUPER SPECIAL DAYS.

There is a much anticipated doc about a surf gang in Australia (THE BRA BOYS) as well as some other great looking docs (BRUCE NAUMAN: MAKE ME THINK, POISONED BY POLONIUM: THE LITVINENKO FILE (about an assassinated Russian spy), THE POWER OF NIGHTMARES and MUHAMMAD ALI: MADE IN MIAMI). There is also more television (PRISON BREAK: 3^rd SEASON, 30 DAYS: 2^nd SEASON, and SOUTH PARK: 11^th SEASON). Also don’t miss the freak cult fave FORBIDDEN ZONE made by little Danny Elfman’s brother Richard. Whoop whoop.

Also, on the Blu-ray front, 14 more titles coming in on Tuesday. I think that makes about 45 titles we carry on Blu-ray, including about 15 2008 releases and the rest older favorites. Are you renting these? If you are, and you wish I had something that I don’t, please let me know. I try to get at least a couple new titles each week, but it is always nice to fulfill the wish of one of you.

Love and kisses,

Ken

............//MOVIE OF THE WEEK//............

THE WIRE: THE COMPLETE 5^th SEASON.
Television/Crime/Actuality.
* You know what? I’ve never seen this show! So technically, I am not qualified to write about it. Instead of some hogwash that I have pilfered from the internet, I thought I would just give you my impressions from talking to literally hundreds of people about the THE WIRE. It’s the most rented show ever at Four Star Video. Seriously, there are days when one out of every ten dvd’s we rent is a WIRE disc. The show is very gritty and very realistic and slow with enormous set-ups that sometimes take quite a long time to play out. The show itself is about the fabric of society. It is about life in the city of Baltimore, but in a sense, it could be about life in any cold and hard city. Each season has focused on different elements of Baltimore itself, the schools, the longshoreman, crime, politics. There are many characters, some of whom are terrible; all of whom are three-dimensional with complicated motivations and internal struggles. The show is addictive, amazingly addictive. It’s probably time for you to take a deep breath and jump on in.

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

THE BOY’S AND GIRL’S GUIDE TO GETTING DOWN.
Comedy..
Cricket Leigh/Kat Turner
Directed by Paul Sapiano.
* 20-nothings, snorting coke and screwing each other in the most goofy manner possible.

BRAND UPON THE BRAIN.
Drama/FantasyHorror/Criterion.
Guy Maddin.
Directed by Guy Maddin.
* Very trippy Canadian flick made by the same Guy who made THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD (another quite trippy film). This one is about a man who revisits an island where his parents used to run an orphanage, and his father used to experiment on the children.

BRIAN REGAN: STANDING UP.
Comedy/Stand-Up.
Brian Regan.
Directed by Troy Miller.
* From your peeps at Comedy Central.

CJ7.
Comedy/Sci-Fi/Family/Foreign (Cantonese).
Stephen Chow/Xu Jiau/Kitty Zhang.
Directed by Stephen Chow.
* Aha! A little toy that a poor man finds in a junkyard, is really an alien creature with strange and mysterious powers that helps the man’s family learn important life lessons. Why doesn’t this ever happen to me?

ELECTRIC APRICOT: QUEST FOR FESTEROO.
Comedy/Farce.
Dian Bachar/Mike Gordon/Seth Green.
Directed by Les Claypool (of Primus).
* A SPINAL TAPish spoof of rock bands written and directed by a pretty awesome bass player who is also pretty goofy. Released by National Lampoon. Critics says this is pretty freaking funny.

FELON.
Action/Drama.
Val Kilmer/Stephen Dorff/Sam Shepherd.
Directed by Ric Roman Waugh.
* Dude kills a guy who is trying to rob his house and ends up in jail dealing with all that entails.

FRANK.
Family.
John Gries/Cynthia Watros.
Directed by Douglas Cheney.
* Heartwarming tale of a stray dog who brings a family back together.

LARISA SHEPITKO COLLECTION.
Drama/Criterion/Foreign (Russian).
Directed by Larisa Shepitko.
* Two from Shepitko, a Russian filmmaker. Featuring 1966’s WINGS, a portrayal of a fighter pilot aging restlessly and 1977’s ASCENT a frightening tale of two starving WWII soldiers heading to a farmhouse to find food while also trying to avoid the Nazi’s.

THE LOST BOYS: THE TRIBE.
Comedy/Horror/Vampire.
Directed by P.J. Pesce.
* Twenty years later, a sequel to the very enjoyable 1987 treat, THE LOST BOYS.

THE ORANGE THIEF.
Comedy/Foreign (Italian).
Andrea Calabrese.
Directed by Vinnie Angle and Boogie Dean and Arthur Wilinkski.
* A madcap Italian comedy about poor country fruit thieves.

THE SEARCH FOR JOHN GISSING.
Comedy/Drama.
Alan Rickman /Mike Binder/Janeane Garofalo.
Directed by Mike Binder.
* Cult comedy about corporate hijinks.

THE SECRET.
Horror/Suspense.
David Duchovny (Why won’t you love me?)/Olivia Thirlby/Lili Taylor.
Directed by Vincent Perez.
* In this remake of a Japanese movie, a dead mother’s spirit comes back to inhabit her 16- year-old daughter’s hot little body causing bad juju between her and her father. Yikes.

SMART PEOPLE.
Comedy/Drama.
Dennis Quaid/Sarah Jessica Parker/Thomas Haden Church/Ellen Page.
Directed by Noam Murro.
* From the Producers of SIDEWAYS comes this biting comedy about a professor (QUAID) who is so wrapped up in himself that he can’t see the wood for the trees. Circumstances open his eyes to his life around him. With Thomas Haden Church as his adopted brother and Ellen Page (JUNO) playing another witty teenager.

TROUBADOURS.
Drama/Comedy.
Tom Galasi/Patrick Zielinski.
Directed by Tom Galasi and Adam Galaski and Tom Snyder.
* Award-winning super low-budge film that found distribution (!) about an out-of-work drummer heading back from the big city (after breaking up with his girlfriend) to the mid-west where his quest is to find himself.

VINCE VAUGHN’S WILD WEST COMEDY SHOW
Comedy.
* Vince and pals do stand up across the country.

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

BRA BOYS.
Documentary.
Narrated by Russell Crowe.
Directed by Sunny Abberton.
* About a notorious surf gang called the Bra Boys, kinda sounds like an Australian version of DOG TOWN AND Z-BOYS.

BRUCE NAUMAN: MAKE ME THINK.
Documentary
Directed by Heinz Peter Schwerfel.
* From Amazon: “Visit the challenging world of Bruce Nauman, a multi-faceted artist who believes that the importance of a work of art is in the process of making it. With this philosophy at the core of his work, he became a major player in the conceptual art movements of the 20th century. Using a diversity of media, including sculpture, video, printmaking, performance, and installation, Nauman has used his art to examine the major questions of life, mapping the human experience from birth to death. As in his 1983 neon sculpture consisting of the words Life, Death, Love, Hate, Pleasure, Pain, his work focuses on the essential elements of the human experience. MAKE ME THINK features 60 works of art from Nauman s career, including his early film projections and video installations Clown Torture and Anthro/Socio. It also chronicles the development of a piece titled Violent Incident, which Nauman calls a video sculpture.” Sounds pretty wild.

MUHAMMAD ALI: MADE IN MIAMI.
Documentary/Sports.
* PBS special on Ali and his formative years in Miami transforming him from Cassius Clay into superstar Muhammad Ali.

POISONED BY POLONIUM: THE LITVINENKO FILE
Documentary/Foreign (Russian/English).
Alexander Litvinenko.
Directed by Andrei Nekrasov.
* The story of the former Russian spy Litvinenko who was forced into exile and eventually killed by being poisoned in 2006 with this gnarly radioactive substance.

THE POWER OF NIGHTMARES
Documentary.
Directed by Adam Curtis.
* The complete three part doc about the use of fear for political gain. I have only seen part one, but it was fascinating and frightening.

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

PRISON BREAK: SEASON 3.
Television/Crime.
Dominic Purcell/Wentworth Miller.
* Season three of the popular show about a wrongly imprisoned guy and his brothers attempts to break him out. One of the characters is named T-Bag. I think that’s funny.

SOUTH PARK: COMPLETE 11^th SEASON.
Television/Animation/Demented Humor.
Created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
* More craziness in the town of South Park from those total kooks.

30 DAYS: 2^nd SEASON.
Television/Realityish.
Morgan Spurlock.
* This show is weird.

THE WIRE: THE COMPLETE 5^th SEASON.
* See Release of the Week.

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

MULAN: SPECIAL EDITION.
Family.

MULAN 2: SPECIAL EDITION.
Family.

NI HAO KAI-LAN: SUPER SPECIAL DAYS.
Family.

PLAY WITH ME SESAME: FURRY FUN & HEALTHY TOO.
Family.

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

FORBIDDEN ZONE.
Zany/Cult/Comedy/Animation/Fantasy/Musical.
Herve Villachaize.
Directed by Richard Elfman (Danny’s brother).
* When a customer recently pointed out that we did not have this film, it was immediately purchased. This crazy journey into the 6^th dimension is one that should not be missed by any true cineophile.

............//BLU-RAY NEW ADDITIONS//............

APOCALYPTO.

BAD SANTA.

CARS.

CASANOVA.

DINOSAUR.

GANGS OF NEW YORK.

HELLBOY.

HIDALGO.

KING ARTHUR (DIRECTOR’S CUT).

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD’S END.

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL.

RATATOUILLE.

UNBREAKABLE.

............//REPLACEMENT PURCHASES//............

ENTOURAGE: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON.
* Replacement copies..

VERONICA MARS: COMPLETE 2^nd and 3^rd SEASONS.
* Replacement copies.

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****new release list no.178

THIS FRIDAY, AUGUST 8st: Come see HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH at our backyard screening room. Doors open at 8:45, film starts at 9:00pm. Suggested donation $5. Candy/Soda $1. Popcorn is free.

A shortish word about DVD’s. Have you noticed that they basically suck? A DVD is a very fallible medium for art. The data side of the disc is completely unprotected. It should be relatively easy to maintain (just touch the edges with your fingers, only remove the movie from its case to put it into your DVD player, immediately put it back securely in its box after viewing), but for whatever reason, the discs begin to get scratched soon after we purchase them. We implemented the D-Skin experiment, covering all discs with the little disc condoms, but, sadly, that did not work on everyone’s DVD player. So, alas, the DVD’s are touched with fingers, fingers that are unclean, fingers of children, sometimes perhaps chicken fingers (it seriously looks that way occasionally). Not to mention they are left on the floor, stepped on, left out for days, stacked on top of each other, carelessly boxed, not properly secured and then dropped loose through the drop-in slot. From our end, we generally do not call when the disc comes back looking yucky. We can’t check every disc upon return so we may not first see that a disc is damaged until you bring it back letting us know it didn’t work. At that point, it is hard to know who damaged it.

It is sad when they don’t last more than 20 plays. We have some videotapes in our system that have been viewed 200+ times! But very few DVD’s last even a quarter of that time. So we buy new copies of films. Pretty regularly. If you pan down to REPLACEMENT PURCHASES (formerly just a part of NEW ADDITIONS) almost every week you’ll find some new copies of old movies and tv shows. Not that we are complaining. Not at all. We understand our role in this relationship, and we want to reward you for shopping locally by providing you with the best customer service ever. And if that means buying two or three more copies of full seasons of THE WIRE every month, then dammit, we’ll do it.

The only thing we request of you the customer, consumer, and ultimately, viewer, is that you let us know when things don’t work. We can’t replace films until we know someone has a problem, but when we know there’s a problem, we don’t rent the disc again until we’ve re-surfaced it in our DISCO-GO-TECH 100 DVD repair machine. Then, if that doesn’t fix it, we’ll toss the DVD and buy a new copy.

Two last thoughts about DVD’s. For whatever weird reason, not all DVD’s play in all machines. And, if you are watching your DVD’s on a $75 DVD player that you bought 3 years ago, and everything is skipping, it might be time for a new machine.

****stepping down off the soap box****

Tons of great movies this week, including the Oscar winner for BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM in 2007, THE COUNTERFEITERS, which is awesome!

August marks Evan’s month of HIGHLIGHTED NEW ADDITIONS. His picks brought he entire six season collection of KING OF THE HILL into our store for the first time, as well as the entire seven movie set (they made seven?) of the POLICE ACADEMY films. Combine that with our first DVD copies of ANIMAL HOUSE THE GOONIES, REPO MAN, ERIK THE VIKING, THE MUSIC MAN(!), ANNIE(!!), and AN AMERICAN TAIL and you’ve got a much boosted collection. I love this feature of the store, b/c the library gets enriched through such varied film opinions. Viva la difference!

Alrighty then,

Ken

p.s. I have been using the website FACEBOOK to inform people about our weekly film-screenings. The site allows me to send out an invitation to come see the movie with all the details. If you would like to have this weekly emailed invitations please email me requesting I put you on this list. It is a relatively simple little email, with a link to the Facebook page with the info. You can check it out here.

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

ADORED: DIARY OF A PORN STAR.
Drama/Foreign (Italian/English)
Marco Filiberti.
Directed by Marco Filiberti.
* Two estranged brothers get to know each other after their father dies. One of them gets it on for a living.

CARMEN.
Drama/Romance/Foreign (Spanish/Basque/French).
Paz Vega.
Directed by Vicente Aranda.
* Sexy retelling of the famous tale.

THE COUNTERFEITERS.
Drama/Foreign (German).
Karl Markovics
Directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky.
* Oscar winner for Foreign Language Film, this movies tracks the Nazi's top secret counterfeit program and the Jews in concentration camps forced to pull it off. Without gratuitous violence, this film hits home very hard.

FINN’S GIRL.
Drama/Romance/LGBT.
Brooke Johnson/Maya Ritter.
Directed by Dominique Cardona and Laurie Colbert.
* When Finn’s lover dies, she takes over the care of her daughter, and her abortion clinic.

JIMMY DORE: CITIZEN JIMMY.
Comedy/Standup.

JOY HOUSE.
Suspense/Crime/Thriller/Foreign (French/English).
Jane Fonda/Alain Delon.
Directed by Rene Clement.
* Freaky French film just finally getting to DVD about a young crook on the run from everything, and caught up in nothing. Jane is said to be terrific in this film.

THE KILLING OF JOHN LENNON. ****In store on Thurs****
Drama/Biofictopic.
Jonas Ball.
Directed by Andrew Piddington.
* A retelling of Mark Chapman’s last days as he was finished being programmed by George Bush, Sr. to kill John Lennon. I mean, as he convinced himself to kill John Lennon.

MISS CONCEPTION.
Comedy.
Heather Graham/Mia Kirschner.
Directed by Eric Styles.
* Dang yo, Heather Graham has got to get pregnant NOW. Can’t anyone help her out?

MY BROTHER IS AN ONLY CHILD.
Comedy/Crime/Drama/Foreign(Italian).
Elio Germano/Riccardo Scarmarcio
Directed by Danielle Luchetti.
* A coming of age story about two brothers growing up in the 60’s and 70’s in Italy.

NIM’S ISLAND.
Family/Adventure/Comedy.
Jodie Foster/Abigail Breslin/Gerard Butler.
Directed by Jennifer Flackett and Mark Levin.
* A magical adventure about an island ruled by a little girl’s imagination. Starring the super cute Breslin (LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, NO RESERVATIONS, DEFINITELY, MAYBE).

QUEEN SIZED.
Comedy/Drama.
Nikki Blonsky.
Directed by Peter Levin.
* Starring Blonsky, the star of the remake of HAIRSPRAY, this one got a lot of talk when we played it at the store today. It is about an overweight girl dealing with the popular crowd in High School.

STARSHIP TROOPERS 3: MARAUDER.
Action/Adventure/Sci-fi/Drama/Fantasy/Horror/Comedy/Thriller/Western.
Casper Van Dien/Jolene Blalock.
Directed by Edward Neumeier.
* Johnny Rico is back! Van Dien reprises his role as the bug killing, universe saving beefcake space warrior.

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

BIOGRAPHY: BARACK OBAMA.
Documentary.
* Cable tv biography of the next President of the United States of America.

BIOGRAPHY: JOHN MCCAIN
Documentary.
* Biography of the loser of the 2008 election.

GROWING UP SAFARI
Documentary/Nature.
* More from the fantastic ANIMAL PLANET people, this featuring the four chapters about elephants, zebras, giraffes and hyenas.

LIFE IN COLD BLOOD.
Documentary/Nature/David Attenborough.
* Five episodes about cold blooded reptiles narrated by the master himself.

LIVING GODDESS.
Documentary/Foreign (Nepali).
* The freaky twisted reality of three young girls in Nepal who are worshipped as gods.

PETE SEEGER: THE POWER OF SONG.****In stores on Thurs****
Music-doc.
Joan Baez/Bob Dylan/Arlo Guthrie/Bruce.
Directed by Jim Brown.
* Very excellent Seeger biography.

............//TELEVISION//............
FOYLE’S WAR: SET 5.****In stores on Thurs****
Television/War.
Michael Kitchen..

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

CHARLIE AND LOLA: VOL 8.
Family/Animation.
* Pure wonderful excellence in the kidland department.

GARFIELD FUN FEST.
Family/Garfield.

GARFIELD GETS REAL.
Family/Garfield.

HANDY MANNY: MANNY’S PET ROUNDUP.
Family.

LITTLE EINSTEINS: FLIGHT OF THE INSTRUMENT FAIRIES.
Family.
* My kids dig it. I like how they always have interesting and different musical composers featured on this show.

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

AN AMERICAN TAIL.
Animation/Adventure.
Directed by Don Bluth.
* First DVD of this 1986 film about young Russian mouse Fievel Mousekewitz and his adventures in America. Serious Cold War film right here.

ANIMAL HOUSE.
Comedy.
John Belushi/Karen Allen/Tim Matheson/
Directed by John Landis.
* First DVD of this 1978 comedy that defined John Belushi’s brilliance.

ANNIE.
Musical.
Aileen Quinn/Albert Finney/Carol Burnett/Tim Curry/Bernadette Peters.
Directed by John Huston!
* First DVD of this awesome 1982 musical that launched many careers.

ERIK THE VIKING.
Comedy/Adventure/Fantasy.
Tim Robbins/Mickey Rooney/John Cleese.
Directed by Terry Jones.
* First DVD of this madcap 1989 shipping adventure.

THE GOONIES.
Adventure/Comedy.
Corey Feldman, need I say more?
Directed by Richard Donner.
* First DVD of this 1985 tale of caves, maps and hidden treasures.

KING OF THE HILL: THE COMPLETE SERIES.
Animation/Sociology.
* I am way psyched we have this at the store. It is so weird and wonderful.

MONTY PYTHON’S THE MEANING OF LIFE.
Comedy/History.
Graham Chapman/John Cleese/Eric Idle/Terry Jones/Michael Palin/Terry Giliam
Directed by Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam.
* First DVD of this classic 1983 film that really shows you the true affects of overeating.

THE MUSIC MAN.
Musical.
Robert Preston/Buddy Hackett/Shirley Jones.
Directed by Morton DaCosta.
* First DVD of the 1962 adaptation of the musical. I played Winthrop Paroo in the 9^th grade production of this at my Junior High school. Aw, yeah.

POLICE ACADEMY: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION.
Comedy.
* I can’t believe they made SEVEN of these movies. I remember the first one being pretty funny back in 1984.

REPO MAN.
Comedy/Sci-fi/Action/Cult.
Harry Dean Stanton/Emilio Estevez.
Directed by Alex Cox.
* I can’t believe this is our first DVD of this amazing 1984 film which before BOBBY was Emilio’s biggest contribution to film. There are so many quotable lines in this punk rock film about the wild wild world of repossessing cars, and aliens.

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

BELPHEGOR: PHANTOM OF THE LOUVRE.
Action/Mystery/Fantasy/Horror/Foreign (French).
Sophie Marceau/Michel Serrault/Julie Christie.
Directed by Jean-Paul Salome.
* Evil spirits inhabiting archeological finds housed at the Louvre.

BRIDESHEAD REVISITED.
Television/Drama.
Jeremy Irons.
* The 1981 television series based on the Evelyn Waugh novel.

CAPTAIN RON.
* Weird Kurt Russell comedy.

DARKNESS FALS.
* Something about a vengeful spirit and the freaking tooth fairy.

GEORGE CARLIN: AGAIN.
Comedy/Standup.
George Carlin.

GEORGE CARLIN: CARLIN AT CARNEGIE.
Comedy/Standup.
George Carlin.

GEORGE CARLIN: BACK IN TOWN.
Comedy/Standup.
George Carlin.

GEORGE CARLIN: COMPLAINTS AND GREIVANCES.
Comedy/Standup.
George Carlin.

LADYBUGS.
* Weird Rodney Dangerfield comedy.

MILLER’S CROSSING
* Early Coen Brothers flick.

SLASHER
* Car salesman doc.

WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?
* Great Elizabeth Taylor flick.

............//REPLACEMENT PURCHASES//............

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT: THE COMPLETE SERIES.

CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG.

NATURAL BORN KILLERS.

THE WIRE: ALL FOUR SEASONS.
* Seriously, you would not believe how many copies of each season of this show we have bought.

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