****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.

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