****new release list no.249

Ahhhhh, right?

Another year coming to an end. And you survived it, which is pretty awesome. Close your eyes for a minute. Okay, wait, open them. It’s hard to read with your eyes closed.

Close your psycho-spiritual eyes for a minute and just listen to the inside of your mind.

What is that sound? Is it the sound of music flowing through the internet to your ears (Cornelius – Fantasma, for me right now)? Or it is the sound of the air purification system cleaning the dust out of the air so your nose doesn’t have to do its job? Or perhaps you are hearing the copy machine playing its mad raver house beat as hundreds of critical pieces of paper are processed into their natural destiny. Is it the rattle of files in your head seeking a cabinet? Can you drag those files to the recycle bin?

No? No paper? No purifier? No tunes? Maybe you are not at work (you lucky devil!). Maybe you are taking this week off and filling out an application to your mind for some of that rest and relaxation you’ve been promising yourself all year. Approved!

Yeah? Well, you definitely deserve it. Considering what you’ve been through this year! What a year, right? One of those years it is tempting to want to forget. 2009 is coming to a close, and many people are not so sad to see it go. Understandably, I guess. It has been probably one of the toughest years financially that our country has seen in a long while. Many small businesses suffered this year; countless people lost their homes; lifestyles were altered dramatically up and down the economic spectrum. Unemployment rose, home prices dropped, rentals climbed, credit rates increased and stress followed right along. What a year! Fears that began in the fall of 2008 were realized throughout 2009, and panic was difficult to abate (at least for me!). I certainly worked harder than I like to this year.

But…but…I don’t know. It was also kind of an awesome year, right?

To begin with, this whole financial crisis has really provided some amazing insight to us about frugality, and community and so many other things. Remember first learning about stone soup when you were a kid? How many people had stone soup this year? I’m not sure I dropped a rock in a pot of boiling water, but the meals I had with a can of refried and some rice and chopped cabbage were pretty awesome. And my sense of purpose with my cash (for the most part) has been pretty remarkable as well. Back at the beginning of the year, I pondered (in this very blog) which businesses might not survive 2009 in Bernal Heights, and off the top of my head I can only think of one that didn’t (Ladita) and look how many new things are starting! Succulence, Sandbox, the Bernal Marketplace, fit Bernal Fit, the new State Farm office (it’s an owner-run office, not a franchise), Reinvintage, perhaps a new photo supplies shop on our very block, whatever is gonna go in at floor level of the behemoth that is being built next door to Bernal Marketplace – are there more? Probably. That is a pretty big list for a small neighborhood in financial crisis, isn’t it?
I think I learned this year that unemployment was around 25% during the Great Depression, which somewhat soothed me thinking of the 75% that were employed. That’s a pretty big number.

For those of you out there who are in the midst of financial hardship, I sympathize with you, and I am hopeful for you. I hope for all of us the ability to stay positive, to remain compassionate, to rise above ourselves for the clearest vision (thanks, Amy!) and for the ability to keep our humor, our sense of balance, humility, poetry and awareness. I hope for dignity, preparation, thoughtfulness, open-heartedness, and inner peace. I hope as we contemplate our own fears, we do not become blind to those around us with less, those around us whose resources are dwindling, those around us whose safety net is frayed, or gone completely. I beg the universe to let everyone who works hard for a dream to attain it. I wish for all of us a warm bed, thick blankets, socks without holes, clean underwear and fresh vegetables.

If you are looking for an escape, I hope you can continue to let Four Star Video provide you with one. And if you are looking for a nice little plant to be your friend, then you’ve also come to the right place.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year! Here’s looking forward to 2010 and the mystery’s that it will reveal.

Alrighty then, see you down at the store.

Love and Kisses,
Ken

******************************************************************************
KenFlix - the only Independent Monthly Subscription Film Renting Service in SF
If you are going to make a monthly commitment, make it a local one.
No due dates. No late fees.

ESUB -One Movie at a time – Three movies total – $9.99 + Tax/Month
1SUB - One Movie at a time – Unlimited exchange – $18.99 + Tax/Month
3SUB - Three Movies at a time – Unlimited exchange – $24.99 + Tax/Month
4SUB - Four Movies at a time – Unlimited exchange – $32.99 + Tax/Month
******************************************************************************

............//NEW RELEASES//............


GRITOS EN LA NOCHE (SCREAMS IN THE NIGHT).
Drama/Suspense/Foreign (Spanish)
Vanina Balena/Alejandro Genes.
Directed by Carlos Silva Nigri.
* The story of a son in town for his father’s funeral, and the local news reporter who knows more than she should about the death.

HIDING VICTORIA.
Drama.
Margo Harshman/Michael Wiseman.
Directed by Dan Chinander.
* Two women, with seemingly little in common, discover that commonality can be found if one looks hard enough. Victoria, a tough young adult, needs to find a job or go to jail. She finds one taking care of a 77-year old woman, Althea. Together they find solace in their secrets.

JENNIFER’S BODY.****ALSO ON BD****
Horror/Comedy.
Megan Fox/Amanda Seyfried/Johnny Simmons.
Directed by Karyn Kusama.
Written by Diablo Cody (JUNO).
* The JUNE production team is at it again, this time tackling the politically sensitive issue of satanic ritualistic killings among rock bands, and homicidal high school cheerleaders. Seriously! Jennifer’s body is coveted by many young men, and, after a somewhat chance meeting with a rock band who has turned to the occult to achieve success, she becomes demonically opposed to giving it to them. In fact, it is the bodies of these young men that Jennifer covets – to dismantle and eat! Ah, but Jennifer has a nice young friend named Needy (Seyfried, from BIG LOVE and MAMMA MIA fame) who is sweet and good and tender and doesn’t like all the senseless killing and decides to put a stop to all the madness. Will Needy escape unharmed? Will any of us?

9 .****ALSO ON BD****
Animation/Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Adventure.
Christopher Plummer/Martin Landau/Jennifer Connelly/John C. Reilly/Crispin Glover.
Directed by Marty Callner.
* This post-apocalyptic fantasy is about a bunch of raggedy dolls awakening in a world where most everything has been destroyed and machines are hunting for any forms of life in order to destroy them.

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY .****ALSO ON BD****
Horror/Mystery/Thriller.
Katie Featherston/Micah Sloat.
Directed by Oren Peli.
* This film somehow got super-hyped on the internet, and has become a bit of a phenomenon. It is about a young couple who is being bothered by a demon in the night that they decide to try to videotape in order to discover what is REALLY going on. I think the lesson is, don’t videotape what you don’t want to see.


A PERFECT GETAWAY.****ALSO ON BD****
Drama/Horror/Mystery.
Steve Zahn/Milla Jovovich/Kiele Sanchez/Timothy Olyphant.
Directed by David Twohy.
* Two couples hiking in beautiful Hawaii become aware of some psychopathic killing that is going on near them and this makes them frightened, distrusting, unfriendly, and inevitably puts their newfound friendship at risk.

WEATHER GIRL.
Comedy.
Tricia O’Kelley/Patrick J. Adams/Mark Harmon.
Directed by Blayne Weaver.
* Stormy weather ahead! Could be thunderclouds! Eminent chance of rain! Probably darkened skies! Take cover, cuz Seattle’s favorite Weather Girl is freaking out over her boyfriend’s cheating ways. And he’s the anchor of the news program. And I think it’s gonna rain!!!

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

BEAUTIFUL LOSERS.
Music/Art/Documentary.
Directed by Aaron Rose and Joshua Leonard
* This art doc follows a loosely connected group of artists in the early 90’s, influenced by Reagan, skateboards, graffiti, and the attitude known as D.I.Y. (do-it-yourself) who created styles and affectations that became well-known (such as the Andre the Giant image) even if they themselves did not.

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

UNITED STATES OF TARA: THE FIRST SEASON.
Comedy/Drama.
Toni Collette.
Created by Diabo Cody.
* More from Diablo Cody! Ah, Tara, she has problems, and mainly they are related to herself. Actually, to different parts of herself. You see, she has dissociative identity disorder, and has at least four completely developed personalities competing for screen time. Yet somehow, she manages being a mom, and raising a family. A truly challenged family, yet what family isn’t?

****

****new release list no.248

Film lovers, now is a great time to come to Four Star Video. We are in the middle of a holiday used DVD sale, and you can get nearly 400 titles for $5 each! That’s right, just a dollar more than a new release for excellent stocking stuffers for the whole family. Titles include kid’s films, docs, suspense, action, comedy, foreign, etc, etc. First come, first serve.

SUCCULENCE is now open in the back of Four Star, our hours are in flux, but we are open from 11-7, this Tues and Wed and 1-5pm on Thursday, Dec 24. Both Four Star Video and SUCCULENCE will be closed for Christmas, but both will be re-opened on Saturday morning, Dec 26. There should be lots of good last minute gems to be found at both businesses at 402 Cortland, please stop by! Today was our grand opening of the indoor retail space for SUCCULENCE, and it was a thrill, thanks to everyone who stopped by.

In the movie world, there are a lot of interesting titles out this week led by DISTRICT 9, the sci-fi film about aliens living in South Africa who are being evicted from one slum and moved to a worse slum. Directed by Neill Blomkamp. 500 DAYS OF SUMMER is about a young couple trying to negotiate the terms of love. EXTRACT is the latest from Mike Judge (OFFICE SPACE) and is about the owner of an extraction plant who is at the end of his rope.

Don’t forget, Four Star Video has holiday deals: KenFlix packages of 3 months of any service for 10% off – give it as a Gift Certificate, or buy it for yourself! Four Star T-Shirts and Previously Viewed DVDs for $25 total, tax included. This is an 18% discount. Come in for details! We finally got the brown shirts in men’s large and extra large sizes!

Alrighty then, see you down at the store.

Love and Kisses,
Ken

******************************************************************************
KenFlix - the only Independent Monthly Subscription Film Renting Service in SF
If you are going to make a monthly commitment, make it a local one.
No due dates. No late fees.

ESUB -One Movie at a time – Three movies total – $9.99 + Tax/Month
1SUB - One Movie at a time – Unlimited exchange – $18.99 + Tax/Month
3SUB - Three Movies at a time – Unlimited exchange – $24.99 + Tax/Month
4SUB - Four Movies at a time – Unlimited exchange – $32.99 + Tax/Month
******************************************************************************

............//NEW RELEASES//............

ALL ABOUT STEVE.****ALSO ON BD****
Comedy.
Sandra Bullock/Thomas Haden Church/Bradley Cooper.
Directed by Phil Traill.
* Satirical reverse stalking romance story about an eccentric puzzle doer who thinks a cameraman for a news agency is her true love and travels around following him and trying to convince him to be with her.

ANGUS THONGS AND PERFECT SNOGGING.
Comedy/Drama.
Georgia Groome/Aaron Johnson/Eleanor Tomlinson.
Directed by Gurinder Chadha.
* From the director of BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM comes this coming of age story about a 14 year old girl and the things the writes in her diary.

BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT .****ALSO ON BD****
Drama/Mystery/Thriller.
Michael Douglas/Jesse Metcalf/Amber Tamblyn.
Directed by Peter Hyams.
* Well, it is a noir film, in a time where that genre is dying, then again, it is also a remake of the 1956 original – so nothing new, unfortunately. It is the tale of a rookie journalist who frames himself for murder as part of an investigation into a bigwig attorney who is running for governor.

BLIND DATE .
Drama.
Stanley Tucci/Patricia Clarkson.
Directed by Stanley Tucci.
* Written, directed by and starring Tucci as one part of a couple who has been deeply affected by tragedy. Though they are married, somehow they decide to role play the experience of having a blind date.

CHASING BUTTERFLIES.
Comedy/Indie.
Gabriel Vaughan/Mandy Brown/Maria Cellario.
Directed by Rod Bingaman.
* Engaging comedy about a woman who bails on her groom at the last minute and her mother who stands in for her (yes, marries the dude) and then tries to convince her to reconsider.

DISTRICT 9.****ALSO ON BD****
Sci-Fi/Drama.
Sharlto Copley/Shrimp Scampi.
Directed by Neill Blomkamp.
* Very trippy South African film about a gigantic amount of aliens who’s nearly dead ship has stopped directly over Johannesburg and who now live in a gated ghetto in the middle of the city. They are somewhat humanoid but look like big shrimp and are derogatorily called “prawns”. They are very powerful and strong and are feared and mistreated accordingly. The city has decided to evict them from the ghetto and move them to what basically amounts to an enormous concentration camp outside the city. The government agent who is in charge of the eviction operation gets exposed to some gnarly chemical compound that one of the prawns is hoping will help him take the mother ship home, and subsequently begins to morph into one of them. All hell breaks loose. This film has a lot to offer, and is full of ideas and social commentary, and on top of that, it looks cool!

EXTRACT.****ALSO ON BD****
Comedy.
Jason Bateman/Mila Kunis/Kristen Wiig/Ben Affleck.
Directed by Mike Judge.
* The maker of OFFICE SPACE is back with another workplace comedy. This one revolves around life at an extract factory, and the bedraggled, befuddled, begrudging but not beloved owner of the plant, Joel (Bateman).

FAMILY GUY: SOMETHING SOMETHING SOMETHING DARK SIDE.
Animation.
* More spoofy animation from the FAMILY GUY team.

500 DAYS OF SUMMER.****ALSO ON BD****
Comedy/Drama/Romance.
Zooey Deschanel/Joseph Gordon-Levitt/.
Directed by Marc Webb.
* Tom is a hopeless romantic and Summer is a pragmatic realist. Do they sound like a match made in heaven? Not sure, but as the days flow by, we watch them struggle through the trials and tribulations of young love, connecting, rejecting, moping, analyzing, normalizing, then falling again, and again.

THE GIRL IN THE PARK.
Drama.
Kate Boswort/Sigourney Weaver/Keri Russell.
Directed by David Auburn.
* Julia (Weaver) has spent 15 years being traumatized by the disappearance of her 3-year-old fifteen years ago. She is shut off to her husband and son, and emotionally trapped deeply within herself. When she meets a troubled young woman, she wonders if it might be her missing daughter and the thought and hope brings up all her fears and pain.

INNOCENT SCORCERERS.
Drama/Music/Romance/Foreign (Polish).
Directed by Andrzeg Wajda.
* A young doctor is smitten by a young woman who nearly seduces him with talk of love and philosophy, but then disappears into the city.

KILLER KIDS TWO PACK.
Drama/Foreign (Hungarian).
* A couple of older foreign films featuring young killers have been released together in this two film set. The first is WITMAN BOYS, a 1997 Hungarian film about two young boys who go mad during the turn of the century from the neglect of their mother. The second is 1993’s CHILD MURDERS, also Hungarian, and also about kids with homicidal tendencies.

LOSER.
Suspense/Indie/Drama.
Peta Wilson/Jack Rubio.
Directed by Kirk Harris.

LOTNA.
Drama/Foreign (Polish).
Directed by Andrzeg Wajda.
* Drama about a horse owner in Poland during World War 1.

MAID-DROID.
Sci-Fi/Horror/Softcore/Foreign (Japanese).
Akiho Yoshizawa.
Directed by Naoyuki Tomomatsu.
* I think the story revolves around a kid who reprograms the family droid to have sexual functionality. Kid’d be rich, right?

OFF THE LEDGE.
Comedy/Drama.
Justin Whalen/Brooke Anderson.
Directed by Brooke Anderson.
* The story revolves around a painful New Year’s Eve celebration where everyone is getting wasted and trying not to think about the challenging reality of their regular lives - just like the party we’ll all be going to next week.

SPAGHETTI WESTERN BIBLE PRESENTS 10 FILM COLLECTION.
Western/Spaghetti/Rigatoni.
* Titles include MINNESOTA CLAY, BOUNTY KILLER, MASSACRE TIME, APOCALYPSE JOE, PRICE OF HONOR, THE BEAST, ONE DOLLAR TOO MANY, 7 DOLLARS ON THE RED, THEY CALL HIM GRAVEYARD and BLINDMAN and feature such actors as Klaus Kinski, John Garko, Anthony Steffen and strangely Ringo Starr.

STATEN ISLAND.****ALSO ON BD****
Crime/Drama.
Ethan Hawke/Vincent D’Onofrio/Seymour Cassel/Julianne Nicholson.
Directed by James DeMonaco.
* You ever been to Staten Island? This story won’t make it look like a great vacation destination, but I hear they’ve really been cleaning it up. I think I even read that they have been reseeding the oysters along the coast. Yummy.

STILL STANDING TWO PACK.
Drama/Foreign (Persian).
Directed by Dariush Mehrjui.
* Featuring the Persian films THE PEAR TREE and SARA.

VICIOUS CIRCLE: A TRAGIC PUNK ROCK LOVE STORY.
Drama.
Paul Rodriguez/Emily Rios.
Directed by Paul Boyd.

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

THE CARTER.
Music Doc.
Lil’ Wayne.
* B’hind th’scenes w’lil’wayne.

IT MIGHT GET LOUD.****ALSO ON BD****
Rock-Doc.
The Edge/Jack White/Jimmy Page.
Directed by David Guggenheim
* A documentary about the history of the electric guitar as seen through the eyes of three of the more famous rock players of all time. For those of you who do not know the names, The Edge is from U2, Page was the musical driver of the Led Zeppelin train and Jack White is the man behind the White Stripes. Rawwk.

MOTHERLAND.
Documentary.
Directed by Jennifer Steinman.
* This locally made and award winning doc is about grief and the ways we can help ourselves heal. The film follows six American women who are each dealing with the loss of a child and who travel to South Africa to volunteer to help impoverished children. The director of this film was one of the editors who worked on my feature film, HUMANS BEING.

REBUILDING HOPE.
Documentary.
Directed by Jen Marlowe.
* This is the amazing and educational story of three of the “lost boys” of Sudan who go home after 20 years to find out what happened to their villages and families.

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

THE SECRET LIFE OF THE AMERICAN TEENAGER: VOLUME THREE.
Television/Adolescence.
* I. Just. Can’t. Re-live. It.

............//KIDS/............

AVATAR BOOK 1 V02.

............//NEW ON BLU/............

GIMME SHELTER.
* Amazing doc about the Rolling Stones and their 1969 world tour being released by Criterion on Blu-Ray.

............//REPLACEMENT DVD’S/............

AU REVOIR LES ENFANTS.

DEAD LIKE ME: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON.

SLEEPOVER.

VERONICA GUERIN.

****

****new release list no.247

The holidays are almost upon us! By this time next week, school will be out for two weeks; child care will be at a premium, the holiday buzz will be floating around like second hand smoke, getting some people sick and others high. That’s probably how some of this week’s big releases will make you feel as well. INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, the remake by Quentin Tarantino starring Brad Pitt and many others in another way over the top action-filled blood fest about a group of American soldiers terrorizing the Nazi community during WWII. Guaranteed to raise your blood-pressure, it is also billed as a comedy, if you can get past the lurid devastation that accompanies it. THE HANGOVER is another one not for the gentle and thin-skinned. Featuring bottom feeding humor (no pun, or anything there), it is the story of a bachelor party in Las Vegas gone horribly terribly wrong (or wonderfully right, as the case sometimes may be) and the subsequent search for the missing groom the next day. It’s hilarity comes from cringe-worthy humor, but underneath it’s crudeness, this is actually a heartfelt film about commitment and love (ahem).

In the less challenging Hollywood department, we have THE OTHER MAN, starring Antonio Banderas, Laura Linney and Liam Neeson about a man tracking down his wife’s lover with a heart bent on revenge; and TAKING WOODSTOCK from Ang Lee about some of the history of the music festival Woodstock and how it ended up taking place where it did. Starring Emile Hirsch among others.

For the kids and families, we have G-FORCE, the story of some government trained rodents on a secret mission to stop an evil mastermind from destroying the world, and THE WIZARDS OF WAVERLY PLACE: THE MOVIE, which is the big-screen adaptation of the popular Disney series.

You like documentaries? You should see HERB AND DOROTHY, the story of a couple of very normal and un-wealthy people who happened to collect a very note-worthy collection of contemporary art.

Also of note is Season Three of THE TUDORS, the popular series about the reign of King Henry VIII.

Lastly, a reminder of our holiday deals -: KenFlix packages of 3 months of any service for 10% off – give it as a Gift Certificate, or buy it for yourself! Four Star T-Shirts and Previously Viewed DVDs for $25 total, tax included. This is an 18% discount. Come in for details! We finally got the brown shirts in men’s large and extra large sizes! And don’t forget about POPCORN POKER, for those of you who love movies, poker and trivia. And PIXIE PLANTS, the coolio live succulent key chains that would double as lovely living tree ornaments as well. Whoop whoop!

Alrighty then, see you down at the store.

Love and Kisses,
Ken

******************************************************************************
KenFlix - the only Independent Monthly Subscription Film Renting Service in SF
If you are going to make a monthly commitment, make it a local one.
No due dates. No late fees.

ESUB -One Movie at a time – Three movies total – $9.99 + Tax/Month
1SUB - One Movie at a time – Unlimited exchange – $18.99 + Tax/Month
3SUB - Three Movies at a time – Unlimited exchange – $24.99 + Tax/Month
4SUB - Four Movies at a time – Unlimited exchange – $32.99 + Tax/Month
******************************************************************************

............//NEW RELEASES//............

20TH CENTURY BOYS: THE BEGINNING OF THE END.
Adventure/Fantasy/Mystery/Sci-fi/Foreign (Japanese/Thai/English).
Toshiaki Karasawa/Etsushi Toyokawa.
Directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi.
* From the IMDB: Based on the hugely successful, award winning manga series created by Naoki Urasawa (Yawara; Monster), 20TH CENTURY BOYS is the first installment of the mind-blowing, three-part live-action adaptation of the epic sci-fi fantasy adventure originally inspired by the T. Rex song 20th Century Boy.

G-FORCE .
Family/Kids/Comedy/Adventure.
Bill Nighy/Will Arnett/Zach Galifianakis/Penelope Cruz/Nicholas Cage/Steve Buscemi/Tracy Morgan/Jon Favreau.
Directed by Hoyt Yeatman.
* Can a batch of guinea pigs, a fly and a mole save the world? You bet your pest control invoice. These guys are government-trained espionage experts with the will and the skills to take down just about anyone who gets in their way. In this case, they are trying to stop mega-billionaire Leonard Saber (Bill Nighy), who intends to somehow destroy the world. His choice of weapon? Household appliances. I knew they were trying to kill me.

GEORGE LOPEZ: TALL DARK AND CHICANO .
Standup Comedy.
George Lopez.
Directed by Marty Callner.
* Dude’s pretty funny, 'member one of his early shticks, when he threw a tortilla into the audience and called it a Mexican Frisbee? He’s goofy, and keeps it real.

THE GIRL FROM MONACO.
Comedy/Foreign (French/Italian/Russian).
Fabrice Luchini/Roschdy Zem.
Directed by Anne Fontaine.
* Funny movie about an uptight lawyer, in Monaco for a big case, who somehow hooks up with a very hot and oversexed woman who throws his whole life into uncertainty.

THE HANGOVER.****ALSO ON BLU-RAY****
Comedy.
Bradley Cooper/Ed Helms/Zach Galifianakis/Heather Graham/Mike Tyson.
Directed by Todd Phillips.
* This is one of those “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” kind of movies, except the thing that is threatening to stay in Vegas, happens to be the groom who has gone missing after an all-night bachelor party that appears to have gotten way out of hand. Can they find the groom before his wedding? That is the question which leads them on a search through the potentials pitfalls that await us all in the land of smiling sin. It seems that one of the groomsmen appears to have gotten married, and given the ring he intended for his beloved back home to the dancer he’s married. That guy is a dentist who also proves his manliness by removing one of his own teeth during the party. Yeah! Mike Tyson makes a wonderful appearance, and delivers one of his greatest knockout punches.

THE HEADLESS WOMAN.
Drama/Foreign (Spanish).
Maria Onetto.
Directed by Lucrecia Martel.
* Nominated for the Golden Palm at Cannes in 2008, this film is about a bourgeoisie lady who hits something in the road and becomes convinced (although all evidence states otherwise) that she has run over and killed somebody.

INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS.****ALSO ON BLU-RAY****
War/Action.
Brad Pitt/Melanie Laurent/Eli Roth/Michael Fassbinder/Diane Kruger.
Directed by Quentin Tarantino.
* A remake of the 1978 war movie, this story as re-envisioned by Tarantino, is about a group of elite Jewish soldiers during WWII whose job to go out and engender fear in the Nazi’s by brutally killing and scalping them. Their leader, the enigmatic and ruthless Lt. Aldo Raine (Pitt) sends them on their mission with no confusion of what he expects from them. Laurent plays Shosanna Dreyfus, a young Jewish refugee whose entire family was slaughtered at the hands of an evil Nazi colonel and who narrowly escaped and has spent the time since carefully planning her revenge. The entire thing comes together at the theatre Dreyfus works at in occupied France where a bunch of major Nazi officers will be in attendance at a big show, attracting the attention of the Basterds!

MURDER BY DECREE.
Suspense.
Christopher Plummer/James Mason/Donald Sutherland.
Directed by Bob Clark.
* Newly released in anticipation of the new Sherlock Holmes film, this 1979 classic has Plummer (Captain Von Trapp, from THE SOUND OF MUSIC) as the good investigator, looking in to the Jack the Ripper murders.

THE OTHER MAN.****ALSO ON BLU-RAY****
Drama/Suspense.
Liam Neeson/Laura Linney/Antonio Banderas.
Directed by Richard Eyre.
* Adapted from a Bernhard Sclink short story in his collection "Flights of Love"comes this tale of a man who suspects his wife of infidelity and tracks down her lover to exact his revenge.

TAKING WOODSTOCK.****ALSO ON BLU-RAY****
Comedy/Drama/Music/Fictobiopic.
Demetri Martin/Emile Hirsch/Paul Dano/Imelda Stauntan/Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
Directed by Ang Lee
* This is the somewhat true story of Elliot Tiber (Martin) a young man hoping to help his parents save their Catskill Mountains motel from a bank foreclosure (ooh, that word!) and helps bring some hippie music festival to Woodstock in the hopes of bringing business to his parents. A half a million naked tripping hippies later, and the rest is history. The New York State Thruway’s closed – isn’t that far out? (3 minute mark)

THE WIZARD’S OF WAVERLY PLACE.
Comedy/Adventure/Fantasy/Family.
Selena Gomez/Jake Austin.
Directed by Lev Spiro.
* It ain’t Harry Potter, but it is a family of wizards and magic doers, and I believe this film erupted from the Emmy-winning (not kidding) Disney television series.

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

COCAINE COWBOYS 2: HUSTLIN’ WITH THE GODMOTHER .
Documentary/Crime.
Directed by Billy Corben.
* Part two of the cocaine chronicles, this movie deals with a small time dealer in Oakland, CA in the 1990’s who writes a letter to a famous druglord in prison (Griselda Blanco) and as a result becomes her lover, her cocaine businesses manager, and a prime target for a bad trip.

HERB AND DOROTHY.
Documentary.
Directed by Megumi Sasaki.
* Who says you have to be rich to buy art? Look around any area, and there are young and old undiscovered artists making amazing art. How wonderful is it to own art? So good. You spend your money on something less transient than a beer, something that you can look at every day and gain joy from constantly; and you get the added bonus of putting money into an artist’s pocket enabling them to continue to create. Herb and Dorothy were people who loved art. People of modest means. She worked as a librarian, and he went the postal route. They didn’t have much money, but what they had they spent on art, and the collection the put together ended up being a very significant contemporary art collection. Watch this story and be inspired. And buy some art!

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

THE TUDORS: THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON.
Drama/Monarchy/Sex.
Jonathan Ryhs-Meyers/Annabelle Wallis.
* Season three has Henry getting older with still with a strong libido looking to hook it up with all the fine-ly dressed ladies, such as Jane Seymour (not the model) who he takes for his wife, while Mary still waits in the wings.

............//REPLACEMENT DVD’S/............

ENTOURAGE: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON.
* You want to be in my entourage, you got to wear camouflage, and you got to give a hard massage.

THE LIFE OF BIRDS.
* Amazing amazing documentary – narrated by David Attenborough.

****

****new release list no.246

I knew I was emotionally raw when I started crying while watching THE MUSIC MAN with my kids this weekend. My wife looked over at me with an expression of bemusement, and I looked away while furiously wiping my cheeks. I couldn’t help it though, you see, because Robert Preston and Shirley Jones were singing “Till There Was You” and it was just so beautiful and the words so sincere. Sincerity is attractive, I told myself, while choking back the next set of tears when they started singing a duet of “Goodnight My Someone” and “76 Trombones”.

Yeah.

Well anyway, it’s cold out and they say it might snow, so I am thankful that this happens to be a week where we have some of the bigger releases of the winter here. Such as HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE. This one is probably not a tear-jerker, but I remember the end of the book as being rather profound, and perhaps the most memorable section of the entire series. V-Diddy is getting close here, but as most of you know, there is one more film before the climax gets…climaxed. In JULIE AND JULIA, Amy Adams plays Julie Powell, a harried woman who happens to have been an early blogger and who cooked all of Julia Child’s 574 recipes from her first cookbook in one year and wrote about it. Wow, what a tripper! Obviously, this was pre-recession. Meanwhile, Meryl Streep logs another tremendous performance as Julia Child, creating a world for herself through food and passion. This movie combines their stories and intertwines their spirits. Which is funny, because in real life Childs didn’t like Powell. Ah, but that’s why we watch movies! PUBLIC ENEMIES is the story of John Dillinger (Johnny Depp), Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd (Channing Tatum), three American gangsters in the 1930’s who wore their pants super low and pumped fat bass lines while blazing down the highways. WORLD’S GREATEST DAD is a dark comedy about a father (Robin Williams) who takes advantage of a personal tragedy in order to advance his dreams.

There are some great docs in this week, including CHOPS which chronicles a high school jazz competition with Wynton Marsalis. Also we have THE COVE about dolphin killers in Japan. There is also PAPERBACK DREAMS, about the independent book store industry, which features two San Francisco book stores.

In the television department, we have the fifth seasons of both LOST and RESCUE ME and also an animated series based on Ice Cube’s films called FRIDAY!

We’ve also got some cool new products down here at Four Star for your holiday consideration. First up, is a new card game created by Bernal Heights resident David Macarchick called POPCORN POKER. This game is a combination of movie knowledge and poker, and can be played with two or more people. You actually make up the questions and all the answers are either a movie title or an actor’s name. It can be as hard or easy as you make it. It comes with 30 playing cards and 30 poker chips and can be yours for only $20! We’ve also got these amazing new miniature living cactus key chains featuring 5 different kinds of succulents living in a little globe in a bit of dirt. I first came across them while traveling in Italy in September and I thought they were so cool! I hope you do, too. They are $9.99 and I think you’ll love them as I do.

Lastly, a reminder of our holiday deals -: KenFlix packages of 3 months of any service for 10% off – give it as a Gift Certificate, or buy it for yourself! Four Star T-Shirts and Previously Viewed DVDs for $25 total, tax included. This is an 18% discount. Come in for details! We finally got the brown shirts in men’s large and extra large sizes!

Alrighty then, see you down at the store.

Love and Kisses,
Ken

******************************************************************************
KenFlix - the only Independent Monthly Subscription Film Renting Service in SF
If you are going to make a monthly commitment, make it a local one.
No due dates. No late fees.

ESUB -One Movie at a time – Three movies total – $9.99 + Tax/Month
1SUB - One Movie at a time – Unlimited exchange – $18.99 + Tax/Month
3SUB - Three Movies at a time – Unlimited exchange – $24.99 + Tax/Month
4SUB - Four Movies at a time – Unlimited exchange – $32.99 + Tax/Month
******************************************************************************

............//NEW RELEASES//............

DOG EAT DOG.
Thriller/Action/Foreign (Spanish).
Oscar Borda/Marlon Moreno.
Directed by Carlos Moreno.
* A lot of wins and nominations on the festival circuit for this Columbian thriller about two small-time crooks who endanger their lives tremendously by breaking the code of conduct.

HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE.****ALSO ON BLU-RAY****
Fantasy/Adventure.
Daniel Radcliffe/Rupert Glint/Emma Watson/Helena Bonham Carter/Jim Broadbent.
Directed by David Yates.
* Movie six in the seven film series sees Harry having a deeper education by Dumbledore into the world of Tom Riddle, otherwise known as V-Diddy. In the books, the last three or so got so wonderfully complicated and profound and dealt gently with adolescence and real life themes such as imperfection and hypocrisy. My personal experience was that the end of book six was the most amazing and heartfelt moment of the entire series. The story is filled with darkness, as the Death Eaters are both on trial and still running amok causing havoc and hurting people badly. Harry is finally reconciled to his fate, and he separates himself emotionally from the people he loves, knowing that any connection to him is dangerous. Meanwhile, the kids, once so young and cute and innocent seeming, are now big and old and verging on young adulthood. Freaky how that happens.

HOLLYWOOD JE T’AIME .
Drama/LGBT.
Eric Debets/Chad Allen.
Directed by Jason Bushman.
* Poor Jerome (Debets)! He is sad and broken-hearted and decides to leave Paris to spend the holiday season in Hollywood. Will he become a movie star? Will he find love? Or will he decide that the best croissants are actually made back home.

HUMBLE PIE .
Comedy.
Hubbel Palmer/William Baldwin.
Directed by Chris Bowman.
* Written by the star, Hubbel Palmer, about a dreamy clerk who dreams about being a star, even though everyone tells him a nearly 400 pound man is not destined to be a leading man in a film. Guess they were wrong! Produced by one of the producers of NAPOLEON DYNAMITE.

JULIE AND JULIA.****ALSO ON BLU-RAY****
Comedy/Drama.
Amy Adams/Meryl Streep/Stanley Tucci/Chris Messina.
Directed by Nora Ephron.
* This story takes two memoirs, by Julie Childs (Streep) and Julia Powell (Adams), and turns it into one film about food and passion and the recreating of one’s life. Powell was a harried blogger struggling to make ends meet when she took the challenge of making all the recipes in Julia Child’s first cookbook in one year. The blog resulted in a novel, which resulted in this film. Julia herself wasn’t fond of the blog, but you are sure to be fond of Streep’s performance, which is said to be spot on. Could she be in for another Oscar nomination? Wouldn’t be surprising…

LION’S DEN.
Drama/Foreign (Spanish).
Martina Gusman/Elli Medeiros.
Directed by Pablo Trapero.
* Argentina’s official entry into the Foreign Language category of the Academy Awards, this film won ten awards across the globe, and was nominated for the Golden Palm (I keep wanting to call it the Golden Frond) at Cannes in 2008. It is the tragic story of a young pregnant woman named Julia, imprisoned on the charge of murder. While in jail awaiting trial, her baby is born and she struggles to try to raise him in jail.

MOONLIGHT SERENADE.
Musical.
Amy Adams/Alec Newman.
Directed by Giancarlo Tallarico.
* Adams, in her second release this week, stars as Chloe, a chanteuse with a fantastic jazz singing voice who teams up with Nate, a financial manager who longs to be a musician to form a club act that takes off.

NOTHING LIKE THE HOLIDAYS.
Comedy/Drama/Romance.
Alfred Molina/John Leguizamo/Debra Messing/Freddie Rodriguez.
Directed by Alfredo De Villa.
* A Puerto Rican family living in Chicago is together for Christmas in this tale of family, love and war.

PUBLIC ENEMIES.****ALSO ON BLU-RAY****
Fictobiopic.
Johnny Depp/Christian Bale/Marion Cotillard.
Directed by Michael Mann.
* The story of the last years of John Dillinger’s life is told in this gangster movie depicting life in the 1930’s. Of course any film starring Academy Award nominee (three times) Depp, award winner Cotillard, and Christian Bale is worth seeing just for the skills of its stars. Depp rarely disappoints.

REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA.
Horror/Musical/Sci-Fi.
Alexa Vega/Paris Hilton.
Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman.
* In a future world (2056) our organs will fail at a fantastic rate! However, thanks to GeneCo, a wonderful new biotech company, we can all have new organs and reasonable rates, payable monthly with low interest! Just one catch, if you miss a payment, your organ may get repossessed, know what I mean? Seriously, I hear Paris is PHENOMENAL in this one. Maybe her best performance since THE CAT IN THE HAT, or perhaps that first internet-only film she starred in.

SOMERS TOWN.
Comedy/Drama/(English/Polish/French).
Thomas Turgoose/Piotr Jagiello.
Directed by Shane Meadows.
* From the director of THIS IS ENGLAND, comes another story of London and the young alienated kids that call it home. In this, a couple of boys form a friendship that mostly consists of arguing about which of them likes the same girl more. Eventually one of the boys becomes homeless and secretly moves in with his friend.

WORLD’S GREATEST DAD.****ALSO ON BLU-RAY****
Comedy/Dark.
Robin Williams/Daryl Sabara/Alexie Gilmore.
Directed by Bobcat Goldthwait.
* Black comedy about a father (Williams) who capitalizes on a family tragedy to try to fulfill his personal dreams. I liked this film, but I don’t think I ever laughed, and a few times I cried. Williams seems to be at his best in quiet films like this, where he doesn’t tap into his madcap energy and instead relies on his stillness in order to obtain our empathy. Kind of amazing to feel any empathy for him here, yet somehow he does get a little.

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

CHOPS.
Music.
Directed by Bruce Broder.
Edited by Jake Pushinsky.
* This film is about a high school jazz group competing at Lincoln Center in the Wynton Marsalis hosted Essentially Ellington Festival. This fascinating doc features amazing young musicians and a terrific drive to create music.

THE COVE.
Documentary.
Directed by Louie Psihoyos.
* Have you heard of this film? It got a ton of press when it was in the theaters…the back of the box actually says “The Bourne Identity meets Flipper” – wow! That’s a pretty serious declaration. All in all, it is a tale of terrible atrocities happening in Japan where dolphins are being illegally hunted and killed for meat. Former “Flipper” dolphin trainer Ric O’Barry seeks redemption on this top-secret mission to expose the crime.

PAPERBACK DREAMS.
Documentary.
Directed by Alex Beckstead.
* Must-see doc about independent bookstores struggling for survival featuring San Francisco institutions Cody’s and Kepler’s. Do you want bookstores to still exist? Click off Amazon and get Red Hill to order some holiday gifts for you instead.

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

FRIDAY: THE COMPLETE ANIMATED SERIES.
Comedy/Animation.
* Did you watch any of those Ice Cube films? This is an animated series based on the adventures of Craig and Smokey. Many of the same characters from the films are in the series, and the same urban survival theme is prevalent. Most likely many of the same laughs are here, too.

LOST: THE COMPLETE FIFTH SEASON.
Spooky.
* My friends tell me this show is awesome! I’ve never seen it, but sometimes I feel like I am lost on an island, too. And there are all these crazy characters all over, talking to me, saying weird coded messages to me. And I can’t get off the island, but…life there is perfect, so I think I’ll stay.

RESCUE ME: SEASON FIVE: VOLUME TWO.
Drama/Comedy.
* Denis Leary stars in season five of the dramedy about firefighters and the very scary lives they lead. I love firefighters, don’t you? When your house is burning, they come IN to it, and rescue you and your dog! That’s so awesome. Thank you, firefighters!

............//KIDS/............

AVATAR BOOK 1: VOLUME ONE.

AVATAR BOOK 1: VOLUME THREE.

AVATAR BOOK 4.

TOM & THOMAS.

............//NEW ON BLU/............

HAROLD AND KUMAR GO TO WHITE CASTLE.
* Near the top of many people’s top stoner movies.

............//REPLACEMENT DVD’S/............

LIFE ON MARS (UK): SEASON ONE.
* Dang, this one is more popular than I expected.

POLLOCK (SPECIAL EDITION).

****

****new release list no.245

Have you been in the back of Four Star Video to SUCCULENCE lately? It is a bit insane back there. We have been working so hard to get the internal store component to our already open succulent and supplies store, and it is very chaotic! However, the light is at the end of the tunnel, and very soon, Bernal Heights’ newest retail establishment will be offering you all sorts of interesting life and garden supplies, such as artisan hand crafted coat hangers and key hooks, and living cactus key chains, home wine vinegar making kits and Italian design goods. Add that to our collection of plants, planters, succulent garden books and living frames and you have an idea of where we are heading. We are grateful to Jeff Lester and The New Bernal Journal who published a short article about us in this month’s issue. And we are excited to add to the amazing flavor of Bernal Heights that is even being written about these days in The New York Times!

We noticed that Blockbuster on Mission Street is closing. Wow, Bernal Heights! That is pretty amazing, don’t you think? Many of you ask me at times, how is it going? In this industry? With all the options out there? And I can see in your eyes that you know the answer. And I can tell you honestly that it is scary, it is hard to imagine the future. That is partly why SUCCULENCE exists. But I can also tell you honestly that the present at Four Star Video is okay! Thank you all for supporting your locally owned and operated video store! And to all you new customers making the transition from the big box, welcome! You will find us to be smaller than you are used to, but look around. Maybe there is something else you might like to watch here that you would never have seen at the old joint. And please give us feedback, our service is our main resource, and we are always psyched to hear how we’re doing.

Wha? You don’t wanna hear me blahblahing about non-movie related stuff? It’s kinda been awhile since I just babbled freely, in free form, exercising my freedom of speech. I find myself thinking sometimes during the week in the voice of this blog, speaking to myself, but really speaking to you, the people on the other end of the wire; sitting, standing, walking (driving?) somewhere, in an office, or in your homes (or cars – or car-homes, as it is tough times) and reading my babble to you, wondering what the new movies are this week and wondering when I’m gonna get to them (You can feel free to exercise your freedom right now and just scroll down to the movie list and read about the newest stuff at Four Star Video this week) or if I’m gonna get to them (which this week, I’m not). Truth is, I rarely remember what it is I wanted to say when I finally get to the writing of this weekly digest. I’ll remember a sliver of a moment late at night when I had a “duh-piphany” about something I wanted to share, and I’ll remember the hint of a flavor of the brilliant moment behind the counter when a great truth about life was revealed in the telling of a plot by a long-time customer and friend. But the meat of the tale, I am unable to recall. Such it is with so many aspects of life (and movies!), where the moment is not about the plot, it’s not about what actually going on, it’s about the way we feel while it is happening. And that’s what we take away. And that’s what I hope you take away from this. Just the feeling…that we are sharing a random moment in a random town on a random planet, where, somehow…improbably, life happened.

Don’t forget, Four Star Video has holiday deals: KenFlix packages of 3 months of any service for 10% off – give it as a Gift Certificate, or buy it for yourself! Four Star T-Shirts and Previously Viewed DVDs for $25 total, tax included. This is an 18% discount. Come in for details! We finally got the brown shirts in men’s large and extra large sizes!

Alrighty then, see you down at the store.

Love and Kisses,
Ken

******************************************************************************
KenFlix - the only Independent Monthly Subscription Film Renting Service in SF
If you are going to make a monthly commitment, make it a local one.
No due dates. No late fees.

ESUB -One Movie at a time – Three movies total – $9.99 + Tax/Month
1SUB - One Movie at a time – Unlimited exchange – $18.99 + Tax/Month
3SUB - Three Movies at a time – Unlimited exchange – $24.99 + Tax/Month
4SUB - Four Movies at a time – Unlimited exchange – $32.99 + Tax/Month
******************************************************************************

............//NEW RELEASES//............

A CHRISTMAS TALE.
Criterion/Drama/Foreign (French).
Catherine Deneuve/Mathieu Amalric.
Directed by Arnaud Desplechin.
* Mental health issues, bone marrow transplant necessities, a shopping list of dislikes and historical bickering lead up to a family holiday season to end all family holiday seasons. Deneuve plays the matriarch of the family struggling for the will to both keep everyone together and finesse the desire to stay alive. Criterion is releasing this 2008 film in its first run on DVD.

BETTY BLUE: DIRECTOR’S CUT.
Drama/Foreign (French).
Beatrice Dalle/Jean-Hugues Anglade.
Directed by Jean-Jacque Beineix.
* Classic 1986 Oscar nominated film about a couple’s tormented love affair and a slow slide into insanity for Betty.

DEADLINE .
Thriller/Drama/Horror.
Brittany Murphy/Thora Birch.
Directed by Sean McConville.
* This horror (horrible?) film is about a young frail screenwriter off in a big house in the country to finish her screenplay before the big “deadline”. Did you see SWIMMING POOL by Francois Ozon? It’s not a horror film, but it reminds me of this premise…

DOUBLE .
Action/Comedy/Foreign (Polish).
Chrysk Littnski/Schilansky Evanchaksi/Kenski Shscylfski/Andreezy/Whtsidski/Jffry McMocksk/Kaiya.
Directed by Marcin Ziebinski.
* Madcap Polish comedy crime film – Chris says I should have a “Ken’s Polish Movies” section.

INTO THE STORM.
Comedy/Drama.
Brendan Gleeson.
Directed by Thaddeus O’Sullivan.
* The continuing saga of Winston Churchill focuses on his wartime leadership and his inability to transfer that success into his political career.

THE JAZZ SINGER: 30th ANNIVERSARY EDITION.
Comedy/Drama.
Neil Diamond/Laurence Olivier/Lucy Arnaz.
Directed by Richard Fleischer.
* Not the Oscar-nominated 1927 original starring Al Jolson, and not the Oscar-nominated 1952 re-make starring Peggy Lee; this is the 1980 Golden Globe nominated version with Diamond playing the role of the son of the cantor who must defy his strict father to fulfill his dreams of becoming a singer.

KATT WILLIAMS: PIMPADELIC.
Standup Comedy.
Katt Williams.

NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: BATTLE AT THE SMITHSONIAN.****ALSO ON BLU-RAY****
Comedy.
Ben Stiller/Amy Adams/Robin Williams/Owen Wilson/Hank Azaria/Steve Coogan/Ricky Gervais/Bill Hader/Dick Van Dyke/Thomas Lennon/Alain Chabat/Clint Howard/Jonah Hill.
Directed by Shawn Levy.
* Part two of this very successful series about museum installations who come to life after dark is really pretty darn funny! The plot involves a slightly convoluted series of technologically driven circumstances that sees the museum being packed up to put into storage in Washington. The mysterious tablet that brings them life is not supposed to go with them, but alas, it does, and Napoleon, Al Capone and Ivan the Terrible join up with Kahmunrah in an attempt to take over the world, or the known universe, or maybe just the after hours party at the Smithsonian. Larry Daley, the erstwhile museum guard must go to D.C. and save the day. Luckily for him, Amelia Earhart (Amy Adams) joins forces with him and wears crazy tight pants! There is lots of smacking, prat-falling, posturing, and chasing to keep you and your kids laughing for most of this film.

PAPER HEART.****ALSO ON BLU-RAY****
Comedy/Romance/Drama.
Michael Cera/Charlyne Yi.
Directed by Nicholas Jasenovec.
* It’s kinda of a mumbled jumbled tumbled fox in sox type of a mockumentary about a young woman traveling the country searching for the meaning of love.

TERMINATOR SALVATION.****ALSO ON BLU-RAY****
Intense Action!/Sci-fi.
Christian Bale/Sam Worthington/Bryce Dallas Howard/Anton Yelchin/Linda Hamilton/Helena Bonham Carter.
Directed by Moritz Borman and Derek Anderson and Victor Kubicek.
* It is 2018 and the world has finally crapped out. Guess what? It wasn’t about global warming, it was the IPhone that did us in, but I digress. John Connor (Bale) who has spent his entire life living in another time (much like Johnny Cash) is leading a small group of survivors who are trying to overthrow the terminators and reclaim technology for the humans! This is so what Steve Jobs would be doing if he was there in the future when the robots have killed almost all of us.

VALLEY OF THE HEARTS DELIGHT.
Drama.
Gabriel Mann/Emily Harrison/Pete Postelthwaite.
Directed by Tim Boxell.

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

BURN TO SHINE: VOLUME 5, SEATTLE.
Rock-Doc.
* Awesome music series featuring many bands playing one song each in a house that is condemned and must burn at the end of the day. In house, we have been loving the others in this series.

HORI SMOKU SAILOR JERRY.
Documentary.
Directed by Erich Weiss.
* Super awesome and foul-mouthed look at the history of tattoos in America featuring many of the legendary artists themselves.

NEW WORLD ORDER.
Documentary.
Directed by Luke Meyer and Andrew Neel.
* Pretty interesting expose of conspiracy theorists and the havoc they can wreak with rumors unfounded possibilities and straight out lies.

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

MENTAL: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON.
Television/Cops and Robbers.
Chris Vance/Annabelle Sciorra
* He’s a shrink, but he’s not super stoned like Kevin Spacey in SHRINK, he’s more superfreaky, but not like Rick James, more like Dr House.

SATURDAY NIGHT LIGHT: SEASON FIVE.
Comedy.
* Steve Martin Blondie, Bob Dylan, Chicago, Tom Petty, Martin Sheen, David Bowie, Dr. Pepper, Elliot Gould, The B-52’s, Gary Numan, Chevy Chase, Marianne Faithful, Paul Simon, James Taylor, Burt Reynolds…come on.

............//KIDS/............

BEN 10: ALIEN SWARM.
* According to my 8-year-old consultant, this show is the shizzay. Did I get that right?

FARZZLE’S WORLD: OH FARZZLE TREE.

MY LITTLE PONY: TWINKLE WISH ADVENTURE.

PLASTIC MAN: COMPLETE COLLECTION.

............//NEW ON BLU/............

LOCK STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELLS.
* The movie that launched Mr. Madonna’s career.

THE MASK OF ZORRO.
* Antonio Banderas, Anthony Hopkins and Catherine Zeta-Jones cavorting around on horses and slicing the letter Z into anything that moves.

SNATCH.
* And, Mr. Madonna’s second film – hey he made the new Sherlock Holmes movie too! And by the way, I know I know, he and Ma-donor are old news, divorced, finito. I still like to think of him as Mr. Madonna.

WAYNE’S WORLD.
Comedy.
* Mike Myers and Dana Carvey doing the shtick we love.

............//REPLACEMENT DVD’S/............

DEAD LIKE ME: COMPLETE FIRST SEASON.

MAD MEN: SEASON TWO.

****

****new release list no.244

Turkey Day rolls around again. Or Soy Fritter Day, whatever your preference… It always strikes me as so bizarre when the President grants a turkey a “pardon” each year. We are such a funny race! Wouldn’t it be humbling if there were some beastie out there that somewhat regularly hunted and ate us? Dominion would be such a challenging concept for us. But I digress…

Did you watch any of last week’s releases? I caught a few, most notably HUMPDAY. Wow, that movie was so brilliant! If you liked THE PUFFY CHAIR or any of the Duplass Brothers films, you may like this one. I also saw an Israeli film from last year called JELLYFISH which I was quite enamored with. It is about three women whose lives barely intersect, all struggling to maintain their equilibrium. Somehow it reminded me of MAGNOLIA, without the heavy male energy, and about an hour and a half shorter.

This week’s big titles include the newest from Judd Apatow, FUNNY PEOPLE. Starring Adam Sandler as a dying comedian and Seth Rogen as his personal assistant/lackey/yes man, this film is funny and its sad and it is a lot quieter all around than Apatow’s last bunch of comedic blockbusters. With Jason Schwartzman and Jonah Hill as Rogen’s young actor housemates and a large cast of comic cameos. In ANGELS AND DEMONS, Tom Hanks reprises his role as symbolist Dr. Robert Langdon from THE DA VINCI CODE. Here, Langdon is trying to protect potential papal candidates from the big bad Illuminati in Vatican City. GOMORRAH is just coming to DVD and being released by Criterion in its first go-round (which says a lot about the film). It is a story of organized crime in Naples, with its bleak, small and violent world having international consequences.

In the lighter department, we have the seasonal comedy FOUR CHRISTMASES starring Vince Vaughn and Reece Witherspoon as a married couple living in SF who think they’ve put their past behind them. Unfortunately, fate leads them to abandon their plan to hide for the holidays, and instead causes them to visit all four of their divorced parents and confront themselves while do so. THE MAIDEN HEIST is the story of some museum guards who decide to take some art with them as they are transferred to a new museum. With Morgan Freeman, William H. Macy and Christopher Walken as the guards.

For the kids, we have the newest Robert Rodriguez film, SHORTS, about a magical rock that grants wishes to all who control it, and SANTA BUDDIES, the newest film in the AIR BUD franchise.

From Taiwan we have a gorgeous travel movie called ISLAND ETUDE about a young man bicycling around the island before college graduation; from France we have MOI ET TOI starring Academy-Award winning actress Marion Cotillard and Julie Depardieu as sisters looking for love; and from Turkey we have THREE MONKEYS, a dramatic tale of a family trying impossibly hard to ignore the difficult reality of their lives.

In the television department, we have a ten hour series about wine called MONDOVINO, as well as season two in the UK version of LIFE ON MARS and an amazing criterion release called THE GOLDEN AGE OF TELEVISION featuring nearly 500 minutes of 50’s era live television performances.

Thinking about your holiday shopping already? Don’t forget the Four Star Holiday sales:

KenFlix packages of 3 months of any service for 10% off – give it as a Gift Certificate! And Four Star T-Shirts and Previously Viewed DVDs for $25 total, tax included. This is an 18% discount. Come in for details! We finally got the brown shirts in men’s large and extra large sizes!

Alrighty then, see you down at the store.

Love and Kisses,
Ken

******************************************************************************
KenFlix - the only Independent Monthly Subscription Film Renting Service in SF
If you are going to make a monthly commitment, make it a local one.
No due dates. No late fees.

ESUB -One Movie at a time – Three movies total – $9.99 + Tax/Month
1SUB - One Movie at a time – Unlimited exchange – $18.99 + Tax/Month
3SUB - Three Movies at a time – Unlimited exchange – $24.99 + Tax/Month
4SUB - Four Movies at a time – Unlimited exchange – $32.99 + Tax/Month
******************************************************************************

............//NEW RELEASES//............

ANGELS & DEMONS.****ALSO ON BLU-RAY****
Adventure/Suspense.
Tom Hanks/Ewan McGregor.
Directed by Ron Howard.
* Hanks reprises his role as Robert Langdon (The Da Vinci Code), this time in Italy, working with (or against) the Illuminati (and presumable wearing a #23 uniform under his dark suit), and trying to prevent murder and terrorism at the Vatican.

FOUR CHRISTMASES****ALSO ON BLU-RAY****
Comedy/Romance.
Vince Vaughn/Reece Witherspoon/Robert Duvall/Sissy Spacek/Jon Voigt/Jon Favreau/Mary Steenburgen.
Directed by Seth Gordon.
* This film has such a relatable premise! A married and successful San Francisco couple without kids, who year after year make up lies (You can’t spell lies without families) to avoid seeing their families. Unfortunately, this year, they get busted on live television and must make the pilgrimage to visit all four of their divorced parents one…painful…visit…at…a time! Sounds hilarious doesn’t it? And something tells me that it is…

FUNNY PEOPLE.****ALSO ON BLU-RAY****
Comedy/Drama.
Seth Rogen/Adam Sandler/Leslie Mann/Eric Bana/Jason Schwartzman/Jonah Hill/Sarah Silverman.
Directed by Judd Apatow.
* I think this film might have come off more personally explanative than Apatow might have expected. Funny people? They are sad and lonely and mean and abusive and fucked up. And such as life. For George Simmons (Sandler, somewhat toned down and therefore more believable than usual), a terminal diagnosis causes him to long for a less sad and lonely existence, which leads him to Ira Wright, a struggling young standup comic who worships Simmons. And under his wing he goes, working as George’s personal assistant, which includes such tasks as being insulted, sitting with him while he tries to sleep and keeping the groupies warm while George is otherwise occupied. None of which especially bothers Ira. It seems the entertainment world is brutal, and a thick skin is critical for success, as evidenced by Ira’s relationships with his housemates, Mark (Schwatzman) who is starring in a Disney-style sitcom called YO TEACH, and Leo (Hill), another struggling comic. The three of them share a vicious back and forth relationship where backstabbing and emasculation are just the appetizers. For Ira, the job with George represents a possible break, and he’ll do ‘almost’ anything to keep that job. For George however, he wonders if all the cutthroat decisions he’s made were worth it, now that his life appears to be ending early. All that changes when the experimental treatment he is getting for his illness works and his health fully returns. Featuring many other funny people cameos, such as Silverman, Paul Reiser, Norm MacDonald, Eminem and more.

GOMORRAH.****ALSO ON BLU-RAY****
Criterion/Drama/Crime/Foreign (Italian/Mandarin/French).
Toni Servillo/Gianfelice Imparato/Salvatore Cantalupo/Salvatore Abruzzese.
Directed by Matteo Garrone.
* Five interlocking stories about organized crime in Naples are told in this gripping award winning moralistic film. In the slums of Naples, there is no way to avoid taking sides, you are either with the Camorra or you are with a secessionist gang and therefore the enemy. For Toto, there is no question. As a 13-year-old with no problems with anyone, he jump into gang life by retrieving a gun and a mysterious package he witnesses being tossed aside during a raid by the police. Part of his initiation involves being shot point blank while wearing a bullet-proof vest. The shooter asks him, “Are you scared”? Yes, Toto, answers, honestly, and then takes his bullet like a man. The bleakness of the life is illustrated over and over again. As in the story of Marco and Ciro, two young toughs who steal some guns and then shoot them off shouting and posturing about the stupidity they perceive of the head honchos of the gang. Then, later, after they’ve been beaten and threatened, Ciro just wants to be left alone, accusing Marco of not caring if they grow into adulthood. Which appears at that moment extremely unlikely.

ISLAND ETUDE.
Drama/Foreign (Mandarin/Taiwanese/Lithuanian/English).
Ming-hsiang Tung.
Directed by Huai-en Chen.
* This beautiful little travelogue of a film makes Taiwan look like quite the beautiful place! Ming (Tung) is a young man on the verge of college graduation when he decides to cycle around the island before he begins the next stage of his life. As he travels, he is open to the world, and all of its possibilities, and meets companions nearly everywhere he goes. As a deaf man, his ability to interact with the world is somewhat altered, and we feel and see the world through his eyes and the natural beauty of the water and the mountains prevails. An eclectic soundtrack keeps things moving.

THE MAIDEN HEIST.
Comedy/Crime.
Morgan Freeman/Christopher Walken/William H. Macy/Marcia Gay Harden.
Directed by.
* Don’t you just wish sometimes, when you get a new job, that some of your surroundings from your old job would move along with you? That is how these museum security guards feel, and that is why they decide to steal some of the paintings they’ve grown to love. Fair enough.

SANTA BUDDIES.
Family.
Craig Anton/Andrew Astor/Tom Bosley/Tim Conway.
Directed by Robert Vince.
* I think this is like, number 9 in the AIR BUD series.

SHORTS.
Family.
Jimmy Bennett/Jon Cryer/William H. Macy/Leslie Mann/James Spader.
Directed by Robert Rodriguez.
* In this sardonic suburban kids tale, a boy finds a rock with the power to grant wishes and everyone in his town will stop at nothing to get their hands on it.

THREE MONKEYS.
Drama/Foreign (Turkish).
Yavuz Bingol/Hatice Aslan/Rifat Sungar.
Directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan.
* Bilge Ceylan won the Best Director award at Cannes Film Festival in 2008 for this film, and it was also nominated for the Golden Palm award. It is the story of a family in Turkey, ignoring the reality of what is happening around them with the hopes of just continuing on as a unit despite the obvious chaos and destruction of their situation.

TOI ET MOI.
Comedy/Drama/Romance/Foreign (French).
Marion Cotillard/Julie Depardieu/Jonathan Zaccai.
Directed by Julie Lopes-Curval.
* Romantic comedy about two sisters looking for love, or perhaps avoiding it. One sister is a romance writer, and at times the film has fantasy sequences following her imagination. The other sister is a cellist and the film is filled with string music that gently carries it along. Featuring Oscar-winning actress Marion Cotillard (LA VIE EN ROSE).

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

THEY TURNED OUR DESERT INTO FIRE.
Documentary/Social Commentary.
Directed by Mark Brecke.
* Award-winning filmmaker (and local resident) Brecke has been chronicling world genocide for over a decade. This film gives us an inside look at the tragedy going on in Darfur and offers some explanations as to why it has been allowed to happen.

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

THE GOLDEN AGE OF TELEVISION.
Criterion/Live Television.
* This 485 minute, thee-disc collection is full of live broadcasts of 1950’s era television, featuring the show MARTY (1953), PATTERNS (1955), NO TIME FOR SERGEANTS ( 1955), BANG THE DRUM SLOWLY (1956), REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT (1956) and more. Also featuring performances and directing by such up-and-coming names such as Paul Newman, Mickey Rooney, Rod Steiger, Rod Serling, Mel Torme, Jack Palance, Andy Griffith, Julie Harris, and Piper Laurie.

LIFE ON MARS (UK): SEASON TWO.
Television/Cops and Robbers.
* Continuing to update our collection with Season Two of the original UK version of this show about a cop who wakes up in the 1970’s. The clothes are great.

MONDOVINO: COMPLETE SERIES.
Television/Vino.
Directed by Jonathan Nossiter.
* This ten-hour in-depth wine series features a glimpse inside the globalization of the wine industry, and examines production in many countries around the world. It is chock full of autumn arrays of apricot kernels, cinnamon, peach and horseradish with a buttery bright character and a big finish.

............//KIDS/............

SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS: TWO-DISC COLLECTION.
* Quick, name the dwarfs.

............//NEW ON BLU/............

INK.
Sci-Fi
* Very weird new sci-fi film featuring alternate realities, and more – plus, our copy is a signed copy!

............//REPLACEMENT DVD’S/............

DEATH NOTE 1.
* Ding!

****

****new release list no.243

We’ve got our second biggest release day this year at Four Star Video. Serious batches of movies here. The big titles? BRUNO starring Sacha Baron Cohen as the way out fashionista bombshell craving fame and looking for it in all the wrong places…with a wonderful cameo by Ron Paul. STAR TREK (09), the latest offering from the space crew, this time featuring some awesome futuristic footage of San Francisco in a parallel universe story that kind of explains some of the beginnings of the original cast. Then there is the new one from Jim Jarmusch called LIMITS OF CONTROL .Surprisingly, it is the story of a mysterious loner.

We’ve got some indie comedy here, such as THE OPEN ROAD, starring Jeff Bridges and Justin Timberlake about an awkward father-son reunion. Then there’s THE GOODS: LIVE HARD, SELL HARD starring Jeremy Priven as a very successful used car salesmen. Also in store are HUMPDAY and MY EFFORLESS BRILLIANCE, both by emerging comedic director, Lynn Shelton.

IS ANYBODY THERE? is a film about a young boy living in an old folks home who strikes up a friendship with a retired magician played by Michael Caine. WILD CHILD is the newest Emma Roberts film where she plays a snotty teenager who must get sent to boarding school. MY SISTER’S KEEPER is an intense story about a young girl (Abigail Breslin) fighting to gain medical emancipation from her family for whom she only exists to donate her organs to her dying older sister. With Alec Baldwin as her attorney and Cameron Diaz as the zealous mother.

THIRST is the newest from Chan-Wook Park (OLD BOY, SYMPATHY FOR LADY VENGEANCE, I’M A CYBORG, BUT THAT’S OKAY) about a priest who accidently becomes a vampire and then delves hard into his life of sin.

There is also a new live Nirvana concert (NIRVANA: LIVE AT READING), some great stand up (MARGARET CHO: BEAUTIFUL) and some good television including what’s being called the Spanish L Word (GIRL SEEKS GIRL) and a Christmas special from IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA (A VERY SUNNY CHRISTMAS).

There is a bunch of new Blu-Ray titles, as well as some good replacement DVD’s as well. Scroll down for more info.

And don’t forget the Four Star Holiday sales:

KenFlix packages of 3 months of any service for 10% off! Four Star T-Shirts and Previously Viewed DVDs for $25 total, tax included. This is an 18% discount. Come in for details!

Alrighty then, see you down at the store.

Love and Kisses,
Ken

******************************************************************************
KenFlix - the only Independent Monthly Subscription Film Renting Service in SF
If you are going to make a monthly commitment, make it a local one.
No due dates. No late fees.

ESUB -One Movie at a time – Three movies total – $9.99 + Tax/Month
1SUB - One Movie at a time – Unlimited exchange – $18.99 + Tax/Month
3SUB - Three Movies at a time – Unlimited exchange – $24.99 + Tax/Month
4SUB - Four Movies at a time – Unlimited exchange – $32.99 + Tax/Month
******************************************************************************

............//NEW RELEASES//............

BRUNO.****ALSO ON BLU-RAY****
Comedy/Social Commentary.
Sacha Baron Cohen/Gustav Hammarsten/Ron Paul.
Directed by Larry Charles.
* Baron Cohen plays Bruno, an Austrian desperate for fame and full of male sexual energy. In the style of his other work, Baron Cohen works in scripted and unscripted vignette’s frequently with celebrities and otherwise who don’t know they are being set up. His comedy rides the line between brilliant social commentary and cringe worthy bathroom humor. Still, his scenes with Ron Paul and LaToya Jackson make this film worth seeing.

DOWNHILL RACER.
Drama/Criterion.
Robert Redford.
Directed by Michael Ritchie.
* From Criterion: With its thrilling cinematography, kinetic editing, and charismatic star performance from Robert Redford, Michael Ritchie’s Downhill Racer is one of cinema's most critically acclaimed examinations of the life of an athlete, one that Roger Ebert called “the best movie ever made about sports.” Not that audiences noticed at the time: this masterly look at competitive skiing was perhaps too uncompromising in its depiction of the lengths to which an athlete must go to be the best, and too artful in its sensibility, to connect at the box office in 1969. But now this buried treasure is available for the first time on DVD, in a Criterion special edition, and you can see for yourself the state-of-the-art ski photography that has influenced the way we’ve viewed the sport ever since. The release features, among other supplements, an exclusive new interview with Redford, a skiing enthusiast for whom this film was a labor of love..

FRANKLYN.
Drama/Fantasy/Romance/Thriller.
Eva Green/Ryan Phillippe/Sam Riley.
Directed by Gerald McMorrow.
* From Amazon: Four souls bound by fate, romance and tragedy collide in the parallel worlds of London and the futuristic Meanwhile City, where a single bullet will alter the course of their lives forever. A masked detective, a self-destructive art student, a desperate father, and a lovelorn romantic are just a few of the unforgettable characters in this visually stunning fantasy thriller starring Eva Green (Casino Royale), Sam Riley (Control), Ryan Phillippe (Crash), Richard Coyle (Coupling), Bernard Hill (The Lord of the Rings), Art Malik (The Wolf Man), and Susannah York (Superman).

GIGANTIC
Comedy/Romance.
Zooey Deschanel/Paul Dano/John Goodman/Ed Asner.
Directed by Matt Aselton.
* A delusional love story about a mattress salesman and a quirky chick named Happy he meets right as he is applying to adopt a baby from China.

THE GOODS: LIVE HARD, SELL HARD.
Comedy.
Jeremy Priven/Ving Rhames/James Brolin.
Directed by Lance Hammer.
* Priven plays Don Ready, a hard-partying, hard selling used car guru, hired by a sinking auto dealership to move 200 cars in 3 days over July 4th weekend. As much as he wants to sell these cars, he wants the owner of the dealership’s daughter even more. Produced by Will Ferrell.

HUMPDAY.
Comedy.
Mark Duplass/Joshua Leonard.
Directed by Lynn Shelton.
* Two brofriends, reuniting after a short while, find themselves at an artist party where everyone is talking about an amateur porn festival they are getting involved in called Hump Fest. Somehow, these two are goaded into making a porn film starring themselves as two straight men getting it on. Of course their heterosexuality and the fact that one of them is married pose difficulties to actually pulling it off (no pun intended). Will they be able to overcome their phobias (and vows)?

IS ANYBODY THERE?****ALSO ON BLU-RAY****
Drama/Foreign (British).
Michael Caine/Bill Milner.
Directed by John Crowley.
* Bill Milner plays Edward, a curious ten-year-old, living in an old folks home that his parents operate. While there is chaos going on around him, both involving his family and the people who are interned in the home, he is filled with questions, and spends his time interviewing the old folks trying to answer his questions about life, death and beyond. Soon he meets Clarence (Caine), a retired magician who is trying to answer the same questions. Together they form a friendship that provides important answers to both of them.

LIMITS OF CONTROL.
Crime/Drama/Thriller.
Isaach De Bankole/Tilda Swinton/Gael Garcia Bernal/Bill Murray/Hiam Abbass.
Directed by Jim Jarmusch.
* Set in Spain, De Bankole plays a mysterious loner, existing outside the law with a secret objective. In fact, just about everyone in this film appears to play some mysterious archetype with a secret objective. This will be a very polarizing film. There will be many people who want more out of their entertainment who will just not be able to get into this strange, quiet story. I have read some who feel like this is his worst film. However those same people hated STRANGER THAN PARADISE and DOWN BY LAW, which I think were incredibly brilliant films. So there you go, you be the judge.

MARGARET CHO: BEAUTIFUL.
Standup Comedy.
Margaret Cho.
* Margaret Cho shows why she is one of the funniest comics in America.

MY EFFORTLESS BRILLIANCE.
Drama/Comedy.
Basil Harris/Sean Nelson.
Directed by Lynn Shelton.
* From the same director as the aforementioned HUMPDAY, this film is also a sort of buddy film. It is about a couple of brofriends who break up as a result of their constant bickering. Eventually a reconciliation is attempted and the two get a real deeper understanding of their friendship. Have you heard of mumblecore? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumblecore

MY SISTER’S KEEPER.****ALSO ON BLU-RAY****
Drama.
Cameron Diaz/Abigail Breslin/Alec Baldwin/Jason Patric/Joan Cusack.
Directed by Nick Cassavetes.
* Breslin, the little girl from LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE is getting older. In this she plays Anna, a little girl whose family has basically raised her to be a organ donor for her older sister who is dying of leukemia. She enlists the aid of an attorney (Baldwin) to win medical emancipation from her family so that she can live her life as a normal kid, free from the constant medical tests she is forced to go through to make sure she is a compatible donor. With Cameron Diaz as her obsessed mother.

THE OPEN ROAD.****ALSO ON BLU-RAY****
Comedy/Drama.
Justin Timberlake/Jeff Bridges/Mary Steenburgen/Lyle Lovett/Harry Dean Stanton.
Directed by Michael Meredith.
* Timberlake plays Carlton Garrett, an estranged son getting in contact with his ex-baseball star dad (Bridges). Together with his girlfriend, they embark on a road trip to go see Garrett’s ailing mom.

STAR TREK (09).****ALSO ON BLU-RAY****
Sci-Fi/Action.
Chris Pine/Zachary Quinto/John Cho/Simon Pegg/Eric Bana/Winona/Nimoy.
Directed by J. J. Abrams.
* In this parallel universe prequelish action flick, the origins of the original crew are somewhat explained. Kirk is showed to be a feckless arrogant troublemaker, who bothers nearly everyone he comes in touch with. With huge futuristic special effects and exciting earth footage, this is one of the better movies of the entire franchise, if not the best.

THIRST.
Horror/Foreign (Korean/English/French).
Kang-Ho Song/Ok-Vin Kim.
Directed by Chan-Wook Park.
* From the director of the OLD BOY vengeance trilogy, and I’M A CYBORG, BUT THAT’S OKAY (Awesome film) comes this vampire tale about a priest who volunteers to take test a vaccine. When the test goes bad, and he is near death, he receives a tainted blood transfusion that saves him, but makes him a vampire. Now, as he struggles to maintain his humanity, he finds himself getting deeper and deeper into a sensual relationship with sin.

VAMPIRE PARTY.
Comedy/Horror/Foreign (French).
Patrick Mille/Frederique Bel.
Directed by Stephen Cafiero and Vincent Lobelle.
* The tagline is “This Party Is Gonna Suck. Let’s hope the film doesn’t.

WILD CHILD.
Comedy/Teen.
Emma Roberts/Natasha Richardson.
Directed by Nick Moore.
* Nah, not the Truffaut film, but not similar either. In this teen queen film, Emma Roberts plays a spoiled brat who gets shipped off to boarding school.

WRONG TURN AT TAHOE.
Action/Suspense/Crime.
Cuba Gooding, Jr/Harvey Keitel.
Directed by Franck Khalfoun.
* It’s a real reverse Darwin type film, or maybe like a David and Goliath…You could say Twins-Yankees, but the Yankees won, so maybe not. Anyway, the one bad guy kills the bigger bad guy without realizing that the bigger bad guy works for an even bigger bad guy who now wants to kill the little bad guy.

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

NIRVANA: LIVE AT READING.
Rock!
Kurt/Krist/Dave.
* One of those “must-see” concert movies for true fans. Nirvana was headlining UK’s Reading Festival when this was filmed, Aug 30th, 1992.

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

ART 21: 5th SEASON.
Art Doc.
* From Amazon: Through in-depth profiles and dynamic behind-the-scenes footage featuring artists from around the world, speaking directly about their inspirations and ideas, Season Five shows a broad range of artistic practice, technical innovation, and experimentation, from artists tackling large-scale collaborative projects in hangar-like studios, to those working in the quiet of more intimate studio settings.

GIRL SEEKS GIRL.
Web Television/LGBT.
* It’s a sort of Spanish L WORD, following a group of hot Madrid lesbians in and out of each other’s beds.

IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA: A VERY SUNNY CHRISTMAS.
Comedy.
* The Christmas special.

LIFE ON MARS (UK): SEASON ONE.
Television.
* The original, about a cop who wakes after an accident to find himself 30+ years in the past.

............//KIDS/............

EGON AND DONCI.

............//NEW ON BLU/............

CHASING AMY.
* Can a heterosexual male convert his newest crush from a lipstick lesbian to his beloved? You never know....

CLERKS.
* My very favorite of Kevin Smith’s films; sadly, his first.

LEON THE PROFESSIONAL.
* The Luc Besson film starring Jean Reno, Gary Oldman and a 13-year-old Natalie Portman.

WONDER OF IT ALL.
* Amazing moon footage on BD. We have this on regular DVD and it has rented just once…why? It is really quite beautiful.

............//REPLACEMENT DVD’S/............

ALIENS.
* Not just one.

21 GRAMS.
* New copy, collector’s edition.

THE YES MEN.
* Another copy of this film in anticipation of his new movie THE COLLAPSE. Also by Chris Smith, AMERICAN MOVIE and HOME MOVIE.

****

****new release list no.242

Discounts, Holiday Sales, Holiday Savings, Love and More!

We’ve got action at Four Star Video! I’ve been reading a bit about the outlook for the retail industry during the 2009 Holiday Season. Bleak – but better than last year, they say (those pundits – how does one get a job as a pundit?). Discounts and holiday deals will be heavily in play this season, as businesses try to convince customers to open their pocketbooks and spend. Alrighty then, if it is discounts and holiday deals you want, then that’s what you shall get. Starting right now we are offering a few excellent deals.

First up, we are offering a Four Star T-Shirt and previously viewed DVD combo pack for $25 total. The shirts are usually $20 and the movies are $8. With tax they cost $30.76. But for the next eight weeks they will be $25 for a savings of over 18%! Whoop whoop. For all those of you who have wished we had the brown Four Star Tee’s in Men’s Large and Extra-Large – we have ordered a big batch more of those sizes, which will be in by November 20th.

Next we have Kenflix holiday deals for the first time at Four Star. You can buy these for yourself, or you can buy them for a friend with a Gift Certificate. The deal is 3 months of any subscription for 10% off. So an ESUB (see below for plan details) is usually $29.99 for three months but is now $26.98. The 1SUB is usually 56.97 for three months but is now $51.27. The 3SUB is usually $74.97 but now is $67.47 and the 4SUB, which normally is $98.97, is $89.07. These prices are for a three (3) month subscription and are non-refundable. If you buy them on a Gift Certificate, they will start when the giftee brings in the certificate and activates their subscription. If you buy it for yourself, they are good to go immediately. If you already have KenFlix, this will go into affect the 1st of the following month after you purchase.

These two deals are available now. Look for more holiday sales from us as we approach the holiday season. Thanks for shopping at Four Star Video! You keep us in business and for that we salute you.

There are a couple Hollywood romantic comedies in this week. In THE UGLY TRUTH, Katherine Heigl is the object of her colleagues sociological love experiments. And in THE ACCIDENTAL HUSBAND, Uma Thurman plays a love doctor trying to become unmarried from someone who played a prank on her but discovers feelings for the merry prankster.

UP is out this week. In case you haven’t heard of it, UP is the latest animated feature from Pixar and it is truly amazing. Great for adults, great for kids (especially about 7 years and up, although I know many of you have very advanced movie watching kids).

BALLAST is a highly decorated indie film that won the BEST DIRECTION award at Sundance. It is the story of some people living in rural Mississippi dealing with grief and fear and attempting to reopen their hearts to life. It is highly recommended by the critics.

Also of note, INK is a way weird tripped out looking sci-fi indie film and RETHINKING AFGHANISTAN is the latest from Robert Greenwald (OUTFOXED). Lastly, there are a few more from Andrew’s NEW HIGHLIGHTED ADDITIONS that you should totally check out. Did anyone watch THE WAYWARD CLOUD last week? Whoa!

Alrighty then, see you down at the store.

Love and Kisses,
Ken

******************************************************************************
KenFlix - the only Independent Monthly Subscription Film Renting Service in SF
If you are going to make a monthly commitment, make it a local one.
No due dates. No late fees.

ESUB -One Movie at a time – Three movies total – $9.99 + Tax/Month
1SUB - One Movie at a time – Unlimited exchange – $18.99 + Tax/Month
3SUB - Three Movies at a time – Unlimited exchange – $24.99 + Tax/Month
4SUB - Four Movies at a time – Unlimited exchange – $32.99 + Tax/Month
******************************************************************************

............//NEW RELEASES//............

THE ACCIDENTAL HUSBAND.
Comedy/Romance.
Uma Thurman/Jeffrey Dean Morgan/Colin Firth/Isabella Rossellini/Sam Shepard.
Directed by Griffin Dunne.
* Uma plays Dr. Emma Lloyd, a successful radio host of a love advice program. She appears to have it so together and gives her smug advice out to her listeners, without any fear of her advice biting her in the butt. Alas, when she gives advice to a fireman (Morgan)’s fiancée that doesn’t sit well with him, he decides to get revenge by somehow marrying her through the internet (huh?). This becomes especially irritating to the good doctor, when she makes the discovery right as she herself is preparing to be married. Can she find her accidental husband and obtain an annulment before her big day? And, in the end, is that actually what she wants? I mean seriously, who wouldn’t want to be married to some big hot fireman!

A WOMAN IN BERLIN.
Drama/War/Foreign (German/Russian).
Nina Hoss.
Directed by Max Farberbock.
* Based on a real diary written in the final days of WWII, the story focuses on the invasion of the Russians in Berlin and the atrocities that occurred there.

BALLAST.****ALSO ON BLU-RAY****
Drama.
Michael J. Smith, Jr./Tarra Riggs/Johnny McPhail/JimMyron Ross.
Directed by Lance Hammer.
* The list of awards this film garnished is impressive, including Best Direction at Sundance. The story is of a single mother, living in a Mississippi delta town and struggling to survive. Made using a similar style as the Dogme 95 film philosophy.

INK.
Sci-Fi/Action/Fantasy.
Chris Kelly/Jessica Duffy/Quinn Hunchar.
Directed by Jamin Winans.
* Dreamy nightmarey good and evil sleepy sci-fi weirdness indie flick with high ratings.

MADE IN FRANCE.
Comedy/Drama/Foreign (French).
Patrick Ligardes/Atmen Kelif.
Directed by Ahmed Bouchaala and Zakia Tahri.

THE UGLY TRUTH.****ALSO ON BLU-RAY****
Comedy/Romance.
Katherine Heigl/Gerard Butler/Cheryl Hines/.
Directed by Robert Luketic.
* Poor Katherine Heigl, first she is accidentally impregnated by Seth Rogen, then she is humiliated by James Marden for wearing too many wedding dresses and now this! She is the test case dummy for a chauvinistic co-worker testing out his relationship theories on her. Wow, if she wasn’t totally rich and beautiful, I’d feel really bad for her.

UP.****ALSO ON BLU-RAY****
Animation/Family/Adventure/Comedy.
Ed Asner/Christopher Plummer/Jordan Nagai.
Directed by Pete Docter and Bob Peterson.
* Pixar’s latest greatest and probably soon-to-be Academy Award winning animation is also one of the more complicated to analyze. Riding the razor-thin line between kid’s film and adult film, UP has many sequences that will appeal directly to adults and many that seem to be more kid-oriented, but not like a normal kids film. Somehow Pixar is able to refine kids palettes and even speed up the maturation process (when it comes to film appreciation) while providing relatively brilliant entertainment. I saw this with a big group of kids and adults, and everyone loved it, and nearly everyone cried. The smaller kids were definitely traumatized by the chase sequences and the very naughty bad guy who was homicidal, psychopathic, and generally not a sweetheart. The adults were traumatized by the aging process, elusive unfulfilled dreams, and a very real fear of death. The opening sequence is one of the more sublime and brilliant ten minutes in any film I have ever seen, as a young boy and a young girl meet, become friends, experience the uninhibited joy of childhood, enter puberty, fall in love with each other, marry, glide through a love-filled though hard working childless adulthood, experience great lows and great highs, get old and eventually suffer through the loss of companionship resulting from one of their deaths. Wow! My sister’s boyfriend and I sat next to each other with tears streaming down our faces in utter awe and amazement at this beautiful and tender story told almost without the use of any dialog. The kids also sat enraptured, not quite understanding what was going on, but being moved emotionally, while being introduced to the main character. The film settles down a bit after that as we have learned what led Carl Frederickson (Asner) to his current state of old, alone and living in a condemned building. Carl is not going quietly to the old-age home; in fact he is rage rage raging against the dying of the light! He ties thousand of balloons to his building and quite soon afterwards he and the film go up, literally, into the sky heading to South American to finally realize his life’s dream. What he doesn’t count on is a stowaway in the form of eight-year old Russell, a young and equally lonely boy trying to get a badge for helping the elderly. He also doesn’t count on meeting a pack of talking dogs nor his encountering his old childhood hero, the afore-mentioned villain, who has spent the better part of his life tracking a super rare bird, who he hopes to kill/stuff/and bring back to civilization to prove its existence. A bit convoluted, yes, but it works, and it works quite well. What we eventually have is a very mismatched but extremely heartfelt buddy movie, where the buddies must rely on each other (and one very loving dog named Dug) to triumph over adversity (and potentially death) in order to get home safely.

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

RETHINK AFGHANISTAN.
Documentary.
Directed by Robert Greenwald.
* This in-depth documentary considers the history of the culture and ethnicity of Afghanistan and explores the current conflict regarding the cause and effects on the people of the country as well as the war cost on the taxpayers of America. Made by the director of OUTFOXED and stunningly, XANADU.

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

THE THREE STOOGES COLLECTION: V07 1952-1954.
Television/Comedy.
Larry/Moe/Curly.

............//KIDS/............

A CHRISTMAS CAROL: SCROOGE’S GHOSTLY TALE.

PIPPI LONGSTOCKING: PIPPI’S CHRISTMAS.

SANTA APPRENTICE.

SESAME STREET: 40 YEARS OF SUNNY DAYS.

SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS: TRUTH OR SQUARE.

TIMOTHY GOES TO SCHOOL.

............//HIGHLIGHTED NEW ADDITIONS FROM ANDREW/............

ALL REVIEWS BY ANDREW F – RESIDENT FILMMAKER

DERSU UZALA.
Adventure/Drama/Foreign (Russian).
Maksim Munzuk/Yuri Solomin.
Directed by Akira Kurosawa.
* Made shortly after Kurosawa's production company went bankrupt (and shortly after Kurosawa's suicide attempt), DERSU UZALA was commissioned by the Russian Soviet government, and gave Kurosawa a chance to get out of Japan and away from the Japanese film industry that had nearly broken him. This film is important both for its significance in this filmmaker’s career and also as an example of uniqueness that comes from international co-productions.

MADADAYO.
Drama/Foreign (Japanese/English).
Tatsuo Matsumura.
Directed by Akira Kurosawa.
* Akira Kurosawa's very last film before dying shortly after its completion. The film's themes meditate on how life changes in its approach to death. A relevant final message from this great artist.

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GODZILLA (1998).
* With Matthew Broderick as the monster.

IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE.
* The classic 1946 Jimmy Stewart film about a disconsolate business owner (doh!) shown by an angel what life would be like for his friends and neighbors and family members if he had never existed.

MONSTERS, INC.
* The fourth Pixar feature about monsters who generate power by scaring children (does that sound simplistic?).

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BARCELONA.
Comedy/Drama/Romance.
Directed by Whit Stillman.
* This 1994 film, by the director of THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO is about (as the tagline says) Americans. Anti-Americans. In Love.

SUPERMAN III.

SUPERMAN IV.

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BIG LOVE: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON.
* I finally watched the first two hours of this series last night, and I really enjoyed it. You probably already know it is the tale of a polygamist family with a husband, three wives and a batch of kids, and the struggles they have keeping their affairs in order. Doesn’t it seem like one of the crazy strengths of these HBO shows is that no matter how far-fetched, or fringed the main characters are (mafia, undertakers, polygamists) they are still so amazingly relatable? Somehow these shows make it easy to relate to people living otherwise extraordinarily different lives, instead of magnifying our differences.

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: THE COMPLETE SIXTH SEASON.

GREY’S ANATOMY: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON.

SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE.
* I honestly think the time travel scene where he flies around the planet in the opposite direction of our usual spin to reverse time and get back to where he can save Lois’s life is one of the most tangible time travel methodologies every hypothesized.

SUPERMAN II.

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