Woody Allen has produced another wonderful film in VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA about a couple of young woman (Rebecca Hall and Scarlett Johansson) on vacation in Spain and in different states of attraction to an artist (Javier Bardem) who is dealing with his own troubled amorous situation.
Guy Ritchie hits you hard with another totally hard to follow shoot-em-up crime tale called ROCKNROLLA. In another nod to rock we have Rainn Wilson (THE OFFICE USA) as a washed up rock drummer trying hard to reach for the golden ring in THE ROCKER.
PRIDE AND GLORY features Edward Norton and Colin Farrell as cop relatives on opposite sides of a police scandal in NY. And LAKEVIEW TERRACE is the tale of a cop (Samuel L. Jackson) in LA whose attempts to force an interracial couple out of his neighborhood go way overboard.
There is also a nice batch of docs this week, and a 10 film Bruce Lee collection! Scan down and check them out. Happy viewing!
Love and Kisses,
Ken
............//NEW RELEASES//............
A HERO AIN’T NOTHING BUT A SANDWICH.
Drama.
Cicely Tyson.
Directed by Ralph Nelson.
* I bought this because I LOVED the book when I was about 10 years old. It is a heavy but still family appropriate story about a family dealing with drugs and addiction in the 1970’s.
BRUCE LEE: DRAGON IMMORTAL.
Martial Arts.
Bruce Lee.
* This is a 3 disc, 10 film collection featuring POWER FORCE, BRUCE’S WAYS OF KUNG FU, CHINESE GODS, BRUCE’S FISTS OF VENGEANCE, BRUCE LEE’S DEADLY KUNG FU, BRUCE AGAINST SUPERMAN, CLONES OF BRUCE LEE, FIST OF DEATH, THEY CALL ME BRUCE LEE, and BRUCE VS. SNAKE IN EAGLES SHADOW. Whoop whoop.
COLLEGE.
Comedy.
Drake Bell/Andrew Caldwell/.
Directed by Deb Hagan.
* Three high school seniors visit a college campus and party party party! This is a great one for parents with high school children.
DEEP WINTER.
Action/Adventure.
Eric Lively/Michael Madsen/Kellan Lutz/Luke Goss.
Directed by Mikey Hilb.
* A couple extreme athletes attempt to climb a super dangerous peak in Alaska and film the whole experience.
LAKEVIEW TERRACE.****ALSO IN BLU-RAY****
Suspense.
Samuel L. Jackson/Patrick Wilson/Kerry Washington.
Directed by Neil Labute.
* A nice twist on the standard LAPD racist cop story; in this the cop (Jackson) hates the new interracial couple that moves in next door and will stop at nearly nothing to force them out of the neighborhood.
MERCURY MAN.
Action/Horror/Foreign (Thai).
Directed by Bhandit Thongdee.
* Strange Thai superhero flick.
OPEN SEASON 2.
Animation.
Mike Epps/Crispin Glover.
Directed by Matthew O’Callaghan and Todd Wilderman.
* Part two in the humorous tale of Elliot the bear.
PRIDE AND GLORY.****ALSO IN BLU-RAY****
Drama/Criterion.
Colin Farrell/Edward Norton/Nick Nolte.
Directed by Gavin O’Connor.
* Hard-boiled New York City cop tale about a cop (Norton) who discovers his brother-in-law (Farrell) is involved in a giant police scandal.
THE ROCKER: BORN TO ROCK.****ALSO IN BLU-RAY****
Comedy.
Rainn Wilson/Christina Applegate.
Directed by Peter Cattaneo.
* Rainn Wilson (Dwight, from THE OFFICE USA) is pretty funny as Robert “Fish” Fishman, a 40ish drummer who’s claim to fame is that he was the drummer (and visionary) behind the band Vesuvius before they kicked him out of the band right on the cusp of stardom. He has spent 20 years in one dead end job after the next while trying unsuccessfully to reconcile his life. Now, he is given the opportunity to rock out with a young band with a lot of potential and, if he can overcome his own self-destructive tendencies, he will try to bring them to the top!
ROCKNROLLA.
Action/Crime/Videogame.
Gerard Butler/Tom Wilkinson/Thandie Newton.
Directed by Guy Ritchie.
* Another crazy complicated action flick from Guy Ritchie, this one revolved around a crooked real estate deal between English and Russian Mafioso that doesn’t work out nearly the way it was intended. Much backstabbing (and other stabbing, kind of in the back) occurs along the way to a joy-ride ending.
RUSSELL PETERS: RED WHITE AND BROWN.
Stand-up Comedy.
Russell Peters.
THE SECRET POLICEMAN’S BALL.
Comedy/Performance.
Rowan Atkinson/John Cleese/Michael Palin/Billy Connolly/Pete Townsend.
Directed by Roger Graef.
* This was the first of a series of comedy and music performances that were raising money for Amnesty International.
SHARKS IN VENICE: SHARK ATTACK 4.
Sci-Fi/Horror/Comedy (kinda).
Alec Baldwin/Bashar Rahal.
Directed by Danny Lerner.
* Over the top tale of sharks and Mafioso’s controlling the land and water of Venezia.
SONGS IN ORDINARY TIME.
Drama.
Sissy Spacek/Beau Bridges.
Directed by Rod Holcomb.
* From Oprah’s bookclub to your television set comes this tale of a single mother who takes in a mysterious stranger who transforms everyone’s life.
THE STEWARDESSES: 3D.
Softcore/Nostalgia/Comedy.
Christina Hart/Paula Erikson.
Directed by Al Silliman, Jr.
* Trampy early softcore film that was edited multiple times while in the theatres...eventually there were four different versions being screened at once. Also, the technology for the 3D (camera) was used to shoot many 80’s 3D classics, such as Jaws 3 and others… Is this a “good” movie”? We’ll let you be the judge of that.
VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA.
Comedy/Drama/Romance.
Rebecca Hall/Scarlett Johansson/Penelope Cruz/Javier Bardem/Patricia Clarkson.
Directed by Woody Allen.
* Woody has a hit with his latest treatise on sex and love in and out of order. Vicky (Hall) and Cristina (Johansson) are young Americans on holiday in Spain. There, they meet Juan Antonio Ganzalo (Bardem) and each deal with resisting or not resisting his amorous affections – and who could blame them! Unfortunately, Juan has baggage, namely, his passionate and tempestuous ex-wife Maria Elena (Cruz). When she re-enters the picture, things get messy.
............//DOCUMENTARY//............
BLACK IS…BLACK AIN’T.
Documentary.
Directed by Marlon Riggs.
* A documentary examining the Black experience.
FANTASTIC FLESH.
Documentary.
Directed by Kevin VanHook.
* This movie delves into the mysterious world of film make-up and effects.
GIRLS ROCK: THE MOVIE.
Rock-Doc.
Directed by Arne Johnson and Shane King.
* Well, you could send your kid to Arts camp, or you could send you kid to Silvertree…then there’s Lego Camp - - orrrr, you could try Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls. This film follows four girls from 8 to 18 as they experience the amazingly wonderful transformative power of Rock and Roll.
LISTEN UP: THE LIVES OF QUINCY JONES.
Rock -Doc.
Directed by Ellen Weissbrod.
* Just about everyone who’s anyone in the music world (Sheila E, Miles Davis, Aretha Franklin, Flavor Flav, Herbie Hancock, Ice-T, Bobby McFerrin) appear in this 1990 documentary about one of the musical visionaries of the 20th Century.
ROMAN POLANSKI: WANTED AND DESIRED.
Documentary.
Directed by Marina Zenovich.
* Between 1977 and 1978, Roman Polanski was on trial for giving drugs to and having sex with a 13-year-old that he was photographing for Vogue magazine…at the climax of this period, he fled the country and has lived in Europe ever since continuing to make the strange, demented and rather beautiful films he was already famous for (such as CHINATOWN). This documentary chronicles that year of trial and tries to give perspective on the principals and the principles involved.
............// KIDS//............
MARY POPPINS: 45th ANNIVERSARY EDITION.
* One of the greatest films ever!
PEANUTS: YOU’RE A GOOD SPORT CHARLIE BROWN.
SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS: SPONGICUS.
SECRET OF THE MAGIC GOURD.
SCOOBY DOO: WHERE ARE YOU? VOL 1: A MONSTER CATCH.
............// NEW ADDITIONS//............
U TURN.
* Good creepy Oliver Stone flick with Sean Penn, Billy Bob, Powers Boothe, J-Lo, Claire Danes and others…
............// REPLACEMENT DISCS//............
THE GREAT ESCAPE: 2-DISC COLLECTOR’S EDITION.
****
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