****new release list.210

My sister says this should go on top at least sometimes, so here goes:




KenFlix - the only Independent Monthly Subscription Film Renting Service in SF

No due dates. No late fees.

If you are going to make a monthly commitment, make it a local one.

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

Some highly anticipated films coming out this week, starting with ELEGY starring Penelope Cruz (fresh off her Oscar win) and Ben Kingsley as two lovers dealing with an age gap that threatens the relationship. Also starring Peter Sarsgaard, Dennis Hopper and Deborah Harry.

Next Saturday sees the DVD release of TWILIGHT, the vampire love story that has captivated teens all around the world. In it, a “vegetarian” vampire (only eats non-human meat) falls in love with a human and must fight off other non-veggy vampires and his own blood lust to keep her safe from harm.

Scroll down to see the HUGE list of new editions to our cinematic library this week. Also there is a much larger than usual batch of kids movies that have arrived.

Please read about Videofest 2009 here. It is a terrific film festival sponsored by the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts. This year’s focus is in on Labor and Dreams. To read more about the festival and submit for entry, please go to their website which is linked here. One of the prizes is a year subscription to Kenflix!

Alrighty, that’s all folks, hope to see you at the store.

Love and Kisses,
Ken

P.S. Here is a KenFlix testimonial from a neighbor:

Hello. I'm a Bernalite and have been signed up for KenFlix since its inception. I'm not affiliated with Four Star video, I just get my movies there and occasionally come in to remark on Ken's hair. I don't understand why more people aren't signed up for KenFlix. It's such a great deal! For less than $20 you can have a different movie every night. I watch a lot of movies 'cause I'm an editor and I sometimes teach this stuff and I don't want to come off like an impostor. I'm a totally digital person and buy lots of stuff online, but I love to actually come in and have a psychic connection with the movies I want to view. To do this, I need to hold the DVD jacket in my hand and consult with my inner film buff. I'm just not powerful enough to do this on the internet, and neither are you. For less than $20 per month, I can practice my psychic arts and hobnob with knowledgeable people behind the counter like Jeff who understand how Fellini's 8 1/2 shaped postmodern storytelling and more stuff like that. Like you, I don't like to leave the house any more than I have to, but there are things I've learned I just can't order on the internet, things I have to smell, or touch, or just get a vibe on. Bagels, cheese, movies... these choices are best determined at the local level. KenFlix rocks. Thanks, that will be all for now.

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

CHRYSALIS.
Sci-Fi/Suspense/Foreign (French).
Albert Dupontel/Marie Guillard.
Directed by Julien Leclercq.
* Freaky futuristic tale set in Paris 2020 about the creepy goings on at a high end surgical doctor’s office.

DODES DA KEN.
Drama/Criterion/Foreign (Japanese).
Yoshitaka Zushi/Janzabaro Ban/Jitsuko Yoshimura.
Directed by Akira Kurosawa.
* Gritty 1970 film about the desperate dwellers of slums on the outskirts of Tokyo. If you don’t know about Kurosawa, this might be an interesting jumping off point.

ECLIPSE SERIES 15: TRAVELS WITH HIROSHI SHIMIZU.
Criterion/Drama/Foreign (Japanese).
Directed by Hiroshi Shimizu.
* Four movies included in this set: JAPANESE GIRLS AT THE HARBOR (1933), MR. THANK YOU (1936), THE MASSEURS AND A WOMAN (1938), and ORNAMENTAL HAIRPIN (1941).

ELEGY.
Drama.
Penelope Cruz/Ben Kingsley/Patricia Clarkson/Dennis Hopper/Peter Sarsgaard/Deborah Harry.
Directed by Isabel Coixet.
* Ben Kingsley plays a womanizing professor who falls for a lovely young Cuban student played by the wonderful Penelope Cruz. Although he loves her, he feels that their age difference is too much to overcome. However, events occur that turn that familiar story upside down. W/Dennis Hopper as a Nobel Prize winning colleague, Peter Sarsgaard as the professor’s angry and alienated son Kenny the Father hater, and Patricia Clarkson as his same-generation, super sexy, sometimes lover.

TWILIGHT. ****AVAIL SAT MAR 21ST****
Drama/Fantasy/Romance/Thriller/Vampire.
Kristen Stewart/Robert Pattinson.
Directed by Catherine Hardwicke.
* Is it a bloody fantasy vampire story? Or a religious abstinence moral play? I think the truth might be somewhere in the middle. This film, based on the novels by Stephenie Meyer, is the first of what will ultimately be 4 very highly grossing movies about the vampire Edward Cullen (Pattinson) and the lovely Bella Swan (Stewart) a young high school age girl in the midst of tough familial transition and their dangerous love affair. Dangerous for a few reasons. One, vampires are dangerous. They like to eat people…well, most vampire’s do. Actually Cullen and his clan are vampire “vegetarians”, meaning the suck the blood of broccoli. Okay, not really, but the don’t eat people, they hunt for game and consider themselves not to be killers, even though the strong musty scent of young women is still mighty powerful for them to resist. A second reason he is dangerous is because he is a hot guy. And these days, high school girls are getting preggers at such a high rate! Frankly, she wants him, she doesn’t care what happens, but get this…he abstains! Isn’t that great? She wants to, but he won’t. And that makes this film quite interesting, and it appears to resonate with the younger set.

THE PUNISHER: WAR ZONE.****ALSO IN BLU-RAY****
Action/Crime/Thriller.
Ray Stevenson/Dominic West.
Directed by Lexi Alexander.
* The Punisher is like a psycho killer who kills bad guys (like Dexter, but more like Jason or Mike Meyers). In this he confronts psycho killers and psychotically kills them.

............//BLU-RAY/............

BOLT. ****AVAIL ON SUN MAR 22****
Animation/Action.
John Travolta/Miley Cyrus/Malcolm McDowell/.
Directed by Byron Howard and Chris Williams .
* Bolt is kind of like Truman Burbank, the fictional star of THE TRUMAN SHOW. He has an action/sci-fi show with his real life owner Penny (Cyrus) but he doesn’t actually know he is just a tv star and not a real action hero (and neither, for that matter, does YOUR dog). But when he is accidentally shipped to New York and must fight his way through the real world to get home, he discovers that some super hero powers are embedded in us all. (Dude, they shoulda hired me to write copy for this movie).

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

VAMPIRE SECRETS.
Documentary.
Directed by Diana Zaslaw.
* They are secrets, so I can’t tell you ANYTHING about them.

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

MY ZINC BED.
Television Mini-Series/Drama/Romance.
Jonathan Pryce/Uma Thurman/Paddy Considine.
Directed by Anthony Page.
* It is the story of addicts and of recovery and of the normal pitfalls of life. The story follows a recovering alcoholic (Considine) as he falls in love with the ex-junky wife (Thurman) of his new boss (Pryce).

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

ANGEL WARS: THE MESSENGERS.

BABY ABUELITA: FAMILY FIESTA.

BARBIE PRESENTS: THUMBELINA.

DRAGON TALES: OUR AMAZING PETS.

THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER MAN: VOLUME 2.

THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER MAN: VOLUME 3.

THE VELVETEEN RABBIT.

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

THE BIBLE.
Drama/Fictobiopic.
Michael Parks/George Scott/Richard Harris/God.
* I think life begins, apples are eaten, many beget many, and some bad bad shit goes down.

DAVID BOWIE: BEST OF BOWIE.
* Amazing footage from the early 70’s through the late 90’s.

ESCAPE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN.
* Do not mix this up with the new schlocky one starring The Rock. This is the original schlocky one from 1975. First DVD’s!

RETURN FROM WITCH MOUNTAIN.
* And this is the 1978 sequel. Whoop whoop!

THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD: 50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION.
* 1958 action adventure story of Sinbad sailing the sea with Kerwin Matthews as the star.

THE THREE MUSKETEERS.
* 1973 version of the famous sword fighting tale directed by Richard Lester and starring Michael York as D’Artagnan.

THE FOUR MUSKETEERS.
* The 1974 sequel also starring Richard Chamberlain and Raquel Welch.

TRANSYLVANIA.
Drama/Foreign (French/Romanian/English/Hungarian/Italian).
Asia Argento.
Directed by Tony Gatlif.
* I bought this 2006 film at the request of a customer who said the director was brilliant and that this was his best. Watch it, and tell me what you think.

............// REPLACEMENT DISCS//............

CHARLOTTE GRAY.
* Cate Blanchett – need I say more?

GOSFORD PARK.
* 2001 Altman period piece about servants and guests at a party in England in 1932.

****