****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

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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
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............//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.

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

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?).

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

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.

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

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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