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
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............//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.
****
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