****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.

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****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

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............//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).

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