****new release list no.261

I'm sitting in a lovely apartment in Brooklyn watching the rain drizzle by in the wet cold morning. Spending the week in NYC means a bit of scheduling challenge to post this blog, but I think most of you will agree that kicking it with the family is probably the most important thing going on. Still and all, I must tell you about the movies, so here is a very abbreviated weekly blog. The big releases of the week are SHERLOCK HOLMES, starring Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law, and AN EDUCATION starring Carey Mulligan and Peter Sarsgaard. I haven't seen either, but they both look pretty awesome.

Without much further ado, I will tell you about the movies coming out this week:

ABBOTT & COSTELLO: THE COMPLETE SHOW is 1900 minutes of pure hysterical comedy.
AFGHAN STAR is a documentary about music under Taliban rule in Afghanistan.
ALICE IN WONDERLAND - This is the animated version, another release capitalizing on the remake in the theaters now.
ALVIN & THE CHIPMUNKS 2: THE SQUEAKUEL - for the kids.
THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX was Germany's official entry to the Academy Awards last year and is about post Nazi-Germany leading up to the Red Army Faction terrorist group.
THE BACKYARDIGANS: ESCAPE FROM THE TOWER.
THE BEACHES OF AGNES - From director Agnes Varda.
THE BLOSSOMING OF MAXIMO OLIVEROS.
AN EDUCATION - Written by Nick Hornby and starring Peter Sarsgaard and Carey Mulligan, this film was nominated for Oscars and is about a young girl who gets involved with an older worldly man.
HOUSEBROKEN - A comedy starring Danny DeVito.
IMAX: UNDER THE SEA - this is an amazing underwater documentary, and even more wonderfully, it is narrated by Jim Carrey.
THE LORD PETER WIMSEY MYSTERIES - More excellent British television.
BIG SUR: WILD CALIFORNIA - From National Geographic.
MEGA SHARK VS GIANT OCTOPUS - I was assured many people had asked for this...
MONSTER CAMP - Hmmm.
NICK JR FAVORITES GO GREEN! - More brainwashing for the children.
ONCE UPON A TIME IN A BATTLEFIELD - This Korean comedy looks pretty strange.
PURPLE RAIN - Ah, 10 years ago I asked David Ayoob to buy this on VHS, and now I am buying it on DVD. That feels cool to me.
SHERLOCK HOLMES - Guy Ritchie's bare-chested, hard-nosed, homo-erotic take on the famous detective starring Robert Downey Jr, and Jude Law.
ROBIN WILLIAMS: WEAPONS OF SELF-DESTRUCTION - should be funny and relateable, I'm guessing.
ZULA PATROL: SEASON ONE - for the kiddies.

Please grill the staff for any further hints of which brilliant films to watch...I imagine THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX is a hard film, but one with many rewards. Just like New York City! Which I will now get back to.

Love and Kisses,
Ken

ps Join Kenflix, obliterate due dates and late fees.

****new release list no.260

I wish Hollywood would do a better job with their DVD release management. Doesn’t it seem like there will be week after week during the summer and fall with no real huge titles, and then come Oscar season, we get weeks like this one, where there are multiple award-nominated films, and many star-studded casts for films that weren’t nominated but still seem worth checking out.

In the nominated department, we have THE BLIND SIDE, the movie that won Sandra Bullock the Best Actress award. Adapted from the real life story of Michael Oher, an NFL player for the Baltimore Ravens, this film follows his early days as a homeless high school student who is taken in and cared for by a nice family. Though it sounds a bit like an after-school special, it is evidently a fine film, with a tremendous performance by Bullock. Also nominated for an Academy (but ultimately shut out) is FANTASTIC MR. FOX. From director Wes Anderson and starring George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray (and more) comes this adaptation of the children’s book by Roald Dahl. Though it is a wonderful kids’ movie, this film hits on so many levels, and is excellent for all ages. As with most Wes Anderson films, the art direction, the music and the cinematography are just awesome in this film.

Not nominated for an Academy award, but full of great actors are BROTHERS, starring Tobey Maguire, Natalie Portman and Jake Gyllenhaal about the effects that war has on a family where one brother steps in to help take care of his other brother’s family after he is missing in action in Afghanistan. NEW MOON is the latest in the Twilight Saga about a group of vegetarian vampires who are struggling against eating a tasty bit of human meat, or something like that! In THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS, George Clooney stares at a goat, and kills it! Cuz he’s George Clooney, and he can do anything he damn well pleases. Seriously, I love that guy. Also starring Jeff Bridges, Ewan McGregor, and for some reason Kevin Spacey, too. RED CLIFF is a two part movie directed by John Woo and starring Tony Leung and Chow Yun-Fat about politics and war in China circa 200 AD.

There is also an interesting batch of television, documentaries, foreign films and indies led first and foremost by the third season of the smash hit MAD MEN. Scroll down to read about everything.

Hey, I see my President signed the big health care bill today. Wow, with all the hoopla, you can barely tell the republicans from the far left. That’s pretty crazy, right? I hear the bill is brutal. I hear it is far too compromised. I hear it is not the bill that the people want. I hear the doctor’s are unhappy. I hear the insurance industry is unhappy. I hear the President is a communist. I hear he is a liar, a knave a pushover. I hear the bill’s scope is unclear. I hear it’s confusing. I hear its 1000 pages long and no one can translate it properly to the reg’lar folk. I hear…wait. What’s that I hear? 36 Million Americans are without health care (number seems low). What? They are now covered by this new plan? Wait, what? America? America now has a health care plan?

It sucks you say? I say phooey.

There’s things you gotta do before you do other things. You know? Crawl/walk. Walk/run. Legislate/alterate. Hallucinate. Desegregate. Mediate. Try not to hate. Love your mate. Don’t suffocate on your own hate. Liberate. Liberate. Liberate. Liberate.

Know what I mean?

Hey, America has health care. How bout that?

Alrighty then, see you down at the store.

Love and Kisses,
Ken

P.S. I love you.

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

THE AFRICAN QUEEN.
Romance.
Humphrey Bogart/Katherine Hepburn.
Directed by John Huston.
* This intense 1951 Oscar winner (Best Actor, Humphrey Bogart) is about a river boat owner in Africa during WWII who is convinced by the sister of a dead missionary to use his boat to sink a German warship. From frosty tense relationship to passionate and desperate lovers, we watch the two of them plan their crazy outlandish mission. This is a must watch classic.

THE BLIND SIDE.****BD****
Drama/Sports
Sandra Bullock/Quinton Aaron/Kathy Bates/Tim McGraw.
Directed by John Hancock.
* Speaking of Oscars, Bullock took home the hardware this year (Best Actress) for her role in this story of a homeless kid living in the south that is taken in by an upper middle class family and becomes an amazing football player. This is the somewhat true story of Michael Oher, who is now playing in the NFL. Bullock herself has dealt with some serious adversity just since winning the Oscar…

BROTHERS.****BD****
Drama/War.
Tobey Maguire/Jake Gyllenhaal/Natalie Portman/Sam Shepard.
Directed by Jim Sheridan.
* When Tommy Cahill (Maguire) goes missing on patrol with the military in Afghanistan, he is presumed dead. His deadbeat brother (Gyllenhaal) shows up to comfort his wife, Grace (Portman) and help her with the kids. Soon, their relationship gets jiggy, and then things are complicated dramatically by the reappearance of Tommy. Turns out, Tommy was captured and tortured back there in Afghanistan, and though he survived, he is much damaged inside. Ultimately, this is a story of a family, and the fragile bonds that hold them together.

CIAO.
Drama/LGBT/Foreign (English/Italian/Mandarin/Spanish).
Adam Neal Smith.
Directed by Yen Tan.

FANTASTIC MR. FOX.****BD****
Comedy/Animation/Adventure.
George Clooney/Meryl Streep/Jason Schwartzman/Bill Murray/Eric Anderson.
Directed by Wes Anderson.
* Perhaps this is where Anderson’s directorial career has been headed all along. To claymation, and beautiful claymation at that. It is lovely to see something other than the computer stuff that is being pumped out by all the big studios these days. This film, aside from looking good, is super fun! It is based on the weird and wonderful book by Roald Dahl about a tricky fox who cannot help himself from stealing chickens, ducks, hard apple cider, and numerous other earthly delights, and gets on the bad side of three enormously angry farmers who decide his (and his families) immediate discorporation is required. Ah, but killing the fox proves difficult, especially this fantastic fox, who can both think and dig quite well. With masterful performances from Clooney and Streep as Mr. and Mrs. Fox, and Schwartzman as their less than athletic son, this film is rather fantastic. Although the animals are wild (as Mr. Fox points out, usually when he is trying to justify his rashness), my son Huck pointed out that the humans behavior was the most wild and irrational of all (well stated, my boy). The music in this, as in most Anderson films, was quite nice as well.

FREE WILLY 4.****BD****
Family/Adventure.
Beau Bridges.
Directed by Will Geiger.

HITLER MEETS CHRIST.
Cult.
Wyatt Page/Michael Moriarty.
Directed by Brendan Keown .
* Hmm, why did I buy this strange looking indie about two men meeting in a train station who think they are Adolf and Jesus H? Not sure, but I expect someone will tell me soon...

THE LARK FARM
Drama/Foreign (Italian).
Pazzzz Vega/Tcheky Karyo.
Directed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani.
* Tragic tale of an Armenian family during the Ottoman-Armenian conflict in the early years of last century.

LAST HURRAH.
Comedy/Drama.
Zack Bennett/David Wachs.
Directed by Jonathan W. Stokes.
* This is a somewhat highbrow college party movie that was shot in one continuous take (ah, the digital world) about a group of philosophy students trying to get laid at the last big party to end all parties…good luck, boys, maybe drop the Nietzsche quotes, and just focus on paying attention.

THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS.****BD****
Comedy/Drama.
George Clooney/Ewan McGregor/Jeff Bridges/Kevin Spacey.
Directed by Grant Heslov.
* Based on a novel, this movie tells us at the beginning that “more of this film is true than you will believe.” That part makes me happy. Because the film is about the government somehow funding the New Earth Army, a group of psychic spies who were basically trained in avoiding conflicts, with gifts of flowers and occasionally liquid acid. The actual movie follows a somewhat clueless journalist (McGregor) who is in the Middle East to prove to his ex-girlfriend that he has worth. Does he? Not sure, but he is aimlessly looking for a story when he stumbles into Lyn Cassady (Cloons) who eventually tells him the story of the hippy patrol he was a part of. Led by Bill Django (Bridges, doing his Bridges thing) these men were trained to use their minds so well, that eventually they could kill just by staring…hence the title.

MOMMO
Drama/Foreign (Turkish).
Directed by Atalay Tasdiken.
* Lovely Turkish film about two young children living with their grandfather after their father’s new wife has rejected them.

MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATRE 3000: XVII.

NEW MOON.****BD****
Action/Drama/Romance/Vampire/Abstinence (psyche Shila!).
Kristen Stewart/Robert Pattinson/Dakota Fanning.
Directed by Chris Weitz.
* So many of you can probably relate to this film (Jonny!) about a group of vegetarians who become overwhelmed at the sight of some wonderful delicious meat that they nearly kill themselves trying to eat it…that’s what this is about, right Shila? Ah, shucks, I didn’t see it.

RED CLIFF.****BD****
Action/Adventure/War/History/Foreign (Mandarin).
Chow Yun-Fat/Tony Leung/Chang Chen.
Directed by John Woo.
* This two part film that won 16 awards world-wide is about some gigantic battles fought in China between 200 and 300 AD. Gorgeously shot, with terrific sound design, Chris says this film is just amazing.

SERAPHINE.
Fictobiopic/Drama/War/Foreign (German/French).
Yolanda Moreau.
Directed by Martin Provost.
* This film is based on the life of French painter Séraphine Louis (Séraphine de Senlis) who worked in the late 1800’s into the 1930’s.

SON OF MAN.
Drama/Foreign (Xhosa/English).
Directed by Mark Dornford-May.
* This film is a modern tale of Jesus based in South Africa.

WAITING FOR THE MOON.
Drama.
Linda Hunt/Linda Bassett.
Directed by Jill Godmilow.
* This 1987 film is about a few months in the life of Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein.

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

BROTHERS AND SISTERS: THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON.
Drama/Comedy.

MAD MEN: THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON.****BD****
Drama.
Jon Hamm/Elizabeth Moss/January Jones/Vincent Kartheiser.
* Season three of television’s hottest show is out on DVD and BD…if you haven’t taken the plunge, now might be a good time. This highly stylized show is about Madison Aves advertising agencies in the early 1960’s and focuses on Don Draper (Hamm) one of the most talented execs of the bunch.

PRISON BREAK SEASON FOUR.
Drama.
Dominic Purcell/Wentworth Miller.

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

KLUNKERZ: A FILM ABOUT THE DEVELOPMENT AND BIRTH OF MOUNTAIN BIKES.
Directed by Billy Savage.
* The title says it all, and it happened right here in Northern California.

TAMI SHOW.
Music.
James Brown/Chuck Berry/The Beach Boys/The Rolling Stones/Lesley Gore/Marvin Gaye/Glenn Campbell/Diana Ross/Smokey Robinson.
Directed by Steve Binder.
* T.A.M.I or originally Teenage Music International was (from the IMDB) “Hailed by one music reviewer as "the grooviest, wildest, slickest hit ever to pound the screen," "The T.A.M.I. Show" is an unrelenting rock spectacular starring some of the greatest pop performers of the 60s. These top recording idols - representing the musical moods of London, Liverpool, Hollywood and Detroit - packed the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium with 2,600 screaming fans and virtually brought down the house. This is the cinematic record of that electrifying event.”

YOU’RE GONNA MISS ME…A FILM ABOUT ROKY ERICKSON.
Music.
The 13th Floor Elevators.
Directed by Keven McAlester.
* This doc is about psychedelic rock legend Roky Erickson and his affect on the music world.

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

ELMO: RAINBOW & OTHER SPRING TIME STORIES.

............//NEW EDITIONS/............

THE JOHN WAYNE COLLECTION, VOL 1 (THE QUIET MAN/THE SANDS OF IWO JIMA/FLYING TIGERS/THE WAKE OF THE RED WITCH).
Drama.
John Wayne.

****

****new release list no.259

Be prepared. That’s the boy scouts solemn vow! And this week, I am more prepared than usual, because somehow I have watched five movies since Friday. How did I do this, you ask? With a special and certain combination of good parenting, bad parenting and dubious decision making! A ha ha!

I’m probably embellishing the tale a bit, actually. I watched WONDERFUL WORLD starring Matthew Broderick, while huddling under a blanket working at Succulence on Friday in the rain. Oh, I cannot wait for our new door to arrive this week. That was a sweet well-intentioned indie film about a bitter man sharing his bitterness with the world. Not great, but worth it if you are a Broderick fan (which I am). On Saturday night, I watched BROKEN EMBRACES from Pedro Almodovar and starring Penelope Cruz. I knew this film would be awesome when one of the characters was pumping one of my favorite Can songs (Vitamin C) at a DJ gig he was working. And it didn’t disappoint. With a failed romance at the center of the story, and flashing back and forth in time, Almodovar again shows why he is one of the greatest living directors of film.

Sunday was somehow a movie marathon. It began with a cashed in gift from Hanukah of a “movie date with Papa” from my son. We went and got a slice of the best east coast pizza in SF (Arinell’s, of course) and then went to see THE LIGHTNING THIEF, the first adaptation of the popular kids series about Percy Jackson, the half-god child of Poseidon, the god of the Sea. We’ll talk more about this film when it comes to DVD, but I will say that it was very enjoyable, though that might have been cuz I was just out with my boy watching a movie.

Later that evening, I decided what the hell, and let my kids watch THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG, the Oscar-nominated animation film about a young woman accidentally turned into a frog by…kissing a prince who’d been turned into a frog by an evil voodoo man. We all really enjoyed this film, but it really got me thinking about film ratings and how seemingly arbitrary they are. The film is rated G, unlike so many other kids movies these days, but it contained some pretty scary images of the shadow villains who were in cahoots with the voodude. Chrudy (five years of age) was relatively traumatized by those images and left the room running, hid under a desk and generally panicked every time they made their appearance on screen. I guess that was character building for her. Thanks Hollywood!

The last film we watched this weekend was the directorial debut of THE OFFICE’s John Krasinski called BRIEF INTERVIEWS WITH HIDEOUS MEN. For those of you not paying attention, Krasinski is on a major roll, and I expect we’ll see him blossom into quite a movie star over this decade. He hasn’t tackled any major roles yet, but was funny in some football movie with George Clooney, and was pretty good in the romantic comedy AWAY WE GO last year. This film was an adaptation of a David Foster Wallace story about a woman conducting interviews with men in order to come to some conclusion about the effects of feminism on our gender relations. The film wasn’t a sterling success, though I did enjoy it a bunch. It struggled to maintain a focus, and its point was challenging to hone in on. I doubt it will keep Krasinski away from directing (and I hope it doesn’t), but perhaps he will continue to make his mark as an actor before straying to that side of the camera again.

Other releases of note this week are Season Two of BREAKING BAD (also on BD for you Blu-Ray fans), ASTRO BOY, and THE FOURTH KIND.

Alrighty then, see you down at the store.

Love and Kisses,
Ken

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

ASTRO BOY.
Animation/Action/Family/Sci-Fi.
Nicolas Cage/Charlize Theron/Kristen Bell/Bill Nighy/Freddie Highmore/Donald Sutherland/Samuel L. Jackson.
Directed by David Bowers.
* Astro Boy is created by Dr. Tenma following his grief after losing her real son. Astro Boy’s powers are so great, that soon he becomes a world famous super hero. This film is based on the comic, but takes some liberty’s with the story and removes some of the original darkness.

BANDSLAM.
Comedy/Drama/Music.
Vanessa Hudgens/Gaelan Connell/Alyson Michalka/Scott Porter/Lisa Kudrow.
Directed by Todd Graff.
* Sa5m (a silent 5, that’s pretty cool)(played by Hudgens, of HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL fame) meets Will, a misfit who loves music and, together with one of the most popular girls in school, they form a rock band to compete in the school battle of the bands.

BRIEF INTERVIEWS WITH HIDEOUS MEN.****BD****
Comedy/Drama.
Julianne Nicholson/Timothy Hutton/John Krasinski.
Directed by John Krasinski.
* Based on a novel by David Foster Wallace (who tragically took his own life in 2008), the story is a disjointed and fragmented tale of a woman (Nicholson) who is conducting interviews with men ostensibly with the object of understanding more about the affects of feminism. Krasinski, most famous for his portrayal of Jim in the American version of THE OFFICE, is an exciting young talent in cinema. This film doesn’t really break through into greatness; the source material is challenging, and not easily translatable, but there are flashes of brilliance here and there, and Hutton is funny as the main character’s professor at school.

BROKEN EMBRACES. ****BD****
Drama/Romance/Foreign (Spanish).
Penelope Cruz/Lluis Homar/Blanca Portillo.
Directed by Pedro Almodovar.
* Almodovar is back with his first film since the brilliant and celebrated VOLVER (2006). Again starring Oscar-winning actress Penelope Cruz, this film is about a blind screen-writer named Harry Caine (Homar) who, upon learning of an old acquaintances death, relives some of the events that led to his blindness, and to the pain that lives in his heart. Cruz plays an old lover and the star of the last film he worked on as a director.

DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE MORGANS?****BD****
Comedy/Romance.
Hugh Grant/Sarah Jessica Parker/Mary Steenburgen/Elizabeth Moss.
Directed by Marc Lawrence.
* A couple dealing with potential divorce issues witnesses a murder and gets relocated to an isolated town in Wyoming where their romance re-blossoms. Sometimes, it just takes witnessing a murder to rekindle the dying flame of love.

THE FOURTH KIND.****BD****
Sci-Fi/Suspense.
Milla Jovovitch/Will Patton/Elias Koteas.
Directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi.
* They’d a called this movie “Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind” if they could have, and in fact, they even wrote it on the DVD box. It is about small town in Alaska that has been dealing with mysterious alien abductions, and a psychologist who is trying to get to the truth using hypnosis to get more details from those involved.

NINJA ASSASSIN.****BD****
Action/Adventure/Martial Arts.
Rain/Naomie Harris/Rick Yune/ Ben Miles/Sho Kosugi.
Directed by James McTeigue.
* This ninjariffic tale is about a deadly assassin who has turned on the clan that trained him and soon is facing a showdown with his former master (you gotta visit man, the master).

THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG.****BD****
Animation/Adventure/Fairy Tale/Family/Musical.
Anika Noni Rose/Bruno Campos/Oprah Winfrey/John Goodman/Terrance Howard.
Directed by Ron Clements and John Musker.
* This fairy tale features a frog who accidentally turns a young woman into a frog upon cajoling her into kissing him. The rest of the film sees them desperately trying to avoid mean alligators, dumb frog hunters, scary voodoo shadows, and various other pitfalls while trying to get kissed by a princess in order to turn human again. Nominated for 3 Oscars for music and animation, the film is ultimately about acceptance.

WONDERFUL WORLD.****BD****
Drama/Indie.
Matthew Broderick/Sanaa Lathin.
Directed by Joshua Goldin.
* Have you noticed that Broderick picks weird indie movie roles over just about anything else? I can’t believe he isn’t offered bigger roles; he is talented, and has a past history of box office success. In this dark and brooding comedy, Broderick plays Ben Singer, a failed kids songwriter, a failed proofreader, and a failed parent. Basically, Ben is just a negative bad-vibed jerk, whose only joy in life comes in smoking pot and playing chess with his Sudanese housemate, Ibu. When Ibu slips into a diabetic coma, his sister Khadi comes to stay at the house, and Ben’s eyes are somewhat opened to the world he has shut out.


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

BREAKING BAD: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON.****BD****
Crime/Drama.
Bryan Cranston/Anna Gunn/Aaron Paul.
* The highly anticipated second season has arrived. Have you seen this show yet? It follows the swirling descent of a high school chemistry teacher who takes to a life of crime after his ability to provide for his family dissolves.

MONK: SEASON 8.
Crime/Mystery/Drama/Comedy.
Tony Shalhoub/Traylor Howard.

SOUTHPARK: THE COMPLETE 13th SEASON.
Animation/Comedy.
Matt Stone/Trey Parker.

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

PIPPI LONGSTOCKING: HERE COMES PIPPI.

REDWALL: THE ADVENTURE BEGINS.

SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS: SPONGEBOB’S LAST STAND.

TIMOTHY GOES TO SCHOOL: SNOW DAY.

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

FALLEN ANGELS.
* Wong Kar-Wai 1995 classic about a hit man on his last job.

............//NEW EDITIONS/............

TOTALLY F***ED UP.
Drama.
James Duvall/Jenee Gil/Roko Belic.
Directed by Gregg Araki.
* This is one of Araki’s first films, and deals with teen angst among a group of gay teenagers in Los Angeles. Also and awesomely, this film stars a Four Star Video customer!

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

TRUE BLOOD: SEASON ONE.
* Just another copy stocking up in time for Season two to come out May 25th.

****

****new release list no.258

The Academy Awards were last night, and a couple of big titles nominated are coming out this week. UP IN THE AIR with Clooney (that dude!) and PRECIOUS starring Gabourey Sidibe and Mo’Nique are in the house. I was super duper happy to see that THE HURT LOCKER took home so many awards and that AVATAR was muchly shut out. The former deserves every accolade it can pick up, as it is a great American film that will be talked about for generations, and I actually find myself more appreciative of the latter now that it didn’t win a bunch of art prizes for what amounts mostly to eye candy. And what amazing eye candy it is.

Speaking of eye candy, have you seen HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 2 yet? Just amazing, I tell you. What? You didn’t think so? Yeah, well I see your point; just about any point you could make regarding not liking the film. But hear me out. Maybe you’ll see my point as well.

My kids are 5 and almost 9 and I have been struggling lately to find the perfect movies to watch with them. Movies that Huck (the 8 year old) will tolerate, and movies that Trudy (5 going on I don’t know what) will not be scared by. And, if possible, movies that will not decrease the precious few brain cells I have left. So, it’s a struggle. You can relate.

We watched HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL recently, after much internal debate, and we all enjoyed it. Yes, it was pretty much marinating in cheese sauce, and American cheese sauce at that, but it was somewhat clever, and it had heart, and it had a nice message, and it included full school musical song and dance numbers in the cafeteria! Word up!

So, I took home number two, thinking my kids would watch, and maybe I would stare at the computer screen for an hour or two while they were so entertained. Ah, the ignorant ideas of the uneducated… We turned it on, and the kids were intrigued. Trudy wanted to watch on my lap, so I curled up with them and we snuggled. Huck kept a running count of the songs he liked (very very few) and Trudy kept us current with the story, which basically involved the uber popular and rich Sharpay (Ashley Tisdale, brilliant) trying to separate Troy (Zac Efron) and Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgens) so that he, Troy, the Alpha Male at High School, can be with she, Sharpay (isn’t that a type of dog?), the self-perceived Alpha Female. Rather trite, and of course, as any sophisticated movie watcher would guess, ultimately unsuccessful.

But my kids are not yet sophisticated movie watchers. As Troy began blowing off Gabriella b/c of Sharpay’s cockamamie schemes, my kids became upset. And then as Gabs sang her breakup song to Troy, Huck became agitated and then emotional. Soon, my boy was somewhat moaning “this is sad, this is really sad”, then he began to cry, and soon all three of us began to cry, albeit for different reasons. My beautiful boy got up and walked away from us as he wept hard and intensely for Gabriella, for Troy, for separation, for the terribleness of it all. Trudy cried because her brother cried, and this upsets her more than anything (bless her little heart). Me? I cried because I felt like I could foresee the future! My sensitive boy dealing with heartbreak, with loss, with unrequited love and feeling pain. Ah, my tears, they were almost accompanied with a smile, for I am a sophisticated movie watcher, and, without seeing the movie before, I knew Troy and Gabs would be fine. And now I am becoming a sophisticated parent, so I know the future is unforeseeable. Ah, the pains, the joys, the unknowns! Que Cera Cera! Whatever will be…will be.

Good luck, my sweet and sensitive flower! We will always be here for you, if you happen to still want us.

Ah, the beautiful complexity of life, as experienced through cinema.

You know what? Us Shelves, have owned Four Star Video for 3 years on Tuesday, March 9th, and we shall celebrate with you anytime and anyplace! Just make a suggestion… If you choose to celebrate at the store, we’ll offer you a “buy 1 get one free” sale on any and all of our used DVD’s, ranging from the biggest blockbuster to the littlest Taiwanese indie film on the wall. Please take advantage of this sale. We need the space.

We all thank you, Bernal Heights and beyond, for supporting this great little store, and our family as proprietors. From Trudy, Huck, Amy and I come huge thanks! We love our community so much, and it means a ton to us to play our role in it. And as long as we’re in the thanking mode, we’ll extend a special thank you to Shila, Chris, Jeff, Andrew, Rachel and Kaiya, for all their help making Four Star Video the greatest video store in the bay area.

Alrighty then, see you down at the store.

Love and Kisses,
Ken

PS. UP IN THE AIR, PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL”PUSH” BY SAPPHIRE, CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY, THE STONING OF SORAYA M., and PLANET 51 highlight this week’s New releases. xoxoK

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

BABY FORMULA.
Drama/Comedy/Mockumentary/LGBT.
Angela Vint/Megan Fahlenbock.
Directed by Alison Reid.
* This comedy plays like a doc as two women who want a baby together want to use their own genetic matter to make said baby. They use an experimental technology to create sperm from their own stem cells and both get pregnant!

THE BOONDOCK SAINTS II: ALL SAINT’S DAY.****BD****
Action/Crime.
Sean Patrick Flanery/Billy Connelly/Norman Reedus/Julie Benz/Judd Nelson/Peter Fonda.
Directed by Troy Duffy .
* When the mob kills the McManus brothers favorite priest in Boston, they fly in from Ireland to exact revenge.

FIX.
Drama/Suspense.
Shawn Andrews/Olivia Wilde.
Directed by Tao Ruspoli.
* This film has a film within the film. It is about these two documentary filmmakers trying to get one of their brothers into rehab by 8pm in one day in order to save him from doing 3 years in the slammer.

FLAME AND CITRON.
Crime/Drama/History/Thriller/War/Foreign (Danish/German).
Thure Lindhardt/Mads Mikkelson.
Directed by Ole Christian Madsen.
* My friend says this is like an intellectual version of INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS. It is about two fighters in the Danish resistance during World War II.

FLICKS CHICKS.
Comedy/LGBT.
Evelyn Gaynor/Jackeline Olivier.
Directed by James Tucker.
* A woman invites five women who are all prospective lovers to stay with her and her 10-year-old daughter for a weekend as a methodology to meet the perfect mate.

HACHI: A DOG’S TALE.
Drama/Family.
Richard Gere/Joan Allen.
Directed by Lasse Hallstrom.
* Who better to make a movie about the bond between a college professor and a stray dog he takes in then the retired dog star of a bazillion movies, Lassie?

OLD DOGS.
Comedy/Family.
John Travolta/Robin Williams/Kelly Preston/Matt Dillon/Amy Sedaris.
Directed by Walt Becker.
* I believe this family movie attempts to answer the question, can you teach old dog’s new tricks? These dogs are two business partners who somehow find themselves in the care of 7-year-old twins.

PLANET 51
Animation/Adventure/Comedy/Fantasy/Family.
Dwayne Johnson/Jessica Biel/Justin Long/Gary Oldman/Seann William Scott/John Cleese.
Directed by Jorge Blanco and Javier Abad.
* Utilizing a nice flip on the usual alien invader story, this story is about an earthling astronaut who is so happy to have found a planet that he can claim and that will win him acclaim and superstardom back home. Unfortunately, it is a planet populated with its own people, who are eager to prevent the astronaut from ever returning home!

POSSESSION.
Drama/Suspense.
Sarah Michelle Gellar/Lee Pace
Directed by Joel Bergvall and Simon Sandquist.
* Remake of a Korean film from 2002 called JUNGDOK about two brothers who have a car accident and one wakes up thinking he is the other. Sarah Michelle Gellar plays the wife of the brother who does not wake up.

PRECIOUS BASED ON THE NOVEL “PUSH” BY SAPPHIRE.
Drama.
Gabourey Sidibe/Mo’Nique/Paula Patton/Mariah Carey.
Directed by Lee Daniels.
* The winner of two Academy Awards (Best Supporting Actress – Mo’Nique, Best Screenplay, based on Previously Published Material – Geoffrey Fletcher), and featuring powerful and emotive performances by everyone involved, this film is about a young, illiterate and pregnant teen living in Harlem who is struggling to make a life for herself. This is a painful, brutal story, yet ultimately uplifting and powerful.

THE SECOND BEST SCIENCE FICTION MOVIE EVER MADE.
Comedy/Sci-Fi.
Danny Pardo.
Directed by David M. Epstein.

THE STONING OF SORAYA M.****BD****
Crime/Drama/Foreign (English and Persian).
Shohreh Aghdashloo/Jim Caviezel/Mozhan Marno.
Directed by Cyrus Nowrashteh.
* The story of a woman in 1980’s Iran who is stoned by her village after being accused of adultery. The tale is told by an older woman of the village to a stranger whose car breaks down in the village. It is kind of shocking that this film garnered no Academy nominations; it is a hard film to watch, but a worse film to miss.

UP IN THE AIR.****BD****
Comedy/Drama.
Goerge Clooney/Anna Kendrick/Vera Farmiga/Danny McBride.
Directed by Jason Reitman.
* Cloons was telling this movie was gonna rock when we were shooting pool recently, he’s all, yo Kenflix, it’s your turn, and don’t forget to pump my movie in the Four Star Gazer…Then he ashed his cigarette in my beer, and when my back was turned he pinched my ass! He’s always doing stuff like that. Cloons is just so fun to hang out with. I love the guy, I mean, I really love the guy. Anyway, I feel bad he didn’t win anything last night, but did you see those funny looks he was giving to the camera? Didn’t it seem like he was looking right at you? Seriously, I think he was looking at me, cuz he made this funny gesture he always makes when we’re hanging out. Right before he makes some funny joke, or opens a rare bottle of hundred-year-old scotch or farts right as I am trying to putt for the victory out on the golf course. Guy is a card! Anyway, I’m not sure what this movies about, but it’s gotta be awesome, cuz it’s starring Cloons! Dude is hysterical!

THE WEDDING SONG.
Drama/War/Foreign (Arabic/French).
Lizzie Brochere/Olympe Borval.
Directed by Karin Albou.
* Two young girls, one Muslim and one Jewish, who are preparing for arranged marriages, have their friendships damaged by the Nazi occupation of their homeland, Tunisia.

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

CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY.****BD****
Documentary.
Directed by Michael Moore.
* From the production company: CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY examines the impact of corporate dominance on the everyday lives of Americans (and by default, the rest of the world). The film moves from Middle America, to the halls of power in Washington, to the global financial epicenter in Manhattan. With both humor and outrage, the film explores the question: What is the price that America pays for its love of capitalism? Families pay the price with their jobs, their homes and their savings. Moore goes into the homes of ordinary people whose lives have been turned upside down; and he goes looking for explanations in Washington, DC and elsewhere. What he finds are the all-too-familiar symptoms of a love affair gone astray: lies, abuse, betrayal...and 14,000 jobs being lost every day. CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY also presents what a more hopeful future could look like. Who are we and why do we behave the way that we do?

THE HEART IS A DRUM MACHINE.
Music.
Directed by Christopher Pomerenke.
* An intimate look at the nature of music and what it does for us humans.

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

DALZIEL AND PASCOE: SEASON ONE.
Crime/Mystery/Drama.
Warren Clark/Colin Buchanan.
* These guys are a bit of an “Odd Couple” of murder investigation detectives.

IN PLAIN SIGHT: SEASON TWO.
Drama.
* Season two in the series about a US Marshall who works in the Federal Witness protection program.

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

BARBIE IN A MERMAID TALE.

CHARLIE AND LOLA 10.

GEORGE SHRINKS: SUNKEN TREASURES.

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

JOHN FROM CINCINATTI.

TALK TO HER.
* Awesome Almodovar flick.


****

****new release list no.257

Out on DVD this week is WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE by Spike Jonze based on the Maurice Sendak book of the same name. Wonderfully designed, superbly acted, and presented with just the right amount of seriousness, this film is one of that rare few that manages to make a full-length feature out of a short story. With James Gandolfini (The Sopranos) as the head of the wild things.

PONYO is the latest from Hayao Miyazaki (SPIRITED AWAY, MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO). Ponyo is a little mermaid who wishes to be a little girl. However, the magic which transforms her also disrupts the natural order and creates a chaotic world which she and her friend Sosuke must settle. Featuring the wild and fantastic animation we’ve come to expect from a Miyazaki film.

Three other Hollywood films of note are GENTLEMEN BRONCOS, featuring Jemaine Clement (THE FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS), THE PRIVATE LIVES OF PIPPA LEE ( starring Robin Wright, Julianne Moore, Winona Ryder, Alan Arkin and many more) about a woman facing a mid-life crises and an aging husband, and 2012, a disaster movie about the year after next.

There are also some good docs out this week, such as KNOW YOUR MUSHROOMS, an educational adventure into the world of fungi; BELIEVE, THE EDDIE IZZARD STORY, chronicling the rise of the famous standup comedian; TELL THEM ANYTHING YOU WANT, a portrait of writer Maurice Sendak; and SHOOTER SERIES VOL 2: FEATURING F. GARY GRAY.

We also have a bunch of films recently release on Blu-Ray (THE NEVERENDING STORY, THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM, THE CLASH OF THE TITANS, THE LADY KILLERS), lots of new kids movies and multiple version of ALICE IN WONDERLAND (the 1933 version, the 1999 version and a 2009 modern mini-series called ALICE) as we gear up for the new one coming to theatres any moment.

Alrighty then, see you down at the store.

Love and Kisses,
Ken

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

ECLIPSE SERIES 20: GEORGE BERNARD SHAW ON FILM.
MAJOR BARBARA, CAESAR AND CLEOPATRA, and ANDROCLES AND THE LION.
Criterion/Drama.
* From Criterion: The hugely influential Nobel Prize–winning critic and playwright George Bernard Shaw was notoriously reluctant to allow his writing to be adapted for the cinema. Yet thanks to the persistence of Hungarian producer Gabriel Pascal, Shaw finally agreed to collaborate on a series of screen versions of his witty, social-minded plays, starting with the Oscar-winning Pygmalion. The three other films that resulted from this famed alliance, Major Barbara, Caesar and Cleopatra, and Androcles and the Lion, long overshadowed by Pygmalion, are gathered here for the first time on DVD. These clever, handsomely mounted entertainments star such luminaries of the big screen as Vivien Leigh, Claude Rains, Wendy Hiller, and Rex Harrison.

ELVIS.
Fictobiopic.
Kurt Russell/Shelley Winters.
Directed by John Carpenter.
* 1979 television movie about the MAN! I so wanted to be the next king of rock and roll when I was five...Russell does a pretty tremendous impersonation of Elvis, and that’s probably the very best thing we can say about this film. They don’t delve too specifically into his problems.

GENTLEMEN BRONCOS.****BD****
Comedy.
Michael Angarano/Jemaine Clement/Mike White/Sam Rockwell.
Directed by Jared Hess.
* Jemaine Clement, one of the two brilliant writers and performers behind THE FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS, plays a former child fantasy writer whose work is not currently cutting it in the publishing world. When a teenager submits his story to a sci-fi writing contest that he is helping judge, he steals the story and publishes it under his name.

IN A DAY.
Drama/Romance/Comedy/Indi.
Finlay Robertson.
Directed by Evan Richards.
*After a young woman has a chance encounter with a grade A chump, she randomly meets another guy with whom she spends a lovely day with. Won a little batch of awards on the festival circuit.

PONYO.****BD****
Animation/Family.
Matt Damon/Tina Fey/Cate Blanchett/Liam Neeson/Lily Tomlin/Cloris Leachman.
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki.
* Have you seen any Miyazaki films? He is a Japanese director and animator and storyteller who makes kids movies that are great for adults and also dark adult animated features full of intensity and wild beauty. If you haven’t seen any of his flicks, start with SPIRITED AWAY which will spirit you away, right into his bizarre and fantastical world. PONYO is Miyazaki’s latest film, and it is definitely directed at the young children. It is the story of a young mermaid who longs to be human (why does everything long to be human? Most humans long to be something else…). When she meets Sosuke, a lonely five-year-old boy, she uses her magic to become a little girl. Unfortunately, Ponyo’s family’s desire to get her back causes some serious problems on earth, and soon Ponyo and Sosuke must set out on an adventure to help reestablish equilibrium to the world.

THE PRIVATE LIVES OF PIPPA LEE.****BD****
Drama/Romance.
Robin Wright/Julianne Moore/Alan Arkin/Keanu Reeves/Blake Lively/Winona Ryder/Monica Bellucci/Maria Bello
Directed by Rebecca Miller.
* Pippa (Wright) is married to a much older writer. She has been a dutiful wife, with ostensibly a good marriage, with kids and all the trappings of married life. Now, however, everything is unraveling. Her husband wants them to move to a borderline retirement community, and has started dabbling outside of the marital vows. Soon Pippa herself is dabbling. Will she have a nervous breakdown? Does an affair with someone played by Keanu Reeves count as a nervous breakdown? It might, comrade, it might.

2012.****BD****
Action /Disaster/Conspiracy/Bike Racks/Smoking Sections/Voodoo/Hotbox/Dude, You’re High.
John Cusack/Chiwetel Ejiofor/Amanda Peet/Woody Harrelson/Thandie Newton/Oliver Platt/Danny Glover/George Segal!
Directed by Roland Emmerich.
* Dude! There are unprecedented natural disasters happening with increasing frequency! Don’t you get it? It’s like the bible said, man. Plagues, earthquakes, tsunami’s…you think global warming is anything less than an apocalyptic sign? The earth’s core. Is…Warming! We’re all gonna die!!!!! But…and this is a big but…if we BAND together. We can build arks…Lots of arks, and together (you and me, baby) we can rebuild this planet in every sense of the word. Or something like that. I didn’t see it.

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE.****BD****
Fantasy/Drama.
Max Records/James Gandolfini/Lauren Ambrose/Catherine Keener/Paul Dano/Catherine O’Hara/Forest Whitaker/Chris Cooper.
Directed by Spike Jonze.
* One of the more amazing things about Spike Jonze's silver-screen adaptation of WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE is that is manages somehow to be a movie made for adults but understandable best by kids. Don't get me wrong, in my mind this is not a kid's film. It is deep and beautiful and subtle and complicated, especially impressive considering the book it was adapted from -- Maurice Sendak's children's classic of the same name -- is just about 19 pages long. Now, traditionalists (and other adults) may complain about some of the liberty's taken in the movie (i.e. the walls don't melt away into the jungle, Max runs outside and eventually ends up at the water's edge and the monster's aren't nameless but actually have full characterization) and this is part of how the film leaves the kids behind. Childhood, the film seems to argue, is fraught with huge emotions, anger, fear and loneliness, combined with wild joy and boisterous and exuberant happiness. Which makes perfect sense...to an adult. For a kid, discussing this concept is like asking them how they like you as a parent. They don't have the perspective yet. They haven't had the illusions popped. Their hardened walls haven't even been built. Those experiences, bitter pills swallowed, are the things that grow us up. This film feels emotions so strong, and in fact journeys through its arc on the wave of one emotion after another. Carol, the erstwhile leader of the Wild Things, asks Max at the beginning if he can keep the sadness away. Hell no, he can't. Luckily for kids, like Max, the sadness comes on like a Tsunami, and then flows away. Whereas for the broken adults (kind of like Carol), we try to stave off the sorrow, and struggle hard with it once we are confronted head on. I imagine my kids, though not wanting to watch this movie for fear of being scared and upset, would be able to explain the characters in the film and their motivations quite easily, but I imagine some adults will find the story dull, and childish. What a beautiful dichotomy! For me, the film works best as a gentle metaphor and as a not so gentle reminder of a time where rationalizations were meaningless, because reason was fleeting. When Carol howls at the sky as Max is leaving I felt like howling too, for the Max inside, for the Max I was, for the Max that I left when I got in my own boat and when where the wild things aren't..

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

BELIEVE: THE EDDIE IZZARD STORY.
Doc/Comedy.
Directed by Sarah Townsend.
* This movie follows the arc of Izzard’s life and career through his challenging early days losing his mother to illness and being sent away to grow up at boarding school, through his eventual success. Included in the film are great archival and home video footage!

KNOW YOUR MUSHROOMS.
Documentary/Nature.
Directed by Ron Mann.
* This doc takes us on an adventure through the marvelous world of fungi. Combining fascinating information (the world’s oldest and largest organisms are both fungi) with a wonderful soundtrack by The Flaming Lips, it’s a fun journey, and quite educational, too.

SHOOTER SERIES VOL 2: FEATURING F. GARY GRAY.
Documentary/Music/Film.
* F. Gary Gray is the director of FRIDAY among other films and countless hip-hop music videos.

TELL THEM ANYTHING YOU WANT.
Documentary/Literature
Directed by Spike Jonze and Lance Bangs.
* That’s what Maurice Sendak said when asked many questions! This portrait of the famous children’s story writer shows the cantankerous writer to also be full of so much more. Famous for WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE, he also wrote a ton of other books and also illustrated many famous books including the LITTLE BEAR series by Else Holmelund Minarik.

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

ALICE.
Fantasy.
Catarina Scorsone/Andrew Lee Potts/Tim Curry/Harry Dean Stanton/Kathy Bates.
* Wild reimagining of ALICE IN WONDERLAND with modern twists on everything. Sort of like that TIN MAN mini-series was for THE WIZARD OF OZ a few years ago starring Zoe Deschanel.

BROTHERS AND SISTERS: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON.
Drama/Comedy.
* This show has been on in the store the whole time I have been writing the blog this week. I keep getting pulled into the story, but I haven’t watched it enough to give it the super recommendation. It is about the trials and tribulations surrounding the adult siblings of a family.

DOG WHISPERER W/CESAR MILLAN: SEASON FOUR VOLUME ONE.
Woof! Shhhhhh.

POLDARK: SET 1.
Drama.
* BBC costume drama from the 70’s about an 18th Century family in England.

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

BRACEFACE: BRACE YOURSELF.

FARZZLES WORLD.

JACOB TWO-TWO.

OLIVIA TAKES BALLET.

QUADS: COMPLETE FIRST SEASON.

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

THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM.
* The final chapter on Blu-ray, to complete our collection of the Bourne films.

THE CLASH OF THE TITANS.
* In anticipation of the remake…

THE LADY KILLERS.
* Not the Coen Brothers remake, Alexander Mackendrick’s 1955 original starring Alec Guinness.

THE NEVERENDING STORY.
* Great 1984 fantasy film.

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

ALICE IN WONDERLAND (1933).
* Check out this crazy cast list: Gary Cooper, W.C. Fields, Cary Grant, Charlotte Henry and Richard Arlen…this version of Alice is so weird, with early special effects, and crazy costuming.

ALICE IN WONDERLAND (1999).
* Now check out this cast list: Robbie Coltrane, Whoopie Goldberg, Ben Kingsley, Christopher Lloyd, Miranda Richardson, Martin Short, Gene Wilder and Pete Postlethwaite!

............//REPLACEMENT COPIES/............

CASTLE IN THE SKY.
* Just another copy of this amazing incredible Miyazaki film.

KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE.
* Ditto to CASTLE.

MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO.
* Ditto to KIKI’S – Actually, in all honesty, this one may be the best kids movie ever made.

SECRET LIFE OF THE AMERICAN TEENAGER: SEASON TWO.

****