My gosh, my peeps, I totally missed you last week! It was like I was on vacation, but I wasn’t! But I will be next week, and the week after! Ain’t life grand?Really, it is though. It’s all about the balance sheet. You got honesty, integrity and love on the left. Then there is aggravation, irritation, back-stabbing and idiocy on the right… Also on the left is fresh fruit, butterflies (fluttering by), rainbows and pretty sunsets. Over on the right is smog, rotten avocados, broken hearts and broken toys. The left: sensuality, air, water, food, flowers, kindness. The right: greediness, selfishness (except when it is necessary for self-preservation), unemployment, soullessness, hindrance, encumbrance, vexation. Left – music (unless it is grating), dirt (unless you just need to be clean), sunshine (when shade and water are available), rain (except when you are cold, and unprepared). Right – illness, physical pain (unless you like that kind of thing), oppression, fear, loss, hopelessness. Weigh it out. Scrape stuff off the right. Add liberally to the left (not trying to make a political statement with the left and right stuff here, but if it feels right, run with it).
It’s kind of trite to say, but it’s seems like when we want life to seem great, that is available to us, and when we want it to be cruddy, that’s there, too. Is it that simple? Do we just need to want life to be good to have it be good? Maybe, peeps, it may be.
Well, enough of that. Seen anything good lately? Amy and I just finished watching the UK version of LIFE ON MARS. It was a customer suggestion (thanks!) and we went with it. The show ran for just two seasons and followed a detective who had an accident and woke up in 1973. Is he mad? In a coma? Or really back in time? Whatever's happened, it’s like he’s landed on another planet. Now if he can work out the reason, maybe he can get home. That’s the voice over on in the intro. It took me all 16 episodes to get it down, and I may be off a word or two, but you get the point. Basically, the show is a detective show with a psychedelic twist and we really enjoyed it. It gets my recommendation. We also recently watched ROBIN HOOD, starring that fellow Russell Crowe and the wonderful Cate Blanchett. I had suggested to Amy that I wanted to watch a destruction- based action film, and frankly, it fit the bill perfectly! I don’t watch a ton of action flicks, so I am sure this movie sucked for many people, but for me, there were good battle scenes, a nice amount of bloodshed, arrows, chain-mail, and angry monarchs! I missed the end, b/c the kiddo woke up and climbed into our bed and cried at the sounds of the movie, but even so, I fully enjoyed it. Go figure.
There is a nice batch of movies out this week. BARNEY’S VERSION, starring Paul Giamatti, and SUCKER PUNCH are the bigger Hollywood titles. There are also a bunch of cool Criterion releases, as well as COWBOY BEBOP THE MOVIE out on Blu-ray. Last week, THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU came out as well. Check it out!
Btw: for those of you who know I am a musician, my band The Dont’s has been on an extended hiatus, and I have been rocking with some other bands lately. One such band, Static People, has a show this Thursday at The Stud! The band is really awesome and features a front woman, Dmitra Smith, who is total star material and will probably be rocking on the MTV one day soon. I have been honored to rock with them this summer, and this show should be super fun. We go on at 10:15pm. See you there!
Alrighty, that’s all folks, hope to see you at the stores.
Love and Kisses,
Ken
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............//NEW RELEASES//............
3 BACKYARDS.
Drama.
Edie Falco/Elias Koteas/Embeth Davidtz.
Directed by Eric Mendelsohn.
* This film follows three people in suburbia during one day in Autumn. For Mendelsohn, it is his second feature film, after 1999’s quirky JUDY BERLIN, also starring Falco.
BARNEY’S VERSION.****BD****
Comedy/Drama.
Paul Giamatti/Rosamund Pike/Minnie Driver/Dustin Hofffman.
Directed by Richard J. Lewis.
*Barney Panofsky (Giamatti) is a loud-mouthed, brash, irritating, boorish guy who lives life to the Nth degree full-time. In this somewhat lovable story, Barney reflects on his mistakes, his fortunes and his path as the finality of his existence comes into focus.
BEASTLY.
Drama/Fantasy/Romance.
Vanessa Hudgens/Alex Pettyfer/Mary-Kate Olsen.
Directed by Daniel Barnz.
* It’s “Beauty & The Beast” retold with the main characters set as teens in New York.
BLACK MOON.
Criterion/Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Foreign (English and French).
Directed by Louis Malle.
* This 1975 phantasmagorical story is strange and beautiful and involves a unicorn living with a very strange family. There is much escape from reality in this tale!
BLOODWORTH.
Drama.
Val Kilmer/Kris Kristofferson/Hilary Duff.
Directed by Shane Dax Taylor.
* Bloodworth is a wandering country musician who comes home after decades away to find angry and embittered family members waiting for him. Just as a side-note – Duff is actually a pretty good young actor, and probably raises this films watchability factor by a lot.
LEBANON, PA.
Drama/Comedy.
Josh Hopkins/Samantha Mathis.
Directed by Ben Hickernell.
* This bittersweet tale is about a man who heads home to bury his father, and the complicated familial relationships that he reconnects with while there.
MAX MANUS: MAN OF WAR.
Drama/Suspense/War/Foreign (Norweigan/Russian/German/English/Finnish).
* This intense story is about a real person, a brutally conflicted saboteur during WWII.
PEOPLE ON SUNDAY.
Criterion/Drama/Comedy/Black & White/Silent.
Directed by Robert Siodmak.
* This 1930 movie is nearly a documentary, as everyone basically plays themselves. They are people, working jobs, carrying on affairs, dreaming dreams and basically just living for Sunday, when they will head to the beach, flirt, joke, drink and laugh as they try to fit everything into one glorious afternoon. I guess for all time everybody’s working for the weekend.
SEASON OF THE WITCH.
Adventure/Fantasy/Unintentional Comedy.
Nicholas Cage/Ron Perlman.
Directed by Dominic Sena.
* Cage’s strange career continues, this time he plays a 14th century Knight, transporting a witch to a monastery to destroy her and try to save the world. In other news, his tax problems continue.
SK8 LIFE.
Drama/Skateboarding.
Directed by Wyeth Clarkson.
* A group of skaters band together to save something they love. And look cute skating all over the place.
SUCKER PUNCH.****BD****
Action/Fantasy.
Emily Browning/Vanessa Anne Hudgens/Abby Cornish/Jamie Chung.
Directed by Zack Snyder.
* Weird, heavy and sad film about a young girl institutionalized by her abusive father who escapes into a fantasy world where she and other young woman are going to fight to escape the sanitarium before she is scheduled to be lobotomized.
WHITE LIGHTNIN’.
Drama.
Edward Hogg/Carrie Fisher.
Directed by Dominic Murphy.
* Remember Jesco White, "the dancing outlaw”? There was a great documentary about him and his West Virginia gun-toting, whiskey drinking, dancing ways. This is a feature film about the guy, and his life.
ZAZIE DANS LE METRO.
Criterion/Comedy.
Edward Hogg/Carrie Fisher.
Directed by Louis Malle.
* This madcap 60’s comedy is about a 12-year-old girl who goes awol while staying with relatives in Paris while her mom is off having an affair.
............//DOCUMENTARY/............
BOB DYLAN-GOTTA DO MY TIME.
Documentary/Music.
* A look at Dylan’s life during the 1970’s and 1980’s. Great footage, as usual.
HEMPSTERS-PLANT THE SEED.
Documentary/Social Policy.
Directed by Michael Henning.
* As Peter Tosh sang, “Legalize it, and I will advertise it”. Come on people, move on dot org already. Not surprisingly, Woody Harrelson and Willie Nelson are in this film following a group of hemp activists working to change the laws around the world.
............//KIDS/............
DANNY AND THE DINOSAUR.
THE DAY JIMMY’S BOA ATE THE WASH.
GERALD MCBOING BOING COLLECTION.
TIMMY TIME: PICTURE DAY.
............//NEW ON BLU/............
COWBOY BEBOP: THE MOVIE.****BD****
* Brilliant animation.
************
In last week’s missing episode…
THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU.****BD**** Matt Damon in a Philip K. Dick story.
BEDWAYS. - Shazaaam!
CEDAR RAPIDS. - Comedy.
CEREMONY.****BD**** Uma. Romantic comedy.
THE CLOSER: THE COMPLETE 6th SEASON.
DIARY OF A WIMPY KID 2: RODRICK RULES.
THE EAGLE.****BD**** Channing Tatum, buff, Roman, dangerous.
ECLIPSE SERIES 27-RAFFAELLO MATARAZZOS RUNAWAY MELODRAMAS. - These Eclipse series are Criterion Collections and are generally must-sees for cinema fans.
ELEKTRA LUXX. - Pregnant porn star seeks new career. Is it comedy? Says “action”. Uh-huh.
HAPPYTHANKYOUMOREPLEASE. - Indie.
HARVEST.
KISS ME DEADLY. - Criterion by Robert Aldrich.
LOUIS: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON.****BD****
MARPLE: PALE HORSE.
NICKELODEON: BIG BOX OF PLAY DATES.
NICKELODEON FAVORITES: SUMMER VACATION!
POISON: 20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION. - Todd Haynes freaky film.
ROCKO’S MODERN LIFE: SEASON ONE.
UNKNOWN.****BD**** Liam Neeson, action thriller.
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