Today was a superb movie day for me. I started out the day with the DARK CRYSTAL, moved on to MURDER BY DEATH and eventually landed on BREAKING AWAY, ALL of which were rented out from under me. I love that. BREAKING AWAY was so awesome, I almost put on THE KARATE KID afterwards, but I was afraid I’d be too devastated if that was rented before I got to the climactic scene.
This week we have another huge stack of stuff. The two trends I see? A bunch of older movies first making their appearance on DVD (BRUTE, BLACK SUNDAY, UNDER THE VOLCANO, FANTASTIC PLANET), and a myriad of documentaries starting with the letter C (CARNIVAL IN THE NIGHT, THE CASE OF HOWARD PHILLIPS LOVECRAFT, CLASS ACT, COMMUNE). We’ve also got some horror of sorts (FIDO, HOSTEL PART II) some Kevin Costner (MR. BROOKS), Walt (MEET THE ROBINSONS), Iraq (HOME OF THE BRAVE) and superfreak (INTERKOSMOS). But wait there’s more (BEST OF CHAPPELLE’S SHOW, THE COMPANY, THE L WORD: 4th SEASON, AIR GUITAR NATION (!!!)), as well as a large batch of new acquisitions including BEETLEJUICE, GLORIA, MEET THE FEEBLES, GRAPES OF DEATH, GREMLINS and more.
I very much recommend MEET THE FEEBLES for the adventurous cult freak movie lovers.
I heard the Fiesta on the Hill was great this year. I was sorry not to have the opportunity to get dunked, which I heard came with this job. Maybe next year.
Until then,
Ken
............//NEW TITLES//............
BRUTE.
Drama/Foreign (Spanish).
Pedro Armendariz/Katy Jurado/Andres Soler.
Directed by Luis Bunuel.
* Brilliant Bunuel 1953 masterpiece finally finding its way to DVD about a muscle-y servant who is hired to help an evil landlord have his way with the poor tenants of his building.
BLACK SUNDAY.
Horror/Foreign (Italian).
Barbara Steele/John Richardson/Ivo Garrani.
Directed by Mario Bava.
* Another older film just finding its way to DVD, this film was called La Maschera del Demonio when it was released in Italy in 1961. It concerns a witch who returns from the grave to wreak havoc on the world.
FANTASTIC PLANET.
Sci-Fi/Animation.
Directed by Rene Laloux.
* Tripped out 1973 surrealistic story about a planet of giants where tiny humanoids are fighting against domestication for their lives. Based on the Soviet Union’s occupation of Czechoslovakia.
FIDO.
Horror/Comedy.
Carrie Moss/Billy Connolly.
Directed by Andrew Currie.
* This zombie satire involves a young boys relationship with his servant zombie who he calls Fido. The tagline? “Good Dead Are Hard To Find.” Really this reminds me of my bands tour in NYC last week. Our last show was in Tribeca, and we were really concerned that we would be playing to an empty house. However, unbeknownst to us, ZOMBIECON was having their afterparty at the very club we were playing. We rocked the undead and were saved by the zombies. Life was good.
HOME OF THE BRAVE.
Drama/War.
Jessica Biel/Curtis Jackson/Christina Ricci.
Directed by Irwin Winkler.
* It seems the Iraqi war movies are starting to roll in, earlier than I usually expect in a war. In this one, a group of soldiers who are about to go home, have one final tragic interlude with insurgents which flavors their lives terribly back stateside.
HOSTEL PART II.
Horror.
Lauren German/Heather Matarazzo/Bijou Phillips.
Directed by Eli Roth.
* Three young American chicks get chopped up by psychos from around the world.
INTERKOSMOS.
Cult/Freak/Weird/Wow/Not-Foreign but in(German).
Dean DeMatteis/Jim Finn/Nandini Khaund.
Directed by Jim Finn.
* Here is what I read on IMDB: “Interkosmos is a musical documentary-style film about the East German space program-a program with the energy and creativity of the Soviet arts scene of the 1920s and a bit of the hippie sensibility from West Germany of the early 1970s. The story is about a failed space colonization mission called "wundertüte" and is told through narration, dialogue, letters, and period songs.”
MEET THE ROBINSONS.
Family/Adventure/Animation.
Angela Bassett/Paul Butcher.
Directed by Steve Anderson.
* Disney joy fest about an inventor and some trips back and forth to and from the future.
MR. BROOKS.
Suspense.
Kevin Costner/William Hurt/Demi Moore.
Directed by Bruce Evans.
* Mr. Brooks (Costner) is a sweetheart community father/husband/businessman/philanthropist/serial killer. Oops, that last thing is a secret. Usually he is so slick that his alter-ego is able to help him keep careful control over his double life, however control is slipping away. I admit, usually I just don’t like Costner, but this film looks really interesting to me.
UNDER THE VOLCANO.
Drama.
Albert Finney/Jacqueline Bisset.
Directed by John Huston.
* Yet another older film hitting DVD (this is a bit of a trend this week). This is a 1984 film about Geoffrey Firmin (Finney), a drunk British consul living in wrecked despair in 1939 Mexico.
............//TELEVISION//............
THE COMPANY.
Television.
Chris O’Donnell/Alfred Molina/Michael Keaton.
Directed by Mikael Salomon.
* TV miniseries tracking the CIA over a 40 year span culminating post-Cold War.
THE L WORD: 4th SEASON.
Television.
Jennifer Beals/Mia Kirshner/Pam Grier.
* Next season in the popular series about a group of L’s.
............//DOCUMENTARY//............
AIR GUITAR NATION.
Documentary.
Directed by Alexandra Lipsitz.
* I really really really wish I could have competed at the US Air Guitar Championships. Damn, these dudes SHRED!
CARNIVAL IN THE NIGHT.
Music/Documentary/Foreign (Japanese).
Kumiko Ota/Akemi Edo.
Directed by Masashi Yamamoto.
* Tweaky music doc following a woman who throws it all away to explore the underground punk scene in Japan in the early 1980’s.
THE CASE OF HOWARD PHILLIPS LOVECRAFT.
Documentary/Foreign (French).
Directed by Patrick Mario Bernard and Pierre Trividic.
* A “highly unorthodox” study of the life of author H.P. Lovecraft.
CLASS ACT.
Documentary.
Andy Garcia/among others.
Directed by Sara Sackner.
* This doc focuses on the lack of funding for arts in public schools. The main subject is Jay W. Jensen, a veteran Florida drama teacher with over 40 years of experience. We got this film in last week, but I think we missed it on the blog
COMMUNE.
Documentary.
Directed by Jonathan Berman.
* Black Bear Ranch Commune, founded in Northern California in the late 1960’s is the subject of this documentary.
............//COMEDY//............
BEST OF CHAPPELLE’S SHOW.
Comedy.
Dave Chappelle.
* 25 Greatest Skits.
............//RECENT ACQUISITIONS//............
BEETLEJUICE.
Our first DVD copy.
BEST OF THE ELECTRIC COMPANY.
Replacement DVD.
BOB DYLAN: DON’T LOOK BACK.
Replacement DVD.
ELLING.
Replacement DVD.
ERASERHEAD.
The classic! Our first DVD copy.
GLORIA.
Our first DVD copy.
GRAPES OF DEATH.
First time we are owning this classic, one of the many requested by Jeff, our resident cult film connoisseur.
GREMLINS.
Our first DVD copy. Don’t give them water, suckah.
HIGHER LEARNING.
Replacement DVD.
MEET THE FEEBLES.
Our first copy of any sort of this as well, this is pure cinematic mastery. If you love Muppets, but always wondered what it would be like if Kermy was on sex, drugs and rock n roll, then please check out this outrageous early Peter Jackson flick.
****
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