****new release list no.183

THIS FRIDAY, SEPT 12th: come help celebrate Ken’s birthday (the last of the 30’s – yikes!) with an evening soiree that will begin around 6:30 in Four Star’s outdoor screening patio and culminate with a screening of the reggae western THE HARDER THEY COME at 8pm. All are welcome. No donations for the screening, and definitely no presents, except your presence. Kids are super welcome. There’ll be popcorn and some drinks and snacks; feel free to bring some other eats if you wantsta eat.

What do EVERY WHICH WAY BUT LOOSE, KING OF NEW YORK, BASIC INSTINCT, RESEVOIR DOGS, DIRTY DANCING, RISKY BUSINESS, SPEED RACER, and L.A. CONFIDENTIAL all having common? They are among the 45+ titles that I have ordered in the last five days on Blu-ray, the hi-def format that I am LOVING these days since I bought the player and a new TV for the store. WOW! If you are renting these things, and you know of titles available that I haven’t bought and you wish I would, please let me know!

Elitist Tina Fey (psyche, little political humor here) hires a working class woman to bear her a child after she discovers her own infertility in BABY MAMA. Then the little Juno moves in with her! Ah, shit baby. Family values are in full display in this lovable little comedy that redraws the district lines of family.

Also new this week is about a brazillion new kids movies, including four new BARBIE flicks guaranteed to make your daughter lose her mind. Also, the first batch of Halloween movies has arrived as well.

Oh, speaking of Halloween. We have decided to culminate our fall schedule of outdoor screenings with a double feature on Halloween. At 7pm, we will show CHARLIE BROWN: IT’S THE GREAT PUMPKIN. Kids are encouraged to come in their costumes, and we will have much big fun! Later that night we will show a scary flick for the adults, and we are taking your advice to decide what to show. Any ideas? Email them to me!

Here is the complete fall screening schedule; you can pick up a little print-out of this at the store.

September 12

Ken’s Birthday bash – come early for music and drinks

The Harder They Come

September 19

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

September 26

E.T.

October 3

Back to the Future

October 10

Breaking Away

October 17

Little Miss Sunshine

October 24

Double Feature:

7pm The Karate Kid

9pm Meet The Feebles

October 31

Halloween Double Feature

7pm Charlie Brown: It’s the Great Pumpkin

9pm TBA!!

Alrighty then, see you at the store.

Love and kisses,

Ken

............//NEW TITLES//............

BABY MAMA.

Comedy/Romance.

Tina Fey/Amy Poehler/Greg Kinnear.

Directed by Michael McCullers.

* A business woman in her 30’s who cannot conceive, hires a young working class woman to carry a baby for her. Then, the surrogate ends up moving in with her and the family concept gets a major reworking.

THE FALL.

Adventure/Drama/Fantasy.

Cantinca Untaru/Justine Waddell/Lee Pace.

Directed by Tarsem Singh.

* Gorgeously filmed fantasy about a stunt man in the 1920’s telling a story to a young girl in a hospital. The two of them are locked into this tale as the larger story of the man’s life is being played out through the story.

THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM.****ALSO IN BLU-RAY****h

Action/Adventure/Martial Arts/Comedy.

Jet Li/Jackie Chan.

Directed by Rob Minkoff.

* There’s an imprisoned Monkey King and for me, that’s all I need to know.

FOREIGN EXCHANGE.

Comedy/Sophomoric Romp.

Directed by Danny Roth.

* Over testosteronated high school seniors hooking up with foreign exchange students.

I’M THROUGH WITH WHITE GIRLS.

Comedy/Romance.

Anthony Montgomery/Ryan Alosio/Lia Johnson.

Directed by Jennifer Sharp.

* Quirky and realistic romantic comedy about love, life and race.

I WANT CANDY.

Comedy.

Tom Riley/Tom Burke/Carmen Electra.

Directed by Stephen Surjik.

* Goofy English comedy about a couple of young filmmakers trying to make an adult film in one of their parent’s homes.

LIGHT AND THE SUFFERER.

Drama/Sci-fi.

Paul Dano/Michael Esper.

Directed by Christopher Peditto.

* Two rag-tag brother, dealing with the emotional pain of early adulthood, decide to leave the east coast and head to California to start a new life (hmm, sound familiar anyone?). A few sketchy decisions lead them into a relationship with an alternative life force that may be some sort of alien. This film was actually made before Dano hit it big with LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, and is only just now making it to DVD.

SEED.

Horror/Thriller.

Michael Pare/Will Sanderson.

Directed by Uwe Boll.

* Wow, Michael Pare (EDDIE AND THE CRUISERS) has had a weird career! Here he co-stars in this horror flick about the undead and being buried alive and bloody vengeance. That kind of stuff.

SATURN IN OPPOSITION.

Drama/LGBT/Foreign (Italian).

Stefano Accorsi.

Directed by Ferzan Ozpetek.

* Accorsi, who was also in BLAME IT ON FIDEL (which I loved) plays one of a group of thirty to forty-somethings working through the complicated relationships in their lives.

TAKING 5.

Comedy/Family.

Alona Tal/Daniella Monet/Bart Johnson.

Directed by Andrew Waller.

* A couple of young high school girls, attempting to boost their “cool” factor, kidnap a world famous “boy band” to get them to play at their school. Awesome.

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

THE LAST DAYS OF LEFT EYE.

Music Documentary.

Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes/Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas/Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins.

Directed by Lauren Lazin.

* The tragic story of the enigmatic rapper from TLC who died in a car accident in 2002 at the young age of 30.

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

GREY’S ANATOMY: SEASON FOUR EXPANDED.

Television/Drama.

Sandra Oh/Katherine Heigl/Ellen Pompeo.

Created by Shonda Rhimes.

* Season four in the popular hospital drama focusing on young interns and their bosses.

INSPECTOR LYNLEY: SET 6. ****IN STORE ON WEDNESDAY****

Television/Drama.

Sandra Oh/Katherine Heigl/Ellen Pompeo.

Created by Shonda Rhimes.

* Season four in the popular hospital drama focusing on young interns and their bosses.

UGLY BETTY: THE COMPLETE 2^nd SEASON.

Television/Comedy/Drama.

America Ferrera.

* Season two in the show about a normal looking woman trying to make a living in the shark infested waters of the world of high fashion.

............//FAMILY//............

BARBIE & THE DIAMOND CASTLE.

BARBIE PRINCESS COLLECTION.

BARNEY: BEST OF BARNEY.

CATS THE MOVIE.

EDGAR & ELLEN: MAD SCIENTISTS SEASON ONE VOL. ONE.

* This looks pretty funny. Edgar and Ellen are a brother-sister team playing pranks around the neighborhood.

THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN: ATTACK OF THE LIZARD.

* Animated tv show focusing on a young Peter Parker the mythology of his story.

SPOOKLEY: THE SQUARE PUMPKIN.

* He’s a square pumpkin, that’s not easy to be.

THE SPOOKTACULAR NEW ADVENTURES OF CASPER: VOLUME 2.

* Twelve animated Casper shorts.

THOMAS AND FRIENDS THE GREAT DISCOVERY.

VEGGIE TALES: HOLIDAY GIFT PACK.

* There’s four of them. Kids dig em. And, they’re vegetables. And vegetables are cool.

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

THE BERNIE MAC SHOW: SEASON ONE.

* First copies of this silly show from the late Bernie Mac.

THE BIG LEBOWSKI: 10^th ANNIVERSARY EDITION.

* New edition of this Coen brothers favorite.

CABARET.

Drama/Musical/Romance.

Liza Minelli.

* First DVD of this Bob Fosse masterpiece.

CAN”T BUY ME LOVE.

* First DVD of this 1987 comedy.

CINDERELLA 1998.

Brandy Norwood/Whitney Houston/Whoopie Goldberg.

* All-star cast in this updated version of the classic tale. Our first DVD copy.

THE COWBOY WAY.

Woody Harrelson/Kiefer Sutherland.

* I don’t think this is Brokeback Mountain 2, but it would be an awesome cast if it was.

THE GREAT ST. TRINIAN’S TRAIN ROBBERY.

* Another of those madcap English St. Trinian comedies.

GULLIVER’S TRAVELS.

* First DVD of the allegorical tale of the great traveler Gulliver (Ted Danson).

HOUSE OF THE DEAD.

* First DVD of this 2003 zombie movie made by Uwe Boll.

INGLORIOUS BASTARDS.

* I think this is a first time DVD release for this 70’s era war film probably getting play because Tarantino is filming an updated version tentatively scheduled for a 2009 release.

MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS.

*First DVD of this awesome Agatha Christie flick directed by Sidney Lumet (BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD) and starring Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Jacqueline Bisset, Sean Connory, John Gielgud, Anthony Perkins, Vanessa Redgrave, Michael York, and more.

ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST.

* First DVD of this awesome Jack Nicholson film of the terrific Ken Kesey book.

SEE NO EVIL, HEAR NO EVIL.

* First DVD of this hilarious Gene Wilder/Richard Pryor vehicle.

SHROOMS.

* This is actually a new release a few months ago, but it lives in New Additionland at Four Star. It is a horror movie about some trippers who start getting killed while on a camping drugfest trip.

SIGNAL 7.

Indie.

Directed by Rob Nillson.

* A night in the life of a batch of cab drivers, set in San Francisco, by a seriously independent film maker who has made nearly 20 independent films!

SPACE CAMP.

* First DVD of this 1986 kid’s movie about young campers shot accidentally into space.

............//REPLACMENT DISCS//............

CONFIDENCE.

* Replacement disc of this con artist tale starring Dustin Hoffman, Edward Burns, Paul Giamatti and more.

****

****new release list no.182

THIS FRIDAY, SEPT 5th: come see HEATHERS in our backyard screening patio. Iconic for so many reasons, and starring a young Winona Ryder and Christian Slater, this film shows you just how many ways things can go wrong for the in-crowd in high school. New fall screening times! Doors open at 7:45, movie starts at 8pm. Candy/Soda $1. Suggested donation $5. Popcorn is free!

The Bernal Heights Outdoor Cinema festival has been tremendous thus far! I have seen many terrific films, such as BEYOND THE CALL a painful, beautiful and inspiring documentary about three men’s selfless work on Earth’s front lines by Adrian Belic and THE VIOLIN, a short and demented treatise on the dangerous affects an instrument can have on your life by Bernal’s own Dean Mermell, who also wrote and performed an excellent piano soundtrack to the film. Dean is also in a rock opera currently in performance called EXIT SIGN and you can read about it here.

The BHOC finishes up this Sunday at Zeum at 7pm. Hopefully we will have some BHOC events at Four Star during the year in preview of the 6^th festival next year.

It’s September! Which means so many things. The lovely warmest months of the year are upon us. School has started for many. And it’s my birthday month! (More on that next week). As it is a new month, that can only mean one thing at Four Star Video. A new edition of HIGHLIGHTED NEW ADDITIONS. This month, Rachel W. has brought into our collection a tremendous group of DVD’s that we have previously on had on VHS (HOUSEBOAT, TO CATCH A THIEF, MOVE OVER DARLING, ARSENIC AND OLD LACE, BETTER OFF DEAD), as well as a great collection of new stuff; some docs (DARFUR DIARIES, 18 IN 08, CONFESSIONS OF A SUPERHERO), some comedy (BEST OF MAD TV SEASONS 8,9 AND 10, PIZZA, COMPLETE GIDGET COLLECTION, NEVER BEEN KISSED) and some other terrific stuff as well. Check it out!

This week there is a good stack of stuff, including season 4 of the USA version of the OFFICE which is pretty freaking funny, I must say. Also in this week is the dark rumination on married life called...uh...MARRIED LIFE.

I watched a new addition to the library last night called I’M A CYBORG, BUT IT’S OK, which was terrific! It is a Korean comedy by Chan-wook Park (OLD BOY, LADY VENGEANCE), super stylized, and with grand vision about a young woman who is hospitalized after deciding she is a robot and the young thief she meets in the hospital who helps her accept her fate. The movie is beautiful and weird and funny, and I highly recommend it. Wow!

Last note: Have you seen our new TV and Blu-ray player? Thanks a million to Tom, our neighbor and friend who helped us pick out our new toys and install them. Now we can play these so-called Blu-ray discs at the store and show you just how spectacular they look. After about an hour staring at them this morning, I can say they are better than advertised. PLANET EARTH on Blu-ray knocked my socks off.

Alrighty then, see you at the store.

Love and kisses,

Ken

PS. My band THE DONT’S is rocking the Red Devil Lounge on Thursday night, Sept 4th…

............//NEW TITLES//............

ART OF TRAVEL.

Adventure.

Christopher Masterson/Brooke Burns/Johnny Messner.

Directed by Thomas Whelan.

* A travel film with pretty cinematography about a kid who gets dumped by his fiancée and goes on what was supposed to be his Central American honeymoon solo.

ASIAN STORIES.

Comedy.

James Kyson Lee/Kathy Uyen/Kirt Kishita.

Directed by Ron Oda and Kris Chin.

* Another small budget indie film about a jilted lover, in this Jim (Lee) wants his buddy Alex (Kishita) to kill him to get him over his pain about getting dumped.

BALLET SHOES.

Drama/Family.

Emma Watson/Emilia Fox/Yasmin Paige/Richard Griffiths.

Directed by Sandra Goldbacher.

* Three young orphans adopted by an eccentric and raised as sisters in 1930’s London.

BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CITY: 20^th ANNIVERSARY EDITION.

Drama.

Michael J. Fox/Kiefer Sutherland/Phoebe Cates.

Directed by James Bridges.

* The 20^th anniversary edition of the film adapted from James McInerney’s novel of the same name about a young sad writer in New York on a coke-binge.

THE FORSAKEN LAND.

Drama/ Foreign (Sinhala).

Kaushalaya Fernando.

Directed by Vimukthi Jayasundara..

* Avant-garde visually stunning film from Sri Lanka.

ITTY BITTY TITTY COMMITTEE.

Comedy/Drama/LGBT.

Melonie Diaz/Nicole Vicius/Carly Pope.

Directed by Jamie Babbitt.

* More of a tale of radical pull no punches punk rock feminism than anything else!

MARRIED LIFE.

Drama/Crime.

Pierce Brosnan/Chris Cooper/Rachel McAdams/Patricia Clarkson.

Directed by Ira Sachs.

* Dark tale of a man who decides to kill his wife rather than have her deal with the pain of him leaving her. Sounds like a paean to Narcissism!

OUTSOURCED.

Comedy.

Josh Hamilon/Ayesha Dharker.

Directed by John Jeffcoat.

* A story of a salesman who after losing his job, must travel to India to train his replacement. Won many awards on the Film Festival circuit.

PROM QUEEN: THE MARC HALL STORY.

Comedy/Drama/LGBT.

Aaron Ashmore/Marie Tifo.

Directed by John L’Ecuyer.

* When a young man tries to bring his boyfriend to the prom, all hell breaks loose.

REPRISE.

Drama/Foreign (Norwegian).

Anders Lie/Viktoria Winge.

Directed by Joachim Trier.

* Much accredited and awarded film about some young friends going through the pangs and joys of young adulthood.

THEN SHE FOUND ME.

Comedy/Drama.

Helen Hunt/Bette Midler/Colin Firth/Matthew Broderick.

Directed by Helen Hunt.

* Helen Hunts debut as a feature film director, she also stars in the film about a teacher in NY who undergoes a mid-life crisis after her husband leaves her and her adoptive mother dies. Further complicating things is her biological mother who shows up and adds chaos to her life.

VIRGIN TERRITORY.

Comedy/Drama/Adventure.

Hayden Christensen/Mischa Barton/Tim Roth/Matthew Broderick.

Directed by David Leland.

* Medieval sex hijinks.

WATER LILLIES.

Drama/LGBT/Foreign (French).

Pauline Acquart/Louise Blachere/Adele Haenel.

Directed by Celine Sciamma.

* Teenagers in the hot summer in France lounging at the swimming pool and feeling the first explorations of love.

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

BEYOND BELIEF.

Documentary.

Patti Quigley/Susan Retik.

Directed by Beth Murphy.

* The story of two women who lost their husbands in the 911 attacks and whose journey to rebuild their lives takes them around the world to Kabul.

LAGERFELD CONFIDENTIAL

Documentary.

Nicole Kidman/Karl Lagerfeld.

Directed by Rodolphe Marconi.

* Portrait of the fashion magnate Karl Lagerfeld.

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

DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES: COMPLETE 4^th SEASON.

Television/Drama.

Teri Hatcher/Felicity Huffman/Nicollette Sheridan/Eva Longoria Parker.

Created by Marc Cherry.

* Hot desperate moms looking for action.

NEXT AVENGERS: HEROES OF TOMORROW.

Television/Animation/Kids.

Created by Jay Olivia.

* The children of the Avengers are out for revenge against those who were responsible for destroying their parents. Ah yeah.

THE OFFICE: SEASON 4. (USA version)

Television/Comedy.

Steve Carell.

* Season four in the hysterical mockumentary on office life.

X-FILES: REVELATIONS.

Television/Drama/Mystery.

David Duchovny/Gillian Anderson.

Directed by.

* Compilation of great episodes to lube you up for the feature film coming soon.

............//FAMILY//............

3 2 1 PENGUINS: SAVE THE PLANETS.

Family.

MAX AND RUBY’S PERFECT PUMPKIN.

Family.

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

ARSENIC AND OLD LACE.

Comedy/Thriller.

Cary Grant/Peter Lorre.

Directed by Frank Capra.

* First DVD of this twisted comedy about a newspaperman (Grant) who discovers his sweet older aunties are actually murdering old men and burying them in their basement with the help of other nutso members of the family.

BEST OF MAD TV: SEASONS 8, 9 and 10.

Television/Comedy.

* Selected episodes of hilarity from the totally wacky sketch comedy show.

BETTER OFF DEAD: I LOVE THE 80’s EDITION.

Comedy.

John Cusack.

Directed by Savage Steve Holland.

* First DVD of this dark and funny John Cusack (at 19 years of age) film from 1985 about the many ways that teen life can go wrong. “I want my two dollars!”

COMPLETE GIDGET COLLECTION.

Comedy.

Directed by Paul Wendkos.

* No, not the television series with Sally Fields, the original movies featuring a surfing gender barrier break hero named Gidget and her somewhat of a boyfriend Moondoggy. Made in the 1960’s and featuring three different Gidgets (Sandra Dee, Deborah Walley and Cindy Carol) and featuring James Darren as Moondoggy in all three movies, these films are great fun, with pretty rich surfing scenes. The three movies are GIDGET, GIDGET GOES HAWAIIAN and GIDGET GOES TO ROME.

CONFESSIONS OF A SUPERHERO.

Documentary.

Directed by Matthew Ogens.

* Ogens follows four people walking Hollywood Blvd dressed as Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman and The Hulk, as they try to make it as actors in Hollywood.

CONTACTS VOL. 1: THE GREAT TRADITION OF PHOTOJOURNALISM.

Documentary.

Henri Cartier-Bresson/William Klien/Raymond Depardon/Marc Riboud.

Directed by Richard Copans and Stan Neumann.

* Great photographers around the world explore and spill their secrets and methods in this first volume of the Contacts series.

DARFUR DIARIES: MESSAGE FROM HOME.

Documentary.

Directed by Aisha Bain and Jen Marlowe and Adam Shapiro.

* A brutal and frank documentation into the tragic situation in Darfur told through the voices of its citizens.

18 IN 08.

Documentary.

Peter Sarsgaard.

Directed by David D. Burstein.

* Designed to get young people voting, this doc was made by the 19-year-old Burstein and features interviews with many politicians and while spelling out the high stakes to the youth of America.

HOUSEBOAT.

Comedy/Drama/Family/Romance.

Cary Grant/Sophia Loren.

Directed by Melville Shavelson.

* First DVD copy of this 1958 classic about a widower raising three kids and the Italian socialite who becomes his children’s nanny and some.

JONNY QUEST: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON.

Television/Animaton/Action.

Tim Matheson.

Created by Doug Whildey.

* Jonny and family battle villains all over the planet in this 1964 cartoon. Interesting factoid: A seventeen-year-old Tim Matheson (ANIMAL HOUSE, THE WEST WING) is the voice of Jonny!

MOVE OVER, DARLING.

Comedy/Romance.

Doris Day/James Garner/Don Knotts.

Directed by Michael Jordan.

* First DVD of this 1963 zany comedy about a man who has his wife declared legally dead after she has been missing for five years after a plane crash. Just when he gets remarried, she is rescued from an island and reappears on the scene.

NEVER BEEN KISSED.

Comedy/Drama/Romance.

Drew Barrymore/David Arquette/Molly Shannon/John C. Reilly.

Directed by Raja Gosnell

* First DVD of this 1999 film about a journalist (Barrymore) who goes undercover at her old high school for a story. The catch? She was a nerdy kid and now she’s hot potatoes.

PIZZA.

Comedy.

Ethan Embry/Kylie Sparks.

Directed by Mark Christopher.

* This sweet teen indie comedy is about a girl having her first experiences with dating.

TO CATCH A THIEF: SPECIAL COLLECTOR’S EDITION.

Crime/Mystery/Romance.

Cary Grant/Grace Kelly.

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

* First DVD of this 1955 tale of a reformed jewel thief forced to solve a new crime to clear his name.

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

I’M A CYBORG, BUT THAT’S OKAY.

Comedy/Drama/Romance/Fantasy/Foreign (Korean).

Su-jeong Lim/Rain.

Directed by Chan-wook Park.

* By the guy who brought us OLD BOY and LADY VENGEANCE comes this new stylized and beautiful comedy about mental health and the many faces of sanity. The vision of this film, combined with the beautifully arranged tableaus, dynamic special effects and gorgeous cinematography and make this luscious film a must-see!

****

****new release list no.181

THIS FRIDAY, Aug 26th: come see BEYOND THE CALL as part of the Bernal Heights Outdoor Cinema festival at our backyard screening room. Doors open at 7:00 with musical entertainment provided by an electric guitar duo. The film, a documentary about three good Samaritans, will start around 7:45pm. Please come early to get a seat.

Lots of movies as always this week. ENTOURAGE: SEASON 4 is bound to be quite popular, as will be the mostly animated documentary CHICAGO 10 about the anti-war protesters who got busted livening up the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Also likely to garner interest is David Mamet’s new movie REDBELT which is improbably about ultimate fighting! There may be those out there who have heard of SON OF RAMBOW, a very entertaining indie film about some young boys out to re-film RAMBO with themselves starring in it. Oh, and I mustn’t forget HEROES: SEASON 2, the continuing saga of mass supernatural power training.

We have some great foreign films, led by BOATS FROM WATERMELON RINDS, a sweet coming-of-age tale from Turkey, as well as SALO OR THE 120 DAYS OF SODOM, a Criterion release guaranteed to outrage most.

For you parents out there, some excellent kids movies, led by ARTHUR AND THE INVISIBLES and being rounded out by that ARIEL movie you’ve seen on billboards around lately. I gave it a whirl. Yup, my 3-year old loved it.

What more can I say to you?

Love and kisses,
Ken

............//NEW TITLES//............

ARTHUR AND THE INVISIBLES.
Family/Animation.
Mis Farrow/Freddie Highmore.
Directed by Luc Besson.
* Fantasy about a little boy trying to find treasure to save his grandfather’s home.

AUGUST.
Drama.
Josh Hartnett/Adam Scott/David Bowie.
Directed by Austin Chick.
* 2001, that is. August, 2001, where two brothers are trying like hell to make their start-up company survive on Wall Street. Little did they know what would happen in September.

BANGKOK LOVE STORY.
Drama/LGBT/Foreign (Thailand).
Rattanaballang Tohssawat/Chaiwat Thongsaeng.
Directed by Poj Arnon.
* Award winning indie-festival circuit flick.

BEST OF COMEDY CENTRAL PRESENTS II.
Stand up Comedy.

BOATS OUT OF WATERMELON RINDS.
Drama/Foreign (Turkish).
Fizuli Caferof/Mustafa Coban/Gulayse Erkoc.
Directed by Ahmet Ulucay.
* The story of two adolescent boys living and working in a small village and dreaming of being movie directors.

FISHTALES.
Family.
Billy Zane/Alki David/Kelly Brook.
Directed by Alki David.
* There’s a mermaid involved. Kids love mermaids.

PURPLE VIOLETS.
Drama/Romance.
Selma Blair/Patrick Wilson/Edward Burns/Debra Messing/Dennis Farina.
Directed by Edward Burns.
* Besides being a relatively benign romance about a writer struggling with the pressures and trappings of success, this film also was the first to be released exclusively on iTunes. But we won’t hold it against them.

REDBELT.
Action/Drama.
Chiwetel Ejiofor/Tim Allen/Emily Mortimer.
Directed by David Mamet.
* And now Mamet has focused his attention on the wide world of ultimate fighting. I am not sure, but I hear there isn’t a lot of dialogue in ultimate fighting. I am not sure how this will translate into the Mamet world, but as he was successful making real estate agents seem interesting, I am sure he will do the same for mixed martial artisans.

SALO OR THE 120 DAYS OF SODOM.
Drama/Horror/Criterion/Foreign (Italian/French/German).
Directed by Pier Pasolini.
* This is one of those movies that are just lightning rods for internet debate. It is the story of 9 kids who have been rounded up by fascists and are tortured for 4 months. Released in 1976, it has been banned in some countries and has at least one controversial segment that is not included in this release.

SCORPION KING 2: RISE OF A WARRIOR.
Action.
Michael Copon.
Directed by Russell Mulcahy.
* This prequel is an equal to the sequel.

SON OF RAMBOW.
Comedy.
Neil Dudgeon/Bill Milner.
Directed by Garth Jennings.
* Two kids growing up under challenging circumstances, set out to remake RAMBO with there own self-created special effects. This was a favorite on the film festival circuit.

THREE STOOGES COLLECTION 1940-1942.
Comedy.
Moe/Curly/Larry.
* 23 shorts from the golden age of the Three Stooges. Curly taught my Grampa to play the ukulele.

VAMPIRE DIARY.
Horror/Suspense.
Anna Walton/Morven Macbeth/Jamie King.
Directed by Mark James and Phil O’Shea.
* Holly (Macbeth), a young filmmaker, is making a documentary about the Goth underworld in London when she meets Vicki (Walton) who bites her neck and sucks her blood.

WALKER PAYNE.
Drama.
Jason Patric/Sam Shepard/Drea de Matteo/Bruce Dern.
Directed by Matt Williams.
* Don’t quote me on this, but I think the main character gets into illegal dog fighting to raise the money it will take to avoid selling his daughters to his nasty ex-wife.

WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS.
Comedy.
Ashton Kutcher/Cameron Diaz.
Directed by Tom Vaughan.
* Stays in Vegas. So I can’t tell you any more about this one. Cuz I promised. Maybe if you get me drunk I’ll tell you.

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

CHICAGO 10.
Documentary/Animation.
Mark Ruffalo/Jeffrey Wright/Leiv Schreiber/Nick Nolte/Hank Azaria.
Directed by Brett Morgan.
* In this engaging documentary about the trial of the eight anti-war protesters following the 1968 Democratic National Convention, animation and archival footage are employed to create a psychedelic backdrop to the farcical circus that the trial became.

GYPSY CARAVAN: WHEN THE ROAD BENDS.
Documentary/Music.
Directed by Jasmine Dellai.
* A musical exploration of the gypsy culture as five famous Romani groups tour the United States.

UNCOUNTED: THE NEW MATH OF AMERICAN ELECTIONS.
Documentary.
Directed by David Earnhardt.
* Seriously, these days, 1,000,001 Democrat votes versus 1 Republican vote = a tie. So vote in force this November.

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS OSAMA BIN LADEN?
Documentary.
Directed by Morgan Spurlock.
* If you know, you just might be a terrorist.

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

ENTOURAGE: COMPLETE 4^th SEASON.
Television/Action.
Created by Doug Ellin
* Season four in the show that answers the question: What price fame?

HEROES: SEASON 2.
Television/Action.
Created by Tim Kring.
* The second season of the cult phenomenon about people all over the globe who discover that they have super powers. I, myself, discovered certain superpowers that I am unable to disclose, except to tell you my superhero name is The Kind Green Menace.

THE SHIELD: SEASON 6.
Television/Action.
* The sixth season about good and bad cops in Los Angeles.

............//FAMILY//............

BOB THE BUILDER: ON SITE HOUSES AND PLAYGROUNDS.
Family.

GO DIEGO GO: DIEGO’S HALLOWEEN!
Family.
* Let the holiday movies start to roll on in.

LITTLE MERMAID: ARIEL’S BEGINNING.
Family.

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

THE BELLES OF ST. TRINIAN’S.
Madcap Comedy.
Alastair Sim.
Directed by Frank Launder.
* Our first of a batch of the zany British St. Trinian’s films from the 1950’s.

THE BIG LEBOWSKI: COLLECTOR’S EDITION.
* The dude abides.

CAMP NOWHERE.
Family/Adventure.
* First DVD copy of this movie that we probably didn’t need to buy.

REAL GENIUS.
* Our first copy of this early Val Kilmer film.

THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY.
* First DVD of this Cameron Diaz comedy.

WANDERERS OF THE DESERT.
Drama/Foreign (French).
Nacer Khemir..
Directed by Nacer Khemir.
* The first of Khemir’s Desert Trilogy, including THE DOVE’S LOST NECKLACE. This is a striking and poetic film.

............//REPLACEMENT DVDS//............

EVE’S BAYOU.

****

****new release list no.180

THIS FRIDAY, AUGUST 22nd: come see THE BIG LEBOWSKI at our backyard screening room. You can quaff up some White Russians and watch as the Dude abides. Doors open at 8:45, film starts at 9:00pm. Next week we are taking part in the Bernal Heights Outdoor Cinema festival. We hope to see a bunch of you out at one of their awesome events.

Anyone catching any Olympics? Something about the massive time difference and the knowledge of what already happened makes it hard for me to desire to make time to watch any of the competitions. The time difference, that is, and the lack of a working television. Ah, yes.

I have been so on the verge of buying a nice fat hi-definition television set, but somehow, haven’t convinced myself to pull the trigger on anything specific yet. Do you have one? Do you have a link I could just click and buy one or two of these? Send it to me! Ayyy. I can file documents with administrative acumen, but buying electronics? Not my forte. Still, it is time to buy one. And then buy the Blu-ray player that has also been eluding me. Just today I was looking at one on Amazon and the price was right ($315) but the lack of the proper television that could actually reproduce the images that are imbedded on those little discs just made it seem stupid to purchase. Like melting the butter before growing the artichokes-or some such yummy steamed vegetable that tastes good with a little melted butter maybe with a splash of squeezed lemon in there. Uh, yeah.

I just came back from Seattle, which is a really lovely city. They say it is grey and rainy but it always gets super sunny and hot when I’m there, so I can’t verify it. We spent the week wandering around the city, admiring all the cute little named apartment buildings (The Karma House, Holly Manor), enjoying the city parks with their funky fountains and wading pools and Astroturf playing fields, which by the way, are quite slick these days. We checked out the library there, which is a masterpiece of angles and exposed metal beams in wild geographic patterns housing a massive but well-organized collection and reading rooms, piano playing rooms, temperature controlled rooms, and crazy art installations along the walls of the escalators that take you up up up.

We even went up the Space Needle (41-second ride) then back down for $40 (worth every penny). We checked out Pike’s Place market. Damn, why can’t Fisherman’s Wharf be like that? Fresh fish, jams, fruit, veggies, custom leather belts, beads, art, knick-knacks, flowers in abundance, pastries both high and low-brow, and people, moving through, both tourists and locals alike. A seriously nice place that I highly recommend.

Unfortunately, we did not end up going to the yummy restaurants we fantasized about hitting (Salumi, Tilth, Impromptu). Such is life with children, eh? I really loved Seattle, but it just gave me more perspective on what a fantastic city we live in. I love vacating, but I think even more I love to come home. There’s no place like it.

Lots of good movies this week, highlighted by RECOUNT the painful reenactment of the 2000 Presidential election. I hope history treats that episode very harshly.

In the meantime, as our Presidential election approaches, I can only think:

President Obama: Say it Aloud.

Peace and love and stuff,

Ken

............//NEW TITLES//............

AN AMERICAN CRIME.
Crime/Drama.
Catherine Keener/James Franco/Ellen Page.
Directed by Tommy O’Haver.
* Based on a true story (the WORST CRIME to ever GET COMMITTED in INDIANA) this film tracks a very very seriously not nice woman pushed to the breaking point (by her like, 47 children) who badly damages a couple of nice children left in her care by their carnie parents. Featuring the soon to be overexposed Ellen Page.

CAMP ROCK.
Comedy/Family/Musical.
Nick Jonas/Joe Jonas/Kevin Jonas.
Directed by Matthew Diamond.
* How many Jonas brothers does it take to screw in a lightbulb? None. None more black.

HANNAH MONTANA CONCERT MOVIE: 3D.
Uh….
Miley Cyrus.
Directed by Bruce Hendricks.
* Is there anything to say here? We watched it in the store today and it was very entertaining. And you get the awesome 3D glasses too!

IMMORTAL (2005).
Sci-Fi/Adventure.
Linda Hardy/Thomas Kretschmann/Charlotte Rampling.
Directed by Enki Bilal.
* Super trippy sounding flick about some chick wandering NY with blue hair and crazy genetics and maybe blue tears and a floating pyramid in the sky with perhaps some Egyptian gods hanging round? Oh yeah, and its 2095.

LIFE BEFORE HER EYES.
Thriller.
Uma Thurman/Evan Rachel Wood.
Directed by Vadim Perelman.
* Uma plays a woman whose life is kinda falling apart twenty years after surviving a school shooting that claimed the life of her young friend, played by Wood.

MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY.
Comedy/Romance.
Frances McDormand/Amy Adams/Shirley Henderson.
Directed by Bharat Nalluri.
* Very joyfully performed tale of a governess in London (McDormand) who becomes caught up in the whirlwind life of an American star (Adams).

NEVER BACK DOWN.
Action/Drama/Martial Art.
Sean Faris/Amber Heard.
Directed by Jeff Wadlow.
* I dunno, FIGHT CLUB meets THE KARATE KID?

PROM NIGHT (2007).
Horror.
Brittany Snow /Dana Davis.
Directed by Nelson McCormick.
* Let’s face it, it’s generally a bad night, whether you are being dumped by your chappy, throwing up on the side of the road, dirtying your rented party outfit or being pursued by a psychopathic killer.

RECOUNT.
Drama.
Kevin Spacey/Laura Dern/Tom Wilkinson/Denis Leary/John Hurt.
Directed by Jay Roach.
* And just keep recounting until a Democrat wins! Star studded cast reenacting those sad sad days and weeks after the 2000 election when Florida proved that it was unable to count or recount.

SMALL BACK ROOM.
Drama/Criterion/Foreign (English).
David Farrar/Kathleen Byron/Jack Hawkins.
Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.
* 1950’s film about a bitter bomb expert in WWII who is also a drunk.

STREET KINGS.
Suspense/Crime.
Keanu Reaves/Forest Whitaker/Chris Evans/Hugh Laurie.
Directed by David Ayer.
* Familiar tale of violence and corruption in the LAPD, starring Keanu as a cop implicated in the death of another officer of the law.

TWENTY FOUR EYES
Drama/Criterion/Foreign (Japanese).
Hideko Takamine/Yumeji Tsukioka.
Directed by Keisuke Kinoshita.
* This is the story of a young schoolteacher, struggling to educate her students during WWII with the knowledge in her heart that many will die in the war.

WIZARD OF GORE
Horror/Gnarly.
Crispin Glover/Bijour Phillips.
Directed by Jeremy Kasten.
* Remake of the 1970 classic about a magician whose on-stage tricks may not actually be illusions afterall. He may really be sawing those nice young women in two! Starring super-freak Glover as the evil magician Montag the Magnificent.

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

PRIMO LEVI’S JOURNEY.
Documentary.
Chris Cooper.
Directed by Davide Ferrareo.
* Doc looking at the life and travels of Primo Levi the Italian born author and survivor of the holocaust .

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

BURN NOTICE: SEASON ONE .
Television/Comedy/Drama/Thriller.
Jeffrey Donovan/Bruce Campbell/Gabrielle Anwar/Sharon Gless.
Created by Matt Nix.
* So, your basic burn notice (for a spy, that is) means you’re a persona non gratis to the government; you have no money, no identity, no support, no job history, no credit, no 501 button fly blue-jeans (just seeing if you are still paying attention) (do those still exist?) and everyone you used to know is trying to kill you.

DEXTER: COMPLETE SECOND SEASON.
Television/Susense.
Michael C. Hall/Julie Benz.
* Season two of the story of th dice-em slice-em serial killer with an ethical heart and skilled hands.

GOSSIP GIRL: SEASON ONE .
Television/Drama/Gossip.
Blake Lively/Leighton Meester/Chace Crawford/Taylor Momsen.
* Snotty rich kids in some elite NY school talking shit about one another.

HOUSE: SEASON 4.
Television/Drama.
Hugh Laurie/Lisa Edelstein.
* Fourth season about Dr. House and his weird team of strange-case solving doctors.

TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES.
Television/Action/Drama/Fantasy.
Lena Headey/Thomas Dekker/Summer Glau.
* This series is set after the second TERMINATOR film but before the third and focuses on the Connors attempts to prevent the creation of the Skynet program that will eventually destroy humankind.

TRANSFORMERS ANIMATED SEASON ONE.

............//BLU-RAY NEW ADDITIONS//............

JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK.

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

WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE.
* First DVD copy of this 1996 Todd Solondz (PALINDROMES, HAPPINESS) flick about the painful realities of life in Junior High.

****

****new release list no.179

THIS FRIDAY, AUGUST 15th: come see AIR GUITAR NATION at our backyard screening room. This move is one of the funniest and most brilliant documentaries you will ever see. Each time C-Diddy performs you will ask yourself, can it really be this awesome? Yes, it can. Doors open at 8:45, film starts at 9:00pm.

Hey checkit! One of our customers blogged about us: Read her excellent well-informed anti-consumption blog here.

Can you believe it is mid-August already? 2008? Not only is the year whipping by, but somehow even the summer is coming to a close. Camps are in their last several weeks, summer programs have reached their finals, school is starting at every level, hell, even baseball is winding down. Yes, it is mid-august and that can really only mean one thing:

THE WIRE: THE COMPLETE 5^th SEASON is here! Yes, let the rush begin. The final season of the most popular show of all time is in circulation and that means the frenzied run on this show will make its final savage attack. We are locked and loaded, so come on in. Sadly, I will miss this first week, as the Shelves are on vacation in Seattle (on the plane as I type).

Lots of other movies out this week, starting with the somewhat erroneously named SMART PEOPLE starring Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Thomas Haden Church and it-girl of the moment Ellen Page. Also some new stand-up comedy (BRIAN REGAN, and VINCE VAUGHN’S WILD WEST), as well as a beautiful looking Italian comedy (THE ORANGE THIEF) and a pair from acclaimed Russian director Larisa Shepitko. There is also some indie comedy (ELECTRIC APRICOT: QUEST FOR FESTEROO and THE TROUBADOURS).

We have a little batch of family movies led by a domestic doggy film (FRANK) and a foreign ubiquitous alien film (CJ7), and a smattering of other kids stuff like MULAN, MULAN 2, PLAY WITH ME SESAME and NI HAO KAI-LAN: SUPER SPECIAL DAYS.

There is a much anticipated doc about a surf gang in Australia (THE BRA BOYS) as well as some other great looking docs (BRUCE NAUMAN: MAKE ME THINK, POISONED BY POLONIUM: THE LITVINENKO FILE (about an assassinated Russian spy), THE POWER OF NIGHTMARES and MUHAMMAD ALI: MADE IN MIAMI). There is also more television (PRISON BREAK: 3^rd SEASON, 30 DAYS: 2^nd SEASON, and SOUTH PARK: 11^th SEASON). Also don’t miss the freak cult fave FORBIDDEN ZONE made by little Danny Elfman’s brother Richard. Whoop whoop.

Also, on the Blu-ray front, 14 more titles coming in on Tuesday. I think that makes about 45 titles we carry on Blu-ray, including about 15 2008 releases and the rest older favorites. Are you renting these? If you are, and you wish I had something that I don’t, please let me know. I try to get at least a couple new titles each week, but it is always nice to fulfill the wish of one of you.

Love and kisses,

Ken

............//MOVIE OF THE WEEK//............

THE WIRE: THE COMPLETE 5^th SEASON.
Television/Crime/Actuality.
* You know what? I’ve never seen this show! So technically, I am not qualified to write about it. Instead of some hogwash that I have pilfered from the internet, I thought I would just give you my impressions from talking to literally hundreds of people about the THE WIRE. It’s the most rented show ever at Four Star Video. Seriously, there are days when one out of every ten dvd’s we rent is a WIRE disc. The show is very gritty and very realistic and slow with enormous set-ups that sometimes take quite a long time to play out. The show itself is about the fabric of society. It is about life in the city of Baltimore, but in a sense, it could be about life in any cold and hard city. Each season has focused on different elements of Baltimore itself, the schools, the longshoreman, crime, politics. There are many characters, some of whom are terrible; all of whom are three-dimensional with complicated motivations and internal struggles. The show is addictive, amazingly addictive. It’s probably time for you to take a deep breath and jump on in.

............//NEW TITLES//............

THE BOY’S AND GIRL’S GUIDE TO GETTING DOWN.
Comedy..
Cricket Leigh/Kat Turner
Directed by Paul Sapiano.
* 20-nothings, snorting coke and screwing each other in the most goofy manner possible.

BRAND UPON THE BRAIN.
Drama/FantasyHorror/Criterion.
Guy Maddin.
Directed by Guy Maddin.
* Very trippy Canadian flick made by the same Guy who made THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD (another quite trippy film). This one is about a man who revisits an island where his parents used to run an orphanage, and his father used to experiment on the children.

BRIAN REGAN: STANDING UP.
Comedy/Stand-Up.
Brian Regan.
Directed by Troy Miller.
* From your peeps at Comedy Central.

CJ7.
Comedy/Sci-Fi/Family/Foreign (Cantonese).
Stephen Chow/Xu Jiau/Kitty Zhang.
Directed by Stephen Chow.
* Aha! A little toy that a poor man finds in a junkyard, is really an alien creature with strange and mysterious powers that helps the man’s family learn important life lessons. Why doesn’t this ever happen to me?

ELECTRIC APRICOT: QUEST FOR FESTEROO.
Comedy/Farce.
Dian Bachar/Mike Gordon/Seth Green.
Directed by Les Claypool (of Primus).
* A SPINAL TAPish spoof of rock bands written and directed by a pretty awesome bass player who is also pretty goofy. Released by National Lampoon. Critics says this is pretty freaking funny.

FELON.
Action/Drama.
Val Kilmer/Stephen Dorff/Sam Shepherd.
Directed by Ric Roman Waugh.
* Dude kills a guy who is trying to rob his house and ends up in jail dealing with all that entails.

FRANK.
Family.
John Gries/Cynthia Watros.
Directed by Douglas Cheney.
* Heartwarming tale of a stray dog who brings a family back together.

LARISA SHEPITKO COLLECTION.
Drama/Criterion/Foreign (Russian).
Directed by Larisa Shepitko.
* Two from Shepitko, a Russian filmmaker. Featuring 1966’s WINGS, a portrayal of a fighter pilot aging restlessly and 1977’s ASCENT a frightening tale of two starving WWII soldiers heading to a farmhouse to find food while also trying to avoid the Nazi’s.

THE LOST BOYS: THE TRIBE.
Comedy/Horror/Vampire.
Directed by P.J. Pesce.
* Twenty years later, a sequel to the very enjoyable 1987 treat, THE LOST BOYS.

THE ORANGE THIEF.
Comedy/Foreign (Italian).
Andrea Calabrese.
Directed by Vinnie Angle and Boogie Dean and Arthur Wilinkski.
* A madcap Italian comedy about poor country fruit thieves.

THE SEARCH FOR JOHN GISSING.
Comedy/Drama.
Alan Rickman /Mike Binder/Janeane Garofalo.
Directed by Mike Binder.
* Cult comedy about corporate hijinks.

THE SECRET.
Horror/Suspense.
David Duchovny (Why won’t you love me?)/Olivia Thirlby/Lili Taylor.
Directed by Vincent Perez.
* In this remake of a Japanese movie, a dead mother’s spirit comes back to inhabit her 16- year-old daughter’s hot little body causing bad juju between her and her father. Yikes.

SMART PEOPLE.
Comedy/Drama.
Dennis Quaid/Sarah Jessica Parker/Thomas Haden Church/Ellen Page.
Directed by Noam Murro.
* From the Producers of SIDEWAYS comes this biting comedy about a professor (QUAID) who is so wrapped up in himself that he can’t see the wood for the trees. Circumstances open his eyes to his life around him. With Thomas Haden Church as his adopted brother and Ellen Page (JUNO) playing another witty teenager.

TROUBADOURS.
Drama/Comedy.
Tom Galasi/Patrick Zielinski.
Directed by Tom Galasi and Adam Galaski and Tom Snyder.
* Award-winning super low-budge film that found distribution (!) about an out-of-work drummer heading back from the big city (after breaking up with his girlfriend) to the mid-west where his quest is to find himself.

VINCE VAUGHN’S WILD WEST COMEDY SHOW
Comedy.
* Vince and pals do stand up across the country.

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

BRA BOYS.
Documentary.
Narrated by Russell Crowe.
Directed by Sunny Abberton.
* About a notorious surf gang called the Bra Boys, kinda sounds like an Australian version of DOG TOWN AND Z-BOYS.

BRUCE NAUMAN: MAKE ME THINK.
Documentary
Directed by Heinz Peter Schwerfel.
* From Amazon: “Visit the challenging world of Bruce Nauman, a multi-faceted artist who believes that the importance of a work of art is in the process of making it. With this philosophy at the core of his work, he became a major player in the conceptual art movements of the 20th century. Using a diversity of media, including sculpture, video, printmaking, performance, and installation, Nauman has used his art to examine the major questions of life, mapping the human experience from birth to death. As in his 1983 neon sculpture consisting of the words Life, Death, Love, Hate, Pleasure, Pain, his work focuses on the essential elements of the human experience. MAKE ME THINK features 60 works of art from Nauman s career, including his early film projections and video installations Clown Torture and Anthro/Socio. It also chronicles the development of a piece titled Violent Incident, which Nauman calls a video sculpture.” Sounds pretty wild.

MUHAMMAD ALI: MADE IN MIAMI.
Documentary/Sports.
* PBS special on Ali and his formative years in Miami transforming him from Cassius Clay into superstar Muhammad Ali.

POISONED BY POLONIUM: THE LITVINENKO FILE
Documentary/Foreign (Russian/English).
Alexander Litvinenko.
Directed by Andrei Nekrasov.
* The story of the former Russian spy Litvinenko who was forced into exile and eventually killed by being poisoned in 2006 with this gnarly radioactive substance.

THE POWER OF NIGHTMARES
Documentary.
Directed by Adam Curtis.
* The complete three part doc about the use of fear for political gain. I have only seen part one, but it was fascinating and frightening.

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

PRISON BREAK: SEASON 3.
Television/Crime.
Dominic Purcell/Wentworth Miller.
* Season three of the popular show about a wrongly imprisoned guy and his brothers attempts to break him out. One of the characters is named T-Bag. I think that’s funny.

SOUTH PARK: COMPLETE 11^th SEASON.
Television/Animation/Demented Humor.
Created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
* More craziness in the town of South Park from those total kooks.

30 DAYS: 2^nd SEASON.
Television/Realityish.
Morgan Spurlock.
* This show is weird.

THE WIRE: THE COMPLETE 5^th SEASON.
* See Release of the Week.

............//FAMILY//............

MULAN: SPECIAL EDITION.
Family.

MULAN 2: SPECIAL EDITION.
Family.

NI HAO KAI-LAN: SUPER SPECIAL DAYS.
Family.

PLAY WITH ME SESAME: FURRY FUN & HEALTHY TOO.
Family.

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

FORBIDDEN ZONE.
Zany/Cult/Comedy/Animation/Fantasy/Musical.
Herve Villachaize.
Directed by Richard Elfman (Danny’s brother).
* When a customer recently pointed out that we did not have this film, it was immediately purchased. This crazy journey into the 6^th dimension is one that should not be missed by any true cineophile.

............//BLU-RAY NEW ADDITIONS//............

APOCALYPTO.

BAD SANTA.

CARS.

CASANOVA.

DINOSAUR.

GANGS OF NEW YORK.

HELLBOY.

HIDALGO.

KING ARTHUR (DIRECTOR’S CUT).

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD’S END.

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL.

RATATOUILLE.

UNBREAKABLE.

............//REPLACEMENT PURCHASES//............

ENTOURAGE: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON.
* Replacement copies..

VERONICA MARS: COMPLETE 2^nd and 3^rd SEASONS.
* Replacement copies.

****

****new release list no.178

THIS FRIDAY, AUGUST 8st: Come see HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH at our backyard screening room. Doors open at 8:45, film starts at 9:00pm. Suggested donation $5. Candy/Soda $1. Popcorn is free.

A shortish word about DVD’s. Have you noticed that they basically suck? A DVD is a very fallible medium for art. The data side of the disc is completely unprotected. It should be relatively easy to maintain (just touch the edges with your fingers, only remove the movie from its case to put it into your DVD player, immediately put it back securely in its box after viewing), but for whatever reason, the discs begin to get scratched soon after we purchase them. We implemented the D-Skin experiment, covering all discs with the little disc condoms, but, sadly, that did not work on everyone’s DVD player. So, alas, the DVD’s are touched with fingers, fingers that are unclean, fingers of children, sometimes perhaps chicken fingers (it seriously looks that way occasionally). Not to mention they are left on the floor, stepped on, left out for days, stacked on top of each other, carelessly boxed, not properly secured and then dropped loose through the drop-in slot. From our end, we generally do not call when the disc comes back looking yucky. We can’t check every disc upon return so we may not first see that a disc is damaged until you bring it back letting us know it didn’t work. At that point, it is hard to know who damaged it.

It is sad when they don’t last more than 20 plays. We have some videotapes in our system that have been viewed 200+ times! But very few DVD’s last even a quarter of that time. So we buy new copies of films. Pretty regularly. If you pan down to REPLACEMENT PURCHASES (formerly just a part of NEW ADDITIONS) almost every week you’ll find some new copies of old movies and tv shows. Not that we are complaining. Not at all. We understand our role in this relationship, and we want to reward you for shopping locally by providing you with the best customer service ever. And if that means buying two or three more copies of full seasons of THE WIRE every month, then dammit, we’ll do it.

The only thing we request of you the customer, consumer, and ultimately, viewer, is that you let us know when things don’t work. We can’t replace films until we know someone has a problem, but when we know there’s a problem, we don’t rent the disc again until we’ve re-surfaced it in our DISCO-GO-TECH 100 DVD repair machine. Then, if that doesn’t fix it, we’ll toss the DVD and buy a new copy.

Two last thoughts about DVD’s. For whatever weird reason, not all DVD’s play in all machines. And, if you are watching your DVD’s on a $75 DVD player that you bought 3 years ago, and everything is skipping, it might be time for a new machine.

****stepping down off the soap box****

Tons of great movies this week, including the Oscar winner for BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM in 2007, THE COUNTERFEITERS, which is awesome!

August marks Evan’s month of HIGHLIGHTED NEW ADDITIONS. His picks brought he entire six season collection of KING OF THE HILL into our store for the first time, as well as the entire seven movie set (they made seven?) of the POLICE ACADEMY films. Combine that with our first DVD copies of ANIMAL HOUSE THE GOONIES, REPO MAN, ERIK THE VIKING, THE MUSIC MAN(!), ANNIE(!!), and AN AMERICAN TAIL and you’ve got a much boosted collection. I love this feature of the store, b/c the library gets enriched through such varied film opinions. Viva la difference!

Alrighty then,

Ken

p.s. I have been using the website FACEBOOK to inform people about our weekly film-screenings. The site allows me to send out an invitation to come see the movie with all the details. If you would like to have this weekly emailed invitations please email me requesting I put you on this list. It is a relatively simple little email, with a link to the Facebook page with the info. You can check it out here.

............//NEW TITLES//............

ADORED: DIARY OF A PORN STAR.
Drama/Foreign (Italian/English)
Marco Filiberti.
Directed by Marco Filiberti.
* Two estranged brothers get to know each other after their father dies. One of them gets it on for a living.

CARMEN.
Drama/Romance/Foreign (Spanish/Basque/French).
Paz Vega.
Directed by Vicente Aranda.
* Sexy retelling of the famous tale.

THE COUNTERFEITERS.
Drama/Foreign (German).
Karl Markovics
Directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky.
* Oscar winner for Foreign Language Film, this movies tracks the Nazi's top secret counterfeit program and the Jews in concentration camps forced to pull it off. Without gratuitous violence, this film hits home very hard.

FINN’S GIRL.
Drama/Romance/LGBT.
Brooke Johnson/Maya Ritter.
Directed by Dominique Cardona and Laurie Colbert.
* When Finn’s lover dies, she takes over the care of her daughter, and her abortion clinic.

JIMMY DORE: CITIZEN JIMMY.
Comedy/Standup.

JOY HOUSE.
Suspense/Crime/Thriller/Foreign (French/English).
Jane Fonda/Alain Delon.
Directed by Rene Clement.
* Freaky French film just finally getting to DVD about a young crook on the run from everything, and caught up in nothing. Jane is said to be terrific in this film.

THE KILLING OF JOHN LENNON. ****In store on Thurs****
Drama/Biofictopic.
Jonas Ball.
Directed by Andrew Piddington.
* A retelling of Mark Chapman’s last days as he was finished being programmed by George Bush, Sr. to kill John Lennon. I mean, as he convinced himself to kill John Lennon.

MISS CONCEPTION.
Comedy.
Heather Graham/Mia Kirschner.
Directed by Eric Styles.
* Dang yo, Heather Graham has got to get pregnant NOW. Can’t anyone help her out?

MY BROTHER IS AN ONLY CHILD.
Comedy/Crime/Drama/Foreign(Italian).
Elio Germano/Riccardo Scarmarcio
Directed by Danielle Luchetti.
* A coming of age story about two brothers growing up in the 60’s and 70’s in Italy.

NIM’S ISLAND.
Family/Adventure/Comedy.
Jodie Foster/Abigail Breslin/Gerard Butler.
Directed by Jennifer Flackett and Mark Levin.
* A magical adventure about an island ruled by a little girl’s imagination. Starring the super cute Breslin (LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, NO RESERVATIONS, DEFINITELY, MAYBE).

QUEEN SIZED.
Comedy/Drama.
Nikki Blonsky.
Directed by Peter Levin.
* Starring Blonsky, the star of the remake of HAIRSPRAY, this one got a lot of talk when we played it at the store today. It is about an overweight girl dealing with the popular crowd in High School.

STARSHIP TROOPERS 3: MARAUDER.
Action/Adventure/Sci-fi/Drama/Fantasy/Horror/Comedy/Thriller/Western.
Casper Van Dien/Jolene Blalock.
Directed by Edward Neumeier.
* Johnny Rico is back! Van Dien reprises his role as the bug killing, universe saving beefcake space warrior.

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

BIOGRAPHY: BARACK OBAMA.
Documentary.
* Cable tv biography of the next President of the United States of America.

BIOGRAPHY: JOHN MCCAIN
Documentary.
* Biography of the loser of the 2008 election.

GROWING UP SAFARI
Documentary/Nature.
* More from the fantastic ANIMAL PLANET people, this featuring the four chapters about elephants, zebras, giraffes and hyenas.

LIFE IN COLD BLOOD.
Documentary/Nature/David Attenborough.
* Five episodes about cold blooded reptiles narrated by the master himself.

LIVING GODDESS.
Documentary/Foreign (Nepali).
* The freaky twisted reality of three young girls in Nepal who are worshipped as gods.

PETE SEEGER: THE POWER OF SONG.****In stores on Thurs****
Music-doc.
Joan Baez/Bob Dylan/Arlo Guthrie/Bruce.
Directed by Jim Brown.
* Very excellent Seeger biography.

............//TELEVISION//............
FOYLE’S WAR: SET 5.****In stores on Thurs****
Television/War.
Michael Kitchen..

............//FAMILY//............

CHARLIE AND LOLA: VOL 8.
Family/Animation.
* Pure wonderful excellence in the kidland department.

GARFIELD FUN FEST.
Family/Garfield.

GARFIELD GETS REAL.
Family/Garfield.

HANDY MANNY: MANNY’S PET ROUNDUP.
Family.

LITTLE EINSTEINS: FLIGHT OF THE INSTRUMENT FAIRIES.
Family.
* My kids dig it. I like how they always have interesting and different musical composers featured on this show.

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

AN AMERICAN TAIL.
Animation/Adventure.
Directed by Don Bluth.
* First DVD of this 1986 film about young Russian mouse Fievel Mousekewitz and his adventures in America. Serious Cold War film right here.

ANIMAL HOUSE.
Comedy.
John Belushi/Karen Allen/Tim Matheson/
Directed by John Landis.
* First DVD of this 1978 comedy that defined John Belushi’s brilliance.

ANNIE.
Musical.
Aileen Quinn/Albert Finney/Carol Burnett/Tim Curry/Bernadette Peters.
Directed by John Huston!
* First DVD of this awesome 1982 musical that launched many careers.

ERIK THE VIKING.
Comedy/Adventure/Fantasy.
Tim Robbins/Mickey Rooney/John Cleese.
Directed by Terry Jones.
* First DVD of this madcap 1989 shipping adventure.

THE GOONIES.
Adventure/Comedy.
Corey Feldman, need I say more?
Directed by Richard Donner.
* First DVD of this 1985 tale of caves, maps and hidden treasures.

KING OF THE HILL: THE COMPLETE SERIES.
Animation/Sociology.
* I am way psyched we have this at the store. It is so weird and wonderful.

MONTY PYTHON’S THE MEANING OF LIFE.
Comedy/History.
Graham Chapman/John Cleese/Eric Idle/Terry Jones/Michael Palin/Terry Giliam
Directed by Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam.
* First DVD of this classic 1983 film that really shows you the true affects of overeating.

THE MUSIC MAN.
Musical.
Robert Preston/Buddy Hackett/Shirley Jones.
Directed by Morton DaCosta.
* First DVD of the 1962 adaptation of the musical. I played Winthrop Paroo in the 9^th grade production of this at my Junior High school. Aw, yeah.

POLICE ACADEMY: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION.
Comedy.
* I can’t believe they made SEVEN of these movies. I remember the first one being pretty funny back in 1984.

REPO MAN.
Comedy/Sci-fi/Action/Cult.
Harry Dean Stanton/Emilio Estevez.
Directed by Alex Cox.
* I can’t believe this is our first DVD of this amazing 1984 film which before BOBBY was Emilio’s biggest contribution to film. There are so many quotable lines in this punk rock film about the wild wild world of repossessing cars, and aliens.

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

BELPHEGOR: PHANTOM OF THE LOUVRE.
Action/Mystery/Fantasy/Horror/Foreign (French).
Sophie Marceau/Michel Serrault/Julie Christie.
Directed by Jean-Paul Salome.
* Evil spirits inhabiting archeological finds housed at the Louvre.

BRIDESHEAD REVISITED.
Television/Drama.
Jeremy Irons.
* The 1981 television series based on the Evelyn Waugh novel.

CAPTAIN RON.
* Weird Kurt Russell comedy.

DARKNESS FALS.
* Something about a vengeful spirit and the freaking tooth fairy.

GEORGE CARLIN: AGAIN.
Comedy/Standup.
George Carlin.

GEORGE CARLIN: CARLIN AT CARNEGIE.
Comedy/Standup.
George Carlin.

GEORGE CARLIN: BACK IN TOWN.
Comedy/Standup.
George Carlin.

GEORGE CARLIN: COMPLAINTS AND GREIVANCES.
Comedy/Standup.
George Carlin.

LADYBUGS.
* Weird Rodney Dangerfield comedy.

MILLER’S CROSSING
* Early Coen Brothers flick.

SLASHER
* Car salesman doc.

WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?
* Great Elizabeth Taylor flick.

............//REPLACEMENT PURCHASES//............

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT: THE COMPLETE SERIES.

CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG.

NATURAL BORN KILLERS.

THE WIRE: ALL FOUR SEASONS.
* Seriously, you would not believe how many copies of each season of this show we have bought.

****