****new release list no.227

This is the second of what I am loosely hoping will be a monthly look into films (and television) good for entire families to watch together.

Parents looking for good things to watch with their kiddos need only turn back the clock for some epic programming from their youths. Shows like ELECTRIC COMPANY and THE MUPPET SHOW feature brilliant actors and musicians, hysterical physical comedy and totally watchable shtick. They stand the test of time, and in fact make a lot of kids programming today look pretty shoddy by comparison.

Continuing though the Miyazaki catalogue, I highly recommend KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE. Kiki, a young witch, must leave her happy and quite suburban seeming home to live for a year on her own in what must currently be a witchless city as a rite of passage, sort of a year-long Bat Mitzvah or some such something. She is young, maybe twelve or thirteen, and though brave and strong, also scared and lonely. She is full of bravado, and approaches her life and her role very professionally, while still being a cute kid. She is lucky to have her sarcastic and comedic cat with her, who helps her feel less alone. Somewhat randomly, Kiki forms a delivery service and thus finds her place in the town. She has adventures, meets a nice young boy who has a crush on her, meets a hippy artist living in the woods, loses her powers, regains her powers and has a lot of other adventures. KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE, like many of Miyazaki’s films, is filled with heart, excitement and so much life. It is a great movie, and if you or your kids haven’t watched it, you should right away.

ENCHANTED is excellent, as it slips from animation to live action and occasionally dips back It is the story of Giselle, acted by the truly excellent Amy Adams. Giselle is in love with life and all the little critters in it, and is an animated princess looking for a prince. Just when she finds one, his evil step-mother unceremoniously dumps Giselle out of cartoon-land and into the nastiest place she can think of, New York City. There, a number of adventures are had, as Giselle meets friendly people in NY and is pursued by the Prince and other creatures from cartoon-land. It is full of music, and humor, and the discerning viewer will be impressed with Adams’ portrayal of a cartoon character as a real person.

Do you have great ideas for movies a whole family can enjoy? Please email them to me so that I can share them with the Four Star community.

We have tons of stuff this week. Again, no blockbusters, but many many interesting documentary’s (FOR ALL MANKIND, WELCOME TO MACINTOSH, UNWINKING GAZE, LIPSTICK & DYNAMITE: THE FIRST LADIES OF WRESTING, WILD PACIFIC, DEPECHE MODE) lots of television (MAD MEN: SEASON 2, ARAB LABOR, WIRE IN THE BLOOD: SIXTH SEASON, and more), a brazillion new additions (SWINGERS, THE HISTORY OF O, WHEN HARRY MET SALLY, CAPE FEAR, THE WIZ, MICHAEL JACKSON – VIDEO GREATEST HITS), some older newly released films (BYE-BYE MONKEY, DON’T TOUCH THE WHITE WOMAN, MENAGE), horror (THE HAUNTING OF CONNECTICUT, REC), indie (DAKOTA SKYE), an Oscar nominated foreign film (12), some films for the kids and a bunch of replacement DVD’s.

To read more about the films, including snarky comments by moi, scroll down.

Alrighty, that’s all folks, hope to see you at the store.

Love and Kisses,
Ken

******************************************************************************
KenFlix - the only Independent Monthly Subscription Film Renting Service in SF
If you are going to make a monthly commitment, make it a local one.
No due dates. No late fees.

ESUB -One Movie at a time – Three movies total – $9.99 + Tax/Month
1SUB - One Movie at a time – Unlimited exchange – $18.99 + Tax/Month
3SUB - Three Movies at a time – Unlimited exchange – $24.99 + Tax/Month
4SUB - Four Movies at a time – Unlimited exchange – $32.99 + Tax/Month
******************************************************************************

Links we are super hip on this week:
The finest Michael Jackson tribute ever. It is an eternal moonwalk, using video footage sent in from fans all over the world.
Beyond Asiaphilia. Local filmmaker Valerie Soe's excellent blog focusing on Asian/American arts, culture and other related topics.
Bernal Heights Outdoor Cinema festival.
Pal’s Takeaway – Yummy yummy.

Do you have a link Four Star Customers should check out??? Email it to me.

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

BYE-BYE MONKEY.
Comedy/Drama/Sci-Fi.
Gerard Depardieu/Marcello Mastoianni.
Directed by Marco Ferreri.
* This 1978 film just being re-released on DVD is a total bizarre-fest. It features the corpse of King Kong, a strange wax museum and other strangeness. It won the Grand Prize of the Jury at Cannes Film Festival and is lauded for its wild imagery. It is one of two older films by Ferreri being released this week.

DAKOTA SKYE.
Drama.
Eileen April Boylan/Ian Nelson.
Directed by John Humber.
* Dakota is cursed with the super power of being able to tell when anyone is lying to her. In this little coming-of-age indie film, her increasingly disillusioned world is turned upside down by the arrival in town of a stranger (Nelson) who always seems to tell the truth.

DON’T TOUCH THE WHITE WOMAN.
Comedy/Drama/Western/Foreign (French).
Catherine Deneuve/Marcelo Mastroianni.
Directed by Marco Ferreri.
* Ferreri’s surreal take on General Custer’s last stand was released in 1974 to moderate acclaim. Mastroianni stars as Custer and Deneuve is the object of his affection (and nearly everyone else at the time).

THE EDGE OF LOVE.
Drama/Romance/Fictobiopic.
Matthew Rhys/Keira Knightley/Sienna Miller/Cillian Murphy.
Directed by John Maybury.
* This film tells a loosely accurate story about the poet Dylan Thomas as seen through the eyes of two women he loves. Knightley plays an old girlfriend of Thomas’ who still holds a flame for him, while Miller plays his current wife.

THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT.
Horror.
Virginia Madsen/Kyle Gallner.
Directed by Peter Cornwell.
* It says based on true events…not sure if it has anything to do with the guitar player in my band. He’s a Red Sox fan, so I figure SOMETHING happened to him. Not sure if it was ghost related, certainly horrific in some way. Anyway.

I COULD NEVER BE YOUR WOMAN.
Comedy/Romance.
Michelle Pfeiffer/Paul Rudd/Fred Willard/Jon Lovitz/Tracey Ullman.
Directed by Amy Heckerling.
* From the director of FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH, CLUELESS and JOHNNY DANGEROUSLY comes this romantic comedy about a mother and a daughter both falling in love; the mother with a much younger man, and the daughter for the very first time.

MENAGE.
Comedy/Crime/Drama/Foreign (French).
Gerard Depardieu/Michel Blanc/Miou-Miou.
Directed by Bertrand Blier.
* This older film (1987) just hitting DVD for the first time is about Bob (Depardieu) a petty thief who seduces a couple and turns them into (ahem) a well-oiled thieving machine.

REC.
Horror/Suspense/Foreign (Spanish).
Manuela Velasco/Ferran Terraza/Pablo Rosso.
Directed by Paco Plaza and Jaume Balaguero.
* This is the film that QUARANTINE was based on about a newswoman and her cameraman who begin by filming a strange house where screams are being heard and ends with the extreme involvement in the action of the journallists.

12.
Crime/Drama/Thriller/Foreign (Russian/Chechen).
Sergei Makovetsky/Sergey Garmash.
Directed by Nikita Mikhalkov.
* Nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar in 2008 (won by THE COUNTERFEITERS), this film is a loose remake of 12 ANGRY MEN about a Chechen teenager in a school in Russia who has allegedly killed his step-father and about the twelve jurors who must decide his fate. This film was received very well around the world and won other film awards besides its Oscar nomination.

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

DEPECHE MODE: MINISTRY OF SOUND.
Music.
Depeche Mode.
* Rare footage, interviews, photos etc of the excellent electronic band that has been making music since the 1980’s (a long, long time ago).

FOR ALL MANKIND****ALSO IN BLU-RAY****
Criterion/Documentary.
Many many astronauts.
Directed by Al Reinert.
* Commemorating the 40th anniversary of my birth – oops, I mean the moon landing in 1969, this doc features mind-boggling footage, interviews and mission control recordings with many of the astronauts involved with the Apollo Missions and a sound-track by Brian Eno. It is lush and dreamy and will help even the most jaded mind relax into the wondrous exploration of outer space.

LIPSTICK & DYNAMITE: THE FIRST LADIES OF WRESTLING
Documentary/Sports.
The Moolah/The Great Mae Young.
Directed by Ruth Leitman.
* Very fascinating and highly rated doc about professional female wresting in the 1940’s and 50’s and the super tough women who put it all on the line in their matches.

THIN.
Documentary.
Directed by Lauren Greenfield.
* This doc focuses on the very scary and dangerous reality of eating disorders and the specific illnesses of bulimia and anorexia that many people suffer from.

UNWINKING GAZE.
Documentary.
Dalai Lama.
Directed by Joshua Dugdale.
* This documentary is a behind the scenes look into the life of Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet. When you watch this, you may learn what a High Lama is, which I thought was just what you called a Llama after someone blew pot smoke in its face.

WELCOME TO MACINTOSH.
Documentary.
Mac /I-Pod/Cube/I-Chunk.
Directed by Robert Baca and Josh Rizzo.
* A look at the history of the Apple company and the innovative people who have helped turn technology on its head throughout the entire tech era.

WILD PACIFIC.****ALSO IN BLU-RAY****
Documentary/Nature/BBC.
The Pacific Ocean and its Inhabitants.
* Another brilliant look into our planet from the people who brought us the PLANET EARTH series. This examines the gigantic Pacific Ocean and all the amazing creatures in it.

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

ARAB LABOR: 1st SEASON.
Television/Comedy/Foreign (Hebrew).
Directed by Ron Ninio.
* Totally irreverent Israeli comedy about Amjad, a journalist in Israel. Amjad is an Israeli citizen, working for a Jerusalem based newspaper, and dealing with all the humiliations that Palestinians deal with living in Israel. On the one hand he “passes” at work and with his Jewish friends, and on the other hand he is filled with angst, anger and frustration at his situation. This show is a huge hit in Israel and the SF Chronicle called Amjad “The Palestinian Seinfeld”.

LEVERAGE: SEASON ONE.
Television/Drama.
Timothy Hutton/Christian Kane.
* This new show is about a group of techies who attempt to use their skills to steal from the wealthy and corrupt.

MAD MEN: SEASON TWO.
Television/Drama.
Jon Hamm/January Jones/John Slattery/Christina Hendricks
* Don Draper is a Madison man, working at one of the more prestigious ad agency in NY in the 1960’s. Smoky, grey, and mysterious, this show was a surprise hit in its first season. As Don would say, "What do you want me to say?"

PEYTON PLACE: PART 2.
Television/Drama.
Mia Farrow/Ryan O’Neal.
* Thirty-three more episodes! .

THE STATE: THE COMPLETE SERIES.
Television/Comedy.
Thomas Lennon/David Wain/Robert Ben Garant.
* Early 90’s sketch comedy featuring many young comedians that have had success since then. Some say the funniest show on tv back in 1993.

WIRE IN THE BLOOD: THE COMPLETE 6th SEASON.
Television/Crime/Drama/Thriller/Mystery.
Robson Green.
* Dark yet witty series about Dr. Tony Hill, a psychological profiler working on gnarly murder cases.

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

BABY BOOST NURSERY RHYMES.

BABY BOOST SING-A-LONG.

WITCHES IN STITCHES.

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

CAPE FEAR.
* Our first DVD copy of the Scorsese remake of the thriller starring Nick Nolte, Roberto De Niro, Jessica Lange, Juliette Lewis and featuring cameos by Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum, the stars of the 1961 original.

MICHAEL JACKSON – VIDEO GREATEST HITS .
* You knew we weren’t gonna miss this opportunity. This is the first of a batch of MJ films that will be here soon.

THE STORY OF O.
* We’ve got the VHS; we’ve got the Blu-Ray; now we have it on DVD, too. This is a tweaky sex drama about O, a beautiful woman who is forcibly trained in the arts of bondage and sexual perversity.

SWINGERS.
* Our first DVD of the Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn comedy about two wannabe’s in LA living a nightmare version of the dream. Written by Favreau.

WHEN HARRY MET SALLY.
* Best. Billy Crystal. Movie. Ever.

THE WIZ (30th ANNIVERSARY ISSUE).
* Directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Richard Pryor and more, this take on the Wizard of Oz is a must-see for anyone struggling to understand Michael’s cultural significance in the wake of his death. I still remember going to see this film with my dad and my sisters and dancing and singing our way out of the theatre.

............//REPLACEMENT DVD’S/............

BACK TO THE FUTURE.

FUTURAMA: VOLUME 2.

HELEN OF TROY.

MARS ATTACKS!
* Tim Burton goes to town in outer space.

POINT BREAK (PURE ADRENALINE EDITION).

STARDUST MEMORIES.
* My favorite Woody Allen film.

STEEL MAGNOLIAS.
* Not wooden, not brick.

****

****new release list no.226

There is a new film night happening in Bernal Heights, thanks to the hard work and excitement of Sabrina Davidson, the Community Development Organizer at the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center. Entitled BERNAL HEIGHTS FILM NIGHTS, the series will begin this Friday night, July 10th at 7pm at the neighborhood center 515 Cortland Ave. The screenings will be free, and the first night, two movies by Xuan Vu will be shown. DREAMCORP is a short fantasy film about someone auditioning for an acting job at the fictional DreamCorp, a company that makes night-time dreams, daydreams, etc. BEHIND STAGE CURTAINS is a “musical narrative documentary” about a group of first through third graders in Massachusets preparing for a big musical stage production. Come support this fun and free night of film in Bernal Heights!

PUSH is a new Sci-fi film out this week. It follows the complicated story of some very powerful young members of a secret organization as they try to avoid the evil government. Also in the somewhat Sci-Fi region is THE UNBORN about a young woman fighting off a ghost. In KNOWING, Nicolas Cage struggles to unwrap “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma” (Winston Churchhill). Can he figure out the secret in time to save himself and the world?

A few more of our Highlighted New Additions have arrived! Another Bollywood film (JODHA AKBAR) as well as a trio of Hong Kong films (ELECTION, BEAST STALKER, BREAKING NEWS). Scroll down to read about them as written by Valerie Soe, a local film educator whose blog BEYOND ASIAPHILIA we have been linking this last month. Thanks for all your help, Valerie!

By the way, I watched MY DINNER WITH ANDRE the other night. What an amazing film. If you haven’t checked it out, you should. Besides being a fascinating voyeuristic glimpse into some people’s lives, it is hysterically funny and also rather poignant. What is ostensibly a story of two men in different periods of their lives, and in different states of comfort with themselves, having dinner and awkwardly discussing reality, is also a debate on the nature of society, and our reactions to the roles of media and economics in our lives.

Thanks everyone who has checked out SUCCULENCE. For anyone reading this for the first time, we now have a desert plant store in the back of Four Star Video filled with all manners of succulent plants and planters of all shapes and sizes. Please take a walk back there and check it out. Succulents make wonderful plant friends. They take very little and give so much!

A quick note of interest about Four Star Video: like so many small businesses, we have been affected by the economic downturn. Starting last September, things got somewhat dire for a while. However, things have been much better each month since around April, when we revamped our KenFlix pricing. This last month, I noticed something very interesting. Compared to the same month last year, we were down about 5% financially, but we actually rented more movies! Another aspect of this is that we charged nearly 23% less late fees, accounting for about half of our reduction in income. My guess is that this is all related to KenFlix. I think most people who sign up for this program get more adventurous than ever with their movie watching. They dig deeper into sections than they have in the past. We think this is just awesome! Obviously, we do not want to have a reduction in income (who does?), but we love happy customers, and we find our KenFlix customers to be amongst the happiest. Do you have a lot of late fees? Perhaps you should find out more…

Alrighty, that’s all folks, hope to see you at the store.

Love and Kisses,
Ken

******************************************************************************
KenFlix - the only Independent Monthly Subscription Film Renting Service in SF
If you are going to make a monthly commitment, make it a local one.
No due dates. No late fees.

ESUB -One Movie at a time – Three movies total – $9.99 + Tax/Month
1SUB - One Movie at a time – Unlimited exchange – $18.99 + Tax/Month
3SUB - Three Movies at a time – Unlimited exchange – $24.99 + Tax/Month
4SUB - Four Movies at a time – Unlimited exchange – $32.99 + Tax/Month
******************************************************************************

Links we are super hip on this week:
Beyond Asiaphilia - Local filmmaker Valerie Soe's excellent blog focusing on Asian/American arts, culture and other related topics.
Bernal Heights Outdoor Cinema festival.
Pal’s Takeaway – Yummy yummy.

Do you have a link Four Star Customers should check out??? Email it to me.

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

COCO CHANEL.
Drama/Romance/Fictobiopic.
Barbora Bobulova/Brigitte Boucher/Shirley MacLaine/Malcolm McDowell.
Directed by Christian Duguay.
* Fashion designer Coco Chanel is the subject of this tale. McLaine plays her in the latter portion of her life.

FIVE FINGERS.
Suspense.
Ryan Phillippe/Laurence Fishbourne/Said Taghmaoui.
Directed by Laurence Malkin.
* An enterprising Dutch foundation worker (Phillippe) is kidnapped by terrorists while in Morocco. He is then tortured into giving information to the terrorists. This classic suspense store kept the message boards kids very active. What actually happened? Would they really do that?

KNOWING.****ALSO ON BLU-RAY****
Suspense/Mystery.
Nicolas Cage/Rose Byrne.
Directed by Alex Proyas.
* A professor (Cage) discovers that a little girl’s scribbled notes from 1958 have predicted every major disaster in the fifty years since. While transcribing the notes, he sees that there are more disasters predicted. Can he avoid them? Can he possibly avert

LE JUPON ROUGE.
Drama//Romance/LGBT/Foreign (French).
Alida Valli/Marie-Christine Barrault/Giullemette Grobon.
Directed by Genevieve Lefebvre.
* Lesbian love triangle about a holocaust survivor and two younger women she loves. Starring the wonderful Marie-Christine Barrault who was awesome in my favorite Woody Allen film STARDUST MEMORIES.

LONELY ARE THE BRAVE.
Western.
Kirk Douglas/Gena Rowlands/Walter Matthau/Michael Kane.
Directed by David Miller.
* 1962 film being released as part of the Universal backlot, this western is about a Jack Burns (Douglas) who gets arrested to help his friend (who is currently incarcerated) break out. When his friend expresses the desire to remain in jail, Burns is on his own in the break-out and heavily pursued by the Sheriff (Matthau).

NIGHT TRAIN.
Action/Crime/Mystery/Thriller.
Leelee Sobieski/Danny Glover/Steve Zahn.
Directed by Brian King.
* Sounds kind of like a variation of the amazing SHALLOW GRAVE. When a passenger on a train is found dead with serious valuables on him, a few passengers and a conductor decide to dump the body and keep the loot. Then they decide they should chop him up a bit, to make him harder to identify. Now, I’m just a video store owner, but I think when you are hanging with people and the decision is made to chop someone up (dead or not) you are probably heading down a path that will lead to problems. Challenging problems. Just saying.

PUSH.
Action/Sci-Fi.
Chris Evans/Camille Belle/Dakota Fanning.
Directed by Paul McGuigan.
* Madcap sci-fi flick about Watchers, Wipers, Bleeders, Stitches and Pushers; people with special telekinetic powers that are a part of a special secret government army.

UNBORN.
Horror/Thriller.
Odest Yustman/Gary Oldman/Meagan Good/Jane Alexander.
Directed by David S. Goyer.
* According to Wikipedia “In Jewish folklore, a dybbuk is a malicious possessing spirit, believed to be the dislocated soul of a dead person”. This film is about a girl dealing with one of these…

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

RESOLVED
Documentary.
Samuel Alioto/Louis Blackwell.
Directed by Greg Whiteley.
* Rich examination of the high school debate team concept and a thorough look at the racial issues involved.

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

DR. WHO: ATTACH OF THE CYBERMEN.
BBC/Sci-Fi.
Colin Baker.
* The subtitle of this release is “The Colin Baker Years: 1984-1986.

DR. WHO: RESCUE/ROMANS.
* More older Dr. Who.

MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATRE 3000: XV.
Television/Sci-Fi/Comedy.
* Have you seen this? In this show, a movie plays and sitting in the front at the bottom of your screen, as if in a movie theatre, a small group gives running commentary of the movie. It is funny, weird, at times insightful, and quite entertaining. This set includes the films THE ROBOT VS. THE AZTEC MUMMY, THE GIRL IN LOVERS LANE, ZOMBIE NIGHTMARE and RACKET GIRLS.

RENO 911: COMPLETE SIXTH SEASON.
Television/Comedy.
* It’s COPS on crack.

THE THIRD WATCH: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON.
Television/Drama.
Coby Bell/Jason Wiles.
* Season two of the show about a group of paramedics, firefighters and police that work the 3-11pm shift.

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

ALL REVIEW BLURBS WRITTEN BY GUEST REVIEWER, VALERIE S – THANKS VALERIE! ****EXCEPT DEV D

BEAST STALKER.
Action/Thriller/Foreign (Cantonese).
Nicolas Tse/Nick Cheung.
Directed by Dante Lam.
* Former teen heartthrob Nicolas Tse is a tough cop haunted by the death of a child hostage he accidentally kills in a chaotic shootout/car crash involving malevolent gangsters, innocent bystanders and much shattered glass. Nick Cheung plays a kidnapper-for-hire in charge of snatching the dead girl’s twin sister whose lawyer mother is involved in prosecuting the crime. Their meshing stories play out in a dizzying spiral of guilt, honor, fate and obligation. This gritty thriller demonstrates that Hong Kong can still turn out unmatched hard-ass crime dramas.

BREAKING NEWS.
Action/Crime/Thriller/Foreign (Cantonese/Mandarin/English).
Nick Cheung/Kelly Chen/Richie Ren.
Directed by Johnnie To.
* Johnnie To’s sleek, rapid-fire cops and robbers movie movie starts out with a bravura eight-minute single-take crane shot of a heist gone horribly awry, then shifts seamlessly between a crime thriller, a buddy movie and a satire of the manipulation of mass media by cops and criminals alike..

ELECTION (HONG KONG).
Action/Crime/Thriller/Foreign (Cantonese/Mandarin/English).
Tony Leung/K-Fai/Simon Yam/Nick Cheung.
Directed by Johnnie To.
* Dark, dark film about gangstas in Hong Kong. Expect no glamour or heroism here--brotherhood and honor don't mean much to the /hing dai/ in this film. Nick Cheung plays a crazy triad who, among other things, eats a porcelain spoon on the order of his /dai lo/. Simon Yam stars as a seemingly reasonable triad boss, with Tony Leung (Big Tony) Ka-Fai as his OTT counterpart. Directed by Hong Kong crime film maestro Johnnie To (/Exiled; The Mission; Breaking News/)..

JODHA AKBAR.
Drama/Romance/Bollywood (Hindi and English and Punjabi).
Hrithik Roshan/Aishwarya Rai.
Directed by Ashutosh Gowariker.
* Dreamy hunk Hrithik Roshan and “the most beautiful woman in the world,” Aishwarya Rai, play Akbar the Great, a Muslim, and his Hindu wife, Jodhaa, in this lavish historical spectacle. 2009 Filmfare Awards Best Film of the Year.

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

PEANUTS: 1960’S COLLECTION.
* Awesome two disc set including all the classics such as A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS, CHARLIE BROWN’S ALL-STARS (you should hear my son laugh at this one), YOU’RE IN LOVE CHARLIE BROWN, HE’S YOUR DOG CHARLIE BROWN, IT WAS A SHORT SUMMER, IT’S THE GREAT PUMPKIN and more. Very wonderful.

THE PRODIGY.

****

****new release list no.225

We have a new period of Highlighted New Additions starting now! The focus on these new additions is Bollywood. We have nine new titles in, located in the New Release room on the middle racks. They range from comedy to drama, with some superhero and sports and family mixed in. Most of these films are in English and Hindi and feature amazing song and dance. Please check them out and tell us what you think. Scroll down to read about them as written by Valerie Soe, a local film educator whose blog BEYOND ASIAPHILIA we have been linking this last month. Thanks for all your help, Valerie!

It was Pride Weekend in the Bay Area last weekend, and the weather was hot. I watched for the first time, THE TIMES OF HARVEY MILK and was blown away. Milk was such an amazing activist, and so full of love and energy. It is mind-boggling to imagine what he might have gotten done had not Dan White took his life just 11 months into his tenure as SF Supervisor. Thirty years later, so much evolution has taken place, but Prop 8 shows us how much more things can still change. I am always so full of admiration for people who take a stand to improve their rights and the way they are perceived.

There is a wide array of films of interest this week, nothing blockbustery, or earth shattering, but there is some good TV (ENTOURAGE SEASON FIVE, EASTBOUND & DOWN, SECRET DIARY OF A CALL GIRL SEASON TWO, THE IT CROWD SEASON TWO) some good docs (KAMP KATRINA, RIP: A REMIX MANIFESTO) lots of great new Bollywood films as mentioned above, a gaggle of foreign films (TOKYO!, TWISTED SOULS, LOS BASTARDOS, SONG OF INNOCENCE, KAIDAN, PARTES USTADAS) and a bit of Americana (TWO LOVERS, WHOLPHIN NO.8).

We had a great first week of SUCCULENCE! Thank you all who stopped by. As the summer gets in full swing, you may find yourself spending more time outdoors…Fill some of that garden spot with a nice succulent that will “take so little and give so much” in the words of one of our customers. We’ve got lots of variety of these plants, and a bunch of great planters as well. Tell your friends about us. So far we are all word of mouth. Also, we would love your feedback about the space.

Alrighty, that’s all folks, hope to see you at the store.

Love and Kisses,
Ken

******************************************************************************
KenFlix - the only Independent Monthly Subscription Film Renting Service in SF
If you are going to make a monthly commitment, make it a local one.
No due dates. No late fees.

ESUB -One Movie at a time – Two Exchanges a month (3 movies total) – $9.99 + Tax/Month
1SUB - One Movie at a time – Unlimited exchange – $18.99 + Tax/Month
3SUB - Three Movies at a time – Unlimited exchange – $24.99 + Tax/Month
4SUB - Four Movies at a time – Unlimited exchange – $32.99 + Tax/Month
******************************************************************************

Links we are super hip on this week:
Become a fan of SUCCULENCE on Facebook.
Beyond Asiaphilia -Local filmmaker Valerie Soe's excellent blog focusing on Asian/American arts, culture and other related topics.
Bernal Heights Outdoor Cinema festival.
A strange, beautiful and interactive video by Labuat.
Pal’s Takeaway – Yummy yummy.

Do you have a link Four Star Customers should check out??? Email it to me.

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

THE HUMAN CONTRACT.
Drama.
Jason Clarke/Paz Vega/Ted Danson.
Directed by Jada Pinkett Smith.
* Pinkett Smith wrote and directed this thriller about a straight laced office man who meets a hottie stranger who encourages him to throw up his corporate trappings and live la vida loca.

JONAS BROTHERS: THE CONCERT EXPERIENCE.
Music.
Kevin/Joe/Nick.
Directed by Bruce Hendricks
* Ohmygod, the Jonas Brothers!!!!!!

KAIDAN.
Horror/Drama/Romance/Foreign (Japanese).
Kumiko Aso/Takaaki Enoki.
Directed by Hideo Nakata.
* From the IMDB: “The film is a fairly close retelling of Encho Sanyutei's 19th century ghost story entitled "Shinkei Kasane-ga-fuchi" about the cursed fate of two families and the karma passed on from parent to child”.

LOS BASTARDOS.
Action/Crime/Drama/Thriller/Foreign (English and Spanish).
Jesus Moises Rodriguez/Ruben Sosa/Nina Zavarin.
Directed by Amat Escalante.
* A day-in-the-life tale about two undocumented Mexican day-laborers living in L.A. who get a much better paying job than usual, involving weapons.

PARTES USADAS.
Drama /Foreign (Spanish).
Carlos Ceja/Emery Eduardo Granados.
Directed by Aaron Fernandez Lesur.
* A teenager and his best friend get involved in a plot to steal car parts in order to help his uncle finance their illegal emigration to Chicago from Mexico.

PEDRO: THE TRUE STORY OF PEDRO ZAMORA.
Drama/Fictobiopic/LGBT.
Alex Loynaz/Justina Machado.
Directed by Nick Oceano.
* Co-Written by Academy-Award winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, this film tells the story of Pedro Zamora, a Cuban-American AIDS activist and television personality who died in 1994.

SONG OF INNOCENCE.
Drama/Foreign (French).
Isild Le Besco/Frederic Pierrot.
Directed by Antoine Santana.
* A period piece about a young peasant employed as a live in wet nurse for a wealthy family and the emotional drama that plays out as the husband feels alienated from the relationships that grow.

TOKYO!
Drama/Foreign (French and Japanese).
Yu Aoi/Ayako Fujitani/Julie Dreyfus.
Directed by Joon-ho Bong and Michel Gondry and Leos Carax.
* Three vignettes about Tokyo from three different directors.

TWISTED SOULS.
Crime/Thriller/Foreign (French).
Vincent Martinez/Melanie Thierry.
Directed by Cheyenne Carron.
* A thriller about a young couple in a country house getting jiggy with their reality.

TWO LOVERS.****ALSO IN BLU-RAY****
Drama/Romance.
Gwyneth Paltrow/Joaquin Phoenix.
Directed by James Gray.
* Will this be Phoenix’s final movie? Supposedly he is retired now and he has been sighted “performing” as a rap artist. You can Youtube he performance and see why I put the word performing in quotes! In this, he plays a young self-destructive man struggling with depression and living back with his parents. He is torn between desire for two different women and the difference between the women is somehow emblematic of his hesitant desire for life.

WHOLPHIN ISSUE NO. 8.
Shorts/Weirds/Experimentals/Such.
Directed by Many.
* Just check it out, it is a collection of many things gathered by McSweeney's, the literary Quarterly brainchild of Dave Eggers.

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

KAMP KATRINA.
Documentary.
Directed by Ashley Sabin and David Redmon.
* Strange social experiment involving 14 people signing up and living for six months in tents in someone’s backyard dubbed Kamp Katrina. Somehow it becomes somewhat of a combat platoon experiment with the residents being removed one and two at a time until some sort of poetic comment is made. The comment? Not sure....

RiP: A REMIX MANIFESTO.
Documentary.
Directed by Brett Gaylor.
* This doc examines copyright law in the information age, and the way these laws affect the art and media that is produced.

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

EASTBOUND & DOWN.
Television/HBO/Comedy/Drama.
Danny McBride/John Hawkes.
* Everyone but Kenny Powers (McBride) knows that he is a washed up, arrogant, jerk, has-been baseball player. Unfortunately, Kenny still thinks he deserves the accolades and privileges of the stars. When he moves back to his hometown to be the new phys ed teacher, reality starts to let its somewhat smelly presence be known to him. Will Ferrell is involved in this well-acted series.

ENTOURAGE: THE COMPLETE FIFTH SEASON.
Television/HBO/Comedy/Drama.
Kevin Connolly/Kevin Dillon/Adrian Grenier/Jeremy Priven.
* Season five in the series following film star Vince Chase (Grenier) and his pack of buddies traversing the spicy and dangerous peaks and valleys of Hollywood.

THE IT CROWD: COMPLETE SECOND SEASON.
Television/Comedy.
Chris O’Dowd/Katherine Parkinson.
* Season two following the hijinks of the IT department at a busy business.

THE SECRET DIARY OF A CALL GIRL: SEASON TWO.
Television/Drama.
Billy Piper.
* Season two following the hijinks of a high class ho in London.

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

ALL REVIEW BLURBS WRITTEN BY GUEST REVIEWER, VALERIE S – THANKS VALERIE! ****EXCEPT DEV D

BLACK.
Drama/Bollywood (English and Hindi).
Amitabh Bachchan/Rani Mukherjee.
Directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali.
* Here’s an unusual Bollywood movie—no singing or dancing, runs a tidy 2 hours, and is a serious drama about a serious subject. Black is a Hindi version of the Helen Keller story, starring the awesome Rani Mukherjee as the deaf-blind protagonist and the legendary Amitabh Bachchan as her mentor who leads her out of darkness and silence by teaching her language. Excellent performances by the two leads. 2006 Filmfare Awards Best Film of the Year..

CHAK DE INDIA.
Family/Drama/Sport/Bollywood (Hindi).
Shah rukh Khan.
Directed by Shimit Amin.
* The best girljock movie ever made, starring Shah Rukh Khan and a cast of feisty unknowns, Chak de! India (Go, India!) will have you rooting for the underdog Indian Women’s Field Hockey Team and humming the theme song long after the film is over. Features great sports action and cogent commentary about racism, class divisions, gender roles, patriotism, sisterhood, and loyalty, all wrapped up in a highly entertaining package. Go India!.

DEV D.
Drama/Romance/Bollywood (Hindi and English and Punjabi).
Abhay Deol/Dibyendu Bhattacharya.
Directed by Anurag Kashyap.
* From the IMDB: “Dev who, after spurning Paro's love due to a misunderstanding, turns to drugs and vodka for solace. Paro moves on but Dev still is in remorse. He meets Chanda, a prostitute with problems of her own. Dev likes her but his penchant for self-destruction prevents him and Chanda from truly getting together. He also meets sleazy people like Chunni, Chanda's pimp who drags Dev further into self-destruction to further his own needs.”

JAANE TU…YA JAANE NA.
Comedy/Drama/Romance/Bollywood (Hindi).
Imran Khan/Genelia D’Souza.
Directed by Abbas Tyrewala.
* Best friends played by Imran Khan and Genelia d’Souza discover love and the meaning of life in this romantic comedy.

KABHI ALVIDA NAA KEHNA.
Drama/Bollywood (English and Hindi).
Amitabh Bachchan/Shah rukh Khan.
Directed by Karan Johar.
* A romantic drama set in New York City about two friends who find themselves drawn to each other despite being married to other people. Strong performances from the ensemble cast including Amitabh Bachchan Abishek Bachchan (Amitabh’s son), Rani Mukherjee, Preity Zinta and the Baadshah of Bollywood, Shah Rukh Khan, who shows off his serious acting chops.

KRRISH.
Action/Adventure/Romance/Sci-Fi/Bollywood (English and Hindi and Cantonese).
Rekha/Hrithik Roshan.
Directed by Rakesh Roshan.
* The charming Hrithik Roshan, Bollywood’s current “it” boy, plays a reluctant superhero in this science fiction action mashup with action choreography by Hong Kong master Ching Sui-Tung (House of Flying Daggars) and Matrix-style special effects. Part ET, part Spiderman, and all fun..


RANG DE BASANTI.
Comedy/Drama/Bollywood (English and Hindi).
Aamir Khan/Siddharth.
Directed by Rakesh Omprakash Mehra.
* In the process of making a movie about India’s struggle for independence, a group of students learn the true meaning of standing up for one’s ideals. An interesting, layered drama that, in light of current events in Iran, is compelling, moving and relevant. Stars Aamir Khan (Lagaan). 2007 Filmfare Awards Best Film of the Year.

SINGH IS KING.
Action/Comedy/Crime/Romance/Bollywood (Hindi/Punjabi/Urdu).
Akshay Kumar/Katrina Kaif.
Directed by Anees Bazmee.
* A classic “masala” movie, with action, comedy, romance, and song and dance, this wacky movie is about a naïve villager who somehow becomes king of the underworld. Zany hijinks ensue.

SWADES.
Drama/Bollywood (English and Hindi).
Shah rukh Khan/Gayatri Joshi.
Directed by Ashutash Gowariker.
* A thoughtful, innovative drama about an successful ex-patriot scientist who returns from the U.S. to his village in India and discovers a great deal about himself, his country and real priorities in life. King of Bollywood Shah Rukh Khan turns in an intense, nuanced performance.

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

DINOSAUR KING: VOLCANIC PANIC.
* It’s what I wanna be, yeah (make your move, go on and make your move).

INSPECTOR GADGET.

INSPECTOR GADGET 2.

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

THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE.
Crime/Drama/Thriller.
Walter Matthau/Robert Shaw/Hector Elizdono/Jerry Stiller.
Directed by Joseph Sargent.
* The original version of this movie about an NYC train hijacking.

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

NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM.
* Three new copies, just cuz...

VERA DRAKE.
* A new copy.

****

****new release list no.224

Oh Nelly, the summer is finally here! It looks to be a doozy. I love the way the summer just creates a slightly different vibe in the air. I feel a little more open to staying up late, to sleeping in. I am just a bit more likely to say yes when the kids ask for ice cream on a Tuesday night. I don’t really care so much if the ordinary schedule is rocked…in fact, I might rock it just for fun! The summer reminds me of childhood, of that anything-can-happen feeling. It makes me feel like I am seeing everything with new eyes. Summer puts away the jaded, and ushers in the novelty. I appreciate that. But it doesn’t just happen. It’s like any resource; you need to tap it. I am going to tap the summer for all its worth this year. The winter of 2009 was a cold one, both emotionally and physically, so I am going to relax into this summer like a kid into a soft chair, with an ice cream cone in my sticky hands and nothing to do but eat it.

Maybe I’ll watch some movies, too. I caught a few this weekend. I watched WALTZ WITH BASHIR, a new Israeli animated film out this week. It tells the story of a man whose memory of the war in Lebanon in the 1980’s is jarred by his friend’s admission of nightmares based on his own memories. The man realizes he has no memory of the war, and in fact, no memory of a terrible massacre that happened within yards of where he was. What actually happened, he wonders, and what was my part in it? In documentary style, he searches for the answers and for other people who were with him in the hell that was that war (and every war). “Our memories take us only as far as we are capable of going” his fellow veteran tells him. The mind is amazing that way.

Also out this weekend are a few Criterion releases, LAST YEAR IN MARIENBAD, a 1961 French film dealing with infidelity and sexual politics and MY DINNER WITH ANDRE, a 1981 release about two men, Wallace and Andre, having dinner, trading tales and philosophizing about their lives and the nature of existence.

There are two adventure/fantasy movies that might appeal to families out there. First up is PHOEBE IN WONDERLAND, about a little girl struggling with society and eager to escape into her fantasy life. Starring Elle Fanning in a strong performance, this film also features Felicity Huffman and Bill Pullman as her parents and Patricia Clarkson as her teacher. Next we have INKHEART, another fantasy tale also about a little girl whose father tells stories that come to life.

There is also a bunch of strong foreign films (DIARY OF A SUICIDE, ALICE’S HOUSE), some good old American comedy (THE PINK PANTHER 2, CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC) and a big batch of documentaries highlighted by LOUISE BOURGEOIS: THE SPIDER, THE MISTRESS AND THE TANGERINE about the iconic feminist and art innovator.

In non-film news, Four Star Video is now serving the people of Bernal Heights and beyond for all of your desert plant needs with our new retail side-venture SUCCULENCE. We have small and large cactus and succulents, as well as a variety of planters for sale in the back patio. Go take a look. Look for more supplies, such as soils, tools and more plants to be added in the next couple weeks. Wish we had something we don’t? Let us know; we will obtain it. We are open from 11am until dark every day. As of now, we will sometimes have staff out back, and sometimes not, but you can ask for help inside the store at any time.

Alrighty, that’s all folks, hope to see you at the store.

Love and Kisses,
Ken

******************************************************************************
KenFlix - the only Independent Monthly Subscription Film Renting Service in SF
If you are going to make a monthly commitment, make it a local one.
No due dates. No late fees.

ESUB -One Movie at a time – Two Exchanges a month (3 movies total) – $9.99 + Tax/Month
1SUB - One Movie at a time – Unlimited exchange – $18.99 + Tax/Month
3SUB - Three Movies at a time – Unlimited exchange – $24.99 + Tax/Month
4SUB - Four Movies at a time – Unlimited exchange – $32.99 + Tax/Month
******************************************************************************

Links we are super hip on this week:
Beyond Asiaphilia local filmmaker Valerie Soe's excellent blog focusing on Asian/American arts, culture and other related topics.
Bernal Heights Outdoor Cinema festival.
Videofest 2009 at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts. Hurry up, the deadline is approaching for these film festivals.
Pal’s Takeaway – Yummy yummy.

Do you have a link Four Star Customers should check out??? Email it to me.

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

ALICE’S HOUSE.
Drama/Foreign (Portuguese).
Carla Ribas.
Directed by Chico Teixeira.
* The winner of many awards on the independent circuit, this Brazilian film tells the story of Alice, a mother and wife who works in a beauty parlor and lives a relatively quiet and anonymous life. However, as normal as her family seems, beneath the surface lurks secrets and lies which threaten the harmony of their middle-class existence.

BAD LUCK.
Black Comedy/Foreign (Polish).
Bogumil Kobiela/Krystyna Karkowska/Barbara Lass/Roman Polanski.
Directed by Andrzej Munk.
* The first of three new films by Munk, this one is about a middle aged man who is imprisoned and would love to remain there but is forced by the state back into society in 1950’s Poland. A very young Polanski has a bit role as a tutor.

THE CODE.
Suspense/Crime.
Antonion Banderas/Morgan Freeman/Radha Mitchell.
Directed by Mimi Leder.
* The classic tale of an older thief (Freeman) trying to pull off one last heist to pay off the Russian mobsters he’s in debt with and retire with his life. He brings in a young, up and coming thief (Banderas) to help him with the job.

CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC.
Comedy/Romance.
Isla Fisher/Hugh Dancy/Joan Cusack/John Goodman/John Lithgow/Kristen Scott Thomas.
Directed by P.J. Hogan.
* She has way more than 27 dresses, and she seems like she’s 13 going on 30, and though she’s competitive, she’s not involved in any bride wars. The devil may wear Prada, but that doesn’t mean she has that same sort of blonde ambition. Her new boyfriend is rich rich rich, and that may help feed her shopping addiction, but, she says to herself, it’s can’t buy me love. Why not? Because I said so.

DIARY OF A SUICIDE.
Drama/Fantasy/Foreign (French).
Delphine Seyrig/Sacha Pitoeff/Sami Frey/Marie-France Pisier.
Directed by Stanislav Stanojevic.
* Never released in the US, this 1973 film stars some of the biggest names in French cinema. The story involves a tour group in the Mediterranean and the cat and mouse relationship that emerges with the group’s leader (Frey) and the interpreter (Seyrig), a mysterious woman hidden behind her sunglasses. The fruit of their connection is the stories the leader begins to tell to entertain the interpreter, stories that get more and more unbelievable as they go along. This director made just a few films that are only now (35 years later) making it America. If you like this, try SUBVERSION, which is also on the New Release wall.

EROICA.
Black Comedy/Foreign (Polish).
Edward Dziewonski/Barbara Polomska/Ignacy Machowski/Chris Littenski.
Directed by Andrzej Munk.
* The second of three new films by Munk, EROICA is based on two short stories by J.S. Stawinski about World War II. This film is considered to be Munk’s masterpiece and was one of the cornerstones of the Polish School of film making. The story involves a black marketer who becomes accidentally involved with the Polish Resistance and Polish military prisoners battling boredom and contemplating escape in a prison camp.

GARTH METHOD.
Comedy/Drama.
Gregory Pakis/Katrina Baylis.
Directed by Gregory Pakis.
* Strange Australian tale of an out of work actor who kidnaps people and forces them to act in his weird film designed to make him super successful and famous. This film actually follows the fictional actor as he convinces a filmmaker to make the story of his life including tidbits of the film he kidnapped his actors to make.

INKHEART.***ALSO IN BLU-RAY****
Adventure/Family/Fantasy.
Brendan Fraser/Sienna Guillory/Helen Mirren.
Directed by Iain Softley.
* Fantasy tale of a young girl whose father has the ability to bring characters to life when he reads books aloud. His reading of a medieval tale thrusts them right into the thick of magical beings and their struggle for power and dominance.

LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD.
Criterion/Drama/Romance/Foreign (French).
Dephine Seyrig/Giorgio Albertazzi/Sacha Pitoeff/Francoise Bertin.
Directed by Alain Resnais.
* This is the tale of X and A, two individuals staying at a huge luxury hotel who may or may not have had an affair last year. X is there to persuade A to run away with him as they had planned last year. A is still married and acts as though she has no recollection of the affair. The film is shot with very stylized portraits of the hotel and the people in it passing the time in that luxurious way that the wealthy have of having little to do and the calming ability to enjoy it. When this film debuted in 1961, it was considered shocking and really changed the way French film was made and perceived.

MAN ON THE TRACKS.
Drama/Foreign (Polish).
Kazimierz Opalinski/Zygmunt Maciejewski/Roman Klosowski/Rachel Whitesideski.
Directed by Andrzej Munk.
* The third of three new films by Munk, this one compares to CITIZEN KANE in that it is multiple and conflicting versions of the same story as investigators try to determine what happened with a man who is found dead lying on train tracks in the middle of the night.

MR. TROOP MOM.
Comedy.
George Lopez.
Directed by William Dear.
* Eddie (Lopez) is a successful attorney, who hasn’t been very involved with his daughter’s life. He decides to accompany her on an outdoor adventure as the “troop mom” to a bunch of girl scouts.

MY DINNER WITH ANDRE.
Criterion/Comedy/Drama.
Wallace Shawn/Andre Gregory.
Directed by Louis Malle
* Life itself is the topic of conversation as Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory sit and eat dinner while discussing their varied philosophies and experiences. What is it that makes their conversation so interesting, and valuable? Perhaps it is the intimacy of being the fly on the wall as two men just discuss their hopes and dreams.

OLD FAIRY TALE: WHEN THE SUN WAS GOD.
Drama/War/Foreign (Polish).
Marina Andrejewna Aleksandrowa/Daniel Olbrychski/Jerzy Trela.
Directed by Jerzego Hoffmana.
* A story about crime and intrigue in 9th Century Europe regarding Slavic tribes worshipping separate gods.

PHOEBE IN WONDERLAND.
Drama/Family/Fantasy.
Felicity Huffman/Patricia Clarkson/Elle Fanning/Bill Pullman.
Directed by Daniel Barnz.
* A little girl (Fanning), at odds with reality and the multiple rules of civilization is increasingly lost in her fantasy world, greatly worrying her mother and father. Her teacher (Clarkson) gives her guidance and tries to help her through her struggles.

PINK PANTHER 2.
Comedy/Adventure/Mystery.
Steve Martin/Jean Reno/Emily Mortimer/Andy Garcia/Alfred Molina/John Cleese/Jeremy Irons/Lily Tomlin.
Directed by Harald Zwart.
* The second offering of the remade classics featuring Martin as Inspector Jacques Clouseau, international spy catcher and all around amazing copper who is part of a international team of law enforcement agents who are trying to stop a robber who is stealing historical artifacts.

WALTZ WITH BASHIR.****ALSO IN BLU-RAY****
Drama/Animated/Documentary-ish/Foreign (Hebrew/English).
Ron Ben-Yishai/Ronny Dayag/Ari Folman.
Directed by Ari Folman.
* Nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar, and winner of 6 Israeli Film Awards including Best Film, Best Direction, Best Screenplay, Best Soundtrack (fabulous!) and Best Editing, this brilliant film is basically a narrative documentary about an Israeli man in his 40’s trying to remember the events surrounding a terrible massacre of Palestinians in Lebanon during the war in the 1980’s when he was just a young man trying to stay alive. The animation is very interesting, it is somewhat computery, with a strange almost purposefully 2-dimensional quality (yes, I know it is actually 2-dimensional, but you know what I mean). It is flat, and fluid, and somehow the people kind of reminded me strangely of Jar Jar Binks from THE PHANTOM MENACE in the strange bouncy way he had of walking. The film itself is a reminder of how hard people need to work to remember terrible events in our history. Our brain is so amazing at erasing the trauma and enabling us to move forward without being disabled by our experiences. This is not a pleasant film to watch, but it is an important one.

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

A.
Documentary/Foreign (Japanese).
Directed by Tatsuya Mori.
* The inside workings of Japanese religious cult Aum Shinrikyo, who released sarin gas into Tokyo’s subway system in 1995 are captured on film in this 1998 documentary.

A 2.
Documentary/Foreign (Japanese).
Directed by Tatsuya Mori.
* A sequel to the above referenced A was made in 2001 continuing the documentation of the notorious cult Aum Shinrikyo

ARTS & MYTHS: VOLUME 2.
Art Documentary.
Directed by Many.
* This is the second volume of a doc series that introduces the audience to magnificent pieces of international art and then explains to us its origins, significance and the culture of the person who made it.

AT THE DEATH HOUSE DOOR.
Documentary.
Carroll Pickett/Steve Mills.
Directed by Peter Gilbert and Steve James.
* In 1989, Carlos DeLuna was executed in Texas for a crime that evidence suggests he did not commit. This film looks at the prosecution and questions the judgment of the crime in question as well as capital punishment itself

CRIPS & BLOODS: MADE IN AMERICA.
Documentary/History.
Narrated by Forest Whitaker.
Directed by Stacy Peralta.
* A look into the history of the Crips and the Bloods, two of the most notorious in American history.

FEMA CITY.
Documentary.
Directed by Jamin Griffiths.
* The sad tale of the wrath Hurricane Charley had on Florida in 2004 and the people who moved into the emergency housing in Charlotte County which became nick named FEMA City. The film documents the difficulties the people of FEMA City have had re-establishing their lives after 18 months of government housing.

THE KILLERS: THIN WHITE DUKES.
Rock-Doc.
The Killers.
* Interviews, archive footage, etc about the rock band The Killers.

LOUISE BOURGEOIS: THE SPIDER, THE MISTRESS AND THE TANGERINE.
Documentary/History.
Lousie Bougreois/Jean-Louis Bourgeois/Pandora Tabatabai Asbaghi/Guerilla Girls.
Directed by Marion Cajori and Amei Wallach.
* From the IMDB: A journey inside the world of a legend of modern art and an icon of feminism. Onscreen, the nonagenarian Louise Bourgeois is magnetic, mercurial and emotionally raw-an uncompromising artist whose life and work are imbued with her ongoing obsession with the mysteries of childhood. Her process is on full display in this intimate documentary, which features the artist in her studio and with her installations, shedding light on her intentions and inspirations. Louise Bourgeois has for six decades been at the forefront of successive new developments, but always on her own powerfully inventive and disquieting terms. In 1982, at the age of 71, she became the first woman to be honored with a major retrospective at New York's Museum of Modern Art. In the decades since, she has created her most powerful and persuasive work, including her series of massive spider structures that have been installed around the world. Filmed with unparalleled access between 1993 and 2007, Louise Bourgeois: The Spider, the Mistress and the Tangerine is a comprehensive and dramatic documentary of creativity and revelation.

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

QUO VADIS.
Television/Mini-Series
Klaus Maria Brandauer/Frederic Foreest.
Directed by Franco Rossi.
* Nero, Petronius, Marcus Vinicius and the rest of the Roman Gang do what they do best in this six-hour miniseries from the 1980’s about the Roman Empire.

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

DRAGON HUNTERS.
Animation/Adventure/Fantasy.
Forrest Whitaker/Patrick Timsit/Vincent Lindon.
Directed by Guillaume Ivernel/Arthur Qwak.

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

FLETCH.
Comedy/Suspense.
Chevy Chase.
Directed by Michael Ritchie.
* 1985 goofball comedy about Fletch, a Los Angeles investigative journalist. We got the blu-ray, so we figured the regular DVD might make sense, too.

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

ED WOOD.
* It walked, we retrieved.

MI-5: VOLUME 2.
* New copy of the season.

****

****new release list no.223

At the end of the evening of my son’s banner 8th birthday last week, we surprised the kids by taking them out to see UP, the newest Pixar film. It was a very sociological experience. My wife Amy suggested we tell Huck early in the day about the idea, just in case he reacted anything like me to surprises (the implication being – not well). No, I said, he and his sister will be so psyched! Their minds will be blown. It will be almost bedtime, and then, instead of jammy’s and toothpaste, it will be shoes and socks and popcorn! What kids wouldn’t jump for joy?

Mine.

They both cried immediately. I don’t want to go! Cried Huck. Noooo. Cried Trudy. Why? I cried. We don’t know! They both cried. Okay…we told them. Fine, no problem. Not a big deal. We’re not forcing you to go to the movies…it was just a (great) plan. Hey listen, we told them, even if you change your mind in the next ten minutes we can still go. Just please, stop crying.

So they changed their minds immediately, and we went! Ah, parenthood.

The movie was really amazing. It is true, there are some scary and complicatedly emotional parts (bad dogs being bad dogish, childhood heroes threatening death by firepower -hmmm) and there were some very moving and teary parts. My kids are 4 and 8 and neither are super-duper sophisticated movie watchers, but aside from the need for some parental support and assurances, they both loved the film and we have been quoting Doug (the nice dog) for days. The film manages not to underestimate its audience, which is so refreshing in a kid’s movie. In fact, the opening sequence, where we are introduced to one of the main characters in a mostly dialogue-less montage of a couple meeting, getting married, growing old and eventually dealing with the passing of one of them was done so deftly, with such a gentle touch and so much obvious love. My kids watched with wonder; my friend Steve and I sobbed. It was beautiful.

In some ways, UP is a perfect companion piece to one of our releases this week, CHERRY BLOSSOMS, a fabulous film from the German director Doris Dorrie who gave us ENLIGHTENMENT GUARANTEED and more recently the food documentary HOW TO COOK YOUR LIFE. CHERRY BLOSSOMS is about a couple in their 60’s who are nearing retirement when one of them, Rudi (Elmar Wepper, in an excellent performance) receives a terminal medical diagnosis. His wife, Trudi, actually receives the diagnosis and chooses not to tell Rudi about his condition. Instead, she decides they will travel and do some of the things they always talked about doing. The film takes some twists and turns and becomes a true seize-the-moment inspiration. Life is happening now! There really is no tomorrow. So let’s enjoy it while we can. You should see this film, it is awesome.

We are getting closer to opening SUCCULENCE, our new desert plant store in the back patio of Four Star Video. Probably our doors will be open this very week. It will be a work in progress as we continue to prepare the space, the employees and ourselves for this new life change. As SUCCULENCE will be a life and garden store, we will begin offering life supplies quite soon. What are life supplies? Not sure… We’ll see! We are hoping to carry very small batches of artisan works, so please email me if you or someone you know is looking for an outlet for your creations.

My family attended a high school graduation this last weekend, of a young man who I met just a week or two after he made his entrance into the world eighteen years ago. The graduation was well attended by family and friends from all parts of his life. As I stood there watching him graduate on a day that happened to be my wife’s birthday, the day after my son’s birthday and with some our oldest and closest friends standing by, I was reminded yet again what an amazing thing this life can be, and how bizarrely transformative it is and how its paths wind their way out and in and around and how even when it is stressed to what feels like the point of breaking it can find itself resting on a moment of great peace and beauty and tranquility and let us say together, amen.

Alrighty, that’s all folks, hope to see you at the store.

Love and Kisses,
Ken

******************************************************************************
KenFlix - the only Independent Monthly Subscription Film Renting Service in SF
If you are going to make a monthly commitment, make it a local one.
No due dates. No late fees.

ESUB -One Movie at a time – Two Exchanges a month (3 movies total) – $9.99 + Tax/Month
1SUB - One Movie at a time – Unlimited exchange – $18.99 + Tax/Month
3SUB - Three Movies at a time – Unlimited exchange – $24.99 + Tax/Month
4SUB - Four Movies at a time – Unlimited exchange – $32.99 + Tax/Month
******************************************************************************

Links we are super hip on this week:
Short list
Take a delicate adventure and see the eggs of history by a local Bernal Heights artist.
Beyond Asiaphilia local filmmaker Valerie Soe's excellent blog focusing on Asian/American arts, culture and other related topics.
Bernal Heights Outdoor Cinema festival.
Videofest 2009 at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts.
Pal’s Takeaway – Yummy yummy.

Do you have a link Four Star Customers should check out??? Email it to me.

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

THE CELL 2.
Suspense/Sci-Fi.
Tessie Santiago/Frank Whaley.
Directed by Tim Iacofano.
* A mixture of horror, fantasy and science-fiction, the film is about a serial killer who kills and is able to bring his victims back to life in order to kill them again and again. The only one who might be able to stop him is past victim who is somehow able to enter his mind in order to find him. Phew!

CHERRY BLOSSOMS.
Drama/Foreign (German).
Elmar Wepper/Hennelore Eisner.
Directed by Doris Dorrie
* This beautiful treatise on life is about Trudi and Rudi, a couple in their 60’s. The doctors tell Trudi that Rudi is dying, and she decides to take him on a journey to visit their adult children and try to spend some of his short time left seeing those that he loves. Trudi can’t know that life has other plans for them and suddenly Rudi has more to reconcile then either of them realized. This movie is terrific, and I highly recommend it.

FRIDAY THE 13TH.****ALSO IN BLU-RAY****
Horror.
Amanda Righetti/Jared Padalecki/Derek Mears.
Directed by Marcus Nispel.
* Jason, like the setting sun, goes down. Like most psycho-killers, he takes some people with him.

LAST HOLIDAY: ESSENTIAL ART HOUSE EDITION.
Comedy.
Alec Guinness/Beatrice Campbell.
Directed by Henry Cass.
* Alec Guinness plays a guy who takes what he thinks will be his final holiday…yes; he thinks his life is ending. A great cast highlights this lost classic.

TYLER PERRY’S MADEA GOES TO JAIL.
Comedy/Drama/Crime.
Tyler Perry/Derek Luke/Keisha Knight Pulliam.
Directed by Tyler Perry.
* Tyler Perry stars as his signature character, Madea, the lovable and irascible grandmother voted most likely to get in trouble. Here, she gets in trouble.

PERFECT SLEEP.
Suspense/Action/Thriller/Noir.
Roselyn Sanchez/Patrick Bauchau/Peter Lucas.
Directed by Jeremy Alter.
* A dark tale about an assassin who goes back to a city where he is not safe to rescue a woman he loves who doesn’t love him back.

WHAT GOES UP.
Drama.
Hilary Duff/Josh Peck/Olivia Thirlby/Steve Coogan/Molly Shannon.
Directed by Jonathan Glatzer.
* This film takes place in the mid 1980’s when the Challenger Space Shuttle was launched. A burned out NY journalist (Coogan) goes home to a town in New Hampshire where the teacher who is going up is from to cover the event. There he discovers a whole cast of misfit teens leading off-the-beaten-path lives. Strangely enough, I went to high school with the director of this film in the mid-1980’s when this story takes place!

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

SCOTT WALKER: 30TH CENTURY MAN.
Rock-Doc.
David Bowie/Brian Eno.
Directed by Stephen Kijak.
* Scott Walker is a composer and poet who had some rock success in the 60’s and then mostly removed himself from the public eye. This documentary examines the influence he had on many of the rock stars of his era and beyond.

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

BURN NOTICE: SEASON TWO.
Television/Comedy/Spy.
Jeffrey Donovan/Gabrielle Anwar/Bruce Campbell.
* The second season of the show about a spy who has been “burned” by the government, meaning he is a persona non grata to the spy community who helps others with his special set of government trained skills.

FAMILY GUY: VOLUME SEVEN.
Comedy/Animation.
Seth MacFarlane/Mila Kunis/Seth Green.
Created by Seth MacFarlane.
* Season seven of the show about the Griffin’s, a super dysfunctional Rhode Island family dealing with one wacked out situation after another.

SAVING GRACE: SEASON TWO.
Television/Drama.
Holly Hunter/Kenny Johnson.
Created by Nancy Miller.
* Holly Hunter is a jaded cop whose complicated relationship with an angel is the center plot of this television show.

THE SECRET LIFE OF THE AMERICAN TEENAGER: SEASON TWO.
Television/Drama/Comedy.
Molly Ringwald/Shailene Woodley.
* They’re smoking cigarettes, doing drugs and having sex. There, the secret is out.

THE THREE STOOGES COLLECTION VOLUME 6 1949-1951.
Comedy.
Moe/Larry/Curly.
* These collections are just awesome..an excellent example of brilliant old time physical comedy.

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

DR. STRANGELOVE: 45th ANNIVERSARY EDITION.
Comedy.
Peter Sellers/George C. Scott/Sterling Hayden.
Directed by Stanley Kubrick.
* Iconic suspense comedy about a potential nuclear holocaust started by an insane general.

GHOSTBUSTERS.
Comedy/Action/Sci-Fi.
Bill Murray/Dan Akroyd/Sigourney Weaver/Harold Ramis/Rick Moranis.
Directed by Ivan Reitman.
* Who you gonna call?

THE SEVENTH SEAL.
Drama/Foreign (Swedish/Latin).
Max Von Sydow
Directed by Ingmar Bergman.
* Award winning 1957 film about a knight seeking the answers to existence during the time where the Black Plague is ravaging the earth.

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

GARFIELD’S PET FORCE.

TOM & JERRY’S GREATEST CHASES: VOL 2.

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

WHAT’S UP TIGER LILY?
Comedy.
Directed by Woody Allen.
* This is a brilliant early film from Woody, actually his directorial debut, where he took a Japanese film called INTERNATIONAL SECRET POLICE: KEY OF KEYS and dubbed it with American actors changing the story completely and centering it around a secret recipe for egg salad. This is one of those film filled with a billion throwaway jokes.

****

****new release list no.222

GRAN TORINO, the latest from Clint Eastwood, explores the relationship between an angry older vet stuck in the 1950’s, and a young Hmong teenager, trying to avoid joining the local gang in Detroit. Eastwood stars and directs.

THE INTERNATIONAL stars the ever popular Clive Owen and Naomi Watts as two government agents fighting a multinational war-stoking, evil-doing bank.

Race relations and internal prejudices are explored in SPINNING INTO BUTTER where a teacher (Sarah Jessica Parker) with racist leanings is thrust into the center of a hate crime.

WERE THE WORLD MINE explores the ultra rich and musical dream-life of a lonely gay teenager. CROSSING OVER is an ensemble piece, starring Harrison Ford, Ray Liotta, and Ashley Judd and focusing on the many different sides to immigration, both legal and illegal.

Look for a new Bernal Heights movie night coming soon! Sabrina, at the BHNC, is dedicating her time to getting a monthly movie night happening at the neighborhood center. She has circled Friday, June 26th as the first date. Keep checking this space for information about this event, and if you are a filmmaker and would like to show your work, let me know – I will pass you Sabrina’s information.

Bernal Height’s own Nancy McGinnis brings her personal and intimate rock to the Stray Bar on July 18th at 4pm. You can also check her out on the main stage at SF Pride on Saturday June 27 between 12 and 3pm. Check out info here.

Amy and I are especially excited to announce our very-soon-to-be-open new business – SUCCULENCE. A life and garden supply store, SUCCULENCE will be located in the back patio and barn area behind Four Star Video. We are beginning small, as a succulent store, selling desert plants and supplies, but our philosophy knows no boundaries. We believe that one of our highest duties is creating and extracting as much succulence out of life as we can. To that end, we will sell anything that fits into this vision. Local art, artisan planters, canned concoctions (pickles, preserved lemons, bbq sauces) will all soon be highlighted and available at our new business. We can’t tell you how super psyched we are about this. We hope you will be as well. We plan on being open from around 11-5, daily, and our goal is to be open by Father’s Day at the latest. Stop in and get a succulent!

I know it’s a month or so late, but I watched DOUBT last night with Philip Seymour Hoffman, Meryl Streep and Amy Adams – it was awesome! Excellent script, excellent acting, and enough ambiguity in the storyline to leave room for a nice long discussion with your screening buddy afterwards. Check it out.

Alrighty, that’s all folks, hope to see you at the store.

Love and Kisses,
Ken

******************************************************************************
KenFlix - the only Independent Monthly Subscription Film Renting Service in SF
If you are going to make a monthly commitment, make it a local one.
No due dates. No late fees.

ESUB -One Movie at a time – Two Exchanges a month (3 movies total) – $9.99 + Tax/Month
1SUB - One Movie at a time – Unlimited exchange – $18.99 + Tax/Month
3SUB - Three Movies at a time – Unlimited exchange – $24.99 + Tax/Month
4SUB - Four Movies at a time – Unlimited exchange – $32.99 + Tax/Month
******************************************************************************

Links we are super hip on this week:
Take a delicate adventure, and see the eggs of history by a local Bernal Heights artist.
Beyond Asiaphilia - local filmmaker Valerie Soe's excellent blog focusing on Asian/American arts, culture and other related topics.
Bernal Heights Outdoor Cinema festival.
Videofest 2009 at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts.
Pal’s Takeaway – Yummy yummy.

Do you have a link Four Star Customers should check out??? Email it to me.

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

CROSSING OVER.
Drama.
Harrison Ford/Ray Liotta/Jim Sturgess/Ashley Judd.
Directed by Wayne Kramer.
* This multi-plot ensemble piece revolves around immigration, both legal and illegal. Ford’s character is a Immigration/Customs Agent who has a sensitive disposition and a reluctance to prosecute. Liotta is a crooked green-card supervisor. Judd is a defense attorney involved in multiple challenging situations.

GRAN TORINO.****ALSO IN BLU-RAY****
Drama/Action.
Clint Eastwood/Bee Vang.
Directed by Clint Eastwood
* Eastwood’s second big release of 2008 (CHANGELING being the other) sees him starring in the film as well. He plays Walt Kowalski, an old curmudgeonly Korean War vet widower living in Detroit in a neighborhood being populated by members of the Hmong community. Kowalski is your classic bigot with a ice cube for a heart who allows the ice to melt revealing a…slightly sweeter bigot. What causes his heart to melt? Only the introverted teenager next door who enters his life when the local Hmong gangbangers force him to try to steal Walt’s prized 1972 Gran Torino. You think someone’s going to successfully steal Clint Eastwood’s car? Uh, no. This film has the added bonus of Clint singing on the soundtrack!

THE INTERNATIONAL.****ALSO IN BLU-RAY****
Action/Suspense.
Clive Owen/Naomi Watts.
Directed by Tom Tykwer.
* Tykwer (RUN LOLA RUN, PERFUME, THE PRINCESS AND THE WARRIOR {amazing!}) continues his transition into Hollywood-based cinema with this, ahem, international thriller about a money-laundering, gun-running, multinational corporate bank being pursued all over the globe by the attractive combination of an Interpol agent (Owen) and a NYC assistant DA (Watts) .

NICOTINA.
Action/Drama/Comedy/Crime/Foreign (Spanish).
Diego Luna.
Directed by Hugo Rodriguez.
* 2003 dark comedy just getting to DVD (maybe because of Luna’s big success with MILK) about a diamond deal, Russian mobsters, Swiss bank accounts and a cyber stalker (Luna) muddling everything up in his pursuit of the hot chick next door.

SPINNING INTO BUTTER.
Drama.
Beau Bridges/Sarah Jessica Parker/Miranda Richardson/Mykelti Williamson.
Directed by Mark Brokaw.
* Sarah Daniels, a young teacher (Parker) harboring racist tendencies, relocates to a very white town in Vermont where she hopes to continue to hide her rotten value system. However, at the new school where she finds employment, a young black man becomes the victim of a hate crime, and Sarah becomes the faculty’s point person in dealing with the crime, and the larger issue.

WERE THE WORLD MINE.
Adventure/Fantasy/Musical/Romance/LGBT.
Tanner Cohen/Zelda Williams/Rickie Goldman.
Directed by Tom Gustafson.
* Timothy (Cohen) a young gay man, stuck in high school and spending his time living in his musical daydreams, has a unique opportunity when he is cast as Puck in the high school presentation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He finds a secret love potion recipe hidden in the script and uses it to basically turn the town gay.

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

LADIES OR GENTLEMEN.
Documentary.
Tim Curry/Damon Wayans/Jack Lemmon/Robin Williams.
Directed by Kevin Burns.
* An exploration into cinematic cross dressing.

WOODSTOCK, 3 DAYS OF PEACE AND MUSIC: THE DIRECTOR’S CUT.
Rock-Doc – The definitive.
Arlo/The Who/Country Joe and The Fish/Sly/Jimi/Santana/Richie Havens/Jefferson Airplane/Janis…and on and on.
Directed by Michael Wadleigh
* Two-Disc 40th Anniversary edition of the 1969 music festival to end all music festivals.

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

THE SHIELD: SEASON SEVEN – THE FINAL ACT.
Television/Cops/Robbers.
Michael Chiklis/Laura Dent/.
* The seventh and final season of the popular tv series following good and bad cops in an inner-city precinct of Los Angeles.

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

FLETCH.
Comedy/Suspense.
Chevy Chase.
Directed by Michael Ritchie.
* 1985 goofball comedy about Fletch, a Los Angeles investigative journalist.

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

FRANNY’S FEET: PLAYING SOCCER.

****

****new release list no.221

This week I am going to begin what I loosely hope to be a monthly post on family movies. Since this is the first attempt at this, I will probably hit on some of the more familiar titles, but my plan is to get deeper into the library, and find some hidden gems that may be unknown to some of you.

No list of family movies can be complete without a title from the Japanese animation master Hayao Miyazaki. His films, some made for kids and some very much just for adults, are incredible journeys into mysterious and uncertain places and, though brilliant for many kids, touch on some very real situations. MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO is a great place to start. Totoro is a forest spirit, a sort of magical creature who lives in a huge tree next door to where two young girls, Mei and Satsuki have moved with their father while their mother recuperates from an unknown illness at a hospital far away in the city. This film manages to be an incredibly beautiful and gentle tale without shying away from many adult themes, such as loss, fear, loneliness. It is a perfect introduction to the amazing Miyazaki catalogue.

In the musical department, you can’t go wrong with THE SOUND OF MUSIC. Starring Christopher Plummer and Julie Andrews (just a year removed from MARY POPPINS) the film won 5 Oscars in early 1966 and features a bevy of unforgettable songs as well as a relatively gentle introduction to the atrocities of World War II. The movie is long, nearly three hours, but somehow the story recently kept my children (4 and 7 years of age) captivated for the entire time.

TRON (1982) is one for the slightly older kids (maybe 7 and up?). A very young and thin Jeff Bridges plays an embittered ex-employee of a video game company who gets accidentally zapped into the Master Control program and is forced to fight strange and beautiful computer battles as he attempts to escape back into “reality”. This way ahead of its time film is gorgeous (watch it on a big TV) and humorously dated. The games are a tiny bit violent, but nothing like the video games of 2009.

In the slightly under the radar, but current animation department, SURF’S UP (2007) has been a family favorite of ours for the last couple years. Featuring the voices of such stars as Zooey Deschanel, James Woods, Jeff Bridges (again), Shia LaBeouf and Jon Heder, it is the story of Cody Maverick, a young penguin (17 years of age) living in Antarctica who dreams of being a famous surfer and competing in a world competition. Featuring great current music, amazing animated surfing footage, and humorously goofy lines, it is a fine full family film.

Let me know what you think of these! And send me ideas for future family film posts. Oh, and scroll down for this week’s releases.

Alrighty, that’s all folks, hope to see you at the store.

Love and Kisses,
Ken

******************************************************************************
KenFlix - the only Independent Monthly Subscription Film Renting Service in SF
If you are going to make a monthly commitment, make it a local one.
No due dates. No late fees.

ESUB -One Movie at a time – Two Exchanges a month (3 movies total) – $9.99 + Tax/Month
1SUB - One Movie at a time – Unlimited exchange – $18.99 + Tax/Month
3SUB - Three Movies at a time – Unlimited exchange – $24.99 + Tax/Month
4SUB - Four Movies at a time – Unlimited exchange – $32.99 + Tax/Month
******************************************************************************

Links we are super hip on this week:
Beyond Asiaphilia- local filmmaker Valerie Soe's excellent blog focusing on Asian/American arts, culture and other related topics.
Bernal Heights Outdoor Cinema festival.
Videofest 2009 at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts.
Pal’s Takeaway – Yummy yummy.

Do you have a link Four Star Customers should check out??? Email it to me.

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

DEFIANCE.****ALSO IN BLU-RAY****
Drama/Thriller.
Daniel Craig/Alexa Davalos/Jamie Bell/Liev Schreiber.
Directed by Edward Zwick.
* In the deep forests of Belorussia, during WWII, a large population of Polish Jews and Russian freedom fighters lived. Based on a true tale, this film focuses on three brothers and their conflicting desires to protect the people living in the forest and fight against the Germans.

DELIRIOUS: 25th ANNIVERSARY EDITION.
Standup Comedy.
Eddie Murphy.
* Eddie Murphy was 22 years old when this brilliant, foul-mouthed scathing comedy show came out.

GRINDHOUSE PUNK DOUBLE FEATURE.
* I dunno...just watch it, dammit.

HE’S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU.****ALSO IN BLU-RAY****
Comedy.
Ben Affleck/Jennifer Aniston/Drew Barrymore/Jennifer Connelly/Scarlett Johansen.
Directed by Ken Kwapis.
* There is like a bazillion hot young stars in this film about a young woman who just cannot read the signs that the men she is chasing are sending her. Shila says it’s awesome!

REVOLUTIONARY ROAD.****ALSO IN BLU-RAY****
Drama/Romance.
Leonardo DiCaprio/Kate Winslet/Kathy Bates/Michael Shannon.
Directed by Sam Mendes.
* Based on the novel by Richard Yates, and reuniting Leo and Kate for the first time since TITANIC, this film is about a couple living a seemingly great life in the 1950’s. However, as good as it may seem, April is horribly depressed and repressed in her life as a Connecticut housewife, and Frank is angry and full of anxiety at his New York City office job. They dream of getting out and changing their lives, but unfortunately, the universe has other plans. Nominated for 3 Oscars including Best Supporting Actor for Michael Shannon

SPRING BREAKDOWN.
Comedy.
Amy Poehler/Parker Posey.
Directed by Ryan Shiraki.
* On the one hand this looks like a totally cheesy beach comedy flick, but on the other hand, it is starring Amy Poehler and Parker Posey! So, there you go… The basic premise is that three mid-30’s women living uninspired lives go to a famous Spring Break location to get some excitement in their lives.

UNE FEMME MARIEE.
Drama/Black and White/Foreign (French).
Macha Meril/Bernard Noel/Philippe Leroy.
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard.
* This not well-known Godard film is thought to be among his best. It is about the very over exposed Charlotte (Meril) and her relationships with both her husband (Leroy) and her lover (Noel).

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

HOME.****ALSO IN BLU-RAY****
Documentary/Nature.
Glenn Close.
Directed by Yann Arthus-Bertrand.
* A documentary that contains footage from 60 countries whose focus is in interlocking the issues of planet Earth and making them into one cohesive problem.

NATURE’S MOST AMAZING EVENTS.
Documentary/Nature/BBC.
* More epic nature programming from the BBC.

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

DR. HORRIBLE’S SING ALONG BLOG.
Televisionish/Comedy/Musical/Sci-Fi.
Neil Patrick Harris/Nathan Fillion/Felicia Day.
Directed by Joss Whedon.
* From the creator of FIREFLY comes this strange and beautiful cult tale about a man who is actually trying to become a supervillain, complete with certificate from the league of bad guys, but in the meantime loves a beautiful good guy (or gal, as the case may be) and is struggling to balance the yin and the yang.

WALLANDER.
Crime/Cops/Robbers.
Kenneth Branagh.
* Branagh plays WALLANDER, a British adaptation of the Swedish television adaptation of the popular mystery novels by Henning Mankell (they are great books!). Some say Wallander is kind of the Swedish Inspector Morse, so if you dig that kind of grumpy older skeptical cop tale, then check out WALLANDER.

WEEDS: SEASON FOUR .
Television/Drama/Comedy.
Mary-Louise Parker/Elizabeth Perkins/Hunter Parrish/Kevin Nealon.
* Season four in the much acclaimed tale of Nancy Botwin (Parker) who early in the show starting selling pot to make ends meet. If you haven’t watched this show yet, you may want to check it out. It is one of the most popular current series on television.

ZEROMAN: THE COMPLETE SERIES.
Television/Animation.
Leslie Nielsen
* Bizarre and hysterical Canadian cartoon.

****