Very slow week this week, but the potential DVD of the year comes out in 7 more days. Patience.
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Trafic - Criterion Collection (1971)
dir. Jacques Tati
Almost 20 years after Jacques Tati first appeared in Mr. Hulot's Holiday, he reprises his role for the 5th and last time in Trafic. The only one of Mr. Hulot's adventures that Criterion hasn't released is Cours du soir (Evening Classes), but I wouldn't be surprised to see it show up sometime soon.
Product Decsription:
In Jacques Tati's Trafic the bumbling Monsieur Hulot outfitted as always with tan raincoat beaten brown hat and umbrella takes to Paris's highways and byways. For this his final outing Hulot is employed as an auto company's director of design and accompanies his new vehicle (a camper tricked out in all sorts of absurd gadgetry) to an auto show in Amsterdam. Naturally the road is paved with modern-age mishaps. This late-career delight is a masterful demonstration of the comic genius's expert timing and sidesplitting visual gags and a bemused last look at technology run amok.
DVD Features:
SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET FEATURES:
New, restored high-definition digital transfer
In the Footsteps of Monsieur Hulot (1989), a two-hour documentary tracing the evolution of Jacques Tati's beloved alter ego
Interview from 1971 with the cast of Trafic, from the French television program Le journal de cinéma
"The Comedy of Jacques Tati," a 1973 episode from the French television program Morceaux de bravoure
Theatrical trailer
New and improved English subtitle translation
PLUS: A new essay by film critic Jonathan Romney
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Penelope (2008)
dir. Mark Palansky
A modern day fairy tale and blah blah blah. I've read good things about it, and it's got Nick Frost, so I'll try and check it out soon.
Product Decsription:
Taking cues from Beauty and the Beast and Cyrano de Bergerac, director Mark Palanksy debuts with a slight, if fanciful confection. Produced by Reese Witherspoon and written by Leslie Caveny, Penelope begins with the phrase, "Once upon a time...," making it clear the proceedings owe more to fantasy than reality. Due to a family curse, Ricci's sweet-natured heiress sports a pig snout instead of a normal nose. Since surgery isn't an option--it would sever her carotid artery--her parents (Christopher Guest favorite Catherine O'Hara and an underused Richard E. Grant) hide her from the world for 25 years. Penelope can only break the spell through "one who will love her faithfully," but none of the local bluebloods will have her. One fateful day, while her face is hidden, she meets musician-turned-gambler Max (Atonement's James McAvoy in a winning performance). Sparks fly, until she finds he's only cozying up to her on orders from tabloid reporter Lemon (The Station Agent's Peter Dinklage), so Penelope runs away from home. The city she enters looks much like modern-day London--Amélie's Michel Amathieu served as cinematographer--except most everyone speaks with an American accent (then again, the film is a fable). The aspiring horticulturist befriends spunky courier Annie (Witherspoon) and reconnects with Max, who harbors secrets of his own. Once people become accustomed to her unconventional looks, Penelope's future starts to brighten. Like Enchanted, Palanksy's first feature gives the romantic comedy a refreshing--and empowering--fairytale twist.
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The Bank Job (2008)
dir. Roger Donaldson
This movie has recieved a very large amount of fantastic reviews...here I was thinking it was just another cut-and-paste, "insert Jason Statham here" action movie. I'll be watching this one very soon.
Product Decsription:
A cheerful, energetic, and completely entertaining movie, The Bank Job follows some small-time hoods who think they've lucked into a big-time opportunity when they learn a bank's security system will be temporarily suspended--little suspecting that they're being manipulated by government agents for their own ends. The result is that the movie doubles its pleasures: While the robbery itself has the usual suspense of a heist film, when the robbery is over the hoods find themselves being hunted by the police, the government, and brutal criminal kingpins who were storing dangerous information in a safety deposit box. The Bank Job won't win any awards, but it's enormously fun. Director Roger Donaldson (No Way Out, Species) propels the action along with vigor, editing zippily with perfect clarity among multiple storylines and various colorful characters. Jason Statham (Snatch, The Transporter), as the leader of the bank robbers, successfully steps away from his usual bone-crunching roles to a more human presence. The rest of the cast--including Saffron Burrows (Deep Blue Sea), Keeley Hawes (Tipping the Velvet), David Suchet (Poirot), and many faces familiar from British film and television--give their characters the right degree of personality and flavor without getting fussy or detracting from the headlong rush of the story. A little sex, a lot of action, a sly sense of humor, and a twisty plot; if more movies had these basic pleasures, the world would be a happier place.
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Meet Bill (2007)
dir. Bernie Goldmann, Melissa Wallack
Aaron Eckhart is great, but the premise of this one puts me to sleep.
Product Decsription:
Meet Bill (Aaron Eckhart) - a doormat if ever there was one. A man reduced to a mere accessory to his family by working a dead end job at his father-in law s bank and arguing about his overindulgent love for chocolate with his wife Jess (Elizabeth Banks) who is loathe to explain her "friendship" with the local news anchorman (Timothy Olyphant). But Bill's fate begins to change when he becomes mentor to a self-assured boy (Logan Lerman) who engineers Bill s recovery with the help of a cute lingerie sales girl named Lucy (Jessica Alba). Together the trio confronts Bill s hapless life with humor and energy while forcing him to capture his dream of being financially independent and self-confident. MEET BILL is a film about what it means to let go of your inhibitions and find the path you re destined for.
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Monsieur Vincent (1947)
dir. Maurice Cloche
Product Decsription:
MONSIEUR VINCENTchronicles the remarkable journey of St. Vincent De Paul (PIERRE FRESNAY) who rose from slavery to become a trusted advisor to queens and princes. Director Maurice Cloche's powerful and dramatic biopic reveals how St. Vincent De Paul's unwavering commitment to the poor made him one of the greatest humanitarians in history.
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The Year My Parents Went on Vacation (2006)
dir. Cao Hamburger
Some people are saying this is the best Brazillian movie since City of God, which is quite the coincidence since Fernando Meirelles is the producer. Meirelles is one of the best directors working right now. I'll have to see those claims live up.
Product Decsription:
In 1970, near the World Cup, Daniel Stern and his wife Miriam leaves Belo Horizonte in a hurry and scared with their ten years old son Mauro in their Volkswagen. While traveling to São Paulo, the couple explains Mauro that they will travel on vacation and will leave Mauro with his grandfather Mótel. Daniel promises to return before the first game of the Brazilian National Soccer Team in the Cup. The boy is left in Bom Retiro, a Jewish and Italian neighborhood, and waits for Mótel in front of his apartment. When the next door neighbor Shlomo arrives, he tells the boy that Mótel had just had a heart attack and died. Alone and without knowing where his parents are, the boy is lodged by Shlomo and the Jewish community. Through the young neighbor Hanna, Mauro makes new friends, cheers for the Brazilian team and sees the movement of the police and militaries on the streets while waiting for his parents.
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Times and Winds (Bes Vakit) (2006)
dir. Reha Erdem
Product Decsription:
Winner of the Best Film and FIPRESCI prizes at the Istanbul International Film Festival, Reha Erdem s Times and Winds is a film bewitched by the rhythms of everyday life (The Village Voice) that packs a poetic-spiritual punch way beyond its placid surface (Variety). Laying bare forbidden yearnings, dawning sexuality, and oedipal rage, it tells the story of three pre-adolescent friends coming of age in a remote Turkish mountain village. Young teen Omer (Özkan Özen) contemplates the unthinkable as he bitterly struggles under the loveless emotional yoke of his scornful Muslim cleric father. Yakup (Ali Bey Kayali), Omer s best friend, obsesses over a beautiful schoolteacher. Yildiz (Elit Iscan) recoils from burgeoning womanhood, and from the sordid carnal realities she has grown too old to ignore. Blessed with painterly wide-screen visuals, Estonian composer Arvo Part s sublime music score, and phenomenally surefooted performances from an astonishingly adept young cast, Times and Winds contrasts a parochial society s unending chain of cruelty with the pagan natural world s eternal and sensual beauty. Wise in its depiction of the cycle of life, and unblinking in its exploration of fate s capricious malice and childhood s discontent, Times and Winds vision of people in thrall to religious ritual and living at the mercy of nature may be poetic, but it is no idyll (The New York Times).
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A Throw of Dice (Prapancha Pash) (1929)
dir. Franz Osten
Product Decsription:
The 1929 Silent Extravaganza From India with a New Orchestral Score by Nitin Sawhney. A lavish silent super-production comprising 10,000 extras, a thousand horses, and scores of elephants, A Throw of Dice is the climax of German film pioneer Franz Osten's richly cinematic sojourn in India. In this FAIRY TALE FOR ADULTS (BBC) inspired by the ancient Sanskrit epic poem The Mahabharata, royal cousins and rulers of adjoining kingdoms King Sohat (Producer and Star Himansu Rai) and King Rajit (Charu Roy) share a reckless passion for gambling, the perilous jungle tiger hunt, and the beautiful maiden Sunita (Seeta Devi). After a tiger nearly claims Rajit's life, Sunita nurses the handsome young king back to health and becomes his bride. Knowing that the only thing stronger than love is Rajit's heart is a compilsive fascination with games of chance, jeolous Sohat challanges his cousin to a winner-takes-all contest where the stakes are freedom, marriage, and life itself.
LOVINGLY RESTORED (The Guardian UK) by the BFI (British Film Institute) to a level of ravishing spectacle and splendor unseen since its debut in 1929, this IMMACULATELY DRESSED AND BEAUTIFULLY SHOT (Times of London) masterpiece of the late silent period is complemented by a STIRRING (The Guardian) and BRILLIANTLY EVOCATIVE NEW SCORE (BBC). A sensation when it re-premiered in London's Trafalgar Square in 2007, KINO is proud to present A THROW OF DICE for the first time on US DVD.
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Eagle Shooting Heroes (1993)
dir. Jeffrey Lau
Product Decsription:
A hilariously zany parody of Louis Cha's classic, the film stars nearly the same cast as ASHES OF TIME, which was shot in concurrent with this film (Wong Kar-Wai is the executive producer). A complete subversion of the martial arts genre in spite of action choreography by legendary Sammo Hung, the star-studded THE EAGLE SHOOTING HEROES piles on love triangles/quadrangles/pentangles along with bizarre musical numbers and assorted kooky situations to create one of Hong Kong's most beloved cult comedy classics.
Big Action... Great Costumes... Super Stars... This wacky comedy is the second film based on the adventures of Ouyang Feng and Huang Yaoshi (the other was Wong Kar-Wai's Action-Drama ASHES OF TIME). The film stars five of Hong Kong's biggest stars, Leslie Cheung (A Better Tomorrow, Farewell My Concubine), Brigitte Lin (Bride with White Hair, Chungking Express), Maggie Cheung (Hero, 2046, In the Mood For Love), Tony Leung (Hero, 2046, In the Mood For Love), and Jacky Cheung (Bullet in the Head, Chinese Ghost Story II). This slapstick version of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon includes great fight scenes, cross-dressing bad guys and fabulous musical sequences.
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Brothers Five (1970)
dir. Lo Wei
What is this, like, the fifth Dragon Dynasty rip-off label?
Product Decsription:
Cheng Pei-pei is one of those rare names in cinema who returns to thrill and surprise audiences again and again. Born in Shanghai in 1946, Cheng relocated to Hong Kong when she was 14. Armed with a high school education and six years of ballet training, Cheng joined the Shaw Brothers performing arts training course, which served as a springboard for her into a career as an actress with Shaw Brothers.
She made her film debut playing a male in The Lotus Lamp in 1963, but quickly made her screen presence felt when she starred in Pan Lei s Lover s Rock later that year.
During her years at Shaw Brothers, she made over 20 movies of which most were wuxia (martial arts) films. Cool but passionate, poised but lethal, Cheng carved herself an unbreachable niche as the Queen of Swords in classics such as Come Drink With Me, Golden Swallow, Dragon Swamp, and The Lady Hermit.
She left her successful career and moved to the U.S. to get married in 1971 after making The Lady Hermit in 1971. She returned to Hong Kong for good in 1992, working in television, until Taiwanese auteur Ang Lee cast her as the Jade Fox in the Oscar-winning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The film brought her the best supporting actress award in the Hong Kong Film Awards and took her career to new international heights.
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Two Champions Of Shaolin (1980)
dir. Chang Cheh
Product Decsription:
A team that ranks high in the pantheon of cult kung-fu flicks is a quintet of martial artists who burst upon the screen in The Five Venoms, followed by Crippled Avengers and other cult classics. The five venoms are reunited in Two Champions Of Shaolin, with four of the fab five wreaking havoc on screen and the fifth venom active behind the camera as action choreographer. It s a battle between two Ching Dynasty clans, Shaolin and Wutang. The Shaolin champions are anti-Manchu and, naturally, represent the forces of good as they use their considerable force to crush the devious Wutang clan. The man behind the mayhem, director Chang Cheh, virtually invented the Shaolin genre of kung-fu movies and shows he has more than a few new tricks up his sleeve when unleashing his venomous heroes.
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Guardians (2006)
dir. Drew Maxwell
The cover says it all.
Product Decsription:
The sleepy town of Twilight Cove is the kind of place where it seems as if nothing happens. That is, until terrifying creatures are conjured up from the great beyond! Now it's up to a hardy group of townsfolk to battle the carnivorous horde. However, it isn't just their survival that's at stake--it's the fate of the world. This genre-bending monster movie bursts with enough gunplay and gore to thrill both action aficionados and horror fanatics.
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Final Approach (2008)
dir. Armand Mastroianni
THE GOD WILLIAM FORSYTHE
Product Decsription:
The action thriller miniseries event of the year Final Approach follows FBI hostage rescue specialist Jack Bender aboard a domestic flight that has been hijacked by a radical organization called the People's Separatist Movement. On ground Jack's ex-wife an FAA employee discovers that the terrorists motives are tied to visions of nuclear grandeur and there's only way to stop them--by blowing the airliner out of the sky. Featuring an star-studded cast including Dean Cain William Forsythe Lea Thompson Anthony Michael Hall and Ernie Hudson hold on and buckle your seat belt for Final Approach!
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Mad Bad (2007)
dir. Jon Keeyes
Only here because of the unbelieveably terrible title.
Product Decsription:
An ex-con tries to rebuild his life and repair his relationship with his sister a rising rockstar. To support her he turns to crime to secretly fund her career. Just when he seems to find vindication his past comes to confront him in a bloody show down.
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Lenny The Wonder Dog (2004)
dir. Oren Goldman
OK, but why is everyone after him on motorized razor scooters?
Product Decsription:
Zach is having a bad day when all of a sudden he stumbles across the biggest surprise in his life. He meets an adorable dog in the park, however, this is no ordinary dog, this one can talk. The dog introduces himself as Lenny and explains his extraordinary abilities are attributed to a special device created by the Brainco Corporation. Together Zack and Lenny, set out on a heroic adventure to put a stop to the evil Dr. Wagner s insane plan of world domination and bring down the Brainco Corporation.
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Hip Hop For Kids: School House Hip Hop (2008)
dir. n/a
Learn how to relax your wrists while slightly leaning! Learn how to look AND pose like Earth's biggest jackass!
Product Decsription:
Hey kids, check it out! Join Hip Hop great Roger G. in his latest Hip Hop for Kids fitness DVD. Dance, groove, stretch and have fun while learning all the latest moves like the Chicken Noodle Soup, The Snap, Walk It Out, and more. Watch Gaby, Amanda, Mckenna, "D", Tiff, Tremell, Tyree, "G", Vikki and Ikeem freestyle, break and spin as Roger G. leads them through a totally phat hip hop workout. This easy to follow 45 minute fitness DVD includes exciting live performances and will have kids from ages 5-14 up having fun and dancing in no time.
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