RoosterFlix DVD Picks for January 13th

Appaloosa (2008)
dir. Ed Harris

I really loved Ed Harris's only other directorial effort, Pollock. As a veteran of the theater, he's great at directing actors, especially hisself. I can't wait to see how he handles a western.

Product Decsription:
Actor Ed Harris takes only his second stab at directing, following the Oscar-winning feature POLLOCK (2000) with this spirited western. Harris draws on a strong cast, many of whom have acted with him in previous films, to tell the story of two gunfighters attempting to bring peace to the small town of Appaloosa in the late 1800s. Virgil Cole (Harris) and Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen) ride into the windswept New Mexico town and are hired to bring vigilante entrepreneur Randall Bragg (Jeremy Irons) to justice. Bragg has imposed a reign of terror over Appaloosa, but his murderous actions are tempered when Cole and Hitch take control. Matters get complicated when widower Allison French (Renee Zellweger) flounces into town and variously woos Cole, Hitch, and Bragg, allowing Harris to throw in a few neat twists as his two principal characters attempt to bring the miscreant entrepreneur to justice.

APPALOOSA is a slow-moving and beautifully shot feature that perfectly translates the dusky New Mexico landscape to celluloid. The film stands shoulder to shoulder with 21st-century westerns such as THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD and THE PROPOSITON, and much like those films Harris's feature draws heavily on deeply affecting performances from his leads. Irons is particularly affecting as the baleful Bragg, who brings a real air of menace to the screen any time he appears on camera. The nuanced turns by Harris and Mortensen play like a master class in subtlety, with the two seasoned actors perfectly delivering two stoic characters who are masking a lifetime of pain and suffering. Harris's feature is a welcome addition to the fold of introspective westerns, effortlessly standing alongside similar efforts such as Clint Eastwood's UNFORGIVEN or James Mangold's 3:10 TO YUMA.

_______________________________



Mirrors (2008)
dir. Alexandre Aja

Product Decsription:
French director Alexandre Aja adds to his growing canon of horror features with this remake of the Korean feature GEOUL SOKEURO (2003). Kiefer Sutherland stars as Ben Carson, a disgraced former New York City cop who attempts to put his checkered past behind him by taking a job as a security guard. Carson is required to take the night shift in a department store in the city. The store closed down after a fire put an end to its business, and Carson soon discovers that malevolent spirits are lurking behind its walls. The spirits connect with the human world through the mirrors in the store, and when they discover Carson's presence they go after his ex-wife, Amy (Paula Patton), and his kids (played by Erica Gluck and Cameron Boyce). Carson attempts to figure out the meaning of a cryptic message carved into one of the mirrors, hoping it will save his family and cut off contact with the malignant lurking presence.
Aja successfully replicates much of the tension and edge-of-your-seat moments that he managed so skillfully in HAUTE TENSION (2003). The film begins with an unnerving set piece in which Carson's predecessor takes a shard of mirror and slashes his own throat, and it's an indication of the gore-filled fun that awaits intrepid viewers. Aja creates a palpable sense of unease by shooting dim-lit set pieces in the department store. Sutherland makes for a convincing lead in a character that closely resembles his turn as Jack Bauer in 24. There are plenty of genuine scares in the film, and the director ultimately spins MIRRORS as a cross between a psychological thriller in the vein of the POLTERGEIST movies and a no-holds-barred splatter flick.

_______________________________



Little Britain USA (2008)
dir. n/a

Product Decsription:
Matt Lucas and David Walliams bring their hit BBC show to the States in LITTLE BRITAIN USA. The ensemble of bizarre, dough-faced characters--mostly played by Lucas and Walliams in heavy makeup--continue to wreak havoc on those around them. Leaping across the pond to irritate the Yanks are some of the show's most memorable characters, including braying teenager Vicky Pollard and closeted heterosexual Daffydd Thomas, while scandalous new creations make their debut; among them are Mark and Tom, muscle-engorged weight-lifters with comparatively microscopic genitalia. This collection presents all six episodes of the series, including appearances by Paul Rudd, Rosie O'Donnell, Hayden Panettiere, and Sting.

_______________________________



My Bloody Valentine (1981)
dir. George Mihalka

Product Decsription:
Twenty years ago in the sleepy mining town of Valentine Bluffs, a fatal mining disaster occurred on Valentine's Day while key members of the crew were decorating for a party. The sole survivor of the accident killed the absentee crew members and warned the town never to have another Valentine's Day celebration. When a group of teenagers decides that the the town has gone without a party long enough and begin planning one, a murderous maniac in mining gear begins dispatching townsfolk in bloody and creative ways. Combining the small town atmosphere of HALLOWEEN (1978) with the body count gore of FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980), MY BLOODY VALENTINE is an example of the glut of low-budget copycat films that those two influential films inspired in the early 1980s.

_______________________________



The Taking of Power by Louis XIV - Criterion Collection (1966)
dir. Roberto Rossellini

Product Decsription:
Filmmaking legend Roberto Rossellini brings his passion for realism and unerring eye for the everyday to this portrait of the early years of the reign of France s Sun King, and in the process reinvents the costume drama. The death of chief minister Cardinal Mazarin, the construction of the palace at Versailles, the extravagant meals of the royal court: all are recounted with the same meticulous quotidian detail that Rossellini brought to his contemporary portraits of postwar Italy. The Taking of Power by Louis XIV dares to place a larger-than-life figure at the level of mere mortal.

DVD Features:
New, restored digital transfer
Taking Power, a multimedia essay by Tag Gallagher, author of The Adventures of Roberto Rossellini
The Last Utopia, a documentary about Rossellini s late career
Video interview with artistic advisor Jean Dominique de la Rochefoucauld and script supervisor Michelle Podroznik
Video interview with Renzo Rossellini
New and improved English subtitle translation
PLUS: A new essay by critic Colin McCabe
_______________________________



Rossellini's History Films: Renaissance and Enlightenment - Eclipse Series 14
dir. Roberto Rossellini

Product Decsription:
In the final phase of his career, Italian master Roberto Rossellini embarked on a dramatic, daunting project: a series of politically minded televisions films about knowledge and history, made in an effort to teach, where the contemporary media was failing. Looking at the western world s major figures and moments, yet focusing on the small details of daily life, Rossellini was determined not to recount history but to bring it back to life, as it might have been, unadorned yet full of the drama of the everyday. In this selection of Rossellini's history films, Eclipse presents Blaise Pascal, the three-part The Age of the Medici, and Cartesius works that don t just enliven the past but illuminate the ideas that brought us to where we are.

_______________________________



Tokyo Gore Police (2008)
dir. Yoshihiro Nishimura

If you like your movies completely fucking insane with tons of gore, this one still might be too "out there" for you.

Product Decsription:
In the near future, the Tokyo Police Corporation is locked in a bloody war with the "engineers." These genetically modified super-criminals can bio-fuse their open wounds with weapons, turning self-mutilation into a combat form. Ruka, the daughter of the police chief's murdered right-hand man, is now the top engineer hunter. With cold-blooded efficiency she cuts through the psychotic engineers and tracks down their home base, a truly bizarre fetish club. Nothing keeps her from her sworn duty, even when she finds out the truth behind her father's death.

_______________________________



Blindsight (2006)
dir. Lucy Walker

Product Decsription:
This documentary from director Lucy Walker (DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND) follows a group of blind teenagers as they ascend Lhakpa Ri, the 23,000 foot peak on Mount Everest's north face. Led by renowned mountaineer Erik Weihenmayer, the young Tibetans set out on an incredible if dangerous journey.

_______________________________



Humboldt County (2008)
dir. Danny Jacobs and Darren Grodsky

Product Decsription:
Peter Hadley, an uptight and disillusioned medical student is failed by one of his professors, who happens to be his father. Seeking some escape, Peter ends up in bed with a nightclub singer named Bogart, who invites him on a road trip to Humboldt County. It is here that he meets and is embraced by Bogart s eccentric marijuana farming family. When Bogart leaves Peter stranded, he begins a new journey of his own.

_______________________________



Swing Vote (2008)
dir. Joshua Michael Stern

Product Decsription:
The ghost of Frank Capra is summoned up in Swing Vote, a populist comedy about the U.S. presidential election--because of an electoral deadlock--coming down to one man, one vote. Alarmingly (for the future of the world), that one man is Bud Johnson (Kevin Costner), a beer-swilling, newly-unemployed divorced dad in Texico, New Mexico. Bud's got a week to re-cast his flawed ballot, so the entire election process--including the two candidates, played by Kelsey Grammer and Dennis Hopper--descends on Texico for an orgy of campaign flapdoodle. Costner tries hard (probably too hard) to be the irresponsible good ol' boy, the kind of role he used to be able to handle with ease; by contrast, the composed Madeline Carroll, as his Little Miss Sunshiny daughter, comes off as a model of naturalism. Except for some pointed commercials, in which the candidates sell out their values to appeal to Bud's whimsical opinions on issues such as abortion and gay marriage, the movie's political bite is remarkably toothless. Both Stanley Tucci and Nathan Lane are in the groove as cutthroat campaign managers, and the movie is jolted out of its beery idle with a late one-scene performance by Mare Winningham. There's an interesting film trying to climb out of Swing Vote, but it needs Frank Capra to kick it into shape. --Robert Horton

_______________________________



Balls Out: Gary the Tennis Coach (2008)
dir. Danny Leiner

Talk about coming out of left field. This must be absolutely horrible.

Product Decsription:
From the director of Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle and Dude Where's My Car comes this raunchy comedy starring Seann William Scott and Randy Quaid. Gary Houseman (Scott) is an overenthusiastic high school janitor who steps-up to lead the school's loser tennis team to the state finals when the acting coach drops dead. The brash and often insulting new coach is intent on inspiring these underdogs not only to win, but also to stand-up for themselves. Although his coaching tactics may be unorthodox, including motivating his star player with a pre-game stripper, his heart is in the right place. Besides, sometimes it takes big balls to play hard-ball.

_______________________________



Make 'Em Laugh: The Funny Business Of America (2008)
dir. Michael Kantor

Product Decsription:
Billy Crystal hosts this hilarious, comprehensive look back at the grand traditions of American comedy, from vaudeville-era slapstick to contemporary political satire. Each of the six one-hour episodes--including "When I'm Bad, I'm Better - The Groundbreakers" and "Slip on a Banana Peel - The Knockabouts"--focuses on a particular comic style; the nostalgia-inducing series offers interviews with legendary comedians such as Larry David, Bill Maher, Carl Reiner, Jerry Seinfeld, and Lily Tomlin, as well as classic footage from the funniest movies and television shows of the past century.

_______________________________



Patti Smith: Dream Of Life (2008)
dir. Steven Sebring

Product Decsription:
A conventional documentary wouldn't suit a timeless iconoclast like Patti Smith. Photographer-turned-filmmaker Steven Sebring's Dream of Life honors her originality through his own unique vision. Narrated by Smith in her unmistakable New Jersey drawl and shot primarily in grainy black and white, he revisits his subject's storied past through her reflective present. In the mid-1990s, when Sebring began filming, she was recovering from the loss of her husband, Fred "Sonic" Smith, guitarist for the MC5, while moving with their children, Jesse and Jackson, from Detroit to New York City. Over the next 11 years, the devoted director accompanies her as she travels to London, Rome, and other cities where she performs, speaks out against the Iraq War, and visits sites that hold special meaning, particularly the graves of poets. Along the way, she looks in on her proud parents and remembers departed friends, like Robert Mapplethorpe, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs, while Sebring intercuts clips and stills from her years as a punk pioneer (Michael Stipe, Sam Shepard, and Flea also put in appearances). As Smith notes in passing, "Life isn't some vertical or horizontal line... it's not neat," and Sebring’s jazz improvisation of a film follows a similar pattern, putting a feminist spin on vérité-style musician profiles from Don't Look Back (a Smith favorite) to Let’s Get Lost. If the pace is relaxed to a fault, the images are often intriguing, the performances are always inspiring, and Smith makes for an especially gracious guide into her own illustrious life. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

_______________________________



Our Daily Bread (2007)
dir. Nikolaus Geyrhalter

Product Decsription:
Welcome to the world of industrial food production and high-tech farming. To the rhythm of conveyor belts and immense machines, the film looks without commenting in the places where food is produced: monumental spaces, surreal landscapes and bizarre sounds a cool, industrial environment which leaves little space for individualism. People, animals, crops and machines play a supporting role in the logistics of this system which provides our society s standard of living. OUR DAILY BREAD is a wide-screen tableau of a feast which isn't always easy to digest and in which we all take part. A pure, meticulous and high-end film experience that enables the audience to form their own ideas.

_______________________________



Mr. Mike's Mondo Video (1979)
dir. Michael O'Donoghue



Product Decsription:
From the twisted genius behind Saturday Night Live s early years, Mr. Mike s Mondo Video is the wildly demented comedy from the mind of National Lampoons and Saturday Night Lives notoriously funny writer/performer Michael O Donoghue. And like most of O Donoghue s humor, it was years ahead of its time. Originally conceived in 1979 as a television special slotted for one of Saturday Night Lives hiatuses, with much of the Saturday Night Live cast on board, it was summarily rejected by NBC as too outrageous for broadcast. Unseen for years, it is finally available on dvd. Features members of the classic Saturday Night Live cast: Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, Jane Curtin and Laraine Newman. Also stars Michael O Donoghue, Carrie Fisher, Teri Garr, Margot Kidder, Edie Baskin, Judith Belushi-Pisano, Mitch Glazer, Joan Hackett, Deborah Harry, Julius La Rosa, Wendie Malick, Klaus Nomi, Paul Shaffer and Sid Vicious.

_______________________________



Warbirds (2008)
dir. Kevin Gendreau

There is absolutely no fucking way any movie can live up to a cover that awesome.

Product Decsription:
In the final days of World War II, Colonel Jack Toller enlists a crew of WASP led by Maxine West to ferry a top secret weapon to an American airbase in the Pacific. But before they can reach their goal a violent storms strands their damaged B-29 on to a remote tropical island.

_______________________________