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Fame (2009)
BD - In the contemporary
remake of the 1980 fan-favorite, Fame 2009 follows a crew of
dancers, singers, actors and artists over four years at a
stand-in for the New York City High School of Performing Arts,
which offers students from all walks of life a chance to live
out their dreams for real and lasting fame...the kind that comes
only from talent, dedication, and hard work.
Blu-ray Release date: January 12th,
2009
This Is It
BD - "This Is it," Michael
Jackson told his fans in London, announcing his forthcoming
concert tour. "This is the final curtain call." The curtain fell
sooner than expected. What is left is this extraordinary
documentary, nothing at all like what I was expecting to see.
Here is not a sick and drugged man forcing himself through
grueling rehearsals, but a spirit embodied by music. Michael
Jackson was something else. Blu-ray
Release date: January 26th, 2010
Post Grad
BD - Ryden Malby ("Gilmore
Girl "Alexis Bledel) has a master plan: Graduate college,
get a great job as a book editor with the most prestigious
publishing company in L.A., hang out with her best friend, Adam
(Zach Gilford;
Friday Night Lights),
and find the perfect guy – And therein lies the rub, seeing as
how Adam is not gay and has been in love with Ryden all his
life. Ryden's plan spins out of control when she’s forced to
move back home with her eccentric family. Michael Keaton (Batman),
veteran comedienne Carol Burnett, and Jane Lynch (“Glee”)
co-star in this offbeat romantic comedy from producer Ivan
Reitman (Ghostbusters,
Up in the Air). Blu-ray
Release date: January 12th, 2009
24 City - A masterful film
from Jia Zhang-ke, the renowned director of
Still Life and
The World, 24 City
chronicles the dramatic closing of a once-prosperous
state-owned aeronautics factory in Chengdu, a city in Southwest
China, and its conversion into a sprawling luxury apartment
complex. Bursting with poetry, pop songs and striking visual
detail, the film weaves together unforgettable stories from
three generations of workers – some real, some played by actors
(including Joan Chen) – into a vivid portrait of the human
struggle behind China’s economic miracle. DVD Release Date:
January 12th, 2010
Whip It
BD - "Whip It" is an
unreasonably entertaining movie, causing you perhaps to revise
your notions about women's Roller Derby, assuming you have any.
The movie is a coming-together of two free spirits, Drew
Barrymore and Ellen Page, and while it may not reflect the kind
of female empowerment Gloria Steinem had in mind, it has guts,
charm, and a black-and-blue sweetness. Yes, it faithfully
follows the age-old structure of the sports movie, but what a
sport, and how much the Derby girls love it.
Blu-ray Release date: January 26th,
2010
Atonement
BD - The hat trick of Ian
McEwan’s 2001 novel, Atonement, was spinning a typical
English country-estate melodrama while simultaneously
deconstructing trad Brit lit and equating the writing process
with divine providence. Successfully translating these ideas to
the screen, however, seemed as likely as Heathcliff coming to a
happy ending. Which makes Joe Wright’s big-screen version all
the more impressive: He’s produced a gripping, romantic yarn
without sacrificing the source’s meta-examination of fiction’s
power. Not even the director’s swooning take on
Pride & Prejudice
(2005) could have prepared folks for this.
Blu-ray Release Date: January 26th,
2010
I Come With the Rain
BD - Acclaimed
French-Vietnamese director Ahn Hung Tran (The
Scent of Green Papaya) brings together top
stars from America and Asia for his first English-language film,
the 2009 neo-noir thriller I Come with the Rain. A stark
departure from Ahn's previous works, I Come with the Rain stars
Josh Hartnett as a troubled private eye on a mysterious job that
takes him from Los Angeles to Asia. But what starts as a manhunt
turns into a lurid journey of revenge and redemption. Three of
Asian Cinema's biggest names - Japanese megastar Kimura Takuya (Love
and Honor), Korean heartthrob Lee Byung Hun (G.I. Joe:
The Rise of Cobra), and Hong Kong actor Shawn Yue (Shamo)
- co-star in this visually and emotionally enthralling thriller
that matches its stylistic moodiness with harrowing violence,
suspense action, and intense performances from the all-star
cast. Blu-ray Release date:
January 13th, 2010
Surrogates
BD - Surrogates was
not pre-screened for critics. Most of the time, I understand
when a studio takes this route - it's a way to avoid undue
negative publicity before the release of a movie that is
recognized behind-the-scenes as being a turd. Once in a while,
however, a non-screened movie turns out to be a pleasant
surprise, and this is one of those instances. Surrogates is
better and more thought-provoking than about 2/3 of the fare
currently showing in multiplexes, yet it has been given a "no
confidence" vote by Disney. Why? Who knows? Maybe the decision
was made to cut this loose and spend as little on marketing as
was viable without offending star Bruce Willis.
Blu-ray Release date: January 26th,
2010
Memories of Murder
BD - Along with Park Chan-Wook's
Oldboy, Memories of
Murder was sufficient evidence that this little peninsula,
still in a state of surrealistically suspended war with its
northern half-brothers, had a take on the art form that was
worth investigating. Since then I have followed the films of
Bong Joon Ho and Park Chan-Wook with an eagerness that in the
past would have accompanied the films of Hitchcock or Billy
Wilder. Blu-ray Release date:
December 14th, 2009
Give 'Em Hell Malone
BD - Russell Mulcahy’s “Give’em
Hell Malone” is one of those anachronistic film noir filled
with characters more appropriate in ‘40s and ‘50s detective
movies featuring heroes with names like Sam Spade or Philip
Marlowe. As the film opens, Thomas Jane’s Malone, a private dick
with a very big gun that he brandishes expertly, is killing his
way through a hotel full of bad guys to get to a metallic case
that he has been sent to retrieve. Shot up to hell and back, but
still alive, our hero seeks out some answers from his handler
Murphy (Leland Orser), eventually discovering that they were
both hired by the vivacious lady in red Evelyn (Elsa Pataky).
Blu-ray Release date: January 26th,
2010
Magnolia
BD - Over the course of the
film, some of the characters are redeemed...others are not.
Included among the doubles and doppelgangers that populate this
film (two wives, two children, two child geniuses, two saviors,
and at least one angel), we're presented with two patriarchs,
Earl Partridge and Jimmy Gator, who's past and present mirror
one another's. Both have committed nearly unforgivable sins
against their children and families. Both are dying of cancer.
Both are forced to confront the meaning of their lives and the
pain they've caused...and both recognize that they've committed
horrible acts against those they love, acts which for so long
have prevented them from experiencing and sharing love. As death
approaches, both men seek redemption.
Blu-ray Release Date: January 19th, 2010
Sunshine
BD - A crew of 8 astronauts
and scientists are on a mission to save our planet from a frozen
future. It seems that our Sun has lost some of its heat and the
Icarus II is on a several year voyage in a last ditch attempt to
kick start the star into behaving like its old self again.
Icarus I met with a fate unknown somewhere in the vicinity of
Mercury, beyond the point where communication with Earth was no
longer possible. As the film begins, Icarus II is about to enter
the same zone. They send farewell greeting to loved ones back
home, though they still expect or, at least hope, to be able to
return. Blu-ray Release date:
January 8th, 2008
There's Always Tomorrow -
Douglas Sirk is best known for his highly stylized Technicolor
melodramas, but he also did superlative work in restrained black
and white. There's Always Tomorrow is a virtuoso study in
tones, ranging from the blinding sunlight of a desert resort to
the expressionist shadows of the suburban home where Fred
MacMurray lives in unhappy union with Joan Bennett. Barbara
Stanwyck is the old flame who turns up by accident, rekindling
for MacMurray the dangerous illusion that happiness is still
possible. DVD Release Date: February 22nd, 2010
Meet the Robinsons
BD - On a rainy night, a
hooded young woman leaves her infant at the door of the 6th
Street Orphanage. The boy grows into a pre-teen with a penchant
for invention - not that any of his creations actually work -
but Lewis keeps hoping that someday he will impress a pair of
potential parents in the market to adopt. When he realizes that
his chances for adoption decrease with age, he comes to believe
that only his actual mother could love him. He gets the
brilliant idea that her identity is buried deep in his memory if
only he could access it, so Lewis invents a machine to do just
that. Blu-ray Release date:
October 23rd, 2007
Chantal Akerman in the Seventies
- Over the past four decades, Belgian director Chantal Akerman (Jeanne
Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles)
has created one of cinema’s most distinctive bodies of
work—formally daring, often autobiographical films about people
and places, time and space. In this collection, we present the
early films that put her on the map: intensely personal,
modernist investigations of cities, history, family, and
sexuality, made in the 1970s in the United States and Europe and
strongly influenced by the New York experimental film scene.
Bold and iconoclastic, these five films pushed boundaries in
their day and continue to have a profound influence on
filmmakers all over the world. Criterion DVD Release Date:
January 19th, 2010
Identity
BD - What if every choice we
ever make was already made for us? What if there really were no
coincidences in life and our destinies were already
predetermined? Ten strangers with secrets are brought together
in a savage rainstorm: A limo driver (John Cusack), an '80s TV
star (Rebecca DeMornay), a cop (Ray Liotta) who is transporting
a killer (Jake Busey), a call girl (Amanda Peet), a pair of
newlyweds (Clea DuVall and William Lee Scott) and a family in
crisis (John C. McGinley, Leila Kenzle, Bret Loehr), all take
shelter at a desolate motel run by a nervous night manager (John
Hawkes). Relief in finding shelter is quickly replaced with fear
as the ten travelers begin to die, one by one. They soon realize
that, if they are to survive, they'll have to uncover the secret
that has brought them all together...
Blu-ray Release date: April 3rd, 2007
The Invention of Lying
BD - Imagine, if you will, a
world without lying, where people comment only on what is, not
what might be; where they say whatever pops into their mind
about what they feel or think because the idea of hurting
another person's feelings doesn't factor into the equation;
where there is no fiction and where advertisers invite us to buy
their products on the basis of the obvious – "Coke is famous"
and "Pepsi is what you buy when they don't have Coke" – where
creativity and imagination, evidently, is limited to
technological pursuit. Success is granted to those with good
genes; disappointment is the natural bequest for those lacking
in beauty, smarts or money. It is a world without God and
without hope – not for the young and certainly not for the old.
Blu-ray Release date: January
19th, 2010
Whiteout
BD - I was a bit surprised
when I learned that Whiteout derives from a graphic novel
about a series of homicides in Antarctica, a place noted for its
unusually low crime rate – not that comics require superheroes
or stomach-turning horror, and not that the movie version has
either. In the Bonus Feature "Whiteout: From Page to Screen" we
can see how the black and white drawings made the transition to
the monochromatic images of the Antarctic. The thing is (said
John Carpenter when faced with his remake): you still have to
come up with a screenplay, and that's where Whiteout brings to
mind the correction liquid that bears its name.
Blu-ray Release date: January 19th,
2010
Blood: The Last Vampire
BD - Critics have not been
kind to this live action rendering of the original anime. After
watching the movie, I decided to check out the anime (which
clocks in at a mere 49 minutes) for myself. I could see the
resemblance in the main character, Saya, her brooding glances,
and the choreography of several of the various set pieces.
Whatever we might think of the live action film, however - its
juvenile script, jerky CG effects, lame rubber-suited lizardman,
peculiar plotholes and less than stellar acting by the
supporting characters - at least not every line reading sounds
like an audition for a first year drama class.
Blu-ray Release date: October 6th,
2009
Once Upon a Time in China 2
BD - The opening sequence
beautifully encapsulates the threat of the White Locus Cult, who
are violently anti-foreigner and determined to rid 1895 Canton
of their evil influence. Master Wong Fei Hung (Jet Li), his
student Foon, and his "Aunt 13" (Rosamund Kwan) are introduced
on a train ride to Canton, one of many references to the modern
way of life intruding upon China. Master Wong is on his way to
participate in a medical conference. He and his friends are
immediately drawn into the conflict.
Blu-ray Release date: December 12th, 2009
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