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A Hard Day's Night -
BR
In 1964, the Beatles had just recently exploded onto the
American scene with their debut on "The Ed Sullivan Show." The
group's first feature, the Academy Award-nominated "A Hard Day's
Night," offered fans their first peek into a day in the life of
the Beatles and served to establish the Fab Four on the silver
screen, as well as to inspire the music video format. Songs:
I'll Cry Instead, A Hard Day's Night, I Should've Known Better,
Can't Buy Me Love, If I Fell, And I Love Her, I'm Happy Just to
Dance with You, Ringo's Theme (This Boy), Tell Me Why, Don't
Bother Me, I Wanna Be Your Man, All My Lovin', She Loves You.
Blu-ray
Release Date: September 9th, 2009
Army of Darkness
BR
- Army of Darkness could be thought of as A Connecticut
Yankee in King Arthur’s Court meets Ray Harryhausen, spurred on
by relentless wisecracks, the likes of: "Well, I've got news for
you pal, you ain't leadin' but two things, right now: Jack and
shit... and Jack left town." Raimi's Evil Dead series
feature the same protagonist, "Ash", and his fight with the
Deadite demons who have been accidentally released into our
universe through the Book of the Dead, the Necronomicon.
Blu-ray
Release Date: September 15th, 2009
Requiem For A Dream
BR
- Employing shock techniques and sound design in a relentless
sensory assault, Requiem for a Dream is about nothing less than
the systematic destruction of hope. Based on the novel by Hubert
Selby Jr., and adapted by Selby and director Darren Aronofsky,
this is undoubtedly one of the most effective films ever made
about the experience of drug addiction (both euphoric and
nightmarish), and few would deny that Aronofsky, in following
his breakthrough film Pi, has pushed the medium to a disturbing
extreme, thrusting conventional narrative into a panic zone of
traumatized psyches and bodies pushed to the furthest boundaries
of chemical tolerance. It's too easy to call this a cautionary
tale; it's a guided tour through hell, with Aronofsky as our
bold and ruthless host.
Blu-ray
release Date: September 8th, 2009
An American Werewolf in London
BR
- Re-discover one of the most gripping horror films of all-time
with the cult classic An American Werewolf in London. Blending
the macabre with a wicked sense of humor, director John Landis
(National Lampoon’s Animal House) delivers a contemporary take
on the classic werewolf tale in this story of two American
tourists who, while traveling in London, find their lives
changed forever when a viscious wolf attacks them during a full
moon. Featuring groundbreaking, Academy Award-winning make-up by
Rick Baker (The Wolfman), this digitally remastered Full Moon
Edition also includes the new feature-length documentary
Beware the Moon.
Blu-ray
Release date: September 15th, 2009
Diary For My Children -
From one of the world’s most accomplished women directors,
Meszaros’ film connects the personal with the political, by
portraying the impact of individuals upon history and of
historical forces upon individual lives. Autobiographical, and
the first in her renowned trilogy of ‘Diary’ films (which Second
Run will also release). DVD Release Date: September 7th, 2009
The Girl Next Door
BR
- Matthew Kidman (Emile Hirsch) looks back over a senior year of
opportunities neglected, especially when he compares himself
with the jocks and their leading ladies off the field. He hopes
to get into Georgetown – and who wouldn't. But this summer
Matthew's overachieving, but humdrum, life is distracted by
Danielle (Elisha Cuthbert), his next-door neighbor's niece, who
is visiting for a few weeks. Danielle serves to open up
Matthew's previously denied possibilities – that is, until he
learns of her past life as a porn star – a life that she is
trying to leave behind.
Blu-ray
Release date: September 1st, 2009
Take Out - With cinematic
models that include the Dardennes and Ken Loach, Baker knows his
plot is a vehicle on which to hang an exploration of the
everyday textures and personal interactions in his chosen
socioeconomic setting. The plot maintains the countdown suspense
of its premise, but the beauty of the film lies in the way that
suspense shifts from its practical conflict to an existential
and ethical one in the final act, bringing home the despair and
decisions that define so many lives on and off the screen.
DVD Release Date: September 1st, 2009
Deep Impact
BR
- MSNBC reporter Jenny Lerner, while investigating a high-level
scandal in Washington, stumbles upon the story that a comet is
on a collision course with Earth. A year earlier, amateur
teenage astronomer Leo Biederman discovered a new comet that is
the one now certified to hit within the year. U.S. President
Beck announces to the world that a spaceship called the Messiah
will blast off in two months to plant nuclear bombs in the comet
in hope of blowing it to bits. This plan fails, splitting the
comet into two sections. The smaller will hit off the east coast
creating a tital wave that will destroy New York and Washington
while the larger portion will land in Canada causing an ELE, or
Extinction Level Event, complete with Earth-enshrouding clouds
of dust that will wipe out all life. Declaring martial law,
President Beck reveals that a network of caves is being built to
accommodate 1 million citizens, most to be chosen by a national
lottery.
Blu-ray
Release Date: September 14th, 2009
Godzilla (Gojira)
BR
- In the original Japanese cut, the theme of atomic weapons
testing and the dangers of weapons of mass destruction is more
explicit. The film opens with the crew of a freighter in the Sea
of Japan suddenly being dazzled by a blaze of bright light.
Within seconds, their ship bursts into flame and is lost. A
second ship is soon lost in the same area, and a third. There's
understandable panic in the shipping office and across the
nation, reflected in a series of anxious newspaper headlines.
Blu-ray
Release Date: September 22nd, 2009
Pierrot le Fou
BR
- "I wanted to tell the story of the last romantic couple,"
Jean-Luc Godard said of this brilliant, all-over-the-place
adventure and meditation about two lovers on the run (Jean-Paul
Belmondo and Anna Karina). Made in 1965, this film, with its
ravishing colors and beautiful 'Scope camerawork by Raoul
Coutard, still looks as iconoclastic and fresh as it did when it
belatedly opened in the U.S. Godard's misogynistic view of women
as the ultimate betrayers is integral to the romanticism in much
of his 60s work--and perhaps never more so than here--but
Karina's charisma makes this pretty easy to ignore most of the
time. The movie's frequent shifts in style, emotion, and
narrative are both challenging and intoxicating: American
director Samuel Fuller turns up at a party scene to offer his
definition of cinema, Karina performs two memorable songs in
musical-comedy fashion, Belmondo's character quotes copiously
from his reading, and a fair number of red and blue cars are
stolen and destroyed.
Blu-ray
Release Date: September 22nd, 2009
Zatoichi
BR
- Far from being just simple chambara, Kitano explores the motif
of pretending: duality by wearing a “mask”. Just like the film
itself, nothing is what it seems. For instance, the Hattori, the
“evil swordsman”, is a Ronin, who is forced to become a hit man
for Ginzo in order to buy medicine for his sick wife. This
dimension of the story not only adds complexity, but makes
additional viewings even more enjoyable, as the more we get to
know a character, the more we see of the real character.
Miramax
Blu-ray
Release Date: September 15th, 2009
Control
BR
- Control tells the remarkable story of Ian Curtis, lead
singer of the influential band Joy Division and one of the most
enigmatic figures in all of rock music. Based on his wife's
memoir, Control follows Curtis' humble Manchester origins
and his rapid rise to fame, tormented battle with epilepsy, and
struggles with love that led to his death at the age of 23.
Blu-ray
Release date: November 27th, 2008
Lie To Me - Season One
BR
- Ostensibly a show about lying, Lie To Me investigates
the moral ambiguities about lying and truth telling, as in: it
may not always be the right thing to do to tell the truth or, at
least, not all of it or all the time. The setting is a special
investigating team that is sent hither and yon to sort out fact
from fiction using the latest scientific tools to determine if a
witness or suspect is telling the truth. Dr. Cal Lightman (Tim
Roth) both interviews subjects and studies their reactions and
expressions to questions on video tapes and compares them to
other similar expressions – something like a bank of DNA, though
not nearly as accurate, leaving lots of room for experienced
interpretation.
Blu-ray
Release date: August 25, 2009
The Office - Season Five
BR
- The Office [among other things, a satirical study in
sexually harassment - LN] is presented as a mockumentary. The
primary vehicle for the show is that a camera crew has decided
to film Dunder Mifflin and its employees, seemingly around the
clock. The presence of the camera is acknowledged by the
characters. . . The main action of the show is supplemented with
talking-head interviews or "confessionals", with the characters
speaking one on one with the camera crew about the day's events.
. . In other instances, the camera seemingly has affected plot
lines. . . In "E-mail Surveillance", Pam asks the crew to help
her look for evidence of Dwight and Angela's secret
relationship, which they later provide. In "Fun Run", the
cameras catch Jim and Pam kissing, which leads to them admitting
to the crew that they are in fact dating.
Blu-ray
Release date: September 8th, 2009
Model Shop - Maybe
Tomorrow. Maybe Never. Maybe. French New Wave writer / director
Jacques Demy, best known for his stylish musical The
Umbrellas of Cherbourg, reunites with French star Anouk
Aimée (their first pairing, 1961's Lola) to direct his
first film in America. Gary Lockwood (2001: A Space Odyssey)
plays shiftless but innocuous George Matthews, who can't seem to
get himself worked up about anything: the girlfriend he is about
to lose, his soon-to-be repossessed car or even his draft
notice. Until one day, he sees a beautiful but detached model (Aimée),
and he begins to follow her. From Malibu Beach to Beverly Hills
mansions to Santa Monica Boulevard's cheap strip joints, Los
Angeles is critically examined... DVD Release Date: September
8th, 2009
El Cid
BR
- One of the very finest epics produced by Samuel Bronston,
equally impressive in terms of script (by Philip Yordan, who
mercifully steers clear of florid archaisms) and spectacle.
Heston is aptly heroic as the 11th-century patriot destined to
die in the fight for a Moor-less Spain, Mann's direction is
stately and thrilling, and Miklos Rosza's superb score perfectly
complements the crisp and simple widescreen images. Sobriety and
restraint, in fact, are perhaps the keynotes of the film's
success, with the result that a potentially risible finale (in
which Cid's corpse is borne into the realm of legend, strapped
to his horse as it leads his men to battle) becomes genuinely
stirring.
Blu-ray
Release Date: August 21st, 2009
Heroes - Season Three
BR
- The third season is in two "Volumes" – In the first, titled
“Villains”, Nathan Petrelli (Adrian Pasdar) is at the center of
the drama. At the start of the season we have forwarded several
years into the future with an assassination attempt on Nathan’s
life. How things came to such a pretty pass is what "Villains"
is primarily concerned with. The title of the second Volume of
the season, "Fugitives" (in the grand scheme of things it is
known as "Volume 4") refers to the Heroes themselves as they
once again try to avert another catastrophic situation involving
those who would use and control them and their remarkable
abilities. Featured guest stars include Robert Forster as Arthur
Petrelli and Malcolm McDowell, reprising his first season role
as Mr. Linderman.
Blu-ray
Release date: September 1st, 2009
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