Archive for month: July, 2012

So I guess the first thing I should do is apologize. I wasn’t even going to put together this edition of the newsletter on account of the insanely poor releases for this week. That’s not to say that the films are of sub-par quality, it’s just that there is hardly anything new hitting the shelves this week. In fact we received more older titles for the stores than we did newer stuff. I’m not too sure why the studios did this to us. Maybe it has something to do with the Olympics. Maybe they’re dicks. So my apologies for the lack of new stuff. Anyways, the month of August has a lot of films and a lot of great films that will be made available for your wanting eyeballs. So maybe it’s time to delve into some older stuff, start some quality TV fare, check out some great documentaries or go to the beach.

On another note it seems that our poor old Black Dog sandwich board at the Cambie location is too damaged to continue and will have to be put down. We had a good run together, shared some good times as well as some bad. It was a very nice dog that lived a good, fulfilling life being chained up to the store everyday, all day long. It never complained, no matter what the weather, what little kids did to it and even after it’s feet were destroyed and it couldn’t stand up anymore. So to you good readers, I offer a challenge. If anyone would care to make me another lovely sandwich board in the style of what we had before, or something completely new and astounding, I’d love to trade your time, labour and what-not for free rentals. If you are interested send me your ideas and we can start from there.

New Releases for Tuesday July 31st

Cherry Bomb – A nice rape/revenge exploitation type film for your summertime enjoyment about a stripper with a heart of gold (of course, is there any other kind?) who looks to take revenge on some scumbags who did her wrong. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BMjgSdhhkU[/youtube]

Flamenco Flamenco – A film so nice they named it twice. This is a doc about, well, flamenco. I used to go to the Kino Cafe across the street from the Cambie store. I even witnessed a few flamenco nights – it was pretty cool, all the stomping and clapping and hey-hey. But after a couple of visits, coupled with the fact it’s on almost every night, I haven’t been back much. Maybe it also has to do with the fact I live over in the Commercial Drive hood. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I don’t really like flamenco. Even just writing about it is giving me a slight headache. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yclAKGCnu2c[/youtube]

Freddy Frogface – Animated Danish kids fare finds someone (I presume it’s a frog, or a kid with a face like a frog) named Victor who, together with his friends, try to outsmart the town bully and win a talent contest. Also known as Orla Frøsnapper to all you Danes out there. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reWNKoZtXv0[/youtube]

Hatfields and the McCoys – TV miniseries about a couple of asshole families that almost started a state vs state civil war with their bickering, and blood feuds and hog ownership claims and pie throwing and name calling and murderous antics. Actually supposed to be quite an excellent show. Stars the Kevin Costner and the Bill Pullman or the Bill Paxton. Not too sure. Filmed in Romania for some reason.[youtube] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Hg9mvE1FA4[/youtube]

The Hunter – Not starring Willam Dafoe. Iranian film about a guy who kills a couple of cops (I presume they had it coming) and then flees into the woods pursued by a couple more cops. Word on the street has it that this is an excellent, tense, atmospheric, philosophical thriller. Sorry, I couldn’t find an English trailer so here’s a trailer for Troll Hunter which has nothing to do with this film. I just like it. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vy2nAOdBUlw[/youtube]

Old Stuff Just In

Brainstorm – Blu Ray
Barbarella – Blu Ray
The Entity – DVD
A bunch of Don Knotts films – The Ghost and Mr. Chicken / The Reluctant Astronaut / The Shakiest Gun in the West / The Love God?)
A bunch of James Stewart westerns – Destry Rides Again / Winchester 73 / Bend of the River / The Far Country / Night Passage / The Rare Breed)

Coming Next Week

Deep Blue Sea
Pel Ami
Foreign Parts
Dr. Seuss – The Lorax
Grimm Season 1
Marley

Recently Viewed and Recommended

Jiro Dreams of Sushi
Get the Gringo
Breaking Bad S 4
Johnny Carson: King of Late Night
Midnight Son
Michael
Bullhead
Margaret
Pina 3-D
Wallander
God Bless America
Jeff, Who Lives at Home
The Woman
Goon

For those of you you who watch Breaking Bad (should be all of you since it’s an excellent show) here’s a funny piece from The Oatmeal detailing the relationship between the character’s hair and the violence they perpetrate… http://theoatmeal.com/comics/breaking_bad_hair?god_dammit_marie

Well that’s it for this edition ya’ll. Have yourself a fine week, drink some nice cold beer on a hot day or some nice red wine on a cold evening. Your call. Remember, keep watching.

Black Dog Video

You know, as much as I like to bitch about Vancouver and all the dolts and wankers that make life trying here, it really is a special town. I spent a portion of the afternoon down at Third Beach today. It’s my favorite beach in the city – we have beaches in the city! – and it was a lovely way to spend the afternoon. I had a couple of beers and what not, went for a swim (water is pretty freakin’ cold) and just chilled. It was relatively quiet and beautiful and relaxing, besides the odd seaplane and inane conversation going on around me. It was a nice change from the incessant traffic, car alarms, crazy people in the park, and general din of city life. I’m now sitting in my backyard having yet another beer. This is good. If you can swing it, get to a beach or a park or whatever makes you happy in this busy, noisy city. It will save your life. That and watching good movies. Don’t forget the beer.

New Releases for Tuesday July 17th

Black Butterflies – Bio-pic of famed South African poet Ingrid Jonker who plied her craft during Apartheid’s nasty rein. Supposed to be pretty good for those of you who are into such stuff. Even has the Hobo with a Shotgun, Rutger Hauer, so it has that going for it.

Casa De Mi Padre – Pretty odd Will Farrell comedy, spoken entirely in Spanish, about a “filthy rancher” who wants to save his family from the encroaching drug trade spreading across Mexico. Sometimes funny, a lot of times not, this weird little ditty plays like a cheap Mexican soap kinda thing – lots of fake backgrounds, terrible props, suspect editing and music and acting. Made me laugh about a half dozen times which is Ok I guess. Runs about 80 minutes or so which is just long enough. It’s almost like they were afraid to go balls out on this. Too much restraint, not enough guts. Also on the Blu Ray. (We didn’t receive most of the copies we ordered for Cambie – hopefully they’ll be there soon)

Clean Bin Project – In our increasingly wasteful society comes this documentary that finds partners Jen and Grant going head to head in a comedic battle to see who can swear off consumerism and produce the least amount of garbage in an entire year. Be an interesting study. I’m always so annoyed and amazed at how much shit we produce and consume. The overuse of plastics, packaging and all kinds crap that we don’t need is so depressing. Makes me so angry being in line at the grocery store and seeing people putting stuff like bananas or a couple of oranges or whatever in a bag to take it to the check-out only to have them put in another bag. What is the point of this? Are these people not even thinking about what they are doing. Or do they even care? Always bring a bag to the store with you. And avoid small bottles of water. Huge landfill problem. And disposable diapers. And pop cans. I could go on. (Sorry for the lecture – had to get that off my chest).

Friends with Kids – Fine cast – Adam Scott, Kristen Wiig, John Hamm (Mmm Hamm), Maya Rudolph etc. star in this romantic comedy about two best friends who decide to have a sprog together but try to keep their relationship platonic because, for some reason, they think having a kid will destroy the romantic portion of the relationship. Geez, I wonder if everything doesn’t go as planned and they end up all happy like in the end? Kids don’t rule you, you rule the fucking kids. What? Who said that?

Johnny Carson: King of Late Night – Sis-boom-bah! If you remember that joke from Carson’s Swami routine, good on ya. I was a big fan of Johnny Carson growing up and I hear that this doc about the man is pretty outstanding. It’s the sound of a sheep exploding by the way.

Get the Gringo – Mad Mel returns to his smarmy actiony tough guy roles in this very fun and entertaining Mexican prison dealy. Mel finds himself behind bars in the strangest, most interesting prison I’ve seen on screen in ages (apparently it’s based on real Mexican prisons). There he befriends a mom and her son (yes you read that right) as they try to survive in the crazy world behind those walls. I was surprised how good this was, the first 40 mintues or so are fantastic, considering it’s basically a straight to DVD flick. I guess Mel’s “problems” precede him – for good reason – which makes it tough these days to find an audience. If he’d just keep his foul mouth shut and make films like this maybe people might like the doofus. Also on the Blu Ray.

Lockout – Kind of an Escape from New York in space minus the awesomeness of John Carpenter and Kurt Russell. Guy Pearce is offered a chance of freedom if he can rescue the President’s daughter from a maximum security prison on the moon or somewhere in space. I wonder if that is what Newt Gingrich had in mind with his living-on-a-moon-base idiocy? Also on the Blu Ray.

Matter of Taste: Serving Up Paul Liebrandt – Another foodie doc about some young whipper-snapper chef in New York who makes crazy shit like “eel, violets and chocolate” and “espuma of calf brains and foie gras” and “perfumed snails served in a lady’s hat” and “scorched duck knees with creamed neck of platypus” (I made the last two up).

Midnight Son – Horrorish dealy about a guy with a rare skin condition who can’t be exposed to the daylight and who also finds that,as his condition worsens, he finds the need to drink human blood. Why can’t they just tell us that he’s a fucking vampire? Supposed to be a real good little number though.

Mutantes: Punk Porn Feminism- Documentary exploring the pro-sex movement over the past three decades through interviews with activists, sex workers and performers alongside archive footage of actions and excerpts from feminist pornography. Yay, pro-sex! From the director of Baise-Moi.

Silent House – “Real Time” horror thriller – seems like it’s all done in one take – about a woman, Elizabeth Olsen, (she the Olsen sister with the talent) who finds herself and her dad under attack by some ghosts or goblins or Sasquatch or deranged spirits of some sort. Supposed to be a pretty good little horror thriller. Also on the Blu Ray.

The Three Stooges – Because the world needed more stooges. Thanks Farrelly Brothers. This was supposed to star Russell Crowe and Jim Carrey and someone else, (Sir Ian McKellan? Robert DeNiro?) That I would have watched. Also on the Blu Ray.

Coming Next Week

Intruders
Meeting Evil
Salmon Fishing in Yemen
Angele et Tony
Footnote
Detachement
Jiro Dreams of Sushi
Keyhole
Treasure Island

Old stuff Just in

Sea of Love – Blu Ray

Recently viewed and Recommended

Get the Gringo
Michael
Bullhead
Margaret
Pina 3-D
Wallander
God Bless America
Jeff, Who Lives at Home
The Woman
Goon

That’s it for this week kids, hope that ya’ll can get outside, enjoy what Vancouver has to offer in the beautiful summer and then get back inside to watch something good.

Black Dog Video