Sunday, July 4, 2010

New Arrivals July 6th.

The highlights from next weeks arrivals are as follows:

  • A Serious Man
  • Green Porno w/Isabella Rosellini
  • The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
  • The Lost Buster Keaton collection
  • Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics, Vol. 2 (Human Desire / The Brothers Rico / Nightfall / City of Fear / Pushover)

Monday, April 19, 2010

Highlights from the New Arrivals: April 20th


  • 44 Inch Chest
  • 35 Shots Of Rum
  • Mammoth
  • Summer Hours
  • Vivre Sa Vie
  • Horse Boy
  • Crazy Heart

    Friday, April 16, 2010

    4 Star Welcomes WORT 98.8FM Along With Manohla Dargis & Many Great Directors


    Starting at 12 p.m. today, April 16th, WORT 98.9FM will be airing a live broadcast here at Four Star Video Heaven. They will be interviewing filmmakers and other guests from the Wisconsin Film Festival. Tune in or come in to the store to meet the interviewers and guests.

    12-1 Jan Levine Thal will be interviewing:

    Manohla Dargis, co-chief film critic, New York Times

    Nicholas Langholff, producer, Feed The Fish

    Eric and Brad Williams, director and subject, Unforgettable

    Georgia Lyon, director, and Erika Koivenen, subject, Growing In Knowing

    Rasa Miskinyte, director, and Flemming Grenz, editor, The Bug Trainer


    1-2pm Mel & Floyd will be interviewing:

    J.J. Kelley, co-director and producer, and Ben Gottfried, editor, Paddle To Seattle

    Christopher Noice, director and producer, and Julie Matthews, associate producer, Eggshelland

    William Zenobia and Jim Bett, Jr., producers, Into The Pit

    Kate Lindboe, director and producer, Robin Van Ert, co-producer, and Peter McCain, actor, NONAMES

    Thursday, April 8, 2010

    Go see the restored print of 'Shadow of a Doubt' tomorrow night.


    "You live in a dream. You’re a sleepwalker, blind. How do you know what the world is like? Do you know the world is a foul sty? Do you know if you ripped the fronts off houses, you’d find swine ? The world’s a hell.
    What does it matter what happens in it?”


    The UW Cinematheque will be showing the Academy Film Archive's restored print of Alfred Hitchcock's personal favorite movie 'Shadow Of A Doubt' tomorrow night at 8 p.m. As always it will be free. It's one of my own personal favorites and I rank it number one in Hitchcock's top five movies. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity so don't sleep:


    Restored print introduced by Mike Pogorzelski (Director of the Academy Film Archive) and Schawn Belston (Director of Film Preservation at Fox)!

    Young Charlie (Wright) can't help but notice that something seems off about her beloved Uncle Charlie (Cotton) in this 1943 masterpiece. Loosely inspired by a 1938 fait divers and co-scripted by the great American playwright Thornton Wilder.



    Wednesday, April 7, 2010

    Drag City to distribute Harmony Korine's 'Trash Humpers' theatrically.


    'Trash Humpers' is finally getting an actual theatrical run, albeit a limited one, with the help of record label and all around extraordinary company Drag City. So far Madison is not yet listed in the opening dates but Chicago is with it playing from June 4–10 at the Gene Siskel Film Center.
    The synopsis for the film reads:
    TRASH HUMPERS follows a small gang of sinister, creepy 'elderly' peeping toms through the shadows and streetlights of a familiar suburban landscape. They drag baby dolls around on bicycles, bust television sets with hammers, slap big fat BLANK while proudly chomping down on stogies, and yeah...they do some trash humping too. Their behavior makes for viewing that is as compelling as it is unbearable - images that, in classic Korine style, scorch themselves on yer mind's eye, leaving you squinting for the foreseeable future.






    Sunday, April 4, 2010

    Wisconsin Film Fest Showcase!

    Our current Rental Showcase highlights some of our favorite entries from the previous years of the Wisconsin Film Festival, truly one of the jewels of the city, which gloriously takes over the city's theaters from Wednesday April 14th till Sunday April 18th.

    This is just a quick sampling of the WI Film Fest fun we have on offer and you can head over at the main Four Star site to see a complete list of over 500 films that have played previous fests that we have available for rental.


    10
    12:08 East of Bucharest
    Au Hasard
    Aaltra
    Better Living Through Chemistry
    Black Sun
    Collateral
    Cinematographer Style
    Day A Pig Fell Into A Well
    The Edge of Heaven


    El Topo
    Exiled
    Ferry Tales
    Full Battle Rattle
    Gleaners & I
    Home Movie
    In A Dream
    Kill Your Idols
    Kontroll
    La Captive


    Mad City Chickens
    Memories of Murder
    Metal: Headbangers Journey
    Morvern Callar
    Muskrat Lovely
    My Winnipeg
    Na Kamalei
    Night and the City
    Re-Animator
    Retribution


    Rivers & Tides
    Robot Stories
    Severance
    Six-String Samurai
    Spirit of the Beehive
    Symbiopsychotaxiplasm
    Taboo
    Up the Yangtze
    What Time is it There?
    Young Frankenstein

    Friday, April 2, 2010

    Henry Selick signs with Pixar!


    Stop-motion animation is alive and well. Henry Selick, director of 'Nightmare Before Christmas,' 'James & The Giant Peach,' and most recently 'Coraline,' has signed on with Pixar/Disney. He worked with Disney before but after the financial failure of 'James' the Disney Co. called stop-motion a dead art and stopped all future projects. With the success of 'Coraline' & 'Fantastic Mr. Fox' it looks like they've changed their tune, only now Selick will be under the wing of Pixar and will be back in company with John Lassester and Brad Bird. There were plenty of rumors floating around when it came out the Selick had not signed a contract with Laika, who put out 'Coraline,' but I don't think anyone could have imagined him moving in with Pixar. With the freedoms he is now going to be given it will be very exciting to see what Selick can cook up.

    Monday, March 29, 2010

    New Releases for March 30th

    Compared to last week, this is a pretty light bunch of movies, but some great stuff's coming out regardless, including a great Criterion set of Pedro Costa films including Ossos, In Vanda’s Room, and Colossal Youth, the excellent Oscar nominated An Education and the tons of fun Sherlock Holmes all drop today.

    Check out all the trailers below and plan accordingly (get here early) if you're looking to get your hands on anything.

    Afghan Star


    Alvin & the Chipmunks 2: The Squeakquel


    Baader Meinhoff Complex


    Did You Hear About the Morgans


    An Education


    High Kick Girl


    Letters From Fontainhas: Three Films By Pedro Costa (Criterion)
    Ossos


    In Vanya's Room


    Colossal Youth


    Sherlock Holmes


    Under the Sea

    best worst movie has a trailer!



    FINALLY! been waiting for this to drop since i heard it actually had some legs. if you haven't seen troll 2, you kinda owe it to yourself to remedy that grievous error. majestic failure just begins to describe the WTF-HOW-DID-THIS-EVER-GET-MADE-ness of the film.

    IT'S NOT EVEN ABOUT TROLLS!

    Ever hope for a sequel to Solondz's 'Happiness?'


    Solondz has revisited the characters from 'Happiness' with his new film 'Life During Wartime.' It is technically a sequel but also a re-visioning as he cast entirely different actors in the roles this time around. For instance Kenneth Williams, who played Omar on 'The Wire,' takes over for Philip Seymour Hoffman as Allen.
    Read the full story and interview here.

    "Pepsi would never give us clearance. Nor would Coke," he says. "When it comes to product-placement, I'm on everybody's blacklist. Nobody wants to give us anything." Is it because of the paedophile angle? "Well, I don't want to say. Just every angle. All I can say is, nobody wants to have their product or their brand contaminated by this movie."






    Official U.S. Trailer for Jeunet's latest: Micmacs à tire-larigot


    Jean-Pierre Junet's 6th film is finally getting a U.S. theatrical run, albeit a limited one, in May. Apparently the film is a sort of satire on the world arms trade and of course Dominique Pinon will appear. I personally plan on traveling as far as need be to see this on the big screen as it will be several years before Jeunet releases another movie, it took six years for him to release this one after 'A Very Long Engagement' so he doesn't work very fast.
    Some quotes from Jeunet on what we can expect:

    "You know Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," exclaims Jean-Pierre Jeunet, waving his arms around with excitement. "Well, I wanted to create something funny and imaginative like that: a stupid band of seven people. And also I wanted a story of revenge because I love Once Upon a Time in the West so much."

    "I put everything I have into this film," laughs Jeunet. "There are no limits -- it's all of my influences at once. Guillaume Laurant, my writing partner, and I note down everything we hear. Then, when we write a script, we open the box of details and use them. Only when the box is packed full of ideas to we start to write. The principle of the Walt Disney Company is to have one idea per shot and I try to do that too."


    Sunday, March 28, 2010

    Zombie Alert: Magnet picks up [REC]2

    "Without a doubt, [REC] 2 is the scariest film of the year," said Magnolia SVP Tom Quinn. "Nobody does horror as terrifying as directors Jaume Ballaguero and Paco Plaza. It's a great fit for Magnet"

    [REC]2 has been picked up for distribution by Magnet and I'm assuming it will be a part of their Six Shooter series but that has not been announced as of yet. For those who've seen the first [REC] this sequel follows directly after the events of the original with a new group of SWAT and medical officers preparing to enter the zombie infested building. Apparently a sequel has also been optioned for the U.S. remake, 'Quarantine,' but I can only imagine it will take an entirely different route as they changed (and ruined) the story entirely in the end.

    This is another good move by Magnet, who've brought titles such as 'Bronson,' 'Let The Right One In,' 'Not Quite Hollywood,' et-cetera. They are quickly becoming this decade's Miramax, in all aspects. Along with their Six Shooter series they release more of the important independent & foreign titles that would otherwise largely go unseen in the U.S. But along with that they have issues, just like Miramax did, with their foreign titles with issues ranging from dumbing down the translations for 'Let The Right One In,' editing several hours out of 'Red Cliff' and defaulting every foreign dvd to a dub track. But all the same they do good work in getting the titles released and they'll never be as bad as the Weinsteins. I hope.

    Saturday, March 27, 2010

    Exciting news from Roger Ebert


    Although At The Movies has officially been canceled it seems as though Roger Ebert still has faith in movie review programming. He has announced plans to produce a new show along with his wife Chaz which will not only feature new Hollywood blockbusters but New Cinema as well which Ebert describes as "indie films, foreign films, documentaries, restored classics, the new Herzog, the new Bahrani, the new Almodovar."

    For the full story go to his blog here.

    Wednesday, March 24, 2010

    check it out! we're on TWITTER!


    we are now waist deep into web two-point videOH!! #SeeWhatIDidThere? direct your tweets towards @VideoHeaven and holler stuff at us that you think we should know!

    we have some uber-neat stuff planned including random news, keeping you as up to date as possible about new and pre-viewed stuff hitting the shelves for rent and sale, some out there contests and other interactive fun as well, all in 140 characters or less!

    Tuesday, March 23, 2010

    Watch the Spike Jonze short 'I'm Here.'

    Jonze, premiered his new 35 min short film 'I'm Here' at Sundance where it was heralded as many as one of the best of the films in the festival. You can now watch it online either in sections at the official site WWW.IMHEREMOVIE.COM or in three parts below via Youtube.
    Enjoy!