Saturday, February 27, 2010

ebert in esquire



i don't know how i've managed to miss this, but finding out that roger ebert has, over the past four years, lost his lower jaw and ability to speak due to thyroid cancer and related conditions came as a huge shock to me.

there's an astounding article that ran in esquire a week or so ago that is absolutely worth your time, and does a great service to the man who was more than happy to validate the four star video heaven name.

"I believe that if, at the end of it all, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn't always know this, and am happy I lived long enough to find it out."

i advocate following ebert's journal on the sun-times site, as well as his official twitter feed if that's your thing.

Friday, February 26, 2010

garry shandling movie poster project



i mean, this isn't exactly movie news by any stretch, but it's pretty awesome nonetheless. tim, of tim and eric fame, has colelcted a ton of posters with garry shandling photoshopped into them.

internet memes have a pretty short shelf life, so enjoy this before it turns into the next rick roll.

via

Monday, February 22, 2010

new release picks

celestial navigations: short films of al jarnow



i'm pretty sure i was the one who requested this one, but it's truly a stunning labor of love that deserves your attention. this is the first dvd put together and released by the numero group, a smallish record label based out of chicago that focuses on reissuing small long forgotten funk, soul and r&b groups, and it's a real doozy. you've likely seen some of jarnow's surreal stop-motion animation works that were commissioned by sesame street, but the wealth of amazing work on here, especially the half hour documentary, is really stunning and i can't recommend it highly enough.

dead snow



ZOMBIE NAZIS! NAZI ZOMBIES! i think i'm one of the only people at four star that outright loved this film. we've had a couple of off region discs in for a while, but they've consistently been rented, so here's your chance to get your hands on some of the gory fun.

the informant!



i don't understand how this film garnered not a single oscar nomination, and should have absolutely bumped the blind side off the best picture list. damon got nominated for invictus (where he's likely to lose), but should have been nominated for this (where he'd be a strong contender). if you were unawares, this frighteningly non-fiction film was based on a segment of this american life that i highly recommend, if only to compare its seriousness with the humor of the movie.

keep your eyes peeled for someone crashing the red carpet wearing a shirt that reads "soderbergh was ROBBED" cause that's gonna be me.

the full list of other new releases can be found at the four star video heaven website, and, as always, new releases are available monday night at midnight.

waking sleeping beauty



just saw this pretty ok trailer for what looks like it might be a really great documentary. having seen this, i can't help but be really surprised at how much i WANT disney to make another great animated film. i really WANT those guys to make something else as good as the lion king or the little mermaid or beauty and the beast, and i'm a little shocked by that revelation, though i guess i shouldn't be. all they need is a good story (pixar has all the good stories?), new character designs, better music, and not be afraid to make something that isn't %110 geared to be emblazoned on the backpacks and lunch boxes of kindergartners. also, give up on the crutch of the "princess film." i wanna be shocked by good new 2-d disney animation in the same way that i had my head 'sploded by the first toy story film.

sadly, i think the era of mainstream 2-d animation geared to the masses is a done with, but then again, it's a not even 8:30 on a monday morning and i haven't had any coffee, so i might be a little more pessimistical than i would be normally.

no idea when this thing hits dvd, but in the interim, be sure to check out the excellent pixar story documentary from a year or so ago.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

only one more week!



you might not know this, but february was named after the latin term februum, which means purification, and all month we've been, in a way, purifying our used films for sale, making way for our annual inventory process in march. once february is over, so is this awesome sale!

5 used movies for the price of 2! time's running out! check our online database for all the used titles currently available.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

criterion does zatoichi



criterion further establishes its place as one of the greatest things modern man has invented, by starting up their own hulu channel! so far they're happily, yet somewhat inexplicably, using it to host a half dozen zatoichi films, but keep your eyes peeled to see where this goes in the nearish future.

if watching these piques your interest in any of the other 4,876 zatoihchi films, i'm glad to report that we at four star have a bunch of the other blind swordsman films, including the 2003 beat takeshi version, if that's what might float your boat (it probably will).

as long as i’m alive, and as long as i’m rich



from the "more reasons to move to L.A." news desk, comes this little bit of extra cool news:

"'As long as I’m alive, and as long as I’m rich, the New Beverly will be there, showing double features in 35mm,' Quentin Tarantino told the Hollywood Reporter. He’s bought the 200 seat Fairfax District theater that has shown second-run double features since 1978 (Before that it was, appropriately, a grindhouse with live nude dancers, although it was built in 1929 and once showed first-run movies). In the mid aughts, hearing operator Sherman Torgan was having trouble keeping the doors open, Tarantino started paying the monthly expenses. After Torgan’s death in 2007, his son Michael took over operations, but the landlord had a buyer almost immediately. Since the Torgans had the right of first refusal, Tarantino stepped in, and after some extensive haggling made a deal to buy the theater."

this is exactly the sort of stuff that i would be doing if i was making enough money to do it. wouldn't it be awesome if someone did this with the orpheum? i sure think it would.

i heard about this via dangerous minds, and they heard about it, and quoted, via curbed.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

jim jarmusch... music festival curator?



the stars have aligned! last night i finally put the finishing touch my jim jarmusch experience, having finally watched the very excellent mystery train, and i wake up this morning to find that not only is criterion putting their inimitable stamp on that film this summer, but that JJ will be curating a night of music for the all tomorrows parties (ATP to the cool kids) festival this fall.

in case you were wondering, here's the line up of acts he's chosen:

the brian jonestown massacre, raekwon, girls, vivian girls, the black angels, wooden shjips and fucked up with more to be confirmed.

looks like a night of psych rock book-ended with potential insanity... and raekwon the chef? isn't he like, the only wu dude to not make it into a jarmusch flick so far?

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

doug loves movies!



you might know doug benson from his stand-up, or maybe you were introduced to him through super-high me, his morgan spurlock aping documentary which replaces fast food with weed. or, maybe you've never heard of him. i don't know who you know...

anyway, doug loves movies, and has a ton of funny friends who you're likely to have heard of (sarah silverman, david cross, patton owalt, even that dreamy don draper guy from mad men). a few times a month, they get together and talk funny about movies in front of an LA audience, and those chats get podcasted out into the world via the interwebs.

if you've ever wanted to know what bob odenkirk from mr. show thinks about james cameron's titanic (trust me, you do), then hook this thing up to your itunes, and don't look back.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

oscar tabulational stuff



the new yorker has a pretty decent if brief run down of some oscar hustle and bustle in their latest issue, but the real neat part of hendrik hertzberg's talk of the town article is the differences in the way that the votes are tabulated.

we're all aware that the best picture category got expanded from 5 to 10 (all the better to include the blind side!), but did you know that this year people are ranking their votes hierarchically, as opposed to the previous method of simply marking only their choice for best picture?

read the article and adjust your oscar pool decisions accordingly.

Monday, February 15, 2010

A good release week from Criterion



There are two brand new movies coming out via the Criterion Collection, something they've moved into recently with their deal with IFC, and both are highly recommended. Steve McQueen's 'Hunger' was a devastating yet beautiful depiction of the no wash and inevitable hunger protests the IRA staged in response to the British Governments refusal to treat them as political prisoners rather than terrorists. McQueen's history with video art is apparent but I disagree that this is a bad thing, his attention to detail and eye made for a gorgeous and entirely distressing film. 'Revanche' was the first film Criterion stepped up to release theatrically and played at last years Wisconsin Film Fest and made for a gorgeous & brilliantly executed neo-noir following the act of calculating revenge and the possibility for forgiveness.
But if you only have time to rent one movie this week let it be Max Ophuls 'Lola Montes' out on DVD for the first time from Criterion. In my opinion Max Ophuls is the best director of all time and I don't take that sort of status lightly. His movies, such as 'Earrings of Madame De...' are absolute perfection and 'Lola Montes' is another example. It's unfortunate it turned out to be his last film after the studio ruined the film upon release in '55 and it only reached the directors originally intended cut in 2008.

Monday, February 8, 2010

you're my tenderoni



the NSFW red-band trailer to the new kevin smith flick looks pretty awesome, but i'm basing my feelings mainly on the nut-shot to a 10 year old. bruce and tracy morgan look pretty good, even if this is undoubtedly tracy's flick. this'll be the first of kevin's movies to be based on a script he didn't write, and i'm still unsure if that's gonna be a good thing or a bad thing.

as much as i love kevin smith, i keep wondering more and more why, especially after re-watching zach and miri, but regardless, i got high hopes for this one.

final note: there's something to be said for a trailer that neither tips its hand plot wise, nor shows you every one of the funniest parts.

make way for tomorrow



orson welles has said that leo mccarey's 1937 film make way for tomorrow was the saddest movie ever made.

if this is indeed true, then criterion tapping cartoonist seth to do the design work was a stroke of genius.

be sure to look for it on the new release wall on feb 23d.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

little birds out hitchhiking



this has absolutely made my weekend i think, even though it's not even 9:00 on saturday morning. i snagged this from the current, the criterion collection's blog of all things arty and awesome.

not sure if i like the godard or the herzog more... the grizzly man narration was a genius move on the part of whoever put this together.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

most awesomest 2009 posters

in addition to richard's list, and with few alternate version duplications, here's my list of posters that went above and beyond the call of duty to serve their films.

happily, i can report that almost all of these films ended up ranging from pretty good to straight-up incredible...

but fanboys on the other hand...

























Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Richard's 10, I Mean 15, Favorite Movie Posters From 2009

A movie poster is supposed to tell you a small part of the story, should grab your attention and engage you to question what this particular story is about. It should not rely on Bruce Willis's scowl.

Rather than explain each poster or try to rank them I'll group them all together and let each speak for itself.






















I have a feeling some of my picks will be echoed by the other contributers on this blog but I hope they are not considered entirely obvious choices.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

I GOT OSCAR FEVER!!



Quick note: The posters don't reflect the stuff i think is gonna win, they're just there to gussy the post up. Jus' Sayin.

Best Picture



* Avatar
* The Blind Side
* District 9
* An Education
* The Hurt Locker
* Inglourious Basterds
* A Serious Man
* Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire
* Up
* Up in the Air

Best Director



* Kathryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker
* James Cameron – Avatar
* Lee Daniels – Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire
* Jason Reitman – Up in the Air
* Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds

Best Actor



* Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart
* George Clooney – Up in the Air
* Colin Firth – A Single Man
* Morgan Freeman – Invictus
* Jeremy Renner – The Hurt Locker

Best Actress



* Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side
* Helen Mirren – The Last Station
* Carey Mulligan – An Education
* Gabourey Sidibe – Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire
* Meryl Streep – Julie & Julia

Best Supporting Actor



* Matt Damon – Invictus
* Woody Harrelson – The Messenger
* Christopher Plummer – The Last Station
* Stanley Tucci – The Lovely Bones
* Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds

Best Supporting Actress



* Penélope Cruz – Nine
* Vera Farmiga – Up in the Air
* Maggie Gyllenhaal – Crazy Heart
* Anna Kendrick – Up in the Air
* Mo'Nique – Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire

Best Original Screenplay



* The Hurt Locker – Mark Boal
* Inglourious Basterds – Quentin Tarantino
* The Messenger – Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman
* A Serious Man – Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
* Up – Bob Peterson and Pete Docter

Best Adapted Screenplay



* District 9 – Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell
* An Education – Nick Hornby
* In the Loop – Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Ianucci and Tony Roche
* Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire – Geoffrey Fletcher
* Up in the Air – Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner

Best Animated Feature



* Coraline – Henry Selick
* Fantastic Mr. Fox – Wes Anderson
* The Princess and the Frog – Ron Clements and John Musker
* The Secret of Kells – Tomm Moore and Nora Twomey
* Up – Bob Peterson and Pete Docter

Best Foreign Language Film



* Ajami (Israel) in Hebrew – Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani
* El Secreto de Sus Ojos (Argentina) in Spanish – Juan José Campanella
* The Milk of Sorrow (Peru) in Spanish – Claudia Llosa
* A Prophet (France) in French – Jacques Audiard
* The White Ribbon (Germany) in German – Michael Haneke