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!

new release picks: march 9th

boondock saints 2



if you're gonna be renting this (and a lot of you are), then PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE also rent overnight, the documentary about the up and down life of director troy duffy and the making of the first boondock saints movie.

capitalism: a love story



like a lot of people, i have some complex feelings about michael moore, and have less and less patience with his showboating antics, but dang if he isn't able to dig up some excellent illustrative narratives and weave them into a well-paced, consistently engaging documentary.

pirate radio (aka the boat that rocked)



this one's worth it for the soundtrack alone, and that it will make you think back to philip seymore hoffman as lester bangs in almost famous.

precious



i haven't seen this, and personally have very little interest to see it, but i can bet that there are a ton of people who are gonna keep this from being readily available for at least a couple of weeks. i'd say pick it up if only to see mildly mustachioed mariah carey make amends for her role in glitter.

up in the air



this was a really great film (my personal pick of the week), and i'm really happy with the way that jason reitman (juno, thank you for smoking) is shaping up as a director. george clooney is excellent in this, as is the rest of the cast, including danny mcbride in a subtle turn as the pyramid scheming brother in law. just an out and out great little film.

happy birthday ron howard!

ron howard turns 56 today! personally, i would applaud his career if he was only known for putting his sorta creepy looking little brother, clint, in all his movies, but in fact he's given us a bunch of movies that are all really great (and the dan brown flicks, too!).

celebrate the man by watching splash, parenthood, apollo 13, or frost/nixon tonight.

here's the trailer to grand theft auto, howard's first feature, produced by roger corman, who was a mentor to a surprising number of current holywood insiders.

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.

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.

new releases: highlights

there's an astounding set of films coming out this week. so much oscar heat and films of the year contenders are gonna be jockeying for position on the new arrivals wall come midnight this monday.

BIG FAN


IN THE LOOP


HURT LOCKER


MOON


DEPARTURES

not even death

looks like the new gilliam flick will finally be making its way to madison! thank the heavens above as you preorder your tickets over at sundance!

this thing looks pretty amazing and though i haven't heard much critically about it, what i have heard has been pretty resoundingly positive.