New Releases Tuesday June 17, 2008
Be Kind Rewind (7/10): Jack Black and especially Mos Def are fantastic in this funny comedy about two losers who have to re-create old movies themselves to replace VHS tapes that have been erased at their rental store. Movie lovers will enjoy.
Fool’s Gold: Another Matthew McConaughey - Kate Hudson movie, this one is sure to be dreadful. Unless you want to see Kate Hudson in a bikini for two hours. Or a shirtless McConaughey for two hours.
Californication Season One (9/10): The best show on TV comes to DVD with the release of Season One. Full of nudity, sex, drug use and gross bodily functions, and David Duchovny is remarkably good. Smart, funny and terrific.
Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins: A TV self-hellp guru returns to the small town where he grew up, and tries to prove he’s no longer the kid that was always picked on…sounds like Mr. Woodcock with Martin Lawrence in the Seann William Scott role. Which…sounds awful.
Control (9/10): The best musical biopic of the past decade. And yes, that includes Ray and Walk The Line. This profile of Joy Division lead singer Ian Curtis, who tragically hanged himself in 1980, tells the story through the music, through pictures, and through a tour-de-force performance by Sam Riley.
The Flock (4/10): Richard Gere mentors Claire Danes as a pedophile profiler and monitor. A girl goes missing, they must track her down. It’s pretty awful.
Joy Division (8/10): Documentary that tackles much the same subject matter as Control, but with the real subjects being interviewed, and more focus on the greatness of the rest of the band than simply on the story of Ian Curtis. Powerful and interesting.
Transformers Animated: Transform And Roll Out (3/10): A TV series made into a DVD to capitalize on the revitalized market for Transformers since that big movie. Mostly annoying, the same guy who does the big-voice stuff on CHEZ also voices Optimus Prime.
Four Months, Three Weeks and Two Days: The film I am anticipating greatly, it’s Romanian (and Romanian films have been great in recent years). Two girls go to see an illegal abortion doctor.
Jericho Season Two (6/10): A slightly overlooked show that was cancelled after this season. Wraps up nicely with the series finale, and includes the final episode that would have aired had the series been extended for another year.
My Mom’s New Boyfriend: Meg Ryan and Antonio Banderas star in a movie about an FBI agent whose mother is dating…and he spies on her boyfriend…and espionage ensues. Blah!
The Tatooist: A tattooist unwittingly unleashes a forcible deadly spirit through an ancient Samoan tattoo tool. Now marked for death, he will need to uncover the source of the evil in order to save his new love, and recover his own soul. Seriously.
Rails & Ties: A deadly collision between a train and car lead to an unlikely bond between the train engineer and a young boy who escapes the carnage. Kevin Bacon and Marcia Gay Harden star.
Also out this week:
Chaos Theory (5/10)
It’s a Boy Girl Thing (3/10)
Just Add Water
Under The Same Moon
My Name Is Juani
On The Doll
Librarian 2: Return to King Solomon’s Mines (3/10)
Next week:
The Spiderwick Chronicles (7/10)
Persepolis (9/10)
Vantage Point
Definitely, Maybe
In Bruges (10/10)
Meet The Browns
Sex And Death 101
10,000 BC (1/10)
Drillbit Taylor (2/10)
Boarding Gate
City Of Men (8/10)
Futurama: Beast With A Billion Backs
Mad Men Season One
Honeydripper
Prairie Fever
The Business of Being Born
Caramel
The Eye 3
Harm’s Way
Never Forget
Unstable Fables: Three Pigs And A Baby (6/10)
Intimate Enemies
Savage Planet
Days of Darkness
Flight of the Conchords: Complete First Season