Tuesday, September 22, 2009


September 22nd 2009

The Emmys celebrated the best of TV this week, well their version of the best anyway, still I agree with Mad Men winning, a super expose of the advertising world in the 60’s. Created by one of the guys who invented the Sopranos, so you know it had to be good! If you still haven’t seen Mad Men, take yourself down to the Movie Spot nearest you and hopefully you’ll find a copy of the 1st season to rent. If you can’t find it, email your friendly movie spotter and I’ll add it to your local kiosk.
This week not much to write about, a good black comedy with Seth Rogen and a remake of Christmas Carol only with ex girlfriends and for you girls a hunky Matthew McConaughey. If you have the stomach for it and you’re a horror movie fan, check out the Clive Barker flick, now that’s over the top!!

Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past

Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, Lacey Chabert, Michael Douglas, Emma Stone, Anne Archer, Robert Forster

Connor Mead is an absolute cad who doesn’t just two-time ladies; he four-times them. But when he goes to a weekend retreat for a family wedding, he runs into Jenny – the one that got away, and now the one who wants to cut off his unmentionables. A sleazy dead Uncle tells him that three ghosts will visit him, in an attempt to change the error of his ways. Cue the Ghost of Girlfriends Past, who shows him what life was like in a simpler, happier time when he and Jenny were in love. Matthew McConaughey does Dickens — kind of — in this Christmas Carol rehash. He’s photographer Connor, who’s eyeing up the bridesmaids and slugging Scotch at his brother’s wedding. The party’s interrupted by Connor’s playboy uncle Wayne (Michael Douglas), back from the dead to warn his protégé about his lonely lifestyle, with help from flashbacks to Connor’s misspent youth. Can Connor repent and win over his childhood sweetheart (Jennifer Garner)? This movie has some nice moments, good looking cast but maybe Matthew McConaughey wasn’t right for the role. I would love to see Ricky Gervaise doing this!



Observe and Report

Cast: Seth Rogen, Anna Faris, Michael Peña, Ray Liotta, Collette Wolfe, Jesse Plemons, Aziz Ansari, Dan Bakkedahl, Z. Ray Wakeman, David House

Shopping mall guard Ronnie Barnhardt (Rogen) is a jobsworth extraordinaire, and dangerously so. Not only does he have mental issues, he’s also a gun nut who wants to cop off with Anna Faris’ make-up-counter girl. Now, if only he can catch that pesky flasher stalking the car-lot...
Seth Rogen is a one-man comedy army. Since 2007’s Knocked Up, barely a month has slipped by without either his goofy voice or features being seen (or heard) in some corner of the multiplex. Superbad, Pineapple Express, Zack And Miri Make A Porno, Kung Fu Panda, Monsters Vs Aliens... And now Observe And Report, this year’s second mall-security-guard comedy. But Paul Blart this ain’t; Observe And Report is no heartwarming tale of a lovable blue-collar slob, and neither does it see Rogen once again reprise his chubby, witty slacker persona he is an angry, confused man who you never feel entirely comfortable laughing at; but you do.



Book Of Blood

Cast: Jonas Armstrong, Sophie Ward, Paul Blair, Doug Bradley, Simon Bamford, James Watson, James McAnerney, Romana Abercromby

The opening scene of the Clive Barker film packs a punch as a young woman is assaulted by unseen forces, climaxing with a rather gruesome effect in which her face is torn away. We are then introduced to Simon McNeal (Jonas Armstrong), a young college student and medium whose body has been ravaged and become a literal book of blood.
The story is thus set in motion as Simon recalls the events that led him to his current predicament. As the flashback begins, the focus shifts to paranormal investigator and college professor Mary Florescu (Sophie Ward), who’s haunted by an incident that occurred during her childhood. Mary’s path crosses with that of Simon, who suffers from his own childhood demons. She enlists his aide and, with the help of paranormal technician Reg Fuller (Paul Blair), they investigate the house where the young woman was murdered—and soon find them being menaced by the spirit world.
Book of Blood adapts and combines two of these Clive Barker stories, "The Book of Blood" and "On Jerusalem Street", with one serving as a framing sequence for the other "Book of Blood" features some genuinely unnerving moments, and can certainly be recommended to fans of pure horror and Barker's particular flavor of it. This DVD is presented on both disc formats in 1.78:1 widescreen with Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound on the former and DTS-HD 5.1 Surround on the latter. The audio is exceptional, and sets the mood perfectly; especially when the spirits banged away at the doors and floor.




Newly added Movies You have to watch again (or maybe for the first time!)


Bad Lieutenant

Cast: Harvey Keitel, Zoe Lund
Directed by Abel Ferrara

A man in a dark suit drives his two little boys to school. On the way, the kids complain that their aunt hogged the bathroom. "Next time, you come tell me," says this upstanding father, "and I'll throw her the **** out." He drops the kids off, waits for them to get out of range, and then puts a couple of lines of coke up his nose. He drives on, stopping at the scene of a crime. What business does he have here? He steps out of the car and ... pins a badge to his chest. Jesus, this guy's a cop? That's the joke, but in Abel Ferrara territory, it's also reality.
Harvey Keitel plays an unnamed New York City lieutenant who's a lot worse than the criminals who infest his streets. A womanizer, drug abuser, alcoholic, and gambler, the bad (and unnamed) lieutenant epitomizes corruption and decadence. When his chance at redemption comes as the result of the brutal rape of a nun, is there anything left within him to redeem?
If a movie could survive on the force of a single performance, Bad Lieutenant would be it. Keitel throws himself into his role with undisputed gusto. He is never upstaged; in fact, most of the time when he's on-screen, whoever happens to be sharing the scene is virtually invisible. Keitel holds nothing back. There is a remake coming with Nicholas Cage; forget it; this is the real deal!



Windtalkers

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Adam Beach, Christian Slater, Peter Stormare, Noah Emmerich, Mark Ruffalo, Brian Van Holt, Martin Henderson, Roger Willie, Frances O'Connor
Director: John Woo

Windtalkers chronicles the June 1944 Allied invasion of the Japanese island of Saipan. During this offensive, the Americans were using the so-called "Navajo Code" - a code developed from words in the Navajo language and translated by Navajos. Marine Sergeant Joe Enders (Nicolas Cage), a decorated fighting man, is partnered with Private Ben Yahzee (Adam Beach), one of the Najavo "codetalkers". His orders are simple: "Protect the Code". That means protecting Yahzee, unless he falls into enemy hands - then it means killing him. In a similar position are Sergeant Ox Anderson (Christian Slater) and his partner, Private Charles Whitehorse (Roger Willie). Meanwhile, Enders remains closed off from his fellows, including Yahzee, as he tries to come to grips with events in his past that have created physical and psychological scars.
Action is director John Woo’s middle name. After directing frenetic flicks such as Mission: Impossible II, Face/Off, and Broken Arrow, you know you will get enough bombs, blood and broken body parts to give his WWII drama Windtalkers an accurate feel. In this special directors cut, Woo turns in a 2 1/2 hour version, adding about 15 minutes of material into the original.




Movie News

The studio’s releasing a deluxe version of Snatch, the Guy Ritchie gangster movie with Brad Pitt as a gypsy (his best role?)

Critics may still not be able to decide if Guy Ritchie's films offer too much style and too little substance, whether he's the flavor of the month or a legitimate successor to Quentin Tarantino as a new interpreter of crime-related genres. Ritchie's full-length audio commentary for the smartly packaged, two-disc DVD edition of Snatch makes a good case for his value as a filmmaker, and convincingly explains why he chose to make a film so similar to his breakthrough effort Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels but this time with the box-office appeal of Brad Pitt. While doing that, he bickers with producer Matthew Vaughn, largely ignores a list of talking points handed to him in frustration by the "men in suits" outside the studio and forgoes the industry standard's time-killing blather in favor of cheeky asides and assorted gritty tales from the set. If that weren't enough to already make this a stand-out entry, Snatch's highly stylized art direction is lovingly expanded, starting with snazzy animated menus and including a top-notch 25-minute on-the-set featurette, animated storyboard comparisons, a photo gallery that for once isn't throwaway filler and a handful of deleted scenes that can either be viewed separately or within their context during the film. More accomplished and entertaining than Smoking Barrels, Snatch sports a flawless first reel and deserves a look, if not only to give Ritchie the chance to prove that he didn't make the same film twice

See you next week!

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