|
Click on the title for details. |
JUNE 27 - JULY 3, 2006
|
||||||
|
|
JUNE 27 - JULY 3, 2006 |
|
||||
|
|
ANNAPOLIS (dir: Justin Lin, PG-13) – James Franco, so cool on FREAKS & GEEKS, wastes his street cred with this TOP GUN knock off set in the nation’s toughest military school. |
|
BLOSSOMS OF FIRE (dir: Maureen Gosling, Not Rated) – This documentary takes a look at Juchitan, Mexico, where women wield an unusual amount of influence over men and there is a struggle to maintain the indigenous Zapotec culture that is under constant threat of eradication. | |||
|
|
*CACHE (HIDDEN) (dir: Michael Haneke, R) – Personally, I think Michael Haneke is the best director making movies today. His tales of urban malaise and creeping dread evoke the best of Hitchcock and Chabrol while avoiding nearly all the trappings of traditional thrillers. In his latest, Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche play an unassuming booj couple in Paris who begin receiving vaguely threatening packages in the mail. It’s a film with more questions than answers and it never condescends to the audience. If you don’t love this movie, I’m really going to have to reconsider our friendship. |
|
CHOK DEE THE KICKBOXER (dir: Xavier Durringer, Not Rated) – Did you know there was a world champion of Thai kickboxing who was French? Did you care? | |||
|
|
DEATH TRANCE (dir: Yuji Shimomura, R) – I’m going to let the tagline on the box of the Japanese sci-fi samurai epic speak for itself: An unknown time. An unknown place. Without reason. With no future. His only desire is destruction. |
|
EIGHTEEN (dir: Richard Bell, Not Rated) – A homeless youth gets advice from priest Alan Cumming (!) and also explores his family history through an audio cassette left by his dead grandfather, voiced by Ian McKellen. | |||
|
|
EVIL (dir: Mikael Hafstrom, Not Rated) – REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE meets FIGHT CLUB for the disaffected youth at a tough Swedish boarding school. |
|
FAILURE TO LAUNCH (dir: Tom Dey, PG-13) – Matthew McConaughey and Sarah Jessica Parker play such polar opposites in this romantic comedy I can’t imagine a scenario where they would fall for one another. | |||
|
|
FIND ME GUILTY (dir: Sidney Lumet, R) – Vin Diesel acts. |
|
FULL FRAME DOCUMENTARY SHORTS: VOLUME 4 (dir: Various, Not Rated) – In this latest collection of short docs we get subjects including the wacky rush hour antics of Yokohama, Japan and the building of Israel’s security wall in Abu Dis. | |||
|
|
IMAGINE ME & YOU (dir: Ol Parker, R) – Poor Piper Perabo just can’t decide between dating hot boys or hot girls. Luckily, she’s really hot. I’m giving this movie a passing grade because Matthew Goode, the Rupert Everett-ish brother in MATCH POINT, co-stars. And he’s rad. |
|
IS IT REALLY SO STRANGE? (dir: William E. Jones, Not Rated) – Emo kids love him. Bart & Greg love him. Chicano gang members love him. What is it about Morrissey that inspires such devotion? This documentary aims to find out. | |||
|
|
MADEA’S FAMILY REUNION (dir: Tyler Perry, PG-13) – If you think it’s really funny when a man dresses up as an old lady, let me steer you to Tyler Perry’s latest. It’s like BIG MOMMA’S HOUSE with more Christian propaganda. |
|
MORTUARY (dir: Tobe Hooper, R) – Tobe Hooper directed the horror classic THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and has been treading water ever since. That didn’t stop us from getting his latest straight-to-DVD opus though. | |||
|
|
MY NAME WAS SABINA SPIELREIN (dir: Elisabeth Marton, Not Rated) – Based on letters and diaries, this movie tells the story of Carl Jung’s first patient, with whom he had an affair. |
|
NEVER BEEN THAWED (NBT) (dir: Sean Anders, R) – In a bid to make some money, the members of an obscene punk rock band re-invent themselves in order to cash in on the burgeoning Christian rock scene in this wickedly subversive comedy. | |||
|
|
THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED (dir: Kim Bartley / Donnacha O’Briain, Not Rated) – We had a lot of difficulty getting hold of this documentary about controversial Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. The distributors said we were apparently the only video store in the country to stock it and that we may be risking our lives or something. So if you hear about Bart & Greg’s getting overthrown by a CIA-backed coup you’ll know why. |
|
RYNA (dir: Ruxandra Zenide, Not Rated) – Raised as a boy by her overbearing father in a small village on the Danube in Romania, the titular character finds herself blossoming into a beautiful young woman. | |||
|
|
ULTRAVIOLET (dir: Kurt Wimmer, Unrated) – Someday, underrated Ukranian cutie Milla Jovovich will get to star in movies that aren’t based on videogames. Until then, enjoy ULTRAVIOLET, in which she plays a woman battling a race of disease-modified superhumans. |
|
^WHY WE FIGHT (dir: Eugene Jarecki, PG-13) – The latest documentary from the director of THE TRIALS OF HENRY KISSINGER takes a long hard look at U.S. foreign policy over the last fifty years. Taking a cue from Eisenhower’s farewell speech in 1961 in which he warned of the “military-industrial complex,” the film explores how we’ve traveled from that foreboding sentiment to the casual mingling of politics, business and war that exists today. | |||
| * = Greg's pick of the week ^ = Bart's pick of the week | ||||||