CREEPY FREE

I could not imagine watching a movie on my IPod ("Honey, I downloaded The Bridge On The River Kwai, for our return flight").

 I don’t even get into watching flicks on my computer. I don’t have a very big screen. However I have caught some South Park episodes I had missed and I’ve watched some documentaries I couldn’t find on DVD (I don’t wanna download ‘em, just watch ‘em. This website Movies Found On Line has some good stuff). 

If it's suppose to look like a Youtube video then the handheld fake-documentary works on my small screen as well. 

I recently watched George Romero’s latest zombie soap-opera Diary Of The Dead on line for free (I forget where I found it, but vidserp.com is a place to start).

I kinda enjoyed the new one. It’s nothing great, I barely remember it now.  It was a big improvement over Romero’s last one, that lame-ass Land Of The Dead. Hey it was free, maybe had I gone and seen it in the theater or even rented it, I might of been pissed off, on the laptop, it was watchable. 

It’s another of the Blair Witch Project/ Cloverfield fake documentaries. Though it might hold up even less then those two in the ‘actors believably holding the camera’ department.

Going back to Spinal Tap or Man Bites Dog (or The (British) Office TV series etc.) I’m a sucker for the genre, I think the style can bring a realism to horror flicks that can often feel to slick and glossy for me.  Matt Barone of Good Magazine calls them “Handheld Horror Movies’.

Speaking of which, I found on Google video a perfectly watchable copy of the Spanish fake-doc/zombie flick [REC] (as in ‘record’). This flick was scary, it had me stressed with tension and dread. It stars the very adorable Manuela Velasco (from Pedro Almodóvar’s Law Of Desire) as a TV reporter following a firefighter crew around for the night. They all get stuck in a Quarantined building that seems to have a  dangerous virus attacking the residents (here’s a better summery and a rave review by Philip French of The Observer).

Director Jaume Balagueró also made the flawed but creepy flick The Nameless (1999). Rocket just got it on DVD. It’s frustrating because the idea and atmosphere of are interesting, a desperate Mother gets a phone call from her long dead daughter and go on a quest to find her, taking her into the twisted world of Nazi religious cults, perversions of science and child molesting freaks and other assorted nastiness. Unfortunately it’s kinda bogged down by people always stopping to explain load of information to the mother and her retired cop partner. It also uses this cheap (Ring style) noise and static in the scene cuts to make up for a lack of real scares.  

But [REC] is definitely worth checking out on line (for free), because I’ve heard no mention of it opening up here or coming out on DVD, There’s already an american remake in the works (slated to hit theaters in October) called Quarantine directed by 

John Erick Dowdle who directed another fake-horror-doc I wouldn't mind checking-out called The Poughkeepsie Tapes, I saw previews for it last year but it never opened.

 

I’m also hoping to find a bootleg of the Slamdance fake-horror-doc Paranormal Activity that got some “"it will scare the pants off you" reviews. 

Twitch.com reported Dreamworks bought it, but appear to not want to release it.

Oh goody, they just to remake it.

-sweeneyrules

NEW RELEASES - MAY 20 2008 - Wowie Zowie!

* A partial list of today’s new released.

Unofficial, strickly from my memory of glancing at them for a couple of minutes

Anguish

The Film Crew: Wet Heat

The Flock

The Hunt for John Wilkes Booth

If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium

The Killing Hour (1982)

National Treasure 2 - Book of Secrets

Operation Homecoming: Stories from the Heart 

Park

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Variety (1983)

What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?

COLLECTIONS:

- Clint Eastwood Triple Feature

Any Which Way You Can 

Every Which Way But Loose 

Honkytonk Man

- Eclipse Series 9 - The Delirious Fictions of William Klein (The Criterion Collection)

Mr. Freedom (1969) 

The Model Couple (1977) 

Who Are You Polly Maggoo? (1966)

- James Stewart: Columbia Screen Legends Collection  

Anatomy Of A Murder

Bell, Book and Candle 

The Man From Larami

- James Stewart - The Western Collection 

Bend of the River

Destry Rides Again 

The Far Country

Night Passage

The Rare Breed

Winchester 73 

- Legend House - Double Feature

Death Smiles on a Murderer (1973)

Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism (1967)

TELEVISION:

The Incredible Hulk: Complete Second Season

The Muppet Show: Complete Third Season

Penn and Teller Bull Shit: The Complete Fifth Season

Saturday Night Live: The Complete Third Season

Square Pegs: The Complete Series

BLU-RAY:

Short Circuit

V For Vendetta

MY MORNING WOODY

This morning I was reading a little piece by James Mottram in The Times Of London

What’s up with Woody Allen?

All about how even at seventy-something years old, the pedophile director won’t stop working (and turning out junk).

There’s a funny quote in there:

When Mike Leigh was asked whether he liked the work of his fellow director Woody Allen, he responded in a way that many of us have been secretly thinking too: “Radio Days would be on my desert island with me, but if you wanted to subject me to excruciating torture, you’d send me there with a copy of Match Point. I wouldn’t survive 24 hours.”

Then the writer mentioned:

Match Point (2005) may have earned Allen his 21st Oscar nomination – for Best Original Screenplay – but this did not hide the fact that his once-great works have given way to a series of below-par films.

And I got to thinking,  “21 oscar nomination? Is that right? Does he mean his films have earned a total of 21 nominations or Woody himself has 21 nominations”.

I knew he won a couple for writing and directing the still brilliant Annie Hall and for writing the also wonderful Hannah And Her Sisters. And I know that they always seem to nominate him even for crap like Deconstructing Harry.

But man, 21 seems like a lot.

So I looked into it (what a way to blow a morning)...

Sure enough, Woody has 21 oscar nominations. 

Wow, looking the list over, he even got a nomination for the Alice screenplay? What didn’t get nominated in 1990 then?

Nomination wise,  all the films he’s directed, have earned a whooping- well you can count em.

Annie Hall (1977)
Best Actress: Diane Keaton WINNER
Best Director: Woody Allen WINNER 1
Best Picture: Charles H. Joffe WINNER 
Best Screenplay : Woody Allen, Marshall Brickman WINNER 2
Best Actor: Woody Allen 3

Interiors (1978)
Best Actress: Geraldine Page
Best Supporting Actress: Maureen Stapleton
Best Art Direction: Mel Bourne, Daniel Robert
Best Director: Woody Allen 4 
Best Screenplay: Woody Allen 5

Manhattan (1979)
Best Supporting Actress: Mariel Hemingway
Best Screenplay: Woody Allen, Marshall Brickman  6

Zelig (1983)
Best Cinematography: Gordon Willis
Best Costume Design: Santo Loquasto

Broadway Danny Rose (1984)
Best Director: Woody Allen 7
Best Screenplay: Woody Allen 8

The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
Best Screenplay: Woody Allen 9

Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
Best Supporting Actor: Michael Caine WINNER
Best Supporting Actress: Dianne Wiest WINNER
Best Screenplay: Woody Allen WINNER 10
Best Art Direction: Stuart Wurtzel, Carol Joffe
Best Director: Woody Allen 11
Best Film Editing: Susan E. Morse
Best Picture Robert Greenhut

Radio Days (1987)
Best Art Direction-Set Decoration: Santo Loquasto
Best Screenplay: Woody Allen  12 

Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)
Best Supporting Actor: Martin Landau
Best Director: Woody Allen 13
Best Screenplay: Woody Allen 14

Alice (1990)
Best Screenplay: Woody Allen 15

Husbands and Wives (1992)
Best Supporting Actress: Judy Davis
Best Screenplay: Woody Allen 16

Bullets Over Broadway (1994)
Best Supporting Actress: Dianne Wiest WINNER
Best Supporting Actror: Chazz Palminteri
Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Tilly
Best Art Direction: Santo Loquasto, Susan Bode
Best Costume Design: Jeffrey Kurland
Best Director: Woody Allen 17
Best Screenplay: Woody Allen, Douglas McGrath 18

Mighty Aphrodite (1995)
Best Supporting Actress: Mira Sorvino WINNER
Best Screenplay: Woody Allen 19

Deconstructing Harry (1997)
Best Screenplay: Woody Allen  20

Sweet and Lowdown (1999)
Best Actor: Sean Penn
Best Supporting Actress: Samantha Morton

Match Point (2005)
Best Screenplay: Woody Allen  21

-sweeneyrules

The Next Director Shelf - YOU Decide!

As our customers know, Rocket isn't your average video store. We don't exactly have our catalogue of titles arranged in the most conventional manner. Sure, we have your basic sections like Comedy, Drama, Action, and what not... but we have a lot of special sections too. One of those special sections is the Director shelves.

People often ask how we decide who gets a shelf and who doesn't. The reasons vary and some are more obvious than others. One of the general criteria is that there is something unique about that director and his or her films. You know a Woody Allen movie when you see one. So they usually fall into the auteur category , like Godard and Fellini... and then there are Scorsese, Coppola, Hitchcock... those don't need much explanation. Some we give shelves to just because they deserve it from the shear volume of their work - Ford, Spielberg, Capra...

Usually the staff decides who gets the next shelf. We thought we'd try something new, and let you pick this time. Below you'll find our poll with ten directors we've considered for, er, shelf-hood.

Voting will run until June 1st or until a clear winner is decided.
If you feel we've slighted your favorite director by leaving him or her off the list, feel free to submit them in the comment section, and we'll consider them for the future.

-BP

Which Director should have a shelf next at Rocket Video?
Hal Ashby
Peter Bogdanovich
William Friedkin
Terry Gilliam
Howard Hawks
Spike Lee
Michael Mann
Otto Preminger
Ridley Scott
William Wyler


(View Results)

Create a Poll

Frank Langella: Starting Out The Evening

I watched a little indie flick from last year, Starting Out The Evening, which I really enjoyed. It’s a simple setup that we’ve seen before and it never surprises, a grad-student (Lauren Ambrose) writes a paper on a washed up writer (Frank Langella) confronting his own immortality and personal ghosts. 

Though there’s a hoohum subplot about his lame daughter (Lili Taylor) and her dullard boyfriend (Adrian Lester). It has enough stuff to dig... 

I love hoity-toity scripts about writers who talk all fancy like ‘smarty-pants people’ and for some strange reason I really like the idea of a young collage girl wanting a sexual relationship with an older stiff. 

(Man, if only some coed would write her thesis on my brilliant still-unpublished epic novel, The Sensual Saga Of The Shepherd's Two Virgin Daughters). 

But what made the film most watchable was the performance of  Frank Langella, as the sickly snob. It’s a character that could of come off dialogue-wise as one-note. But just through his expressions and body language Langella makes the character (and the film) feel a little more complex then it probably deserves. 

It’s a career making performance for an actor’s actor who has had a fascinating career.

Thinking of Langella, I wonder when did that disco dance floor looking dude of the then-popular 1978 version of Dracula (first playing the fanged one on stage in Edward Gorey’s revival) become the character actor of more recent years. 

The guy is a ultra acclaimed stage actor, winner of  three Tony Awards, most recently  for his performance as Richard Nixon in Peter Morgan's Frost/Nixon a role he’s replaying for the upcoming film version  (unfortunately directed by Ron Howard).

He was perfectly cast as Perry White in Superman Returns (2006), as William Paley in Good Night, and Good Luck (2005) and as Clare Quilty in Adrian Lyne’s perfume commercial looking version of Lolita (1997). But best of all, as a cruel lascivious acting teacher, he completely dominated the Clooney/Soderbergh/HBO reality-fiction series Unscripted (2005).

Much of the interesting, younger, pre & post Dracula, Langella canon is not available on DVD (U.S. Region One DVD) and/or is out of print on VHS.

His first flick, the dark social satire Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970) has gained a cult following and if it’s ever released on DVD we’ll see if it deserves it’s acclaimed Z-Channel reputation. Offbeat director Frank Perry (The Swimmer) these days is known for the number of his flicks that haven’t seen the DVD light-of-day, including Last Summer (1969), Truman Capote's Trilogy (1969), Play It As It Lays (1972), Man On A Swing (1974), Compromising Positions (1985) and mind-blowingly terrible Monsignor (1982).

Mel Brooks in-between his two now classic, The Producers (1968) and Blazing Saddles (1974) made a movie version of his stale stage bit The Twelve Chairs (1970), needless to say, as to the casting of Langella in a slapstick comedy, he ain’t Gene Wilder.

That forgettable mess is on DVD but his next two interesting flicks are not, nor on VHS. They’re also his only two big screen appearances until Dracula helped to keep him in the movies more consistently.

First he costarred with Faye Dunaway in French director René Clément (Purple Noon) much maligned Hitchcockian thriller The Deadly Trap (1971). Worth a look if nothing else to see Faye in her best-looking period, that is if it was available here in any format.

Much more fun, Langella plays the heavy in the Western The Wrath of God (1972). This little gem stars an aged but still cool Robert Mitchum in another fake Priest/ Con-man role, though now teaming up with.... Victor Buono to take down Langella’s Central American Dictator. The flick may be best known as Rita Hayworth’s last movie. 

But What I'll never forget is the ending (SPOILER). Facing an army of henchmen Mitchum tells Langella “you can never underestimate the power of the Lord” and then kills him with a switchblade cross!

Man, I’d like to see that movie again.

After the success of Dracula, he did another movie I dug when I saw it on TV years ago, but again it's not available on DVD. 

In Those Lips, Those Eyes (1980). Tom Hulce in-between Animal House and Amadeus and obscurity, limply stars as a young actor doing Cleveland summer stock and like all would-be artists, just trying to get laid. Langella carries the picture as a washed up ham actor with dreams of Broadway. The film was destroyed by critics when it came out, but like the British film An Awfully Big Adventure (1995) where Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman are competing letches in small-town theater, it perfectly captures the backstage madness and the dreamy hopes of youth and the cruel lust of the fading older generation (I’ve lived all sides).

In the eighties Langella moved between stage, TV and some forgettable flicks. Playing Skeletor in The Masters of the Universe (1987) didn’t take his career to the next-level, nor did appearing in Roger Vadim’s pointless remake of his own And God Created Woman (1988). Finally in the nineties he starred popping up in supporting roles in mainstream fare like the trilogy of one-named blah titles Dave (1993), Junior (1994) and the awful Eddie (1996) where he hooked up with his unlikely real life main-squeeze of five years Whoopi Goldberg.

Lastly, two more flicks of his that have never made it to DVD...

Peter Medak director of the cult flick The Ruling Class (1972) helped to send a fascinating cast of actors down a peg or so in the eighties with The Men's Club (1986) . An ultra sleazy sounding story about a group of middle aged creeps (Roy Scheider, Harvey Keitel, Treat Williams, Richard Jordan, Craig Wasson and Langella) who get together for a night of  sex talk, hooker hunting and other assorted fun nihilism.

Six years later Langella joined another ansamble of scenery chewers, inclueding hams thespians Armand Assante and Sigourney Weaver in Ridley Scott’s Christopher Columbus epic 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992). It was a major commercial bomb upon release but I would think is perfect for the DVD/Blu-Ray deluxe treatment.

Maybe, later this year if the hype machine gets rolling for Langella’s Nixon, some of his lost films will get a chance at rediscovery.

-sweeneyrules

NEW RELEASES - MAY 13, 2008

There is a slight delay in all of this weeks New Releases arriving. This list will either be updated later or the rest of this weeks New Releases will be added to next weeks list.

Update: We got the rest of our new releases finally... hopefully this won't happen again...

Ever Since the World Ended * Forgotten Noir Volumes 7 * Forgotten Noir Volumes 8 * Forgotten Noir Volumes 9 * Going Under * The Great Debaters * Hollywood Dreams * Mercy (2006) * The Nameless (Spain 1999) * Radiant City (documentary) * Solstice * Walk All Over Me * Untraceable * Frontier(s) * Lost in Beijing * The Insatiable * Youth Without Youth * Autism: The Musical * Botched * Numb * Nora's Hair Salon 2 * The Proud Ones * Guadacanal Diary * Fire Within (Criterion) * You're in the Navy Now * Twelfth Night* On the Town * Take Me Out to the Ball Game * Anchors Aweigh * Step Live By * Kissing Bandit * It Happened in Brooklyn * Higher and Higher * Double Dynamite * The Lovers * Sinatra * Can I Do It Til I Need Glasses? * Tobor the Great * Mad Money * Timber Falls * Cover * A Raisin in the Sun * The Bite * A Good Man is Hard to Find * California Kid

TELEVISION:
Ally McBeal 6 Episode Collection * Burke's Law Collection * Matlock, Season 1 * The Pallisers * The Chase, Season 1

BLU-RAY:
Master and Commander * Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid * Untraceable

CUSTOMER REQUESTS / REPLACEMENTS:
Catch Me If You Can * Conan the Barbarian/ Conan The Destroyer * Exterminating Angel - VHS * For the Boys * Ghosts of Mississippi * Home of the Brave (2004) * Jackie Brown * La Jetee/ Sans Soleil (Criterion) * The Kid (Chaplin) * L'Aberge Espagnol * Life * McCabe and Mrs. Miller * Phantom of the Opera (Musical) * Rory O'Shea Was Here * The Sand Pebbles * Star Trek III: The Search for Spock * Transporter 2 * Tadpole * Age of Innocence * Spiderman 2 * 10 Questions for the Dahli Lama * Heart: Alive in Seattle * Young Lions * The Screaming Skull

New Releases - May 6, 2008 - We're Not There

New Releases:

I’M NOT THERE
P.S. I LOVE YOU
OVER HER DEAD BODY
DELIRIOUS
HOTTIE AND THE NOTTIE
FIRST SUNDAY
TEETH
ALTERED
BELLA
BERKELEY
BUSINESS OF BEING BORN
CUPCAKE GIRLS: I HATE IT
DANS PARIS
FOG CITY MAVERICKS
FOR ONE MORE DAY
GAMERS
GREAT AMERICAN SNUFF FILM
HOW TO COOK YOUR LIFE
I REALLY HATE MY JOB
LIVING AND THE DEAD, THE
MOOLA
PTU: POLICE TACTICAL UNIT
PU-239
SAAWARIYA
SHROOMS
STEEL CITY
STRANGE CULTURE
TICKET TO HEAVEN
YOUNG THUGS: INNOCENT BLOOD
ZEBRAMAN
ZOMBIES ANONYMOUS

New and/or Special Editions:

20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA (ANIMATED)
2007 ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATED SHORT FILMS
CAR, THE
CRIMES OF THE CENTURY
DEVIL TIMES FIVE
EASY LIVING
FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE
GANGSTER CHRONICLES
GREAT WRITERS: WILLIAM FAULKNER
HAUNTINGS IN AMERICA
LITTLE FUGITIVE
LOVERS AND LOLLIPOPS/WEDDINGS AND BABIES
MACON COUNTY LINE
MAJOR AND THE MINOR, THE
MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 THE MOVIE
SERIAL MOM COLLECTOR’S EDITION
TERROR OF MECHAGODZILLA

TWISTER (TWO DISC SPECIAL EDITION)

Television:

The 4400, SEASON FOUR
CROSSING JORDAN, SEASON ONE
I SPY, SEASON ONE

SERGEANT PRESTON OF THE YUKON

NEW ARRIVALS, REPLACEMENTS, & REQUESTS:

ACTION JACKSON
AVENGERS, THE
BAD BOYS II
BAND OF OUTSIDERS (CRITERION)
BLUE STATE
BOB AND CAROL AND TED AND ALICE
BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY
BUY THE TICKET, TAKE THE RIDE
BYE BYE BIRDIE
CHAOS (2005)
DANGEROUS MINDS
DAY WATCH
DRACULA DEAD AND LOVING IT
FINGERSMITH
HORROR EXPRESS
IDOLMAKER, THE
INCREDIBLE HULK (90'S ANIMATED)
LAST TANGO IN PARIS
LIMEY, THE
MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE
PRINCE OF EGYPT
RAT PACK
RIVER, THE
ROLLING STONES: ROCK AND ROLL CIRCUS
SALARYMAN KINTARO DISC ONE
SEX AND THE CITY SEASON 6 PART 2
SHOOT THE MOON
STAND AND DELIVER
SUBSTITUTE, THE/SUBSTITUTE 3: WINNER TAKE ALL
SWINGERS
WILD WILD WEST
WOMEN, THE