Titles For July 11, 2006

New Releases

Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing and Charm School (2006)
It begins with a fated meeting, as Frank (Robert Carlyle) pulls over to aid a car-crash victim, Steve (John Goodman), who is slowly dying by the side of the road. Frank is still coming to terms with his wife's suicide, so when Steve spins him a story about the dance school of the title, he decides to attend classes himself. Steve informs Frank that he was in love with a girl named Lisa (Camryn Manheim), who danced at the school when he was a 12-year-old boy. Now, some 40 years later, Frank was on his way to the school to meet her again, hoping to rekindle their flame. Director Randall Miller (CLASS ACT) neatly divides the story into three parts, providing flashbacks to flesh out Steve's story, showing Frank's desperate attempts--along with a paramedic team--to keep Steve alive, and illustrating what happens when Frank makes his way to the school. As the story pings back and forth, Frank arrives at the school intending to tell Lisa what happened to Steve, but fails to find her. What Frank does find, however, is Meredith (Marisa Tomei), a woman he hopes will fill in the aching gap left by the death of his wife. As Frank slowly falls in love with Meredith while continuing his search for Lisa, the film gently arcs through some sentimental material that should appeal to viewers who enjoy a good tearjerker.



On A Clear Day (2006)

Shot on location in
Glasgow and Dover, director Gaby Dellal’s first feature takes off from
a true story of one man's determination to swim the English Channel.
The film deftly avoids the pitfalls of sentiment through a
self-deprecating humor that recalls THE FULL MONTY in tone and theme,
as well as a stunning performance from Peter Mullen (YOUNG ADAM) as
protagonist Frank Redmond.

After 40 years of working as a shipbuilder, the somewhat taciturn Frank
has been "made redundant" and let go from his job. He finds himself
utterly unmoored without the routine and trappings that have defined
his existence for so long, and suffers a loss of self-respect that he
is unable to talk about with his loving wife, Joan (Brenda Blethyn,
PRIDE & PREJUDICE), and son, Rob (Jamie Sives). Floundering, Frank
becomes obsessed with the idea of swimming the Channel, and undertakes
the project with the help of Chan (Benedict Wong, DIRTY PRETTY THINGS),
the owner of the local fish-and-chips shop, who becomes Frank’s
personal trainer. His three best mates (Billy Boyd, Sean McGinley, and
Ron Cook) sign on for the ride as well, each discovering new strength
in themselves along the way. But it is Frank’s relationships with his
family that are the most moving part of the film, as he deals with the
demons that have hounded him for over 20 years and rediscovers the
bonds he shares with his wife and his long-estranged son.


Basic Instinct 2

Basic Instinct 2 (2006) AKA : "Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction", "Basic Instinct II: Risk Addiction", "Basic Instinct II"

A sequel to the 1992
original, Sharon Stone resumes the role that first made her famous.
Beautiful American author Catherine Tramell (Stone) is living in London
when she is involved in a sexually charged car accident leading to the
scandalous death of a famous British athlete. Raunchy and irreverent,
Tramell likes to shock people with both her words and her actions. Dr.
Michael Glass (David Morrissey), who is evaluating her for trial at the
request of Det. Superintendent Roy Washburn (David Thewlis), is no
exception. Just coming out of a divorce and facing the resurrection of
an old situation that could ruin his career, Glass is slowly but surely
sucked into Tramell’s web when he takes her on as a private therapy
client. Day by day Glass realizes that she has infiltrated more of his
personal relationships, which also leads him to question why so many
people in his circle are suffering questionable fates.

Each time Glass is convinced that Tramell is guilty, she diverts
suspicion in another direction. Does gossip magazine writer Adam Towers
(Hugh Dancy) plan to reveal a deadly decision that Glass made in his
past? Is Det. Washburn really the upstanding cop he appears to be? Is
Glass's ex-wife, Denise (Indira Varma) trying to sabotage his career?
The twists and turns in the plot keep everyone guessing in this
psychological thriller, which is directed by Michael Caton-Jones (THE JACKAL,THIS
BOY'S LIFE).

Patriot Act

Patriot Act (2006)
AKA : "Patriot Act: A Jeffrey Ross Home Movie"

Inspired by the passing of USO perennial Bob
Hope, Friars Club roast-master Jeffrey Ross takes Drew up on an
invitation to join the US. in their ongoing mission-delivering
punch-lines on the front lines. Having just bought a new camcorder he
travels to Iraq and captures his rare, intimate, and often times
hilarious experience on camera. Armed with nothing but that camcorder
and some jokes, Ross shoots his own life-changing experience as he
travels alongside six other well known comics, entertaining battle
weary G.I.'s stationed in some of the most remote parts of the Sunni
Triangle.

Reno 911!: The Complete Third Season --
One of my favorite’s. Always good for a few laughs.


Winter Passing
Adam Rapp makes his impressive feature film directorial debut with WINTER PASSING, an intimate, often bleak, but ultimately hopeful film about the importance of family, however dysfunctional. Zooey Deschanel carries the movie as Reese Holdin, a sullen, depressed, self-mutilating actress struggling to stay afloat in New York. When an aggressive editor (Amy Madigan) offers her a fat check in exchange for the love letters written by her famous writer parents, she returns to her father’s Michigan farm in search of a payday, but instead finds herself trying to connect with her estranged father (Ed Harris), as well as the odd surrogate family he’s assembled for himself.

Secuestro Express
After a decadent night of clubbing in the Venezuelan city of Caracas, Carla (Mia Maestro) and her fiancé, Martin (Jean Paul Leroux), are kidnapped by a trio of violent toughs, one of the legion of Latin American gangs who kidnap wealthy people in order to demand a high ransom. As they wait for Carla's doctor father (Ruben Blades) to produce the money, the thugs drive their victims across a nightmarish, nocturnal landscape of filthy landscapes and untrustworthy characters, beating them and threatening them with more extreme violence--especially when it appears that they just might get a reprieve.

Pink Floyd - Pulse (1995)
A live performance from October 20, 1994, PULSE records the great psychedelic band Pink Floyd rocking out like only they can. Renowned for their hallucinatory special effects and lighting schemes, Pink Floyd goes all out at this spectacular (and very long) concert. Twenty-one of their classics are performed, including classic rock radio staples "Dark Side of The Moon" and "Wish You were Here."


Weeds - Season 1 (2005)
This intelligent comedy airing on the Showtime Channel stars Mary Louise Parker (ANGELS IN AMERICA) as Nancy Botwin, a recently widowed mother of two who finds herself in difficult financial straits. Her ingenious solution is to become the local pot dealer. Nancy's business really takes off, but she struggles to maintain her normal life and keep her secret from best friend and PTA president Celia (Elizabeth Perkins, BIG, MUST LOVE DOGS). Tonye Patano (LITTLE MANHATTAN) plays Nancy's streetwise dealer, with whom she has a tenuous friendship.

Good Old Ones


The Adventures of the Wilderness Family [VHS]

The Adventures of the Wilderness Family
Also known as : "Wilderness Family - Part 1"

An inspiring tale
of a family's struggle to survive in the mountains. The Robinsons
(Skip, Pat, Jenny, and Toby) flee the big city for life in the high
Rockies, to escape the pressures of modern city life. But even there
they encounter dangerous situations, as Mother Nature tests them. They
must come to terms with their decision and learn to accept it, knowing
that a return to the city is not the answer. (Things must go well
enough, for they return a few years later in "Further Adventures of the
Wildnerness Family, Part 2.")

Westworld

Westworld (1973) [VHS]

Michael Crichton's
directorial debut, WESTWORLD is the direct precursor to JURASSIC PARK
as the story of a technological amusement park gone out of control,
with tourists becoming victims. For $1,000 a day, patrons can visit
high-tech recreations of historically based mythical settings
controlled by lifelike androids and synthetic environments: a Roman
world that recreates tales of ancient Rome; a medieval world that
recreates the legends of the Middle Ages; and Westworld, which
recreates the myth of the classic Western. Two Chicago businessmen,
Martin (Richard Benjamin) and Blane (James Brolin), spend their
vacation in Westworld, where they live out their fantasies of the Old
West mythology: chaotic barroom brawls, random love with beautiful
prostitutes, and a violent jailbreak during which they shoot the local
sheriff. But the complex technology that supports these fabricated
worlds develops complicated syndromes faster than the scientists behind
the scenes can resolve them. Soon the entire resort breaks down into
chaos, and the androids turn hostile on the visiting tourists.
WESTWORLD is both a retread on classic science fiction themes and a
precocious critique of the false values and artificiality of the
encroaching mass culture.

50 cent special for July 6, 2006

Time To Burn

Inspired by the Fourth of July holiday and the inevitable burning of Mount Jumbo, movies that feature fire, anything burning, or are just plain “Hot” are 50 cents [limit two please].

Firefight, Firestorm, 200 Cigarettes, Fahrenheit 451, Armageddon and Turk 182 are a few titles that are “Timed To Burn”, but of coarse any title that is not a new release and fit’s the theme will apply.

New Arrivals For July Fourth

New Releases


The Matador
Pierce Brosnan is outstanding as an international hit man falling apart at the seams in Richard Shepard's dark comedy THE MATADOR. Brosnan, riffing on his success playing the very well groomed and genteel James Bond and Remington Steele, stars as Julian Noble, a no-longer-noble hit man who spends his free time getting drunk and chasing impossibly young skirts. In Mexico he meets Danny Wright (Greg Kinnear), an average Joe trying to land an important business deal. Jealous of Danny's simple life, Julian becomes friends with the Denver suburbanite, who married his high school sweetheart, Bean (the very good Hope Davis), but lost his young son in a terrible accident. One day at a bullfight, Julian tells Danny what he does for a living, but Danny doesn't believe him--until Julian shows him an example of his expertise. But when Julian asks Danny to help him with his next assignment, Danny is dead-set against it, and ready to end their brief friendship. Little does he know that he has not seen the last of the rather unique hit man.



Stoned
Director/Producer Stephen Woolley’s STONED is a dramatic attempt--researched for 10 years--to accurately portray the controversial events surrounding the death of Rolling Stones founding member and guitarist Brian Jones at age 27, on July 2nd, 1969. To create his work, Woolley synthesized the written memoirs and testimonials of the witnesses who were there. Beginning a few months before Jones's death, the film focuses on a relationship he forged with Frank Thorogood (Paddy Constantine), a builder hired to fix up the rock star's home. Alone--save for his girlfriend Anna--and ostracized from his band-mates due to drug problems and legal tangles, Jones draws Thorogood in as a part-time friend and part-time assistant. When Jones is summarily fired from the band--only weeks before his demise--Thorogood is also let go, and becomes jealous and enraged. Deftly placed flashbacks throughout the film catalog Jones's ascent and--more gratuitously--his drug-filled self-destructive descent. Coupling these with the volatile relationship with Thorogood, the film discreetly shows the complex causes of Jones’s untimely death. To capture the spirit of the times, Woolley fills his soundtrack with 1960s nuggets, including excellent covers of Stones material by modern British acts like A Band of Bees and Little Barrie. He also shoots the flashbacks and recreated concert footage with a hand-held 16mm camera, achieving a real-life documentary feel. In this film, Brian Jones and his unfortunate end (strangely ruled "death by misadventure" at the time) are cast further into the mythical and legendary status they have achieved--and deserved.


The Libertine
An antidote to the sunny period pieces adopted from Jane Austen, which feature impeccably coiffed aristocracy engage in the witty banter of drawing room dramas and culminate in a most delightful denouement, THE LIBERTINE highlights the underbelly of the Britocracy of centuries past. Adapted from the play by Stephen Jeffreys, the plot follows the dastardly debauchery of the Earl of Rochester (a mischievous Johnny Depp). A hedonist who makes Oscar Wilde seem moralistic, the Earl spent his days and nights in beds, brothels, and bars, awakening from drunken blackouts only to stumble to the nearest whorehouse. Yet this ravishing rake was also possessed of a predilection for poetry, and turned his escapades into acid-tongued witticisms that pepper this frisky film.

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Good Old Stuff



Super Troopers
Thorny, Rabbit, Mac and Foster are passable Vermont State Troopers. Stationed in the boonies on the Canadian border, they spend the bulk of their time playfully toying with speeders, stoned joyriders and taking impounded sports cars for spins on the open highway. When they're not on the road, they try to stay on the good side of their fatherly mentor, Captain O'Hagan, and avoid their tactless, thick-necked compatriot, Officer Rod Farva. All in all, they find their work to be pleasantly unchallenging.


The Passenger
Originally released in 1975, The Passenger is, on the simplest level, a suspense story about a man trying to escape his own life. This haunting film is a portrait of a drained journalist, played by Jack Nicholson, whose deliverance is an identity exchange with a dead man. The film was shot on location and takes Nicholson on an incredible journey through Africa, Spain, Germany and England.
As with all of Antonioni's work, however, there is another dimension. From beginning to end we are witnessing a probing study of the human condition. The protagonist's fate reflects each individual's own private thoughts about real and/or imagined destiny. The climax of the film, alone – a final sequence lasting seven minutes and taking eleven days to shoot is truly a synthesis of the movie and a tribute to the director's art. [DVD]


Mad Max (1979)
Futuristic tale set in Australia, which has become a wasteland where vicious, fast-driving criminals cause death, destruction, and mayhem on the highways. The police do their best to maintain control, but their attempts prove futile. As a result, one cop named Max quits his job and goes on a vacation with his family. However they are terrorized by a gang of malicious speed-demons, who kill Max' wife and baby. Angry, Max rejoins the force, revs up his motorcycle -- and seeks bloody revenge against the fiends who murdered his family. [VHS & DVD]


Dead Man's Walk (1996)
Also known as : "Larry McMurtry's Dead Man's Walk", "Lonesome Dove Prequel - Dead Man's Walk"
This miniseries prequel to Larry McMurtry's LONESOME DOVE and STREETS OF LAREDO westerns offers the first adventures for Gus and Call, the rough-and-tumble heroes of the previous works, as they try to carve out their own piece of the wild Texas frontier. Based on the novel by McMurtry, the video release contains over 45 minutes of footage not included in the televised broadcast. [VHS]


Thirty Seconds over Tokyo (1944)
Shortly after the bombing on Pearl Harbor, the American military began preparation for a retaliatory attack. The story of that mission is presented in THIRTY SECONDS OVER TOKYO, based on the memoirs of Captain Ted Lawson, who flew one of the 16 twin-engine bombers over Tokyo. Spencer Tracy plays Colonel Jimmy Doolittle, the leader of the mission, while VAN JOHNSON plays the leading role of Captain Ted Lawson, whose bomber also carries star Robert Mitchum. A variety of factors makes the mission exceptionally dangerous: Twin-engine bombers had never taken off from an aircraft carrier previously; the bombers needed to fly in low, pretending to be Japanese aircraft; and the oversize bombers couldn’t return to the aircraft carrier, so the intended landing site was behind enemy lines in China. With its almost documentary-style approach, THIRTY SECONDS OVER TOKYO is perhaps the finest film about World War II made during the war itself. [VHS]

Busted Knuckles Film Festival

Anyone who has attended the last couple of Big Sky Documentary Film Festivals probably saw “Stan Kann: The Happiest Man in the World”. The film is about an iconoclast entertainer who appeared dozens of times on “The Tonight Show” and other TV variety shows in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. Among Stan’s varied interests are theater organs and a curious love of vacuum cleaners. But what really got me was the discussion of cars from the post-war era. Streamliners, Rockets, Viewing Domes and Fiiiiins Baby! Having a serious rust habit myself, I am fascinated by those who keep these old beasties on the road. Like Stan, I don’t think “every bolt original” is necessarily the path. If you can make it run (and stop) without going broke, I say more power to you. Of course, there are limits. A ’49 Ford probably is tall enough for a patio door…. Anyway, if you like this kind of thing, also check out “Yank Tanks”. And DO NOT miss seeing “The World’s Fastest Indian”! It’s “Field of Dreams” for motor heads.
Any other nominations for a Busted Knuckles Film Festival?