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]