Coming Distractions March 31st, 2009

Can't wait for the new movies? Well, you have to. But only for 5 days!

Slumdog Millionaire
Tell No One
Marley and Me
Seven Pounds
Timecrimes
The IT Crowd
In Plain Sight
Ricky Gervais: Out of England


Timescrimes is a Spanish movie about a man who, after innocently peeping at the woods beside his new home, gets accidentally (?) sent through a time machine to nearly an hour earlier. It's not perfect, but it's definitely worth the rental.


Some other fun time-travel explorations are these DVDs:
TV:
Star Trek (we have a two DVD set of just time travel episodes), Doctor Who, Quantum Leap, Voyagers!, Futurama, Lost

Movies:
Time Bandits
Twelve Monkeys
Donnie Darko (Are you ready for S. Darko?)
Time Chasers (a Vermont film. We have this in its original version on VHS and then we also have it as a Mystery Science Theater 3000...)
The Jacket
Primer
Time After Time
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
Terminator
Les Visiteurs
Back to the Future
Army of Darkness


Happy National Nougat day!

Coming Distractions March 24, 2009

Want Free Movies? This Prairie Dog Sure Does.

We are now selling pre-paid New Release DVD Cards - Buy one and save! Buy a $30 Card, get 8 New Releases (a $36 value!)
Then, turn in the full card at the counter and get a free non-new release as well!
Makes a Great Gift!

Quantum of Solace
Twilight
The Clone Wars: A Galaxy Divided
Bolt
Happily Never After 2
Lullaby
Cake Eaters
side effects
fling*
The Riches - 2nd Season
Andy Richter Controls the Universe
The Venture Bros. - 3rd Season
In Treatment

We are Also still having the Amazing Buy one, Get one Free sale on all previously-viewed
movies.

I've seen therapy help many people. It can be an extremely useful option for those in times of duress, however (in these trying economic times) therapy is also a rather expensive option. Maybe movies about therapy can fill some of the void of treatment that our healthcare plans often leave. Whether you're having issues with depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, or you just can't stop hooking or eating people, perhaps the therapists in these rentals can help:

In Treatment
Tell Me You Love Me
Sopranos
Huff
Dr. Katz, Prof. Therapist
Wire In the Blood
What About Bob?
Grosse Point Blank
12 Monkeys
Sybil
Klute
3 Faces of Eve
Shortbus
Zelig
Donnie Darko
Ordinary People
Spellbound


I hope the return to spring and the increased sunshine will help iron out our mental wrinkles.

What movies keep you sane?

A Fond Farewell: R.I.P Natasha Richardson and Ron Silver

yeah we're on facebook...

Coming Distractions March 17th, 2009

Elegy
Punisher: War Zone
Velveteen Rabbit
My Zinc Bed
Bob the Builder: Skyscrapers
The Last Metro
Devotee
Moving Midway
The End of America
The French Chef with Julia Child




Julie & Julia will be released this summer with Meryl Streep as Julia Child, doing a remarkably good job capturing Julia's stature and enthusiasm (at least in photos), right?



After you've watched all of the Julia Child episodes and have exhausted your interest in French cuisine, I would recommend you try watching Two Fat Ladies. Though I will not go so far as to suggest that the food across the Channel is actually better, I will say that the lady cooks are just as entertaining.


I went to the theater to see Watchmen last night, all 2 hours and 43 minutes of it. Of all the movies adapted from comics/graphic novels most of them center on, of course, superheroes and their foes. However, there are also plenty of video options for those who want to see something comic-inspired with fewer masked characters. These include Persepolis, Ghost World, Road to Perdition, A History of Violence, From Hell, Art School Confidential, American Splendor, and Oldboy. There is also the excellent documentary Crumb (by director Terry Zwigoff, of Ghost World and Art School Confidential) and we just got The Mindscape of Alan Moore. We all have to take a break from watching movies sometimes. And when you come to that sometime, I recommend you read anything by Daniel Clowes or Adrian Tomine, or maybe even some Julie Doucet or Lynda Barry. There's little more enjoyable than entering an imaginary world of pictures and words, no? I can't be the only nerd in the room, right? (This room is the internet, after all...)

Coming Distractions March 10th, 2009

Let the Right One In
Happy-Go-Lucky
Milk
Role Models
Nobel Son
Transporter 3
Rachel Getting Married
Cadillac Records
Synecdoche, New York
Battle in Seattle
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (Pyjamas?)

If you like Marcel Dzama's Saddest Ghost, you'll enjoy David Byrne's People Tree

The rumors around the movie block are that Cloverfield director Matt Reeves is going to direct an english language remake of Let the Right One In. Why? So absolutely unnecessary. In protest, let's celebrate a few of my favorite Scandinavian films:


Insomnia (1997): Also subject to an American remake starring Al Pacino and Robin Williams. It's fun to watch these two films back to back, because they are very similar except for two very telling cultural differences.



My Life As a Dog:Perfectly captures the innocence and magic of youth (those intangible qualities that so many others attempt to represent) while managing to be totally not nausea-inducing! (where so many of these other movies fail)




Show Me Love: My very favoritest movie about angsty teen lesbians. Not that I can think of many other angsty teen lesbian movies off the top of my head. you? Only campy classic But I'm a Cheerleader comes instantly to mind. Anyway, this movie's so great! I should re-watch it.



Together: Another movie (along with the one above) by Lukas Moodysson. It's great fun. And made me glad not to have found myself raising kids in a 70's commune. Though if I suddenly found myself raising kids in a 70's commune I'd be all like, "Where'd these kids come from? I don't remember giving birth to them." Then I would probably worry about my living situation later.


The Kingdom: I still can't believe I haven't watched the second season of this Danish tv show by Lars von Trier (box: "Like E.R. on acid") after the finale of the first season melted my brain. I'm not gonna spoil it by telling you what (or who?) a woman gives birth to, but just know that I want to tell you. Cause it's crazy. And cause my greatest pleasure in life comes from telling people the plots to books and movies, in great detail, even when they don't want me to.



Dancer in the Dark: I made my first boyfriend (shout-out to ABH, and thanks for the note a while back. I am glad we do not have Lipstick in the store so I won't end up subjecting myself to its extreme unsexiness. But I do think reading the synopsis about the brutality Margaux and Mariel Hemingway are subjected to there led me to rent Manhattan recently. A very fully-adult Woody Allen dating a very fully-teenage Mariel Hemingway certainly ain't the same as sexual assault, but it sure is weird.) watch this under the heading "If You Don't Get This Movie, You Don't Get Me." Yeah, I was a pretty angsty teenager myself. And it's still true for me about this movie. Life is hard, this movie is harder.


Breaking the Waves: More von Trier. Love is hard. But not my love for Emily Watson, that love is easy.



Seventh Seal: I haven't watch a lot of Bergman films. Maybe someone who is smarter than me can tell which ones I should watch. Or just give me plots synopses so I can feel like I already watched them.

Am I missing any great ones? There are still a bunch I haven't seen that I'd like to. Any suggestions of where to go next?