Coming Distractions March 30th, 2010

An Education
Sherlock Holmes
Der Baader Meinhof Komplex

In order for us to continue bringing you the best video selection in this area, all our movies prices have gone up by $0.25.

We also have a whole slew of new deals:

Rent 2 new releases and get 1 free has been extended from Sunday through Thursday.

7 Days a week: rent any 4 or more non-new releases at $2.50 each for 5 nights.

All Adult titles are now $5 a piece, and if you rent 2 any day of the week you can get a 3rd for free.

We are in the midst of a lot of exciting moving projects that are aimed at freeing up some space (for merry& easy movement) and integrating the VHS and DVD shelves. We have several new categories: these include new Biography, Jane Austen, & Shakespeare sections.

Coming Distractions March 23rd, 2010

Seraphine: I think we've gotten more questions about this in the past 6 months than any other title we didn't have. Based on the life of French painter Séraphine de Senlis who worked as a maid while plying her art on the side.







Fantastic Mr. Fox: The Oscar-nominated animated film by Wes Anderson, based on the story by Roald Dahl. With voice acting by the likes of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, & Willem Dafoe, etc.


Twilight: New Moon


The Blind Side: Sandra Bullock won the academy award for best actress for her portrayal of Leigh Anne Tuohy. This is based on the story of Michael Oher, a homeless boy, who played in the NFL with the help Tuohy and her husband.
Brothers: A remake of the Danish film (2004) of the same name, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman, and Tobey Maguire, in a love-triangle that begins after one brother goes missing in Afghanistan.


Red Cliff: New John Woo two-parter.

The Men Who Stare at Goats

Mad Men - 3rd Season

Coming Distractions & Oscar Contest Review

New Movies March 16th, 2010:

Broken Embraces: Director Pedro Almodovar revisits and reshoots some scenes and themes from his earlier films.

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men: John Krasinski took the money from the pilot episode of The Office and bought the rights to this collection of stories by David Foster Wallace.

Armored
Did You Hear About the Morgans?
The Fourth Kind
Ninja Assassin
The Princess and the Frog
Astro Boy
Wonderful World
Breaking Bad - 2nd Season
South Park - 13th Season


This year our Oscar contest resulted in an unprecedented 7-way tie and our winner by lottery is Earl Wright, so congratulations to all 7 of our customers who correctly predicted 14 out of 24 Academy Award Winners!


Let's see how the rest of us did. Winners are bolded and red:

Best Picture

Avatar - 63%
The Blind Side - 0%
District 9 - 0%
An Education - 0%
The Hurt Locker - 16%
Inglourious Basterds - 5%
Precious - 10%
A Serious Man - 3%
Up - 0%
Up in the Air - 3%

Director

Avatar - 39%
The Hurt Locker - 45% - congratulations to Kathryn Bigelow - our first ever female best director!
Inglourious Basterds - 3%
Precious - 10%
Up in the Air - 3%


Leading Actor

Jeff Bridges - 63%
George Clooney - 13%
Colin Firth - 8%
Morgan Freeman - 8%
Jeremy Renner - 8%





Leading Actress

Sandra Bullock - 29%
Helen Mirren - 5%
Carey Mulligan - 13%
Gabourey Sidibe - 24%
Meryl Streep - 29%




Supporting Actor

Matt Damon - 8%
Woody Harrelson - 21%
Christopher Plummer - 16%
Stanley Tucci - 0%
Christoph Waltz - 55%





Supporting Actress

Penelope Cruz - 0%
Vera Formiga - 0%
Maggie Gyllenhaal - 21%
Anna Kendrick - 3%
Mo'Nique - 76%




Animated Feature

Coraline - 8%
Fantastic Mr. Fox - 18%
The Princess and the Frog - 3%
The Secret of Kells - 3%
Up - 68%

Coming Distractions March 9th, 2010

Up in the Air: The heavily Oscar-nominated film (Best Picture, Best Director, 2 Best Supporting Actress noms, Best Adapted Screenplay) starring George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, & Anna Kendrick takes on both our current economic crisis and one man's inability to connect with others. Apparently, in preparation for this film Jason Reitman was concerned with being unable to write believable dialogue for characters who had recently been laid off, so he went and conducted interviews, which were so successful & moving he ended up using these "real" people in the final film.

Precious: An Oscar favorite (Best Picture, Best Director, Leading Actress, Supporting Actress, Film Editing, Adapted Screenplay) about an abused teenager struggling to find any self worth, and any one thing she can be good at. Mo'Nique's performance is singularly terrifying. Even if Up in the Air and Precious may not be frontrunners for Best Picture in the expanded 10 nominee category (I've seen all except 1, and enjoyed most), but these two may very well be my personal favorites & the films I am most likely to watch a second time.



Capitalism: A Love Story: The new Michael Moore.
Old Dogs
Hachi: A Dog's Tale: Richard Gere in a tearjerker of a dog movie by Lasse Hallström (director of such disparate dramas as What's Eating Gilbert Grape & Dear John). I would have felt really satisfied if they had named it A Dog's Tail. It's a shame to just let a pun of a title go like that, right?
The Stoning of Soraya M.




Here is a list of the Oscar-nominated films we currently have for rent:

Coco Before Chanel (Costume Design)
Coraline (Best Animated Feature Film)
The Cove (Best Documentary Feature)
District 9 (Best Picture, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Adapted Screenplay)
Food, Inc. (Best Documentary Feature)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Achievement in Cinematography)
The Hurt Locker (Best Picture, Best Director, Leading Actor, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Film Editing, Original Score, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Visual Effects)
Il Divo (Makeup)
Inglourious Basterds (Best Picture, Best Director, Original Screenplay, Supporting Actor, Cinematography, Film Editing, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing)
Julie & Julia (Leading Actress)
A Serious Man (Best Picture, Original Screenplay)
Star Trek (Makeup, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Visual Effects)
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Sound Mixing)
Up (Best Picture, Original Screenplay, Original Score, Best Animated Feature, Sound Editing)
Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death (Best Animated Short Film)

The ballots for our Oscar contest will be collected mid-afternoon Sunday so be sure to get your picks in tonight or early tomorrow! Big winnings!

Coming Distractions March 2nd, 2010

Where the Wild Things Are
Ponyo
Gentlemen Broncos
2012
Believe: The Eddie Izzard Story
Bollywood Hero
The Private Lives of Pippa Lee
Curious George 2: Follow That Monkey!

Coming Distractions February 23rd, 2010

Our Oscar contest is on now! Come in & fill out a ballot for the chance to win 20 free rentals! Don't forget to include your name & phone number.

It's a big week for new movies, and March is going to be even bigger...

The Informant!:New Steven Soderbergh film based on the true story from Kurt Eichenwald's non-fiction book. There is also a great This American Life show (The Fix is In, full of spoilers if you want to be surprised by the movie) that apparently inspired Scott Burns to turn this story into a screenplay.

The Damned United


The Box: The newest from Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko, Southland Tales, writer of Domino).

$9.99


Dead Snow: Nazi Zombies! Need I say more?

Everybody's Fine

Sorority Row: I think this movie is hilarious, and I'm going to watch it again. It's almost as glorious as this poster.

Vampire's Assistant: Cirque du Freak

The September Issue: A great fashion documentary. It has a nice story arc and a twist ending without feeling forced. And the DVD comes with tons of extras.

Motherhood

The Beaches of Agnes: Agnès Varda (The Gleaners & I). She's so cute!

Shall We Kiss?

Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Boys

Project Runway - 6th Season

Nurse Jackie - 1st Season: I'm so addicted! It's great, totally unbelievable at times, but still, I love Edie Falco. So, grab those extra couple of percocets I know you've got squirreled away and settle in for another fun Showtime series.

FlashForward - 1st Season

Coming Distractions February 16th, 2010

Black Dynamite

Good Hair: I highly recommend you watch Good Hair. When Chris Rock's 6 year old daughter asked her dad why she doesn't have good hair, he set out to find out what "good hair" means to black women in America. He visits hairdressers' and barber shops, chats with famous people (Reverend Al Sharpton and Maya Angelou included), and attends an outrageous hair competition. Very funny stuff. And a well-crafted documentary to boot.

Coco Before Chanel: I want Coco après Chanel, where the focus is the fashion and not just the life of Coco. But Audrey Tautou's a cutie, so I'll probably watch it...




Revanche: "Whose fault is it if life doesn't go your way?" That should be the tagline for A Serious Man.







Hunger: Based on the 1981 IRA hunger strike led by Bobby Sands. Much anticipated (by me, at least). I expect that it will be well-made, and hard to watch (but not too hard, because it's only about 90 minutes long).


Law Abiding Citizen

Cabin Fever 2: Cabin Re-fevered? Directed by Ti West (House of the Devil), who wanted his name removed from the film after conflicts with the studio and producers, but no dice so he's publicly renounced the film. I liked Cabin Fever a lot. Though a lot of people disagree with me. Almost made me never want to shave my legs again. Almost.

Women in Trouble

Happy Valentine's Day from all of us at Waterfront Video! & we'll be here on Sunday (for our new hours - 12pm to 9pm), if you feel like dropping by.