Had a busy yesterday what with going to a press screening of Pray the Devil Back to Hell and working a full day at the theater on top of that, so I didn’t have time to get anything posted. Pretty dry week for releases anyways, as the last remaining Oscar contenders are being held over for another weekend in the hopes people will try and catch them before the awards on Sunday. The biggest beneficiary of this should be the release of the Oscar Nominated Animated and Live Action Short Films. They are being released on Friday and should have a nice one, possibly two, week run.

But the film that most interests me this weekend is the French animated film Azur and Asmar. Blending several different styles of animation it looks like a veritable feast for the eyes. Rumor has it that it is a pretty good children’s fairy tale to boot. Do your best to check it out this week as it might be around much longer then that.

DVD releases are possibly even thinner then the theatrical releases, which seems a bit odd. Its not like they are going up against the Oscars. But the film I am most excited for, and the one seemingly everyone else on the Internet has seen besides me is Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father. Which is, well, I’ll let the trailer hook you on that one.

As always trailers are after the break!

(continue reading…)

Azur & Asmar
Starts Feb. 20
Lagoon Cinema

Acclaimed director Michel Ocelot’s (“Kirikou and the Sorceress”) newest film “Azur & Asmar” rolls into the Lagoon Cinema for a week-long run. White-skinned Azur and dark-skinned Asmar are raised as brothers by Asmar’s loving mother. But when they are separated by Azur’s father, the two embark on a journey to free the beautiful Djinn Fairy that will reunite them as rivals and friends. Featuring stunning animation and powerful storytelling, “Azur & Asmar” is a magical new tale in the vein of the Arabian Nights.

The Oscar-Nominated Shorts
Starts Feb. 20
Lagoon Cinema

Want to get a leg up on those Oscar bets? Check out the races for Best Animated Short and Best Live Action Short at the Lagoon Theater just days before the big night. The live action program includes nominees New Boy (Ireland), Auf Der Strecke (On the Line) (Germany/Switzerland), Spielzeugland (Toyland) (Germany), Grisen (The Pig) (Denmark), and Manon Sur Le Bitume (Manon on the Asphalt) (France). The animated program includes Lavatory – Lovestory (Russia), Oktapodi (France), Le Maison en Petits Cubes (Pieces of Love, Vol. 1) (Japan), This Way Up (UK) and Pixar’s Presto. The animated program also includes a showcase of highly acclaimed recent shorts, including Bill Plympton’s Hot Dog.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Saturday, Feb. 21 at midnight
Uptown Theater

Uptown’s Midnight Madness continues with a little help from some heroes in a half-shell. Everyone’s favorite bunch of ninja-fighting reptiles struggle to save New York City from the evil Shredder and his Foot Clan. Along the way, they’ll befriend an intrepid reporter, a hockey mask-wearing vigilante and eat plenty of pizza. But the Turtles don’t have to be the only ones stuffing their faces. You can get a slice or two of your own, courtesy of Pizza Lucé. Farewell Continental will perform before the screening of the new 35mm print. Cowabunga!

Universal Noir: Criss Cross & The Killers
Monday, Feb. 23 at 7:15 p.m.
Heights Theater

Take Up Productions’ new series Universal Noir continues with a Burt Lancaster double feature. First up at 7:15 p.m. is Robert Siodmak’s 1949 thriller Criss Cross, with Lancaster and Yvonne de Carlo. In an effort to reunite with his ex-wife, Steve Thompson returns to Los Angeles. But his wife now belongs to the L.A. underworld, and it’s up to Steve to rescue her. The night continues at 9:15 p.m. with a screening of Ernest Hemingway’s The Killers. Co-starring Ava Gardner, The Killers tells the story of an insurance investigator looking into the death of a gas station attendant. As he delves deeper into the man’s life, he finds a complex web that connects with a mysterious woman. Tickets are $8 for the double feature and can be purchased in advance at www.heightstheater.com.

Last year I reviewed the stop motion short film The Pit and the Pendulum and found it to be one of the better films I watched during the year. I was excited at seeing what director Marc Lougee’s next project would be, and it turns out he was working on a comic book adaptation of the film that will be released on February 25th by Bluewater Comics, famous for their Ray Harryhausen Presents Signature line of comics, as well as the then newly released Vince Price Presents line.

Rather then using hand drawn animation, Lougee and producer Susan Ma came up with an idea of using actual shots from the film, reprocess them, and then use them as sequential art for the comic. It appears to give the comic a unique look, and it should work incredibly well as a compendium to the film. For those of you who might still be unsure about checking out this comic, Where the Long Tail Ends has several exclusive images of the first five pages of the comic after the break.

(continue reading…)

Unfortunately for Anna she works in retail. This means she already has to deal with the looming threat of Christmas, as even now retail stores are beginning to shuffle Christmas themed merchandise onto the shelves, thus allowing the holiday’s yuletide reach to skip right past Thanksgiving, leapfrog Halloween and nestle right up next to Labor Day.

Luckily for her she has a totally righteous boyfriend. For our younger viewers righteous is not being used in a religious sense (though I would argue that I’m divine as well) but rather it is 80′s for 1337. But the point of this introduction is not about me claiming I rule, but by proving it. You see this week I decided to give Anna an early Christmas present.

(continue reading…)

When I was growing up in Wisconsin I would often times kill time at my local video store. I would roam through the aisles, looking at the VHS boxes, searching for something interesting to watch. I was fascinated with genre mash-ups and Ralph Bakshi’s films and quickly immersed myself in them. But Waukesha wasn’t exactly stationed along the cutting edge of pop culture, so I had some rather sizable gaps in both my film knowledge and exposure.

It wasn’t until college that I began meeting people who were giving enough to introduce me to German Expressionism, Italian neorealism, and Turner Classic Movies. From then on I always have had great respect for people who introduce me to new and exciting things, especially when it comes to films.

Which brings me to my girlfriend, Anna. I found my first excuse to talk to her when she was reading Watership Down, which was one of my favorite books (as well as animated films) as a child. Much to my delight she had never read it before so it afforded me the perfect opportunity to lay down some serious knowledge, and from there we soon began introducing each other to all sorts of of new experiences. One interesting thing to note is she was far more open to trying out my recommendations early on then I was with hers. This is quite simply explained. She likes Bjork, Dogville, and Ayn Rand. I like cool crap.

(continue reading…)