While the mainstream releases this week are relatively lackluster, being led by the remake The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 will do that, their is some interesting Indie fare showing around town. The Oak Street and the Mall of America theatre are showing Valentino: The Last Emperor, Departures opens at the Edina and the documentary Enlighten Up! opens at the Lagoon. But the movie that intrigues me the most is opening at The Uptown, and that is Away We Go. Directed by Sam Mendes, written by Dave Eggers and his wife Vendela Vida, and starring John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph. Now while I’m not a huge Mendes fan, I am a big fan of Dave Eggers, so this movie should be, relatively, right in my wheelhouse. The problem is, the marketing for this film is freaking terrible. Especially that damned trailer, which might as well be nails on chalkboard. But I’m doing my best to ignore the “quirky” marketing materials and instead simply judge the film on its own merits. Hopefully you will as well.

As for DVD releases, wow, what a pile. Seriously. When your big release is a relatively awful Friday the 13th reboot, you know you have a weak release week. But their is a film that I know next to nothing about, but thanks to a brilliant viral marketing campaign, which includes a video of Gary Oldman, Bas Rutten and Bono trashing the film, has me interested in watching it. That film being The Perfect Sleep.

As always trailers are after the break!
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Slight delay this week at getting my theatrical and DVD recommendations posted. I had a few other updates I wanted to make and this is the one that ended up getting pushed to the back burner for the short term.

That all being said, it actually is a surprisingly strong week for theatrical releases, as Tyson, The Limits of Control and Tokyo Sonata are all released. While I was underwhelmed by Tyson, The Limits of Control and Tokyo Sonata are incredibly strong choices for those who don’t want to watch the latest Ron Howard vehicle.

As for DVD releases, While the Internet has been a buzz about Mega Shark Vs Giant Octopus, a couple other films caught my eye. The first is the practically direct to DVD film Outlander, which was snuck into a few theaters early in the year then quickly dropped from booking schedules. Outside of the Vikings vs Aliens premise I know little about it, but really, do you need to know anything else?

The other film that I’m excited to see is the French horror film Eden Log. A sci-fi cyberpunk styled film that takes places underground and is shot entirely using hand held cameras. The look of the film reminds me quite a bit of The Descent, and if it can capture the same clausterphobic feel of that film, Eden Log could potentially be on hell of a horror film.

As always trailers are after the break!

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DVD releases are almost universally awful this week, so much so that I am not going to recommend any film release this week, but I do have something much much better. That would be the release of The Dana Carvey Show on DVD. One of the more innovative and edgy sketch comedies ever to air, directly do to the monster roster of comedy and writing giants that comprised the writing staff. Sure the show borders on bizarre and never goes for a cheap laugh, which makes it even more amazing that it ever aired. Be sure to check out the truly amazing show.

As for theatrical releases, the easy choice is Star Trek, and while I’ve been a fan of Star Trek for over 20 years but that’s not my recommendation this week. No, my choice is Anvil! The Story of Anvil. Sure it helps that they will be in town this weekend performing at The Uptown, but I’m a documentary fan at heart and this looks like it could be one of the better documentaries of the year.

As always trailers are after the break!

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And the blockbuster season begins not with a bang, but a crappy X-Men film. Huzzah!

As for those of you brave souls who want to try something besides this week’s must see movie, there are some interesting films being released, though my favorite is easily Michael Caine’s latest, Is Anybody There? Far darker and morbid then I imagined, the film opens with a boy tape recording the sounds of a man dying and then continually listening to it, the film is not the old man bonding with young boy film that it is being marketed as. Besides the off kilter storyline, be sure to pay attention for the outstanding cinematography. Great use of negative space and using depth of field, it is truly one of the more artistically shot films of the year. As an extra added bonus, their is a guillotine scene that is worth the price of admission!

As for DVD releases, the big name is clearly the Criterion release of Benjamin Button, which I’m sure will be a fabulous disc from one of the premiere specialty DVD companies working right now. But outside of that release there isn’t a whole hell of a lot coming out, but I do have my eye on a small French supernatural thriller, Écoute le temps. Focusing on a woman (Émilie Dequenne) who’s mother was recently murdered, she returns to her home and begins to discover that their may b a connection to her mother’s murder and past events that occurred in the home. The trailer doesn’t give much away, but I’m all for seeing a French ghost story, especially after the overload of Asian ghost stories these past few years.

As always trailers are after the break!

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While their is a veritable deluge of new theatrical releases this week, most of them aren’t worth the celluloid they are printed on, thus making my pick a relatively easy one, Tokyo! Three short films by three directors (Michel Gondry, Leos Carax and Bong Joon-Ho) as they give their takes on one of their favorite cities.

As for DVD releases, this is a very easy selection, as next Tuesday marks the release of one of my favorite films from last year, JCVD. No matter what you think of action films or Jean-Claude Van Damme, JCVD is a movie that should not be missed.

As always trailers are after the break!

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