This Week on DVD: W, Frozen River and Wallace and Gromit

Andrew Payne — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 20:00:07 +0000

NEW FEATURE FILMS

Starring: Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Banks, Richard Dreyfuss, James Cromwell and Jeffrey Wright

This is a movie that a lot of people skipped. Probably because they were worried that Oliver Stone would give some sort of ultra-biased conspiratorial expose of the President, that many were sick of at that point. The film couldn’t be more the opposite. In fact, it’s barely a movie at all – it’s simply a collection of scenes from Bush’s presidency with no sort of bias whatsoever – sort of an acted-out documentary. Yes there is an attempt to explore Bush’s daddy issues, but really this movie is nothing more than a docudrama.

Still, it will probably remain largely unseen and thus continue to be controversial based on perception. So it’s your duty to fight the misconception and Buy the DVD!

Frozen River

Starring: Melissa Leo

This is the major Oscar nominee that nobody’s seen. And, with a box office total of slightly over $2 million (or one day of Paul Blart), nobody may be a generous description of its audience.

Needless to say, come February 22^nd, many Oscar viewers will echo a chorus of “Huh!?” when they see Leo’s face on the broadcast alongside the likes of Angelina Jolie, Kate Winslet, Anne Hathaway, and Meryl Streep. Has there ever been a bigger drop off of star power from the fourth nominee to the fifth in any category? Probably not.

So let’s all raise Leo’s profile by purchasing her film on DVD.

Also:

Miracle at St. Anna – Learn More – Buy Now
My Name is Bruce – Learn More – Buy Now
Blindness – Learn More – Buy Now
The Enforcer – Learn More – Buy Now
Soul Men – Learn More – Buy Now
Nights in Rodanthe – Learn More – Buy Now

TV ON DVD

“Wallace and Gromit: A Grand Day Out”, “The Wrong Trousers”, and “A Close Shave”.

Every fan of oddball British comedies can rejoice with a twentieth anniversary treasure trove of the classics from the claymated duo of Wallace and Gromit hitting shelves this week.

For the uninitiated, this is smart humor of the highest order, and some could say the British precursor to the Pixar films. Kind of like Monty Python meets Tom and Jerry with a man and his dog taking the place of the cat and mouse.

These are highly recommended for any comedy aficionado, especially if you’ve recently cut your British Comedy teeth with Ricky Gervais. Time to see his inspiration.

So buy “The Wrong Trousers”, “A Grand Day Out” and “A Close Shave”.

Also:

“One Foot in the Grave”: Season 5 – Buy Now
“Friday the 13^th”: Season 2 – Buy Now
“Kennedy”: The Complete Series – Buy Now
“Simon and Simon”: Season 2 – Buy Now
“Wild at Heart”: Season 1 – Buy Now
“Melrose Place”: Season 5 – Buy Now

SPECIAL EDITION OF THE WEEK

Criterion Collection: “Essential Art House” Volume 2

Time to impress your friends with all your old film knowledge! Criterion gives you the power with its second set of Art House movies that didn’t quite get lost in the real of yesteryear. Now you can annoy everybody with your knowledge of Truffaut, Kurosowa and Fellini and talk about how they’ve influenced everything and everyone. Now scoff with pride!

This set contains “Black Orpheus”, “The 400 Blows”, “Ikiru”, “The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp”, “Pygmalion”, and “La Strada”. So buy it now!

Also:

Street Fighter: Extreme Edition – Buy Now

HORRIBLE STRAIGHT-TO-DVD RELEASE OF THE WEEK

Havoc/Havoc 2: Normal Adolescent Behavior

Okay, so this isn’t ACTUALLY a straight-to-DVD release, and it certainly isn’t new. Havoc was a 2005 straight-to-DVD film, best known as the movie that features Anne Hathaway repeatedly performing in the nude and proving that Paul Haggis probably didn’t need its writer, Bobby Moresco, to make Crash.

The “sequel” was actually a Lifetime TV movie starring Amber Tamblyn with a title that has become its subtitle in this set. And therein lies the problem.

Somebody decided to re-brand this TV movie with the “Havoc” name. Why? Probably because they are thinking that “Havoc” will take on a “Poison Ivy” moniker in that people will associate the title with young nude actresses.

That’s a clever marketing scheme – but here’s the problem: There is no nudity in the supposed sequel! It’s a TV movie from basic cable! So this is just a lie, an out-and-out lie meant to dupe teenage male fans of Amber Tamblyn. That is why this qualifies as a special entry in the HSTDROTW annals.

AWARDS: ‘Frozen River’ and ‘Burma VJ’ Snag Best Pic

Mali Elfman — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 22:37:07 +0000

Stockholm International Film Festival:

U.S. drama Frozen River, won the top film kudo at the Stockholm Intl. Film Festival, which specializes in pics by up-and-coming directors such as Courtney Hunt.
Steve McQueen took home the best directing debut prize and Michael Fassbender nabbed the actor award for UK film Hunger, about a hunger strike in Northern Ireland.
Best Screenplay and The Audience Award went to Swedish pic Involuntary, written by Erik Hemmendorff and Ostlund.
Best Actress went to Zuzana Bydzovska for her role in Bohdan Slama’s Czech-German-French co-production Country Teacher, which also won Divis Marek the award for cinematography.
The prize of the Fipresci jury was won by U.K.-German pic Better Things, helmed by Duane Hopkins.
This year’s Lifetime Achievement award went to Charlotte Rampling and the Visionary Award to helmer Wong Kar Wai.

International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam:

Anders Ostergaard’s Burma VJ — Reporting from a Closed Country took top prize at the world’s top event for documentary features.
A special jury award went to German team Rick Minnich and Matthew Sweetwood for Forgetting Dad, about the sudden memory loss suffered by Minnich’s father.
Kudos for medium-length docu went to Dutch helmer Aliona van der Horst, whose Boris Ryzhy explores the life of a little-known Russian poet.
A special jury award in this category went to Ibtisam Mara’ana for Lady Kul el Arab, about a beauty pageant for Arab women in Israel.
Canada’s RiP — A Remix Manifesto by Brett Gaylor won the audience award with its argument against penalizing people who cross copyright boundaries to make music.

Source: Variety

ScreenCrave.com » Frozen River

This Week on DVD: W, Frozen River and Wallace and Gromit

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AWARDS: ‘Frozen River’ and ‘Burma VJ’ Snag Best Pic

Stockholm International Film Festival:

International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam:

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