DVD Release Update, 6 January

Here are some DVD announcements from the past couple of weeks. Still, nothing super exciting, other than Kino's Blu-ray release of Wong Kar-wai's Fallen Angels, set for 16 March. They are in descending order of release.

- Cairo Station [Bab el hadid], 1958, d. Youssef Chahine, Typecast Releasing, 23 February
- Tapeheads, 1988, d. Bill Fishman, MGM, 9 March, w. John Cusack, Tim Robbins, Jessica Walter, Susan Tyrrell
- Broken Embraces [Los abrazos rotos], 2009, d. Pedro Almodóvar, also on Blu-ray, Sony, 16 March
- The Black Balloon, 2008, d. Elissa Down, Terra Entertainment, 23 March, w. Toni Collette
- Séraphine, 2008, d. Martin Provost, Music Box Films/MPI, 23 March
- Afghan Star, 2009, d. Havana Marking, Zeitgeist, 30 March
- The Killer, 1989, d. John Woo, also on Blu-ray, Dragon Dynasty/Weinstein Company, 30 March
- Sabu Double Feature [Savage Drums / Jungle Hell], 1951, 1956, d. William Berke, Norman A. Cerf, VCI, 30 March
- Sea Devils, 1953, d. Raoul Walsh, VCI, 30 March
- The Daisy Chain, 2008, d. Aisling Walsh, Image, 13 April, w. Samantha Morton, Steven Mackintosh
- Monamour, 2005, d. Tinto Brass, Cult Epics, 27 April
- The Voyeur [L'uomo che guarda], 1994, d. Tinto Brass, Cult Epics, 27 April
- Prodigal Sons, 2008, d. Kimberly Reed, First Run Features, 20 July

The African Queen per chance? DVD Update 10 December

Looks like a brand new date has been given to John Huston's The African Queen by Paramount to either get delayed again or finally see the light of day on, now, both DVD and Blu-ray: 23 February. I would quit mentioning the thing until I had a copy of it in my hand, but it's kinda fun keeping track of all the false starts it's gotten.

The Blu-ray schedule for the US is seriously disappointing, when I hear about all sorts of exciting films getting put out in Europe. The Precious phenomenon has thankfully brought us one good thing in the announcement that Lee Daniels' glorious/awful Shadowboxer is going to come out on Blu-ray on 16 March, so I can see all its absurdity in the highest quality possible. I can't wait. The only other Blu release I found is Dragon Dynasty's release of The 36th Chamber of Shaolin on 2 March.

Magnolia announced John Woo's Red Cliff for 30 March in two different versions: the U.S. theatrical cut, which edited both films together into a two-and-a-half-hour package, and a 2-disc international version, which contains both of the Red Cliff films uncut. And, thanks a lot, Lionsgate for once again tapping into Republic's library to release two films that have been released previously (Frances and Plenty). More exciting than the Casper Van Dien/James Dean made-for-television flick coming to DVD is a Kurt Russell-as-Elvis TV movie directed by John Carpenter! Shout! Factory will release the film, which also stars Shelley Winters, Ed Begley Jr., Pat Hingle and Joe Mantegna, on 2 March. And finally, it would appear as though here! Films release of Brillante Mendoza's Service [Serbis] will be the uncut version as the box cover lists it as the "unrated version." The DVDs below are in descending order of release.

- Cold Souls, 2009, d. Sophie Barthes, 20th Century Fox, 2 February
- The African Queen, 1951, d. John Huston, Paramount, Centennial Collection, also on Blu-ray, 23 February
- Shall We Kiss? [Un baiser s'il vous plaît], 2007, d. Emmanuel Mouret, Music Box Films, 23 February
- Castle in the Sky, 1986, d. Hayao Miyazaki, Special Edition, Studio Ghibli/Disney, 2 March
- Elvis, 1979, d. John Carpenter, Shout! Factory, 2 March
- Frances, 1982, d. Graeme Clifford, Republic/Lionsgate, 2 March
- My Neighbor Totoro, 1988, d. Hayao Miyazaki, Studio Ghibli/Disney, 2 March
- Plenty, 1985, d. Fred Schepisi, Republic/Lionsgate, 2 March
- The Wraith, 1986, d. Mike Marvin, Lionsgate, Special Edition, 2 March
- The Art of Being Straight, 2008, d. Jesse Rosen, here! Films, 9 March
- Bulletproof Salesman, 2008, d. Petra Epperlein, Michael Tucker, First Run Features, 23 March
- Red Cliff, 2008/2009, d. John Woo, Magnet/Magnolia, also on Blu-ray, 30 March
- The Yes Men Fix the World, 2009, d. Andy Bichlbaum, Mike Bonanno, Kurt Engfehr, New Video, 1 April
- Alice Neel, 2007, d. Andrew Neel, New Video, 27 April

The Decade List: (Some of) The Worst Films (2000)

Though I don't wish to devote time writing about the following films, I have made a shortlist of some of the significantly awful films from 2000 that I had the displeasure of seeing:

- Baise-moi - dir. Virginie Despentes, Coralie Trinh Thi - France
- Battle Royale - dir. Kinji Fukasaku - Japan
- Battlefield Earth - dir. Roger Christian - USA
- Big Momma's House - dir. Raja Gosnell - USA
- Boys and Girls - dir. Robert Iscove - USA
- The Crow: Salvation - dir. Bharat Nalluri - USA/Germany
- Dr. T & the Women - dir. Robert Altman - USA/Germany
- Groove - dir. Greg Harrison - USA
- Hollow Man - dir. Paul Verhoeven - USA/Germany
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas - dir. Ron Howard - USA/Germany
- The Iron Ladies - dir. Youngyooth Thongkonthun - Thailand
- Km. 0 - dir. Yolanda García Serrano, Juan Luis Iborra - Spain
- Malèna - dir. Giuseppe Tornatore - Italy/USA
- Mission: Impossible 2 - dir. John Woo - USA/Germany
- Mission to Mars - dir. Brian De Palma - USA
- Pay It Forward - dir. Mimi Leder - USA
- The Smokers - dir. Kat Slater - USA
- Stardom - dir. Denys Arcand - Canada/France
- Vulgar - dir. Bryan Johnson - USA

Coming (or Not Coming) in 2009: Part 3

Part three of my posts looking at a number of films that may show up at film festivals during 2009 will focus on the continent of Asia, as well as a pair from Australia/New Zealand. Previous posts have covered France and the rest of Europe, and earlier posts about the Berlinale mentioned the new film from Chen Kaige.

Blake Williams first gave me word of the new film from Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Tropical Malady, Syndromes and a Century). You can find more information here on the director, and his latest project Primitive: Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives which is going into production shortly via this link. Thanks Blake.

The latest film from Johnnie To (Mad Detective, Election) will be a French/Hong Kong co-production and filmed in English, entitled Vengeance. Filming now, Vengeance stars Johnny Hallyday, Simon Yam and Sylvie Testud. Variety reports that this is not the planned remake of Le cercle rouge, however. It is slated to be released in France on 20 May.

Following Lust, Caution, Ang Lee returns to the US for Taking Woodstock, which is set to be released in the States in August. It will be the third teaming in a row for Lee with Focus Features. Taking Woodstock stars, among many others, Emile Hirsch, comedian Demetri Martin, Liev Schreiber, Paul Dano, Kelli Garner, Imelda Staunton, Katherine Waterston, Eugene Levy, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Dan Fogler.

Like Hou Hsiao-hsien before him, Tsai Ming-liang will make his next feature in France, entitled Visage [Face]. The film explores the myth of Salomé, the biblical figure who performed the Dance of the Seven Veils which resulted in the beheading of John the Bapist. The dream cast includes Laetitia Casta as Salomé, Jeanne Moreau, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Mathieu Amalric, Fanny Ardant, Nathalie Baye and frequent actor Lee Kang-sheng. No dates set, but check this link (thanks to Nimzo!) for more information.

Hong Sang-soo's latest You Don't Even Know is currently filming. I couldn't find much information about the film, but it does star Kim Tae-woo and Go Hyun-jung from Woman on the Beach as well as Ye Ji-won from Turning Gate.

Park Chan-wook's Thirst looks to be ready in time for Cannes. The film already has distribution in France (Wild Side), the UK (Palisades Tartan), South Korea (CJ Entertainment) and the US (Focus Features) and will hopefully be out by the end of the year, before the Old Boy remake hits theatres. Thirst stars Song Kang-ho (The Host), Shin Ha-kyun (No Mercy for the Rude), Mercedes Cabral (Serbis) and Eriq Ebouaney (35 rhums).

I Come with the Rain will be Tran Anh Hung's first film since The Vertical Ray of the Sun in 2000. Produced by France, I couldn't find any substantial release dates for the film, but it stars Josh Hartnett, Elias Koteas, Lee Byung-hun (The Good, the Bad, the Weird), Simón Andreu and Takuya Kimura (2046).

No one seems to know what's going on with Wong Kar-wai's intended remake of The Lady from Shanghai after star Nicole Kidman dropped out. If I hear anything, I'll let you know.

The new film from director Mira Nair will be an American biopic of Amelia Earheart, with Hilary Swank as the doomed pilot. The film, called Amelia, will be released by Fox Searchlight in October. Amelia also stars Richard Gere, Ewan McGregor, Christopher Eccleston, Virginia Madsen and Joe Anderson.

John Woo's Red Cliff Part 2 was released in China on 8 January; the first installment was released last summer, though it doesn't look like any US distributor has picked up either. Red Cliff 2 stars Chang Chen, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Tony Leung.

Abbas Kiarostami's Copie conforme [Certified Copy] is currently in production and is set to star Juliette Binoche (she really does get to work with the world's best directors, doesn't she?). mk2 will release the film in France when it's completed.

The Duel will be the first American film from director Dover Koshashvili (Late Marriage). It looks to be finished filming, but I couldn't find anything further about the film.

Jane Campion will follow the terrible In the Cut with Bright Star, which examines the relationship between poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne. Pathé should release the film by the end of the year in the UK. It stars Ben Wishaw, Abbie Cornish, Paul Schneider and Kerry Fox.

The new film from John Hillcoat (The Proposition), called The Road, was bumped from last fall to sometime this year. The cast includes Viggo Mortensen, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, Robert Duvall, Garret Dillahunt, Michael K. Williams and Molly Parker. The Road is based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy.

As there always seems to be one, I forgot to mention the two new films from Fatih Akin (The Edge of Heaven) when doing my European post. Soul Kitchen is to be released in France on 11 November by Pyramide Distribution; the film stars Moritz Bleibtreu and Birol Ünel. The other film is a documentary entitled Garbage in the Garden of Eden.

Dareaoke Update

So, as one may have expected, the Daraoke experiment isn't working out quite as planned. Really, it might have just been that Tekkonkinkreet (I'm not even bothering to check to see if I spelled that correctly) turned me off the idea of watching bad movies for fun. Or maybe it's just that the following weeks' picks (Samurai Reincarnation and Walking Tall: The Final Chapter) just didn't sound the least bit fun in the first place. Now, if I had been recommended She-Devil with Meryl Streep and Roseanne, you know I would have watched that shit in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, shitty crime films, shitty samurai films (unless they fall into the exploitation category) and shitty anime just don't float this boy's boat. However, Mike and I have been continuing the weekly recommendations of films we should have already seen in the first place. I got the pleasure of viewing Carlito's Way (yeah, what kind of De Palma fan could I be without that one?), Casablanca and John Woo's The Killer (which is way better than Broken Arrow if you didn't already know). Mike was disappointed to see that all of my Woo experience was shitty beyond belief (Mission: Impossible 2 is one of the worst films I've ever seen... Broken Arrow isn't far behind). This week I have Spike Lee's Bamboozled.

And, on a side note, what the fuck is wrong with Tilda Swinton? I had forgotten that the Chronicles of Narnia was the beginning of a series and thought she might have wised up by the time the second one was ready to come out... but no! She's back as the Ice Queen or whatever, which is perfect visually for her... but completely against just about everything else she stands for as a woman and as an actor. I'm sure she's got plenty up her sleeve to continue to make me drool otherwise, but Narnia? Jeez. Don't worry, Tilda, I'll still be the only person rooting for you at this year's Oscars. Fuck Cate Blanchett.