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Black Dog Newsletter for Week Ending May 20th

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Bossman

So I was driving home from my ridiculously late (10:30!) hockey match on Saturday night when I confronted by a police spot check on the Second Narrows Bridge. I did have but one beer after the game as one might do playing Beer League Hockey. No big deal, thought I. But then I started to panic. I knew that I wasn’t anywhere close to the legal limit but I didn’t know what the rules are for any booze in one’s system. So I stop and, what looks like a large man-child in a police uniform, approaches my car. He looked quite young, like no more than 10 years-old young. He leaned into the car getting uncomfortably close in an attempt, I assume, to detect any wisps, faint or otherwise, of alcohol on my breath. I guess that all he could smell was salt and vinegar chips. He asked me, “Anything to drink tonight?” What to do? Tell him I had one and get pulled over for sure, or lie. I chose the latter, “Nope”. “Not even a drop?” he asked. This kind of confused me and made me nervous for some reason. Should I come clean? “Nope”. “Have a good night then” said the man-baby. I drove off. I felt kind of bad lying to the po-lice, the man, the heat, the fuzz, Johnny Law, Old Bill, 5-0, the Bacon, the Blue Meanies, the Khaki Kutta, the Labdick, the Mistelbaucher, The Moustached Pagoda, Old Smokey. But not that bad. I think my old-man Southern Austrian-looking moustache intimidated the young fella. Hah!

Funny thing was they were on the side of the bridge leading back into Vancouver. Who goes to North Van to party? Wouldn’t have made more sense to check folks leaving downtown? Just a thought.

New Releases for Tuesday May 14th

Age of Dinosaurs – A bio-tech firm recreates some dinosaurs that go on a rampage in LA. Sounds suspiciously like a certain Jurassic Park 2 type thing, does it not?. But does a guy get eaten in front of a Blockbuster? (Remember them?). Stars mega-movie stars Treat Williams and Ronny Cox. Direct by the auteur who brought you Nazis at the Center of the Earth. Some good cheese for a Saturday afternoon.

Black Gold: Day of the Falcon – Antonio Bandaras stars in this Lawrence of Arabia-light film about the oil boom in the Arab states in the 1930′s. Lots of steely-eyed swarthy-looking men staring back at you from the box! Gotta like that. Directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud (The Bear, Name of the Rose). Looks like it might be some fun stuff for a Saturday afternoon.

Calibre 9 – Crazy sounding French flick about a guy who finds a gun that’s possessed by the spirit of a dead prostitute. The gun talks to him and flies into his hands and goes about conducting “business” when needed. Yes your eyeballs read that correctly. Wish this was a documentary. If this is your kind of film, you’re already on board. Enjoy!

Cloud Atlas – A whole lot of Tom Hankses and Halle Berries and Hugo Weavings, and Jim Broadbents, among others, are slathered in piles of (in many cases awful – I’m looking at you, Hugh Grants!) make-up for this huge, sprawling, long, ambitious sci-fi drama mind-bender from the Wachowski’s (Matrixeses) and Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run). They all play different roles in different eras trying to tackle Big Ideas like re-incarnation, the nature of existence, control vs. individuality and the sharing of cute, similar-looking tattoos. Some will love it, some not so much. You be the judge! Also on the Blu Rays.

Dexter Season 7 – Oh Dexter, you scamp, with you’re clever and amusing ways to kill people and never get caught. And with you’re weird relationship with your annoying sister, on and off screen.

Escape – AKA Flukt – From the Roar Uthaug, director of Cold Prey comes this tale of survivors of the Black Plague being harassed by some bad men and having to fend for their lives or something like that. Looks like some good rainy Saturday afternoon fare.

A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III – Roman Coppola brings us this weird tale of what happens when a graphic designer’s girlfriend breaks up with him. Great cast – Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Aubrey Plaza but it also has Charlie Sheen so you’ve been warned.

Texas Chainsaw – Yet another version of this tedious story about backwoods chainsaw wielding mutants looking to carve up some nubile coeds with gas-powered garden impliments. Also on the Blu Rays.

Old Stuff Just In

Sexcula – Anyone up for some early 70′s Canadian vampire porn?

Coming Next Week

Comforting Skin
The Last Stand
True Blood Season 5
Beautiful Creatures
Side Effects
Parker
Stand Up Guys
Stories We Tell

Black Dog Newsletter for Week Ending May 13th

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Bossman

Zombies. Who doesn’t love zombies? Who doesn’t like to see dead-eyed, soulless freaks aimlessly shuffling around looking for something to eat? And no I’m talking about a Saturday afternoon at the mall. Zombies seem to be all over the place at the moment – The Walking Dead is a eating up the airwaves and DVDs, there’s actually a $100 Million zombie flick coming out this summer (I’m not holding my breath on that one), and, as you all know, it’s Zombie Awareness Month.
As I was watching The Walking Dead the other week I started to wonder about what makes zombies tick? In the zombie universe there exists many conundrums, such as when does a dead person turn into a zombie? When and how do they know when to stop eating their victims as the poor bastard turns zombie? Why aren’t there more half-eaten zombies laying around? Why don’t zombies eat each other? If you pretended to be a zombie, how would the real zombies know that you’re not one of them? Why do they keep shuffling around all the time, don’t they get tired and want to take a break from looking for brains? Do zombies go to the bathroom? Can they digest all that tasty human flesh they’ve just eaten? Do they explode if they eat too much? That would be cool. Yes I’ve spent far too much time thinking about this. And you probably just spent far too much time reading about it.

Hey is that a baby arm in your mouth or you just glad to see me?

On another note Mondays are and shall forever (maybe not forever) known as 2 for 1 New Release Mondays? Why you ask? Well it’s because every Monday you can rent any 2 New Releases for the price of 1! And, of course, Blu Rays are included.

On a sad note, one of my movie heros passed away today. Ray Harryhausen was the creator of so many fabulous creatures and monsters for some of my favorite films growing up. I still have many a fond memory watching such awesome flicks as Valley of Gwangi, the Sinbad films, Clash of the Titans and many many others. He was 92.

New Releases for Tuesday May 7th

As Luck Would Have It – A freak accident puts a guy in the middle of a media tidal wave and he then seeks to exploit his situation to make some dough. Complications, I presume, ensue. From the often great Alex de la Iglesia (Last Circus, 800 Bullets) and stars the lovely Salma Hayek.

Bunohan: Return to Murder – Cool, violent (think Muay Thai kickboxing, assassins, name-calling) looking number from Malaysia about 3 brothers with violent pasts, presents and futures. Yes please!

Dirk Gently – A nice treat of a detective/comedy TV show based on the books of the great Douglas Adams. Detective Dirk runs his Holistic Detective Agency based on the “fundamental interconnectedness of all things”. Yep sounds like Douglas Adams all right.

Fringe Season 5 – Final Season for this great little sci-fi TV drama. I’m gonna miss Walternet, Pacey and Torv. Good job everyone.

Jack Reacher – Little Tommy Cruise plays detective Jack Reacharound who’s interrogation techniques are not only unorthodox but also sexy. From what I hear this is a pretty good actioner, even if does have the Tom Cruise in it. Also on the Blu Ray.

Mama – Cool looking scary number about some children who were raised in the woods by some sort of haunted wood nymph who doesn’t take it very well when Zero Dark Thirty finds them and brings them to her house for tea and horror. Also on the Blu Ray.

The Oranges – Comedy that finds Dr. House sleeping with his best friend’s daughter. Hilarious complications and situations, I presume, ensue. Good cast so this one might be worth a chuckle.

Safe Haven – Another one of those romance things from Nicolas Sparks (The Notebook) that finds a woman with a mysterious past meeting a handsome man withe a mysterious past. Mystery and romance, I presume, ensue. Also on the Blu Ray.

30 Rock Season 7 – The last and final season of one of the best comedies ever on the TV.

Upstream Colour – Remember that cool, weird film Primer from several years ago? Well this is the dude’s second film. Can’t really tell you what it’s about – romance? Time travel? Embracing moments? Poison monkeys? Bathtun Sleeping? Unicorns? Looks pretty cool though. Blu Ray is late on the shelves. Hopefully soon.

Wuthering Heights – Monden take on the classic story by Emily Bronte or Jane Austin or Nicolas Sparks, not too sure. Directed by Andrea Arnold (Fish Tank).

Coming Next Week

Cloud Atlas
Texas Chainsaw
Age of Dinosaurs
Calibre 9
Escape
Black Gold:Day of the Falcon
Dexter Season 7
A Glimpse into the Mind of Charles Swan III

Black Dog Newsletter for Week Ending May 6th

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Bossman

Well I managed to survive being home alone for a week while the family was away somewhere. Watched a lot of stuff, probably drank too much, slept in and scratched myself often. Good times. It was a nice little vacation but it’s also nice to have them home.
My mini film fest went something like this: re-watched The Avengers – still fun and I turned it up real loud-like (sorry CHUDs), The Collection – good gory opening scene but I got drunk, fell asleep and don’t remember the rest of it, Zero Dark Thirty – meh, too long, too much torture, The Impossible – quite good (great wave scenes) despite trying to hard to be smaltzy, manipulative and cloying, Walking Dead S2 – much enjoyed that – go zombies!, Archer S 1 – only watched first couple of episodes but they were amazeballs, Cold Prey II – pretty OK slasher thing from Norway or Sweden or Iceland or Antartica or someplace, Compliance – never wanted so bad to turn a film off. Insanely stupid people. If it wasn’t a true story, it’d be idiotic and insulting, The Paperboy – a lot of fun, great cast, weird and a bit nasty and it has Nicole Kidman pissing on Zac Efron. Finished it off with The Seven Per-Cent Solution – pretty good 70′s romp that has Sherlock Holmes and Sigmund Freud on the trail of a killer/kidnapper. All in all a good time that left me satiated but still wanting more.

Just wanted to throw out a nice big chunky thanks to all to fine folks who brought in food for our Food Bank drive. We have a few fat boxes and bags to deliver. And no pickled Alligator snouts this time!

New Releases for Tuesday April 30th

The Details – Here’s a fun, strange little number with Tobey Maguire (Frodo in Lord of the Rings, right?), Elizabeth Banks and others in this sordid tale of urban wildlife, infidelity, pet-poisonings, domestic tension and murder. Sounds kinda right up my alley.

Guilt Trip – Ugh. Seth Rogan and his mom, Babs Streisand, drive across the country and talk and laugh and share poignant moments in this comedy/drama thing. I bet that Rogan smokes weed at some point. “Get ready for the mother of all road trips”. Yep the box actually says that. Also on the Blu Ray.

The Central Park Five – Great doc that looks at that horrible crime where 5 black and Latino kids were accused of raping a white woman in Central Park back in the eighties. This film tells the story of the rabid witch-hunt and all the stupid shit that happened after that. Good stuff, Ken Burns! Late arriving at Commercial. Hopefully soon…

Not Fade Away – Good looking rock and roll fable from the dude who made The Sopranos. Some kids from Jersey try to make it in the rock and roll scene in the 1960s. Go Rock and Roll! Also on the Blu Ray.

Silver Linings Playbook – Bradley Cooper is a crazy guy who wears a garbage bag, Jennifer Lawrence is a crazy gal who won an Oscar and Robert De Niro cries. Word has it that this is an excellent comedy/drama/crazy person movie. Also on the Blu Rays.

Wasted on the Young – Good looking, well filmed Australian thriller type thing about bullies, true love and revenge. Some great things (movies mostly) coming out of Australia as of late.

Wicked – Mediocre looking horror dealy about a witch who eats children and hot dogs and stuff or something like that.

Old Stuff Just In

Massage Parlour Murders – classic sleazy exploitation from the 70′s. You’re welcome! Also on the Blu Rays, cause, you know…

Coming Next Week

Revenge for Jolly
Jack Reacher
Safe Haven
Fringe Season 5
30 Rock Season 7
Bunohan: Return to Murder
Upstream Colour
Mama
The Oranges

Black Dog Newsletter for Week Ending April 29th

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Bossman

So the wife and the sprog have hightailed it back to old Toronto, T-dot as the kids like to say, for a week (work and family visit – not to worry) leaving me to my own devices and challenging my survival skills. Now, being a full grown man, one would expect that I would be able to fend for myself and survive quite easily on my own. Well, it’s only the third day and my world has gone to hell – there’s no food left in the house, I haven’t eaten in days and lost 15 pounds, the power’s gone off, the cat is either missing or is hiding and plotting to kill me and eat my face when I pass out, I think that there’s a family of possums living in the dining room and I can see buzzards circling overhead. I’ve gone from looking like this…

to foraging and shambling around the house and yard looking for sustenance in this decrepit sate of disrepair…

I just kidding, of course. This is a mini-vacation of sorts for me. I imagine that, given the opportunity, a lot of blokes might be tempted to head off to the local strip joint, massage parlour, heroin/crack/crank/ketamine/disco biscuit/bath salt/hocus/black whack/vitamin R/pumpers/Mexican Valium dealer or even hit their favourite saloon. Me? I’ll be holed up in my living room with a pile of cheese, wine and what-not watching movies. Lots of movies. Boring and old I am. In my eyes, that’s a little bit of heaven…

In other news…Black Dog Cambie just turned 17! Seventeen! Holy moly. So to celebrate our being alive this long we’re gonna offer our ever-so-popular late charge amnesty program. Starting Tuesday the 23rd and running till the end of the weekend please drop in with a donation to the food bank and we’ll absolve you of your late charges. Good deal, yes? Make it a healthy donation as well, no creamed eels please…

New Releases for Tuesday April 23rd

Broken City – Big cast – Marky Mark, Russell Crowe’s hairpiece, Catherine Zeta-Douglas plus others swim around in this tale of politics, corruption and da police. Haven’t we seen this before? Also on the Blu Ray.

Cold Prey II – aka Fritt Vilt II (which is way more fun to say) picks up right after the proceedings in Fritt Vilt left off. The lone surviver of the nasty goings-ons has to, yet again, deal with a killer psychopath. There never seems to be any nice psychopaths in horror films. Wonder why that is?

Gangster Squad – Who named this film, my 7 year-old? Like really, Gangster Squad? Sigh. Another big cast – The Gosling, Sean Penn, Emma Stone, Josh Brolin and a bunch of others ham it up in this period piece about Johnny Law trying to bring down gangster kingpin Mickey Cohen. Also on the Blu Ray.

Haunting in Connecticut 2 – For some reason this sequel takes place in Georgia. Shouldn’t they have called it Haunting in Georgia? Would that have been too confusing for folk who like their hauntings in Connecticut? Have they run out of ghosts in Connecticut?

The Impossible -Oscar nominated Naomi Watts and Obi Wan Kenobi go on vacation in Thailand just in time for the big tsunami to sweep them away. Quite good despite some cheese and attempted emotional manipulation along the way. Great destruction scenes. The quote on the box – something about “heart-warming” and “life-affirming” almsot kept me from watching this but it is definitely worth your time. Come to think of it, I’m not even sure what life-affirming means? That life is better than death? Well duh. Also on the Blu Ray.

Promised Land – Matt Damon (MATT DAMON!!) stars in this tale of a natural gas salesman who travels to a small town where his company wants to exploit and rape the land. Does he engage with the townsfolk in unexpected ways leading him to reconsider his life and work choices? Probably. Also on the Blu Ray.

A Royal Affair – Young queen, married to an insane king, starts an affair with her doctor. Stars the Mads Mikkelsen. Love us the Mads!

Summer Wars – Sci-fi anime about parallel worlds, teen crushes, cyber-punk and some end-of-the-world shenanigans. Also on the Blu Ray.

Coming Next Week

Wicked
Not Fade Away
Silver Linings Playbook
Details
As Luck Would Have It
Guilt Trip

Just another Saturday Night

Posted on April 18, 2013 by Bossman

So it was with mild trepidation that I set out for downtown Vancouver on Saturday night (actually two Saturdays ago – I’m a slow writer). I never go downtown on the weekends for it is always a shit-show filled with drunk dudes wearing backwards baseball caps and their scantily clad lady friends who always seem to be standing in line for whatever crappy club, shivering in the cold because they didn’t bring a jacket. Fights and vomit reign on Saturday night. But I was going anyways. Had to make it to the Nick Cave show. It’s been almost 20 years since I’ve seen him and that was at Lollapalooza back in Ontario. I vaguely remember the show – might have been the LSD or it might have been well, it was probably the LSD. Anyways I set out of the house at around 6 with a slight spring in my step only to be greeted with the skies opening up to piss down rain on me (and everyone else I assumed)/ Not a big deal as it’s Vancouver. I trotted on down to the sky train. There were hundreds of people milling about as the train seemed to be on the fritz. Great. Once the doors opened, I squeezed on and miraculously found a seat. I then noticed that almost all of the folks on the train were either very well dressed Indo-Canadians or grown men and women wearing hockey jerseys. I’ll never understand why adults think they look good wearing these ugly things. People past the age of 10 should not be allowed to wear sports jerseys in public. The ride was interesting to say the least. I had forgot that there was a Canucks game and a huge Bollywood awards show that night at the grotesque domerama or whatever the fuck that monstrosity is called.

I got off the train and shambled my way down towards the Vogue Theatre. The doors opened at 6:30 with the opening act going on around 8. I was not prepared to spend 2-3 hours waiting in the Vogue for Mr. Cave to hit the stage. Ridiculous. The plan was to get a burger at a good joint down the block and meet my friend, Garn, at about 7:45. The rain was coming down harder as I passed by the Vogue. Hundreds of people were waiting in line. Yikes. I wasn’t going to get a seat. Shit.

I didn’t make it to the burger joint as the rain forced my inside of one of those shitty Irish pubs that litter the planet. Doolin’s Irish Shithole I believe it was called. I grabbed the only seat left at the bar and ordered a Guinness. The place was filled with the usual rabble one might find on any aforementioned weekend night downtown. This one odd dude – he was about 22 or so, ambled up beside me and ordered a double bourbon, neat, drank it back, tipped the waitress $5 (after complaining about the original $9 price) and shuffled off into the night. Guess he needed some fuel. So I managed to choke back a chicken burger – wasn’t half bad actually. Another Guinness and I was on my way, dreading the line I was going to have to join. The beer and sandwich sloshed around in my stomach like two angry squirrels fighting over a delicious nut. This was not good. Was I going to have to use the facilities at the Vogue? That prospect did not appeal to me in the least. I marched on kind of dreading the rest of the evening.

But then a funny thing happened. My luck began to change. As I was making my way to the end of the line I ran into my lovely friend, Linda. With the guise of stopping to say hello, I joined her in line. She was about 2/3rds of the way from the end so, score! Then a couple more friends walked by and joined us. Then Garn showed up. I felt a little bad about taking advantage of all of us cutting in line but, oh well. I’d hate us if I was the guy behind us.

As it turned out we got great seats, we shared some bourbon and a little weed and enjoyed one of the best shows that I’ve seen in ages. A nightcap at Biercraft and the evening was complete. It’s funny the way a night or adventure can turn out. What begins with a series of seemingly unfortunate events, rights itself and you are presented with a glorious experience. I should go downtown on the weekends more often!

Here’s a little sampling of the fine performance by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. This video was shot form the balcony. We were on the floor but you get the idea…

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Black Dog Video Newsletter for Week Ending April 22nd

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Bossman

So after a couple of weeks of sub-par and less than sub-par (is there a less than sub-par? subber-par?) films being released on the DVD and the Blu Rays, we finally are entering a stretch of good quality stuff hitting the shelves. I hope that you r eyeballs will be happy. This week we have Tarantino’s latest (and one of his best), a debut film from a Cronenberg and a few other cool looking things. In the following weeks we get to check out a variety of film ranging from Naomi Watts trying to survive that nasty tsunami in Thailand, New York crime dramas, a new doc from Ken Burns, Jennifer Lawrence’s Oscar winning flick, an olde timer gangster number, some good looking horror and sci-fi films from Wachowski’s and the guy that made Primer, some fine TV shows and a whole lot more. In the meantime we still have the best selection of older titles in town, if not the universe, so maybe it’s time to revisit some classics or catch up on stuff you might have missed out on along the way. Our helpful, good-looking staff can recommend something sweet for your viewing pleasure. Hope to see you soon…

So the big DVD sale is coming to a close. There’s still a pile for sale at Cambie and we’re gonna basically give them to you for free. If by free I mean $3 each for DVDs and $5 for Blu Rays. They’ll be at Cambie for a week and what’s left we’ll ship on over to Commercial. Capishe?

New Release for Tuesday April 16th

Antiviral – Cool looking creepy sci-fi dealy from Brandon Cronenberg – yes that’s David’s son – about a dude who works at a clinic that sells injections of live viruses harvested from sick celebrities to obsessed fans. He also smuggles said virus’ out in his own body to sell on the black market.Yes you read that right. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree in that family apparently One has to assume that the guy’s plan doesn’t go off without any hitches. Bring on the hitches! Also on the Blu Ray.

Django Unchained – Great Tarantino spaghetti western finds slave Django, bounty hunter Dr. King Shultz and their horses, Tony and Fritz, working their way through the American south in search of Django’s wife, Broomhilda. Fantastic cast – Christoph Waltz (won another Oscar here) is so good. One of my favourite characters in a film in recent memory. Probably the most entertaining film Tarantino has done – it was my pick for the best film of last year. It’s arguably a little too long (although I personally could have enjoyed even more) and really, Tarantino, please stop putting yourself in your films. You are a terrible actor and unconvincing screen presence. And what’s with the brutal Australian accent? Hell, even I could do a better accent and I royally suck at accents. Lots of great violence, dialogue, music and everything one might expect in a Tarantino flick. Good times to be had here. Also on the Blu Ray.

Dragon – IP Man Donnie Yen stars in this cool-looking martial arts/mystery detective type thriller about a sinful martial arts expert who wants to start a new tranquil life, only to be hunted by a determined detective and his former master. Love me some Donnie Yen.

In Another Country – Very nice looking Korean film starring the awesome Isabelle Huppert as a French tourist visiting a seaside resort. Part comedy, part drama, all good. (will be late hitting the shelves – hopefully by the end of the week)

Spies of Warsaw – TV spy thriller that finds a military attaché at the French embassy who gets drawn into a world of abduction, betrayal and intrigue in the diplomatic salons and back alleys of Warsaw. I’d like to visit Warsaw. And, like most people, I love diplomatic salons.

Therese Desqueyroux – Drama starring the lovely Audrey Tautou about a woman who is bored and disillusioned with her current state of affairs. What will she do? Leave her husband? Have an affair? Knit a sweater? Take up skeet-shooting? Who knows…

Coming Next Week

Promised Land
A Royal Affair
Wasted on the Young
A Haunting in Connecticut II
Wuthering Heights
The Impossible
Broken City
Ken Burns: The Central Park 5
Cold Prey II

Black Dog Newsletter for Week Ending April 15th

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Bossman

It appears that next next year’s Oscar telecast’s “In Memorandum” section is going to be quite lengthy judging by the past few day’s climbing celebrity death toll. Over the weekend we had the great screenwriter of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, Roger Ebert and fine documentary filmmaker Les Blank (Burden of Dreams) pass away. And then on Monday, it was if a bus full of celebrities careened off a mountain pass taking that woman that Meryl Streep played in Iron Lady, famous Mouseketeer Anette Funicello, Jason from Friday the 13th Part III – Richard Brooker, and the mysterious Raveen the Impossibilist to their watery graves. Crazy days. For those of you who are in celebrity death pools, check your scorecards. I wonder who might be up next? Kirk Douglas is looking kind of grim. Zsa Zsa Gabor is a spritely 96, Al Molinaro (Happy Days Al) is still shuffling about, Doris Day is rocking the 90′s pretty well, Lindsay Lohan is going to Cochella this weekend and any number of British Royals could kick off at any time.

The last of the DVDs and Blu Rays have been added to the sale bins at both stores. Lots of TV series are taking up space in the boxes at the front of each store waiting with breathless anticipation for you to take them with you and give them a good home. Prices vary. Come early, come often!

And if you like free stuff – free Compact Music Discs to be exact – drop by the Cambie store as we have piles of free CD’s to give away. Spring cleaning, yo.

New Releases for Tuesday April 9th

The Comedy – Is it a comedy? It has those two guys from Tim and Eric (Tim and Eric) in it. Is it a drama? It says so on some parts of the internets. Looks interesting enough though – bored hipsters in Williamsburg hang out, drink and goof off. What is it? You tell me.

Hyde Park on the Hudson – Bill Murray plays famous ghostbuster FDR in this drama bio-pic about the former president getting his freak on with his cousin Laura Linney. Oh those wacky presidents and their good-looking cousins.

Midnight’s Children – Fine pedigree on this one – Deepa Mehta directs from Salman Rushdie’s screenplay about a pair of children born in India at the same time the country gets it’s independence from Britain. Much acting and reflections on the changing nature of India and stuff like that, I presume, ensue. I hear that it’s an OK adaptation of the great book.

You’ve Been Trumped – David and Goliath sort of tale that pits the folk of a small Scottish town against this unsightly hairpiece with a big douchebag attached to it in a fight for some nice wilderness that The Donald wants to turn into a golf resort. He’s such a dick.

Coming Next Week

Django Unchained
Antiviral
Dragon
Summer Wars
Spies of Warsaw
Therese Desqueyroux

Black Dog Newsletter for Week Ending April 8th

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Bossman

I’m a broken down old man. I was out playing some soccer in the park with Swanson (my 7 year-old) and my body feels like it needs about a week in a hyperbolic chamber. I wonder if Michael Jackson’s old one is still available? I did something to my shoulder (and back and leg and ass) so this week’s newsletter is going to be a short, but hopefully sweet, one as it’s painful to type. I took a puck in the foot on Saturday so my foot hurts as well so I can’t use that to type in case that’s what you were thinking. And yes, it was my left foot. My apologies to those tuning in looking for some witty banter. Next week, I promise. Or should say I hope.

The big DVD sales are starting to wind down. Just a few more DVDs to add to the sale bins over the course of this week. So come early and come often to score some fine deals – $5 each or 3 of 12 clams.

New Releases for Tuesday April 6th

End of Time – Time man, what is it? Where is it going? Who invented it? And why? How do we stop it? Documentary to answer all of your questions and perceptions. Trippy…

John Dies at the End – Films don’t get much more “cult” than this freak of nature. Time travel, alien invasions, exploding eyeballs, meat monsters, Paul Giamatti, hotdog phones and so much more. As one can surmise, it’s not for all tastes but this flick from the writer/director of Phantasm and Bubba Ho-Tep is a boatload of fun. If you are one who might partake in the finer herbs that Vancouver has to offer, I might recommended that you do so. But that would be just pointing out the obvious now wouldn’t it? Also on the Blu Ray. NSFW trailer -

Great Barrier Reef – Fine looking BBC documentary looks at the fine looking reef over yonder near Australia. It’s only on the Blu Ray so slap it in your Blu Ray player and pretend that you have the worlds best fish tank in your living room.

Hemingway and Gellhorn – HBO hullabaloo bio-pic about the title characters and their romance and whatnot. Good cast, (even has Lars Ulrich from Metallica in it!), fine director – Philip Kaufman (Henry and June) are there to help things along. You’re going to rent this, aren’t you…

Stitches: Bad Clown – Documentary about a murdered clown who comes back to life to seek revenge on those responsible for his untimely demise at a party. Did I say documentary? I meant stupid horror film. Who doesn’t enjoy a killer ghost clown movie every now and then? NSFW trailer -

The Sweeney – Tough cop movie from across the pond (England) that has tough guy Ray Winstone toughing it up and solving some tough crimes. Based on the TV show of the same name…

Womb – This one sounds nice and messed up – A woman loves her dead husband so much, she has him cloned. From his infancy to manhood, she faces the unavoidable complexities of her controversial decision. No freaking kidding. That would be a really weird Christmas dinner. Stars the lovely Eve Green so it has that going for it.

Coming Next Week

Hyde Park on the Hudson

Midnight’s Children

You’ve Been Trumped

As Luck Would Have It

Comedy

Black Dog Newsletter for Week Ending April 1st (no, really)

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Bossman

Two Weeks. My kid (and all he other kids in town, I assume) get 2 weeks for Spring Break. How did that happen? We all only got to enjoy one week from school when we were kids (and it was glorious!). Lucky bastards. And of course I didn’t realize that he had two weeks off until about a week beforehand. Had I known I would have made some special plans. Sometimes it’s hard to come up with fun activities that we can all enjoy. Especially when Swanson declares, “I’m not really into going outside. It’s not my thing.”

So what to do? After much thought and consolation I picked out few activities for us to try out that might inspire my life-less sprog; learn apiculture with the hope of growing a large beard of bees, try our hand at chicken sexing, well, because, step into the ring with a roo and try a little kangaroo boxing, practice the art of dumpster diving- just in case, learn how a brothel operates – just in case, challenge the ne’er-do-wells in the park to three legged races, build our own still – I think that might be more for me, knitting something with dog hair – maybe a bathing suit, go a few rounds of pankration, make some anatomically correct origami, street luging, bull riding, try to steal guns from cops, fart in church – I guess we’d actually have to go to church for that one which isn’t very likely, and maybe try to milk some rats – I hear their milk is high in vitamin gross. I think that should keep us busy for the two weeks.

What kid wouldn’t love this?

Our DVD and Blu Ray sale continues unabated at both stores. Lots of stuff added almost everyday. Check in on the Facebooks and the Twitters for updates (plus some other fun stuff as well).

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New Releases for Tuesday March 26th

The Collection – Sequelish film to The Collector (you all remember The Collector, right?) finds the guy who escaped the vicious grips of The Collector being blackmailed into returning to The Collector‘s space-age bachelor pad (laden with nasty booby-traps of course) to rescue a fair maiden. I did enjoy The Collector and word has it that this one is actually pretty good – if you like this sort of Collecting thing, of course. Also on the Blu Ray. Will be late hitting the shelves, hopefully later this week. Check our Facebook site for updates…

Killing Them Softly – Very good slow-burn of a gangster flick that finds various low-life’s trying to eek out an existence in the underworld (not the leather-clad vampire type of underworld, sorry) and having a rough go of it. All the while the economic collapse of 2008 lingers in the background paralleling the crooks struggle and disillusionment with the life they have chosen. Oh, and it also includes a Brad Pitt who’s quite excellent as a killer for hire. Lots of cool cars and some really fine dialogue. Made by the dude who did the excellent The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and Chopper. Also on the Blu Ray.

Lay the Favourite – Where did this one come from? Stephen Frears! Bruce Willis! Catherine Zeta-Jones! Vince Vaughn! Pacey! Corbin Benson! Seems that it’s some sort of gambling/waitressing/comedy/drama where the characters have names like Dink and Tulip and Herbie Plane Crash. Also on the Blu Ray.

Lincoln – Dan-Day Lewis (I’d call him Dan-Day if I knew him) stars as the titular president of the US of A in this stuffy-looking bio-pic from one Senior Speilbergo. I was interested in seeing this until I found out that this particular Lincoln was light on the vampire-killing or the mermaid-hunting or Sasquatch-befriending or hipster-mocking or whatever that other Lincoln was famous for. Also on the Blu Ray.

Veep Season 1- Elaine from Seinfeld is the Vice President of the US of A in this HBO comedy series which I hear is quite excellent. Politics and laughs usually go hand-in-hand, right?

Coming Next Week

John Dies at the End

End of Time

Hemingway and Gellhorn

The Sweeney

Stitches

Black Dog Newsletter for Week Ending March 25th

Posted on March 19, 2013 by Bossman

So I was hoping to get around to adding more DVDs to the sale bins at the stores over the last week or so (just finally added a bunch to Commercial this morning) but my sprog, Swanson we’ll call him, came down with some shitty illness that confined both of us to the house. Now usually I kind of like it when Swanson gets sick – he’s very quiet, lovey and sleepy but still he retains his great sense of humour. And he’s usually only down for 1 or 2 days. Monday was day five and he finally is starting to get back on his feet. I remember when I was a kid and got sick, it was great – no school watch as much TV or movies as I could, ate whatever I wanted, doted on hand and foot. I guess the downside was the being sick part – the vomiting, the hair-loss, the uncontrollable falling down, the tail and horns that sprouted, the horrible rashes, the bleeding eyes, you all remember that from being a kid, no?

So I thought that with him being confined to the couch it would be a good time to watch some films with him. There’s some fine animated fare out there right now – Wreck-It Ralph and Paranorman – but he wasn’t interested in either. “You know Dad, movies just aren’t my thing. I’m more of a TV kind of guy”, he told me, sending daggers into my heart. How could this be my son?! I had to question my wife and her over-familiarity with that hunky, movie-hating milkman. I did manage to squeeze in Raiders of the Lost Ark and he did seem to enjoy that, even with the melting faces and exploding heads (or because of those I hoped). I’ll get him turned around at some point. He doesn’t like food or hockey either but I imagine that will change. At least the food part. Don’t really care about the hockey. Time will tell.

Ain’t got no time for no movies, just milk. Lots and lots of milk.

New Releases for Tuesday March 19th

Detention – Strange, fun sounding horror/sci-fi/comedy thing about a bunch of students serving detention while being hunted by a serial killer. Add parts Breakfast Club, Donnie Darko, Scott Pilgrim vs the World, Scream and Heathers, shake well and serve. Tasty! (late arriving at Cambie)

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – Pretty entertaining film although not on par with the Lord of the Rings flicks. I’m not too sure why Peter Jackson decided to make a fairly slight book into 3 overly-long movies. I assume that they drove a dump truck full of money up to his door. For more “in-depth” thoughts of The Hobbit, check out a blog post I did about it a few months ago here http://ow.ly/jegnL. We’ll have it on the DVD and the Blu Rays of course.

Mars & Avril – Weird but intriguing sounding Canadian sic-fi film about an old man who designs instruments inspired by the bodies of woman, his apprentice and the woman who models for them. Much sexual hi-jinks, I presume, ensue. Oh and there’s something about her getting lost in a form of cosmic consciousness (admit it, we’ve all been there) on her way to Mars. So there’s that. (sorry, couldn’t find an English subtitled trailer)

Les Miserables – Much ballyhooed adaptation of the hilarious story about bread thievery and everyone dying during the French Revolution. Everyone sings their own songs, including Russell Crowe and Borat. Just warning you. I remember seeing the stage adaptation waaay back in 1985. Three hours of singing, dancing and despair. Good times. Also on the Blu Ray.

Rust and Bone – Heavy French drama starring one of my favourite actors, Marion Cotillard, who trains killer whales or killer octopuses or killer water monkeys or something who has a very bad day in the pool. She then meets a guy who piggy-backs her around. From the guy who made the excellent films A Prophet and Read My Lips.

This is 40 – Judd Apatow returns to clog up your eyes for 2 and 1/2 hours with this comedy/drama about rich white people turning 40 and all that that entails. I’ve heard both good and bad things about this one but any supposed comedy that is over 2 hours long his way out of order in this guy’s books. Someone hire this fella an editor. At least it has the fabulous Paul Rudd in it. Also on the extended edition Blu Ray which bloats it out to 2 hours and 17 minutes.

Zero Dark Thirty – Controversial flick about the hunt for that dude named Bin Laden. I guess they had more luck than Morgan Spurlock did. I dunno for me, given the chance to have some Dark Thirties, I’d go with more than Zero. I’d say gimme at least 9 Dark Thirties. Also on the Blu Rays.

Coming Next Week

Easy Money
Womb
Killing Them Softly
The Collection

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