This Week on DVD: November 13, 2012

Brave
Pixar’s latest was certainly better than “Cars 2,” but still lacked the originality and commitment to storytelling that has set them head and shoulders above the competition for the last decade. It’s a beautifully made movie, but a little to similar to “Brother Bear” for my taste.

Two Days in New York
Julie Delpy, who gained attention with “Before Sunrise” and its sequel “Before Sunset,” has made another set of movies; first “Two Days in Paris” and now “Two Days in New York” and she’s earning comparisons to Woody Allen with this one.
Read More

The Howl – 900 Feet Beneath

Chicago is a city full of great food, culture, and music. Our latest artist, The Howl, knows all about embracing their city’s diverse heritage with an eclectic  mix of math rock, punk, and indie sounds. Their latest album, 900 Feet Beneath, is chock full of tasty tracks featuring toe tapping drums, energetic vocals, and textured guitars throughout. We don’t like picking a single track to define the record, but do yourself a favor and check out “Dinner With Bentham” to get a taste of what The Howl is all about!

Read More

This Week on DVD: November 6, 2012

Your Sister’s Sister
Mark Duplass (who was just in “Safety Not Guaranteed,” released last week) finds himself in the middle of a love triangle between Rosemarie DeWitt and her sister, Emily Blunt. Well, there’s worse places to be. Directed by Lynn Shelton, who made the profoundly uncomfortable “Humpday.”

360
Anthony Hopkins, Ben Foster, Jude Law and Rachel Weisz star in this film from Fernando Meirelles about a daisy-chain of lovers that cross lines of class, race, gender and politics. Reviews were lukewarm. Read More

GonnaWatchIt.com: Argo

Ben Affleck made quite a splash a few years ago with his directorial debut, “Gone Baby Gone,” which was my favorite movie of 2007. His next project, “The Town,” wasn’t nearly as impressive, and I wondered if directing and starring in a film was too much for him to take on (“Gone Baby Gone” starred his little brother, Casey.) But with “Argo,” Affleck proves that he has figured out how to both act and direct admirably. Read More

This Week on DVD: October 30th, 2012

The Campaign
Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis square off as opposing candidates in this dumb comedy about politics. Might be a good release valve if you’re all worked up about the real election.

Ruby Sparks
From the folks who gave us “Little Miss Sunshine.” Paul Dano is a writer with no love life until he writes a character he falls in love with, and she magically takes on flesh and blood. Quirky and sweet, it got decent reviews.  Read More

Mesita – The Coyote

Mesita is the moniker chosen by James Cooley, an artist located out of Colorado. To put it simply, his sound is a juggernaut of artistry and musicianship. It’s good, almost too good!

The album itself is just awe inspiring. The sheer amount of creativity that stems from Cooley is just a joy to experience from a listener’s end. We get envious just thinking about people listing to this album for the first time. The Coyote is a vast canvas of elements and instruments that build a wonderfully scenic sound. The songs ebb and flow into each other, creating an album that has an extremely high replay value. It’s very difficult to pick a favorite amongst the tracks but we recommend you listen to The Coyotes and Into The Wind to immediately get hooked on his sound. Read More

Blue Boats – I Am The Only One

Fall has finally hit Southern California! So we decided to go for a walk in the park. Crisp air and crunchy leaves beneath our feet were complimented by the newest track released by Blue Boats. Read More

This Week on DVD: October 23rd, 2012

A surprising lack of legit horror films for the week before Halloween. Guess I’ll be watching “The Descent” again this year.

Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter
The premise is ridiculous on purpose, but director Timur Bekmambetov doesn’t seem to know it. He’s a big fan of Zack Snyder, so everything’s in bone-crunching slow-mo. If you liked “Watchmen”, you might like this. If you read the book, not so much.

Magic Mike
Of course all the girls want to see it. (Channing Tatum plays a male stripper, for heaven’s sake.) Surprisingly, all the critics wanted to see it too. Steven Soderbergh directs, and it got surprisingly good reviews, and I won’t be surprised if it shows up on Top 10 lists at the end of the year. Read More

Tough Lovers – Kids Go Out

We previously wrote about Tough Lovers, a Canadian band cranking out catchy tunes. They’re at it again with their latest track, Kids Go Out. Easily making it one of our favorites for the month! Read More

This Week on DVD: October 16th

Moonrise Kingdom
Wes Anderson’s oddly delightful latest. Read my full review here.

Chernobyl Diaries
Oren Pelli (“Paranormal Activity”) delivers this film about a group of friends who decide to spend their vacation touring the abandoned city of Prypiat, home of the Chernobyl disaster. Got pretty terrible reviews, even for a b-horror flick.  Read More