New (old) kids TV!

It's time to be a kid again (or show people what it was like). This week we got in:

Rugrats Season 1 (2 disks)
Rugrats Season 2 (4 disks)
The Rugrats Movie
Rugrats Mysteries
Rugrats Halloween
The Wild Thornberrys Movie
Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot (3 disks)

Add to that the following recent arrivals. How many do you recognize?
Aaahh! Real Monsters Season 3
Aaahh! Real Monsters Season4
Hey Arnold! The Movie
Mystery Files of Shelby Woo Seasons 1, 2 & 3
Doug Season 1 (3 disks)
Rocko's Modern Life Season 1 & 2

Newly arrived Anime movies!

Hello everyone, Matt here and today I wanna talk about anime!  Recently we were lucky enough to be able to up our stock on some truly classic and amazing animes, such as Wicked City, Robot Carnival, the complete series of Outlaw Star and Berserk! 

Wicked City (NOT FOR CHILDREN) Brought to you by Yoshiaki Kawajiri, the director of other fan favorites such as Ninja Scroll, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust and the Animatrix. Can be called a horror, fantasy Noir. In this story humans and demons inhabit the world and it is up to a team-up between a human and demon agent to protect a dignitary on his way to a peace treaty signing. Set in the dark underbelly of Tokyo, the soundtrack and dark tones really make this film feel like an intense Noir and yet it is full of outrageous transformations and creatures that I can only compare to John Carpenter’s The Thing. This film is NOT for children due to horror, gore and nudity - and lots of it. Definitely a Matt 3 pick! 

 Robot Carnival (PG-13) A short film collection from the greats in anime, all using robots as their common ground. Atsuko Fukushima (Akira), Hiroyuki Kitakubo (Black Magic M-66), Hiroyuki Kitazume (Bubblegum Crisis), Kôji Morimoto (Kiki's Delivery Service), Takashi Nakamura (Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind), Yasuomi Umetsu (Mezzo Forte), Manabu Ômori (Roujin Z & Metropolis), Hidetoshi Ômori (Mobile Suit Gundam Seed) and last but not least Katsuhiro Ôtomo the artist and creator of the manga and animated film Akira! ROBOTS! ROBOTS! ROBOTS! And one of the best soundtracks around; need I say more haha. These directors’ reputations speak for themselves! A definite Matt 3 Pick! 

Outlaw Star! (PG-13) OK TOONAMI FANS! HERE WE GO! Outlaw Star is one of my all-time favorite series, it's a perfect blend of action, comedy and drama; will punch you in the heart again and again. Short and sweet, IMDb.com said it best with "Gene Starwind dreams of a life as an outlaw, and fate smiles on him as he seems to suddenly wind up with a great job. But things go awry, and he finds himself the new owner of the fastest, most technologically-advanced spaceship in the Galaxy. Unfortunately, it is stolen and the owners want it back. Along with his partner Jim and the lovely Melfina, Gene must fight his way across the Galaxy battling Pirates, aliens and assassins as he attempts to discover the secret of the Outlaw Star." THIS IS A MATT 3 LOVES ME PICK!!!

 

BERSERK (original animated series) (NOT FOR CHILDREN) Finally the amazing medieval action adventure is available to VisArt! For all you Gamers, Dark Souls is HEAVILY based of Berserk. For everyone else Berserk is an epic action adventure filled with gory battles, crazy weapons, awesome armor and plenty of demons to kill. BERSERK is one of the best classic animes hands down. A definite Matt 3 Pick!

Earth Day pics

Come check out our Earth Day pick wall!

Devil and Devils

Two interesting new movies in the store today, both have similar titles and both have been banned in many countries. They've had controversial releases while being praised by critics.

The first in The Devil, directed by Andrzej Zulawski in 1972. It is a Polish historical thriller, and at the time of it's release it was banned by the Communist government in Poland.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Devil_(1972_film)

The second is The Devils, directed by Ken Russell in 1971, a film that was originally given an 'X' rating and considered one of the most controversial religious films ever made. It has been censored and edited, and has never been released in it's entirety.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Devils_(film)

Foreign New Releases this week!

Ixcanul • Fatima • The Innocents • Man Called Ove

Man Called Ove - The film was nominated for six awards, winning two, at the 51st Guldbagge Awards in 2016. It is nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film and Best Makeup and Hairstyling categories at the 89th Academy Awards. IMDb page and trailer

Ixcanul - is a 2015 Guatemalan drama film, a debut written and directed by Jayro Bustamante. It was screened in the main competition section of the 65th Berlin International Film Festival where it won the Alfred Bauer Prize. The film was selected as the Guatemalan entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards. IMDb page and trailer

Fatima - is a 2015 French drama film directed by Philippe Faucon. It was screened in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. It won the Prix Louis-Delluc for Best Film in December 2015. It received four nominations at the 41st César Awards and won Best Film, Most Promising Actress and Best Adaptation. IMDb page

The Innocents - is a 2016 French film directed by Anne Fontaine, which features Lou de Laâge, Agata Kulesza, Agata Buzek and Vincent Macaigne in its cast. It was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, Best Director, and Best Actress at the Seattle Film Critics Awards, & Seattle International Film Festival. The film won Best Film at the Valladolid International Film Festival. IMDb page and trailer

Actor Mary Tyler Moore

VisArt Featured Actor of the Week:  Mary Tyler Moore (1936 - 2017)

Multiple-Emmy-award-winning Mary Tyler Moore died this week, and for those who didn’t grow up watching one of her popular TV shows in the 60s or 70s, it might be hard to understand what the media attention about her now is all about. She came to many people’s attention as a comedy “straight man” Laura Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show, and it’s certainly worth watching some of those old episodes to get a sense of her role. However, her biggest impact was as Mary Richards on the Mary Tyler Moore Show, where she played a single working woman in a strong comedic cast. She could be funny, anxious, or feisty but was somehow always likeable, and she served as a role model of sorts for many women growing up during that period, embodying both the hopes and worries of that generation. She did also expand into plays and movies, most notably as the mom in  1980’s Ordinary People for which she was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar, but her greatest successes were on TV.

Here’s the NY Times article upon her death:

MaryTyler Moore, Who Incarnated the Modern Woman on TV, Dies at 80

and here are a few of her offerings at our store:

New to (or rediscovering) this actor? Try:

The Dick Van Dyke Show – (1961-1966). We have only one of the four volumes of the “Best of The Dick Van Dyke Show”  IMDb page for this TV Series

The Mary Tyler Moore Show – (1970-1977) We have the first 4 seasons of this TV series.  IMDb page for this TV Series

Ordinary People – (R, 1980). Description from IMDb: The accidental death of the older son of an affluent family deeply strains the relationships among the bitter mother, the good-natured father, and the guilt-ridden younger son. 

IMDb page

Already a fan? Try these less common offerings from our store:

Did you know that she made a few appearances with former co-star Betty White  in the TV series Hot in Cleveland, as Diane? You can catch one in our copies of Season 2

 IMDb page for TV Series

You can also see her in our copy of Flirting with Disaster (R, 1996) starring Ben Stiller and Patricia Arquette  “A young man, his wife, and his incompetent case worker travel across country to find his birth parents.” –from IMDb page

Finally, we have a copy of the hard-to-find and pretty bad  Change of Habit (G, 1969)  in which Moore played a nun and co-starred with Elvis Presley!!  IMDb page

Review - Embrace of the Serpent

Fudgy Says: this is a MUST SEE pick. this film is visually stunning and yet it's so hard to watch. although this is a fictional story based on the accounts of two scientists, Embrace of the Serpent shows us the damaging results of colonization in the Amazon. I highly recommend watching this film. The cinematography is amazing, the acting (with non-professional/real indigenous actors!!!) was on point, and the story itself was one that desperately needed to be told. Not to mention that the director was able to handle the subject with incredible grace and cultural sensitivity.

YouTube Embrace of the Serpent Trailer

"At once blistering and poetic, the ravages of colonialism cast a dark shadow over the South American landscape in EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT, the third feature by Ciro Guerra. Filmed in stunning black-and-white, SERPENT centers on Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman and the last survivor of his people, and the two scientists who, over the course of 40 years, build a friendship with him. The film was inspired by the real-life journals of two explorers (Theodor Koch-Grünberg and Richard Evans Schultes) who traveled through the Colombian Amazon during the last century in search of the sacred and difficult-to-find psychedelic Yakruna plant."