Friday, December 30, 2011

Savior Of The Soul (Hong Kong, 1991)

Savior Of The Soul starts out with an amazing sci-fi prison break, has a couple of good action scenes in the middle and ends with an innovative fight sequence but it is also full of bad low brow, not funny comedy scenes, that I would only recommend it to die hard Hong Kong film fans. Some Hong Kong films try to appeal to everyone. In the 80's and 90's it was common for entire families to go to the cinema together so film makers would have scenes for every member. Intense action for adult males, tear jerk romance for adult females, broad comedy to appeal to grandparents, and potty humor for the kids. One way to make films this way is to have multiple directors. In Savior Of The Soul you have Corey Yuen to oversee the intense action (with martial arts direction by Yuen Tak), Jeff Lau to direct the comedy and David Lai to do the rest. This can lead to schizophrenic movies. Sometimes very good schizophrenic movies. Savior of the Soul does not hold together as a whole film. Andy Lau, Aaron Kwok, Anita Mui, Carina Lau and Kenny Bee round out the cast. It is streaming on netflix. Here is the opening sequence on youtube.

New George Pelecanos novel for 99 cents

I prefer to read books, mostly from the library but amazon's kindle price the new Pelecanos book is too low to pass up. "What It Was" is due out on Jan 23, but if you preorder it, the price is 99 cents. And remember with amazon, they don't charge you until it is released. The hardcover is $22. You could add your name to your library's wait list, but 99 cents is hard to beat.

http://www.amazon.com/What-It-Was-ebook/dp/B005HFO072/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1325298864&sr=1-3

Monday, December 19, 2011

Best TV show of 2010 now on Netflix streaming

As everyone is posting their 2011 best of lists I want to talk about the best show I saw in 2010. Ted Griffin's Terriers was an FX series staring Donal Logue and Michael Raymond-James as unlicensed PIs in San Diego. They eke out a living solving small crimes, dog-napping, lost money, nothing dangerous. But things change in the course of the series and the PIs are in a fight for their lives. The writing, acting, and directing in this series is excellent. It is my favorite FX show, above The Shield, Justified, American Horror Story, and even It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia. If you are looking for a tv series to watch over the holidays you should watch Terriers.



Ted Griffin was a writer on The Shield and he wrote the screenplay for Ravenous. He is also the writer for the Ashton Kutcher movie Killers, and the Ben Stiller Eddie Murphy movie Tower Heist. Griffin's involvement in these films is enough for me to add them to my queue.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Michel Gondry's remake of Taxi Driver

Michel Gondry's Be Kind, Rewind had Jack Black and Mos Def remake classic films in an extremely low budget style called Sweded. Here is Michel Gondry's newest Sweded remake, Taxi Driver.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Michelle Yeoh in Fearless

I heard a review of the new Luc Besson film The Lady staring Michelle Yeoh as Aung San Suu Kyi and it reminded me that I had never seen her segment from the Chinese version of Jet Li's Fearless. Michelle Yeoh is featured in a framing sequence that explains why Wu Shu should be an Olympic sport. Here is the opening clip from youtube.



There is also a fight sequence that did not make the US version. Why a studio would cut a fight sequence from a Jet Li film does not make sense to me.



Obviously the original version does not have a linkin park soundtrack.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Sonny Sharrock on Space Ghost

I never watched the show in the 1990's so I was surprised to learn that Sonny Sharrock did the music to Space Ghost. Here's a 12 minute clip with Thurston Moore as the guest. Seen on WFMU's blog.

Space Ghost C2C - 26 - Sharrock by SpaceGhostC2Cfan0224

Friday, December 2, 2011

2000 A.D. (Hong Kong, 2000)

Directed by Gordan Chan (Fist Of Legend), this big budget espionage film co-produced by Singapore's Raintree Films, takes about 30 minutes for the action to start but then you have a high powered rifle sniper, bloody shootouts, car chases, and fights on top of skyscrapers. Many Hong Kong and Singaporean stars are in the film. Aaron Kwok, Francis Ng, Daniel Wu, Ray Lui and Andrew Lin round out the Hong Kong stars. The sniper is played by Ken Lo, who is famous for being Jackie Chan's bodyguard and final opponent in Drunken Master 2 (Legend Of The Drunken Master in the US). Definitely worth watch, Francis Ng gives a great performance as weary Hong Kong police detective. The netflix streaming has easy to read yellow English subtitles. Normally I put a link to the film's trailer but this time I'm linking to the sniper action scene. It does spoil a character's death.

Free Buddha Machine app

Free Buddha Machine app for iPads. I used to sell a lot of these and so I fihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifgured I would let you know that the app is free for the next couple of days. Originally found on boingboing.net

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Dating A Vampire (Hong Kong, 2006)

Hong Kong version of Fright Night, only not so good. Netflix recently added a ton of Hong Kong movies to their streaming service and most of them are not that good. I had the chance to buy many of them when they first came out on dvd or vhs and passed on them, but since they are streaming it only costs me my time. I picked Dating A Vampire because it is directed by Clarence Fok (or Ford) and features Yuen Wah and Andy On so I hoped there would be some decent action. There wasn't much, but the movie was not so bad. Recommended for Hong Kong fanatics only.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Black Lightning (Russia, 2009)

Black Lightning is a remake of Spiderman except instead of the hero getting bit by a radioactive spider, he gets a flying car. The special effects are pretty decent. Co directed by Dimitriy Kiselev and Aleksandr Voytinskiy. It is produced by Timur Bekmambetov, the director of Nightwatch and Wanted.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

No Mercy (South Korea, 2010)

One of the amazing things about South Korean cinema is how many great movies are made by first time directors. Kim Hyeong-Joon's No Mercy is a great crime drama with an involving plot that I don't want to give anything away about. It stars Sol Kyung-Gu as a University Professor who helps the police force with autopsies and forensic evidence. Just as he is about to retire (you always know something bad is going to happen when a cop or someone related to law enforcement nears retirement) he drawn into one last case. While the autopsies are not bloody, they are pretty graphic. Netflix has it streaming. Here is the unsub trailer (so you don't understand the spoilers unless you speak Korean). For those of you with out Netflix, the movie is up on youtube.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

New mix from Caribou

Nice mix from Caribou of artists playing the next ATP, ignore the title as thankfully there is no Xmas music in the mix. Found on dangerousminds.net

Caribou - Nightmare Before Christmas Mix by All Tomorrows Parties

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Trailer for Tsui Hark's Flying Swords Of Dragon Gate.

Here is the trailer for Flying Swords Of Dragon Gate, a 3D film by Tsui Hark and starring Jet Li. It gets the idea of 3D right, you should be throwing stuff at the screen. I saw Immortals in 3D and you would think a movie with a magic bow would fire at least one arrow at the audience.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Failan (South Korea, 2001)

Choi Min Sik is one of the world's best actors and if you disagree you should watch "Oldboy" and then "Failan". They are completely different and show an actor at his prime. In Failan, Choi is a low level gangster who is asked to take the fall for the murder that his boss has committed. The movie jumps between the present and the past when Choi agreed to have a fake marriage so that Cecilia Cheung could get a work permit in order to stay in South Korea. We follow Cheung's life as she works hard and is taken advantage of and the only joy she has is writing letters to her husband. Since it is a South Korean film you know that things probably won't end well for each character. Failan is one of the Korean films from 10 years ago that caught viewer's attention and has only been available on a region coded disc for many years. Finally it is available from Netflix with good subtitles. Here is an unsubtitled trailer.

Flaming Brothers (Hong Kong, 1987)

Flaming Brothers is written by Wong Kar Wai and stars Chow Yun Fat. 1987 was a good year for Chow Yun Fat, he was a the top of the box office after the success of A Better Tomorrow. Chow was in 11 movies released in '87 including City On Fire, Prison On Fire and A Better Tomorrow II. But the real star of Flaming Brothers is Alan Tang and Chow has more of a supporting role. Wong Kar Wai's script is not that special, the plot is the standard Triad partners breaking up as one of them falls in love and tries to go straight only to be pulled back in ala Al Pacino's lines in Godfather 3. Still any big budget Hong Kong action film from 1987 is worth seeing. The final shoot out is good. The bad guy in the film is Patrick Tse, father of current Hong Kong star Nicolas Tse, and you might recognize him as the bad guy in Shaolin Soccer. Netflix has it streaming with good subtitles. Here's the trailer but it is unsubbed.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Secret Of The Urn (Japan, 1966)

Hideo Gosha is a great Japanese samurai movie director that more people should know, fortunately more of his films are finally being released in America. 1966's The Secret Of The Urn is about a disfigured ex samurai who gets caught up in a plot to steal an urn that holds the secret to saving the Yagyu clan. Lots of good swordfights, one on one and one against many. The plot resembles a Raymond Chandler novel. Gosha's camera work is impressive, some nice tracking shots. Animego's subtitling is as good as ever, they take the time to color the subtitles for different voices and they caption and translate street signs. A recommended samurai film for someone looking for something past the Kurasawa classics. On netflix streaming.

Friday, November 4, 2011

Tiger Cage 2 (Hong Kong, 1990)

Having nothing to do with Tiger Cage, other than a plot with drug dealers and corrupt police, Yuen Wo Ping's Tiger Cage is an action fest. Close to 80 minutes of it's 90 minute running time is filled with the best fights and chases that Hong Kong actors and stuntmen can offer. This is the type of film that Hong Kong used to crank out on a weekly basis, and when it works, such as in this film, it really works. Donnie Yen is Dragon Yau and he teams up with David Wu and Rosamund Kwan to fight Robin Shou (from the Mortal Kombat films). Note that I said fight and not defeat as a lot of films from this era could kill the hero and or the heroine. You never knew. A lot of the time in late 80's/ early 90's Hong Kong action films the heroes and heroines represent Hong Kong and they get caught up between the United Kingdom abandoning them and the fear of a mainland Chinese takeover. A fair amount of filmmakers, and actors were planning on moving to Hollywood or Canada over fear of what might of happened in the 1997 handover. But check this movie out if you want to see some action, much better than any hollywood film. The netflix streaming version has good subtitles.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

The Magicians -for fans of Peep Show

If you've ever watched Peep Show on Hulu and you should as it is incredibly funny you should check out The Magicians, a movie that Mitchell and Webb made. No US release but it is on youtube. Their co-star is one of the creators of "Spaced". No embedding so click on the link

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Bodyguards and Assassins (2009, Hong Kong)

With it's big budget and all star cast and years in the making, Teddy Chen's Bodyguards and Assassins had a lot to live and up to and thankful it did. The story is about a ragtag group of people getting together to provide protection for Sun Yat-Sen on his trip to Hong Kong in 1906. The Chinese Empress Dowager wants him assassinated to prevent him from fermenting rebellion. The first 80 minutes introduce the cast and has some action but it is the last hour that takes place in real time as the heroes try to protect Sun Yat-Sen from a seemingly limitless supply of bad guys. Stand out sequences include Donnie Yen versus Cung Le, and Leon Lai against 30-40 henchmen. The performances are good, with Nicolas Tse winning Best Supporting Actor at the 2009 HKFA Awards. The film also won for Best Director, Art Direction, and Action Choreography. The movie is streaming on Netflix and is highly recommended.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

The Mafia, The Salesman, 2007 Korea

Netflix added the mother lode of Korean films recently and I presume that if you're reading this blog then you've seen Oldboy and The Good The Bad & The Weird, so I'm going to review some of the lesser known Korean films (at least in the US) now streaming on Netflix. First up, The Mafia, The Salesman from 2007. Directed by Seung Bo Shim and starring Lee Sung Jae. The netflix description makes the movie seem to be about the effects of globalization on the Korean mafia which piqued my curiousity. Unfortunately it is more of a fish out of water film. The young mobster is picked by his boss to go work for a corporation and learn "globalized management". The mobster joins an insurance firm and ends up having to sell door to door life insurance. Wacky hi-jinks ensue and they are moderately funny. The action is okay. As is standard in Korean mobster films, it is mostly large groups of people attacking another large group. Here is the unsubtitled Korean trailer. The streaming version has easy to read subtitles.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Herman Yau's On The Edge (2006)

Netflix has recently added a lot of Asian movies to their streaming service and I've decided to review some of them. First up, Herman Yau's On The Edge from 2006. It stars Nick Cheung, Francis Ng, Anthony Wong and Rain Li. After the success of Infernal Affairs, Hong Kong movie theaters were flooded with stories of undercover cops and their struggles as triad members. On The Edge was one of the better ones. Nick Cheung is Harry Boy, a cop who has spend 8 years undercover as a triad member, starting as a street brawler and moving up to a key position under triad boss, Don Dark, played by Francis Ng. After Don Dark is arrested, Harry Boy becomes a regular police officer working with Anthony Wong. Harry Boy is treated with suspicion by his fellow cops, and his only friends are triad members who no longer want anything to do with him. Francis Ng and Anthony Wong are playing roles that they are very familiar with, both of them were in the Infernal Affairs series, and they have worked with Herman Yau many times. Nick Cheung is good as the troubled cop. He made the Election films with Johnnie To around the same time. The movie has some good car chases, courtesy of action director Bruce Law. While not as good as Infernal Affairs or the Election films, On The Edge is definitely worth watching, particularly on netflix streaming.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Jennifer Lynch's Hisss

A while back I posted the trailer to Jennifer(David's daughter) Lynch's Hisss. It is a Bollywood horror film about a snake god's revenge on the people who kidnapped her mate. No singing. Good performances from Ifran Khan and Mallika Sherawat, but the bad guy's acting is really bad. It's on netflix streaming. There was a dispute between Lynch and the producers and I believe the version of the film on netflix is not Lynch's official cut.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

The pilot episode of Warren Ellis' Global Frequency

It was probably written in 2004 so the then futuristic phone tech is now outdated. If you read the comic it is definitely worth checking out, and I would have watched it had it ever made it's way to tv.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

prequel to George Pelecanos' The Cut

George Pelecanos is a DC based crime writer who wrote for The Wire. All of his books are recommended. His latest book is The Cut, is about an ex-marine investhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifigator run and his run ins with drug dealers (I know that's a crappy review, but I don't want to spoil it). There is an audio book prequel that you can listen to for free on facebook.

Friday, October 14, 2011

Peter Watts The Thing short story from the point of view of the alien

I just read this and thought it was so good I'd pass it along. A version of John Carpenter's The Thing, this time from the alien's point of view. Originally found on i09.com

http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Kongo - 1932 revenge film with Walter Houston




Kongo - Pretty cool revenge film set in the Congo from 1932, it's pre code and stars Walter Houston. It is a remake of a Tod Browning Lon Chaney silent from 1928.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Record racks for sale





most of you know I closing the store in two weeks and moving to Austin TX. So I'm selling the LP racks for $50 each.

Free cd cases


For friends that have record labels, bands, or art projects. I have about 2000 empty slim cd cases that I would be happy to donate to any cause.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Dump covering Prince's Pop Life

A nice pop song from James McNew of Yo La Tengo, covering Prince's Pop Life.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Joss Whedon John Cassaday's Astonishing X-men motion comic

Netlfix streaming and youtube have Joss Whedon and John Cassaday's Astonishing X-men motion comic. It is a good sci-fi story that was originally published in 24 issues. The motion comics work well with the artwork. The story line relies a little too much on many years of X-men history, so if you're only familiar with the movies, you might be a little lost. The voice acting is good. The only thing that is annoying is that Netflix and youtube break up the story into 6 episodes and so you have to watch the 1 minute long opening credits each time or fast forward. Netflix also has added a bunch of Marvel animated series and motion comics. The Iron Man Extremis, and S.W.O.R.D. are worth checking out.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Russian films on youtube

The Russian film archive Mosfilm has upload a lot of Russian movies with English subtitles to youtube. There is an amazing selection of films. Start out with "Viy" a ghost story based on a Gogol short story. Found via dangerousminds.net

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Stream the new Gang Gang Dance album

Matador has kindly allowed me to stream the new album by Gang Gang Dance.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Record player made out of paper and a sewing needle

Hand powered record player. Made as a wedding invite and the flexi disc is a song by the lucky couple.

http://kellianderson.com/blog/2011/04/a-paper-record-player/

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Some new used vinyl at the store

Some of the new used arrivals at the store today. Chakachas - Jungle Fever LP James Brown - Please Please Me LP Wilson Pickett - Right On LP The Impressions- Winners LP Joe Tex - I gotcha LP.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

The video for the New Pornographers Moves

Lots of funny people in this video. Worth checking out.



Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Open today


I've dug out the store and a path to the street. We will be open as usual until 8pm. I'm plan on listening to comedy records all day. So far Monty Python, George Carlin and currently Martin Mull.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Hard Boiled Update 2-1-11

Got a couple of things in today and will stick it out till 8pm tonight if you want to purchase any of them.
And we will be open tomorrow, from 12-8pm as usual.

Disappears - Guider CD/LP

Death - Spiritual/Mental/Physical CD/LP

Willie Wright - Telling The Truth LP+45 The latest Numero Group release.

V/a - Pakistan Folk & Pop Instrumentals from 1966-1976 2xLP Latest Sublime Frequencies vinyl only release.

Spacemen 3 - Walkin' With Jesus 12" With the 14 minute version of Rollercoaster.

North Sea - Bloodlines CD On Type Records.


I've also been repricing the 45s in the store and making new sections, including doo wop, northern soul, rockabilly and surf.

We will close early on Sunday (probably 4:30) for the Superbowl.

Thanks
Mark

Friday, January 28, 2011

Good martial arts movie on Netflix on demand

I highly recommend the Indonesian martial arts film Merantau. It is now on netflix streaming and you should check it out.