New Release Tuesday!!! (2/14/12)

Snooze.  This is another New Release Tuesday where I cannot muster up the energy for most of the films hitting the shelves.  Sure, I enjoyed The Rum Diary and I'm looking forward to Take Shelter but this week lacks the rabid enthusiasm shown for recent flicks like Drive or the upcoming Anatomy of a Murder blu ray release.  So, no Must Buys this week and just a few titles I feel are even worth mentioning.

Buy!

THREE OUTLAW SAMURAI (CRITERION BLU):  I'm not a hundred percent sure, but I think I saw this flick about ten years ago.  I remember very little about it other than my enjoyment.  I really haven't been craving samurai flicks for a while, but with all the Westerns I've been devouring maybe this release will rekindle my ronin heart.


Rent!

THE RUM DIARY:  I enjoyed this Hunter S Thompson journalistic adventure, but probably not as much as my co-dork Matt did.  Johnny Depp is fun as a sorta younger version of the Thompson he played in Fear & Loathing, and Giovanni Ribisi & Michael Rispoli are fun as his depraved American cohorts lost in Cuba.  But there was a punch missing from the narrative, something unnamable that prevented the story from taking it to the next level.  Fun, but it's a rent.

TAKE SHELTER:  Boardwalk Empire has definitely put me on a Michael Shannon kick and now that the idea of him as Parker has forced its way into my head I can't get it out.  The first film I ever saw him in was Oliver Stone's World Trade Center and his mysterious savior character haunted that film in a way that the rest of the story never lived up to.  Take Shelter found its way onto a lot of critics Top Ten lists, but I never made it to the one art house theater that had a showing.  Seems like this is going to be an intense cinematic experience, but based on past Shannon turns in Bug, My Son My Son What Have You Done, and Boardwalk I think I'm mentally prepared.

Avoid!

THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE 2:  I did not care about the original film and I certainly don't care about this one.  Apparently this outing goes meta on us, but...yawn.  Gross shock cinema for middle schoolers testing their metal.  In my day we had Cannibal Holocaust and you know what I think about that flick--who cares?

--Brad