VideoRama at 2310 Lombard gets a facelift. Gone is the red paint and the blackened windows. Now you can see in to all the wonderful movies just waiting to be watched.

Future Home of St John's VideoRama

The St. John's store is getting closer to moving into it's new home as part of the large remodel/expansion of West Coast Fitness. More titles, waaaaay bigger front counter. The new spot (still at 7522 N. Lombard) should be ready around mid August.

Meet the Cast of Cinematic Titanic

The original cast and crew of Mystery Science Theater 3000 are now known as Cinematic Titanic. They do a live version of the show. They will be doing 2 shows in Portland, and we are lucky enough to have them do a meet-and-greet at our store at 2310 N. Lombard. They will be there to sign autographs, etc on Saturday, May 30th from 1pm - 2:30pm

Kimchi Westerns

We've seen it before and we'll certainly see it again: Asian Western movies. Most often, they are like nothing you've ever experienced before.

Ji-Woon Kim has given us an incredible film with 'The Good, the Bad and the Weird," an extremely compelling remake of Leone's famous movie, which many refer to as the greatest Western ever made. I generally have unrelenting contempt for remakes, both for the movies themselves and especially for the concept of remakes, but this is definitely the exception. Tremendous filmmaking, a fun story and a healthy dose of humor make this movie damn enjoyable.

I was very interested to see what they kept from the original and what they chucked out. Gone is the "turn in the bandit, shoot the rope he's being hung with" gag, as well as the discovery of the gold's existence from a dying confederate soldier. Remaining is one of the first scenes from "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," where the Bad shows his insidious nature by murdering in cold blood the man who hired him. Also, towards the end of Leone's film, the Ugly takes off on a horse towards the graveyard, leaving Clint Eastwood by himself. He casually uses his cigar to light cannon fuses and fire heavy ammuntion comically at Tuco as he rides away. In the South Korean remake, the fleeing-while-being-fired on by artillerary becomes an amazing actual chase sequence. They even used the fact that Lee Van Cleef was missing the tip of his finger as a plot device for the Bad in "The Good, the Bad and the Weird."

This is one of the funnest, most bad-ass movies to come out in awhile. And if you're not a Western person, I guarentee that this film has none of the specific qualities that keeps you from the genre.

And check out "A Tale of Two Sisters" and "A Bittersweet Life," two other films by Ji-Woon Kim that are available at our stories.

A deep and horrible secret

So I haven't written in awhile because I've been grappling with a soul eviscerating epiphany: I think I love Matthew McConaughey. While on vacation with my girlfriend Laura, we watched a little movie called "Failure to Launch," which I have always kept a contemptible distance from. We start watching it and damn, that is a great movie.

"Failure to Launch" never pretends to be anything other than what it is: a fun lighthearted comedy of manners. Take a well structured script and give it to actors who have great comedic timing, and usually something good will come of it. Combine that with some interesting gender role switching and competent, doesn't-call-attention-to-itself movie making and you're in business.

Anyway, now I'm determined to see any comedy I can with Matthew McGonaughey. Perhaps I'll take home "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" tonight...

FaceBook group just started (2/20/09)

How about everyone that reads this blog goes over to the VideoRama Group and gets this group off the ground. I started a "follow the leader" thread on movie quotes. Now it's your turn. If you're on the VR website, you'll have to click the blog link above before you can get the facebook link.