So much to tell you, so little inclination to sit here typing when there a ceiling waiting to be stared at and a counter just daring me to idly drum upon it with my fingers. Ah well….

Firstly - A MYSTERY!

On Saturday, in the Summertown branch, our lad Sam found a sealed brown envelope sat on the sofa, addressed 'For Videosyncratic'. Now, admittedly, handwritten correspondence in summertown usually transpires to be some kind of flowery letter of complaint ('Dear Sirs, Although I have admittedly had your dvd in my posession for two years, I feel the late fee of £20 is somewhat unreasonable - I could have BOUGHT it for that! Yours Faithfully, Lord and Lady Froofy Moneybags') but this turned out to have no letter at all in it, just what appears to be 2 signed photos of the cast of Harry Potter. I'm utterly baffled and intrigued as to who our mysterious benefactor was and I was riased well so would like to be able to thank them. I know Hermione drinks in the wine bar across the road there - could it be her doing? Anyway, let me know if you know. Ta.

Secondly - FREE COMIC BOOK DAY!

FCBD was the Saturday before last and went unexpectedly fantastically, we gave out LOADS of free comics, the 2000AD signing was really busy and the guys all had a great time. The gig in the evening was stupendous too. I want tot hank everyone who came and made it fun, Phantom Theory, Smilex and The Palce of Righteous Justice - who all put on an amazing show, Richard 'Wolverine' Morley who will always be my favourite superhero and deserves a comic strip of his own, but most of all I want to thank my staff - Laura, Zoe, Liam and Dan who worked really hard all day and don't get enough kudos from me in general. Actually, they probably get as much as they deserve.

Thirdly - COOL STUFF!!!!

I went to the Bristol comic convention this weekend. My first comic con.  It was VERY nerdy. I turned a blind eye to it's more worrying aspects and made the most of it. I got a bunch of stock signed for your purchasing enjoyment, it'll be on the shelves today and once it's gone, it's gone.

DAN DARE ISSUE 1 - SIGNED BY ARTIST GARY ERSKINE

LOBO - PORTRAIT OF A BASTICH (BOOK) - SIGNED BY SIMON BISLEY (!!)

ALICE IN SUNDERLAND - SIGNED AND FEATURING A HAND DRAWN ORIGINAL SKETCH OF THE MAD HATTER BY BRYAN TALBOT

We only have a few of each, so I advise you make your visit a soon one.

NEW RELEASES - DVDS

BLOODRAYNE:
I know some of you have heard of Uwe Boll. This is his latest. He is widely acknowledged as the worst film director working in the world today. Many of compared him to Ed Wood, but I'd argue he is the antithesis, Wood had a vision which he was artistically unable to achieve. Boll has no vision and has great financial success as he concentrates far more on the business side rather than the artistic. He views his films as investments and serves a large pool of shareholders in his native Germany. His business patter is rather clever, he comes up with a blatantly commercial film idea (often adaptations of video games), puts together a miniscule budget and blows most of it on big name actors (he's managed to get Ben Kingsley in this one!) whom he pulls from a list of actors who have just had projects fall through or have some time off and fancy making some quick, easy money on films unlikely to bother the cinema. This would all be good if the man could write or direct but he really can't. His films surpass 'so bad it's good' and land squarely in the 'unmitigated shit' category. He became a bit of an internet celebrity forhis prodigous sub-par output and, sick of being labelled shit by critics issued his critics a challenge - anyone who had written him a bad review was welcome to join him for 3 rounds in a boxing ring. This actually happened. Amusingly (that shrewd mind of his working overtime), amongst the conditions of applying, all potential challengers had to be below a certain weight and strictky amateur. Boll, it transpired, was above this weight and trained to semi-professional standards, so (despite assuring them before the matches that it was all just silly fun)  he beat the crap out of his critics. Obviously he has claimed this as a vindication of his work. Genius. Anyway… Bloodrayne… shit.

ALIENS VS PREDATOR 2: REQUIEM:
Talking of shit, here's some shit!
What the fuck happened to the Alien franchise? It's properly embarassing  the shit they're serving up now. The first 4 Alien films were always interesting. Each one gave an exciting new director a chance to show the world their chops. Ridley Scott, James Cameron, David Fincher, Jean-Pierre Jeunet. The last two weren't perfect, but they were INTERESTING. Then they decided to team the Aliens up with the predators and gave the job to Paul W.S. Anderson. If Uwe Boll is the worst director working today, Anderson is waiting in the wings to nick his crown. Anderson is a true anomaly which highlights all that is wrong with the business. He makes films which are amazingly commercial and amazingly bad. Of course an Aliens vs predator film, highly marketed, will be a box office success, regardless of whether every single person leaving the cinema goes 'uh, that was fucking awful!'. So, on paper, Anderson is a succesful director. His films have acheived the soulless status of being utterly shit and utterly profitable - a regular occurance since the film studios were taken over fully by faceless global corporations. They didn't actually use Anderson for this sequel to his recent shitfest. They used two brothers who have never made a film before but have a big history in visual effects. It's shit.
Many have speculated about an Alien film where the aliens finally make it to earth. Of course, filmmakers of this calibre don't have the vision to muse on an epic level and contain thie invasion to a tiny American town surrounded by forest. So ionstead of the global war that one might hope for, it really is just a rubbish horror movie in which a couple of monsters attack redneck residents of a tiny town. If you'll be so good as to allow me to reveal the ending for  you (you weren't going to watch it) it concludes with perhaps the most genius display of laziness from a writer - the airforce drop a nuclear bomb on the town killing everyone and everything in it. I mean, that is genius laziness. There isn't a film I can think of with which that could be the ending. It;s so definitive. Imagine, if you will, The Usual Suspects - who is Keyser Soze? Doesn't matter - kaboom! Casablanca - will Rick really get on the plane? Who cares? kaboom! Citizen Kane - what is Rosebud? It's insignificant! KABOOM!
Genius. Yet also… shit.

THE DEATHS OF IAN STONE:
Uber make up dude Stan Winston directs what can only be described as a gory version of Groundhog Day. Every day this bloke wakes up to be killed in a horrible way. I don't know much about it above it was filmed in London. So it could be cool. But it's probably shit.    

THE GOOD NIGHT:
This one sounds interesting. Martin Freeman from The Office stars as a failed musician who meets the girl of his dreams… in his dreams. Supporting cast include Simon Pegg (why they didn't feel the need to put his photo on the cover is beyond me!), Danny Devito and Jarvis Cocker!

PS I LOVE YOU:
Chickflickorama. Hilary Swank as a recent widow who's dead husband (300's Gerard Butler - probably not dripping with chip fat this time) leaves her a series of notes designed to get her over him. I believe the 'PS' stands for 'probably shit'.

WALK HARD:
I dunno, I kind of liked this one. I think John C Reilly has long deserved centre-stage, but I'm not sure this was the ideal vehicle for his specific talents (why has nobody ever cast him as a pirate, for fucks sake? He'd be an AMAZING pirate!!!). Still, it's amiable fluff, lampooning Walk The Line and telling the fake life story of Dewey Cox from the brith of rock and roll right up to the modern age. It's written by Judd Apatow, the guy behind Superbad, Forgetting Sarah Marshall and The 40 Year old Virgin (and the criminally overlooked TV show Freaks and Geeks). Worth watching if only for a string of inspired cameos including Jack White of The White Stripes as Elvis and Jack Black and Paul Rudd as Paul McCartney and John Lennon.

WRISTCUTTERS:
Patrick Fugit, the kid out of Almost Famous stars as a recent suicide who finds himself in a frustratingly dull purgatory. Tom Waits co-stars. Could be good.

That's it for flicks.

COMICS - ALL WILL BE ON THE SHELVES BY THURSDAY NIGHT:

100 BULLETS #91
ABSOLUTE SANDMAN HC VOL 03
ALL NEW IRON MANUAL
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #559
ARMY OF DARKNESS #9 LONG ROAD HOME
BATMAN #676 RIP
BATMAN #676 VAR ED RIP                                  
BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL #17                                  
BATMAN THE JOKERS LAST LAUGH TP
BATMAN THE RESURRECTION OF RAS AL GHUL HC
BLACK SUMMER #6 (MR)
BLEACH TP VOL 01
BLEACH TP VOL 02 (C: 1-0-0)
BOOSTER GOLD #9
BPRD 1946 #5 (OF 5)
BTVS SEASON 8 TP VOL 02 NO FUTURE FOR YOU
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #11
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #12
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #4 FINAL VER
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #6
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #8  
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #9
CAPTAIN BRITAIN AND MI 13 #1
CASANOVA #14
DMZ #31
EVIL DEAD #4 (OF 4)
FINAL CRISIS SKETCHBOOK
GEN 13 #20
GENEXT #1 (OF 5)
GIANT SIZE INCREDIBLE HULK #1
GOON #24
GOTHAM UNDERGROUND #8 (OF 9)
GREEN ARROW BLACK CANARY #8
GREEN LANTERN CORPS #24
GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #1
HUNTRESS YEAR ONE #1 (OF 6)
IRON MAN LEGACY OF DOOM #2 (OF 4)
JOSS WHEDONS FRAY FUTURE SLAYER TP
LAST DEFENDERS #3 (OF 6)
LOCAL #11 (OF 12)
MANGA SHAKESPEARE HAMLET GN
MANGA SHAKESPEARE MIDSUMMERS NIGHT DREAM GN
MANGA SHAKESPEARE TEMPEST GN
MARVEL SPOTLIGHT HULK MOVIE
NEW EXILES #6
NEWUNIVERSAL SHOCKFRONT #1 (OF 6)
PUNISHER #57 (MR)
RAY HARRYHAUSEN FLYING SAUCERS VS EARTH #1 (OF 4)
RETURN O/T GREMLINS #3 (OF 3)
SECRET INVASION #1 (OF
SECRET INVASION #2 (OF
SECRET INVASION FANTASTIC FOUR #1 (OF 3)
SERENITY BETTER DAYS #3 (OF 3)
SIMON DARK #8
SUPERMAN #676
THUNDERBOLTS #120
TITANS #2
TOP 10 TP BOOK 01
UN-MEN #10
WALKING DEAD #49
WASTELAND #15
WOLVERINE #65
WOLVERINE AMAZING IMMORTAL MAN BLOODY TALES
WONDER WOMAN #20
X-MEN LEGACY #211
YOUNG LIARS #3

Phew!
Well, that's it. The website is being redesigned at the moment and you can expect that to be active and awesome very soon.

Enjoy the sunny weather, ya bastards. You'll all come crawling back once autumn lays it's icy dead hand upon your shoulders.

Jon VS Boll

DVDS:

RUN FATBOY RUN:
This has the same unbearable disappointment factor as Big Nothing had. When you see Simon Pegg as the star of a film, you expect it to have the quality and charm of Shaun of the Dead/Hotfuzz/Spaced. This really doesn't. It's a horrible twee script about a guy who decides to run a marathon to prove to the girl he loves (who he jilted at the altar 5 years previously) that he has the ability to see something through. The story veers between implausible twaddle and dull mediocrity. It has a few moments where Pegg shines through but generally you sit there with a grumpy frown going 'How can 90 minutes of Simon Pegg and DYlan Moran be this bland?'. I think the answer lies in fuzzy directing from Ross out of Friends and the age-old difference between a British comedy film and an American comedy movie set in Britain (the need to cast Hank Azaria as the bad guy shows a pointless distrust in a full British cast). It has that 'last act of Three Men and a Little Lady' vibe where it doesn't feel authentically British and even though they've spent their dollars on great British talent, the talent is constrained by having to present an American's view of their own culture. Possibly worth watching if only to see how badly graded the film is and watch as Pegg's hair changes scene-by-scene from blonde to brown to shocking orange.

CONTROL:
Anton Corbjin's biopic of Ian Curtis. Well, it's a miserable fucking film but it was never going to translate as much of a comedy romp. Beautifully filmed, beautifully acted and utterly engaging but, of course, it leaves you cold as Curtis's decline inevitably plays out infront of you. It depressed the living shit out of me but it's a really well crafted film. I think it has a lot to say about the current cult of celebrity too.

THE HEBREW HAMMER:
Adam Goldberg - the freaky flatmate from Friends and horrible-stabby-death-on-the-staircase-guy from Saving Private Ryan stars in a 70s style street comedy about a Jewish detective. It could be very good or very bad but I bought it on the strength of the title alone.

MR BROOKS:
Herein lies a weird one, like tuna mayonnaise porridge, the ingredients seem so wrong but the outcome is so right. Actually, I haven't watched it but I'm hearing unanimous good feedback from those braver than myself. Kevin Costner (ewwww) stars as a normal bloke who's metaphysical alter ego William Hurt (eurghghhh) is a vicious serial killer, he gets away with it for a while but then finds out that ubercop Demi Moore (good god, no) is on the case. So, it's a horible cast in a rubbish sounding film but apparently it's actually very good. I don't actually eat tuna mayonnaise porridge, by the way. But I know someone who does. Simon.

MICHAEL CLAYTON:
George Clooney continues to bury his Hollywood career by making smaller, more thoughtful films. Dontcha just love him? In this one a corporate lawyer finds his Jiminy Cricket. Supposedly it has that 1970's taut business espionage thriller stuff going on. I might watch it tonight. Oh no, I just got 14 hours of 80s sitcom Perfect Strangers in the post. I'll be watching that. Heh.

MIGHTY BOOSH 3:
Meh. Vic and Bob for the emos.

ROCKET SCIENCE:
Stuttering kid joins debating team. Heartwarming guff meets Napoleon Dynamite-esque self-concious hipness topped with a Wes Anderson bow of quirk. I'll pass, thanks.

COMICS:

SCOTT PILGRIM 4!!!!!!!!!!!:
Right, ya bastards, speaking to you non-comic geeks as, myself, a non-comic geek (I do it for the Benjamins… the Elizabeths…whatever) I have to tell you that Scott Pilgrim is the best thing you could ever read in your life ever. This is the fourth installment of what is best described as lazy Canadian Rock Band Manga. It's the ongoing story of scampish layabout Scott Pilgirm who plays bass in rubbish but enthusiastic band Sex Bob-Omb. He falls in love with a girl and finds out that to win her fully, he has to defeat her 7 evil exes. So in each volume, the slacker indie lifestyle fun is scuppered by the arrival of an evil ex intent on killing Scott with any combination of kung fu disciplines. It's funny, it's weird, it's awesome. Edgar Wright (director of Shaun of the dead/Hot Fuzz/Spaced) is signed up to bring it to the screen, and it will make an amazing film, but in the meantime, you really need to come in and buy the books (these are actually graphic novels, not just comics) you will not regret it. SO GOOD!

DAN DARE 1 & 2:
I'm very much digging this reboot of a British comic legend. Garth Ennis (Preacher) is doing a stunning job at recapturing the old Eagle comic feeling but giving it a contemporary sharpness of narrative and character. We still have copies (and rare variant covers - at the same price) of both issues 1 and 2 but they're going FAST so get in quickly or ask us to reserve you one as once these ones are gone, they're gone.

PUNISHER: FORCE OF NATURE - ONE SHOT:
This is a fun one-off Punisher adventure. Worth acquring if only for it's Moby Dick inspired cover seeing Punisher facing off against an enormous whale. Good stuff.

other comics this week:

200AD
30 DAYS OF NIGHT: BEYOND BARROW
76
AMAZING SPIDERMAN
AMERICAN VIRGIN (LAST ISSUE!)
ASTRO CITY
BPRD 1946
CIVIL WAR CHRONICLES
COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS
DMZ
EVIL DEAD (we still have a few copies of issue 1 left, grab em while you can!)
FANTASTIC FOUR
FRIDAY 13TH BADLAND
GEN 13
GHOST RIDER
GOTHAM UNDERGROUND
GREEN ARROW BLACK CANARY
GUTWRENCHER
JACK STAFF
JLA CLASSIFIED
NEW AVENGERS
SIMON DARK
SUPERMAN
THE SWORD
TINY TITANS #1 (cuuuuuuuuuute)
ULTIMATE IRON MAN 2
WOLVERINE
WONDER WOMAN

Graphic novels:

ARKHAM ASYLUM ANNIVERSARRY EDITION
BATMAN - THE LONG HALLOWEEN
FABLES - ALL VOLUMES
FUN WITH MILK AND CHEESE
JACK OF FABLES
JELLABY
ALICE IN WONDERLAND MANGA
POWERS - ALL VOLUMES
TWISTED TOYFARE THEATRE - ALL VOLUMES
WITCHBLADE VOL 1
Y THE LAST MAN
100 BULLETS - ALL VOLUMES
ASTERIX - ALL VOLUMES
ALICE IN SUNDERLAND
CEREBUS - ALL VOLUMES
CHRONICLES OF WORMWOOD
CIVIL WAR
DEATH NOTE
ESSENTIAL ANTMAN
ESSENTIAL HOWARD THE DUCK (Howard's creator Steve Gerber sadly passed away last week. We sincerely hope to profit from this unexpected tragedy. Also, we have lots of Heath Ledger films including Candy - the one where he takes loads of drugs)
SIN CITY
HELLBOY
HELLSING
KUROSAGI CORPSE DELIVERY SERVICE
LOEG
LOVE & ROCKETS
PROMETHEA
PUNISHER MAXX
SANDMAN
SLEEPER
ULTIMATE SPIDEY
ULTIMATES

Oh, we also got a sculpted 3d Godfather movie poster thing. It's ace.

If there's stuff you want, the best thing to do is ask! We now offer a really good reservations service, where you get us a list of titles you're interested in and we make sure anything that might appeal to you is held back until your next visit. If you put in a big order, we'll even give you free stuff like comic bags and a free monthly copy of Previews - the immense comic catalog.

Please drop in and rent stuff and buy stuff.

20% OF ALL TOYS AND T-SHIRTS IN STORE RIGHT NOW.

Stay in touch!

Jon VS THE MEKON.

How goes?

All is rather ace here. We're really taking tot his whole comics thing and the staff are slowly becoming comic nerds (Liam favours World War 1 Hulk whilst Dan is becoming quite the Watchmen fan. Cody was already a comic nerd so he likes anything, personally, I'm happy to have rediscovered Peter Bagge and his rather excellent new title Apocalypse Nerd).

Film geeks aren't left out, we now have SO MUCH awesome film memorabilia. The posters are selling fast (we only stock proper movie one-sheet designs, none of your Athena crap) and the t-shirts are flipping ace! Look at the end of the bulletin for pics.

Just a quick post today, we're now primed to take comics orders - ie, you tell us what lines of comic you want to buy on a regular basis, we get them in and put them by for you and you can pick them up as a bundle every week, fortnight, whatever.

If you want us to get your comics on order, or have special one-off requests that you want us to order, email me at:

biffbangkapow@yahoo.com

We now stock Previews Magazine - the monthly list of all that is about to come out. Come in and pick up or flick through a copy and we can take your order direct from that. Aren't we organised these days?

I had 2 emails after my last blog asking me very nicely to start blogging again. I'll think about it. I stopped cos it took ages and only rubbish films seemed to be coming out. If you really want me to start again, let me know.

That's yer lot, suckers.

Jon VS Ash Vs Freddy Vs Jason

Recent decisions within the Videosyncratic International Conglomorate have resulted in us having to make certain changes to the Cowley Road branch will will render the experience of going into any other shop on the street as hollow and worthless.

Yes, we were awesome before, but we've just become super-awesome, baby.

So let's look at what you'll find under the roof of 101 Cowley Road now

- DVD RENTAL! We've ditched VHS, we're beefing up the back catalogue, we're still the best rental store in the 'shire.

- COMICS! Yep, we're half comic shop now, we've hired Comic Showcase's Cody  and we mean business. We've got loads and can order anything you want.

- GRAPHIC NOVELS! From superheroes to oddballs, we've got the BEST selection in town and if we don't have what you're looking for, we can get it for you.

- TOYS! Tooooooooooys!!!!!! From The Lost Boys to Devo top Jacks Sparrow and Skellington to Elvis to Predator to Shaun of the Dead to little puppet dude from Saw and so much more! If it's cool, we've got a little plastic version of it!

- T-SHIRTS! An awesome selection of uber-cool retro filmy t-shirts.

- POSTERS! Our all-new poster rack is pumped full of the bitchingest original one-sheet poster designs. From the Japanese Amelie poster through to the awesome original Evil Dead one-sheet.

- VINTAGE TRADING CARDS! A jaw-dropping selection of original, still sealed bubblegum cards from the 70s and 80s. Don't eat the gum. Well, eat it, but don't hold us responsible.

I've been working my ass off to source cool stuff that you can't find anywhere else in town, this is genuinely now you're one-stop-awesome-shop. If you're looking for gifts, stuff to read or just a bit of impulse treating-yourself, this is the place to come.

Rock forever onwards.

Jon VS EVERY OTHER SHOP IN TOWN.

 ….well, at Videosyncratic, anyway.

HELLO! Did yer miss me? I bet you did, I would have. So, firstly, I'm sorry for abandoning you. The honest reasons for my blogs unceremoniously ending a while ago were that, firstly, I've been busy making my own feature film (go me!) and secondly, there seemed to be so many rubbish films coming out and so few good ones that it felt as if covering them would make me look amazingly morose and jaundiced and, really, I'm not. Infact, I'm rather a happy chappy at the moment.

As for the state of DVD releases, the last couple of weeks have seen This Is England and Zodiac released - two of my favourite films in a very, very long time. They don't generally make films like these anymore so I urge you to rent them and talk them up and see if we can change the tide of formulaic filmmaking. I could write a huge long review for each, and one day maybe I will, but not today, my little puppies, for today is a day of NEWS….

VIDEOSYNCRATIC IS MUTATING!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's changing, morphing, doing that American Werewolf in London kind of bone-crunching transformation and coming out as something even more evil and incredible!

But what is it transmograpamorphinating into?????

Well…… I'm going to draw it out a little bit longer….

are you ready? I can't just blurt it out…..

Let's do this in stages….

1. COWLEY ROAD IS DITCHING VHS. It breaks my heart to do this but the truth is that VHS barely rents anymore and people just don't dig seeing it about. I grew up on video, as many of you know, VS is built around my original collection of rare and crazy big-box VHS, I was a passionate collector back in the day but the day has indeed passed. We're in the digital age and VHS must be consigned with a satisfying clunk into the toploader of history. So, this means….

2. ENORMOUS VHS SALE IN COWLEY ROAD!!!!!! Yep, we're selling the lot, it's just clogging up the shelves here. There will be a blanket price and it'll be a low one with fantastic bulk deals! Watch this space, but chances are this sale will start either on next Wednesday or Thursday. It's a one-off huge sale, we have thousands of films to offload, some I'd wager that you'll never find on DVD, so come and get 'em. First come first served, when they're gone, they're gone forever. So what are we going to do with all that space? Well…………

3. WE'RE OPENING A COMIC SHOP!!!!!!!!! We're opening a motherfuckin' comic shop! Right on Cowley Road! And when I say comic shop, I don't mean some stale-aired nerdy-bloke-filled creepshow, I mean a comic shop Videosyncratic style. To call it a comic shop is actually to limit it somewhat. I've been referring to it as a 'POP CULTURE EMPORIUM OF CRAP!' If you dig films, tv, music, kitsch, Japanese stuff, comics, graphic novels and coolness, you'll dig BIFF-BANG-KAPOW! (that's it's name, if you didn't get that)

We're ramming the place with posters, toys, prints, collectables, badges, stickers, t-shirts just a ton and a half of cool swag. We're even going to have a section for local music since every half-decent shop on the Cowley Road has now closed down, we will be your one-stop shop for AWESOMENESS.

I know you're excited, but I sense a litle sadness and confusion. Let me clear that up, the birth of BIFF-BANG-KAPOW does NOT mean the death of Videosyncratic. The fact is, with the space that getting all of our videos affords us, we can actually split the shop in half, so half-emporium-o-stuff, half-awesomest-dvd-shop-in-all-o-the-world. WE ARE NOT MARGINALISING VIDEOSYNCRATIC - don;t worry about that or think we're wrapping it up, we really aren't, we'll still be getting in all of the new releases and still be beefing up the back catalogue, if you want to see something, ask us!

The simple fact is that it's prohibitively expensive to be an independent business in Oxford these days. Business has dwindled for all of the shops on Cowley Road over the past 18 months thanks to the dumb-ass road-twatting scheme they've pointlessly decided to install, this combined with generally unrealistic rents makes it almost impossible for indies like us to even break-even. When we unexpectedly had our rent in the Summertown branch almost DOUBLED, we had to decide what to do. We decided we didn't want to just pack up and move on, we're having too much fun and while there are still cool folks out there amongst the corporate zombie scum that most of Oxford has become, we want to be the ones turning them on to cool stuff!

Film is still our passion, you'll still get the same level of service you have come to expect from Videosyncratic (sneering at your choices, etc), we're just offering you a much wider range of cool stuff. Please support us, we'll be able to get you any comics, posters or general swag you can imagine and, if you didn't already know, buying such stuff from us rather than Borders, Virgin or wherever means that you're not funding evil multi-nationals, you're supporting one of the last actually independent, passionate and fucking cool businesses in town.

For the entire opening week, Liam will be dressed as a Marvel superhero (suggestions welcome as to which one - he seems to think not deciding will somehow get him out of it).

So, come down for the sale and a week on Monday (8th October?) BIFF-BANG-KAPOW will be opening it's doors.

Keep the faith, baby.

Jon VS Nerds

Ah well.

At least there are new releases!

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VENUS:

I wanted this to be amazing sooooooooo much. I loved the trailer, love Peter O'Toole, love Leslie Phillips, love a good British film. It could have been great but it really just ended up pretty good. The story of two very old friends and withering thesps whose lives get disrupted by the arrival of Phillips's chavvy great-neice. The performances are excellent across the board, obviously O'Toole and Phillips are incredible but a good deal of the film rests on first-timer Jodie Whittaker and she prooves herself every bit worthy of sharing the frame with O'Toole. It's a good story, a great cast, so why isn't it great? It's just really horribly directed. This surprises me because Roger Michell's last film - Enduring Love was really one of the better British films in a good few years (and my favourite film opening scene ever). This one is just horribly directed, it's needlessly twee and sentimental and none of that comes from Hanef Kureishi's excellent script. The performers are all subtle and great but the camerawork and editing just makes it all far too Werthers Original. The score is terrible, horribly syrupy and unnecessary and the overuse of that fucking 'gi-rl get your records on' song from a couple of years ago is baffling and infuriating. I guess I still reccomed it as a film but it bugs me how much better it could have been.

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THE NUMBER 23:

Disappointingly not a film about a bus. Call we overly skeptical but I feel no good can come by combining Jim Carrey with Joel Schumacher. I could be wrong but I'll never watch this film to find out.

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BREAKING AND ENTERING:

Oh, I hate Jude Law. He's the British Russell Crowe, a dull uninteresting performer who somehow has convinced people he is otherwise. That said, it's an Anthony Minghella film with support from Juliette Binoche, Martin Freeman and Ray Winstone. It's the story of a landscape architect who starts out on an ill-judged affair with the refugee mother of a teenager who burgled his office. This is the first time Minghella has written a film he's directed since Truly, Madly Deeply (which really is one of the greatest British films) but without an Alan Rickman or a Juliet Stevenson, I wonder how sucesful this can be.

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AMAZING GRACE:

This one seemed to appear from nowhere, I wasn't aware of it hitting the cinemas. I'm very keen to check it out, Michael Apted is a fantastic director, the writer is Steven Knight who previously wrote the excellent Dirty Pretty Things and I think Ioan Gruffud has been waiting for a half-decent role to flex his muscles. It tells the story of the abolition of slavery  in the UK, a story which I don't think many are familiar with at all. Kind of a British Amistad. Gruffud plays MP William Wilberforce and, in a bizarre stroke of casting inspiration, singer Yousou N'Dour plays Equiano. Thankfully there is no sign of Neneh Cherry.

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CATCH AND RELEASE:

Kevin Smith takes a break from a career of pissing all over the memory of his amazing directorial debut to play comedy fat sidekick in a rather tepid looking chick flick.

And that's all the new stuff!

I want to take a moment to extend Videosyncratic's congratulations and best wishes to our very own Jamie and his beautiful bride Minnie who got married on Friday at what had to be one of coolest weddings ever. All I can say is that's the greatest wedding band I've ever seen and those two redefined the very concept of a wedding cake in the most excellent way ever.

I also want to give a mention to the guys and girls behind Truck who, as many of you will know, had to cancel the festival at the last moment due to the floods. They work so hard for that thing and it's all for charity so that really sucks. I really want to thank them, however, for scaping together a weekend of shows at Brookes which climaxed with a perfromance by Garth Hudson of The Band. The Band have been my favourite band for years and I never thought I'd ever get to see any of them actually play live, that was just magical. A huge thank you in particular to 'cratic uber-customer Graham who is Goldrush's drummer and got Garth to autograph my Last Waltz record cover. I owe ya!

Oh, to those of you who haven't seen The Last Waltz, you really should. It's the best music film ever made. Directed by Scorsese (the role of Marti Di Bergi from Spinal Tap is based firmly on Scorsese in this flick), it documents The Band's final ever concert in which they play their hits better than ever before and back many guest performers such as Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Neil Diamond, Muddy Waters, Dr John, etc. Best film ever. It lives on my reccomends shelf. Here's a clip from it. Check out Garth's sax solo at the end. Great stuff.

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Jon VS the tide.

Only one New Release coming in on Monday but - hey - it's a stonker. Stinker. Yeah, stinker. It looks crap.

PREMONITION:

The irony of calling a new Sandra Bullock thriller 'premonition' is not wasted on me. Have we not seen this woman in mediocre jeopardy somewhere before? In this one she has premonitions or something and some scary things happen but, let's be honest, they'll only be scary to girls. Not all girls, obviously. Just rubbish girls. The kind who rent films which have Drew Barrymore in them. Desperate, insubstantial wallflowers who use this crap to propogate their utterly flawed inner optimism that one day they will meet a man who will fall in love with them at first sight (or who they'll initially hate but through a series of cute and crazy interactions will realise is their 'one'). So, yeah, you can watch that if you like.

By the way, just to illustrate both the stupidity of film marketing people and the contempt they clearly hold for their target audience look at the original cinema poster that they apparently decided was too subtle for women who rent DVDs…

OK, so since that's the only new release we have coming in, I ordered a few back-catalogue classics I felt we should have on our shelves.

..

TWO-LANE BLACKTOP:

You can forget Easy Rider and Vanishing Point (but… don't, cos they're excellent films!) this is the perfect road movie right here. It's a weird film and doesn't really have the crazy action and stunts you'd expect from what the genre became. It's a beautiful underplayed flick which captueres perfectly the post-hippie malaise and confusion of the very early 70s. James 'Call out his name, he'll come running - which is pretty impressive if you think about it' Taylor and Dennis 'Beach Boy' Wilson play a couple of pals who think only of their beloved car. They race locals around back roads of small town America until they meet Warren Oates who challenges them to a race across the country. This is a subtle and gloriously odd film, it only just got released a few weeks ago (the release was so unpublicised I managed to miss it myself!). If you're genuinely into your cult cinema, this is the flick for you.

WATERSHIP DOWN:

I was discussing this with my pal Will earlier today, he mentioned that this was one of his favourite films of all time - as it is mine, so realising we only had it on VHS, I decided to get the DVD in tout suit. Toot Sweet? Anyway, rather than type anymore about it, I'll just repost a bit I wrote about it for the blog months and months ago…

I think watching Watership Down was an unexpected and traumatic rite of passage for my generation, the day when you realised that cartoons wouldn’t necessarily be happy, bright and nice. I saw it at school when I was 5 and it made no sense to me at all, the story was far too intricate to follow and all I really took from it was an awful lot of rabbits being ripped to shreds - which I didn’t enjoy at all.

I would imagine the theme is taken completely from the book and is different to many films of it’s ilk because rather than asking us to identify with the protagonists, it’s seems to be pushing us to an understanding of our own role
I would imagine the theme is taken completely from the book and is different to many films of it’s ilk because rather than asking us to identify with the protagonists, it’s seems to be pushing us to an understanding of our own role within the story - the unseen humans who are not just responsible for their plight, but also unaware of the natural strains put on wild animals. It’s reminding us that nature is rough enough without us coldly making the odds insurmountable.

So maybe that’s why it’s important that kids see it. Maybe it’s the bitter pill that has to be swallowed. I just fucking love it because it’s intelligent, incredibly beautiful and unbound by the conventions of either it’s genre or audience. It’s a bold, audacious and artistic piece of work that deserves recognition and reappraisal.

THE FALL AND RISE OF REGINALD PERRIN:

I've been meaning to get this in for so long. I can't help thinking that the rise of corporatisation and dumbing down of society has made this suddenly rather relevant once more. It's the story of a businessman who gets sick of the drudgery of everyday life working for a dessert producing company and fakes his own suicide. When he returns, somewhat cracked, he rises to huge success by opening a chain of stores called 'Grot' which proudly sells crap to a ravenous public. Leonard Rossiter plays the title character in one of the greatest comic perfromances in TV history. Give it a shot, it's ace!

Well, that's yer lot. I'm taking my old man off to the big Star Wars convention thing in London this weekend (www.celebrationeurope.com). Apparently Mark Hammill will be there, charging £85 for an autograph. That's Mark Hammill. £85. £85. Mark Hammill. £85. Anyway, it's going to be nerd carnage.

Tomorrow night is the Friday Frigate - 3 bands - Fork, Sunnyvale and Smilex playing on a boat as it cruises up the river. These events are always awesome and if not enough people go, my pal Phil sinks further into his quagmire of debt. You should think about coming along. It'll be ace!

Rock on

Jon VS £85

What's new with you? Really? Well, that's the way it's all going, isn't it?
Me? Yeah, fine. Y'know.

Anyway.

New stuff:

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ARTHUR AND THE INVISIBLES:

It's big business, these all-star voice cast kids films and as cynical as I am about them, the idea of a kids film made by Luc Besson (the  writer-director behind The Big Blue, Leon and -ahem- The Fifth Element) is, quite frankly, cool! Moppet of the month Freddie Highmore (Finding Neverland, Tim Burton's shitty Wonka film) gets transformed into a little tiny pixie boy and has some adventures. Voice talent includes Robert De Niro, Jason Bateman, Snoop Dogg (pixies n' the hood?), Emilio Estevez (presumably still too ashamed to show his face after Mighty Ducks 19), Harvey Keitel, Mia Farrow and the cinematic albatross herself - Madonna. Oh, and Bowie! Nice to see him back in quasi-Labyrinth territory. Labyrinth still kicks ass over any kids film in the last 20 years. David Bowie's Labyrinth trouser-bulge could outperform any mythical creature CGI could ever present.

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A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION:

Man, Robert Altman. This is the last film of the legendary director. He really never made a stinker, the guy behind MASH, Short Cuts, Gosford Park and many other huge ensemble cast masterpieces. My favourite…well, my favourite was MASH, actually…. but did you ever see his Popeye movie??? Utterly bizarre real-life cartoon with Robin Williams as the spinach-chugger. Anyway, dude died and this is his last piece. It's abotu a beloved country and western radio show that gets cancelled when a conglomorate takes over the station so a final performance is arranged to say goodbye. The cast includes heavyweights such as Streep, Lee Jones, Kline, Harrelson and Lohan (perhaps more of a featherweight there). 'yee-haw'.

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THE ILLUSIONIST:

You're fooling no one. The tagline is 'nothing is what it seems', so if this seems like a film you'd like to watch, consider that a warning. It's just supposed to be rubbish. Watch The Prestige instead. I'll usually watch anything with Paul Giamatti in cos I think he's the greatest character actor of our generation but I'm steering clear of Ed Norton and his magic glowing balls.

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HUMAN RESOURCES:

It's French, that alone will dictate whether you love it or hate it you big ponce.

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SCHOOL FOR SCOUNDRELS:

Wow, it took the kid who played Napoleon Dynamite really just a couple of weeks to go from stunning debut to making shitty formulaic 80s comedies. I actually sat through this one. Even the addition of David Cross couldn't save it. Drivel.

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DOCTOR WHO SERIES 3 VOLUME 2:

I'm getting bored of saying it now but, basically, BEST THING ON TV IN YEARS. Since quality TV has become a thing of the past and the audiences have displayed their preference for watching cooped-up chavs shouting at each other on a 24 hour loop, there has been a huge dirge of quality but Russell T Davies's re-boot of the Who franchise continues to be intelligent, engaging and entertaining. The idea that some modern kids are watching this gives a sliver of hope for the future.

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THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP:

This is the new one from Michel Gondry, music video supremo and the man behind Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Lots more of the same - whacky visuals, trips into the human subconcious and all wrapped up with a bow into a sweet little love story.

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THEM:

A horror film where a house gets surrounded by sinister hoodies. I guess they live near Cutteslowe too.

OK, that's it for the new releases - all on the shelves Monday. I have a question for you knuckleheads. What would make you throw money at us? We've got a nice big shop on Cowley Road and, I reckon, space to diversify and sell some other crap as well as rent films to you fine folk - so what would you like to see? What else would you like us to stock? Please let me know, I'm genuinely interested in your ideas.

Have a smashing weekend!

Jon VS A big fucking dalek.