Movie Marathon at The Castro Theater with Midnite for Maniacs

When Jesse Ficks programs a Marathon for Midnites for Maniacs, he's not skimping out on the celluloid, for sure! Last night's five movie marathon was by far no exception. Not only was the Castro Theater filled with movie fans, popcorn, and various other consumables, but there was a genuine Director and Actor Q & A after the screening of the 80's classic, Monster Squad with Director Fred Dekker and Actor Ryan Lambert, who played Rudy in the movie. That was only the second of the five movies, and by then the theater was raging with excitement from all the amazing trivia questions the Host, Jesse had prizes for. In his tenth year programming Midnites, He's sure gotten a lot of attention for the best of the overlooked movies of the last thirty plus years.

The Night started off with Heavy Metal, a four part adult animated movie with plenty of Metal Music to sink your teeth into. As mentioned before, Monster Squad was next, followed by a 30 minute Q & A with the director and actor. A short break before continuing was needed to stretch the legs and get some food at the nearby pizza joint, Marcello's Pizzaria. From there, the next movie was an amazingly rare print of This is Spinal Tap, which the 35mm print was flown in from France just for tonight's screening! I must mention that all of these movies were shown on the 35mm prints that Jesse had to search high and low to get. None of these were shown on a DVD player. After Spinal Tap, was the first of two movies that I had never seen before tonight: Trick or Treat with cameos by Gene Simons and Ozzy Osborne (in the role of a reverend no less). Rounding out the evening was a movie starring Alice Cooper in the movie Monster Dog.

Be sure to check out all the links to places I've posted for future screenings and other nearby foods, especially if you come out to the next marathon. In two weeks at another location, Jesse's Midnites for Maniacs will be hosting a series of 35mm trailers at the Roxy Theater for a fundraiser to keep that theater open! Ticket prices are as much as you want to donate and there will be an auction for movie memorabilia. At 9:30 there will be a secret movie played from another 35mm print.

This is Drew, signing off for a nap now. 11 hours of movies is great, but exhausting!

Vive Cinema!

Movie Review - Insidious

The hairs on my arms stood up for the ending of this horrific tale of possession from the creative teams behind the Saw franchise and the Paranormal Activity (soon to be) trilogy. James Wan directed and Oren Peli is sited as producer on Insidious which is a story of a young boy who strangely falls into a coma and his family struggle to find out the cause of this bizarre occurrence. I enjoyed this movie understanding who was making it and who they were making it for.

It follows a similar story to the Paranormal movies but in a more narrative structure, adding in a much more elaborate set of possessor beings. The family is struggling to keep from tearing apart as the mother starts to see things that the husband/father seems to know nothing about. There's much more to that then the father, wonderfully played by Patrick Wilson, is leading on. He's a very strong character in this, although has much less to do with discovering the incidents. Rose Byrne, who plays the resilient mother, takes all things in stride to a point before calling in professional help. The secondary characters were believable too! I think the cast was well rounded for the movie.

The soundtrack was amazing too! It really kept me on the edge of my seat. It was a more traditional horror film with a very suspenseful strings section and often used spaces of no sound quite well.

Don't leave before the credits are over and you'll get a small tidbit. It's not much, but it's enough to re-raise the arm hairs a bit. Overall, I give this movie a three and a half arm hairs up out of five. For more, check out Imdb or ImdbPro.com

Movie Review - Battle:LA

In my first viewing of Battle:LA I was expecting a great Science Fiction movie filled with amazing special FX. I wanted to see a lot of the alien technology. What I came out with wasn't that. That's not to say that you shouldn't go see it, in fact this is far from that. I say you go watch this more than once like I did. Yes the special FX were amazing. I even read an article on the models for the creatures in Make-Up Artist Magazine : Fractured Fantasy and Angry Aliens.

*Slight spoiler Alert*

What I did go see (more than once) is an amazingly crafted war movie that is politically correct in that our adversaries were not another human race of people. We were fighting against a race of aliens that landed just outside the coasts of several major cities. The alien's source of power was our ocean water. I have taken that as an analogy for our struggle with oil and the fight we continue to have to this day.

The movie starts of with us learning about all the main characters and what status in the military they have. We also find out who knows who. This sets up conflict amongst the unit later on. Finally, when the soldiers are put on the front line, each has to band together to fight off the common enemy for survival.

I think this was cast very well, the story was believable, and the resolution works and doesn't leave too many open ends for a sequel. Aaron Eckhart seems to be getting the "John Wayne" characters and pulling them off quite well. I was surprised to see Rapper-turned actor Ne-Yo in a toned down role much to go against stereotypes of Rapper/Actors like Eminem, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, and many others who use their movie roles to splay their music all over the soundtrack. He was very smart to keep the two separate.

Graceling - Kristin Cashore

When choosing Graceling as a class read for school, I was making a choice based on the descriptions of each book given as options. This book intrigued me the most. Building a strong female character, coming into her own. And she has a special gift for fighting. Cool. Her world does not have guns or aircraft, but they have several Kingdoms on the brink of battle. The main character, Katsa, made it her decision to use her abilities for good instead of for destructive uses. I'm not going to spoil the story when I say that her using her abilities for good sets into motion the whole story. This story tells how Katsa goes on her journey not only for discovery of why someone is trying to pit the different Kingdoms against each other, but also her self-discovery of her true abilities.

As a Young Adult read, its not hard to follow and it also keeps both male & female readers interested. There is a significant mix of both fighting and romance here to make this 400 + page read captivating. Kristian Cashore tells in great visual descriptions both the characters and their environments that I can picture locations as I've read along. The power struggle in the story is believable for the world created. The outcast main character finding someone to connect with is relatable.

For an aspiring writer and film maker, this first novel from Kristin Cashore is really promising. I have also picked up her second book that accompanies Graceling entitled Fire, which I will also be reviewing.