DARK SKIES was a derivative yet engaging affair that hit the spot and gave me 97 minutes of genuine chills and thrills. It was not well-received when it opened theatrically in February and I never got around to seeing it. Maybe it was bad timing, what with its ad campaign that made it look like the Paranormal Activity movies, which it is similar to except it plays as a thriller instead of a found-footage tape, and with aliens as the home invaders rather than evil spirits. That’s a shame, because despite some forgivable flaws, DARK SKIES is a genuinely scary movie. Now it can be rediscovered on the new Blu-ray disc from Starz/Anchor Bay.

DARK SKIES a supernatural/sci-fi thriller that follows a young family living in the suburbs. As comfortably suburban husband and wife Daniel and Lacey Barret (Kerry Russell, Josh Hamilton) witness an escalating series of disturbing events involving their family, their safe and peaceful home quickly unravels. The younger of the couple’s two sons (Kadan Rockett) begins having strange dreams in which a faux-friendly presence visits and tells him creepy things. The older son (Dakota Goyo) seems somewhat immune to all these mysterious goings-on, but that may be because he’s preoccupied: He’s just at the age where he’s noticing girls, and the soft-core porn he watches while visiting the house of a slightly older pal has put some confused romantic ideas into his head involving a neighborhood cutie. When it becomes clear that the Barret family is being targeted by an unimaginably terrifying and deadly force, Daniel and Lacey take matters in their own hands to solve the mystery of what is after their family.

The roots of DARK SKIES can be traced back to POLTERGEIST, the 1982 shocker that saw the average American family besieged by an unwanted houseguest – a spook that targeted the youngest child. The Barret OF DARK SKIES are normal Americans enjoying the luxuries of suburbia, where the worst threat is a stubborn neighbor or a rude construction worker. The aliens attack pretty much out of the blue and therein lies the chills. Easy jump scares are absent, instead director Scott Stewart actually focuses on building tension and delivering honest payoffs. Stewart orchestrates a myriad of visual and aural delights (the soundtrack of this film is a technical marvel) and sells them hard, even though they don’t add up to anything particularly coherent. We never figure out the limits of the alien’s powers and there are more good ideas here than actual scares. Also, Kerry Russell and Josh Hamilton spend much of the first half of the film bickering in an unpleasant way that’s hard to sit through, but once the alien invasion plot kicks in, you genuinely start to care about the characters. By keeping the audience always on the side of the good guys and investing us in the minutae of their lives, he keeps us rooting for the team. There are some brief CGI effects late in the game, but they don’t submerge the story. Keri Russell is very good as a mother trying to hold everything together, increasingly fearful for her oddly behaving youngest son and there’s a nice cameo from J. K. Simmons, downplaying things effectively as a conspiracy buff who insists aliens are already amongst us.

DARK SKIES has a great 1080p HD transfer presented in 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The image looks gorgeous throughout the 97 minute run-time, with the flesh tones looking natural and smooth. The detail is crisp, with very clean closeups. The colors are well saturated and quite bold, especially in the interiors of the house. The black levels are deep and inky and everything seems to be true to its source. I did not notice any banding, aliasing, or artifacts. This is an outstanding video presentation for a small sci-fi movie and just adds that much more to the film. This release comes with an impressive audio mix that packs a serious punch. When watching this type of suspenseful sci-fi movie, you want your audio to slowly build, add some creepy surround ambient noises, and then pack a loud kick to make you jump out of your seat. This is what DARK SKIES does to a tee. The dialogue is always crystal clear and easy to understand. Even the tiny whispers can be heard clearly and are haunting all the same.

Extras include a feature commentary with Writer/Director Scott Stewart, Producer Jason Blum, Executive Producer Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and Editor Peter Gvozdas as well as alternate and deleted scenes from the film.

“A feast such as this has not been performed in 5,000 years. “

BLOOD FEAST (1963) is the stomach churning movie by “The Godfather of Gore ” Herschell Gordon Lewis that opened the floodgates to the countless blood and slasher movie that followed since its release fifty years ago. BLOOD FEAST was a midnight movie drive-In mainstay for years. No Punches are pulled and no organs left inside from our view in BLOOD FEAST. This film is a true classick in every sense of the word. Remember this was the mid 60′s folks. Sure the effects were cheap & fake, but the bad intentions were there from the get go. Gotta love that Mr. Lewis. 2,000 MANIACS, THE GORE-GORE GIRLS, and COLOR ME BLOOD RED – he cranked ‘em out with no shame. That crazy Egyptian Fuad Ramese and his fowl deeds have kept gorehounds, drives-ins, fans, & curiosity seekers amazingly shocked for five decades and now you’ll have the chance to help celebrate its half century this Saturday night (May 25^th) at GRINDHOUSE NITE AT THE MOVIES at The Way Out Club (2525 Jefferson Avenue in South St. Louis) starting at 9pm.

Get ready for a night of GUNS, GIRLS, and EXPLOSIONS (or, more accurately, Burlesque, Exploitation movies, and live music). So give my regards to 42nd Street – it’s a spectacular not seen since the 70′s!!! The St. Louis band RIVERSIDE NATIVES will open the show their own brand of greasy Rock and Roll and the local band SHADOW THIEVES will perform songs from their upcoming third CD including one inspired by Barbara Steele’s performance in Black Sunday.  In between will be a burlesque set from local beauty Rayna Skye who will be performing her one-of-a-kind special Burlesque tribute to the 1974 Blaxploitation/Martial Arts Masterpiece TNT JACKSON. Between these acts vintage Grindhouse trailers will be screened. There will be lots of great Door Prizes, Giveaways and raffles for some amazing Kung Fu, Blaxploitation, Biker, and Horror Grindhouse Box Sets. All of this amazing entertainment leads up to the midnight screening of BLOOD FEAST.

There will be 5 Grindhouse DVD Box Sets to Raffle off that evening, Savage Cinema (Biker Exploitaion) Dragon Immortal (Bruce Lee Exploitation) Cult Terror Cinema (60′s-80′s B Movie Horror) Drive In Cult Classics (Sexploitation) and lastly Gorehouse Greats (Splatterhouse) To help raise money for the mastering sessions for SHADOW THIEVES third CD. There will also be $1 raffles for a few Vintage 70′s Sexploitation Posters Campus Swingers and The Van. We’ll also have raffles for two Kung Fu Movie Posters; Dragon Vs Needles Of Death and The Iron Dragon Strikes Back. TIckets are $1 a piece or 10 tickets for $5. Winners will be drawn and announced at the end of the SHADOW THIEVES set before Blood Feast is shown.

Admission to GRINDHOUSE NITE AT THE MOVIES is only $7!

The cutthroat world of agribusiness gets the spotlight in AT ANY PRICE, a Farmville soap opera with a curiously cynical look at Midwestern prairie life. This earnest generational drama from writer/director Ramin Bahrani never comes together to work as a whole, but some good performances and peculiar plot turns make it a more entertaining experience than perhaps it should be. AT ANY PRICE centers on the Whipple family of rural Iowa, specifically Henry Whipple (Dennis Quaid) and Dean Whipple (Zack Efron), father and son farmers with different outlooks on life.  Henry has worked hard to maintain his inherited and lucrative seed farming empire and treats his business as an aggressive capitalist enterprise. He’s introduced at a funeral, shamelessly hitting up the family of the deceased to sell him their land. Henry is being investigated for breaking his contract with corporate giant Liberty Seed (a thinly-veiled Monsanto) by reusing seeds and selling them to smaller farms, instead of buying new seeds annually, as he’s legally obligated to (a subplot based on real court cases chronicled in the documentary FOOD INC.). Meanwhile Dean, who has lived in the shadow of his favored, absent older brother, is expected to take over the family business but has dreams of a career as a race car driver. Henry spends much time covering his tracks while trying to identify find the person who betrayed his trust by squealing on him to Liberty, all the while growing more detached from his wife (Kim Dickens) and son.

The first half of AT ANY PRICE illustrates how farmers battle over territory, attempting to sell genetically modified seeds from a big company to smaller farms to ensure that they’re number one in sales in the most number of counties.  What surprised me was the lack of high-minded messaging in AT ANY PRICE. Liberty Seed is a clear stand-in for Monsanto and their investigators are portrayed as jerks, yet the film doesn’t indict the agra-giant, or their genetically modified product like one would expect from a Hollywood treatment. For a while it looks like it’s going on that direction, but Liberty Seed is ultimately not the villain in AT ANY PRICE.  Henry, a grinning backstabber who cheats on his wife and has the business ethic and false modesty of a slimy used-car salesman, is. Dean, introduced shooting out an auto parts store window to steal an engine, isn’t much better.  He’s a petulant punk with a dangerous temper who treats his adoring girlfriend Cadence (Maika Monroe) like dirt. The father-son relationship drives the entire film but it’s all so dark and ethically muddy. Henry and Dean are with self-centered and ruthless characters at the  center of a story where they create their own problems.

Instead going in a political or environmental adirection, Hallie Elizabeth Newton’s script for AT ANY PRICE turns up the heat on the melodrama (at the expense of credibility) with a contrived late-act murder and hide-the-body shenanigans to bring the Whipple family closer together. Quaid, with his politician’s pasted-on smile is a pompous ass, the opposite of the noble farmer usually portrayed by Hollywood, but the actor is so good here, he elevates the spotty script. Efron is okay though his surly pretty-boy rebel shtick gets tiresome. Heather Graham shines as the town slut, a character who exists to do nothing except get boned by both father and son. A powerful Clancy Brown lends the film gravity in a small role as a grieving rival seed farmer. The racetrack scenes are gritty and exciting, and Bahrani well-captures the details of rural life with scenes of dewy summer mornings and endless fields of grain silos and bright green corn. Despite its flawed script and morally baffling conclusion (instead of comeuppance, the Whipple’s many crimes are rewarded), AT ANY PRICE is an engrossing drama and is recommended.

4 of 5 Stars

AT ANY PRICE open in St. Louis Friday, May 17th at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Theater

Motion picture and television legend Jerry Lewis will return to Cannes this year for a special screening of Max Rose, a feature film starring Lewis, Claire Bloom (The King’s Speech), Kevin Pollak (Three Nights, The Usual Suspects), Kerry Bishé (Argo), and Mort Sahl. A Lightstream Pictures production, the film is directed by Daniel Noah, from his original screenplay. Max Rose is produced by Lawrence Inglee (The Messenger, Rampart) and Garrett Kelleher (Rampart), executive produced by Paul Currie, Matthew Malek, Charlie O’Carroll, Gaston Pavlovich and William L. Walton. ICM Partners will represent the domestic sale while International Film Trust (IFT) will handle international sales beginning in Cannes.

In addition, Lewis’ The Ladies Man will be screen in Cannes Classics, a program presenting old films and masterpieces from cinematographic history that have been carefully restored.

President Ariel Veneziano of the newly announced IFT said, “To have a title in the Official Selection as part of our debut sales slate at Cannes is a wonderful start for IFT. Our goal is to be a supplier of quality driven feature films across all genres with clear commercial appeal for the right distributors. Max Rose ticks all those boxes.”

In Max Rose, Lewis portrays the title role of Max, an 87-year old jazz pianist who has recently lost his wife of over six decades. A discovery made days before his wife’s death causes Max to believe his marriage was a lie. Max embarks on an exploration of his own past that brings him face to face with a menagerie of characters from a bygone era.

Lewis’ contributions to the entertainment industry are legendary, having made his mark as an actor, writer, producer and director. His films have entertained billions around the globe, and they continue to attract and enchant new audiences and fans.

Three-time Academy Award-winner Michel Legrand composed the film’s score and features the original song “Hurry Home” by three-time Academy Award winners Marilyn and Alan Bergman. Max Rose marks the first time Lewis has stepped in front of a movie camera in 18 years and re-unites him with Mort Sahl, who in 1963, appeared in two episodes of Jerry’s comedy variety show.

Lightstream Pictures (LSP) is a privately funded independent film company with a mandate to develop, produce and finance high quality motion picture properties with mainstream appeal. With offices in Los Angeles and London and a boutique animation studio in Petaluma, CA, the company employs a unique business model that focuses on story development to a “proof of concept” stage.

Though WILLOW (1988) was one of director Ron Howard’s few box-office disappointments, it definitely deserves a second look and you’ll have the opportunity to do so this weekend (May 17th and 18th) when it plays at midnight Friday and Saturday at the Tivoli as part of the Reel Late at the Tivoli Midnight series.

At once an epic celebration and a gentle spoof of the sword-and-sorcery genre, WILLOW was a collaborative effort between Howard and George Lucas and the pair threw an eclectic bunch of elements is thrown into the stewing pot – much like what Lucas did with Star Wars. Val Kilmer as the hero looks like Conan the Barbarian but acts like a clumsy Han Solo; the chief Villainess looks like a real-life version of the evil queen in Disney’s Snow White; the chief baddy looks like Darth Vader. Willow is well, a Hobbit.

There are even some fairies like Tinkerbell. The plot involves a mythical messiah who will rid the land of the despotic queen’s rule. All the first-born are summarily killed, except for the messiah-like figure who is set loose in a cane basket to float down a river and . . . well, you’ve got enough unobtrusive Biblical imagery to go around.

Admission is only EIGHT BUCKS!

I won’t be there this weekend doing my trivia/intro thing because I’ll be at Wonderfest in Louisville as a presenter at the Rondo Awards and as the host of the RAY HARRYHAUSEN SUPER-8 TRIBUTE SHOW, but I’ll be back at the Tivoli Memorial Day weekend for the midnight shows of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY…….also….I have a cat named Willow.

The Tivoli is located at 6350 Delmar in The Loop.

Visit Landmark’s The Tivoli’s website HERE
http://www.landmarktheatres.com/market/st.louis/tivolitheatre.htm

Here’s the rest of the Reel Late at the Tivoli Midnight schedule for the next couple of months:

May 24-25 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY
May 31-June 1 A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET
June 7-8 BRAZIL (European Cut)
June 14-15 CASABLANCA
June 21-22 BATMAN (1989)

Besides waiting for a favorite film to pop up on TV, what did movie buffs do before home video? That’s not a rhetorical question because I have the answer: Super-8 millimeter Films! I’m not talking about the kind our dads made of us on vacation in the 60’s and 70’s but the kind that were sold at stores and through mail-order that were condensed versions of popular feature films. Ken Films, Castle Films, and Blackhawk were just some of the distributors of these digest versions of famous movies. I remember the ads that ran in the back of “Famous Monsters of Filmland” magazine advertising mini horror films and I collected them as a kid. The 200 foot editions ran about eight minutes and the 50 footers just three and they were all silent. I have fond memories of my friends and I huddling in my basement watching REVENGE OF THE CREATURE and ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE MUMMY screened on the wall as these little spools of film ran through my noisy super-8 projector. They were packaged in boxes with sensational, often lurid artwork (I vividly remember the box for THE SPIDER depicting a giant human skull pasted over the spider’s head. I hadn’t seen the film and for many years I thought THE SPIDER was a movie about a giant spider with a giant skull head and the concept haunted me. Frank Darabont’s THE MIST in 2007 had spiders with skull heads and I wonder if he was influenced by this spooky box art) and these have become very collectible now as most baby boomers around my age remember these crude but nostalgic home movie entertainments.

I’ve been collecting the Super-8 Sound films for over 15 years now and have amassed over 500 of them. The first Tuesday of every month I show a dozen or more at my Super-8 Movie Madness show at The Way Out Club.

I’m a big Ray Harryhausen fan and almost all of his films, with the exceptions of BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS, VALLEY OF GWANGI, and THREE WORLDS OF GULLIVER have been made available in the Super-8 Sound format (I’ve never run across a sound print of FIRST MEN IN THE MOON but have been told it was made). What’s great about condensed version of films like MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS, and THE 7^TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD is that all the animation highlights are intact and very little of the exposition.

I’ve been attending the Wonderfest Model and Hobby Expo in Louisville Kentucky for 22 years and it’s quite a gathering of model builders, special effects fans, and general movie buffs. Ray Harryhausen is a God to this group and was guest of honor at the convention on two occasions. I even had him sign a couple of my Super-8 boxes when I met him there.

Ray Harryhausen passed away earlier this week at age 92 and I have put together a show I’m calling THE RAY HARRYHAUSEN SUPER-8 TRIBUTE SHOW which will be making its debut at Wonderfest this Saturday, May 18th at 11pm. Admission is free to all Wonderfest attendees.

I have the following Ray Harryhausen films in the super-8 sound format:

MIGHTY JOE YOUNG
IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA
EARTH VS FLYING SAUCERS
20,000,000 MILES TO EARTH
MYSTERIOUS ISLAND
JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS
7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD
ONE MILLION YEARS B.C.
SINBAD AND THE EYE OF THE TIGER
GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD
A ‘Making of GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD’ Featurette
CLASH OF THE TITANS
And a Ray Harryhausen Trailer reel

This all adds up to about 5 potential hours of Harryhausen programming. JASON,  7TH VOYAGE, and GOLDEN VOYAGE are each divided up into four chapters each running 8 minutes. I also have a 20-minute GOLDEN VOYAGE cut dubbed into German with really good color.

Here’s what I’ll be showing May 18^th at Wonderfest all projected on a big screen:

MIGHTY JOE YOUNG (17 minutes)
EARTH VS FLYING SAUCERS (8 minutes)
20,000,000 MILES TO EARTH (17 minutes)
7^th VOYAGE OF SINBAD Cyclops vs Dragon (8 minutes)
MYSTERIOUS ISLAND (17 minutes)
JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS – Talos (8 minutes)
JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS – Skeletons (8 minutes)
GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD – ‘Making of’ Featurette (6 minutes)
SINBAD AND THE EYE OF THE TIGER (17 minutes)

I may be able to squeeze another 7^th VOYAGE short in but that’s about a 2-Hour show and will end around 1am. If there is still a crowd of Harryhausen-hungry fans (something tells me there will be) and someone fetches me some coffee, I will then screen my 3-reel, 50-minute cut of CLASH OF THE TITANS.

We’ve just put this show on the Wonderfest schedule just this week for obvious reasons and I thank the Wonderfest organizers for making  a place in their programming for the first organized tribute to Ray Harryhausen.  At last year’s Wonderfest I presented ‘The Super-8 Vincent Price Show in 3-D’, a show I had screened at several conventions and venues in 2011 when I was promoting ‘Vincentennial, the Vincent Price 100^th Birthday Celebration’.

From the WONDERFEST Website:

Just Added! Rondo Award-winning Monsterkid Tom Stockman has risen to the occasion with an all-new retro-tinged salute to the work of the late Master of the Majicks, Ray Harryhausen! Tom wowed the ‘Fest last year with his Vincent Price Super-8 showcase and will be back, starting at 11PM Saturday night with an old-school Late Late Show collection of nostalgic 8MM digest versions of Harryhausen classics like Mighty Joe Young, Earth vs the Flying Saucers, 20 Million Miles to Earth, Jason and the Argonauts, 7th Voyage of Sinbad and more! See stop-motion animation as it was meant to be screened! Hear the clatter of projectors and let the magic flicker of 24 fps transport you back to a simpler era as you recall the thrills of discovering the magic of Ray Harryhausen for the first time all over again! Not to be missed!

The Wonderfest Website can be found HERE

http://www.wonderfest.com/

I will be doing a 4-Hour version of THE RAY HARRYHAUSEN SUPER-8 TRIBUTE SHOW in St. Louis on July 2nd at the Way Out Club (25252 Jefferson in South St. Louis) as part of my monthly Super-8 Movie Madness series and have already been asked to do a four-hour version in September at a major Horror movie convention in Indianapolis. Stay tuned at We Are Movie Geeks for details on those events.

Wow – I had planned a Harryhausen-themed Super-8 show but had put it off until the summer. Wish I had scheduled it for tonight. This is a shock and big news though I guess anyone who’s 92 should be expected to pass at any time. I’ve been a life-long fan of Harryhausen and will plan on writing a detailed tribute here soon.

From the The Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation Facebook page:

Raymond Frederick Harryhausen
Born: Los Angeles 29th June 1920
Died: London 7th May 2013.

The Harryhausen family regret to announce the death of Ray Harryhausen, Visual Effects pioneer and stop-motion model animator. He was a multi-award winner which includes a special Oscar and BAFTA. Ray’s influence on today’s film makers was enormous, with luminaries; Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Peter Jackson, George Lucas, John Landis and the UK’s own Nick Park have cited Harryhausen as being the man whose work inspired their own creations.

Harryhausen’s fascination with animated models began when he first saw Willis O’Brien’s creations in KING KONG with his boyhood friend, the author Ray Bradbury in 1933, and he made his first foray into filmmaking in 1935 with home-movies that featured his youthful attempts at model animation. Over the period of the next 46 years, he made some of the genres best known movies – MIGHTY JOE YOUNG (1949), IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA (1955), 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH (1957), MYSTERIUOUS ISLAND (1961), ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. (1966), THER VALLEY OF GWANGI (1969), three films based on the adventures of SINBAD and CLASH OF THE TITANS (1981). He is perhaps best remembered for his extraordinary animation of seven skeletons in JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS (1963) which took him three months to film.

Harryhausen’s genius was in being able to bring his models alive. Whether they were prehistoric dinosaurs or mythological creatures, in Ray’s hands they were no longer puppets but became instead characters in their own right, just as important as the actors they played against and in most cases even more so.

Today The Ray & Diana Harryhausen Foundation, a charitable Trust set up by Ray on the 10th April 1986, is devoted to the protection of Ray’s name and body of work as well as archiving, preserving and restoring Ray’s extensive Collection.

Tributes have been heaped upon Harryhausen for his work by his peers in recent years.

“Ray has been a great inspiration to us all in special visual industry. The art of his earlier films, which most of us grew up on, inspired us so much.” “Without Ray Harryhausen, there would likely have been no STAR WARS”
George Lucas.

“THE LORD OF THE RINGS is my ‘Ray Harryhausen movie’. Without his life-long love of his wondrous images and storytelling it would never have been made – not by me at least”
Peter Jackson

“In my mind he will always be the king of stop-motion animation”
Nick Park

“His legacy of course is in good hands
Because it’s carried in the DNA of so many film fans.”
Randy Cook

“You know I’m always saying to the guys that I work with now on computer graphics “do it like Ray Harryhausen”
Phil Tippett

“What we do now digitally with computers, Ray did digitally long before but without computers. Only with his digits.”
Terry Gilliam.

“His patience, his endurance have inspired so many of us.”
Peter Jackson

“Ray, your inspiration goes with us forever.”
Steven Spielberg

“I think all of us who are practioners in the arts of science fiction and fantasy movies now all feel that we’re standing on the shoulders of a giant.
If not for Ray’s contribution to the collective dreamscape, we wouldn’t be who we are.”
James Cameron

“Walter, you’re wonderful, in a loathsome sort of way”

Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell star in one of the fastest-talking screwball comedies–make that movies–ever made. HIS GIRL FRIDAY is a clever script teeming with fab dialogue, delivered by a top-notch cast, and captured by one of the best directors of Hollywood’s Golden Age; Howard Hawks. You can see HIS GIRL FRIDAY this Saturday morning (May 10th) at St. Louis’ fabulous Hi-Pointe Theater as part of their Classic Film Series. It’s Saturday, May 10th at 10:30am at the Hi-Pointe located at 1005 McCausland Ave., St. Louis, MO 63117.

Admission is only $5.

The second screen version of the Ben Hecht/Charles MacArthur play The Front Page, HIS GIRL FRIDAY changed hard-driving newspaper reporter Hildy Johnson from a man to a woman, transforming the story into a scintillating battle of the sexes. Rosalind Russell plays Hildy, about to foresake journalism for marriage to cloddish Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy). Cary Grant plays Walter Burns, Hildy’s editor and ex-husband, who feigns happiness about her impending marriage as a ploy to win her back. The ace up Walter’s sleeve is a late-breaking news story concerning the impending execution of anarchist Earl Williams (John Qualen), a blatant example of political chicanery that Hildy can’t pass up. The story gets hotter when Williams escapes and is hidden from the cops by Hildy and Walter–right in the prison pressroom. His Girl Friday may well be the fastest comedy of the 1930s, with kaleidoscope action, instantaneous plot twists, and overlapping dialogue. And if you listen closely, you’ll hear a couple of “in” jokes, one concerning Cary Grant’s real name (Archie Leach), and another poking fun at Ralph Bellamy’s patented “poor sap” screen image. Subsequent versions of The Front Page included Billy Wilder’s 1974 adaptation, which restored Hildy Johnson’s manhood in the form of Jack Lemmon.

The Hi-Pointe’s website is HERE

http://hi-pointetheatre.com/

and check out the original trailer for HIS GIRL FRIDAY

There was an internet meme floating around a couple of months ago – a photo from BACK TO THE FUTURE II showing that January 4, 2013 was the futuristic date that Marty McFly travelled to! Turns out it was a hoax (and a rather pointless one at that) – the real date was Oct. 21, 2015. What a relief! For a moment, there, I was afraid we didn’t have time to build those flying cars, levitating skateboards, and talking sneakers.

Today, the original BACK TO THE FUTURE (1985) is dated only by its Huey Lewis soundtrack and the choice of a De Lorean as a time machine. Except for a needless scene in which an obviously dubbed Michael J. Fox pretends he’s both Chuck Berry and Jimi Hendrix, there’s little to criticize, and much to admire. One surprise in watching BACK TO THE FUTURE 28 years later is how cleverly the plot and script ties the past and present events together. Watching the film for a second or third time only adds to the pleasure, because references become clear that during a first viewing only seemed like idle dialogue. You’ll have the chance to watch it again on the big screen this weekend when it plays midnight at the Tivoli in St. Louis as part of their Reel Late Midnight series this weekend (May 10th and 11th). I will be there with BACK TO THE FUTURE trivia and prizes so bone up on your McFly knowledge!

Admission is only EIGHT BUCKS!

The Tivoli is located at 6350 Delmar in The Loop. Visit Landmark’s The Tivoli’s website HERE

http://www.landmarktheatres.com/market/st.louis/tivolitheatre.htm

Here’s the rest of the Reel Late at the Tivoli Midnight schedule for the next couple of months:

May 17-18 WILLOW
May 24-25 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY
May 31-June 1 A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET
June 7-8 BRAZIL (European Cut)
June 14-15 CASABLANCA
June 21-22 BATMAN (1989)

SUPER-8 MOVIE MADNESS at the Way Out Club will be held on Tuesday May 7th from 8pm to Midnight. These are Super-8 Sound films condensed from features and will be projected on a large screen. Admission is only THREE DOLLARS !!!!

There’s no theme this month but we are showing four films in the jumbo, 2-reel, 35-minute format. They are: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, Humphrey Bogart in THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE, Charles Bronson and Steve McQueen in THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, and Michael Caine in THE ISLAND.
The other films we’re showing (average length: 12 minutes) are: Bob Hope and Jane Russell in PALEFACE, THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, The Hammer Horror TWINS OF EVIL, the Marx Brothers in NIGHT AT THE OPERA, TARANTULA, Tura Satana in ASTRO ZOMBIES, the skeleton battle from JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS, and the Little Rascals short HOOKY SPOOKY.

The Way Out Club is located at 2525 Jefferson Avenue in South St. Louis (corner of Jefferson and Sydney). There are yummy Way-Out pizzas available. Spread the word to all local movie lovers.

The premise is fertile ground for a high concept, feel-good Hollywood comedy, and STARBUCK plays like one, but it’s a French language Canadian film shot in Quebec, and has been a huge hit there. It’s already been made remade for Hollywood (already in the can, DELIVERY MAN stars Vince Vaughn – once titled the much better DICKIE DONOR) but I recommend going ahead and seeing this original version. It’s good.

The many scenes where David anonymously drops in on his brood are the best part of STARBUCK and elevate the film into something more than fatherhood gags and masturbation jokes. STARBUCK is from writer/director Ken Scott, who maintains a healthy momentum, pumping chuckles and well-timed sight gags into the film skillfully. STARBUCK is full of good intentions but when David accidentally finds himself in the middle of a meeting for the class action targeting him, the story goes in a more serious direction. He visits a nursing facility where one of his progeny is severely disabled and when he pretends to be the legal guardian of his disabled son in order to spend more time with his children without giving away his identity, his deception becomes less endearing.  His story begins generating massive media attention.  “Who is Starbuck? – La Masterbatur!”’ the headlines scream and David soon wonders if this lawsuit could be the solution to his problems.

Much of Starbuck’s success can be attributed to the lead performance from Patrick Huard who strikes the perfect balance between likable loser, irresponsible jerk, and just a troubled fellow trying to do the right thing. STARBUCK carefully straddles a thin line between poignant and maudlin. Some coincidences are ridiculous, like one where David poses as a pizza delivery man to meet a daughter and arrives just as she’s overdosing (she’s about to shoot up – why does she order a pizza? Does heroin give you the munchies?), and the subplot involving David owing money to strong-arm goons is unnecessary and unresolved. A speech about David unfairly favoring his unborn child over his fertility clinic progeny reveals a dumb misunderstanding of the purpose of sperm banks, and the climax featuring the largest group hug in movie history is an eye-roller, but STARBUCK has such a big heart, it’s easy to forgive its flaws.

4 of 5 Stars

STARBUCK opens in St. Louis May 3rd at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Theater

After a lengthy hiatus, the Tivoli Theater’s Reel Late at the Tivoli Midnight series is back!

Things kick off this weekend (May 3^rd and 4^th) with the 1995 sci-fi comedy TANK GIRL based on the late-80’s British comic book originally created by Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlitt.

This weekend’s Midnight show is sponsored by Star Clipper Comics and they are bringing St. Louis native and comic book artist Jim Mahfood to the Tivoli to speak. Jim is the creator of the comic book series Grrl Scouts as well as his strip Stupid Comics and is an illustrator on the current Tank Girl Comic Book.

TANK GIRL is the story of a futuristic feminist superhero and her fight to preserve the environment against an evil government bureaucracy. The action is set in the year 2033, after an ecological disaster of drought and pollution has ravaged the countryside, and water is scarce. Tank Girl (Lori Petty) is a sassy punker who has her own vintage tank in tow, along with other high-tech weapons. Her mutant squatter friends including Jet Girl (Naomi Watts), join her defying the evil empire that sells water at extortionist prices. Genetic mutant warriors recite beat poetry. And watch Malcom MacDowell  as the chief of the Department of Water and Power gives his best Alec DeLarge leer. If you expect to follow a plot here, you miss the movie. It’s about babes, dancing, defiance and motorized vehicles. Pedophiles, Dancers, Orgies, Decadence, Greed and Ice-T as a terrorist kangaroo are all foiled by irreverent punks in stolen hardware. And it’s got a heroine who claims that pain makes her wet! Why would you want to miss that?!?!?

Admission is only EIGHT BUCKS!

The Tivoli is located at 6350 Delmar in The Loop. Visit Landmark’s The Tivoli’s website HERE

Here’s the rest of the Reel Late at the Tivoli Midnight schedule for the next couple of months:

May 10-11           BACK TO THE FUTURE

May 17-18           WILLOW

May 24-25           2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY

May 31-June 1   A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET

June 7-8               BRAZIL (European Cut)

June 14-15          CASABLANCA

June 21-22          BATMAN (1989)

The guys at Destroy The Brain.com have dusted off the 1980 “classic” SAMURAI COP  for their monthly Late Night Grindhouse midnight series this weekend (May 3^rd and 4^th). I have to confess SAMURAI COP  is a film I’m completely unfamiliar with. It looks like an amalgam of every cheap ‘80s  exploitation film made with nudity, mullets, hara-kiri, beheadings, racism, death by sword, synth rock, and slow motion karate duels! And it stars Robert Z’Dar the star of MANIAC COP with that enormous face, gigantic jaw and massive physique of his.

I’m so there! I’ve heard is that SAMURAI COP   is one serious deliciously demented slice of cinematic cheese and I cannot wait to see it this weekend at St. Louis’ fabulous Hi-Pointe Theater.

St. Louis filmgoers will have a chance to see SAMURAI COP  in all of its big screen glory this weekend when it plays as part of the Destroy the Brain monthly Late Night Grindhouse film series. It will be screened midnights in a 35mm print at St. Louis’ fabulous Hi-Pointe Theater (1005 McCausland Avenue) this Friday and Saturday (May 3^rd and 4^th). The pre-show begins at 11:30 and admission is $7.

The Friday night Facebook Invite can be found HERE

https://www.facebook.com/events/443966129023000/?fref=ts

The Saturday night Facebook Invite can be found HERE

https://www.facebook.com/events/161397220692470/?fref=ts

The Destroy The Brain.com site can be found HERE

http://www.destroythebrain.com/

The Hi-Pointe Theater’s site can be found HERE

http://hi-pointetheatre.com/

Check out this fan-made trailer for SAMURAI COP (apparently an original one doesn’t exist)

St. Louis-area comic book readers and film fans have the opportunity support locally-produced filmmakers who are combining your nerdy interests into one hilarious new web series: Comic Geeks.

Comic Geeks is a show about being an adult while still indulging in the passions of youth. It follows four friends who feel burdened by the inescapable responsibilities of adulthood but balance their lives by obsessing over the minutia of comic books and pop culture.

Comic Geeks focuses on friends Brian, Dan, and Jeff, whose lives revolve around comic books. It’s a new web series, a comedy that mixes animation with live action shot in St. Louis. The story follows the friends at various stages of comic geekery: Dan (Dan Nichols), the die-hard weekly shopper, Jeff (Jeff Elden), the indie-only cartoonist, and Brian (Brian Spath), who struggles with reading comics and acting like an adult. Together, the three try to figure out what makes a comic geek, and how to be an adult doing it.

The first episode of Comic Geeks is titled Nerds of a Feather, and is currently on-line.

It can be viewed HERE

http://www.comic-geeks.com/pilot

Scenes for the pilot were shot at, among other St. Louis locales, Urban Eats, Star Clipper Comics on the Loop, the Toy Man Toy Show at the Machinists Union Hall, and Landmark’s The Tivoli Theater. It was written by Brian Spath from a story by Adam Baugher, Thomas Crone, Jeff Elden, Todd Roth, and Brian Spath. The original music is by Googoplexia and the animation is by Dustin Maasen.

The producers of Comic Geeks were fortunate to receive a grant to produce the pilot episode. Motivated by what they created, they are ready to move forward with the concept as a series and produce a full slate of episodes. The desire to produce 12 episodes, ranging from 5 to 15 minutes in length, is met with the need to finance a production on that scale. Crew, equipment, catering, editing, special effects, animation and music all come at a cost.

A Kickstarter page has been started to help raise funding for the project.

The page can be found HERE

http://kck.st/ZN0c2Y

The producers of Comic Geeks have completed their scripts and have built a production schedule to best accommodate all of the actors. They have 25 shooting days and plan to be finished with production by August. As they complete shooting for full episodes, those pieces will move into the editing phase. Watch for more coverage of Comic Geeks here at We Are Movie Geeks.

Check out the trailer for Comic Geeks:

A former member of the revolutionary militant group the Weather Underground goes on the run after a journalist outs him in THE COMPANY YOU KEEP, a political thriller directed by Robert Redford and based on Neil Gordon’s novel. It’s a film that touches on the costs of political commitment, specifically the fervent activism of young college kids in the ’60s who, swept up in the revolutionary moment, took actions that they pay for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately, it’s not as thought-provoking, or as political, as it sounds. Since Redford doesn’t have the guts to either condemn or applaud the Weather Underground radicals, THE COMPANY YOU KEEP basically boils down to one long, boring chase. There’s a subject here for a good movie, perhaps even a great one, but this isn’t it.

Redford, Susan Sarandon, Richard Jenkins, Nick Nolte and Julie Christie  play former ‘Weathermen’ from the ‘60s who have all shed their identities and now are hiding in plain sight as lawyers, housewives, college professors, and pot runners (I guess Jane Fonda was busy) . Turns out that one of their robberies decades ago resulted in the death of a bank guard. Oops! Redford (looking every one of his 76 years here) plays Jim Grant, a widowed Albany lawyer with an 11-year old daughter (!) who for decades has hidden the fact that he is wanted as an accomplice in that fatal robbery. His cover’s blown when one of his fellow terrorists (Susan Sarandon), a housewife living under an assumed name, is arrested by the FBI. Ambitious young reporter Ben Shepard (Shia LaBeouf) begins investigating her old comrades and Grant, feeling the heat, goes underground again, seeking help from other ex-radicals. Some remain true to their old beliefs; others want no reminders of their past affiliations. Grant, with the feds (lead by Terrence Howard and Anna Kendrick) on his trail, puts his long-dormant survival skills to use while wondering who to trust.

In a twist you could see coming with your eyes closed, it turns out (…mild Spoiler Warning…) Grant wasn’t at the fatal bank robbery after all and the script for THE COMPANY YOU KEEP by Lem Dobbs spends most of its time on the clever, THE FUGITIVE-style maneuvers Grant uses to exonerate himself. Redford gives us scenes that are supposed to be tense, such as one where Grant hands off his daughter to his brother (Chris Cooper) in the lobby of a hotel surrounded by police looking for him and another similar one on a subway train. These getaway chase scenes are poorly paced and blandly directed, containing not a speck of suspense. Much of the problem is Redford himself. Not only does he exhibit creaky directorial skills, he’s far too old for the lead role. Redford would have been in college in the mid 50’s, not the late ‘60s. He seems like a stiff old man, his wrinkled face lacking urgency. Worse is LaBeouf, who overacts like he’s in a roadshow version of The Front Page. I’m surprised he’s not wearing a fedora and a pencil in his ear. Watch him bug his eyes out when he first spots lovely Brit Marling as Redford and Christie’s long-abandoned daughter (don’t ask). Nolte and Jenkins have the most fun with their roles but one crime Redford is guilty of is making Julie Christie look tired and unglamorous (a first!).

While I wouldn’t say Redford glorifies the Weather Underground with THE COMPANY YOU KEEP, he certainly looks at them through rose-colored glasses, mostly ignoring their legacy of violence and murder. The film is never quite clear on what it thinks about these domestic terrorists – not about whether these individual members were guilty or innocent, but whether they were good or bad. THE COMPANY YOU KEEP is about people who made a choice while young and foolish and are living with the consequences of their actions. During the course of the film these characters should have to re-evaluate their decisions but they don’t. Why did this group of privileged kids declare war on their government? Do they feel regret for their actions? Is it really heroic to leave your loved ones behind just to save your own skin? Only one scene in THE COMPANY YOU KEEP attempts to address these questions and it’s a powerful one where Susan Sarandon delivers a strident if queasy jailhouse speech on how, if given the chance, she’d do it all again. Problem is, she delivers this discourse with such conviction that there seems to be no way this remorseless woman could have kept it bottled up for so many years. But it’s a good scene, the only time the movie really comes alive, and it’s when you realize what a livelier film this would be if Redford would have just gone for broke and given in to his (and much of his cast’s) left wing instincts. As it is, nothing seems passionate or genuine in THE COMPANY YOU KEEP and I can’t recommend it.

2 of 5 stars

THE COMPANY YOU KEEP opens in St. Louis April 25th at (among other places) Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Theater

“Not since the beginning of time has the world beheld terror like this!”

Gills, webbed hands, claws, an ugly face only a mother could love, and a body full of scales, THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON from 1954 is easily the greatest man-in-a-monster-suit movie ever made. The celebrated sequence where the Gill Man is swimming along below white one-piece-wearing star  Julie Adams is a sequence of beauty, grace, menace and sensuousness unrivalled by anything on screen before or since.

Check out my interview with Julie Adams HERE

http://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2012/03/wamg-interview-julie-adams-star-of-creature-from-the-black-lagoon/#comments

THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON may be 59 years old, but it still holds up as a very entertaining film, with plenty of thrills and chills of the old school kind. Nothing blows up and no-one cusses. If it was made today, all you’d hear would be “I’ll kill that muthaf***ing fish-stink bastard!” and every now and then someone would fire a nuclear armed spear gun or something similarly over the top…….

But it wasn’t made today. It was made in 1954 and next week, you’ll have the chance to see THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON on a big screen and help raise money for a good cause as part of the “Culture Shock’ films series.

The screening is at 7pm Thursday, May 1^st. The location is Schlafly Bottleworks – 7260 Southwest Ave  St Louis, MO 63143. Doors open at 6:30pm.

$6 suggested for the screening. A yummy variety of food from Schlafly’s kitchen is available as are plenty of pints of their famous home-brewed suds. Jimmie the bartender will be on hand to take care of you.

“Culture Shock” is the name of a film series here in St. Louis that is the cornerstone project of a social enterprise that is an ongoing source of support for Helping Kids Together (http://www.helpingkidstogether.com/) a St. Louis based social enterprise dedicated to building cultural diversity and social awareness among young people through the arts and active living.

The films featured for “Culture Shock” demonstrate an artistic representation of culture shock materialized through mixed genre and budgets spanning music, film and theater. Through ‘A Film Series’ working relationship with Schlafly Bottleworks, they seek to provide film lovers with an offbeat mix of dinner and a movie opportunities.

We hope to see everyone next Thursday night!

And since I’m always looking for an excuse to show off my collection of Creature from the Black Lagoon toys:

And check out the THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON trailer:

It’s like I always say: “Why read the book when you can see the movie?”, and in the case of Harry Potter I say “Why see eight films when you can see STUPEFY, THE 90 MINUTE HARRY POTTER !?” Now, I don’t need to read the Harry Potter books because I was lucky enough to have seen STUPEFY, THE 90 MINUTE HARRY POTTER when it played at Lindenwood last fall. All of the performances were sold out but there is good news for Potter fans. STUPEFY is back for an encore run, this time at The Regional Arts Commission right here in St. Louis!

The Harry Potter saga was presented so fast that the lunatics at The Magic Smoking Monkey Theater group are bringing him back for an encore run of their hilarious play. STUPEFY, THE 90 MINUTE HARRY POTTER is a fast-moving stage production that is a parody of all eight Potter movies and if you’ve seen the Magic Smoking Monkey gang’s previous skewers of Star Trek, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Glen or Glenda, or The Abominable Dr. Phibes, you may know what’s in store. These guys stage the most gut-busting spoofs imaginable and you’ll never look at Harry Potter quite the same way when their done. All 8 movies in 90 minutes! Will Voldemort win? Will they find the Horcruxes in time? Will Ron EVER freakin’ kiss Hermione? You never know what will happen once this series receives the “Monkey” treatment…

The performances of STUPEFY, THE 90 MINUTE HARRY POTTER are May 10 & 11, 17 & 18 at 7:30pm and 10:30pm, that’s Friday and Saturday, at 7:30pm and 10:30pm.

And there’s been an extra show just added! Thursday, May 16th @ 7:30pm !

The location is: Regional Arts Commission, 6128 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63112 The 7:30pm performance is “family friendly.”

All shows are family friendly (PG rated).

Audience members should feel free to dress in their Hogwarts attire, if desired.

You can purchase advance tickets by visiting Brown Paper Tickets: HERE

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/343442

Get your tickets soon! This event will sell out!

STUPEFY, THE 90 MINUTE HARRY POTTER is directed by Suki Peters, whose hilarious CANNIBAL THE MUSICAL from last year won a Riverfront Times Best of St. Louis Award.

The facebook invite can be found HERE

https://www.facebook.com/events/212365155562532/?fref=ts

A great cast is worth listing at least once:

Michael Pierce as HARRY POTTER
Betsy Bowman as HERMIONE GRANGER
Jaysen Cryer as RON WEASLEY
And featuring:
Robert Ashton as DUMBLEDORE and others
James Enstall as EVERY FREAKIN DARK ARTS PROFESSOR (except Snape)
Roger Erb as DRACO and others
Max Knocke as NEVILLE and others
Andrew Kuhlman as HAGRID and others
Chris LaBanca as GEORGE and others
Carl Overly as FRED and others
Jamie Pitt as MCGONAGALL and others
Sarah Porter as BELLATRIX and others
Ben Ritchie as SNAPE and others
John Wolbers as VOLDEMORT and others
Tasha Zebrowski as GINNY and others
Morgan Hatfield & Jaiymz Hawkins – CREATURE OPERATORS and others

I’ve been looking for an excuse to check out the new MX Movie Theater in downtown St. Louis and now I think I’ve found it.

COYOTE, the St. Louis-lensed shocker from Writer/Director Trevor Juenger will be making its hometown debut this Friday night, April 26th, at the new luxury theatre MX Movies in downtown St. Louis (618 Washington Ave St Louis, MO 63101). The screening is at 11:30pm and is Free!

COYOTE, an “art-horror feature” tells of a writer (Bill Oberst Jr) whose insomnia causes him to suffer hallucinations. He’s distracted, irritated and slowly going mad. He’s soon taking it out on the people around him, and he’s not afraid to take violent measures. Bill Oberst played  Honest Abe in ABRAHAM LINCOLN VS ZOMBIES which was actually better than the Spielberg film! Joe Hammerstone, Bill Finkbiner, Tasha Zebrowski, and Victoria Mullen round out the cast.

There will be $2 Pabst Blue Ribbon special and there will be a $3 Coyote themed shot called “Bill’s Piss” (I’ll probably pass on that) at the bar at MX that will be open till 1:30 and other food and concessions will be available for the duration of the film.

DID I MENTION IT’S FREE!? The movie’s Rated R so leave the kids at home (you shouldn’t have them out that late anyway!)

Parking validation will be provided for visitors parking in the 7th street garage For a fee of $3. Those wishing to park in the garage should arrive at 11:30pm. Admittance to the parking garage is only granted before midnight. After midnight you will be able to get out but not in.

The Facebook invite for the event can be found HERE

https://www.facebook.com/events/402857909812499/?ref=22

Check out the crazy COYOTE trailer:

PAWN is an overplotted, low-expectations hostage drama that manages to work up a fair share of suspense despite some ridiculous plot holes. It opens with cop Forest Whitaker entering a diner just before midnight and quickly realizing all the employees and customers are on edge. Turns out he’s walked into the middle of a hostage situation. An armed robber named Derrick (Michael Chiklis) and his two accomplices are waiting until midnight when the time-locked safe can be opened. I won’t go into much more of the plot but I’ll say no one’s hands are clean and the story has enough double-crosses, ulterior motives, and conspiracies to make your head spin. The chief problem with THE PAWN is its lack of originality; this is simply a story which is too familiar to be told in a straightforward manner…. and it’s not. Director David Armstrong and writer Jay Anthony White jump back and forth in time, leaving clues that are revisited, and showing the same scenes from different points of view. This is an obvious way to cover up the fact that they don’t have an original story to tell but it’s done in a clear, orderly way so on many level their trickery works. The ‘hostage drama’ subgenre is so overdone and one of my least favorites, but damn if PAWN isn’t an engrossing enough film that I was compelled to stay with and see how the situation was resolved. It’s just well-paced and engaging enough to overlook its many flaws.

Forest Whitaker and Ray Liotta are the name stars in PAWN but Whitaker is out of the picture quickly and Liotta, who can play this criminal type in his sleep, comes and goes. The real star is Michael Chiklis, sporting, for no reason, a British accent. It’s a needless touch but he does such a convincing job with it, it works. Chiklis has a way of holding your attention the way a snake stares down its prey and he’s a really good villain here. Rapper Common, Stephen Lang, Sean Faris, Nikki Reed, Max Beesley, Marton Csokas, and Jessica Szohr all add able support. PAWN is an exercise in ideas and suspense that is instantly forgettable but a decent ride while you’re talking it.

Presented in 2.40:1 Cinemascope Aspect Ratio, the Blu-ray features 1080p image that is always rock solid. Detail is impressive, with excellent depth throughout and shadow delineation superior. Even the darkest scenes reveal fine texture in the backgrounds, and close-ups and skin tones are tremendous. Great video (and audio) aside, PAWN does feel a bit like a rushed release in terms of extras. The only significant one is “Pawn: Behind the Scenes”, a 23-minute, featurette featuring interviews with several cast members and producer Jeff Most. It’s standard stuff and not very interesting.

Nothing else, not even a trailer is included here.

One Hollywood classic, some ’80s Sci-Fi, and the usual cult chestnuts make up the new roster for Reel Late at the Tivoli, the midnight show at St. Louis’ Tivoli Theater.

Reel Late at the Tivoli starts up the weekend of May 3-4 and We Are Movie Geeks own Tom Stockman will be there each night with custom trivia questions about the films and always has DVDs, posters, and other cool stuff to give away. Ticket prices are $8. We hope to see everyone late at night in the coming months.

The Tivoli is located at 6350 Delmar in The Loop. Visit Landmark’s The Tivoli’s website HERE

Here’s the Reel Late Midnight schedule for the next couple of months:

May 3-4                TANK GIRL

                Special Guest:  In person! St. Louis native JIM MAHFOOD, illustrator of the current Tank Girl comics!

May 10-11           BACK TO THE FUTURE

May 17-18           WILLOW

May 24-25           2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY

May 31-June 1   A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET

June 7-8               BRAZIL (European Cut)

June 14-15          CASABLANCA

June 21-22          BATMAN (1989)