ENTER THE DRAGON – We Are Movie Geeks

Bruce Lee ENTER THE DRAGON Midnights This Weekend at The Tivoli

“You have offended my family and you have offended the Shaolin Temple!”

ENTER THE DRAGON (1973) plays this weekend (August 12th and 13th) at The Tivoli at midnight as part of their Reel Late at the Tivoli midnight series.

In the early seventies America was going through a period of fascination with martial arts, and at the center of the Kung-Fu craze was the actor Bruce Lee. ENTER THE DRAGON (1973) is the best (and best-known) of the five films that Lee starred in. His mysterious and tragically early death at the age of 33 shortly after completing ENTER THE DRAGON only served to heighten public interest in his skills

The plot contains elements drawn from spy thrillers of the James Bond type. The story is set in Hong Kong. The hero Mr Lee (lee) is recruited by British Intelligence on an undercover mission to infiltrate the island hideaway of the villain Mr Han. Han is outwardly a respectable businessman but in reality a master criminal involved in the drug trade. In many ways he is reminiscent of the typical Bond villain- he lives on an island fortress, conceals a ruthless nature beneath an icily calm exterior and even strokes a fluffy white cat like those owned by Blofeld in the 007 films. Han is a martial-arts enthusiast, and Lee’s cover story is that he is a competitor in a martial-arts tournament which Han has organized. (Han’s real motive is to recruit talented martial artists for his criminal empire). Lee also has a personal motive for wanting revenge on Han, as Han’s thugs were responsible for the death of Lee’s sister (look for a young Jackie Chan chasing her at the film’s beginning!). Two other competitors in the tournament who play important roles in the story are Roper (John Saxon), a gambler on the run from the mob to whom he owes money, and Williams (Jim Kelly), an black dude on the run from the police after defending himself against two racist cops.

There are so many elements in ENTER THE DRAGON that are entertaining, but one thing can’t be denied; Bruce Lee was a once in a lifetime talent and this movie serves as his celluloid obituary. The passion with which Mr. Lee created this film is evident in every fight scene. Including his own students in the film as extras in the fighting scenes is pure genius. The movie has all the trappings of a 1970’s flick, so as time roars on, it shows its age. 43 years later Mr. Kelly’s Afro and smooth approach to life are still entertaining as hell. How many lines can you repeat from this movie after all these years? (“Boards, don’t fight back!”, “Mr. Han, suddenly I’d like to leave your island”,). Heck, who can watch the student instruction scene early in the movie and not laugh about “all the heavenly glory”… As for the world class fight scene underground on the island with the nunchuck sequence? Breathtaking…Long Live BRUCE LEE!!

Don’t miss ENTER THE DRAGON when it screens midnights this weekend at The Tivoli

The Tivoli’s located at 6350 Delmar Blvd., University City, MO. Admission is a mere $8!

A Facebook invite for the event can be found HERE

https://www.facebook.com/events/553198394872401/

The Tivoli’s website can be found HERE

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

Here’s the midnight for the next several weeks:

August 19-20 – THE SANDLOT

August 26-27 – EVENT HORIZON

September 2 – 3 – PRINCESS MONONOKE

September 9-10 – THE BIG LEBOWSKI

September 16-17 – PSYCHO

Reel Late at the Tivoli takes place every Friday and Saturday night and We Are Movie Geeks own Tom Stockman (that’s me!) is there 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 weeks.

my ENTER THE DRAGON poster signed by John Saxon and Jim Kelly

The Tivoli Announces the ‘Reel Late’ Midnight Line-Up – GOONIES, THE ROOM, Miyazaki, and More!

“You’re tearing me apart Lisa!”

Another brilliant lineup of midnight movies for the ‘Reel Late at The Tivoli’ for the remainder of Summer of 2016 season. It’s a typically good variety of titles that will draw the late night movie buff crowd with a couple of retro surprises. The Midnight Movie experience has always catered to a college-age crowd and that’s the way it should be. Looks like we have one Miyazaki (PRINCESS MONONOKE) which always draw good crowds. The oldest film this time is the Hitchcock classic from 1960 PSYCHO (if you didn’t get your Hitchcock fix with REAR WINDOW this weekend) and the most recent appears to be THE ROOM, the ineptly hilarious interactive crowd-pleaser starring Tommy Wiseau. We have not shown ENTER THE DRAGON at midnight in many years and this will be the first time EVENT HORIZON has ever played at the Tiv.

Here’s the line-up:

July 29-30 – THE GOONIES

August 5-6 – THE ROOM

August 12-13 – ENTER THE DRAGON

August 19-20 – THE SANDLOT

August 26-27 – EVENT HORIZON

September 2 – 3 – PRINCESS MONONOKE

September 9-10 – THE BIG LEBOWSKI

September 16-17 – PSYCHO

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

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

Jim Kelly – Blaxploitation/Martial Arts Star Dead at 67

“Ghettos are the same all over the world. They stink!”

We’ve lost a true movie bad-ass. I can remember staying at my grandmother’s house in Greenville, South Carolina in 1975 when I was 13 and walking to an ‘urban’ movie theater a mile or so away. They were showing something called THE BLACK SAMURAI. It was rated R but they sold me a ticket anyway. I excitedly took my seat and, as the only Caucasian in the audience, enjoyed my one and only big-screen Blaxploitation experience back in that genre’s heyday. I shared this story with the film’s star Jim Kelly, when I met him at Cinema Wasteland a couple of years ago and not only did he get a kick out of it, he knew exactly which theater I was referring to – The Plaza, having made an appearance there a couple of years earlier to promote BLACK BELT JONES.

A Louisville, KY native, the 6’2” Jim Kelly was an international karate champion, running his own martial arts school in San Francisco when he was cast in the 1973 the kung fu classic ENTER THE DRAGON as “Williams”. With a commanding screen presence, intense fighting skills, and cool afro, Kelly went on to star in BLACK BELT JOENS, HOT POTATO, ONE DOWN TWO TO GO, and many more. Kelly later became a professional tennis player, joining the USTA Senior Men’s Circuit and appeared alongside LeBron James in a 2004 Nike TV ad. Jim Kelly has died at age 67. The details of his death have not been made public but when I find something out, I will update this post.

The Academy Kicks Off Kung Fu Poster Exhibition With Screening Of ENTER THE DRAGON

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences kicks off its new exhibition, “KICK ASS! Kung Fu Posters from the Stephen Chin Collection,” with a 40th anniversary screening of “Enter the Dragon” on Wednesday, April 17, at 7:30 p.m. at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. The evening will feature an introduction by Stephen Chin and an onstage discussion with the film’s cast and crew, including actor John Saxon, screenwriter Michael Allin, cinematographer Gil Hubbs and producers Fred Weintraub and Paul Heller. There will be special evening gallery hours immediately following the screening.

In 2011, producer and screenwriter Chin donated his collection of more than 800 kung fu film posters and related materials to the Academy. A six-sheet poster from “Enter the Dragon” is featured prominently in the exhibition, along with such collectibles as early English-language kung fu manuals, skateboards, trading cards and lunchboxes. A viewing station will feature action-packed trailers for many of the films represented in the exhibition.

“The kung fu genre exploded into world cinema in the 1970s, changing forever the way action films are shot and edited. And forever changing American popular culture,” said Chin. “I’m grateful that I had the opportunity to save so much of that history. And I am thrilled that the Academy is now able to share it with a larger audience.”

“KICK ASS! Kung Fu Posters from the Stephen Chin Collection” highlights the unprecedented success of Bruce Lee and a multitude of other kung fu stars that followed in his footsteps, including Jackie Chan, Sonny Chiba, Sammo Hung, Jet Li and Chuck Norris. Women such as Angela Mao in “Deadly China Doll” (1973) and Sue Shiomi in “Sister Street Fighter” (1974) were also a vital part of kung fu’s early popularity. The exhibition also looks at the myriad ways in which kung fu has been blended with other genres in the West, such as blaxploitation, horror, fantasy, comedy and science fiction.

In the 1970s, kung fu captured the imagination of moviegoers worldwide by updating ancient Asian martial arts traditions for a contemporary audience thrilled by extreme action, vengeance-fueled stories and eye-popping feats of physical skill. Filmed almost entirely on location in Hong Kong, “Enter the Dragon” (1973) was the first kung fu film produced by a major Hollywood studio, Warner Bros., and brought the genre into the American mainstream.

Bruce Lee, who choreographed and staged the fights himself, plays a martial arts expert who enters a grueling martial arts tournament to take revenge on the gang that killed his sister. Lee died a month before “Enter the Dragon” was released in the U.S., but the film’s popularity cemented his status as a cinematic legend.

The original 35mm Technicolor dye-transfer print is courtesy of Academy Film Archive and Warner Bros.

Tickets for “Enter the Dragon” on April 17 are $5 for the general public and $3 for Academy members and students with a valid ID, and may be purchased starting April 1 online at www.oscars.org, in person at the Academy box office or by mail. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. The Samuel Goldwyn Theater is located at 8949 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills. Ticketed seating is unreserved.

“KICK ASS! Kung Fu Posters from the Stephen Chin Collection” will be open to the public from April 18 through August 25 in the Academy’s Grand Lobby Gallery in Beverly Hills. Regular viewing hours are Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and weekends, noon to 6 p.m. Admission to the gallery is free. For more information, call (310) 247-3600 or visit www.oscars.org.

Photos courtesy of AMPAS

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