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LA AREA AICN READERS!! RED DAWN!! MIDNIGHT!! THE NUART!! GET YOUR ASS IN GEAR!!
Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
I love midnight movies.
Always have. One of the first film books I remember buying was called MIDNIGHT MOVIES, which led me to the great series of CULT MOVIES books, which led me to the PSYCHOTRONIC GUIDE, which led me to... well, in a roundabout way, I guess that all led me here.
There's something I've always loved about theaters specifically programming films for that midnight slot, and it's been interesting to see how that programming has changed over the years from fare like ERASERHEAD and EL TOPO and PINK FLAMINGOS to the '80s mainstays like ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (a film I learned to despise when working as an usher/projectionist in a theater showing the damned thing) and Alan Parker's PINK FLOYD - THE WALL to the unfortunate market of today, where the idea seems to have almost completely expired.
Almost.
I'll give Landmark Theaters credit for imagination. They are getting ready to try a series of midnight screenings here in Los Angeles at the historic and much beloved Nuart Theater. What? You doubt me? You doubt the Nuart?! Well, check out this LOS ANGELES TIMES article from yesterday if you don't think my word's good enough. The Nuart isn't just another arthouse theater. It may well be THE arthouse theater. You know the Movie Geek on Comedy Central's new BEAT THE GEEKS game show? Where do you think they found him? He was the Nuart's projectionist and assistant manager.
If the midnight screenings in LA go well, there's a good chance Landmark will try screenings in other cities, like San Francisco, Berkeley, San Diego, Austin, and Chicago, where Landmark also has reperatory houses, and if they can make the idea work, expect other chains to rip them off. And in this case, that's a good thing. We want to see the idea of the midnight movie come back into style. Especially with a whole new type of programming in the works.
Yes, it's true. If you venture down to the Nuart tonight, Friday, February 08, 2002, you're going to find a theater full of '80s nuts watching John Milius' RED DAWN. The very first film to be awarded the PG-13 rating. The film that was said to have the most acts of violence in a film ever at the point it was released. "GO, WOLVERINES!!" Come on down. Roll around in that great big Basil Poledouris score with us. Savor such exchanges of dialogue as "DOGFACE! I SHOW YOU HOW SOVIET DIES!" "I've seen it before." and "All that hate will burn you up." "Keeps me warm." And if you show up tonight... you won't be alone. For one thing, I'm going to be there. More importantly, though, we're going to have some genuine RED DAWN survivors there. Yep, as one friend of mine put it, "Deer-blood-drinking, STAR WARS-cap-wearin' C. Thomas Howell and homing-beacon-swallowing Mayor's son Darren Dalton" are both going to attend the screening, (also both from THE OUTSIDERS -- which reminds me... I wonder why C. Thomas didn't "stay gold") and both Smilin' Jack Ruby and myself have put in calls to try and sweettalk our favorite Purdy-wielding-madman John Milius to attend as well.
Why plug the screening? Because I want more screenings like it. Landmark is going to be watching ticket sales closely here. If you want to see some of your favorite '80s films on the bigscreen, what are you waiting for? Check out what's playing in the weeks ahead at both the Nuart and Landmark's Rialto in Pasadena:
Nuart: "Adventures in Babysitting" Friday, February 15
Rialto: "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" Saturday, February 16
Nuart: "Monty Python and the Meaning of Life" Friday, February 22
Rialto: "The Neverending Story" Saturday, February 23
Nuart: "The City of Lost Children" Friday, March 1
Rialto: "The Goonies" Saturday, March 2
Nuart: "Explorers" Friday, March 8
Rialto: "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" Saturday, March 9
Nuart: "The Dark Crystal" Friday, March 15
Rialto: "Used Cars" Saturday, March 16
Nuart: "Performance" Friday, March 22
Rialto: "Saturday Night Fever" (Original "R" cut) Saturday, March 23
Nuart: "The Secret of NIMH" Friday, March 29
Rialto: "Raiders of the Lost Ark" Saturday, March 30
Nuart: "The Princess Bride" Friday, April 5
Rialto: "Airplane!" Saturday, April 6
Nuart: "Clue" Friday, April 12
Rialto: "Rocky Horror" Saturday, April 13
Nuart: "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" Friday, April 19
Rialto: "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" Saturday, April 20
And you can expect to see guests showing up at some of those screenings in both locations. There's some stuff on that list I haven't seen on the bigscreen since the initial release, and if there's a chance in hell I can go see EXPLORERS and talk with Joe Dante afterwards, then damn it, I want to put the word out and support the idea.
As you get older, you get fewer and fewer opportunities to turn the clock back and get in touch with that simple, pure, unfettered joy you had when watching films as a kid. I'm going to take advantage of these opportunities and hope to see you guys at some or all of the screenings.
Good thing I wasn't planning to sleep anyway.
Landmark's Nuart: 11272 Santa Monica Blvd (310-478-6379)
Landmark's Rialto: Fair Oaks at Oxley in South Pasadena (626-799-9567)
"Moriarty" out.
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Isn't that the one about kids fighting against a supposed Communist invasion? Well good god that sucked. If it isn't that, then I apologise and I hope u all enjoy the screenings.
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Yeah, real cool 'cult' films.
What about 'The Killer', or 'TO live and die in L.A.', or even Conan the Barbarian ?!!!
Speaking of which, Moriarty have you seen Collateral Damage, if so what did you think ? -
He said that Patrick Swayze was a fag and that Charlie Sheen had a shit haircut.
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It has sureal feel about it, and the deaths of various characters is actually quite poignant, but from the director of Conan I would have liked a more epic film.
Nostalgia works best when it's not too dated, like The goonies, breakfast club, or star wars.
sure, the hair styles are dated, but not the characters or script.
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I saw Fight Club for the fist time at a midnight showing in a caffeine and narcotic fuelled atmosphere. I didn't sleep for the next 48hrs.
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Midnight movies are great!!! The Landmark Mayan theater in Denver has been doing it for years. They always have great films. Saw "A Clockwork Orange" there a few weeks ago. Coming up they have "The Lost Boys","Weird Science", "The Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzi", "The Dark Crystal", and "The Meaning Of Life"!! I've probably seen about 20 Classic films there that I never would have dreamed of seeing on the big screen again. This is such a great idea. I hope the other Landmarks do as good of a job as the Mayan has.
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I haven't been to the Nuart yet put I have seen many a great late show at quite a few places around the LA area. I used to check out midnight screenings at the Mann's Plaza theater in Westwood all the time (which was a perfect place to catch some classics like ALIENS and SUPERMAN on the big screen... until they ended their midnight shows a few years back). The only place around here to catch that stuff is at the Flagship's University Village theater on the USC campus but that place is cramped little shithole. Don't even get me started on the Beverly Cinemas... a place where I saw the concession guys stretching out the screen midway through a double feature to change the format to scope... uuugghhh! Anyway, hope to see everyone there tongiht. You too Moriarty!
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Bring back midnight movies. We had them in the metro area were I live until about 6 years ago. Saw "Ricky Buisness" and a few weeks later one of the holy grails of cool cinema: "ALIENS". Man it was heaven. No kids. Just geeks blissed out on Ripley, Hicks, the marines on a mission into hell. They stopped the screenings because of all the curfew laws created to control the Gen-Y kids when they entered their teen years back in 1994. Now that a good chunk are over 18 bring it back. I'll by candy, soda, and popcorn. I promise. PLEASE?!?!-----later-----m
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Tower Theatre in Salt Lake City have been running midnight screenings for several years now. They've shown movies like Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, City of the Lost Children, Fight Club, etc etc. I went to see MAD MAX Australian version last year. All are gloriously projected in 35mm. Older prints like Martin Scorsese mentioned films above are in the state of tattered and worn out but runs fine if you don't mind scratches and splotches. Midnight screenings usually run at midnight Fridays and Saturdays.
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Apology for the bad grammar in my last post. I was cranky and tired after waking up. BTW, Tower showed the 35mm print of The Shining NOT ONCE BUT TWICE in the same last year due to popular demand.
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I love that movie!!Kurt Russell rules!!
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Feb 08, 2002 8:02:20 AM CST
The ALIENS screening I saw a few years back was too damned COOL!
by psyclops
There was a packed house filled with two kinds of people... those who knew what they were going to see and those who didn't. By the time the film was at the halfway point there was this young teen girl sitting in front of me cowering and gripping her boyfriend's jacket muttering, "holyshit...holyshit..holyshit!!!"... it was fucking great. People cheered every time Bill Paxton appeared on screen! They laughed, screamed, applauded at all the right moments. It was one of the coolest movie experience ever. They used to play ALIENS (a beautiful 70mm print) every few months until those bastards at the Mann Plaza decided to stop running the midnight shows. Sons of bitches.
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so, please, Landmark, bring some of those glorious movies here to the River Oaks 3. And if you played ALIENS at midnight you bet your ass I'd come. Shit, do a ALIEN/ALIENS double feature, and I'd wet my pants like a baby. Well, not really, but...dammit, metaphors suck.
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I thought the first PG-13 movie was either Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom or Gremlins? seems like i got that question in Trivial Pursuit or something...?
on a different not, one of the best (and only) midnight screenings i ever saw was Die Hard, shortly after its original release, in a theater full of drunk guys at University of Arizona...totally awesome... -
Saturday Night Fever? March 23rd? Shit, negro... that's all you had to say!
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Glad I'm living here in the City of Angels so I can catch some of this shit. Personally I think Adventures in Babysitting ain't gonna draw too many people (although Elisabeth Shue's dancing-in-her-underwear lip sync to "And Then He Kissed Me" might be worth the price of admission alone). Most of these selections aren't too impressive, considering many have recently played at L.A.'s true revival house. The New Beverly Theatre. Also, Moriarty should have brought this up a couple weeks ago, when THE BIG LEBOWSKY was shown at Midnight at the Nuart. Red Dawn isn't as impressive a kick-off, unless you get nostalgic for 80's bratpack sludge--let's face it, Milius' fascist/cold war perspective is a little dated, isn't it? I think I'd rather see Taps. I doubt this series at the Nuart will be better than the old Brew & View in Chicago, where you could drink and smoke in the seats, and they showed Dazed & Confused every Thursday for about a year (and people weren't just smoking ciggys for that one). *** And speaking of getting your ass in gear, Moriarty, WHERE'S THAT DAMNED ATTACK OF THE CLONES SCRIPT REVIEW?!?!
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in case anyone cares...according to the IMDB.com, regarding Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, "This film inspired the PG-13 MPAA rating", while Red Dawn was the "First film to earn a PG-13 rating"...
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There used to be a place in Seattle (the Old UA Theatre)that had midnight showings in the Dome, this old, worn down, turn of the century, full of ghosts theatre that oozed character. With the 65 ft screen they had, it was a great place to watch a midnight showing of Raiders or SW. Plus you could bring in brews, get all fucked up, and nobody really cared. It was great.
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Would you mind opening up a theater in the Wilkes-Barre/Scraton, PA area please? Thank you.
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I think I've seen Red Dawn more than any other movie in my life. When I was a kid, I lived overseas and an uncle would send us videos, and this was one of them (Better Off Dead and the Hobbit were a couple of the others). I probably saw it once a week for a year and a half. Good shit. My favorite midnight movie of all time is Dazed and Confused. There was this old, crappy theater close to where I live that had Dazed and Confused playing every Friday and Saturday night at midnight for about four or five years. Theater shut down due to competition from the multi-plexes, but if we were ever short of something to do, we would go see it. "The thing I love about high school girls is that I keep getting older and they just stay the same age." McCaughnehy's (sp?) best line ever.
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Feb 08, 2002 1:40:43 PM CST
I feel sorry for people who don't have a Landmark theatre in
by otis von zipper
Besides usually showing the best movies out at any given time, having midnight movie series, and offering student prices and discount cards, the last few single screen theatres out here are mostly owned by Landmark. If only all movie theatre chains were like them, they actually care about film.
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Ahh that place was the shit. I use to go pretty much every week. Best screening I went to see there was either 'The Shinning' or 'Evil Dead 2' right around Halloween, it was sick. Or when they showed 'Scarface' and people start to fall asleep during it. Shit, man, we need some midnight screenings down in Orange County, but Edwards are the only chain out here and they suck ass.
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The new movies always got dropped off after midnight. Certain movies that came in were put on immediately for an employee showing. My favorite experience was when the Special Edition Empire Strikes Back came in we watched in a double feature with SE Star Wars as the first movie.
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I believe had its debut in 1991. Four years following Adv in Babysitting. Keith Coogan rules.
Well, OK, he doesn't. What about Jon Cryer? I used to watch Hiding Out a lot. Morgan Stewart's Coming Home...nothing more 80's than those movies. -
So there!!! I thought it was cool and Patrick Swayze kicked ass! Whats her face Gray was all right in it. Kids getting to live in forest and kill bad guys. A kids dream (dont worry I did attend therapy).
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Fuck Red Dawn. The REAL midnight action in L.A. is CITIZEN TOXIE: THE TOXIC AVENGER 4 at Laemmle's Sunset 5 and the Flagship University Village 3 by USC. Anybody who passes up the chance to see CITIZEN TOXIE in favor of Red Fucking Dawn is gonna get a mop handle shoved up their ass by Toxie himself.
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Every paranoid gun-nut in the state will be there stroking themselves. I love CONAN but RED DAWN is an embarrasment of a film. All these other movies sounds cool, though. What I would give to finally see RAIDERS on the big screen, being a child of video as I am.
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Man. I used to go to the Uptown here in Toronto when they showed JAWS and HEAVY METAL. Good times. good times. I miss it.
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is the single greatest war movie of all time. Period. All those who are trashing it haven't really watched it, I guarantee it. You know, when the movie came out, Secretary of Defense Alexander Haig said it was the most realistic war movie ever made about a Russian invasion. Damn straight. "how was it?" "it was GOOD". "We live here!"
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Feb 08, 2002 4:56:43 PM CST
Another small town chimes in about Midnight movies ... exactly h
by michel delving
Oh yeah, well I'm from Woodstack Iowa and we've been having midnight screenings for decades. My Uncle Phil can still remember going to see Wizard of Oz at midnight at the barn-a-plex next to the train tracks.
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Feb 08, 2002 9:08:17 PM CST
Hey Mori, they already do it in Berkeley, at the Act One/Act Two
by lenny nero
This weekend, PEEWEE'S BIG ADVENTURE! Booyah!
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I use to live in Springfield, MO. they had midnight movies ever weekend at two different local theaters. One weekend I saw Aliens in a 70mm print it was glorious, then the next weekend Alien in 70mm , then Patriot Games in 70mm. Pulp fiction was running for like a year straight. Then they did the John Hughes films Ferris Bueller(i love it saw it 15 times) breakfast club, then Planes, Trains, Automobiles, all of them. Then they had Casino showing and all scorsese's films. I also remember this beautiful print of Michael Mann's Thief with James Caan. Then beautiful cut of Blade Runner. Then Robert Rossen the Hustler in its truest cinemascope form crystal clear print and sound. That was just plain fucking awesome. That had me drooling. Then Double Indemnity in a great print. Well they stopped showing the films to start showing new crap that appealed more to the new generation. Fuckers damn them to hell. I miss those days just me ,bag of popcorn, and rasianettes, and a big ass coke. My GF wouldn't approve nowadays. LIfe sucks. out....
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for THE DARK CRYSTAL, THE PRINCESS BRIDE, and especially THE SECRET OF NIMH!! If only ROCK & RULE were in there too .. that would've totally rocked .. and ruled .. ^_^
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Feb 09, 2002 2:20:38 PM CST
""glad i`m living here in the city of angels""...oh hell yeeahhh
by drjones
..i`ve never seen ROTLA on the big silver screen...:( and i don`t live in la but in germany....and i`ve to search my ass off to see movies like DAVID LYNCH`S MD or any others into the theater.
sorry for my whining but i just had to say that......
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