January 25 & 26, 2014 |
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The 36th Annual Science Fiction Marathon
January 25, 2014 at 7:00 pm in 26-100
Admission is $8, and drops to $5 after Pacific Rim.The 2014 Marathon features four full-length films, one surprise hour-long feature, many short subjects, and a special selection of refreshments! Pizza pre-orders will be taken between Tremors and Pacific Rim for pickup before midnight, and breakfast foods will be available after Aliens. |
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Rated PG-13
format: 35mm |
Tremors (1990)January 25, 2014 at 7:00 pm in 26-100Tremors is actually two movies in one. On its own terms, it's an enjoyable modern sci-fi horror-thriller, with good pacing and a sense of humor; but it's also a loving tribute to such 1950s low-budget desert-based sci-fi-horror films like Them!, It Came From Outer Space, Tarantula, and The Monolith Monsters. Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward are the stars, a pair of small-town handymen living in a small desert community, who stumble upon several difficult-to-explain phenomena, including a couple of people who've died under extremely strange (and, in one instance, very grisly) circumstances. Eventually, they and a handful of their neighbors find the cause: gigantic prehistoric worm-like creatures that streak under the desert the way fish swim through oceans, reaching up and grabbing anything they need for food. Cut off from the outside world, they have to figure out how to get across the desert alive while these creatures -- that are smart as well as fast -- close in on them, stalking them like monster sharks. The film benefits from the presence of special effects that are good enough to pull this all off, keeping the shock value high, and also from a subtly humorous script and performances to match by the entire cast, and director Ron Underwood's breezy pacing of the whole picture. [rottentomatoes.com] A 90's comedy-horror film with 50's B-movie panache |
Rated PG-13
format: 35mm |
Pacific Rim (2013)January 25, 2014 at 9:00 pm in 26-100When legions of monstrous creatures, known as Kaiju, started rising from the sea, a war began that would take millions of lives and consume humanity's resources for years on end. To combat the giant Kaiju, a special type of weapon was devised: massive robots, called Jaegers, which are controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge. But even the Jaegers are proving nearly defenseless in the face of the relentless Kaiju. On the verge of defeat, the forces defending mankind have no choice but to turn to two unlikely heroes -- a washed up former pilot (Charlie Hunnam) and an untested trainee (Rinko Kikuchi) -- who are teamed to drive a legendary but seemingly obsolete Jaeger from the past. Together, they stand as mankind's last hope against the mounting apocalypse. Directed by Guillermo del Toro. [rottentomatoes.com] Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim is awesome, scary, weird, exciting, exuberant, and ridiculous -- basically everything you want from a sci-fi action movie. |
Rated R
format: 35mm |
Aliens (1986)January 26, 2014 at 12:30 am in 26-100Big-budget special effects, swiftly paced action, and a distinct feminist subtext from writer/director James Cameron turned what should have been a by-the-numbers sci-fi sequel into both a blockbuster and a seven-time Oscar nominee. Sigourney Weaver returns as Ellen Ripley, the last surviving crew member of a corporate spaceship destroyed after an attack by a vicious, virtually unbeatable alien life form. Adrift in space for half a century, Ripley grapples with depression until she's informed by her company's representative, Carter Burke (Paul Reiser) that the planet where her crew discovered the alien has since been settled by colonists. Contact with the colony has suddenly been lost, and a detachment of colonial marines is being sent to investigate. Invited along as an advisor, Ripley predicts disaster, and sure enough, the aliens have infested the colony, leaving a sole survivor, the young girl Newt (Carrie Henn). With the soldiers picked off one by one, a final all-female showdown brews between the alien queen and Ripley, who's become a surrogate mother to Newt. Several future stars made early career appearances in Aliens, including Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, and Reiser. [rottentomatoes.com] On the short list of sequels that not only matched the quality of its predecessor, but arguably surpassed it to become one of the greatest films of its genre. |
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unrated format: 16mm |
A Special Surprise!January 26, 2014 at 3:10 am in 26-100 |
Rated PG-13
format: 35mm |
Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (1996)January 26, 2014 at 4:00 am in 26-100After six seasons of sublime, nerdy fun on television, the cult comedy series Mystery Science Theater 3000 took to the big screen in 1996 for its deliriously funny takedown of the 1955 alien invasion epic This Island Earth. Evil scientist Dr. Clayton Forrester explains the premise at the start: in his quest for world domination, he devises a scheme to subject the human race to the worst movies ever made. He tests his plan on Mike Nelson, the sole human aboard an Earth-orbiting space station known as the Satellite of Love. But our hero and his two robot sidekicks turn a lemon into a much funnier lemon by showering This Island Earth with wisecracks, ridicule and general silliness. The human race may never be rid of cheesy movies, but when the critics are this nutty, who cares? [amazon.com] Helping to make these pleasantries funny is their spur-of-the-moment quality, the same quick spontaneity that characterizes chance remarks overheard at raucous movie houses. Capturing that bright and unexpected quality is what the MST3K crew does best. |
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