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 Post subject: BOSTON 2017, SF/42
PostPosted: Mon Aug 29, 2016 2:26 pm 
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First film already booked!

35mm Film print of THE ROCKETEER!

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Last edited by L.A. Connection on Sun Feb 26, 2017 7:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: Mon Sep 05, 2016 11:46 pm 
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Location: Beautiful Cleveland, Ohio.
Anyone want to drive?
It is the second (ahem) longest duration genre movie marathon series after all. :mrgreen:

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PostPosted: Sun Jan 08, 2017 1:32 pm 
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Nine Films announced. From the official release:

The Rocketeer - Forced to Become An Extraordinary Hero
Creature from the Black Lagoon - Thon premiere!
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - because, you know, 42
John Dies at the End - from Bubba Ho-Tep director
Kingdom of Spiders - Shatner fights bugs, bugs fight back.
SSSSSSSS - Terror ready to sssssstrike, w/ SSSSStrother Martin
This Giant Paper Mache Boulder is Actually Really Heavy - SF41 winner
Midnight Special - one of the best SciFi films of 2016!
Neither Heaven Nor Earth - Cannes Fest winner!
more to come including a 70 mm film, cartoons, a vintage TV show, and more. Info on all these films will be posted soon

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PostPosted: Tue Jan 31, 2017 12:55 pm 
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Location: Beautiful Cleveland, Ohio.
The Boston FESTIVAL! for the previous week now lists - - -
Energy! The Movie
Fantastic Planet
April And The Extraordinary World
Broken
Dead Sunrise
Diverge
Laputa
Domain
Electric Nostalgia
Immigration Game
Last Broken Darkness
Lost Solace
Magellan
Occupants
OMG I'm A Robot
Teleios
The Kaos Brief
The Ascendants Anthology
The Landing
The Open
The Tomorrow Paradox
The Worlds of Phillip K Dick
Virtual Revolution
Westworld (1973)
Without Name
Winter's Dream
Anti-Matter

Also: A Shorts programs (TBD coming soon). Also a triple feature of vintage monster movies (TBD).

I'm in Boston right now. May stay for it- - -

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Thar’s only two possibilities: Thar is life out there in the universe which is smarter than we are, or we’re the most intelligent life in the universe. Either way, it’s a mighty sobering thought. - Walt Kelly


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PostPosted: Thu Feb 02, 2017 1:38 am 
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SCHEDULE LINEUP AS OF 2/1/17:

GALAXY QUEST, TIME CRIMES, MAD MAX FURY ROAD, PREDATOR, BRAZIL, TREMORS, GATTACA, HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY, CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, JOHN DIES AT THE END, NEITHER HEAVEN NOR EARTH, This Giant Paper Mache Boulder is Actually Really Heavy & ROCKETEER.

MIDNIGHT SPECIAL, SSSSSSSS and KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS have been dropped.

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 Post subject: Re: BOSTON 2017, SF/42
PostPosted: Sun Feb 26, 2017 7:24 pm 
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My review of this year's proceedings from the Boston Board. http://sf.theboard.net/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl:


This year's edition was darn good despite some bumps in the road, particularly during the wee hours. I thought the crowd was good, the Somerville staff went above and beyond (read: those bumps) and damn was it nice to go outside with just a shirt!

One thing that I hope is addressed next year is cell phone usage. I understand we are locked away from home for 24 hours+. Things happen. Family and friends must be kept in contact with. We want social media interaction. BUT, there is a time and place. We have breaks between films (admittedly too short). There is a very nice lobby and cool hangs in Davis Square. One or two quick exchanges during a movie is one thing, but, there are folks who seem to want to do a live blogging during the event. Others, 'check out' of a movie and decide it's time to cruise the internets to look at cat videos. I saw more than one or two folks playing video games. If you don't wanna watch the #$#!ing movie - go to the far back of auditorium, or, better yet, out of it completely.

Rant over. On to the flicks:

TRAILERS - All hail Bruce Bartoo from our Ohio sister 'thon. I really really want to have a way to get these shown during the main event - showing them while folks are trickling in doesn't do them justice
IN MEMORIUM - Great effort, but, still far too long. I'd like to see a short version at the 'thon and post the 'Director's cut' online
Rocky Horror Sing-A-Long - Believe me, I tried for years and years to get ROCKY HORROR shown at the thon. I think it would have went over well in the early 80s. But, as witnessed by the half-hearted response here - that ship has sadly sailed. :'(

DUCK DODGERS - It just wouldn't be the 'thon without it!!

HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY- I was lukewarm on this when it came out, and it's still not much more than okay. It's very much one of those films where the subplots and asides are more compelling than the main storyline. The biggest problem remains Sam Rockwell seemingly channeling Luke Wilson. He's irrating more than amusing or interesting. Nice supporting cast and the Alan Rickman double bill was a nice tribute. It did make for some amusing parallels with the current presidency. A future double feature with IDIOCRACY? Pretty good 35mm print with strong colors.

GALAXY QUEST - One of the very rare Spoof / Tribute movies that really works. It actually gets better upon repeated viewings, which is no small feat for a 'one joke' premise. The casting, dialogue and SFX all work. The film seems engineered for the marathon - and it hits the target almost every time. Maybe, too on target for a certain Shatner! ;) In its own cock-eyed way, this may well be the best "Star Trek" movie yet made. Another good solid 35mm film projection. Kudos to DDK for amping up the brightness of the bulbs to give us the full rich celluloid look!!

Alien Mating Cry - Took a bit to get a few contestants, but a decent diversion

CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON - A solid 50s monster movie favorite with a couple of caveats: 1. Too bad that for technical reasons we couldn't show this in 3D - it would have added something to the show. 2. Pissed off that there were a number of chowderheads who decided to act like a-holes and hurl "wise"-cracks early and often throughout its running time. A genre classic deserves better. MUCH better. The creature costume is a marvel, and so much more effective than many a fully CGI monster of today.

GATTACA - Initially sloughed off as an okay sci-fi entry, the acclaim for this film grows and grows. It is now one of the 90s' most beloved. If I have a major quibble it is with the murder mystery which both takes up too much screen-time -- and isn't very much of a mystery. Quibble aside, the genetics themes are a cogent as ever. And, Michael Nyman's score is one of the best of all time. And, I've always truly loved the little grace note at the end when the lab tech (Xander Berkeley, an actor I've worked with and always enjoy seeing on screen) winks at Ethan Hawke indicating he's known his secret all along. Brings a tear to my eye every time. Even bigger tears for me was how crappy the digital copy (Blu Ray) looked - all washed out, lacking color saturation and no sound presence. An atrocity the studio should be ashamed of.

MAD MAX FURY ROAD - CHROME EDITION - Not sure why it wasn't announced in advance that this was the version being shown, but most of the audience seemed to dig it. I suggested it to Garen since I figured most of the 'thon attendees had seen the original version, but not this one. I can see why George Miller says its his preferred version, but the color one is still definitive. A 2nd viewing hasn't changed my opinion much. As I wrote upon release: "The plot isn't much: Some beaten up dude meets an Amazon who is leading her truckload of Playboy Bunnies away from an evil warlord. Repeat for 120 (admittedly thrilling) minutes." I still think the 'let's turn around and go the other way!' plan is high near ridiculous, it's my least favorite of the Mad Max series (admittedly a high bar), and that as fine an actor as Tom Hardy is -- he ain't no Mel in this role. This DCP was smashing, showing the good side of digital.

Tin Foil Hat Contest - This has supplanted our old Costume contest - and, the entries show real effort.

BRAZIL - Terry Gilliam's dark, deft and dazzling take on Orwell's 1984 is as eye-popping as ever, and shows off practical effects in a most positive manner in a pre-CGI world. Pretty sure this was the 'Director's Cut' as it does drag on a bit, especially towards the end.

Nina Unlocked - A decent short. A sort of 'What happens next' to the movie EX MACHINA. It's pretty good if necessarily incomplete as it is part of a web series: http://www.recursor.tv/nina-unlocked/

TIMECRIMES - A clever low budget time travel flick. Still, I was a bit disappointed considering the high praise in some quarters terming it one of the best time travel movies ever (and even triggering talk of an American remake). The premise works well enough with enough twists and turns to keep it interesting, and the time elements seemed to have been worked out well enough even if I haven't done a deep dive into mapping it out (sounds like a Homework assignment for one of you out there! ;)). There is one major plot convenience we all have to accept: We're supposed to believe that a semi-competent weekend lab tech who hasn't tested the time travel unit to be able to precisely time the intercept point for each of Hector's alternate versions. Still, a decent flick if you don't have huge expectations. The DVD projection looked awful. A poor transfer combined with a low budget production is a bad combo on the big screen.

JOHN DIES AT THE END - Let's face it, Don Coscarelli (PHANTASM, BEASTMASTER) isn't known for his tight logical screenplays! JOHN is no exception, but, for the first half or so I went along for the ride with the Rave party gone real real bad premise. But, it got wearying after a while. Whatever 'story' it had seemed to be just ideas thrown randomnly at the screen. Speaking of random, the wrap-around story with Paul Giamatti never really pays off, either. It just seemed constructed so that Coscarelli could get a 'name' attached to sell his largely straight to video enterprise. You will notice that all of Giamatti's scenes take place in and around the dinner, likely all shot in one day (maybe part of two at most). It also seemed like Coscarelli was trying to outdo Sam Raimi circa the Evil Dead films.

NEITHER HEAVEN NOR EARTH - It's not a bad movie, but, it just didn't belong at the marathon. I have no problem with enigmatic storylines, but, for them to truly work, they must either have a major payoff or be so intrinsically interesting that you are compelled. NEITHER is neither. I am not one to demand a pat 'ending', but, you have to give the viewer more than a vaguely symbolic tale of soldiers and Afghans stuck inside a meaningless war where existence is some sort of purgatory of the mind (at least that's what little I got out of it). A mistake that frankly wasn't worth the digital nightmare it presented us at 3am!

PAPER-MACHE BOULDER - The nightmare gets worse. With PREDATOR temporarily side-lined because of studio error, we had to bump this turkey up into the schedule giving us back to back confounding entries. The time has loooooong past for these alleged "homages" to "bad 50s films" to end. Larry Blamire this applies to you, too! Having it on the same program as GALAXY QUEST only compounded it's rankness. Who are these movies made for? The GenX folks who make them have little feel for the actual originals and their target audience of fellow hipsters mostly could care less. I suppose this could have made for a tolerable 15 minute short, but, the incompetence of the Director knew no bounds as this painfully limps along for ONE HUNDRED-TWELVE agonizing minutes. Apparently, he shot the entire script (ad libs and all) and refused to cut a single second of the footage. IF something like this has to show again, please relegate it to the side-bar in the basement. Please? :-*

PREDATOR - The only good thing about the PAPER MACHE snafu is that we got to end with a fun trio of 80s and 90s flicks. I hadn't revisited PREDATOR since its original theatrical release. It hasn't gotten much better as a Sci-Fi film. It very much is a typical Arnuld/Stallone/Chuck Norris war action flick with ONE sci-fi element tossed in. Honestly, the 'Predator' could have been a Russian soldier with a high-tech cloaking device with a major thirst for killing and you wouldn't have to change the 'story' a lick. It's still fun in a dumb macho kind of way and the early CGI holds up pretty darn well - as does Stan Winston's Predator outfit.

ROCKETEER - Another flick I hadn't seen since it's theatrical run. But, as opposed to PREDATOR - I thought this one actually improved a bit with age. It's still not the big successful franchise-starter that Disney obviously intended it to be, but, its nostalgic value has only increased. It seems kind of quaint now that a major studio would spend so much time, money and effort into such a low-key 'blockbuster' (see also DICK TRACY and THE PHANTOM). Modern superhero movies seem more intent into pounding you into submission than just pleasurably entertaining you. The movie's pace is still far too slack and Billy Campbell isn't the most charasmatic lead, but, the supporting players are very good, the SFX hold up well for the era and I loved the nods to old Hollywood including the Rondo Hatton henchman. The 35mm film print had a number of scratches, but, the rich contrast and color saturation were a welcome relief from all the digital in the intervening hours.

TREMORS - Still a lot of fun. It's still one the best 50s movies made in the past few decades. It's silly, hokey and a barrel of enjoyment. Fred Ward and Kevin Bacon should have done a series of movies together. They made a great team, as did the gun nuts Reba McIntire and Michael Gross. It's amusing that Finn Carter is considered an 'ugly duckling' - only in Hollywood, eh? The whole cast obviously had a ball, and the low budget effects are still quite effective. When I scheduled it as the finale, I hoped it would work as a nice light-weight climax. It seemed to go over well.


Thanks to everybody involved. Frank & Fran, Garen, Harry, Ian, DDK, Tom and the entire Somerville staff. And, hats off to my fellow travellers in my 'LA Connection' Group - four of us now having an unbroken string of 28 straight years together! And, to you, the loyal members of this board which has survived server crashes, threats to be shut-down and a revolution in social media alternatives.

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