Wednesday, May 27, 2009

George A. Romero's Knightriders

Live by the code. Know who you are. Survive outside the establishment. Realize that your dreams and ideals will live on long after you are gone.

Knightriders may very well be Romero's most accomplished, if most under-appreciated film.

It was my 'Pick Your Poison' selection for this week in The Slaughtered Lamb Cinema.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Keeping up with The Slaughtered Lamb Cinema

Tired of missing out on the goings on at The Slaughtered Lamb? There are a couple of key ways to stay on top of things. Obviously, this blog is the centerpiece of our information network, but if you don't have the time to check this frequently, you might prefer some of the other options available.

Twitter: I don't use this to report on my minute-by-minute goings on, but all blog posts are sent to the Twitter account within an hour of posting.

Facebook: There is a Slaughtered Lamb Cinema group on Facebook that you can become a 'fan' of, and we post and send out invites to our monthly events.

The Calendar: While you won't see some events until after they happen, all regularly scheduled events are posted in advance.

Friday, May 22, 2009

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Let it Snow, Let is Snow, Let it Snow

In 2004, before the Slaughtered Lamb Cinema even existed, we had a run of several consecutive movie parties that were successful premieres of international films. The Nest, Dog Soldiers and Shaun of the Dead. It's a real treat to screen something that no one has seen before, other than having seen the available trailers or clips, and have it exceed everyone's expectations.

We did that tonight with Norway's Dead Snow. I'll go so far as to say Dead Snow may be the most entertaining Nazi zombie film of all time. Sure, Shock Waves had Peter Cushing, and Oasis of the Zombies is notable for offering the 'alternate clothed sequences' on DVD, but Dead Snow pays a debt to classic low budget horror of the 80s (most notably the Evil Dead films and pre-Academy Award efforts of Peter Jackson) while giving back to the genre several fun and original twists.

Dead Snow is coming later this year to a therater near you. In the mean time, check out a bunch of clips here.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

The Poison goes down smooth

Last week, Kyle surprised us with a double feature of The Wildman of Borneo (a non-PC Little Rascals 2-reeler) and the musical Dreamgirls, which everyone enjoyed.

This week, Vonna scored high marks with a pair of unusual Civil War stories - An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge from the story by Ambrose Bierce (the only episode of The Twilight Zone not originally produced for the show), and the Don Siegel/Clint Eastwood collaboration The Beguiled. The bar has been set pretty high, so I've got my work cut out for next week.

But before we get to that, we have a special screening of the highly anticipated Dead Snow scheduled for tomorrow night.

And don't think we've forgotten this Saturday is our next monthly event. We hope you'll join us for The Terminator trilogy.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Why all the Star Wars fans love the new Trek

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?



Thanks to Kyle for passing this on.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Keep on Trekkin!

So we caught J.J. Abram's reboot of Star Trek yesterday. Much of what you've been hearing is true - although I'd go so far as to say this may be the best Star Trek film yet - no slight to Wrath of Khan (however I've found that the other fan favorite, The Voyage Home, doesn't hold up quite as well).

Without delving into spoilers, I do give the writers credit for developing a story that will allow this ensemble to have their own adventures without ignoring all of the baggage and backstory that has come before.

The cast does a very good job: Spock is just as you would expect (with one minor element that is sure to irk the die hard fans), Kirk grows on you, Sulu and Uhura are each given a chance to shine - however I'd have to say the real standouts are Simon Pegg (while perhaps underused in this film), Chekov, and McCoy - who may do the best job channeling his original series counterpart without coming off like an impersonation.

While not without it's flaws, in particular the random insertion of obligartory aliens (characters in masks in the background - or occasionally foreground) to remind you this is all happening in the future where man and alien, at least the bipedal kind that can still shop for clothes in our outlet stores, comingle. There is a green skinned throwback to the original series that is funny if not somewhat poorly executed, and there is a comedic sidekick that makes a brief appearance for whom they couldn't seem to afford a mask better than you might find at your local Spirit store (my guess is, you'll see him this Halloween).

But those are issues that don't bear on the plot itself, which serves the purpose of allowing new fans to engage with these characters and stories, whether or not they've been followers of the Trek mythos for the past 40 years. And to that end, I think he has succeeded grandly. We're looking forward to revisiting this on the big screen in a few months when it makes its Blu Ray debut (hey - appreciate that we made a trip OUT to the theater on opening weekend to see it!).

It's definitely worth checking out.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Guess Who's Picking the Poison

The lineup has been selected. Over the next seven weeks, the Wednesday night programming will be selected by:

5/13 Kyle
5/20 Vonna
5/27 John
6/3 Mikk
6/10 Mike
6/17 Martin
6/24 Stan

Screenings will be updated on the Calendar AFTER they happen. You'll have to be there on the night to see what we're watching.

Friday, May 1, 2009

It's time to Pick Your Poison!

Next Wednesday we close out the the first leg of the Slaughtered Lamb Cinema's Wednesday Night History of Horror.


This week saw Claude Rains in the classic H.G. Wells tale, The Invisible Man paired with the late, great Fay Wray in the first of three consecutive appearances in The Mystery of the Wax Museum. A fun pre-code flick that was the inspiration for the 1950s 3-D classic House of Wax with Vincent Price.


We close out with the Fay Wray double-feature of The Most Dangerous Game and King Kong. It will be quite a night, during which we'll also announce the first program in the Pick Your Poison Wednesday series that starts up on 5/13. Check the blog and calendar for those weekly announcements if you're not here in person. It's sure to be an interesting if ecclectic lineup for the next several weeks. You too can participate in the programming - you just need to show up!