Here we go again!

Twelve years after my 40 Years/40 Movies marathon, and two years after I published my book of 50 Movie Memories, I have decided to embark upon yet another movie venture.

52 Pick-Up is my 52nd Birthday movie challenge in which I will be screening one movie a week for a year from our vast library of films that I haven't watched before. After two dark years in The Slaughtered Lamb, this should help make up for some lost time. I'm flying fast and loose as far as rules go, but may try to spread things out alphabetically, hitting two movies per letter of the alphabet in this particular quest. And while I plan to lean towards films that I own that I've never seen before (trust me - picking 52 out of an available 12577 will not be a problem), there may be instances where I select a film that I haven't seen in ages, and certainly not in a contemporary format (or on the SLC big screen). 

We'll certainly watch more movies throughout the year, but only one a week will count towards this particular goal. I'm really looking forward to the excuse of making my way through a decent number of acquisitions that otherwise haven't made it to the top of the viewing list.

50 Years of Dark Shadows

Call me crazy. After teaming up with Peter and a band of experts on Thriller, The Outer Limits, Kolchak: The Night Stalker and Batman, I'm flying solo as I dive into all 1225 episodes of the classic soap opera, Dark Shadows, which is currently celebrating its 50th anniversary.

I hope you'll join me on the 50th anniversary of the airing of each episode (for as long as I can take it) as I work my way through the series, one day at a time.

2012 Round-Up!

Last year, we kicked off what looks to become an new tradition in The Slaughtered Lamb Cinema, as we used the New Year holiday to catch up on a number of the year's major releases that for some reason or another we missed during their theatrical run.

For 2011, we screened Rise of the Planet of the Apes, X-Men: First Class and Super 8.

For 2012, we're extending the event across two days, and while some of the titles to be screened are still in flux, here's the initial schedule, along with some of the other titles we're considering.

Monday, 12/31 (all times approximate)

• The Amazing Spider-Man (9am)
• Prometheus (12pm)
• The Hunger Games (3pm)
• Snow White and the Huntsman (6pm)
• TBD (9pm)

Tuesday, 1/1 (all times approximate)

• The Raid: Redemption (9am)
• TBD (12pm)
• TBD (3pm)
• TBD (6pm)

Under consideration: Wrath of the Titans, Cabin in the Woods, Looper, Paranorman, The Bourne Legacy, Killer Joe, Savages, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and Total Recall.

Please let us know if you're particularly interested in seeing any of the above films. The final selections may be changed at the whim of the attendees present at the time!

Celebrating the ORIGINAL Original Trilogy

Our 30th anniversary celebration of the summer of 1982 has been a lot of fun so far. As I noted below, we felt it was somehow appropriate to sneak in two celebrated re-releases from that summer (Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Empire Strikes Back). I was planning to wait a few weeks and make a surprise announcement that our final screening of the series would in fact be a triple-feature, starting with a screening with the original theatrical cut of Star Wars (in 720p HD, mind you), since that landmark film celebrated its 35th anniversary this year. Vonna was quick to point out how silly it would be to run Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan together, so we decided to make a minor change to the schedule. Star Trek II will now screen with The Road Warrior (eliminating Class of 1984 from the series—sorry Michael J. Fox fans!), and we will now run the original, de-specialized editions of the Star Wars trilogy for the first time in the history of The Slaughtered Lamb Cinema.

One night only, starting at 4pm on Saturday, August 11th.

Where were you in '82?

Many movie fans consider the summer of 1982 to be the best summer movie season of all time. Sure, there had been years that stood out in the history of a single film, like Jaws (1975), Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). But there was magic in the air thirty years ago, and we're going to attempt to rekindle that magic this summer in The Slaughtered Lamb Cinema.

We had initially planned to pick the top three films from the summer of 1982 to screen for our June movie party. The more we thought about it, the more we felt that there were too many good films to choose from. And while a number of these have screened as part of other series over the past four years, we agreed that they each deserved to be seen again. So we're shifting our monthly movie party focus a bit. Starting in May and running through the beginning of August, we will be screening a double-feature of 1982's greatest summer hits every two weeks.

We're still ironing out the schedule (basically trying to decide if we're going to screen them in chronological order, or try and pair them up thematically - if you have suggestions, please send them our way!). The twelve films we've picked to represent the best of the summer of 1982 in our 30th Anniversary retrospective include:

 

Good friend of The Slaughtered Lamb Pete Vilmur reminds us that two classics were also re-released in the summer of 1982. Call me crazy, but I think they warrant a double-feature of their own!

 

We would be honored if you would join us. 

Black Death

After the extremely popular run of Game of Thrones, we thought we'd follow that with one more week of Sean Bean, in the recent film Black Death.

The Lamb will be dark on the 20th as I'm off to Comic Con, and in the mean time we'll begin plotting for our next series, which is scheduled to start on the 27th.

You Win or You Die - A Game of Thrones

Now that we've wrapped up the first season of Justified (another SLC favorite), it's time to schedule our next Wednesday night series.

We've chosen to screen Game of Thrones, the new HBO series based on the novels of George R.R. Martin. We look forward to seeing if it's as good as the reviews seem to indicate. 

Wednesdays at The Slaughtered Lamb Cinema starting June 8th.