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.

Wednesday Nights are Justified

We wrapped up our successful run of Sports Night last week, and tonight started Justified. Based on characters created by Elmore Leonard and starring the great Timothy Olyphant (Deadwood, The Crazies), it looks like were in for a fun next several weeks.

As for what's next... time will tell...

The first Wednesday Series of 2011 - Sports Night!

The same selection committee that brought you Freaks & Geeks in 2010 has decided on our first pick for the New Year.

Sports Night is an Aaron Sorkin comedy ran for two seasons from 1998-2000, and starred Felicity Huffman (Despearate Housewives), Peter Krause (Six Feet Under), Josh Charles (The Good Wife), Sabrina Lloyd (Numb3rs) and the great Robert Guillaume (Benson).

If you're concerned that you couldn't possibly be interested because you're not a sports fan, fear not. This is a show about characters, and while yes, they live in and around the world of sports, knowledge or interest in such is not a requirement to enjoy this excellent series.

As the commercial-free episodes run a scant 20-odd minutes, we expect to be able to burn through a good chunk each night. We're anticipating a 6-8 week run for the series depending on the number watched nightly.

We hope to see you on Wednesdays!

Celebrating 20 Years of Twin Peaks

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Twin Peaks, arguably the single greatest series in the history of broadcast television. So when I heard that a cast reunion was being scheduled in Burbank for this weekend, I decided it was worth making a special trip down to check things out.

The first major player to arrive was Sherilyn Fenn (Audrey Horne), who I had autograph my Boxing Helena one-sheet. She was extremely sweet, and still looks great. The film was directed by David Lynch's daughter Jennifer, who was also in attendance, so I naturally had her sign it as well.

Most of the cast members are looking surprisingly good, considering it's been 20 years, and obviously those who played the high school kids tend to have changed the most. Seeing Bobby Briggs and Harold Smith with gray hair was a bit of a shock. 

Other attendees included Ray Wise (Leland Palmer), Peggy Lipton (Norma Jennings), Chris Mulkey (Hank Jennings), Walter Olkewicz (Jacques Renault), Dana Ashbrook (Bobby Briggs), Connie Woods (the 'new' girl at One-Eyed Jacks), Lenny von Dohlen (Harold Smith), Russ Tamblyn (Dr. Jacoby), Charlotte Stewart (Betty Briggs), Kimmy Robertson (Lucy Moran), James Marshall (James Hurley), and Catherine Coulson (the Log Lady), and yes, the Log (itself).

I talked to Ray Wise briefly—prior to the second season of the show you'd expect him to be the nicest guy, but after we found out more about his character it's hard to look at him and not see a devilish streak. Great actor, and fortunately a very nice guy in person.

I also spoke with Russ Tamblyn and picked up a signed photo from The Haunting, one of the two films he did for director Robert Wise (the other being West Side Story, in which he starred opposite fellow Twin Peaks alum Richard Beymer).

But the highlight of the trip, and the deciding factor in my actually making the flight, was the opportunity to meet Sheryl Lee, who portrayed Laura Palmer in the show. When you consider her initial role in the series was playing the corpse of Laura Palmer, you wouldn't think that she would have a chance to leave such an indelible mark. She shined as Laura's cousin Maddie in the television series, although it wasn't until the prequel film, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, that she really blew me away. Regulars at The Slaughtered Lamb Cinema know that's one of my all time favorite films, as evidenced by its inclusion in our 40 Years, 40 Movies series earlier this year.

It was a great honor to be first in line when Sheryl arrived, and to be able to tell her that I thought she gave an amazing, layered performance in the film. The range she exhibits is truly amazing, from playful to tortured (psychologically - not to mention physically) to terrified. She seemed genuinely touched by the sentiment, as I think she realized that I really meant it. I can't think of a better performance, particularly in such a demanding role.

I had Sheryl sign my Fire Walk With Me one-sheet as well as my hardcover copy of The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer. As that book was actually written by Jennifer Lynch, I had her sign it as well. In addition to signing it, she actually added me to the book... forever linking me to Laura Palmer.

It was a great trip, and my only regret was not staying through Sunday so as to get to spend a litle more time chatting up the cast members (as I expect the crowds had thinned considerably compared to Saturday).

All in all, 2010 will go down as a great year for meeting some truly inspirational people.