Friday is back again and for a some of us that means that a glorious three day weekend is about to begin. But even if it doesn't mean that for everyone, we should still make time to bask in the soothing light of the projector as it screens movies that we love. Or are watching for the first time. That works too.
Today is the official release date of The Bye Bye Man, which had been postponed several times. (We check this out last night during an early screening, but you'll have to read our review to find out what the creatures thought. ☺) This is also the weekend of the Midnites for Maniacs and Spoke Art Gallery presented Tribute to Paul Verhoeven, which starts tonight and wraps up Sunday evening. Each day features a different double feature, but Saturday night also has a secret third feature starting just before midnight, which sounds pretty exciting to me!
Opening This Week
The Bye Bye Man (2017)
Opens Friday 13th (1hr 36min)
Horror (RottenTomatoes)
People commit unthinkable acts every day. Time and again, we grapple to understand what drives a person to do such terrible things. But what if all of the questions we're asking are wrong? What if the cause of all evil is not a matter of what...but who? From the producer of Oculus and The Strangers comes The Bye Bye Man, a chilling horror-thriller that exposes the evil behind the most unspeakable acts committed by man. When three college friends stumble upon the horrific origins of the Bye Bye Man, they discover that there is only one way to avoid his curse: don't think it, don't say it. But once the Bye Bye Man gets inside your head, he takes control. Is there a way to survive his possession? Debuting on Friday, January 13th, this film redefines the horror that iconic date represents-stretching our comprehension of the terror this day holds beyond our wildest nightmares.
Total Recall (1990)
Friday 13th @ 7pm (1hr 53min)
Action/ Sci-Fi/ Thriller (IMDB)
Paul Verhoeven’s third American film takes place in 2084, where Arnold Schwarzenegger plays Douglas Quaid, a construction worker who dreams of taking a vacation to Mars. 35mm
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Basic Instinct (1992)
Friday 13th @ 9:30pm (2hrs 7min)
Drama/ Horror/ Mystery/ Suspense (RottenTomatoes)
Paul Verhoeven’s fourth American film was an erotic, exploitative explosion upon its release 25 years ago. Causing controversy on both sides of the spectrum, this Hitchcockian thriller made Sharon Stone one of the defining sex symbols of the 1990's. 35mm
RoboCop (1987)
Saturday 14th @ 7pm (1hr 43min)
Action/ Crime/ Sci-Fi (IMDB)
In near-future Detroit, a murdered police officer is resurrected as an experimental crime-fighting cyborg named Robocop. Tormented by memories of his past, he soon deviates from his law enforcement program to seek revenge on his killers. This highly successful sci-fi action film balances ultraviolence with black comedy and cutting satire.
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Showgirls (1995)
Saturday 4th @ 9:15pm (2hrs 11min)
Drama (IMDB)
I'm gonna dance, Nomi Malone (Elizabeth Berkley) insists in the opening scene of Showgirls, and dance she does. In this quasi-update of All About Eve, Nomi is a drifter whose sole ambition is to headline the Goddess topless dance show at the Stardust in Las Vegas. Of course, even Nomi must pay her dues, and she does so at the Cheetah, grinding poles and lap dancing her way to a future. Fortunately, her roommate, Molly, works at the Stardust and invites Nomi to see the show, where she meets Crystal Conners (Gina Gershon, in the Bette Davis role), with whom she immediately forms a love/hate relationship. Nomi soon learns what she must do to get ahead, and the rest of the film documents her cat-like crawl up the showgirl ladder of success. Directed by Paul Verhoeven, (Robocop, Basic Instinct, The Fourth Man), Showgirls was conceived as the first big-budget adult film since 1977's Caligula, and the first such production to wear the NC-17 rating; its failure at the box-office discouraged further attempts at large-scale adult productions.~ Dylan Wilcox, All Movie Guide
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A Paul Verhoeven Secret Surprise @ 11:45pm!
Spetters (1980)
Sunday 15th @ 5pm (2hrs)
Arthouse/ Drama (RottenTomatoes)
Spetters further elaborates on the themes of sexual obsession previously probed in director Paul Verhoeven's Turkish Delight (1973). Hans Van Tongeren, Toon Agterberg and Maarten Spanjer play, respectively, Reen, Eve and Hans, a closely-knit group of teenage motorcycle lovers who idolize local cycling champion Witkamp (played by Rutger Hauer, the star of Delight). Unfortunately, the adolescents' attempts to rebel take a dark and brutal turn when Van Tongeren is permanently injured in a road accident and Agterberg is gang raped by a group of homosexuals. While the other two young men lust after Fientje (Renee Soutendjik), a promiscuous hashhouse waitress, Agterberg responds to the rape by coming out and taking Fientje's gay brother as a lover. Verhoeven is artistically and sexually graphic in juxtaposing "cycle love" with the friends' carnal interrelations. The title of Spetters is an indigenous triple-entendre -- it refers to the Dutch vernacular for "grease spatterings" (both the oily renderings left behind by the motorcycles commandeered by the film's central characters and the grease slung by Soutendjik), is a slang term for male ejaculate, and was frequently used in the seventies and eighties to refer to people who are sexually appealing ("That girl is a spetter.") ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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Starship Troopers (1997)
Sunday 15th @ 7:30pm (2hrs 9min)
Action/ Adventure/ Sci-Fi (IMDB)
Misunderstood by nearly every critic upon release 20 years ago, Paul Verhoeven’s follow-up to SHOWGIRLS ranks alongside Stanley Kubrick’s DR. STRANGELOVE (1964) as the greatest satire of war ever made. Hyper-violent and hypnotically subversive, Screenwriter Ed Neumeier’s facist-allegory brilliantly uses 90210-type acting to emphasize the obliviousness of a society to be brainwashed into committing absolute genocide.
-Huntress
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