The folks behind the St. Louis Black Film Festival Presents a Classic Black Film Festival for Black History Month at Landmark’s Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar in St. Louis’ Loop) each Thursday in February. Last year the St. Louis Black Film Festival presented a series of new films by black filmmakers, but this year are going back into the vaults and digging out some vintage cinema for audiences with an interest in black history to enjoy on the big screen.

This offerings for this Thursday, February 9th are CARMEN JONES at 5pm and CAR WASH at 7pm.

CARMEN JONES (1954) was produced and directed by Otto Preminger from Oscar Hammerstein’s update of the Bizet opera. It stars Dorothy Dandridge as the title character, a free-spirited, free-loving parachute factory worker whose romantic entanglement with conflicted Joe(Harry Belafonte), who’s engaged to sweet Cindy Lou and about to go into pilot training for the Korean War, kicks off one of the most unique movie musicals in history. The music is definitely a highlight of CARMEN JONES, with memorable songs that include Dat’s Love, Beat Out Dat Rhythm on a Drum, Card Song, Stan’ Up and Fight, and Dat’s Our Man. Familiar faces in supporting roles include Pearl Bailey, Diahann Carroll and Brock Peters. Dandridge received on Oscar nomination as Best Actress – the first time such a nod was given to a black woman in this category.

CAR WASH (1976) is a very funny, lively and engaging comedy that tells of the day in the life of a close-knit group of black employees who work at a Los Angeles car wash, sort of a black AMERICAN GRAFFITI.With Bill Duke as an angry Muslim, Ivan Dixon as a wise, hard-working parolee, Sully Boyar as the harried owner, Franklyn Ajaye as an amiable dreamer, Tracy Reed as a sweet waitress, Antonio Fargas as a flamboyant homosexual, Lorraine Gary as a stuck-up upper class white lady, Jack Kehoe as an affable cowboy, Pepe Serna as a jovial Hispanic, George Carlin as a flaky cab driver, Lauren Jones as a sad hooker, Professor Irwin Corey as a middle-aged guy who’s mistaken for a pot bottle bomber, Garrett Morris as a jivey hipster, Melanie Mayron as the sexy cashier, Tim Thomerson as a handsome hunk, Richard Pryor as slick hustler reverend Daddy Rich, and the Pointer Sisters as Daddy Rich’s gospel singers, CAR WASH has a great ensemble cast, a loose, funky script that left room for improvisation and a memorable (nonstop) pulsating disco/soul soundtrack which makes the film not only a funny and pleasant diversion, but a document of its’ era.

So head to Landmark’s Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar in St. Louis’ Loop) this Thursday to take in some black film history during Black History Month. The St. Louis Black Film Festival continues with IMITATION OF LIFE and COOLEY HIGH on Feb. 16; and A RAISIN IN THE SUN and SUPERFLY on Feb. 23. Stay tuned here at We Are Movie Geeks for details on those films.

We like to celebrate the great Hollywood tough guys at Super-8 Movie Madness and this February’s show is no exception. We’ve had Super-8 CHARLES BRONSON Movie Madness and Super-8 LEE MARVIN Movie Madness and on Tuesday February 7th at The Way Out Club we’ll be keeping up the tradition with SUPER-8 CLINT EASTWOOD MOVIE MADNESS !!!

That’s right; we’ll be showing condensed (18 minute) versions of several of Clint Eastwood’s greatest films on Super-8 sound film projected on a big screen. Here’s the Clint line-up: ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ, WHERE EAGLES DARE, THE EIGER SANCTION, and a 35-minute cut of HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER. We’ll also show 8-minute version of two films that Clint made early appearances in: REVENGE OF THE CREATURE and TARANTULA. Then we’ll haul out our 16mm projector and screen a 16mm print of an episode of the ’60s TV series RAWHIDE starring Clint Eastwood as Rowdy Yates.

Other (non-Eastwood) films screening on February 7th are: NIGHT OF THE BLOOD BEAST, W.C. Fields in MUCH ADO ABOUT GOLF, Tim Burton’s VINCENT, and the 1955 sci-fier THE CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN.

Cover charge is a mere $3.00 and the show begins at 8pm. We’ll have Clint Eastwood trivia with prizes, and, as usual, there will be lots of posters and T-Shirts and stuff given away. The Way Out Club is located at 2525 Jefferson Avenue in South St. Louis (corner of Jefferson and Gravois). There are yummy Way-Out pizzas available for only $8.00.

Psychoplasmics !

The guys at Destroy the Brain.com are taking their tongues out of their cheeks this month with their Late Night Grindhouse choice: David Cronenberg’s 1979 horror film THE BROOD,a spine-tingler of the most chilling kind.

Dr. Hal Raglan (The late Oliver Reed) is a controversial psychologist, his work is designed to help release the disturbed emotions in his patients. His star patient Nola (Samantha Eggar) is keep in isolation but her negative emotions are more troubled than expected. Her husband Frank (Art Hindle) suspects that his daughter Candice (Cindy Hinds) is hurt and abused by her mother on visitation days. Frank thinks that Dr. Raglan odd therapy is nothing more than a fraud. He needs proof to destroy his creditability but Frank slowly discovers, there is some brutal murders happening. It seems to happen, when Nola vents her fury during her sessions with Dr. Raglan. Frank needs to discover the truth, what is behind these disturbing killings.

Cronenberg conceived THE BROOD as a metaphor on divorce and wrote the film following the tumultuous divorce and child-custody battle he waged against his first wife. THE BROOD is brilliant early Cronenberg, stuffed with sexual obsessions and social criticism. Creepy mutant killer children may represent manifestations of rage but all this psychobabble makes THE BROOD sound heavier than it is. Gorehounds and fans of Late Night Grindhouse’s usual twisted sensibilities will find more than enough inspired, bloody, sickening, and outright ridiculous shenanigans in THE BROOD to keep them entertained. You may not laugh at THE BROOD like you do at some of the other Late Night Grindhouse choices, but you will be scared!

THE BROOD is a primo slice of ’80s horror and this weekend St. Louisans are lucky to have a chance to see it in its big screen glory as part of the Destroy the Brain monthly Late Night Grindhouse film series. It will be screened midnights in a 35mm print at St. Louis’ fabulous Hi-Pointe Theater (1005 McCausland Avenue) this Friday and Saturday (February 3rd and 4th). The pre-show begins at 11:30.

What better way to celebrate Black History Month than takein some vintage films about the black experience?

The folks behind the St. Louis Black Film Festival Presents a Classic Black Film Festival for Black History Month at Landmark’s Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar in St. Louis’ Loop) each Thursday in February. Last year the St. Louis Black Film Festival presented a series of new films by black filmmakers, but this year are going back into the vaults and digging out some vintage cinema for audiences with an interest in black history to enjoy on the big screen.

The event kicks off tonight, February 2nd, at the Tivoli Theater at 5pm with the 1943 classic STORMY WEATHER, about the relationship between an aspiring dancer (Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson) and a popular songstress (Lena Horne). Robinson was the world’s preeminent tap dancer of his day, and is remembered for his appearances with Shirley Temple in four of her 1930s films. Ms Horne, whose signature song was the movie’s title tune, had a long stage and screen career and died in May of 2010. Famed black musicians Fats Waller, Cab Calloway, and the amazing Nicholas Brothers (whose eye-popping “Jumpin Jive” dance number was done in one take) all make appearances in STORMY WEATHER and the dance choreography is by Katherine Dunham, the dancer instructor, songwriter, author, educator, and activist from East St. Louis who died in 2006.

John Shaft is the ultimate in suave black detectives and STORMY WEATHER will be followed tonight by the original SHAFT at 7pm. Shaft is the cat who won’t cop out when there’s danger all about in Gordon Parks’ 1971 action film that was not the first ’70s Blaxploitation film but, with its iconic, Oscar winning theme music by Isaac Hayes, was the most influential. SHAFT is a fast-paced and savvy detective story involving a private eye (Richard Roundtree) and the police department in a power struggle between a black mobster (Moses Gunn) and the Mafia to control the drug, prostitution and numbers racket in Harlem. Roundtree would go on to play Shaft in two sequels and a TV series.

The other screenings this month are “Carmen Jones” and “Car Wash” on Feb. 9; “Imitation of Life” and “Cooley High” on Feb. 16; and “A Raisin in the Sun” and “Superfly” on Feb. 23. Stay tuned here at We Are Movie Geeks for details on those films.

Giants Fans! Patriots Fans! Football Fans ! Why watch the Superbowl alone at home this Sunday, February 5th, when you can catch it with a group of fellow gridiron junkies on the big screen? Landmark’s Tivoli Theater at 6350 Delmar in St. Louis’ Loop is hosting the Superbowl in their big 400+ seat auditorium this Sunday. Admission is free, the game will be projected in Hi-Def, and the doors will open at 4pm for the pre-game show. I know what you’re thinking: “Hey isn’t the Tivoli legally not allowed to sell beer on Sunday?”….Well, normally that’s the case but University City is going to make an exception for this special event and allow beer and wine sales. Now there’s no excuse! And did we mention it’s free?!?!  We hope to see you at the Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar in U. City) this Sunday for the Superbowl on the big screen!!

“I am the first hideously deformed monster hero of super human size & strength to come from New Jersey, they call me the Toxic Avenger.”

Tromaville is coming to St. Louis! There will be Toxic B-Movie Madness at The Way Out Club this Friday, January 27th at the fabulous Way Out Club in St. Louis. It’s TROMA NIGHT, the first monthly show of movies from those lunatics at Troma Films. The first exciting event will kick off with a TOXIE TRIPLE FEATURE! That’s right; the first three films in the TOXIC AVENGER series will be shown on our large screen at The Way Out. That would be THE TOXIC AVENGER (1984), THE TOXIC AVENGER PART 2 (1989), and THE TOXIC AVENGER PART 3: THE LAST TEMPTATION OF TOXIE (1989) which chronicle the adventures of a mild-mannered, scrawny janitor who turns into a thundering, muscular hero out for justice, morality, and a bit of sex. ADMISSION IS FREE! The show starts at 9pm on Friday, January 27th so join us for bad films, good films, good people, gory films, Toxic Avenger trivia with door prizes, lots of cold beer and drinks, and yummy Way Out pizzas available for only $8. Did we mention that ADMISSION IS FREE? See you at The Way Out (2525 Jefferson Avenue in South St. Louis) this Friday night! Doors open at 8pm – The movies start at 8:30

If you enjoyed Linda Blair in SAVAGE STREETS, the Late Night Grindhouse Midnight offering the past November, I have great news! Linda Blair and her naked sneer are back at the Hi-Pointe this weekend, January 6th and 7th, for more 80’s exploitation madness. CHAINED HEAT, a wonderfully sleazy trash epic from 1983 has everything you could possibly hope for in a Women-In-Prison movie: nudity, shower catfights, rampant lesbian action, nudity, race wars, rape, murder, Sybil Danning, chain-swinging, switch-blade slashing, and more nudity!

CHAINED HEAT stars Linda Blair as Carol, a naïve teenager who enters the ‘D-Cup’ wing of a tough women’s prison after being sentenced to 18 months after accidentally killing a man. There she encounters the cruel reality of life behind bars. There’s a massive drug ring running the prison, and most of the girls are picking off traitors threatening to reveal the conspiracy and when Carol finds herself in the midst of a bloody gang war between whites and blacks, she has to toughen up quick.

Throw in a sweaty John Vernon as the cokehead warden with a hot tub in his office, Blaxploitation Queen Tamara ‘Cleopatra Jones’ Dobson as a tough-talking inmate named Dutchess (“Don’t you walk away from me, you chalk-faced whore!”), a butch Stella Stevens, and Henry Silva as a pimp and….what are you waiting for!?! CHAINED HEAT is the crowning jewel of all Women’s Prison films and if you don’t make it to the Hi-Pointe this weekend to see it in glorious 35mm, then something is wrong with you!

CHAINED HEAT plays as part of the Destroy the Brain monthly Late Night Grindhouse film series. It will be screened midnights in a 35mm print at St. Louis’ fabulous Hi-Pointe Theater (1005 McCausland Avenue) this Friday and Saturday (January 6th and 7th). The pre-show begins at 11:30.

The Facebook invite for Friday’s Midnight show can be found HERE

The Facebook invite for Saturday’s Midnight show can be found HERE

SUPER-8 MOVIE MADNESS at the Way Out Club will be held on Tuesday January 3rd from 8pm to Midnight. These are Super-8 Sound films condensed from features (they average 15 minutes in length) and will be projected on a large screen at the Way Out Club. Admission is only THREE BUCKS!!!!

The films on January 3rd are: THE WARRIORS, Christopher Lee in DRACULA PRINCE OF DARKNESS, Richard Burton in THE MEDUSATOUCH, THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD, George C Scott in PATTON, IT CONQUERED THE WORLD, DISNEY ON PARADE, David Carradine in CANNONBALL, John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John in GREASE, FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD, INVADERS FROM MARS, THE INCREDIBLE HULK (the ‘60s cartoon), and a Marilyn Monroe double feature of THERE’S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS and THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH.

There will be lots of posters and T-Shirts and stuff given away. The Way Out Club is located at 2525 Jefferson Avenue in South St. Louis (corner of Jefferson and Gravois). There are yummy Way-Out pizzas available for only $8.00.

Attention all you Jive-ass Cornpone Peckerwoods!….Blood Kwanzaa is this Friday night!

Gabriel “Skuzzy” Zolman is a St. Louis promoter, DJ, writer, performance artist, and movie nut who produces and hosts a monthly show at the downtown nightclub The Crack Fox. He calls his show Subversion and describes it as a “post-industrial variety show”. Subversion features music, magic, comedy, burlesque dancers, and more and every month he has a different theme. One month the theme was Ed Wood and he recreated, on stage, some dance numbers from ORGY OF THE DEAD. He once dove into a box of hypodermic needles to recreate a scene from SAW 2. Needless to say, Mr. Zolman is devoted to his art (or just nuts)!

This Friday (December 9th) the Subversion show is called Blood Kwanzaa and it’s got a Blaxploitation theme! Of course you can’t have a Blaxploitation-themed show without Pam Grier so I’ll be teaming up with the Subversion crew and opening the show with some Super-8 Blaxploitation Movie Madness! I’ll be showing 18-minute condensed versions, on super-8 sound film, of COFFY, SHAFT, and THE KLANSMAN! The first two are urban classics and the third features a young O.J. Simpson murdering white folks almost twenty years before he did so in real life!!

From the Facebook invite:

“Subversion pimps out Christmas like Mrs. Claus during the off-season! We officially cross the line this time, but as always with style! Tons of guest performances (including jive turkeys like FOXY LA FEELION and PARIS VERSACE AMOR!) and outrageous antics (A HUMAN SOUL FOOD BUFFET?!?! ….BURLESQUE, FIRE, DRAG, POLE, and more! It’s a blaxploitation celebration unto utmost damnation! Sweet Dolemite have mercy! Music by SHADOW THIEVES, with an exclusive bootyhouse set by GGJIM! “No, Ike–that’s my good eye!”
There will also be a pervy Ghetto Santa dispensing cheap-ass gifts, zombie elfs, and…probably a lot of stuff that will get us in trouble. You won’t want to miss it!”

The show is this Friday, December 9th. The Crack Fox is located at 1114 Olive (at Tucker) in Downtown St. Louis. Cover charge is $7. The show starts with an hour of Super-8′s at 9pm

Leg ‘er down ‘n smack ‘em yak ‘em !!!

The Facebook Invite is HERE

Webster University’s Strange Brew film series, the first Wednesday evening of every month, always features a fun cult movie  at the Schlafly Bottleworks Restaurant and Bar in Maplewood (7260 Southwest Ave. – at Manchester – Maplewood, MO 63143). SUSPIRIA, THE TWILIGHT ZONE MOVIE, HEAD, and TARANTULA are a few of the movies they’ve screened in the past that went well with some St. Louis-brewed suds and next week, December 7th,  they’re venturing into NOT Available on DVD territory with the 1974 swampsploitation opus GATOR BAIT starring ’70s Drive-in goddess Claudia Jennings.

Imagine if Russ Meyer had directed DELIVERANCE and that might give you an idea of the berserk backwoods hijinks to be found in GATOR BAIT. It’s a simple story about murder and retribution starring the heavenly Jennings as Desiree Thibodeau, a ‘purty’ rural  wildcat who hunts down the bunch of toothless hillbillies who had raped and killed her younger sister. Snakes, guns, swamps, incest, nekkid women, and high speed johnboat chases are all ingredients of the tasty Cajun stew that is GATOR BAIT.

Beverly and Ferd Sebastian were a husband and wife writer/director team that made a string of low-budget sleazefests in the ‘70s (including SINGLE GIRLS, also starring Ms Jennings) and GATOR BAIT is their finest hour. In 1988 they made GATOR BAIT 2: CAJUN JUSTICE starring Jan MacKenzie but it was a pale imitation of the original. GATOR BAIT has achieved cult status thanks to the presence of its sexy star Claudia Jennings. Born in 1949, Ms Jennings took a job as a receptionist at the offices of Playboy magazine in 1968, was discovered there and became Playboy’s Miss November 1969. Less busty than most 60′s Playboy models, Jennings had a healthy, all-American cheerleader type of good looks and was crowned 1970′s Playmate of the Year. After her Playboy stint, Jennings became a low-budget movie star and reigned as “Queen of the Drive-In” for a brief period in the mid-70′s. UNHOLY ROLLERS (1973) was her first starring role followed by GROUP MARRIAGE (1973), THE SINGLE GIRLS, and TRUCK STOP WOMEN (all1974), and (among others) THE GREAT TEXAS DYNAMITE CHASE (1977). She was strongly considered as Kate Jackson’s replacement on the Charlies Angels TV series but reportedly Aaron Spelling worried about tarnishing his show with her Playboy connection. In October 1979 Claudia Jenning’s car was hit by a truck after she fell asleep behind the wheel and she was gone at age 29. Her final film role was in David Cronenberg’s FAST COMPANY (1979). Jennings is so good in all of her films, especially GATOR BAIT, that it’s a shame her career was tragically cut so short.

I highly recommend seeing GATOR BAIT Wednesday, December 7 at 8:00 pm at Schlafly Bottleworks and experiencing the glory that was Claudia Jennings

Super-8 CHILDREN’S CANCER FUNDRAISER Movie Madness is December 6th. Super-8 Movie Madness is teaming up with Roger’s Reels and The National Children’s Cancer Society for the next big show December 6th at The Way out Club. The cover charge is $4.00 and all of that money will be donated to the The National Children’s Cancer Society to help find a cure for cancer in kids.

Roger will be bringing by three 16mm prints from his collection to share. They are: The Little Rascals short A LAD AND A LAMP, the episode Superman Gets Married from the ’50s Superman TV show starring George Reeves, and The Munsters episode “John Doe Munster”. The Super-8 Sound films (condensed from features, they average 15 minutes in length) to also be projected on a large screen December 6th are: Burt Reynolds in SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT, THIS ISLAND EARTH, Tony Curtis in THE BOSTON STRANGLER, Gregory Peck and Laurence Olivier in THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL, Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi in THE RAVEN, Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney in GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN, The Three Stooges in THREE SAPPY PEOPLE, Danny Kaye in THE MAN FROM THE DINER’S CLUB, JOHNNY SOKKO AND HIS FLYING ROBOT, and a Puppettoon History of Music.

There will be lots of posters and T-Shirts and stuff given away. The Way Out Club is located at 2525 Jefferson Avenue in South St. Louis (corner of Jefferson and Gravois). The show starts at 8pmThere are yummy Way-Out pizzas available for only $8.00.

“You scared, ain’t ya? You should be! Christmas Eve is the scariest damn night of the year!”

SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT, the poster child for Holiday horror films, caused a huge stink when it was released back in 1984. Influential film critic Gene Siskel especially despised the film, going as far to list, on his syndicated TV show, the film’s producers by name and, wagging his finger like a sweater-vested church lady, wailed “shame, shame, shame” after each name. What got Siskel’s holiday hackles up was the distasteful idea to have a slasher film featuring Saint Nick as its bloodthirsty villain. It wasn’t even the first “killer Santa” movie – (CHRISTMAS EVIL from 1980 has that distinction) but SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT is the most notorious because it had the balls to be released during the Christmas season and its holiday television ads attracted the ire of overly-sensitive parents, some of who actually went out and picketed various theaters in protest of it. Outraged moms and dads wrote letters to the film’s producers (“My little Billy is afraid to sit in Santa’s lap because of a TV commercial he saw for your disgusting film”). Consequently, the flick got pulled out of the cinemas and in some markets, including St. Louis, it was never shown theatrically at all. It eventually did find a big audience when it was released to video stores and several increasingly inferior sequels were spawned (though the great Monte Hellman directed part 3!). Lost in the controversy is that SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT was actually a pretty solid and scary horror flick. Of course it was never meant for kids, who would likely have been scarred for life if they had seen the opening sequence where an escaped criminal in a Santa suit rapes and kills off a kids mom while the child looks on. SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT has plenty of fun bloody death scenes  and some great one-liners.

This weekend St. Louisan audiences will finally have the opportunity to see SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT in its big screen glory as part of the Destroy the Brain monthly Late Night Grindhouse film series. It will be screened midnights in a 35mm print at St. Louis’ fabulous Hi-Pointe Theater (1005 McCausland Avenue) this Friday and Saturday (December 2nd and 3rd). The pre-show begins at 11:30. If you attended last months Late Night Grindhouse at the Hi-Pointe you saw the 1984 Linda Blair classic SAVAGE STREETS. Blair’s deaf sister was played by ’80s scream queen Linnea Quigley who got naked in that film. Quigley also does a nude scene in SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT, released later the same year, but you may notice that her breasts have grown suspiciously larger……..hmmmm…..naughty but nice !

Destroy the Brain’s site is HERE

The Facebook event page for the Friday night show is HERE

The Facebook event page for the Saturday night show is HERE

Filmmaker and green transport guru Chris Paine’s second feature-length documentary, REVENGE OF THE ELECTRIC CAR is a follow-up to his first, WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR? from five years ago. The first was a look at the EV-1, a battery-powered car that General Motors designed, built, and test-marketed. After conspiring with the big oil companies, GM reclaimed the entire fleet and had the cars destroyed. Paine presented this as one of America’s most outrageous conspiracy theories, right up there with the fake moon landing and the Grassy Knoll, a case of environmental innovation squelched by greedy oil profits. Paine peppered the film with testimonials from celebrity owners such as Ed Begley Jr, Mel Gibson, and Tom Hanks because either acting in movies makes them experts in technology or because they can afford the pensive cars. Paine actually staged a funeral for the EV-1 but, since his was an agenda-driven doc, he conveniently left out the other side of the story. The electric car was doomed for a variety of reasons having to do with price, common sense, and man’s inescapable reluctance to change. But WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR? was a victim of bad timing for by 2006 the auto industry was about to start making battery-powered cars again.

Members of the Gateway Electric Vehicle Club gather around a 1975 Citicar.

REVENGE OF THE ELECTRIC CAR claims the electric car is back “with a vengeance”. Spokesmen for major automakers (Nissan, GM, and the Silicon Valley start-up Tesla Motors) are interviewed, strutting about their shop floors reassessing the original dismissal of electric cars. With the economy in the tank and worries about fossil fuels on the rise, the sequel shows these companies contemplating a renewed viability for electric cars. The film also follows the quest of Elon Musk at Tesla Motors, eager to produce a high-end electric car, and entrepreneur Carlos Ghosn at Nissan Motors, hoping to mass market the Nissan Leaf.  It also profiles California mechanic Greg “Gadget” Abbott who converts gas-run cars to battery power from his shabby storefront shop. And of course Paine brings in the celebs. This time it’s Danny DeVito, Jon Favreau, Stephen Colbert, and he even got Tim Robbins to narrate (Martin Sheen did the first one). These men enthusiastically testify to the capability of electric cars, but REVENGE still refuses to address the basic problems with the electric cars; expense and practicality. The cost of the batteries and measures to make them safe is still great and they don’t go very fast. Many people live in apartments, don’t have garages, and park on the street, hence no electric infrastructure to plug in to. REVENGE OF THE ELECTRIC CAR is being released just as these, and many more problems with electric cars are becoming widely advanced. There’s still little desire for such new technology from a largely skeptical public. Sales of the Chevy Volt, the Nissan Leaf, and the others over the past couple of years have reportedly been dismal.

Converted engines: an ’87 Volkswagen Vanogan and an ’87 BMW 325I now run on electricity.

I went to the Plaza Frontenac Theater where REVENGE OF THE ELECTRIC CAR had just opened. For a promotion, members of the Gateway Electric Vehicle Club had several of their electric cars parked on the theater’s parking lot. I talked to these folks about their cars and what they saw as the future of the electric car. The most unusual looking car there was a 1975 Citicar. The CitiCar was produced between 1974 and 1977 by a U.S. company called Sebring-Vanguard, Inc. based in Sebring, Florida and was produced partly in response to the 1970s fuel crisis (remember rationing and the two-hour gas lines?). St. Louisan Kyle Feller had bought his pristine yellow Citicar in Tennessee where it had been sitting in a barn. It stills runs 30 miles on an overnight charge. Most of the cars on display were originally gas-powered vehicles that had been converted to battery power. Cliff Rose showed me the engine of his ’87 Volkswagen Vanogan which he himself had converted to electric power and has displayed at green energy expos.  Jeff Dale proudly showed off his ’87 BMW 325I which he spent a year and a half converting. It now runs on twelve 12-Volt batteries.  Mary Hickey, who drives a converted Karmann Ghia, is head of the Gateway Electric Vehicle Club which is a registered chapter of the Electric Auto Association (EAA), made up of individuals living in the Saint Louis area that believe electric vehicles (EVs) are an important part of the solution to our global energy crisis. She says the local branch has about 50 members who meet monthly.  Tony Valentine, who sells the electric powered Chevy Volt here in St. Louis, claims the cars are selling well. They currently start at a steep $40,000 (with a $7K tax credit), but Valentine sees the price dropping as the cars become more commonplace. So the viability and future of electric cars is still a big question mark. Chris Paine has made exactly two films five years apart, both about how wonderful electric cars are. Neither are even-handed documentaries but one-sided sales pitches, but who knows, maybe the electric car will catch on after all and five years from now, Caine will present THE ELECTRIC CAR STRIKES BACK!

Mary Hickey, current head  of the Gateway Electric Vehicle Club

Cliff Rose’s Volkswagen Vanogan and Mary Hickey’s Karmann Ghia, both conversions

The Gateway Electric Vehicle Club’s Website can be found HERE

http://gatewayev.org/

REVENGE OF THE ELECTRIC CAR opened today, November 23rd, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Theater

In 2006, thousands of new electric cars were purposely destroyed by the same car companies that built them. Today, less than 5 years later, the electric car is back with a vengeance. In REVENGE OF THE ELECTRIC CAR director Chris Paine takes his film crew behind the closed doors of Nissan, GM, and the Silicon Valley start-up Tesla Motors to chronicle the story of the global resurgence of electric cars. Without using a single drop of foreign oil, this new generation of car is America’s future: fast, furious, and cleaner than ever. REVENGE OF THE ELECTRIC CAR opens tomorrow, November 23 in St. Louis at the Frontenac Plaza Cinema. St. Louis-area film (and car) fans can view some electric cars when they are on display Wednesday, November 23 from 5:00pm-7:30pm on the west parking lot of Plaza Frontenac (Clayton and Lindbergh). The cars on display will include the Tesla, a Chevy Volt, a CitiCar and a BMW and Karmann Ghia conversions. The cars belong to private owners, all members of the Gateway Electric Vehicle Club eager to show off their low-emission roadsters. Be sure to stop by and see the plug-in vehicles before seeing REVENGE OF THE ELECTRIC CAR and watch for our review of the film tomorrow here at We Are Movie Geeks.

It was a late night down at the Ballpark Hilton where Cinema St. Louis held their annual post-fest awards party for the St. Louis International Film Festival last night. The most coveted prize is the audience-choice award and this year it was a bit of a surprise when IN DARKNESS was announced as the winner. THE DESCENDANTS or THE ARTIST both seemed like more obvious choices but Agnieszka Holland’s drama about Jewish refugees living in the sewers beneath in Nazi-occupied Poland apparently wowed St. Louis audiences enough to take home the prize. It was not a film that We Are Movie Geeks was able to review in our extensive coverage of the fest, but one we will certainly look forward to seeing and reviewing.  THE ARTIST received the second highest number of votes and was named “Best Foreign Narrative Feature”. Big congratulations to Cinema St. Louis. This was their 20th annual International Film Festival and attendance was reportedly “through the roof”. We Are Movie Geeks was proud to cover and help promote the event and look forward to next year.

Here are all the winners of the 20th Annual Stella Artois St. Louis International Film Festival:

New Filmmakers Forum Award

This review originally ran when BRICK BY CHANCE & FORTUNE: A ST. LOUIS STORY played at the St. Louis Filmmaker’s Showcase

As a native St. Louisan, I guess I’ve just taken the red bricks that constitute much of the structure of our city for granted. But according to BRICK BY CHANCE AND FORTUNE: A ST. LOUIS STORY, a perceptive new documentary by Bill Streeter, we have a rich and unique heritage of bricks to be proud of; beautiful red ones that are a result of the ‘Clay Colossu’, the abundance of Mississippi Valley red clay here that was so important to the clay-working and brick-making companies that were such a big industry in our city beginning in the nineteenth century. One’s enjoyment of BRICK BY CHANCE AND FORTUNE may depend on how much you want to hear academics speak about bricks and it seems at first glance like an narrow focus for a documentary. Streeter, the creator of the internet video program and blog Lo-Fi St. Louis, got the idea for his doc when his out-of-town friends kept commenting on the beauty of St. Louis’ brick buildings and the end result is a surprisingly lively history lesson that, at one hour, never wears out its welcome.

Architectural historian Michael Allen, ‘Preservationist Activist Blogger’ Toby Weiss, Missouri History Museum Director Robert Archibald, and Missouri Department of Resources geologist Mimi Garstug are some of the narrators on hand to discuss our city’s brick history in BRICK BY CHANCE AND FORTUNE: A ST. LOUIS STORY, a history which dates back to before the Civil War. Streeter sets his talking-head interviews to a musical soundtrack that includes locals Mat Wilson, Pokey LaFarge, the Rum Drum Ramblers and the South City Three. He spaces these interviews out with montage focusing on the many brick buildings throughout St. Louis as well as vintage photos and illustrations. The history lesson begins with the great St. Louis fire of 1849. Hundreds of steamboats and paddle boats were moored at our wharf when the fire broke out on one of them, spreading from boat to boat until it reached the buildings resulting in the gutting of a significant portion of the city (a stunning photo of the destruction is shown). It was then that new regulations and building codes were drawn up resulting in St. Louis being rebuilt in brick. Bill Allen, the former (and final) president of Hydraulic-Press Brick Company is interviewed. Hydraulic-Press, located at Manchester and Kingshighway, was at one time the largest brick company in the world. Every city wanted our superior red bricks and Hydraulic shipped them by train across the country. Larry Giles, president of the St. Louis Building Arts Foundation, notes that Chicago’s buildings are constructed with ‘Chicago Common’, a less-attractive, yellow-tinged brick he describes as “probably the worst bricks ever manufactured” (Ha! Lame-ass yellow bricks!!). Streeter takes his camera to the buildings the talking heads are referring to and these shots of buildings we’ve driven by and never noticed are eye-opening in context of what the narrators are saying about them. The bricklayers who assembled these buildings are praised as the artisans that they were. The way bricks are spaced, embossed and inset with various patterns is shown as a forgotten art form and another reason to appreciate and expand of our perception of St. Louis’ buildings.

Unfortunately, brick poachers from out-of-state love St. Louis bricks, too. And they’re stealing them. In the final chapter of BRICK BY CHANCE AND FORTUNE: A ST. LOUIS STORY, Streeter trains his camera on the mean streets of North St. Louis where entire blocks of homes have been stolen by brick thieves. A City Alderman tells of trucks that roll into St. Louis from as far away as Alabama and Louisiana to steal our bricks, often in broad daylight. Local preservationists address this issue and label it a crisis but are frustrated that police consider brick thieves a low priority. Like anything we see every day, brick is largely taken for granted, which is why BRICK BY CHANCE AND FORTUNE: A ST. LOUIS STORY is such a revelation. Even viewers who’ve never given St. Louis brick a second thought should be impressed how Streeter unexpectedly manages to turn a seemingly narrow subject into the type of relevant discourse that a great documentary should be.

Showtime
Sunday, November 20th at 4:00pm – Plaza Frontenac Cinema

“They Raped her Sister!…Killed her Best Friend!…and Now She’s Crossbow Psycho!”

SAVAGE STREETS (1984) is a sleazy tale of high school revenge that’s a must for fans of gritty exploitation and over-the top action. Made during Linda Blair’s less-than-wholesome phase (posing naked, getting arrested for cocaine, dating Rick James, etc) eleven years after she turned heads with her performance in THE EXORCIST, SAVAGE STREETS features a hideous new wave soundtrack, great 80′s L.A. locations, punk outfits, lots of neon, and a cat-fight in the gym shower. SAVAGE STREETS is Linda Blair’s showcase film and her finest hour. The chubby, big-haired, spandex-clad vigilant-ette chews her way through atrociously vulgar dialog as she hunts down the gang who raped her deaf little sister (Linnea Quigley) and threw her best friend off a bridge. The climax is a classic as she shoots her would-be rapist in the kneecaps with a crossbow but he keeps coming after her with arrows sticking out of both knees! “Too bad you’re not double-jointed” Linda snarls, “because if you were, you’d be able to bend over and kiss your ass goodbye!”

SAVAGE STREETS is a prime slice of 80′s cheese and this weekend St. Louisans will have a chance to see it in its big screen glory as part of the Destroy the Brain monthly Late Night Grindhouse film series. It will be screened midnights in a 35mm print at St. Louis’ fabulous Hi-Pointe Theater (1005 McCausland Avenue) this Friday and Saturday (November 4th and 5th). The pre-show begins at 11:30.

Don’t Miss It! (or Linda will hunt you down with her crossbow!)

The Facebook invite for Friday’s Midnight show can be found HERE

The Facebook invite for Saturday’s Midnight show can be found HERE

My original SAVAGE STREETS movie poster signed by Linda Blair and director Danny Steinman

St. Louis Cardinals Fans ! Why watch the World Series alone at home when you can catch it with a group of fellow fans on the big screen? Landmark’s Tivoli Theater at 6350 Delmar in St. Louis’ Loop is hosting the Fall Classic in their big 400-seat auditorium starting tonight at 7:05. The game will be projected in Hi-Def and admission is FREE! The Tivoli sells beer and wine (and of course popcorn and candy) so if you’re a movie buff who wants to watch the game, you’ll get the best of both worlds. And did we mention it’s free ?!? The Tivoli will be hosting all seven games (if there are seven games) so we hope to see you there.

Here’s the World Series schedule:
(All times CST)
10/19 7:05pm
10/20 7:05pm
10/22 7:05pm
10/23 7:05pm
10/24 7:05pm
10/26 7:05pm
10/27 7:05pm

They come wearing bustiers, corsets, and great gouts of eyeliner. And some women get into the act too! THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, the longest-running midnight and audience partici-(SAY IT!)-pation movie of them all, will play at Landmark’s Tivoli Theater in St. Louis over the next three weekends at midnight. The Tivoli does this every year and all 6 shows are usually sell-outs, so get your tickets early! The Tivoli does a great job of making ROCKY HORROR an interactive movie experience with a live “Shadow Cast” known as The Samauri Electricians who perform scenes during the movie and of course the audience is encouraged to respond to the on-screen action as well. The street party always starts early as attendees dressed as Frank N. Furter, Riff Raff, Magenta, and the gang line up outside the Tivoli hours before showtime and We Are Movie Geeks will be there to snap pics and help get the audience riled up. The Tivoli encourages folks to attend in costume, but does not allow outside props, but they do sell an essential “prop bag” for only two dollars. The bag contains rice, toilet paper, Glow Sticks, Time Warp Fliers, Rubber Gloves, Noisemakers, Confetti, and everything you’ll need even if you’re a ROCKY HORROR “Virgin” experiencing the fun for the first time. I used to see ROCKY HORROR at the (now-defunct) Varsity theater down the street in the late 1970′s and not much has changed in 30+ years, my only observation being that this new generation of fans is even less inhibited and likes to show off more skin (not that I’m complaining – they’re in better shape!) We hope to see everyone at the Tivoli (6350 Delmar Boulevard) Oct 21-22, 28-29 and Nov 4-5 at Midnight!

Check back here at We Are Movie Geeks next week for some new photos of the ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW Midnight show taking place this weekend

Here are some photos taken by the staff of We Are Movie Geeks at last year’s ROCKY HORROR festivities:

ZOMBIE , the audaciously disgusting spectacle from the late master of gruesome Italian horror Lucio Fulci, was made in 1979 and presented as a semi-sequel to George Romero’s DAWN OF THE DEAD from the previous year, (DAWN was released in parts of Europe as ZOMBIE – Fulci’s film was known there as ZOMBIE 2) though the films aren’t at all connected. Tisa Farrow and a group of vacationing tourists travel to an island where they find a doctor (Richard Johnson) who is attempting to cure a condition that reanimates the dead. Things quickly get out of control as undead Spanish conquistadors crawl from their graves hungry for human flesh. All this undead mayhem is highlighted by nauseatingly graphic set-pieces by make-up maestro Gianetto de Rossi. ZOMBIE is an incredibly well-made shocker that was enormously popular worldwide and in many ways has aged better than the Romero film (it’s certainly scarier).

With close-ups of zombie mouths tearing flesh from victims’ throats, an eyeball being slowly impaled on a large wooden splinter, and some hilariously unnecessary T&A, ZOMBIE delivered the grisly B-movie goods even though it exhibited none of the artistry found in the work of Fulci’s horror contemporaries Mario Bava and Dario Argento. Then again, unlike Fulci, neither of those auteurs was ever genius enough to stage an extended underwater fight between a zombie and a shark. ZOMBIE played St. Louis drive-ins, always as the second feature, for years in the late ’70s and early ’80s and thanks to our friends at Destroy the Brain.com and their monthly Late Night Grindhouse, our city will have the chance to see ZOMBIE on the big screen in all of its gory glory this weekend at midnights (October 21st and 22nd) at the fabulous Hi-Pointe Theater (1005 McCausland Avenue). The pre-show begins at 11:30.  This precedes next Tuesday’s Blu-ray release from the folks at Blue Underground DVD.
The Facebook invite for Friday’s Midnight show can be found HERE

The Facebook invite for Saturday’s Midnight show can be found HERE

From Blue Underground‘s Site:

Experience the Italian horror maestro’s gore classic as you’ve never seen or heard it before, digitally restored and remastered!

See the new trailer for ZOMBIE:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqFWrGKLb4E

The late, great Lucio Fulci is known to horror fans for such wildly imaginative and outrageously gory films as THE BEYOND, HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY, and CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD; his influence continues to be felt in the work of contemporary genre directors including Eli Roth (HOSTEL, CABIN FEVER) and Guillermo del Toro (HELLBOY, PAN’S LABYRINTH).

Originally released in Italy as an unofficial sequel to DAWN OF THE DEAD, Fulci’s ZOMBIE is arguably the director’s most popular movie and remains one of the most eye-skewering, skin-ripping, gore-gushingly graphic horror hits of all time! ZOMBIE stars Tisa Farrow (THE GRIM REAPER), Ian McCulloch (CONTAMINATION), Al Cliver (CANNIBALS), and Richard Johnson (THE HAUNTING).

Blue Underground is proud to present ZOMBIE in a new 2K High Definition transfer from the original uncut and uncensored camera negative. Each frame has been lovingly restored to perfection under the supervision of cinematographer Sergio Salvati (THE BEYOND), and the soundtrack has been remastered in 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound to create the most pristine, mind-blowing version of the movie ever seen.

“We are very excited about this theatrical release of ZOMBIE,” says Blue Underground founder and president William Lustig. “We spent hundreds of hours working by hand to restore every frame of the movie. When we premiered our restoration of the film at Fantastic Fest in Austin, fans told us that ZOMBIE looks like it was made yesterday!”

For a look at how Blue Underground meticulously restored Lucio Fulci’s ZOMBIE, visit:

 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzcDDgU8WK4&feature=related Blue Underground’s Ultimate Edition of ZOMBIE will be released as a 2-Disc Blu-ray and 2-Disc DVD on October 25, 2011.

 

“When I first saw ZOMBIE, my mind exploded! After the movie ended, I didn’t know if I had dreamed it, because surely such movies didn’t exist! You are about to see a movie that is created by one of the most brilliant minds in the genre, that is full of ‘Oh, my God!’ moments that you will not believe….visceral satisfaction fully guaranteed! Fulci was a ferocious mind, and ZOMBIE is his most savage movie.” – Guillermo del Toro, director of Hellboy and Pan’s Labyrinth

 

“One of the all-time great horror classics, Fulci’s ZOMBIE contains the greatest scene ever committed to celluloid, and that is a zombie fighting a shark. Fulci put a stuntman dressed as a zombie in a tank with a live shark and made them fight – it’s one of the craziest, most insane and irresponsible scenes ever put on film. This was 1980, years before CG. And the zombie wins! To this day, nobody knows how in the hell he did it, it’s simply jaw-dropping. There’s nothing you will see in any modern zombie movie that comes close to what Fulci did in 1980. Viva Fulci!”– Eli Roth, director of Hostel and Cabin Fever

For more information about Blue Underground, visit

www.blue-underground.com.

Follow Blue Underground on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/BLUnderground.　About Blue Underground:

BLUE UNDERGROUND’S goal is to bring cool movies to fans all over the world in beautiful, Criterion-level special editions. They are definitive discs of some remarkable films, all fully restored, remastered and packed with the most mind-blowing extras in the business. We look for fun movies to release, undiscovered films, and films that are really for people that are into movies. We’re committed to bringing these movies out of the dark and back into your life where they belong!

My resin ZOMBIE model kit (painted by Tom Stockman)…Viva Fulci indeed!