Here's a chance to see some of Steven Spielberg's classic films on the big screen once again. In July, The Loft Cinema will screen several of his films on Thursday and Saturdays at 7 p.m. Admission is $8 general, $6 Loft members and children 12 and younger. The Loft is located at 3233 E. Speedway Blvd. Here's the lineup:

Thursday, July 3 at 7:00pm / JAWS: When a bloodthirsty great white shark starts chowing down on the summer tourists off Amity Island, it’s going to a be a terrifying vacation to remember! A true Hollywood classic from a time when fun popcorn entertainment could also be smart, stylish and scary. (Dir. by Steven Spielberg, 1975, USA, 124 mins., Rated PG) Digital

Saturday, July 5 at 7:00pm / E.T. THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL: Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi mega-hit is that rare film which managed to strike a powerful emotional chord in all audience of all ages, a simple tale of a lost alien and a fatherless boy that has become a cultural touchstone for generations of viewers. (Dir. by Steven Spielberg, 1982, USA, 115 min., Rated PG) Digital

Thursday, July 10 at 7:00pm / CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND: Spielberg’s thrilling, suspenseful and somehow very human speculation on the possibility of alien contact with mankind was one of the most surprising blockbusters of the 1970s, an awe-inspiring melding of suburban angst and sci-fi magic. (Dir. by Steven Spielberg, 1977, USA, 137 min., Rated PG) 35mm

Someone better get Dennis Rodman on the phone. The BBC has reported that a North Korean foreign ministry spokesman issued a statement regarding the upcoming action-comedy The Interview that is set to release this fall. In the film, James Franco and Seth Rogen play celebrity talk show personalities that are recruited by the CIA to assassinate Kim Jong-un. The North Korean spokesperson told the The Korean Central News Agency that "Making and releasing a movie on a plot to hurt our top-level leadership is the most blatant act of terrorism and war and will absolutely not be tolerated."

He added that the "reckless US provocative insanity" of mobilising a "gangster filmmaker" to challenge the North's leadership was triggering "a gust of hatred and rage" among North Korean people and soldiers.

"If the US administration allows and defends the showing of the film, a merciless counter-measure will be taken," the spokesman was quoted as saying.

If we do move to war, I believe we should send Franco and Rogan to the front lines.

The second Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles trailer features more of the totally tubular characters, and Megan Fox. While you can't have enough Fox, we get a better look at the big baddie Shredder. Unfortunately, the leader of the Foot clan has never looked so one dimensional. But that's Michael Bay for you.

We have to remember, it's Ninja Turtles not Citizen Kane:


TMNT hits theaters on everywhere on Aug. 8th. 

Alright everybody, it’s MASHED POTATO TIME! That’s right folks, prepare to do the Mashed Potato, The Twist, The Roach and The Bug tonight when the Loft Cinema presents John Waters’ Hairspray, his 1988 ode to 1950s Baltimore. This was the film that took Waters out of the gutter and into the warm, fuzzy embrace of the mainstream, and it was also Divine’s last film. She plays the mother of Tracy Turnblad (Ricki Lake), a Rubenesque teen with dancing feet. Tracy yearns to strut her stuff on the Corny Collins Show, a Baltimore version of American Bandstand. Does she have what it takes? Find out tonight at 7 p.m. Tickets are regular admission.

If dancing isn't your thing, maybe face-huggers, androids spewing out milky substances and the psychosexual designs of recently deceased Swiss artist H.R. Giger is more your speed. I can only be talking about one movie, and that’s the 1979 horror/sci-fi classic Alien. Director Ridley Scott tried to catch the magic once again with 2012’s dismal prequel Prometheus, but that moronic misstep has nothing on this grade-A slice of celluloid. Alien is part of the Loft’s Late Night Cult Classics series, and it plays Friday, June 20 and Saturday, June 21. Both shows are at 10 p.m., and tickets are $6 for general admission, $5 for Loft members.

Starting late last year, the Loft created a new series called Loft Staff Selects. Each month, a Loft staff member gets to program one of their favorite films for one night. This month, Executive Director Peggy Johnson chose the 1965 film A Thousand Clowns. It stars the inimitable Jason Robards as Madison Ave. dropout Murray Burns. He’s the guardian of his nephew, 12-year-old Nick. Nick’s about to be taken away from his custody, but a social welfare worker (Barbara Harris) starts falling in love with the mordant Murray. Think of it as a non-hippie precursor to Harold & Maude. The film starts at 7 p.m. on Sunday, June 22. Tickets are $6 for general admission and $5 for Loft members.

If the World Cup isn’t your thing, fear not—for there are movies. There’s lots of cinema special events this week, starting with tonight's double feature of 2012’s 21 Jump Street and it’s brand spankin’ new sequel, the oh-so-cleverly titled 22 Jump Street. You can jump down on Jump Street starting at 5 p.m. over at Cinemark Park Place. That’s 2 for the price of 1, plus special concession deals. For more information, visit cinemark.com.

Also playing tonight is John Waters’ 1981 ode to suburban melodrama, Polyester. Polyester is my favorite John Waters film; it may have something to do with the chemistry between Divine and the former faboo heartthrob Tab Hunter, or it’s Dead Boy Stiv Bators' performance as an obnoxious hooligan, but it probably has something to do with the “Odorama” cards. Back when Polyester came out, audience members were handed cards with scratch-n-sniff numbers to be smelled during key points in the film. There’s a few nice ones, but the majority of them are downright rank. Beware of #7! Thankfully for you and your olfactory senses, the Loft will be handing a limited amount of the cards tonight. The film starts at 7 p.m. Tickets are regular admission, and Polyester is presented in 35mm.

There’s a lot of films I’ve seen more than once in the theater. I’ve seen a respectable amount of films more than three to four times on the big screen. But I’ve only seen one film five different times, and that’s Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I saw it three times the summer it came out, and two more at various points. There’s something about Harrison Ford and Sean Connery thwarting Nazis that appeals to me, I suppose. It’s playing at the Loft on Sunday, June 15. That’s right, it’s a special Father’s Day screening. Bring your Pops, make him wear a trilby! There’s a free raffle involved, as well as a drink special. The fun starts at noon, and tickets are $8 and $6 for Loft members.

This week, on Friday the 13th, On Friday, June 27, the Loft Cinema presents another All-Nite Scream-O-Rama. This year’s lineup is one of the all-time best. Featured are heavy hitters George Romero, Wes Craven and Tobe Hooper, along with a healthy dose of new blood with Adam Wingard’s terrifying 2011 flick You’re Next. The horror fest lasts from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. There's seven feature-length howlers, and there’s also vintage horror movie trailers before the films, drink specials, giveaways, and the infamous and often needed barf bags. Advance admission is $13, day of is $15, and Loft member tickets are $12.

I’ve gone ahead and written a guide to the films, along with a helpful “Fright-O-Meter” to measure each film’s maximum scares.

7:00 p.m. Dawn of the Dead (George Romero. 1978)

Simply put, this is one of the best films ever made. It’s the second in Romero’s Dead series, following the game-changing 1968 film Night of the Living Dead and preceding 1985’s Day of the Dead. The zombie outbreak in Night has spread far wider than that film’s countryside; the beginning sequence of Dawn has them smack dab in the middle of urban Pittsburgh where a SWAT team has been dispatched to clean up an infested apartment complex. After that’s taken care of, a news show employee and her helicopter-pilot boyfriend team up with two SWAT members and end up inside a large mall. After mowing down hordes of zombies, the quartet of survivors open the keys to the kingdom. The mall and all it’s goods are theirs for the taking—at least for a little while. Special effects and make-up artist Tom Savini cemented his genius on this picture; while the zombies may look a little cheesy, the film’s many exploding heads and scenes of limb and stomach ripping are still effective.

Fright-O-Meter: 10/10. Sure, zombie movies nowadays feature them running as fast as cheetahs, but there’s something more unsettling about small bands of zombies slowly looking for prey. As Dawn shows time after time, it’s often only an illusion that you can get past them. There’s plenty of “jumping out of nowhere” scenes in the film, but the real scares come from the icy paranoia of the survivors holding out for just one more day and trying to keep their humanity intact. A large chunk of the fright also comes from the masterful, tension-filled soundtrack by Italian prog-rock-rock band Goblin.

9:30 p.m. The Burning (Tony Maylam. 1981)

After the success of Friday the 13th, kids-killed-at-camp became a popular (with teenagers at least) and cash-making genre. Most of them were awful (Bloody Murder) and some of them were great (Sleepaway Camp). The Burning firmly falls into the latter category. In this flick, a group of horny New York counselors are picked off one by one (and in the film’s most notorious scene, all in one bloody swath) by the camp’s former caretaker, one mean disfigured son-of-a-bitch named Cropsy. If the name sounds familiar it should; the character is based on the same NY urban legend that the popular (and very disturbing) documentary Cropsey explores. Dawn of the Dead’s Tom Savini provides the blood-soaked effects and Rick Wakeman of Yes is responsible for the film’s spooky score. There’s a few “before they were famous” turns here—look for a young Holly Hunter, Jason Alexander with hair (his actual hair, not with that rug he’s sporting nowadays), Ned Eisenberg (The Sopranos) and Fisher Stevens (Ben from the Short Circuit series, Vince Latello from My Science Project, the scene-stealing grifter from The Brother from Another Planet, and the directer of the award-winning documentary The Cove). Also of note, this is the unrated UK cut, so you get a little more gore, and it’s presented in 35mm.

Fright-O-Meter: 10/10. The Burning is one scary flick, if not downright despairing. Counselors are killed in colorful and shocking ways, the sets (especially towards the end) are menacing, and scariest of all, the most gruesome kill of the film happens in broad daylight.

11:10 p.m. A Nightmare on Elm Street (Wes Craven. 1984)

Director Wes Craven had already contributed a fair share of bonafide classics to the horror genre (The Last House on the Left, The Hills Have Eyes, Swamp Thing), but 1984’s (30 years ago!) A Nightmare on Elm Street propelled him to Master of Horror status. Freddy Krueger, a child killer who was murdered years before by a group of suburban parents turned vigilante, haunts the dreams of a teenage girl, her boyfriend (Johnny Depp in his film debut) and her friends. He can’t come into the waking world, so he offs them (brutally) in their dreams. It’s among Craven’s best, and the nightmare imagery still holds up. This one’s also in 35mm.

Fright-O-Meter: 8/10. The scares and thrills are abundant, the gore is messy, and creepiness permeates almost every frame of the film. The only reason I’m not giving it a 10/10 is simple—it’s hard not to watch this without thinking of the buffoon Freddy Krueger later became. After several sequels, a spin-off television series, a “rock” album, action figures and a Halloween costume, Freddy became as iconic as Cap’n Crunch and just as scary.

12:50 a.m. You’re Next (Adam Wingard. 2011)

The most recent film in the night’s lineup, it’s also one the scariest. An upper-middle class family of dull (these are some of the most unlikeable characters in recent memory) yuppies gather in a house in the Missouri woods for a family reunion. Suddenly, figures in the forest wearing flak-jackets and ominous animal masks kick off some murderous mayhem with crossbows, machetes, axes and piano wire. What they didn’t count on was a lone survivalist in the group—a lean, mean, killing machine. Twists and turns are around every corner in this exciting home invasion flick. Bonus points for great usage of the Dwight Tilley Band.

Fright-O-Meter: 10/10. A 10 so strong it almost broke the meter. You’ll be white-knuckle gripping the edges of the seats on this one. Keep a firm grasp on the popcorn, it’s guaranteed to go flying at least a couple of times.

2:30 a.m. Body Melt (Philip Brophy. 1993)

Like an unholy cross between The Stuff and Street Trash, Australia’s Body Melt is one goopy movie. Any film that opens up with a title card with “Dumb Films Presents” receives an automatic thumb’s up from me. It’s a mucky flick about a vitamin supplement that produces some rancid side effects. There’s detergent drinking, exploding erections, fetal face facehuggers, messy miscarriages, rollerblading gone wrong, bodybuilders with helium voices, grandmas watching full-on porno, mutant outback hillbillies obsessed with Deep Purple’s “Highway Star,” hallucinogenic sequences about stealing male ribs, kangaroo culling, killer snot, awful ‘90s fashion and an even worse techno soundtrack.

Fright-O-Meter: 0/10, but it’s a 10/10 on the Barf-O-Tron.

4:00 a.m. The Funhouse (Tobe Hooper. 1981)

Immediately after adapting Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot for TV, director Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) churned out this fun little fright flick. Four horny and stoned teenagers on a double-date check out a carnival on the outskirts of town. They ride the ferris wheel, the men win stuffed animals for their dates, they check out the two-headed cows at the animal freak show, and they all take a peek at the hoochie coochie tent. The four of them decide to stay the night in the carnival’s funhouse; the kind with carts-on-a-track and pop-up mechanized skeletons and witches. After witnessing the carnival barker’s mutant son murder Madame Zena, the carnival’s resident gypsy and after-hours prostitute, the teens are trapped inside. Soon enough, bodies start piling up when father and son decide to clean house.

Fright-O-Meter: 7/10. After 1977’s gruesome Eaten Alive, Hooper mostly strayed away from his gritty and visceral backwater style of filmmaking. The Funhouse has some great thrills, and the garish Frankenstein mask the mutant wears is still one of the creepiest disguises on film—just ask Rob Zombie.

5:40 a.m. Grizzly (William Girdler. 1976)

It’s staggering how many films were made about killer animals in Jaws’ wake. At least Barracuda, Orca, Great White, The Jaws of Death and Tentacles kept the maritime aspect. Grizzly, as you would expect, is about a pissed-off 15-foot prehistoric grizzly bear. He’s on the loose in the mountains, and it’s up to a weary park ranger, a military veteran helicopter pilot, and a loose-cannon naturalist to stop it by any means necessary. Limbs fly left and right, observation towers are toppled and no one (and no bear cub) is safe from the primal beast. From the director of the far superior film The Manitou.

Fright-O-Meter: 4/10, and that’s being liberal. Still, this cheese-fest offers up some surprisingly graphic scenes.

The Dumb and Dumber sequel is coming, and they still have that shaggy dog van. While it's been 20 years since the first movie hit theaters, we try our best to forget Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd. Nevertheless, it's nice to see Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne reunited in another stupid, romantic journey.


Dumb and Dumber To hits theaters on Nov. 14, 2014.

At some point in the 1970s, art house theaters began keeping their box offices open into the wee hours. Film snobs, stoners, freaks and the curious flocked to films that offered all sorts of outlandish onscreen behavior. The king daddy (or better yet, the queen daddy) of them all was The Rocky Horror Picture Show. But, there were a few others. Eraserhead. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The Harder They Come. Pink Flamingos and El Topo.

The Loft Cinema is presenting the latter two this week. First up is the depraved and still-shocking 1972 bizzaro masterpiece Pink Flamingos, tonight at 7 p.m. Directed by John Waters, who was once known as “The Pope of Trash” and “The Prince of Puke,” Pink Flamingos pits Divine, the legendary 300-pound drag queen, and her family of miscreants against a perverted couple to battle it out and claim the glamorous title of “the filthiest people alive.” There’s an ample amount of egg sucking, chicken fucking, cannibalism, incest and unconventional uses of a turkey baster, all set to a roaring ‘50s rock ’n’ roll soundtrack. This kicks off the Loft’s June series, Totally Trash: The Films of John Waters. Tickets are regular admission, and Pink Flamingos is a 35mm print. Hopefully it’s as dirty as the movie.

On Friday, June 6 and Saturday, June 7, the Loft’s Late Night Cult Classics series presents Alejandro Jodorowsky’s 1972 (1972 was a good year for weird) unconventional western El Topo. If you were lucky enough to catch Jodorowsky’s Dune a month or so ago at the Loft, you might want to catch this on the big screen and imagine what could have been if the film industry had been a little more adventurous and forgiving. El Topo is simply the finest Zen Buddhist, Nietzschean, Sufi western with Tarot and Masonic undertones ever made. John Lennon and Yoko Ono loved it so much that Lennon got his manager to buy the distribution rights. You can catch it at 10 p.m. both nights. Tickets are $6 for general admission and $5 for Loft members.

Can you believe it's been 30 years since Prince’s Purple Rain debuted? Does that mean it’s also been 30 years since Tipper Gore and a bunch of senator’s wives got their collective bloomers in a bunch? I guess so. To celebrate, the Loft is presenting a Purple Rain Sing-A-Long on Saturday, June 7. Along with the movie, the Loft will have a Prince music video salon, a Purple One costume contest, and even purple cupcakes courtesy of Chelsea Morning Bakery (Prince was born on June 7, 1958). All of you Beautiful Ones and Darling Nikkis can Go Crazy starting at 7 p.m. Tickets are $8 for general admission and $6 for Loft members. For more information on these films and a grip of other special events this week, visit loftcinema.com.

You won't wanna miss out on these other film events this week (there’s a lot of them). Tonight at 7:30 p.m., Cinema La Placita kicks off Alfred Hitchcock month with his 1935 suspense film The 39 Steps. Tickets are $3 and that includes popcorn. For more info, visit cinemalaplacita.com. On Friday, June 6 at 7 :30 p.m., and on Sunday, June 8 at 2:30 p.m., the Fox Theatre presents the John Wayne classic (and shot at Old Tucson) Rio Bravo, co-starring Ricky Nelson and my favorite crooner, Dino Martini. For tickets and other info, visit foxtucsontheatre.org. Rio Bravo is presented in 35mm! Finally, strap on your platform shoes, polyester suits and make sure your hair is blown dry, because both Cinemark El Con and Cinemark Park Place are presenting the John Travolta magnum opus about wayward Brooklyn youth and disco music, the one and only Saturday Night Fever. Showtimes are 2 p.m. on Sunday, June 8 with repeat performances at 2 and 7 p.m. on Wednesday June 11. For ticket info, visit cinemark.com.

What's better than a frog and bear touring through America? The answer: Singing along with said bear and frog movin' right along America. The Loft Cinema is bridging the Rainbow Connection to your love for the Muppets this month. There will be a sing-along screening of the 1971 classic, The Muppet Movie. The all ages event starts at 7 p.m. Saturday, June 28, in the main theatre, 3233 East Speedway.


There will be an outrageous costume contest and everyone will receive a free rainbow glow stick.

Click here to buy your tickets ($8 or $6 for kids and members) and for more information. 

Cinema La Placita, Tucson’s premier downtown outdoor film series, is playing one of my favorite films of a time time tonight—Howard Hawks’ classic madcap comedy His Girl Friday. Cinema La Placita has been playing Cary Grant films all month long, and this is definitely a high-point to go out on. If you’re into zany romantic moments, fast-talking shenanigans and cheeky situations, do yourself a favor and check this out. His Girl Friday starts at 7:30 p.m. and tickets are $3, and that includes a bag of golden popped corn. Stay tuned for next month’s events at Cinema La Placita—they’re doing Hitchcock in June. For more information, visit cinemalaplacita.com.

There’s only a few more days left in May, and there’s only two more Fellini screenings this month at the Loft Cinema. First up is the 1986 film Ginger & Fred, starring Marcello Mastroianni and Giulietta Massina as a pair of Italian Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire impersonators. This is one of the few Fellini films I haven’t seen, but I’m hoping to remedy that soon. You can see it sooner than me—it starts tonight at 7 p.m. Tickets are regular admission. On Saturday, May 31 at 7 p.m. is the 1960 classic La Dolce Vita, starring Fellini regular Marcello Mastroianni and the stunning Anita Ekberg. Mastroianni is Marcello Rubini, a reporter for a sleazy tabloid paper in Rome. This is the film that put Fellini on the map, and the one that coined that lazy go-to adjective for film critics everywhere, “Fellini-esque.” Tickets are regular admission. Next month’s film series at the Loft is salute to Baltimore’s favorite son and the mighty Pope of Trash—the one and only John Waters.

A little over ten years ago, one of the most controversial films of all time was released—the cult classic Battle Royale. It was much ballyhooed and all sorts of tall tales swirled around it’s infamy. It was rumored to be outright banned in the U.S. and as far as everyone knew (this was pre-Facebook, Twitter and even Myspace), only one theater in the country, UC Theater in Berkeley, was brave enough to play it, albeit for one night only. I bought a horribly dubbed copy on VHS at my first year at the San Diego Comic-Con for $50. So what’s the deal? Why so controversial? This debuted about a year after Columbine, that's why. The film takes place on a Japanese island, and ordinary school kids are forced to kill each other with a variety of weapons, both high-powered and makeshift. It takes it's cues from The Running Man, A Clockwork Orange, and of course, Lord of the Flies. The Hunger Games series is highly based on Battle Royale’s premise, although that series is the cinematic equivalent of a Handi Wipe. See what all the fuss is about on Friday, May 30 and Saturday, May 31. Both screenings are at 10 p.m. Tickets are $6 for general admission and $5 for Loft members. For more info, visit loftcinema.com.