Tomorrow night at the Aero on Montana they will be screening the new film co-produced by Judd Apatow, Pineapple Express (read review here), starring Seth Rogen and James Franco. Directly after the screening the director of the film Gordon Greene will be in attendance for a Q&A with the audience. How awesome is that!

The movie starts at 7:30pm and the Q&A will follow.

You can buy tickets on fandango.com or directly from the Aero. Cost is $10 for members, $12 for students/seniors, and $25 for regular admission. I high suggest you buy them now because this sucker is going to be sold out any minute.

The Aero is located at 1328 Montana Ave. Santa Monica (Map)

Photo by IMDB

The Aero:

• Sat 2 at 5.00: Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) / The Two Towers (2002) / The Return of the King (2003)

I think I’d rather poke my eyes out than sit through even one of these again, but I admit I am in a minority. I was a great fan of the books, though I didn’t feel overly proprietary when the movies appeared; simply a bit numbed by the escalating tedium of battle after battle. But most of the world seems to have taken the films and Tolkien’s mythology to their bosom, and even if one finds elves mimsy rather than magical, and the middle earth humans more over-earnest than heroic, there’s still plenty to enjoy in the story itself, committed playing, impressive effects and awesome New Zealand scenery. I’d be hesitant to recommend this 11 and a half-hour programme to newcomers, but it will undoubtedly be an awesome experience for those well-disposed towards it. Not only that, but The Return Of The King is playing in its extended version (er, what does that mean? an extra 50 minutes of battle scenes?) and the whole shindig’s a mere $3!

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Poor Brendan Fraser, Maria Bello, Jet Li, and John Hannah (who I love). They’re amazing, but The Mummy is all set for FAIL. It’s just at the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe a winter release would have been better? Although, who knows! I may be proven wrong (I secretly hope it does). Then there’s the The Midnight Meat Train. I personally love Vinnie Jones and a good creepy horror film. Although again, perhaps better for the fall? Swing Vote looks fun if you can get past the absurdity that our next president relies on one vote. Hell you can be off by thousands of votes and still win, Bush proved that. And if you’re willing to see a great film that will most likely make you cry your eyes out, than Frozen River is definitely the film for you. It’s a doozy.

So without further ado this weeks movie releases with reviews, cast and crew info, showtimes and tickets, and of course, trailers!

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Bijou Philips, Shane West

“What We Do Is Secret” is the opening track of the one and only album by The Germs, the most unruly and exciting band of the LA punk scene of the late 70s. They hold the twin distinctions of pressing the first LA punk 7-inch, and subsequently being banned from playing every club in the city as a result of lead singer Darby Crash’s willfully destructive urges. After one glorious year of tumult and escalating drug-use, Crash split up the band, reformed for one farewell show, then died of a self-administered heroin overdose. He missed out on headlines because John Lennon was shot to death on the other side of the country that same day.

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Though I don’t have a problem declaring myself a bit of a nerd – or maybe just a nerd aficionado – I’ve never been into comic books, sci-fi, fantasy, Star Wars, video games, MMORPGs or anything like that. Call me stereotypically girly or too cool for school, but those were just never my thing. I’d rather read the subtitles for the latest Almodovar opus than decode fairy tales from space. However, I do like new experiences so I jumped at the chance to head down to San Diego and check out Comic-Con for LA.CityZine. Though the convention began as an affair that catered to comic book nerds fairly exclusively, over the past 3 decades, it has expanded to become one of the biggest conventions in the country with booths from companies as big as Marvel and as unheard of as Dave’s Doodles. I only spent a short day there, but it was Saturday which is unanimously described as the biggest day. Objectively, it was the only day that sold out and when a Convention Center is SOLD OUT, that’s a pretty big day (over 125,000 people).

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Film fans, here’s your chance for a very, very special event.

This Wednesday there will be a one-off screening of the cult classic film “Forbidden Zone” in it’s new (and impressively well-done) colorized version!

The new version has been in development for a year now, and will be getting scattered screenings throughout the nation, but this might be LA’s only chance to catch this new version of the insane classic.

Director Richard Elfman will be on-hand to introduce the new version, as well as several special guests.

Get your tikets NOW as the event will likely sell out (if it hasn’t already). Check the film’s official site for ticket information.

And if you’ve never seen the film before, here’s a golden opportunity for you to have your mind blown wide open.

In spite of what seems to be an ever-growing backlash, I’m a perennial sucker for movies made by the Judd Apatow mafia. Every one of their films looks like they all called each other up and asked “Hey, I’ve got an idea for a movie. You wanna goof off with the boys for a month and get paid for it?” It’s almost like watching a couple swing dance; it looks like the most fun thing people could to together, and I just wish I could do it that well myself. With the accidental blockbuster success of last year’s Superbad, our friends at Sony Pictures and Apatow Productions try their hand at a real action blockbuster with this summer’s Pineapple Express

Pineapple Express is the boys’ first foray into genre films, rather than their standard “a bunch of guys standing around talking shit,” format. It is the story of Dale Denton (Rogen), mild mannered process server and stoner extraordinaire. When he’s not tricking people into accepting their subpoenas, he’s getting high and listening to talk radio in his car. After a visit to his drug dealer Saul (Franco), and equiped with the rarest, most exclusive weed in the state, Dale decides to smoke a joint in his car outside the home of his next subpoenaed target. While doing so, he witnesses a murder, is seen by the bad guys, and goes to Saul’s for help. When they realize that they might have been followed, and how serious the danger they’re in is, thus begins an absurd game of cat and mouse. That is, if the mice were high, and the cats were idiots.

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To echo one of the survivors’ words from the roundtable interview (read our story on it here) some horror fans are bound to be disappointed by Baghead. But this is a group with a much better sense of humor than it often gets credit for. Sam Raimi owes his livelihood to this audience, and the Duplass Brothers’ latest throws more respect their way than the shameless, teen-skewed retreads currently churned out by the studios.

The story centers on four struggling actors: handsome Matt, his ex Catherine, her younger competition Michelle, and her blatant admirer Chad. The foursome cruises the fringe festival circuit, trying to get in on anything with traction (indie vet Jett Garner steals the first 15 minutes of the movie). Naturally the night ends in failure. What else to do but drive to Big Bear and spend the weekend in an isolated cabin in the woods?

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Recently, I was down at Comic-Con and immediately following the screening of The Pineapple Express (review to followe) there was a Q&A session, moderated by Judd Apatow, featuring cast members Seth Rogen, James Franco, Danny McBride, Amber Heard, as well as co-writer Evan Goldberg and director David Gordon Green.

One of the first stories about the film’s production they shared was that originally, Seth and Evan had written the part of Saul to be played by Rogen. It wasn’t until they went to James Franco, who indicated that he wanted to play that part, that Rogen took the role of the straight man. Apatow joked that he told Franco they had written the part specifically for him, just to stoke his ego and get him on board with the film. After all, James Franco may be the most widely known actor in the crew, what with the Spider Man movies and all.
Seth also talked about his newfound Hollywood big shot status. First of all, there is a nice little dig at Jeff Goldblum somewhere in the film, and Seth related that he bumps into Goldblum all the time at one particular sushi restaurant. Jeff fawns on him, telling him what a big fan he is, and Seth just can’t get up the nerve to tell him there’s a big middle finger with his name on it in his new flick. He said, “Meg Ryan thought it was hysterical that we talked about her bush in Knocked Up, so I hope Jeff enjoys it too. But he could kick my ass. He’s a big guy.”

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