“Flooding With Love for the Kid” is a micro budgeted ($96 to be exact) shot on digital adaptation of David Morrell’s 1972 novel First Blood, which of course was later made into the first Rambo film of the same name in 1982. But New York based filmmaker Zachary Oberzan has done something completely different and even radical. He has directed, shot, edited and acted in the film entirely on his own, playing all the characters himself.  And he even did it all in his small studio apartment, with basic props, costumes and crude digital effects!

David Morrell himself has praised the unconventional adaptation. It is much more faithful to the novel than First Blood the original film.

The film makes it’s Ottawa premiere this month: July 30 and 31! If you think you’ve really seen First Blood, you’ve never seen blood drawn like this!

Take a look at the trailer to see the crazy ingenuity for yourself!

A rare 35mm print of George A. Romero’s third zombie film Day of the Dead is coming to the Mayfair Theatre for one night only: Friday July 2 at 11pm! Presented by Zombie Info.

Night of the Living Dead showed you a desperate group of survivors holed up in a rundown farm house. Dawn of the Dead showed us a battle for the control of a shopping mall between two groups of survivors with the zombies in between. With Day, Romero puts his human characters deep in a mine, with zombies on land and zombies in captivity as science experiments several feet under as scientists go head to head with an iron-fisted military man and his soldiers. The scientists want to study the phenomenon and find a solution to the problem, the military just want to blast the undead bastards away. Who will prevail? Again, the zombies aren’t necessarily the villains. Especially when one test subject, a zombie nicknamed “Bub” (played brilliantly by Howard Sherman) starts to show rudimentary intelligence and even a sense of humanity.

Day is considered underrated by many of Romero’s fans, especially considering makeup f/x artist Tom Savini’s showstopping gore is among his best work. Romero envisioned this film to be his zombie epic, with his original script featuring a zombie army and major production design. However, he could only get the money to make the film he wanted if he cut down the gore and agree to make an R rated film (Dawn of the Dead was released unrated). Romero then chose to make the film at a lower budget and make big changes to the script in order to have the freedom to make an unrated picture. Many ideas removed from the original script were later utilized in 2005′s Land of the Dead.

With it’s claustrophobic setting, dark humour and eye-popping gore and an exciting action packed climax, Day of the Dead is a must for any zombie film lover.

Day of the Dead trailer

A MODEST PROPOSAL

from the Mayfair Theatre

Ottawa’s oldest surviving independent cinema follows example of Roger Greenberg and Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (OSEG) and requests a 30-year cinema monopoly

In an interview this morning, Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (OSEG) member Roger Greenberg spoke eloquently about the potential impact of unfairly subsidized competition on his business.

We at the Mayfair Theatre feel for Mr. Greenberg and his partners, because, with a taxpayer-subsidized plan to build a new multi-screen cinema at Lansdowne recently revealed, we know exactly what he’s facing. So when he suggests that the only way to deal with the threat of potential competition is to prevent it by negotiating a monopoly with the City of Ottawa, we couldn’t agree more.

In fact, we would like to follow his example. After reviewing some of the details of the proposed deal between the City of Ottawa and OSEG, we would like to suggest that the City sign a similar agreement with the Mayfair, one that stipulates:

• The City of Ottawa will not subsidize or otherwise support the building of a cinema that competes with the Mayfair, anywhere within the city limits.
• If any new cinema is built with the support of the City of Ottawa, the partners of Mayfair Theatre will have the first chance to lease the space. A competitive process will not be allowed.
• Further, if the City of Ottawa supports building any new cinema, the Mayfair partners will also have the right to terminate their current lease, and the City (and its taxpayers) will assume all operational costs and responsibilities, and any debts remaining.

This agreement would remain in force for 30 years.

Oh, and if the city could reduce our rent to $1 per year for the same term (30 years) and pass all our building and renovation expenses along to taxpayers (we humbly agree to cap those expenses at $129,000,000.00), while allowing us to keep any and all profits, that would be great, too.

To echo Mr. Greenberg, “It stands to reason from our perspective that if a new cinema is erected by the city, with the limited number of movies that could possibly come to a cinema, it would have a very detrimental effect on the existing cinema, and that would affect both ourselves and the city.”

As taxpayers, we are partners in OSEG’s venture, and to quote Mr. Greenberg directly, “you would not want your own partner to go out and to create a competitive situation somewhere else.”

Amen, Mr. Greenberg. Amen.

On behalf of the cast and crew of the Mayfair Theatre, and in solidarity with the brave, beleaguered members of OSEG,

Lee Demarbre

Ian Driscoll

Petr Maur

Josh Stafford

Learn more about OSEG’s 30-year monopoly deal here:

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/sports/Lansdowne+proposal+gives+developers+year+monopoly+stadium/3200107/story.html

and here:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2010/06/24/lansdowne-stadium-football-monopoly.html

If you’d like to let city council know how you feel about OSEG and the Lansdowne deal, or to propose your own monopoly, why not email them right now? Just copy and paste these addresses:

Georges.Bedard@ottawa.ca; Michel.Bellemare@ottawa.ca; Rainer.Bloess@ottawa.ca; Glenn.Brooks@ottawa.ca; Rick.Chiarelli@ottawa.ca; Alex.Cullen@ottawa.ca; Diane.Deans@ottawa.ca; Steve.Desroches@ottawa.ca; Clive.Doucet@ottawa.ca; Eli.El-Chantiry@ottawa.ca; Peggy.Feltmate@ottawa.ca; Jan.Harder@ottawa.ca; Diane.Holmes@ottawa.ca; Peter.Hume@ottawa.ca; Gord.Hunter@ottawa.ca; Rob.Jellett@ottawa.ca; Kitchissippi@ottawa.ca; Jacques.Legendre@ottawa.ca; Maria.Mcrae@ottawa.ca; Bob.Monette@ottawa.ca; Doug.Thompson@ottawa.ca;Shad.Qadri@ottawa.ca; Marianne.Wilkinson@ottawa.ca; Larry.OBrien@ottawa.ca
Cut.

There are a seemingly endless amount of facts about action movie legend Chuck Norris. In fact a book of extensive Norris facts was published in 2007 entitled The Truth About Chuck Norris: 400 Facts About The World’s Greatest Human, which led to Norris filing a lawsuit claiming “trademark infringement, unjust enrichment and privacy rights”.

Here are a few things about Chuck Norris you might not have known:

Chuck Norris’ tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried.

Chuck Norris counted to infinity – twice.

Chuck Norris does not hunt because the word hunting infers the probability of failure. Chuck Norris goes killing.

If you can see Chuck Norris, he can see you. If you can’t see Chuck Norris you may be only seconds away from death.

Chuck Norris sold his soul to the devil for his rugged good looks and unparalleled martial arts ability. Shortly after the transaction was finalized, Chuck roundhouse kicked the devil in the face and took his soul back. The devil, who appreciates irony, couldn’t stay mad and admitted he should have seen it coming. They now play poker every second Wednesday of the month.

When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.

Chuck Norris built a time machine and went back in time to stop the JFK assassination. As Oswald shot, Chuck Norris met all three bullets with his beard, deflecting them. JFK’s head exploded out of sheer amazement.

Chuck Norris has already been to Mars; that’s why there are no signs of life there.

They once made a Chuck Norris toilet paper, but it wouldn’t take shit from anybody.

A blind man once stepped on Chuck Norris’ shoe. Chuck replied, “Don’t you know who I am? I’m Chuck Norris!” The mere mention of his name cured this man blindness. Sadly the first, last, and only thing this man ever saw, was a fatal roundhouse delivered by Chuck Norris.

***

To see proof of the might and power of Chuck Norris, come see his 1985 thriller Code of Silence on Saturday June 12 at 11:45pm. And to learn more about Chuck visit www.chucknorrisfacts.com

Code of Silence Trailer

Get ready for another cinematic trip into Ed Wood/Tommy Wiseau territory. Birdemic: Shock and Terror (playing May 28 and 29) is a “romantic thriller” about what happens when a software salesman and his fashion model girlfriend find themselves trying to survive an attack of killer birds. Yes, think Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds crossed with The Room.

The film is the work of one James Nguyen, an upstart independent filmmaker who produced Birdemic for $10,000. After the film was rejected by the Sundance Film Festival, Nguyen traveled there anyway to stage a grassroots promotional campaign, which included driving in a van adorned with stuffed birds and banners promoting the film’s website (birdemic.com) This seems to have paid off, as cult DVD label Severin Films picked the movie up for distribution. Word of mouth from fans of bad cinema will inevitably follow.

By the looks of the trailer, the film promises seriously awkward performances, bad dialogue and laughably horrendous CGI birds. Check out the trailer plus a TV interview with the director below and you’ll wonder, who will survive?

birdemic
birdemic director interview

A very talented editor with a channel on Youtube cut together two montages showcasing the films of Martin Scorsese including clips from his indie debut Who’s That Knocking At My Door? (1968) all the way to The Departed (2006). Accompanying this collage of memorable and iconic cinematic imagery is the great music heard in Scorsese’s films (The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, Eric Clapton, etc.)

Montages (crude and professionally assembled) are all over Youtube but these particular montages are beautifully and thoughtfully edited together and display not only Scorsese’s eye and talent but the skill of his wonderful collaborators: editor Thelma Schoonmaker and cinematographers Michael Ballhaus and Robert Richardson.

This May, the Mayfair proudly presents The Martin Scorsese Film Festival (May 4-30) which includes seven of his films (Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, GoodFellas, Casino, Cape Fear and his latest Shutter Island)

So if you haven’t experienced his great films on the big screen and on celluloid, do yourself a favor and head over to the Mayfair.

But first, to get you in the mood, don’t forget to check out the montage.

Note: Part 1 seems to be missing but Part 2 is equally as great:

The Films of Martin Scorsese Pt. 2<

Since Hard Ticket to Hawaii was such a success last month and audience members showed a real curiosity towards more films by late filmmaker Andy Sidaris, the Mayfair is presenting another one of his 1980s masterworks, the tantalizingly titled “Picasso Trigger” a sexy art heist/spy thriller set in Paris, Texas, Hawaii and Las Vegas. The film is summarized quite beautifully on andysidaris.com:

“With a flourish, Salazar bestows upon the city of Paris a priceless artwork: the Picasso Trigger. Then he steps outside… and is wasted by a sniper’s bullet. But wait; a more subtle art has just been unveiled, an insidious work in progress. Salazar is a master of deception. And the assassination is a ruse that sets in motion his masterpiece: a scheme to blast his enemies to kingdom come while he lies low.”

If that doesn’t excite you enough, then check out the trailer which displays beautiful babes (thank you Playboy Mansion) exotic scenery, state of the art weaponry (check out a bomb attached to a boomerang!), explosions and the best actors soap operas can provide.

Picasso Trigger trailer

PICASSO TRIGGER (1988)
Friday April 23 at Midnight

This Tuesday, the Mayfair celebrates 4/20 (see Wikipedia) by screening two iconic cinematic stoner classics: Fast Times At Ridgemont High from 1982 and Half Baked from 1998. One film showcases a rare comic performance from Sean Penn as Jeff Spicoli, surfer and slacker and the other features David Chappelle (who also co-wrote the film) as a pothead janitor. Both films are directed by women: Fast Times was made by Amy Heckerling (who went on to helm Clueless) and Half Baked by Tamra Davis who also directed the Adam Sandler comedy Billy Madison.

Fast Times is the more popular film of the two because of it’s cast of rising stars, the screenplay by future Oscar winner Cameron Crowe (based on his book) it’s popular 80s soundtrack and one of the most unforgettable nude scenes in film history. If you haven’t seen Phoebe Cates topless you haven’t seen anything. However, the film also features the underrated and easy on the eyes Jennifer Jason Leigh…and yes, she gets naked too.

Half Baked makes a perfect companion piece to Fast Times. Released in January of 1998 without much response from critics or audiences, the movie became a cult hit on home video and is actually a perceptive and witty satire on stoner culture. Chappelle was a frustrated comedian/actor who was still years away from the smash success of his TV series and stand up specials and in Half Baked he shows his energetic and likable comic sensibility.

Half Baked also contains various cameos from the likes of Janeane Garofalo, Tommy Chong, Steven Wright, a pre-born again Stephen Baldwin, Tracy Morgan and a surprising, vulgar and hilarious walk on from TV dad Bob Saget.

So on this 4/20 get off your couch and the be the guy on the couch at the Mayfair for two films that will make you high on laughter.

4/20 Double Bill-This Tuesday night
Fast Times At Ridgemont High plays at 7pm
Half Baked plays at 9pm

“Harry, I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don’t plan it. Don’t wait for it. Just let it happen. It could be a new shirt at the men’s store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot black coffee.” -Special Agent Dale Cooper, Twin Peaks TV Series.

As part of our David Lynch Film Festival this month, we are also selling his special organic house roast of Damn Fine Coffee for $20 a can. So when you drop by the Mayfair to see Dune (April 11 & 12) The Elephant Man (April 17 and 18) and Lost Highway (April 24 & 25) come into the candy bar and pick up the kind of coffee you can only get from the man who brought you Eraserhead.

As the can reads: “It’s all in the beans…and I’m just full of beans.”

For more info visit davidlynch.com/coffee