Calendar: August 6-12, 2021
Our movie and media Calendar appears every Friday/Saturday on C-U Blogfidential and caters to the downstate region anchored by Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.
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MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!
8/6: Jason Cerezo (co-owner, ThirdSide, Champaign, IL)
8/6: Sam Ambler (producer, Ambler Video, Champaign, IL)
8/7: Rachel Rebecca Berry (instructor, “Make a Movie” camp, Class Act, Champaign, IL)
PASSINGS | You Will Be Missed
8/12/17: Julius Rascheff, 81 (cinematography professor, School of Art & Design, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL, retired)
FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said
In this Report, we’re placing all our eggs (and shiny plastic discs) in one basket as we talk about home video releases from Vinegar Syndrome, the boutique Connecticut-based label with an eclectic catalog that has a knack for surprising even the finicky connoisseur of the offbeat. August titles from VinSyn were announced earlier this week and two of the five sport contributions from people we know!
TERMINAL ISLAND, the 1973 survivalist action film directed by genre feminist Stephanie Rothman, will be released on UHD and Blu-ray with a featurette in which Heidi Honeycutt and Dr. Alicia Kozma discuss the resurgent interest in her work; Kozma has taught at Washington College in Maryland for the last few years following a residence in Champaign-Urbana, where she earned a Ph.D. in communication and media studies from the University of Illinois and programmed shows at the Art Theater such as a TERMINAL ISLAND retrospect in 2017. GIRLS SCHOOL SCREAMERS, a 1986 Troma Films opus directed by John P. Finegan, will debut on Blu-ray alongside video interviews with and a commentary track by William Pace and Thomas Rondinella, crew members on SCREAMERS back then as well as award-winning filmmakers and fellow professors at Seton Hall University in New Jersey today. Pace is a native of Havana in west-central Illinois where the duo shot on location for their first solo feature, CHARMING BILLY, which was originally put out by Phaedra Cinema and Fox Lorber Home Video in 2000-2001 before appearing as our cover story in MICRO-FILM 5. VinSyn previously welcomed to the club Mitch Brown and Roger Ebert’s Film Festival producer Nate Kohn, who provided onscreen anecdotes about SHOT, their UIUC cop movie satire made primarily by students in 1972, for that film’s 2018 reissue.
We’ll also award a “good egg” honorable mention to the company’s “Home Grown Horrors, Volume 1” release from April that packages together a few examples of Eighties backyard cinema: BEYOND DREAM’S DOOR made in Ohio, WINTERBEAST made in Massachusetts, and FATAL EXAM made in Missouri. Other than the great concept and creative selections, I’m happy to see the highly imperfect FATAL EXAM brought back for a second life and allotted a spiffy Tom Hodge cover that’s much better than the one I painted for the movie’s only prior berth, a clamshell VHS offered by Salt City Home Video (presently SRS Cinema) in 1998. That particular cassette is so scarce, neither I or the distributor have one! Hrumph.
NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area
@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
THE SUICIDE SQUAD, BLACK WIDOW, ESCAPE ROOM: TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS, F9: THE FAST SAGA, THE GREEN KNIGHT, JUNGLE CRUISE, OLD, SNAKE EYES: G.I. JOE ORIGINS, SPACE JAM: A NEW LEGACY, STILLWATER (8/6 on), SHREK FOREVER AFTER (8/6, 3:30 p.m.), TROLLS WORLD TOUR (8/6, 6:50 p.m.), FREE GUY, RESPECT (8/12 on)
@ Boneyard Creek Crossing, Urbana, IL
The Urbana Free Library and Urbana Arts and Culture Program present “Cinema & Sound” event feat. THE DRAGON PAINTER, live performance by Kuroshio (8/11, 7 p.m., parking lot)
@ Hessel Park, Champaign Park District, Champaign, IL
“Friday Night Flix” feat. JURASSIC PARK (8/6, dusk)
@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
THE SUICIDE SQUAD, BLACK WIDOW, ESCAPE ROOM: TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS, THE GREEN KNIGHT, JOE BELL, JUNGLE CRUISE, OLD, SNAKE EYES: G.I. JOE ORIGINS, SPACE JAM: A NEW LEGACY, STILLWATER (8/6 on), UFC 265: Derrick Lewis vs. Cyril Gane, more (8/7, 9 p.m., simulcast), THE GREAT MUPPET CAPER 40th anniversary (8/8, 3 p.m.; 8/11, 7 p.m.), THE IRON GIANT (8/8, 3 & 7 p.m.; 8/11, 7 p.m.), SHIROBAKO THE MOVIE (animé, 8/10, 7 p.m.), THE STAIRS (8/12, 7 p.m.)
@ Redbox, Champaign-Urbana, IL
HERE TODAY, LUCA, SHE BALL, TAKE BACK, THOSE WHO WISH ME DEAD, more! (8/3 on) Online rentals
Events featuring locally produced movies are marked with an asterisk (*). Additional “Now Playing” and “Coming Soon” listings appear after the jump!
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NOW PLAYING | The Cities Beyond
@ AMC Classic Village Mall 6, Danville, IL
THE SUICIDE SQUAD, BLACK WIDOW, ESCAPE ROOM: TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS, JUNGLE CRUISE, OLD, SNAKE EYES: G.I. JOE ORIGINS, SPACE JAM: A NEW LEGACY (8/6 on)
@ AMC Peru Mall 8, Peru, IL
THE SUICIDE SQUAD, JUNGLE CRUISE, OLD, SPACE JAM: A NEW LEGACY (8/6 on)
@ The Avon Theater, Decatur, IL
THE SUICIDE SQUAD, JUNGLE CRUISE, STILLWATER (8/6-8/8)
@ The Fischer Theatre, Danville, IL
THE KARATE KID (1984) (8/7, 3 & 7 p.m.)
@ The Harvest Moon Twin Drive-in, Gibson City, IL
JUNGLE CRUISE (Screen 1), THE SUICIDE SQUAD (Screen 2) (8/6-8/7)
@ The Little Lorraine, Hoopeston, IL
Private rentals for the week.
@ The Normal Theater, Normal, IL
SUMMERTIME (8/6-8/8)
@ The Onarga Theatre, Onarga, IL
Closed for the week.
@ The Princess Theatre, Leroy, IL
IN THE HEIGHTS (8/6-8/8)
@ Route 34 Drive-in, Earlville, IL
JUNGLE CRUISE, BLACK WIDOW (8/6-8/8)
@ Route 66 Twin Drive-in, Springfield, IL
JUNGLE CRUISE, CRUELLA (Screen 1), THE SUICIDE SQUAD, ESCAPE ROOM: TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS (Screen 2) (8/6-8/8, 8/11-8/12)
@ Roxy Cinemas, Ottawa, IL
THE SUICIDE SQUAD, BLACK WIDOW, JUNGLE CRUISE, OLD, SPACE JAM: A NEW LEGACY STILLWATER (8/6 on), DON’T BREATHE 2, FREE GUY (8/12 on)
@ Streator Eagle 6, Streator, IL
THE SUICIDE SQUAD, BLACK WIDOW, THE GREEN KNIGHT, JUNGLE CRUISE, OLD, SPACE JAM: A NEW LEGACY (8/6 on), DON’T BREATHE 2, FREE GUY, RESPECT (8/12 on)
NOW PLAYING | Midwest
For detailed and curated listings of Chicago-area film presentations and related events, as well as cancellations and postponements due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, please visit the fine folks at Cine-File and subscribe to their definitive “Cine-List” weekly blast.
COMING SOON | Area-wide Events
9/8-9/11
22nd Roger Ebert’s Film Festival
@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
10/22-10/23
Dark History and Horror Convention’s Screaming Mad Film Festival 2.1
@ I Hotel and Conference Center, UIUC, Champaign, IL
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Compiled by Jason Pankoke.
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