Calendar: July 26-Aug. 1, 2024
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!
8/1: Jed Brian (actor, GRIM REAPER 3, Moonlight Films, Linton, IN)
8/1: Cara Maurizi (actress, SWEET DREAMING, Consumer Grade Film Co., Chicago, IL)
FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said
The Report is on hiatus until August or September. Thank you for your readership, CUvians and Agents!
IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing Our Screens in the Scene
On the occasion of the Harvest Moon Twin Drive-in’s remarkable twin milestones – July 9, they marked 70 years in business, and June 16, they reached 35 years since reopening under the watch of Michael Harroun and John Talbert – we’re going theater crazy in this week’s Calendar. Given the Harroun family’s durability through the thick and the thin facing the drive-in circuit in modern times, as well as the understandable and perennial pleas for their customer base to support local businesses, we decided to look around using Google to see if there were any additional venues in MICRO-FILM Country that made sense to add to our weekly listings. Now, we are four stronger for it! Brand-new are the Clintonia Eagle Theater in Clinton, one of three small-town locations in the Illinois-based chain, and the Crescent Cinemas in Pontiac, a century-old independent house in a downtown city block. Returning is the VIP Lincoln Grand 6 in Lincoln, which we had previously included as it weathered ownership changes and money issues, and arriving on the scene despite our previous conviction that all multiplexes booked alike – to a degree, that is still accurate but not absolute – is the Bloomington branch of Marcus Theatres.
Never returning, sadly, are the Harvest Moon’s fellow hardtops in the area that are faintly remembered after many years. This includes Champaign-Urbana’s two members of the field: the Twin City Drive-in on Market Street north of Champaign, closed in 1981, and the Family/Widescreen Drive-in on Route 45 north of Urbana, closed in 1985. We honor them today with a handful of vintage ad mats from the local papers that had been plucked from obscurity by Ye Ed while researching this and that for C-U Blogfidential. Enjoy, remember when, and be sure to visit the Harvest Moon in Gibson City before the season ends.
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p.s. Central Illinois native, actress, model, and stunt driver Cody Renee Cameron is apparently having a good time in her working relationship with Charles Band and Full Moon Features. She and Full Moon veteran Robin Sydney star in their fourth go-round as “Barbie and Kendra,” fun-and-sun ladies who have misadventures involving vintage genre films that have been overdubbed to comedic effect, in the brand-new BARBIE & KENDRA CRASH JOE BOB’S DRIVE-IN JAMBOREE. Debuting on Tubi and DVD this month, the flick will appeal to those who love good-natured and retro/grade silliness and jokes in their viewing diet as well as the presence of B-movie champions Joe Bob Briggs and Diana Prince.
p.s.2 The older film repurposed in BARBIE & KENDRA for giggles is RUBY, released hot on the heels of the derided EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC with their shared elements of supernatural possession. Starring Piper Laurie, just a year after her horrifying turn in CARRIE, and directed by Curtis Harrington, an old Hollywood stylist, this offering from Dimension Pictures set partly at a 1950s drive-in owned by the title character isn’t well remembered today. If it sounds like it might belong in a double- or triple-bill on a comfortable night at the local ozoner, your hunch is earned; RUBY received a one-week run in town when it opened at the Twin City on Thursday, September 15, 1977. Its co-feature, as you’ll see from the first Daily Illini ad pictured below, was the more obscure MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH; both have been revived in high definition in recent times by VCI Entertainment and Synapse Films, respectively.
p.s.3 The invaluable Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections, managed by the University Library at UIUC, seemed perpetually halted at the end of 1975 with their searchable Daily Illini editions. The holdings have expanded in the last few years, thank goodness, and DI issues now extend into the 2000s. More historical manna and late-night blurriness for Ye Ed’s eyeballs, we reckon. Keep up the fine service, IDNC!
p.s.4 Whoops. Guess this is kind of like a Report. Don’t tell anyone. Well, feh, go ahead…
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LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers
@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Chambana Film Festival* presents OUT THERE: A NATIONAL PARKS STORY (documentary) (7/28, 4 p.m.)
NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area
@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE, THE FABULOUS FOUR, RAAYAN (in Tamil with English sub), DESPICABLE ME 4 (animation), FLY ME TO THE MOON*, INSIDE OUT 2 (animation), LONGLEGS, A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE, TWISTERS (7/26 on), BORN PINK (Blackpink concert film) (7/31, 5 p.m., in Korean & English with English sub), HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON, KNEECAP, TRAP (8/1 on) *single screenings daily
@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE, THE FABULOUS FOUR, DESPICABLE ME 4 (animation), FLY ME TO THE MOON*, INSIDE OUT 2 (animation), LONGLEGS, ODDITY, A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE, TWISTERS (7/26 on), UFC 304: Leon Edwards vs. Bilal Muhammad, more (mixed martial arts) (7/27, 9 p.m., simulcast), DIRTY DANCING (7/28, 3 & 7 p.m.; 7/31, 7 p.m.), MAN AND WITCH: DANCE OF A THOUSAND STEPS (7/28, 7/30, 4 & 7 p.m.), summer family films: MIGRATION (animation), PETER PAN (2003) (7/30-8/1, 10 a.m.), The Metropolitan Opera “summer encore”: La Cenerentola (7/31, 1 & 6:30 p.m., recorded), TRAP (8/1 on)
@ Main Quad, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents “Summer Films on the Quad” feat. GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE (8/1, 9 p.m., free)
@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
No movies this week!
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
@ The Avon Theater, Decatur, IL
DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE, TWISTERS (7/25-7/28)
ADDED! @ Clintonia Eagle Theater, Clinton, IL
DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE, DESPICABLE ME 4 (animation), INSIDE OUT 2 (animation), LONGLEGS, TWISTERS (7/26 on), TROLLS BAND TOGETHER (animation) (7/30-7/31, 10 a.m.)
ADDED! @ Crescent Cinemas, Pontiac, IL
DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE, TWISTERS (7/26 on), THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS (animation) (7/30, 8/1, 1:30 p.m.)
@ The Fischer Theatre, Danville, IL
PURPLE RAIN 40th anniversary (7/27, 5:30 p.m. dance party, 7 p.m. film), Danville Public Library presents “Harry Potter’s birthday party” feat. HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE (7/31, 11 a.m.)
@ The Harvest Moon Twin Drive-in, Gibson City, IL
TWISTERS (Screen 1), DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE (Screen 2) (7/26 on)
ADDED! @ Marcus Bloomington Cinema + IMAX, Bloomington, IL
DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE, THE FABULOUS FOUR, RAAYAN* (in Tamil with English sub), TEENZ* (in Tamil with English sub), DESPICABLE ME 4 (animation), FLY ME TO THE MOON*, INSIDE OUT 2 (animation), LONGLEGS, A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE*, TWISTERS (7/26 on), THE JUNGLE BUNCH: OPERATION MELTDOWN (animation) (7/28-8/1, 10 a.m.), ORPHAN 15th anniversary (7/28, 8:50 p.m.; 7/30, 7 & 10 p.m.), DIRTY DANCING (7/28, 11:30 a.m.; 7/31, 11:30 a.m., 7:10 p.m.), BORN PINK (Blackpink concert film) (7/31-8/1, 6 p.m., in Korean & English with English sub), HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON, TRAP (8/1 on) *single screenings daily
@ The Normal Theater, Normal, IL
INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE (7/26-7/28), INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM (7/27-7/28), BABE (7/29, 7/31), THE NATURAL (8/1)
@ The Onarga Theatre, Onarga, IL
TWISTERS (7/26-7/28)
@ The Princess Theatre, Leroy, IL
INSIDE OUT 2 (animation) (7/26-7/28)
@ The Route 66 Drive-in Theater, Springfield, IL
DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE, BAD BOYS: RIDE OR DIE (Screen 1), TWISTERS, DESPICABLE ME 4 (animation) (Screen 2) (7/26-7/28, 7/31-8/1)
ADDED! @ VIP Lincoln Grand 6, Lincoln, IL
DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE, DESPICABLE ME 4 (animation), INSIDE OUT 2 (animation), LONGLEGS, TWISTERS (7/26 on)
NOW PLAYING | Midwest
@ Chicago Filmmakers Firehouse Cinema, Chicago, IL
Open screening (7/26, 7 p.m.)
@ Gene Siskel Film Center, SAIC, Chicago, IL
Midwest Film Festival presents “Advertising Community Night” (7/29, 6:30 p.m.)
For detailed and curated listings of Chicago-area film presentations and related events, please visit the fine folks at Cine-File and subscribe to their definitive “Cine-List” weekly blast.
COMING SOON | Area-wide Events
8/17
Pens to Lens* 2024 Gala
@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL, 3-5 p.m.
8/31-9/1
10th anniversary Dark History & Horror Con*
@ Orpheum Champaign (The Orpheum Theater), Champaign, IL
10/16-10/27
60th Chicago International Film Festival, Chicago, IL
11/1-11/2
23rd Route 66 Film Festival*
@ Hoogland Center for the Arts, Springfield, IL
4/23/-4/25/25
25th Roger Ebert’s Film Festival*
@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
COMMUNITY & CAMPUS SERIES | Champaign-Urbana area
Chambana Film Festival* – Summer 2024 screening series
@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL, 4 p.m.
8/25: THE WINGWALKER; 9/29: A TIME APART
Illini Radio Group presents “Rewind 92.5 Movie Series”/“Mix 94.5 Throwback Thursdays”*
@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL, 7 p.m.
8/29: BACK TO THE FUTURE; 9/26: OFFICE SPACE*, 10/17: FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980); 11/20: THE BOY AND THE HERON (animé); 12/5: FRIDAY*
Illini Union Board presents “Summer Films on the Quad”
@ Main Quad, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL, 9 p.m. Thursdays, free
8/8: IF
Illinois Public Media presents “The Arthouse Experience Film Series”
@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL, 7 p.m.
8/16: THE FAVOURITE; 9/6: HOOP DREAMS* (documentary); 10/18: TO LESLIE; 11/22: RUSHMORE
The News-Gazette Film Series
@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL, 1 & 7 p.m.
8/24: IT’S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD; 9/21: THE LONG GOODBYE; 10/19: REAR WINDOW; 11/30: THE WIZARD OF OZ; 12/7: IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE
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Compiled by Jason Pankoke.
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“Calendar du C-U”
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