Category Archives: Film

BingoFlix at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater tonight

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Plan 9 Alternative poster.jpgJoin the CALS Ron Robinson Theatre for the very first BingoFlix!

Play bingo to some of the most hilarious movie cliches during an exclusive screening of Plan 9 From Outer Space. Win prizes including free movie and event tickets (including a pair to the upcoming Trae Crowder show)!

This Edward D. Wood, Jr. classic starring Bela Lugosi and Maila Nurmi as Vampira is considered by some to be the epitome of “so-bad-it’s-good” cinema.

Aliens from another world attack Earth and set their terrible “Plan 9” in action. As they resurrect the dead to destroy the living, human lives are in danger!

Cost is $5.  The fun starts at 7pm.

STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE on the CALS Ron Robinson Theatre screen tonight.

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Star Wars (1977)For six weeks this summer, the Central Arkansas Library System is showing the first six episodes of the STAR WARS saga on Thursday evenings at the Ron Robinson Theater.  They are being shown in episode order, not release order, or any of the other orders dreamed up by fans.

Tonight is Episode 4 – A New Hope.  When it was released in 1977, it was known simply as Star Wars.

Nineteen years after the formation of the Empire, Luke Skywalker is thrust into the struggle of the Rebel Alliance when he meets Obi-Wan Kenobi, who has lived for years in seclusion on the desert planet of Tatooine. Obi-Wan begins Luke’s Jedi training as Luke joins him on a daring mission to rescue the beautiful Rebel leader Princess Leia from the clutches of the evil Empire. And after Obi-Wan sacrifices himself in a lightsaber duel with his former apprentice, Darth Vader, Luke proves that the Force is with him by destroying the Empire’s dreaded Death Star.

The cast includes Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, Alec Guinness, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, Peter Cushing, Kenny Baker, David Prowse, and the uncredited voice of James Earl Jones.

Directed by George Lucas, the film won six Oscars: Art Direction, Costume Design, Sound, Editing, Visual Effects, and Score (for John Williams’ iconic masterpiece).  It also won a Special Oscar for Sound Effects.  The film was also nominated for Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, and Supporting Actor (Guinness).

The screening starts tonight, August 1, at 7pm. Admission is $5.00.

THE HELP concludes the 15th season of Movies in the Park tonight

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The Help PosterMovies in the Park finishes its 15th season tonight with THE HELP.

Based upon the novel of the same name, The Help follows a young white woman and her relationship with two African-American maids during the Civil Rights Movement in Jackson, Mississippi in the year 1963. In an effort to legitimize her writing career, Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan decides to write a book from the maid’s viewpoints, exposing the racism they face from the white families that employ them.

It stars Octavia Spencer (in a performance very worthy of the Oscar she earned for it), Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jessica Chastain, Allison Janney, Sissy Spacek, and Cicely Tyson.

Families, picnics, and leashed pets are invited to the park to enjoy movies under the stars, but no glass containers. Don’t forget the bug spray! An adult must accompany all children under the age of 18 and an ID is required. Chaperoned youth, sports, church and other groups are welcome!

The First Security Amphitheater will open an hour before film showings (approx. 7:30) and movies with begin at sundown each week (approx. 8:30).

For more information about Movies in the Park and to see which films will feature live performances or other activities before the showings, visit www.rivermarket.info or find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/lrrivermarket

Shark Week Remembrance of Roy Scheider

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Actor Roy Scheider’s connection to Little Rock is a sad one.  He visited the City quite frequently during the last years of his life as he was getting treated at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.  Despite UAMS’s best efforts, Scheider died in Little Rock on February 10, 2008.

Though he starred in several iconic films in the 1970s and 1980s, he is probably best remembered for his role in the Jaws series of films.

In the 1970s, Scheider received two Oscar nominations. His first, for Best Supporting Actor, was in The French Connection.  While Scheider did not pick up the Oscar, the film itself was named Best Picture.  It won four other Oscars that night. (As a side note: it was the first R-rated movie to win Best Picture.  Though Midnight Cowboy was re-released as an R-Rated movie after winning the Best Picture Oscar, it was initially released as an X-rated movie.)

Scheider’s second Oscar nomination came for playing Bob Fosse’s stand-in in the movie All That Jazz.  It, too, won four Oscars, though Scheider’s nomination would not result in a win.

Life and Legacy of Chesley Bonestell focus of film on CALS Ron Robinson Theatre screen tonight

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Chesley Bonestell: A Brush With The Future, is a feature length documentary about the life, work, and influence of “The Father of Space Art.”  It will be shown tonight (July 26) at 7pm at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater.

The film is sponsored by the Central Arkansas Astronomical Society, the Arkansas Space Grant Consortium, and the Central Arkansas Library System.

Long before spacecraft would journey to the planets or deep-space telescopes photographed distant galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters, there was an artist whose dazzling visions of space would capture the imaginations of all who beheld them. With his art, he helped inspire America’s space program, NASA, and many of the scientists, engineers, technicians, and astronauts who would one day put us on the Moon. Before that, he was an architect working on projects like the Chrysler Building and the Golden Gate Bridge. He would later be recruited by Hollywood to create matte paintings for films such as Citizen Kane and Destination Moon.

Who was this man? His name was Chesley Bonestell.

Chesley Bonestell: A Brush with the Future is the first-ever documentary to focus on the amazing life and works of “The Father of Space Art.” Bonestell’s paintings of worlds beyond our own helped create America’s space program. On the eve of celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the lunar landing, it can be said thatChesley was a man who helped get us to the moon, not with technology, but with a paintbrush.

“More than three decades after his death in 1986, Bonestell remains one of the most important and influential astronomical artists ever to put paint to canvas.” – Don Vaughan, Filmfax Magazine, Jan. – Mar. Issue 2019

Chesley Bonestell: A Brush with the Future features rare interviews with Bonestell himself, along with Ray Bradbury (Fahrenheit 451), Douglas Trumbull (2001: A Space Odyssey) and veterans Ben Burtt, Craig Barron and Richard Edlund. Additional perspectives come from space artists David Aguilar, Don Davis, astronomer Dr. Lucianne Walkowicz and numerous others who knew him or were influenced by his art. This multi-award-winning film compellingly combines art, science fiction and science fact to engagingly tell the story of Bonestell’s life and his uncanny predictive ability to create visions of distant worlds that still resonate deeply within us.

Six Weeks of STAR WARS continues at Ron Robinson Theater tonight with STAR WARS: REVENGE OF THE SITH

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Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith PosterFor six weeks this summer, the Central Arkansas Library System is showing the first six episodes of the STAR WARS saga on Thursday evenings at the Ron Robinson Theater.  They are being shown in episode order, not release order, or any of the other orders dreamed up by fans.

Tonight is Episode 3 – Revenge of the Sith

In this 2005 film, three years after the onset of the Clone Wars, the noble Jedi Knights have been leading a massive clone army into a galaxy-wide battle against the Separatists. When the sinister Sith unveil a thousand-year-old plot to rule the galaxy, the Republic crumbles and from its ashes rises the evil Galactic Empire. Jedi hero Anakin Skywalker is seduced by the dark side of the Force to become the Emperor’s new apprentice – Darth Vader.

The Jedi are decimated, as Obi-Wan Kenobi and Jedi Master Yoda are forced into hiding. The only hope for the galaxy are Anakin’s own offspring – the twin children born in secrecy who will grow up to become Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia Organa.

The cast includes Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Samuel L. Jackson, Christopher Lee, Frank Oz, Ian McDiarmid, Jimmy Smits, Anthony Daniels, and Hayden Christensen.  It was again directed by George Lucas. The film was nominated for one Oscar: Best Makeup.

The screening starts tonight, July 25, at 7pm. Admission is $5.00.