Not your typical war movie, or political statement film. Its gotten great reviews and the trailer looked great. Could end up being a nominee for best picture. Features a relative unknown cast with cameos of good actores.

6:00 EATS
The Stone Oven features local food. We usually meet in the center High Top tables. Its cafeteria style, so find us and get your meal.

7:15 MOVIE
Meet at the ENTRANCE DOOR 5 minutes ahead of time or look for the group inside the theater or meet us afterward outside the entrance door.

AFTER MOVIE DISCUSSION
We will head to Jimmy's for drinks, discussion and chocolate beetcake for the unitiated

DESCRIPTION

Find a bomb, defuse it. Find a bomb, defuse it. The job is simple enough, but the room for error is zero. Fail to defuse it, and die. This is the daily work of the United States Army's Bravo Company. They patrol Baghdad during one of the Iraq war's most hellish times, trying each day not to get blown up.

James (Jeremy Renner) joins a tightly knit bomb-disposal unit where Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) is already the intelligence expert. James, by contrast, is a real cowboy. Even in the hulking shell of his bomb suit, his swagger is obvious. He has successfully disabled 873 devices, approaching the job with the no-nonsense grit of a Bigelow hero—and the recklessness too.

But as the unit faces tougher challenges with each new bomb, the men start to fight James's bullish methods. They have only thirty-eight days left in their rotation. They want to live to see day thirty-nine.

FEE
Goes toward charges incurred for using the MeetUp website. You can access PayPal or pay your fee to the Organizer at the event.
*************************************************

MOVIE LINKS:

Cleveland Cinemas (Cedar Lee), Cleveland Heights, 2163 Lee Road. http://www.clevelandcinemas.com/cinemadrilldown.asp?intCin=2921

PARKING: Paid Parking is now 24 X 7, so bring a couple of quarters. Credit cards work in the garage. A free parking lot is on Edgewood road, one block west of Lee road at Cedar.

Cinemateque, Cleveland Institute of Art, 11141 East Blvd. http://www.cia.edu/academicResources/cinematheque/filmSchedule.php?action=extended

PARKING: They have a free parking lot.

Cleveland Museum of Art Panorama Series, 11150 East Blvd. http://www.clevelandart.org/events/film.aspx

PARKING: They have an attendant parking garage. There is also street parking.

Movie Reviews. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/

NOTE TO FIRST TIME GOERS: If this is your first movie with the group, there is no fee to attend.

This group has been successful partly because members have a genuine interest in meeting fellow independent movie goers. We don't always know where to look for you, especially first timers.

We have multiple meeting places: 1. Entrance door to the movie in the theater hallway 5-10 minutes before the movie starts, 2. By the Marquee (or entrance door) after the movie, or 3. Reserved table at a restaurant under the name "Movie Group".

We don't always sit together in the movie theater but if you see a bunch of people talking about good movies they have seen, it is probably us. Please join in. We are always happy to get new people involved.

NOTE TO ALL: In the world of Independent films, it is recommended that you check back a few days before the event to make sure the movie, restaurant, location or time has not changed.

Young Frankenstein
The Palace
Playhouse Square Cinema - Free Showing
USA, 1974, Mel Brooks, 20th Century Fox
Black and White, 106 minutes

A young neurosurgeon (Gene Wilder) inherits the castle of his grandfather, the famous Dr. Victor von Frankenstein. In the castle he finds a funny hunchback called Igor (Marty Feldman), the grandson of the Igor who assisted Victor Frankenstein, and Inga (Teri Garr), an attractive lab assistant and an old housekeeper, Frau Blücher (Cloris Leachman)! Young Frankenstein believes that the work of his grandfather is only crap, but when he discovers the book where the mad doctor described his reanimation experiment, he suddenly changes his mind...

http://www.wyndham.com/cms_content/hotels/CLEPS/images/hero.jpg
5:15 p.m. Dinner - Encore and the Blue Bar at the Wyndham. We’ll have a reserved table in the highly regarded Encore restaurant with arrangements to order from the dinner ($18 to $30) or lounge menus (a la carte $10 and under) for lighter appetites.

http://www.wyndham.com/cms_content/hotels/CLEPS/images/cleps_restA.jpg
** Please let us know your dinner plans on your RSVP so that we can either save you a seat at the "Movie Group" table or plan to meet you at the movie. Cash is highly recommended. Arrangements have been made for separate checks including a standard gratuity. **

7:30 p.m. Movie at The Palace on Playhouse Square
There may be a line or que for tickets as this is a free showing and advance reservations are not offered. I arranged to pick up our tickets in advance so that we will bypass the que at the ticket window. This is a special accommodation for our group - those with YES rsvp's only. Meet at the no later than 7:15 p.m. precisely. If you arrive later, you will be responsible for tickets on your own as we will be in our seats. The film is 106 minutes, so expect to be out around 9 p.m.

After film discussion: Since this is a work night any after film meeting will be ad hoc.

As a kick-off to Cinema at the Square a series of 15 blockbuster films, this showing is FREE! Those attending dinner may register for some giveaways to promote the October production of the Broadway hit "Young Frankenstein the Musical." The Playhouse Square web site hinted at special events that could not be confirmed at posting time.

The film will be shown on the Palace Theater’s famous screen, a 20 foot-high by 47 foot-wide super Hurly-Glo projection screen. It's billed as the largest (non-Imax screen) in Ohio.

http://www.playhousesquare.org/cinema/images/kimball.jpg
Moviegoers will be treated to pre-show organ recitals on a restored 1928 Kimball organ that contains 13 sets of pipes, a xylophone, Glockenspiel, a complete set of drums and many cymbals. The organ, donated to Playhouse Square in 1975, was painstakingly restored by volunteers and is the perfect complement to your evening at Cinema at the Square!

Synopsis, synapses
Mel Brooks is Hollywood’s greatest spoof-meister, and Young Frankenstein may be his funniest movie. Shot in gorgeous black and white with the same sets and the same feel as the classics Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein, it’s a loving send-up, with sophisticated style, hilarious dialog, inspired silliness and broad physical humor.

You don’t have to watch the two original Frankenstein films to enjoy Young Frankenstein, but you should. They'll help you appreciate the painstaking visual homage, and refresh your memory of the scenes and plot lines Brooks sends up with such delight.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqFoq3qej2c/Sa814_u6sSI/AAAAAAAAmxs/PifnQMT9Wn0/s400/youngfrankenstein.jpg
The Plot
Gene Wilder is the serious young Dr. Frankenstein who rejects the work of his crazy grandfather, Baron von Frankenstein, and insists everyone pronounce his name “Frahnk-en-schteen.” But when he inherits the old family castle, the promising young doctor is intrigued, and off he goes to Transylvania.
After following clues left by the housekeeper, he reads his grandfather’s diaries, and starts to think his grandfather’s mad dream of reanimating dead flesh just…could… work!

The Cast of Young Frankenstein
Spoofs work best played straight, and Wilder is pitch perfect as the young Frankenstein, sliding from earnest, arrogant young doctor into classic mad scientist mode. Even his hair goes insane. Peter Boyle (Everyone Loves Raymond) makes a terrific, hulking Monster, managing to emote under the monster makeup, with his bolted neck and clumsy elevator boots. Their “Puttin’ on the Ritz” is the tap dance to end all Hollywood hoofer duets.
Wilder earns huge props as the screenwriter, and he and Boyle are hilarious, but the supporting cast runs away with the movie.
http://api.ning.com/files/7xUUzN*f-NMXN70LObhtUHfS*59rlhIEvfGMggsf8tq9xUwCwPQe-N32yAHwJqO9J7c8dSiUc4y-p4DR7B2nW-906DDZRcBG/YoungFrankenstein.jpg
Marty Feldman is Igor (that’s EYE-gor), the goggle-eyed family retainer whose hump keeps migrating from one side of his back to the other, and Teri Garr is wide-eyed and kittenish as the slightly dim lab assistant. Cloris Leachman is genius as the fierce housekeeper Frau Blüecher (cue frightened horses), revealing her relationship with Grandpa Frankentein: “Yes! Yes! He vas my…boyfriend!”

Madeleine Kahn shines as Wilder’s frigid fiance, who thaws into a lioness after her abduction by the Monster, and winds up looking a lot like Elsa Lanchester in The Bride of Frankenstein. In a send-up of a touching scene in the original Frankenstein movie, Gene Hackman plays a blind man who invites the Monster to share his humble dinner and is a bit off the mark with his serving skills. The physical comedy is priceless.

Add in frightened townspeople with pitchforks and a bürgomeister who looks suspiciously like Dr. Strangelove, and there stands one of the greatest ensemble casts in the history of spoofs.

The whole film is shot in Black and white to simulate the old monster movie feeling. Approx. 106 minutes.

Trailer: Young Frankenstein Trailer

http://static.tvguide.com/MediaBin/Galleries/Imported/Movies/2/11726a.jpg
REVIEW
Mel Brooks's follow-up to his enormously successful western spoof, BLAZING SADDLES, tackles the horror genre--specifically, FRANKENSTEIN and THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN. This time Brooks tones down his broad humor a bit to create a work that is both an affectionate parody and a knowlegeable homage to its cinematic forebears. Gene Wilder plays Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (now defiantly pronounced "FRONK-en-steen"), a med school lecturer who thinks his infamous grandfather's work is "doo-doo." The younger Frankenstein must finally face his destiny when he inherits his grandfather's Transylvanian estate. Once there, he meets Igor (pronounced "eye-gore" and played by the eye-popping Marty Feldman), whose hunchback inexplicably changes from the left side to the right throughout the movie; Inga (Teri Garr), a young woman who will assist the doctor; and Frau Blücher (Cloris Leachman), a hideous old woman who causes horses to whinny in fright at the mere mention of her name. Eventually, Frederick finds his grandfather's private library and a copy of his book, How I Did It. Of course, Frederick cannot keep himself from righting his grandfather's wrongs and creating a new monster (Peter Boyle), a big, dumb corpse with a zipper round his neck and an abnormal brain in his head. The laughs come along at a fast and furious rate. One of the film's highlights is the "Puttin' on the Ritz" duet performed by Frederick and the Monster.

YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN is Brooks's most accomplished work, combining his well-known brand of comedy with stylish direction and a uniformly excellent cast. The handsome black-and-white cinematography really captures the look of an early 1930s film. The direction achieves a seemingly impossible task, balancing Brooks's off-the-wall humor within the framework of the style of a classic Universal Frankenstein film. The Frankenstein castle, with its cobwebs, dust, skulls, original lab equipment, and strange goings-on, could easily have been inhabited by Boris Karloff or Bela Lugosi. Wilder, wildly funny here, later attempted his own genre spoof, HAUNTED HONEYMOON, which came nowhere near YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN. – TV Guide

FEE
Goes toward charges incurred for using the MeetUp website. You can access PayPal or pay your fee to the Organizer at the event.
*************************************************

MOVIE LINKS:

PARKING:
Playhouse Square Parking

Map of Playhouse Square District

Movie Reviews. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/

Il Divo

Italy/France, 2008, Paolo Sorrentino
For more than 50 years, he has been Italy’s most powerful, feared and enigmatic politician. And as Giulio Andreotti begins his seventh term as Prime Minister, he and his hardliner faction take control of a country reeling from the brazen murders of several high-level bankers, judges and journalists, as well as the kidnapping and assassination of former Prime Minister Aldo Moro. But as the Christian Democrat party crumbles in a nationwide bribery scandal, suspicion begins to fall on Andreotti himself as the center of a shocking conspiracy involving the Vatican, the Mafia and the secret neo-Fascist Masonic Lodge P2. In what is called “The Trial of the Century,” Italy’s legendary Senator for Life will stand accused of corruption, collusion and murder. In Italian with subtitles, 110 minutes.

7 p.m. Movie at Cinematheque
Meet at the ENTRANCE DOOR 5 minutes ahead of time or look for the group inside the theater or meet us afterward outside the entrance door. We’ll try to save seats in the front row of the upper section, center. The film is 110 minutes, so expect to be out around 9 p.m.

9 p.m. After Film Discussion – an Italian Dinner
http://www.pluggedincleveland.com/restaurants/images/11795816533.jpg
Since film ends early, we’ll head over to Guarino’s Restaurant in Little Italy for authentic atmosphere and some wonderful Italian food. Owner Nancy Phillips has promised to create a special complementary desert treat for us. It will be chef’s choice and her way of thanking us for returning to Guarino’s. (12309 Mayfield Road, just east of Murray Hill, 216.231.3100) We will have a reserved table so you must indicate "dinner on your RSVP to have a seat! Please let us know your dinner plans on your RSVP so that we can reserve a seat for you at the "Movie Group" table. If you don't see us when you walk in, ask to be seated with the Movie Group. Weather permitting we will be seated in the beautiful garden area. If circumstances force you to cancel, please try to notify the organizer as early as possible. It’s best to pay your check in cash to streamline the process.

http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/movie/custom/aa/10010056aa.jpg

DESCRIPTION
Winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2008, Il Divo is writer/director Paolo Sorrentino's highly stylized satire of Italy's culture of political corruption that takes an insidious form beneath the stoic poker face of Italy's seven-time Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti (played by Toni Servillo). At once hyperbolic and incredibly restrained, the narrative follows closely the day-to-day habits of a wicked politician who glides through the marbled corridors of power as if he were a ghost whose diabolical deeds are at all times invisible. Sorrentino's ever-moving camera captures the story's politically-charged violence and murders, overseen at a distance by Andreotti, with an air of cinematic verve that is electrifying. As a primer to modern Italian politics, Il Divo is like touring the subject in a candy-apple red Ferrari. You might not learn much, but you will remember the experience.

Film web site + trailer: trailer

http://www.musicboxfilms.com//images/sized/images/sized/remote/musicbox-ehclients-com-mbf-stills-Toni_Servillo_4_thumb-290x190.jpg

REVIEW
An intensely political film so wildly inventive and witty that it will become a touchstone for years to come, Il Divo is a masterpiece for maverick helmer-scribe Paolo Sorrentino. Not merely chronicling the career of seven-time Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti but also zooming in on the enigmatic politico's character, pic features an astonishing degree of craftsmanship and a towering performance by Toni Servillo. Sole drawback is that nonlocals will feel inundated by names, most of which are familiar only to Italo auds. This is a brave, bold film whose chances of international success are relatively small, but whose ramifications are huge.
First entering government in 1947, Andreotti -- currently sitting as a life senator -- and his Christian Democrat party basically ruled Italy as a one-party system for 44 years, until the "Tangentopoli," or Bribesville, scandals finally toppled the party's hold.
Since the early 1990s, Andreotti has been implicated in a wide variety of illegal activities, including Mafia connections, but he's managed to be acquitted of all charges. In Il Divo, Sorrentino turns expert hunting dog, convincingly laying scandals of the past 40 years at Andreotti's feet.
That he does so with a bewitching combination of humor and bravado only increases his punch, sure to send Italian viewers out of the cinemas feeling battered by the scope of implications generally known but often pushed away as inconvenient truths.
Pic's triumph, however, isn't simply the issues raised, but also the way Sorrentino plumbs the sphinx-like depths of Andreotti's personality with a delightfully piquant originality that, paired with lensing evoking Sokurov and Scorsese, is little short of breathtaking.
The first glimpse of the man himself, sometimes nicknamed "Beelzebub," is with acupuncture needles sticking out of his face in an effort to cure his migraine. Thanks in part to Vittorio Sodano's superb makeup -- down-turned ears, fleshy face resembling pallid elephant skin -- but largely Servillo's own genius, his impenetrable features resemble a mixture of Boris Karloff with Buster Keaton, as if a mordant Charles Addams character came to life and took control of the world.
Opening moments knock your socks off as a driving rock number accompanies a montage of assassinations, the victims identified with cleverly designed three-dimensional captions forming a who's who of murdered politicians, bankers and judiciary, including Aldo Moro, Roberto Calvi and Giovanni Falcone -- all guaranteed to put a lump in the throats of Italian auds. - Variety

rotten tomatoes review

FEE
Goes toward charges incurred for using the MeetUp website. You can access PayPal or pay your fee to the Organizer at the event.
*************************************************

MOVIE LINKS:

Cleveland Cinemas (Cedar Lee), Cleveland Heights, 2163 Lee Road. http://www.clevelandcinemas.com/cinemadrilldown.asp?intCin=2921

PARKING: Paid Parking is now 24 X 7, so bring a couple of quarters. Credit cards work in the garage. A free parking lot is on Edgewood road, one block west of Lee road at Cedar.

Cinemateque, Cleveland Institute of Art, 11141 East Blvd. http://www.cia.edu/academicResources/cinematheque/filmSchedule.php?action=extended

PARKING: They have a free parking lot.

Cleveland Museum of Art Panorama Series, 11150 East Blvd. http://www.clevelandart.org/events/film.aspx

PARKING: They have an attendant parking garage. There is also street parking.

Movie Reviews. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/

Its not often that the Sci-Fi genre is considered an independent film, but here is one that screened at the Film Fest this year. Looks to be an intriguing film and is directed by David Bowie's son. Kevin Spacey is the computer voice, listen for it.

6:00 EATS
Jimmy's can get your food very quickly. It is less than a 5 minute walk to the theater.

Please let us know your dinner plans on your RSVP so that we can either save you a seat at the "Movie Group" table or plan to meet you at the movie. Checks are processed in groups of 2 or 3 so please bring cash to pay for your meal.

If you don't see us when you walk in, ask to be seated with the Movie Group.

7:30 MOVIE Meet at the ENTRANCE DOOR 5 minutes ahead of time or look for the group inside the theater or meet us afterward outside the entrance door.

It is the near future. Astronaut Sam Bell is living on the far side of the moon, completing a three-year contract with Lunar Industries to mine Earth's primary source of energy, Helium-3. It is a lonely job, made harder by a broken satellite that allows no live communications home. Taped messages are all Sam can send and receive. Thankfully, his time on the moon is nearly over, and Sam will be reunited with his wife, Tess, and their three-year-old daughter, Eve, in only a few short weeks. Finally, he will leave the isolation of "Sarang," the moon base that has been his home for so long, and he will finally have someone to talk to beyond "Gerty," the base's well-intentioned, but rather uncomplicated computer. Suddenly, Sam's health starts to deteriorate. Painful headaches, hallucinations and a lack of focus lead to an almost fatal accident on a routine drive on the moon in a lunar rover. While recuperating back at the base (with no memory of how he got there), Sam meets a younger, angrier version of himself, who claims to be there to fulfill the same three year contract Sam started all those years ago. Confined with what appears to be a clone of his earlier self, and with a "support crew" on its way to help put the base back into productive order, Sam is fighting the clock to discover what's going on and where he fits into company plans.
AFTER MOVIE DISCUSSION
Meet us at Jimmy's for a beer, coffee or beet cake.
FEE
Goes toward charges incurred for using the MeetUp website. You can access PayPal or pay your fee to the Organizer at the event.
*************************************************

MOVIE LINKS:

Cleveland Cinemas (Cedar Lee), Cleveland Heights, 2163 Lee Road. http://www.clevelandcinemas.com/cinemadrilldown.asp?intCin=2921

PARKING: Paid Parking is now 24 X 7, so bring a couple of quarters. Credit cards work in the garage. A free parking lot is on Edgewood road, one block west of Lee road at Cedar.

Cinemateque, Cleveland Institute of Art, 11141 East Blvd. http://www.cia.edu/academicResources/cinematheque/filmSchedule.php?action=extended

PARKING: They have a free parking lot.

Cleveland Museum of Art Panorama Series, 11150 East Blvd. http://www.clevelandart.org/events/film.aspx

PARKING: They have an attendant parking garage. There is also street parking.

Movie Reviews. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/

NOTE TO FIRST TIME GOERS: If this is your first movie with the group, there is no fee to attend.

This group has been successful partly because members have a genuine interest in meeting fellow independent movie goers. We don't always know where to look for you, especially first timers.

We have multiple meeting places: 1. Entrance door to the movie in the theater hallway 5-10 minutes before the movie starts, 2. By the Marquee (or entrance door) after the movie, or 3. Reserved table at a restaurant under the name "Movie Group".

We don't always sit together in the movie theater but if you see a bunch of people talking about good movies they have seen, it is probably us. Please join in. We are always happy to get new people involved.

NOTE TO ALL: In the world of Independent films, it is recommended that you check back a few days before the event to make sure the movie, restaurant, location or time has not changed.

THE DEAD

Britain/Ireland/USA, 1987
John Huston’s last film is a masterful, well-acted adaptation of a story from James Joyce’s Dubliners. Set in 1904, the movie focuses on an Irish married couple who ruefully examine their love and life together after attending a festive holiday party. Tied for 58th place on Cahiers du Cinéma’s list of the 100 best films of all time. 35mm. 83 min., starts at 6:25, ends at 8 p.m.

Please let us know your dinner plans on your RSVP so that we can save you a seat at the "Movie Group" table. Checks are processed in groups of 2 or 3 so please bring cash to pay for your meal.

6:25 p.m. MOVIE
Meet at the ENTRANCE DOOR 5 minutes ahead of time or look for the group inside the theater or meet us afterward outside the entrance door. We’ll try to save seats in the front row of the upper section, center.

8 p.m. After Film Discussion – Late Dinner
Since the film ends early, we’ll head over to Nighttown, 12387 Cedar Road, 216.795.0550, for discussion and perhaps a late dinner. This is the perfect spot with a real James Joyce connection. Nighttown is named after the Dublin Red-Light district in Joyce’s novel Ulysses. It offers the ambiance of an Irish pub of the late 1800s. Metered parking is available in the rear with an entrance off Cedar just west of the club. Please let us know your dinner plans on your RSVP. We will have a reserved table at Nighttown

http://www.moviemail-online.co.uk/images/large/6106_1.JPG

DESCRIPTION
John Huston's last film is a labor of love at several levels: an adaptation of perhaps one of the greatest pieces of English-language literature by one of Huston's favorite authors, James Joyce; a love letter to the land of his ancestors and the country where his children grew up; and the chance to work with his screenwriter son Tony and his actress daughter Anjelica. The film is delicate and unhurried, detailing a Christmas dinner at the house of two spinster musician sisters and their niece in 1800s Ireland, attended by friends and family. The all-Irish cast and careful period detail give the piece richness and gravity.

http://www.moviemail-online.co.uk/images/large/6106_2.JPG

REVIEW
This sublime adaptation of the last story in James Joyce's Dubliners is John Huston's final film, and it is as beautiful, delicate, and moving an epitaph as any filmmaker could ever desire. "A few light taps upon the pane made him turn to the window. It had begun to snow again. He watched sleepily the flakes, silver and dark, falling obliquely against the lamplight. The time had come for him to set out on his journey westward. Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, on the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead," Joyce. http://www.radford.edu/jolanta/publications

FEE
Goes toward charges incurred for using the MeetUp website. You can access PayPal or pay your fee to the Organizer at the event.
*************************************************

MOVIE LINKS:

Cleveland Cinemas (Cedar Lee), Cleveland Heights, 2163 Lee Road. http://www.clevelandcinemas.com/cinemadrilldown.asp?intCin=2921

PARKING: Paid Parking is now 24 X 7, so bring a couple of quarters. Credit cards work in the garage. A free parking lot is on Edgewood road, one block west of Lee road at Cedar.

Cinemateque, Cleveland Institute of Art, 11141 East Blvd. http://www.cia.edu/academicResources/cinematheque/filmSchedule.php?action=extended

PARKING: They have a free parking lot.

Cleveland Museum of Art Panorama Series, 11150 East Blvd. http://www.clevelandart.org/events/film.aspx

PARKING: They have an attendant parking garage. There is also street parking.

Movie Reviews. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/