KaCSFFS meets THIS SATURDAY July 14, 2018

Save that CHANGED date!
When: This coming Saturday, July 14, 2018
Time: 6:00 p.m. Set-up; 7:00 p.m. Program
Where: The Writers Place, 3607 Pennsylvania Ave., Kansas City, MO 64111
Food Theme: Movie munchies
Program: Filmmaker Kevin Willmott discusses and screens one of his movies.

Kevin Willmott

KaCSFFS Welcomes Kevin Willmott
We're incredibly honored to host American filmmaker and KU Professor of Film and Media Studies, Kevin Willmott.

His reputation has been growing for several decades. He's been involved in many aspects of writing and filmmaking for both movies and television. An early project which he wrote, produced, and co-directed was Ninth Street, an independent film based on his boyhood in Junction City, KS, that starred Martin Sheen and Isaac Hayes.

He's also worked with well-known director Oliver Stone, and on a project that Whoopi Goldberg executive-produced. His 2004 film, CSA - The Confederate States of America, is an award-winning comedy/drama alternate history, which he wrote and directed.



His comic foray into science fiction was 2013's Destination: Planet Negro (instead of landing on Mars in 1939, they time-travel to . . . Kansas City in 2013).



Most recently he's received even more acclaim. His 2018 project with Spike Lee, BlaKkKlansman, a comedy/drama set in the 1970s, recently earned him a 10-minute standing ovation and the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival.



Prepare to have your consciousness raised, particularly if you're not a person of color. This should be a fascinating, provocative, and entertaining evening. Don't miss it!

IMAGE AND VIDEOS: Many thanks to KU's faculty page for the photo of Kevin Wilmott, and to their respective IMDB pages for the Destination: Planet Negro, and CSA - Confederate States of America film trailers and to YouTube for the official BlacKkKlansman trailer. 

Laser Rangers 2018 May Meeting

Revenge is a Dish Best Served Cold

Date: May 11, 2018
Time: 4:15pm
Location: David Sooby’s home theater with 51-inch Samsung HDTV, a 5.1 Surround Sound Dolby Digital sound system, a full set of audiophile-grade speakers, and upgraded seating for about 15 people without crowding.
Captain Laser: TBA
Food: Cold Dishes
Costume: Goth



Short features will be shown before each feature. Don't miss them!

A Walk Among the Tombstones

(2014, 114 minutes) Directed by: Scott Frank

Starring: Liam Neeson, Dan Stevens, David Harbour, Brian Bradley, Boyd Holbrook

Private investigator Matthew Scudder is hired by a drug kingpin to find out who kidnapped and murdered his wife. -IMDB

Watch the trailer here!







~~~~~
After the first feature, please join us for a potluck dinner. Bring something to share. It can follow the theme, or be something you prefer.
~~~~~

Feature Presentation!
John Wick

(2014, 101 minutes) Directed by: Chad Stahelski

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Michael Nyqvist, Alfie Allen, Adrianne Palicki, Bridget Moynahan, Dean Winters, Ian McShane, John Leguizamo, Willem Dafoe

An ex-hitman comes out of retirement to track down the gangsters that killed his dog and took everything from him.-IMDB

Watch the trailer here!







The home of the Laser Rangers is located about four miles north of the Kansas Speedway, NW of the intersection of I-70 and I-435 on the Kansas side of the Greater Kansas City area.

IMAGE CREDITS: The information for all of these shows come from the invaluable IMDB. The movie posters come from Wikipedia or the movie's respected distributors. 

The movie screen frame image used for the Laser Rangers contact information is courtesy of Psychology Today Online. Many thanks to these websites!

Laser Rangers 2017 August Meeting

Date: September 12, 2017
Time: 4:15pm
Location: David Sooby’s home theater with 51-inch Samsung HDTV, a 5.1 Surround Sound Dolby Digital sound system, a full set of audiophile-grade speakers, and upgraded seating for about 15 people without crowding.
Captain Laser: Ken Keller
Food: Space Food
Costume: Space Cadet

To learn more, please visit our Facebook Event Page.

Day the Earth Stood Still

(1951, Appox. 92 minutes); Starring Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Billy Gray, Hugh Marlowe, Sam Jaffe, Frances Bavier

An alien lands and tells the people of Earth that they must live peacefully or be destroyed as a danger to other planets. 

Check out the original trailer.









~~~~~
Between features, we will have our traditional potluck. Please bring something that matches our food theme above or bring something for yourself.
~~~~~

Forbidden Planet

MAIN FEATURE!
(1956, 98 minutes); Starring Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen, Warren Stevens, & Robby the Robot

A starship crew goes to investigate the silence of a planet's colony only to find two survivors and a deadly secret one of them has.

A truly fantastic space epic. Rewind and watch this classic trailer!

The home of the Laser Rangers is located about four miles north of the Kansas Speedway, NW of the intersection of I-70 and I-435 on the Kansas side of the Greater Kansas City area.

IMAGE CREDITS: The information for all of these shows come from the invaluable IMDB. The movie posters come from Wikipedia or the movie's  respected distributors.

Thanks to Ken Keller for finding our movie trailers.  

The movie screen frame image used for the Laser Rangers contact information is courtesy of Psychology Today Online. Many thanks to these websites!

Graphic design for the modified Forbidden Planet poster done by Jan Gephardt. Art direction by Ty Gephardt.

Laser Rangers 2017 May Meeting

Two Classics by C.S. Forrester

Date: Saturday, May 13, 2017
Time: 4:15pm
Location: David Sooby’s home theater with 51-inch Samsung HDTV, a 5.1 Surround Sound Dolby Digital sound system, a full set of audiophile-grade speakers, and upgraded seating for about 15 people without crowding.
Captain Laser: Ken Keller
Food: Navel Rations
Costume: 19th Century Navel Officer

To learn more, please visit our Facebook Group Page.

Short features will be shown before each feature. Don't miss them!

The Pride and the Passion

(1957, 132 minutes) Directed by: Stanley Kramer

Starring: Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, Sophia Loren

It's based on Forrester's novel "The Gun."

A British naval captain and artillery officer is sent to Spain to retrieve a huge, long range siege cannon abandoned by the Spanish army before Napoleon's forces can acquire it. Spanish rebels now have control of the monster weapon and are planning to use its 100 pound solid shot against the high, cannon filled walls of the Spanish city Avila, now under the iron control of French occupation forces.-Ken Keller

Watch the trailer here!







~~~~~
After the first feature, please join us for a potluck dinner. Bring something to share. It can follow the theme, or be something you prefer.
~~~~~

Feature Presentation!
Captain Horatio Hornblower

(1951, 117 minutes) Directed by: Raoul Walsh

Starring: Gregory Peck, Virginia Mayo, Robert Beatty, Terence Morgan, James Robertson Justice

Lots of stirring sea battles and land action in this classic adventure film based on a trio of Forester's British Navy novels set during the Napoleonic Wars.-Ken Keller

Watch the trailer here!







The home of the Laser Rangers is located about four miles north of the Kansas Speedway, NW of the intersection of I-70 and I-435 on the Kansas side of the Greater Kansas City area.

IMAGE CREDITS: The information for all of these shows come from the invaluable IMDB. The movie posters come from Wikipedia or the movie's respected distributors. 

The movie screen frame image used for the Laser Rangers contact information is courtesy of Psychology Today Online. Many thanks to these websites!

Laser Rangers 2017 February Meeting

Jewels in the Crown of '50s Science Fiction: Redux edition - Cancelled
Movies will be decided at the event.   

Date: January 25, 2017
Time: 4:50pm
Location: David Sooby’s home theater with 51-inch Samsung HDTV, a 5.1 Surround Sound Dolby Digital sound system, a full set of audiophile-grade speakers, and upgraded seating for about 15 people without crowding.
Captain Laser: Ken Keller
Food: 50s TV Dinners
Costume: Casual

To learn more, please visit our Facebook Event Page.

A short or cartoon will precede our first feature!

Presented in stunning Blu-Ray high definition!

Day the Earth Stood Still

(1951, Appox. 92 minutes); Starring Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Billy Gray, Hugh Marlowe, Sam Jaffe, Frances Bavier

An alien lands and tells the people of Earth that they must live peacefully or be destroyed as a danger to other planets. 

Check out this awesome trailer.









~~~~~
Between features, we will have our traditional potluck. Please bring something that matches our food theme above or bring something for yourself.
~~~~~

Forbidden Planet

MAIN FEATURE!
(1956, 98 minutes); Starring Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen, Warren Stevens, & Robby the Robot

A starship crew goes to investigate the silence of a planet's colony only to find two survivors and a deadly secret one of them has.

A truly fantastic space epic. Rewind and watch this reimagined trailer!

The home of the Laser Rangers is located about four miles north of the Kansas Speedway, NW of the intersection of I-70 and I-435 on the Kansas side of the Greater Kansas City area.

IMAGE CREDITS: The information for all of these shows come from the invaluable IMDB. The movie posters come from Wikipedia or the movie's  respected distributors.

Thanks to Ken Keller for finding our movie trailers.  

The movie screen frame image used for the Laser Rangers contact information is courtesy of Psychology Today Online. Many thanks to these websites!

Graphic design for the modified Forbidden Planet poster done by Jan Gephardt. Art direction by Ty Gephardt.

Laser Rangers September 2016 Meeting

Feel Better After World Con

DELAYED: September 10, 2016 September 24, 2016
Time: 4:50pm
Location: David Sooby’s home theater with 51-inch Samsung HDTV, a 5.1 Surround Sound Dolby Digital sound system, a full set of audiophile-grade speakers, and upgraded seating for about 15 people without crowding.
Captain Laser: Huddled In A Corner
Food: Comfort Food 
Costume: Bright 

To learn more, please visit our Facebook Event Page.

Short features will be shown before each feature. Don't miss them!

Home

(2015, 94 minutes) Directed by: Tim Johnson

Starring: Jim Parsons, Rihanna, Steve Martin, Jennifer Lopez, Matt Jones

"The story takes place on planet Earth, where an alien race called the Boov invade the planet. However, a girl named Gratuity "Tip" Tucci manages to avoid capture, and goes on the run with Oh, a fugitive Boov."-Wikipedia

Watch the trailer here!



~~~~~
After the first feature, please join us for a potluck dinner. Bring something to share. It can follow the theme, or be something you prefer.
~~~~~

Feature Presentation!
Tomorrowland

(2015, 130 minutes) Directed by: Brad Bird

Starring: George Clooney, Hugh Laurie, Britt Robertson, Raffey Cassidy, Tim McGraw, Kathryn Hahn, Keegan-Michael Key

"In the film, a disillusioned genius inventor and a teenage science enthusiast, embark to an ambiguous alternate dimension known as "Tomorrowland", where their actions directly affect the world and themselves."-Wikipedia

Watch the trailer here!




The home of the Laser Rangers is located about four miles north of the Kansas Speedway, NW of the intersection of I-70 and I-435 on the Kansas side of the Greater Kansas City area.

IMAGE CREDITS: The information for all of these shows come from the invaluable IMDB. The movie posters come from Wikipedia or the movie's respected distributors. 

The movie screen frame image used for the Laser Rangers contact information is courtesy of Psychology Today Online. Many thanks to these websites!

Film Review: "The Wind Rises"

By David Sooby
Film review: The Wind Rises (2013; original title "Kaze tachinu"); an Anime biopic with fantasy elements.
My rating: 3-1/2 stars out of 4

How does Hayao Miyazaki, creator of such Anime fantasy masterpieces as Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Howl's Moving Castle, and Kiki's Delivery Service, go about creating an Anime biography of Jiro Horikoshi, a Japanese aircraft engineer who designed the  Mitsubishi Zero, probably the best fighter plane in the early part of WW II?

He does it by including dreams and daydreams showing the desires and inspirations of a young man working hard to become an inventor and engineer; dreams of flight which fit very well into Miyazaki's style of beautiful, richly detailed, fantastic visuals. 

Dreams of flight in The Wind Rises

But counterpoint to the dream sequences, the setting of this film is firmly grounded in historical reality. The auteur does not shy away from showing the economic turmoil and social chaos in pre-WW II Japan. As shown in the film, this was a period of rising militarism, when Japan spent massive amounts of its limited wealth on building up its military, even while Japanese citizens were being impoverished and displaced.

As depicted in this film, aircraft designers like Horikoshi  wanted only to make wonderful flying machines, not weapons of destruction. (This might be not far from the truth. According to Horikoshi's Wikipedia entry, his diary showed he was "strongly opposed to what he regarded as a futile war".)  It is the supreme irony of the film that these engineer-inventors were able to see their dreams realized -- produced and actually flown -- only because aircraft development was funded by the military. Miyazaki does not shy away from this irony, and in fact underscores it by making the simultaneous rise of militarism in Germany and Italy part of the story.

The engineer-inventors get to see their dreams become real--but only with military help.

A parallel story in the film is how Horikoshi met and romanced the love of his life. This plot also seems, fatalistically (and fatalism plays a very big part in Japanese storytelling), to be on a road to inevitable tragedy, for soon after he starts courting her he learns that she has tuberculosis.

The story is slow moving and filtered through a very romantic lens. Miyazaki has eschewed suspense and excitement in favor of, apparently, sticking close to actual historical events, despite the heavy dose of romanticism. Patience by the viewer will be richly rewarded in the many beautifully rendered scenes of Japanese landscape and architecture, as well as the sometimes literally fantastic flying sequences. 

Japanese landscapes and a love story fill out the story, but slow the pace.

Counterpoint to the romance, Miyazaki injects some elements of realism into the mix; Horikoshi's slide rule is depicted with exacting detail in many scenes, as are the drawings and aircraft blueprints produced by his aircraft company. The many hours Horikoshi spends on calculations provides a counterpoint to the fantastic dreams-of-flying sequences.

I'm a fan of animation, and I don't see Anime as a separate genre, but rather as just one style of animation. This is by far one of the most beautifully drawn animated films I've ever seen. I give it a small down-check for occasionally wanting the story to move a bit faster, but overall it's a wonderful film.

Fantastic flight sequences, as we soar with the inventor's imagination.

One mark of a great director is that, somewhere in the film, he will insert a line which sums up his vision of the film. In Lawrence of Arabia, this comes at the half-way point, when a motorcyclist shouts across the Suez Canal to Lawrence: "Who are you?" The voice of the motorcyclist is the voice of director David Lean.

In "The Wind Rises", one of Horikoshi's idols is the Italian aircraft designer Giovanni Caproni. In the young engineer's dreams, Caproni becomes his mentor. In the final scene of the film, the imagined Caproni says to Horikoshi: "Airplanes are beautiful cursed dreams, waiting for the sky to swallow them up." I'm not sure whether or not Miyazaki intended for that to sum up the entire film, but it certainly does serve as an insight into the director's thinking. 

IMAGES: Many thanks to Anime Monday, for the first and final still images in this post, to Madman, for the movie stills of the military planes and the couple in the woods, and to YouTube and Deadline Hollywood, for the official trailer. 
PLEASE NOTE: this review was originally posted on the Laser Rangers Facebook Page.