LAist Film Calendar: Memorial Day Blockbusters & Mockbusters

Too many SKYY cocktails, too little makeup | Courtesy of Magnet Releasing

It's Memorial Day weekend, which means it's tentpole season in Hollywood! In a glib appeal to the second X chromosome, Arclight Hollywood boasts boutique blockbuster Sex and the City 2 in a fully-stocked party package! The girls may be high and dry in Abu Dhabi, but you'll be fresh and breezy with SKYY specialty cocktails and unlimited appetizers! If the $70 price tag knocks the liner off your lips, The Landmark celebrates Carrie & co. with round-the-clock (standard-priced) screenings and a Cosabella lingerie giveaway.

In an action-packed appeal to the Y chromosome, The Egyptian embodies the spirit of Memorial Day with deployments from veteran war directors Robert Aldrich (whose classic The Dirty Dozen epitomizes the motley-crew-on-a-suicide-mission film) and Sam Fuller (who based The Big Red One on his own WWII Infantry experience). In a brainy appeal to the Z chromosome, the Nuart unleashes zombie maestro George Romero's latest opus, Survival of the Dead.

More film talk and a schedule appears below. See you at the movies!

I think that gun's bigger than he is | Photo courtesy of Lowry Brothers Entertainment

Of course, for every blockbuster, there are at least a dozen dirty mockbusters! Blood & boobs filmmaker Jim Wynorski (he of Chopping Mall and The Bare Wench Project) appears alongside a screening of low-budget sequel Return of Swamp Thing, paired with Popatopolis, a new documentary chronicling the frantic three-day shoot for skin-flick spoof Witches of Breastwick. Popatopolis director Clay Westervelt joins Wynorski to share all the titillating details, as do softcore sirens Monique Parent, Julie Strain and Antonia Dorian, Popatoplis editor Brooks Larson and composer Lee Sanders.

Not to be outdone in the lo-fi filmmaking division, Cinefamily screens Flooding with Love for the Kid as part of its Saturday Night Showcase. New Yorker Zachary Oberzan takes auteurism to absurd lengths, writing, directing, and playing all the characters (including old women & a pack of dogs) in an unauthorized adaptation of Rambo First Blood. Shot on location in his studio apartment for under a hundred bucks, it's even crazier than those kids who remade Indiana Jones. Speaking of which, Cinefamily's also playing hard-boiled, all-child-cast crime flick Hawk Jones. Who's Hawk Jones? He's the real Kindergarten Cop! He plays hard, and he ain't packing Nerf.

All Week
After The Cup: Sons Of Sakhnin United (2009) (Laemmle's Music Hall 3)
Babies (2010) (Laemmle's Music Hall 3) (The Landmark)
Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo (2009)
Breathless (1960) (Laemmle's Playhouse 7) (Laemmle's Royal Theatre) (Laemmle's Town Center 5)
The Complete Metropolis (1927) (Laemmle's Sunset 5)
Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010) (Laemmle's Town Center 5)
Holly Rollers (2010) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex) (Laemmle's Playhouse 7) (Laemmle's Sunset 5) (Laemmle's Town Center 5) (The Landmark)
Looking for Eric (2009) (Laemmle's Playhouse 7) (Laemmle's Town Center 5)
Mother and Child (2009) (Laemmle's Music Hall 3)
Prince of Swine (2010) (Laemmle's Sunset 5)
Survival of the Dead (2009) (Nuart Theatre)

Thursday 5/27
Bunt (2007) (free event) (Korean Cultural Center) (Korean Family Movie Series)
La Mission (2009) (The Bay Theatre)
Merci Docteur Rey (2002) (Art Theatre of Long Beach)
Milk (2008) (matinee) (Art Theatre of Long Beach)
The Narrow Margin (1952) / The Killer is Loose (1956) (New Beverly Cinema)
National Lampoon's Vacation (1983) / Fletch (1985) (Aero Theatre)
Popatopolis (2009) / The Return of Swamp Thing (1989) (w/ Jim Wynorski, Monique Parent, Julie Strain, Antonia Dorian, Clay Westervelt, Brooks Larson, and Lee Sanders) (Egyptian Theatre) (Jim Wynorski Double Feature)
Sex and the City 2 (21+ Party Package) (2010) (Arclight Hollywood)
What? (1972) / Alice in Wonderland (1976) (X-Rated Version) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre) (Fairy Tales For Grown-Ups Series)
Wild Grass (2009) (free event) (Melnitz Movies)

Friday 5/28
Art by Chance: Ultra-Short Film Festival (2010) (Echo Park Film Center) (Cinema Speakeasy presentation)
The Bad News Bears (1976) / The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training (1977) (Aero Theatre)
Bedlam (1946) (LACMA) (The Noir Cinematography of Nicholas Musuraca)
The Dirty Dozen (1967) / Attack (1956) (Egyptian Theatre) (Robert Aldrich Double Feature)
Holly Rollers (2010) (w/ filmmaker Kevin Asch at the 7:40pm screening) (Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex)
Milk (2008) (matinee) (Art Theatre of Long Beach)
Mondo Krofft-O feat. Pufnstuff (1970) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre) (The Big Blue Marble Series)
Mystery Team (2009) / Ghostbusters (1984) (New Beverly Cinema)
Orphans of Apollo (2008) (w/ astronaut & test pilot Brian Binnie and director Michael Potter) (Warner Grand Theatre)
Reservoir Dogs (1992) (midnight show) (Art Theatre of Long Beach)
Reservoir Dogs (1992) (midnight show) (New Beverly Cinema)
Sex and the City 2 (21+ Party Package) (2010) (Arclight Hollywood)
The Spiral Staircase (1946) (LACMA) (The Noir Cinematography of Nicholas Musuraca)
The Tong Man (1919) (Old Town Music Hall)

Saturday 5/29
99 And 44/100% Dead (1974) (New Beverly Cinema) (New Beverly Midnights)
The Big Red One: The Reconstruction (1980) / The Steel Helmet (1951) (Egyptian Theatre) (Sam Fuller Double Feature)
The Blue Gardenia (1953) (LACMA) (The Noir Cinematography of Nicholas Musuraca)
Clash by Night (1952) (LACMA) (The Noir Cinematography of Nicholas Musuraca)
Flooding with Love for the Kid (2009) (w/ actor/writer/director/cameraman/stylist/caterer Zachary Oberzan) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre) (Saturday Night Showcase Series)
Hawk Jones (1986) (w/ director Richard Lowry) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre) (HFS: Fucked-Up Kids' Movies Series)
Hot Fuzz (2007) (Regency Academy) (Insomniac Cinema Midnight Movie)
Mystery Team (2009) / Ghostbusters (1984) (New Beverly Cinema)
North by Northwest (1959) (w/ DJ Turquoise Wisdom) (Hollywood Forever Cemetery) (Cinespia Screenings)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) / Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) / Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade (1989) (Aero Theatre)
Reservoir Dogs (1992) (midnight show) (Art Theatre of Long Beach)
Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) (Sins O' The Flesh Midnight Show) (Nuart Theatre)
Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) (Midnight Insanity Midnight Show) (Warner Grand Theatre)
Sex and the City 2 (21+ Party Package) (2010) (Arclight Hollywood)
The Tong Man (1919) (Old Town Music Hall)
Western Noir & More (w/ Funeral Club, Tippy Canoe & The Here & Now) (Echo Park Film Center)

Sunday 5/30
Adventurous Cartoonists & Far-Out Comics feat. A Letter to Three Wives (1949) (w/ Jaime Hernandez, Johnny Ryan & others!) (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre) (Family Books co-presentation)
Duck, You Sucker! (1972) / Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974) (New Beverly Cinema)
Holly Rollers (2010) (w/ filmmaker Kevin Asch at the 5:30pm screening) (Laemmle's Playhouse 7)
Husbands & Wives (1992) (The Bay Theatre)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962) (70mm screening) (Aero Theatre)
Lucid Landscapes (Downtown Independent) (The Institute for Cinema Studies presentation)
Orpheus & Eurydice (1991) (Art Theatre of Long Beach) (Long Beach Opera co-presentation)
Purple Rain (1984) (w/ D‚m-Funk) (Hollywood Forever Cemetery) (Cinespia Screenings)
Sex and the City 2 (21+ Party Package) (2010) (Arclight Hollywood)
The Tong Man (1919) (Old Town Music Hall)
The Wizard of Oz (1939) (Egyptian Theatre)

Monday 5/31
The 5 Minutes Game: Memorial Day Edition (Cinefamily @ Silent Movie Theatre)
Duck, You Sucker! (1972) / Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974) (New Beverly Cinema)
Husbands & Wives (1992) (The Bay Theatre)
I Am The Bluebird (2009) (Film Courage Interactive w/ writer/director Thomas Verrette & independent filmmakers/writers/actors) (Downtown Independent) (LA Talk Radio Film Courage co-presentation)
North by Northwest (1959) (Art Theatre of Long Beach)

That's all for this week. Who ya gonna call?

Compiled, as always, by the amazing and diligent Edward Yerke-Robins (and family!)