Featuring World Premiere Of:

OPERATION: ENDGAME (World Premiere) - Zack Galifanakis, Rob Corddry, Ving Rhames, and Emile De Raven star in this new comedy thriller about two teams of assassins locked in an underground facility, each out to discover who murdered their boss before they're all offed. (Courtesy of Anchor Bay Entertainment)

A Chuck Norris Retrospective

CODE OF SILENCE (1985) - Chuck Norris' most critically acclaimed film cast him as Chicago cop Eddie Cusack, who battles mobsters and corrupt cops in this outstanding police thriller from director Andrew Davis (THE FUGITIVE)

BRADDOCK: MISSING IN ACTION III - Chuck Norris teams with brother Aaron Norris (co-founder of ActionFest) for the third film in the MISSING IN ACTION series, where Col. James Braddock goes back to Vietnam to rescue his Amer-Asian son in this little-seen sequel, Chuck's personal favorite of the series.

ActionFest will wrap up its inaugural edition with a killer party on Sunday, April 18, featuring Chuck Norris and Asheville 's own The Reigning Sound! Be there to see Chuck Norris get his Lifetime Achievement award, followed by the amazing rock 'n' roll of The Reigning Sound at The Orange Peel, 101 Biltmore Avenue in Asheville . In addition to all this, we'll have the winners of the first-ever game of "Chuckeoke" and we'll bestow our 2010 movie awards, too. Tickets for this event are $25 and are on sale now at The Orange Peel's website

Am I complaining too much, or is this a cause we can all get behind? There is only one way to stop this pattern from continuing: Stop giving the studios that are putting out this crap your hard earned money. If you don’t pay them, then they will have no choice but to look into other options when deciding what movies they will make.  We have the power over what Hollywood is making, as long as we use our money wisely. I’m not saying don’t go to the movies. I don’t know what I would do with my life if I didn’t go to the movies. The answer is not seeing a bad movie multiple times - and if a movie is bad, then tell everyone you know.

This is the power of our economy - we create the demand; if we don’t give in to the demand, then the manufacturer has to offer a different product.  When was the last time you went to the store and bought a 20oz of Pepsi Clear? It’s been since the early 90’s, I’m sure. Why? Because as innovative as the idea was, Pepsi was unable to get consumers to buy the product. Cause and effect works the same in the film world. If a movie does really badly at the box office, then it is rare to see it get a sequel and even further, it is unusual to see similar movies come out anytime soon after that.

So think hard the next time you get a wild hair to go see Pirates of the Caribbean: The Day We Found the Chest of Silver, and maybe go see that underrated drama playing in the next theater. Remember you always have a choice and you have the power over Hollywood. Till next time this is Brian from high atop my soap-box. 

Listen to  Brian Combs on the Beyond the Credits Podcast or read this and other articles at BeyondtheCreditsPodcast.com

What is wrong with the world we live in? A movie like Avatar is grossing in the billions internationally, when the soft spoken genius of Remember Me falls to the wayside. This paradox is keeping me awake at night. In a world where Avatar is number one, what hope do we have?

            In answer, we have hope in the impending doom of Hollywood. Independent filmmakers are still the backbone of true cinema. We have seen the brainless big budget swell that Hollywood has to offer. It is mind numbing and appeals only to the dumbest common denominator. We need to look at the less popular movies when on our quest for true art. Transformers and Avatar were never intended to be true art. These movies were constructed for test groups and box office returns. These are not the kind of movies that have inspired people to make other films.

            Where do we find art in a 3D world? My first piece of advice is to look at your local art house. Art house cinema is the backbone of film. Most people expect the huge screen experience that is offered at your local multiplex, but if you drive just a little bit off the beaten path you will find a new world is unlocked for you. The films showed at these local gems are unique each offering something different than the last. Unlike the multiplex where it seems that every movie you see is like the movie you viewed last week. The art house can be dark and scary, maybe even black and white, for a new patron. It doesn’t have that same feel that they are used to when going to the movies.

            The first couple of times someone goes to an art house is easily compared to a caterpillar building their cocoon. The first few trips they build the cocoon, a place they can feel safe while they go through the change. This usually means they sit in the same general seat and make no effort to talk to anyone around them. Then comes the transition or stage two.

            Stage two is a different experience; this is the time of growing and changing.  The new art house member is now more willing to sit it different parts of the theater and is now more willing to dive deeper into this new world. Up until this point the new guy has pretty much seen large decently known films. Now he is sitting in his first small very low budget art house film. He has gone further down the rabbit hole, and he likes it. Our new member of the art house community has now realized that the art in cinema doesn’t always come out of Hollywood. It is time for stage three.

            Stage three; the butterfly emerges. Now ready to go out and face the world the newly defined art house butterfly can return to the multiplex a changed man. He is now able to enjoy movies and still retain his ability to see through the crap Hollywood is throwing at them. He can still have fun with a movie but realizes that a movie can be fun and well done. These ideas are no longer mutually exclusive. The blinders have been pulled away and he is better for it.

            In closing I guess I am saying one thing. See through the fog, there is a light on the other side. Find your local art house and start stage one. Your growth is at your fingertips. I am not saying that big budget movies are always bad, it is just time for us as a society to see the difference and find the art in cinema.

Read Brian Comb’s blog and listen to his podcast at BeyondTheCreditsPodcast.com.

Film: Black Snow

Director: Xie Fei

Label: Second Run DVD

Winding his way through the streets of Beijing, former prisoner Quanzi (Jiang Wen) settles back into his old shack and looks to reconstruct his life that has changed drastically since his departure. His only family members left are a few aunts who only want to meddle, the only job available is one selling clothes in the market, and the only friends he has left are doing everything in their power to drag him back into the life that put him in prison in the first place.

Enter a female singer. This woman captivates him. He wants to be with her, but has no idea how to get her let alone retain her. He feels alien to this strange land that was home and nothing seems to go right in any way. A classic tale of former criminal who yearns to be free from the riches and indulgences of crime, but has not learned to cope with the realities of normal life.

The new year has dawned and Quanzi works hard at forgetting his past even while being reminded of them on a daily basis. He likes to eat in his favorite restaurants, but he ends up helping an old friend commit murder. He wants to pursue love, but he cannot get over his fiancé and pursue a dream relationship with his singer. He wants to forge ahead, but his past drags him back and back again.

Xie Fie, a master of Chinese cinema not known outside of his home country, broods Quanzi with his chain smoking and long lasting glances at what could have been a dream life. Jiang Wen’s performance is on par with any classic actor and the never ending supporting cast gives Black Snow just about every type of character one would expect to run into in a Chinese back alley.

Awards for Black Snow:

1990 Silver Bear/Berlin International Film Festival (Germany)

1990 Best Film/Hundred Flowers Awards (China)

Black Snow will be released on March 8, 2010 by Second Run DVD with an interview with director Xie Fei and an excellent essay on the films of Xie Fei by Shaoyi Sun who is a Professor of Film and Media Studies at Shanghai University’s School of Film and TV Art and Technology.

For more information on this film click here.

Kim Longinotto has been making documentaries since 1976. Saying that she just makes documentaries would do a disservice to her thirty-five year career. Longinotto specializes in showing the plight of females from around the world who are marginalized, oppressed, and discriminated upon. Choosing this line of work is definitely a labor of love as her works have mostly went unnoticed until the late nineties when she started to win awards at film festivals with her latest being the prestigious Prix Art es Essai at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008. Following up on their release of the two excellent Longinotto documentaries Divorce Iranian Style/Runaway, Second Run DVD brings us a no holds barred wrestling match in Gaea Girls and then the somewhat strange story of women who pose as men to work in Japanese nightclubs in Shinjuku Boys.

Gaea Girls focuses around the story of the GAEA which is the Japanese women’s version of the WWE. In Japan, tradition dictates that women be more demure and introvert. Even in our modern day with more and more Japanese women branching out into business and doing other things that would have been unthinkable a few decades ago, professional wrestling is still an outsider sport.

Focused on the training camp led by wrestling veteran and legend Nagayo, the documentary studies the efforts of newcomer Takeuchi as she seeks to prove her toughness and pass the extremely hard tests administered by mentor Nagayo herself. The insults and abuse end up being way more than Takeuchi had bargained for as she is continually berated and shown up even by newcomers. As a film, Gaea Girls is an odd look into the world over women who may never marry and bear children, but they simply want to prove to themselves that they can physically compete on a stage that may only be for show, but allows them to be the spotlight every night.

Shinjuku Boys revolves around the lives of three women as they transform themselves as men who serve drinks in the women only nightclub New Marilyn.  The fact that these women have chosen to forgo their lives as women and pretend they are men is an interesting study. What may even be the more interesting study is the women who frequent the clubs and who sometimes have relationships with Gaish, Tatsu, and Kazuki.

When watching these two documentaries back to back, there are similarities that come to the forefront. All of these women are searching for acceptance in a harsh society. All of these women have forgone the journey of love and the pursuit of lasting relationships to hang out on the fringe of society and interact with people who are just customers. All of these women embrace their differences from the norm. All of these women find their champion in the form of Longinotto who shows us the fringe while giving us sympathy for those who just want to be accepted.