Repost: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (September 5th at the Cedar Lee Theatre)

[TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES screens Saturday September 5th at 9:30 pm and 11:59 pm at the Cedar Lee Theatre.]

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

Andrew Sarris may have invented the Auteur Theory, Sergei Eisenstein the "revolutionary" style of film editing, James Cameron everything else. But me? My big contribution to cinematic thought? The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theory. I hold that were it not for these campy cartoon characters, martial-arts cinema would have had to wait even longer than it did to get wide acceptance in the west. That's right, no CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, no Jet Li a household name, no Tsui Hark or Cory Yuen an idol to yankee-dog film students without Michelangelo, Donatello, Raphael, Leonardo and Splinter the Rat.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (August 20 at midnight at the Capitol Theater)

[TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES screens Saturday August 20th at 11:59 pm at the Capitol Theatre.]

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

Andrew Sarris may have invented the Auteur Theory, Sergei Eisenstein the "revolutionary" style of film editing, James Cameron everything else. But me? My big contribution to cinematic thought? The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theory. I hold that were it not for these campy cartoon characters, martial-arts cinema would have had to wait even longer than it did to get wide acceptance in the west. That's right, no CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, no Jet Li a household name, no Tsui Hark or Cory Yuen an idol to yankee-dog film students without Michelangelo, Donatello, Raphael, Leonardo and Splinter the Rat.

Enter the Dragon (July 16 at the Capitol Theater)

[ENTER THE DRAGON screens July 16 at midnight at the Capitol Theater.]

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.


I was about 10 years old when Bruce Lee died, and my dawning awareness of the media and mushrooming adolescent interest in movies (why didn't I just stick with dinosaurs, dammit? Probably would have a better job by now) coincided with Bruce Lee-mania at its height. Bruce Lee imitators at the drive-ins, Bruce Lee imagery in comics, and the wide release of ENTER THE DRAGON - a breakthrough as a joint US-Hong Kong big-budget martial-arts extravaganza, filmed in English, its repute only enhanced by the sudden death of star Bruce Lee immediately before its blockbuster debut. Bruce Lee was all over the early 1970s mediascape, rivaled I think only by Nixon and THE EXORCIST and the Manson Family. Even when I got my first apartment on the west side of Cleveland (why didn't I just continue to live with my parents, dammit? Could have saved up some money for the lean times now) I'd see an old Bruce Lee poster up in some storefront and get a twinge of adolescent nostalgia.

Ip Man 2: The Legend of the Grandmaster (May 5th and 8th at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[IP MAN 2: LEGEND OF THE GRANDMASTER screens Thursday May 5th at 8:55pm and Sunday May 8th at 8:40pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Charles Cassady Jr.

Periodically the entertainment-corporate media will do a big story bemoaning the tragedy of our time: Where are all the next-generation action-heroes? Eastwood, Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Van Damme, Steven Seagal, Bruce Willis are all AARP cover guys now, and Jason Statham is hardly a household name. Where's the next action-hero to be box-office messiah and open DEATH COP VII 1/2 with record numbers on all 24 screens at the multiplex? Where is he? Where is Obama's blue-ribbon committee to look into this outrage? Nice to know all other problems in the world have been solved.

Ip Man (May 5th and 8th. at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[IP MAN screens Thursday May 5th at 6:45 p.m. and Sunday May 8th at 6:30 p.m. at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Charles Cassady Jr.

I forget if I read this or was told by someone much better-traveled than myself, but the essence was this: You know how Chairman Mao and other Beijing despots have been able to rally the Chinese masses against the USA from time to time? It's because of an anti-American grudge the Chinese had with US foreign policy during the Second World War. It seems a generation of Chinese citizens can't forgive the fact that America dropped two atom bombs on Japan, at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Chinese would rather it have been 20. Or 40. However many it took, if you catch the meaning. But a mere two nukes? The Chinese considered that practically siding with Hirohito.