French visual virtuoso Jean-Pierre Jeunet (City of Lost Children, Amelie) directs this more recent English-language tale of a scientific wunderkind in the USA where it undeservingly fell through the commercial cracks. Time to discover this under seen gem – an extraordinary, unpredictable road movie that embellishes its rites-of-passage tale with enough dazzling visual flourishes to make ‘Hugo’ blush.
Space Place | Sunday 23rd February | 6.30 PM doors | 7PM start | $15 | Bookings recommended
Make no mistake, Bob Clark’s A Christmas Story is the coolest Christmas movie ever made. Though a seasonal staple on North American TV since its release in 1983, it is still hardly known down under for distribution reasons unknown. It’s set back when America was great – when all a 9-year-old innocent wants for Christmas is an air rifle! From this premise, the ho-ho-ho’s come thick and fast while it’s refreshingly free of customary Hallmark card sentiment.
Space Place | Sunday 15th December | 6.30 PM doors | 7PM start | $15 | Bookings recommended
To save his brother, carnival strongman One (Ron Pearlman) is pitted against cyborg cults, gangs of wayward orphans, trained circus fleas, and dream-thief Krank in this gorgeously shot, steampunk masterpiece. From French directors Marc Caro (Delicatessen) and Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amélie). M
(In French with English Subtitles)
SPACE PLACE / 7PM (DOORS 6:30PM) / SUN 26 MAY / $15.00
The Man with Two Brains (1983)
In this madcap comedy by Carl Riener, Dr. Michael Hfuhruhurr (Steve Martin), inventor of “cranial screw top” brain surgery is looking for love in all the wrong places as the “Elevator Killer” (Merv Griffen) moves up and down Vienna seeking his next victim.
SPACE PLACE / 7PM (DOORS 6:30PM) / SUN 14 APRIL / $10 CHILDREN / $15 ADULTS
Sci-Fi Sundays: The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai and the Eighth Dimension
This 1980’s extravaganza of kitsch stars Robocop’s Peter Weller as a brain surgeon/rock musician/adventurer who takes on evil aliens and OTT mad scientist John Lithgow. Knowingly ridiculous and played to the hilt by a game support cast, this is a cult treasure from an era before CGI, cell-phones and sensible hair.
DOORS OPEN 6:30PM
Sci-Fi Sundays: Spaceballs
While originally released too late for topical satirical bite, time has been kinder to Mel Brooks’ Star Wars spoof, especially as George Lucas’ mega-trilogy has since sprawled into an unimpeachable cultural juggernaut. Time for impeachment – sniggering all the way is pretty much guaranteed, with hysteria likely hard to contain in enthusiastic company.
DOORS OPEN 6:30PM
Sci-Fi Sundays: Mars Attacks!
Aro Video & Space Place present ‘Space Camp’ A season of three tongue-in-cheek Sci-Fi classics starting with this comic sci-fi caper.
Tim Burton’s pays ingenious homage to his boyhood love of 1950’s invasion flicks while gleefully demolishing a range of not-so-innocent American institutions – politics, religion, the military, television and money.
In the Trump era, the time has never been better for a technicolour Martian attack – one to relish with a popcorn-swilling crowd.
DOORS OPEN 6:30PM
Sci-Fi Sundays: The Thing
A parasitic alien infiltrates an arctic research centre in John Carpenter’s 1982 monster horror classic. The Thing is a peerless masterpiece of relentless suspense, retina-wrecking visual excess and outright, nihilistic terror. Starring Kurt Russell and a great acting ensemble, accompanied by Ennio Morricone’s fantastic score, this is one film you do not want to miss (Unless you’re squeamish). R16 rating.
SPACE PLACE / SUNDAY 12 AUG, 7:30PM (DOORS OPEN 7PM) /ADULTS $15
The kids will love Sci-Fi Sundays: Flight of the Navigator
In 1978, a boy travels 8 years into the future and has an adventure with an intelligent, wisecracking alien ship. This a charming space film that’s perfect for the whole family to watch. G rating.
SPACE PLACE / SUNDAY 15 JULY, 6:30PM / ADULTS $15, CHILD $10
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED – WE SINCERELY APOLOGIZE FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE CAUSED
Watch Sci-Fi Sundays: Event Horizon in the Planetarium
When the Event Horizon, a spacecraft that vanished years earlier suddenly reappears, a team is dispatched to investigate. Accompanied by the Event Horizon’s creator, William Weir (Sam Neill), the crew of the Lewis and Clark, led by Capt. Miller (Laurence Fishburne), begins to explore the seemingly abandoned vessel. However, it soon becomes clear that something sinister resides in its corridors, and that the horrors that befell the Event Horizon’s previous journey are still present. R16 rating.