The Setup

Borne of myth, creatures of legend. Dragons haunt the dreams of just about every culture on the planet. Deriving from the Latin Draco, the term originally simply referred to any great serpent. However, as time has passed our idea of dragons has evolved to refer to two very specific and distinct types in our culture.

Oriental Dragons

Yes, they predate the Latin term. However, as the west was exposed to these creatures of old, it was the word that best fit, and so it stuck. Serpentine creatures with long bodies and four squat legs, these dragons frequently represent potent powers of nature, or forces of the universe. Much like the Greek gods, only less humanized.  We touched very lightly on these dragons in our Giant Monster event screening of D-War, as it was a better fit.

Why? Because this month, we wanted to focus on:

European Dragons

Of tooth and claw, fire and destruction, European dragons are the stuff of nightmares. These creatures have bodies more like lizards, often with large bat-like wings with which they typically use to fly or glide. Frequently depicted as maliciously intelligent, these monsters are focused primarily on destruction and eating. Oh…and they usually breathe fire.

We’re not ashamed to admit it: Flying fire-breathing lizards make our jeans fit a little tighter.

The Menu

The Booze: Flaming Dragon’s Breath

Cinnamon Schnapps, Bicardi Rum, and FIRE. This has the potential to be quite interesting. And yes, we’ll have fire extinguishers on hand.

The Food: We’re going to go with our standard snack-fare, as we don’t immediately know what dragons eat, other than virgins and the like.

The Movies

Reign of Fire (2002):Christian Bale, Matthew “I’m too sexy for my shirt” McConaughey , fire breathing dragons in a post-apocalyptic wasteland….mmmm TASTY.

Dungeon & Dragons-Scourge Of Worlds (2003): This is a Dungeon and Dragons CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE. That’s right, the first-ever interactive feature screened at the cavalcade! We predict that this may devolve into some bizarre drinking game, and possibly get voted off. But that’s ok, because we’ll have backup.

Suggested Alternatives

Dungeons & Dragons (2000): Based on the popular fantasy role-playing game of the same name, the movie follows a small band of adventurers who set out to free their Empire from its oppressive rulers. Featuring Jeremy Irons having a field day with the concept of overracting. Marlon Wayans is in it too. Sadly, he doesn’t die.

Dragonheart (1996): There’s a dragon, and a heart, Dennis Quaid and Sean Connery’s voice. This is a very seriously done-yet very silly movie that has some of the best VFX the late 90s could offer.

DragonSlayer (1981): WE. LOVE. THIS. MOVIE. Some of the most astonishing visual effects of the 80s in a deadly serious dark fantasy. We’re not mentioning it for a Cavalcade though, as it’s a bit slow in parts for a big gathering. We just think you should see it. Immediately, if not sooner.

Also! Don’t forget Q: The Winged Serpent! Read Tom O’Reily’s review of it here!

Wow. 2009’s events are done, and now we move into year 3. Have to admit, this isn’t something we were expecting or even prepared for, but you know what? We perform well under pressure and thinking on our feet. So that said, what themes do we have for you? We’ve been heavy on action themes these last few months, with the exception of our Special Events, so we’re leaning towards a couple of the other choices, but hey-not our decision, is it?

Action: Jean-Claude Van Damme

Yes, we are in face dedicating a whole genre to films made by a single actor. Why? Because he has a body of work that includes: Sudden Death (Die Hard at a hockey game), Double Team (Rouge cop movie…with Dennis freakin’ Rodman!), and Double Impact (Rogue cop movie…where he plays twins). Seriously, this guy was this close to being a gen-u-ine top tier action hero… but he just kept making movies like these (oh, you can BET the Street Fighter movie is part of that link cluster in there)

Sci-Fi: Dragons

2 things about dragons:

1) They are awesome.

2) They’ve never made a good dragon movie (but they’ve made a FUN one…)

Q: The Winged Serpent-Reviewed by our own Tom O’Reily, this film has David Carradine and Richard “Shaft” Roundtree fighting an Aztec god…in New York! We’d of course have to follow it up with Reign of Fire. Christian Bale, Matthew “I’m too sexy for my shirt” McConaughey , fire breathing dragons in a post-apocalyptic wasteland….mmmm TASTY. Of course, there’s also the Dungeons & Dragons movie too… (that sound you hear is millions of minds crying out all at once).

Horror: Killer Animals

Because DAMMIT, we have some fantastic movies to show you if this gets voted! This genre has so much to offer, yet it gets voted down every time (sniff). Black Sheep, Lake Placid, Piranha, Jaws IV, Night of the Lepus, Grizzly, Orca-C’mon people! Respect Nature! We barely even scratched the surface of what this genre has to offer!

Note About the date of the Event:

Please note that the event will be on January 16th, which is not the second Saturday of the month. While we did book the full year for 2010, some of our dates were already claimed, and we had no choice but to take another. We will be doing everything we can to give everyone as advanced a notice as possible by posting a full calendar for the year very soon.

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