DEAR FRIENDS,

It has been a busy week at the Balboa with the tremendous response to the World Premiere of REMEMBERING PLAYLAND. Last Tuesday and Wednesday, all shows sold out and we have added noon shows on Saturday and Sunday through April 4.

The scene at the theatre, merely a dozen blocks from where Playland entertained generations of San Francisco, is wonderful as audience members share their own stories, truly bringing that great amusement park back to life. And you can even buy the IT’S IT ice cream sandwiches that started at Playland.

For photos of the opening check out the Richmond SF Blog.

KQED-FM’s FORUM recently had a show devoted to PLAYLAND AT THE BEACH. It featured:
-James Smith, San Francisco historian and author of “San Francisco’s Lost Landmarks” and the forthcoming book, “San Francisco’s Playland at the Beach: the Early Years”
-Marv Gold, former employee of Playland at the Beach and member of the Playland-Not-at-the-Beach advisory board
-Richard Tuck, master of fun at Playland-Not-at-the-Beach in El Cerrito, a museum and amusement center which houses thousands of artifacts from Playland at the Beach
-Tom Wyrsch, filmmaker behind the documentary, “Remembering Playland at the Beach”

Listen here.
Also on KGO-AM with John Rothman
Good article with video and slide show
Visit PLAYLAND-NOT-AT-THE-BEACH in person
More info

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Another special event this Thursday night, March 25, is John Stanley’s CREATURE FEATURES Night. The last time John brought his show to the Balboa, it was a great success and so many people begged us to do it again that we have asked John to come back with an all different show. See HORROR EXPRESS with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. Interview with Frank Gorshin, a John Stanley mini-movie, commercials and much more.
Full details here.
John’s website.

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The response to Roman Polanski’s thriller THE GHOST WRITER is terrific and it holds over. To compliment it next week we will be bringing in the film adaptation of the best-selling novel THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO. We hope that you will join us for it starting April 2.

For one week only, we’ll have two top films filled with suspense starting this Friday, SHUTTER ISLAND and GREEN ZONE.

Sincerely,
Gary

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THIS WEEK’S EVENTS

THURSDAY, APRIL 1 @ 7:00PM: A GUMBY TRIBUTE AT THE BALBOA

Advance tickets here. $9.00 General Admission, $6.50 for Seniors (60+) and Children (11-). No passes or punchcards. Step into the life and work of Art Clokey, creator of Gumby and grandfather of stop-motion animation, and explore through this documentary why a man would spend his 85 years on earth playing with lumps of colored clay. His world famous characters, Gumby and Pokey, and Davy and Goliath, echo the spiritual path of their creator. Art's journey takes us from the orphanage to inspiring adopted father, from the Seminary to the Hollywood movie business, and from traditional Episcopalian church values to Buddhism and Indian guru Sai Baba. It is a fascinating life and career in it's own right but also in how it gently influenced his characters and story lines for over 40 years. Clokey's work is one of the few animation characters that have survived the test of time to become a true American Icon. Interviews with contemporary leaders in animation, including Director Henry Selick (Coraline, Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach) and special effects legend Ray Harryhausen (Jason and the Argonauts, Adventures of Sinbad), place Clokey's work in perspective with the history of animation and explore stop motion's future in a computer graphics world. The evening will be a tribute to Art Clokey who recently passed away. The event will include the screening of the hour long Emmy Award winning documentary film Gumby Dharma by Robina Marchesi, Klara Grunning-Harris and Tim Hittle, followed by a panel discussion with local creators, artists and stop-motion animation industry people. J.Kleinberg who wrote the score for GUMBY DHARMA will perform live as part of the show. Kleinberg is a San Francisco violinist and songwriter who performs as a solo artist and with Diego’s Umbrella across the U.S., Europe and Japan. He’s also recorded and played with local San Francisco bands such as The Pine Box Boys, Sonny Smith, Paula Frazier and Beulah. "An insightful glimpse into the personal and spiritual life of an influential career of a great artist and filmmaker." -The Senteniel-Record "Art Clokey taps into something primal, deep within everyones psyche and unconscious through his style...it is a message of love, really." -SF Weekly Details at www.gumbydharma.com.

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About This Week's Movies

THE GHOST WRITER (PG-13)

Rated PG-13 for language, brief nudity/sexuality, some violence and a drug reference. 128 minutes. When a successful British ghostwriter, THE GHOST, agrees to complete the memoirs of former British Prime Minister ADAM LANG, his agent assures him it’s the opportunity of a lifetime. But the project seems doomed from the start—not least because his predecessor on the project, Lang’s long-term aide, died in an unfortunate accident. The Ghost flies out to work on the project, in the middle of winter, to an oceanfront house on an island off the U.S. Eastern seaboard. But the day after he arrives, a former British cabinet minister accuses Lang of authorizing the illegal seizure of suspected terrorists and handing them over for torture by the CIA—a war crime. The controversy brings reporters and protesters swarming to the island mansion where Lang is staying with his wife, RUTH, and his personal assistant (and mistress), AMELIA. As The Ghost works, he begins to uncover clues suggesting his predecessor may have stumbled on a dark secret linking Lang to the CIA—and that somehow this information is hidden in the manuscript he left behind. Was Lang in the service of the American intelligence agency while he was prime minister? And was The Ghost’s predecessor murdered because of the appalling truth he uncovered? Resonating with topical themes, this atmospheric and suspenseful political thriller is a story of deceit and betrayal on every level— sexual, political and literary. In a world in which nothing, and no one, is as it seems, The Ghost quickly discovers that the past can be deadly—and that history is decided by whoever stays alive to write it. Official site View Trailer

“This movie is the work of a man who knows how to direct a thriller. Smooth, calm, confident, it builds suspense instead of depending on shock and action.”
- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

“Here's another thought: This old man who can't leave the house has just made the first important film of 2010.”
- Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

“The Ghost Writer is the kind of impeccable adult entertainment, able to alternate edge-of-your-seat episodes with bleakly comic moments, that Hitchcock used to specialize in and that Polanski himself realized so successfully in Chinatown and Rosemary's Baby.”
- Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

“An extraordinarily precise and well-made political thriller—the best thing Polanski has done since the seventies, when he brought out the incomparable Chinatown and the very fine Tess."
- David Denby, The New Yorker

Read interview with Ewan McGregor

Read interview with Pierce Brosnan

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SHUTTER ISLAND (R)

Rated R for disturbing violent content, language and some nudity. 138 minutes. From Oscar®-winning director Martin Scorsese, "Shutter Island" is the story of two U.S. marshals, Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), who are summoned to a remote and barren island off the coast of Massachusetts to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a murderess from the island’s fortress-like hospital for the criminally insane. Official Website View Trailer

"In Shutter Island, director Martin Scorsese has created a divinely dark and devious brain tease of a movie in the best noir tradition."
- Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times

"The film's primary effect is on the senses. Everything is brought together into a disturbing foreshadow of dreadful secrets."
- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

"Expert, screw-turning narrative filmmaking put at the service of old-dark-madhouse claptrap."
- Todd McCarthy, Variety

"What Scorsese brings to the table, having created more than his share of rascally villains, is a renewed sense of horror and despair at the power of evil."
- J.R. Jones, Chicago Reader

Martin Scorsese interview for Shutter Island - Daily Telegraph

Interview: Leonardo DiCaprio for Shutter Island - Screencrave.com

Interview: Martin Scorsese The Modest Icon Talks Shutter Island — Screencrave.com

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GREEN ZONE (R)

Rated R for violence and language. 115 minutes. Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, United 93) re-team for their latest electrifying thriller in Green Zone, a film set in the chaotic early days of the Iraqi War when no one could be trusted and every decision could detonate unforeseen consequences. During the U.S.-led occupation of Baghdad in 2003, Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (Damon) and his team of Army inspectors were dispatched to find weapons of mass destruction believed to be stockpiled in the Iraqi desert. Rocketing from one booby-trapped and treacherous site to the next, the men search for deadly chemical agents but stumble instead upon an elaborate cover-up that inverts the purpose of their mission. Spun by operatives with intersecting agendas, Miller must hunt through covert and faulty intelligence hidden on foreign soil for answers that will either clear a rogue regime or escalate a war in an unstable region. And at this blistering time and in this combustible place, he will find the most elusive weapon of all is the truth. Official site View Trailer

“An energetic, frenzied thriller -- Paul Greengrass-style -- set in Iraq in the chaotic post-invasion days.”
- Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter

"Bourne goes epic. A wham-bam actioner, but its pointed political subtext ensures Damon and Greengrass deliver their most provocative mission yet."
- Mark Dinning, Empire

"Greengrass has crafted Green Zone as a high energy thriller. The level of tension starts out high and rarely lets up during the course of nearly two hours.....Damon's prior appearances as Jason Bourne make him credible in this role. There's never a disconnect to see him in this heroic, action-oriented part."
- James Berardinelli, Reelviews

"You catch your breath only to have the wind knocked out by the mirage of the carefree scene around the Green Zone swimming pool."
- J. Hoberman, Village Voice

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PARAMOUNT THEATRE WINTER CLASSICS SERIES

We are blessed in the Bay Area to have a handful of true movie palaces still showing great movies...the Castro, Stanford and our favorite, The Paramount in Oakland. The theater will once again host a selection of great classics with cartoons, prizes and tremendous fun.

Next Show is THIS FRIDAY, MARCH 26 @ 8:00 PM
CAPTAIN BLOOD
Running time: 119 minutes
Box Office opens @ 6:00pm | Doors open @ 7:00 | Curtain rises @ 8:00pm
All Tickets: $5.00

CAPTAIN BLOOD (1935) - Starring the great swashbuckling Errol Flynn as a doctor who is wrongly convicted of treason and sold into slavery, this is perhaps the best pirate movie ever made. Rafael Sabatini's brilliant historical novel receives incomparable treatment from director Michael Curtiz and his stellar cast. Captain Peter Blood's sardonic humor, cold nerves, and hot-blooded temper are so perfectly realized by Errol Flynn that it is impossible to think of any other actor in this role. Leonard Mudie as the heartless Lord Jeffries, Olivia de Havilland as the firey Arabella Bishop, Basil Rathbone as the French buccaneer Levasseur... This is literally an unforgettable cast. And you won't soon forget the story of Peter Blood, Captain of the great ship Arabella, virtuoso swordsman, and undisputed master of the waters of the Spanish Main.

2025 Broadway, Oakland ~ (510) 465-6400
Take BART and exit at the 19th Street Station

Paramount Schedule

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BALBOA THEATRE INFO

3630 Balboa Street (@ 37th Ave)
San Francisco 94121
(415) 221-8184
www.BalboaMovies.com

Bike Rack in front of the Balboa
Muni Bus #31 Balboa or #18 46th Ave stop at Balboa &37th. Also #5 Fulton and all 38 Geary Street buses stop two (long) blocks from Balboa.
Relatively easy Parking

San Francisco's Favorite Neighborhood Theatre
Voted by the Bay Guardian, SF Weekly, SF Gate's A List and San Francisco Magazine

General Admission: $9.00
Seniors (60+) and Children (11-) $6.50
Bargain Matinees: All seats $6.50 for shows in ( )
SCHOOL NIGHT - Mondays are School Days and Nights. With proof of being a student, faculty, or staff member, your admission is only $6.50 on Mondays.

On Your Birthday, You Are Our Guest. That’s right. You get in free with proof of your birth date.

And at all other times you can get the “I’d Rather Be At the Balboa” Discount Card. What a deal! 5 tickets to the Balboa for $32.50. That is only $6.50 per show. Good every day and night. And two people can use the card at once. You can go on a date even when you are low on cash with your Balboa Card. A savings of up to $12.50! Makes a perfect gift as well. And every Discount Card comes with a FREE POPCORN!

The Balboa is Wheelchair and Handicapped Accessible.

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NEIGHBORHOOD RESTAURANTS

One of the strengths of the Balboa is our neighborhood. Other than the bank, all the businesses are family owned and operated. The restaurants are especially wonderful. On the outer Balboa strip there are 24 eating establishments by my count. You can eat Chinese, Japanese, Egyptian, Italian, American, Mexican, Seafood and Vietnamese cuisines. The foods are fresh, distinctive and all reasonably priced. The media food critics have only discovered a few of them but the locals know a good thing. We encourage you to enjoy a meal at one of these fine eateries while visiting the Balboa. All are within easy walking distance. And please send us reviews and recommendations we can share with our other guests. Send reviews to balboafans (at) yahoo.com . (Change (at) to @. We are trying to avoid spam.)

We love it when you send us a review of a neighborhood restaurant you've enjoyed. We encourage you all to write about your culinary adventures in the Outer Richmond.
Check out the Menu Book in our lobby and our COMPLETE RESTAURANT LIST.

PoppinMedia.com