Melnitz Movies
- Movies are screened at the James Bridges Theater, Melnitz Hall 1409 on the UCLA campus.
- All screenings and appearances are subject to change on short notice, so please check our listings before showtime.
- All movies are FREE to UCLA students, staff, faculty and members of the general public, unless otherwise noted.
- Melnitz Movies is funded through the UCLA Graduate Students Association and the ASUCLA Student Interaction Fund.
- Tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis (one ticket per person) at the Melnitz box office one hour before showtime.
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Upcoming Screenings
May 22, 2012 - 7:30pm
When three longtime friends (Tony Leung, Jacky Cheung, and Waise Lee) become involved in the death of a rival gang member, they are forced to leave Hong Kong in order to escape the police. Their only ticket out is a free ride to Saigon working as smugglers on the black market. But it is the late 1960s and, with Saigon embroiled in the madness of the Vietnamese war, it’s very much a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. When their plans to double-cross a local gangster and steal a box of gold from him go awry, the men find themselves captured by the Viet Cong and accused of working for the CIA. Incarcerated in a prisoner of war camp, their loyalties are tested to the very limit when one of the trio sets about betraying his closest friends…
Co-sponsored by the UCLA Asia Institute
Print courtesy of UCLA Film & Television Archive and John Woo
“Over two hours of remorseless mayhem: balletic deaths, ingenious killings, delightful detonations, rivers of blood, acrobatic fights…an explosion of vast energy” –John Boorman
“This is a rare film that conveys complex emotions through its visual poetry. When the movie was over, I was left shaken but exhilarated. BULLET IN...
May 24, 2012 - 7:30pm
Violence as poetry, rendered by a master – brilliant and passionate, John Woo’s HARD BOILED tells the story of a jaded detective nicknamed “Tequila” (played with controlled fury by Chow Yun-Fat). Woo’s dizzying odyssey through the world of Hong Kong Triads, undercover agents, and frenzied police raids culminates unforgettably in the breathless hospital sequence. More than a cops-and-bad-guys story, HARD BOILED continually startles with its originality and dark humor.
Co-sponsored by the UCLA Asia Institute
Print courtesy of UCLA Film & Television Archive and John Woo
“Mixing the frenzied pacing of kung fu flicks with a plethora of cinematic tricks — slow-motion, freeze-frames, wipes — Woo has elevated the action movie into the realm of art. Infinitely more exciting than a dozen DIE HARDs, action cinema doesn't come any better than this.” –Mark Salisbury, Empire
“Arguably Woo's masterpiece, it is an action film to end all action films, an experience so deliriously cinematic it makes TRUE ROMANCE, a film that clearly aspires to it, look like a cheap copy.” –James Verniere, Boston Herald
“A picture-perfect example of what the ideal action flick should look like.” –David...
May 29, 2012 - 7:30pm
New Visions of Japanese Cinema
Sponsored by UCLA's Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies
An appetizing documentary in every sense, JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI follows 85-year-old master sushi chef Jiro Ono, paying lushly photographed homage to the process of preparing the artisan sushi that earned Ono’s esteemed Sukiyabashi Jiro restaurant three Michelin stars. From the complicated relationship between Jiro and his sons to the ins and outs of the tuna auction, this spirited film profiles all aspects of Jiro’s craft in tantalizing style and detail.
Co-Presented by the Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies
Join us for a post-show Q&A with editor Kevin Iwashina and co-producer Brandon Driscoll-Luttringer, moderated by UCLA professor Anne McKnight.
Audience Award, São Paulo International Film Festival
Official Selection, Tribeca Film Festival
Official Selection, Transilvania International Film Festival
Official Selection, Melbourne International Film Festival
Official Selection, San Sebastián International Film Festival
Official Selection, AFI FEST
Official Selection, Stockholm International Film Festival
“An appetizing portrait of 85-year-old Jiro Ono, the oldest chef to win three...
May 31, 2012 - 7:30pm
Please note: seating for this event will be extremely limited.
Ken Russell called it “the greatest science-fiction film since METROPOLIS.” He wasn't kidding. The single greatest American theatrical motion picture experience ever realized, controversial director Paul Verhoeven (TOTAL RECALL, SOLDIER OF ORANGE) brought ROBOCOP to life as an effects-laden work of science fiction with a satirical edge that has since become a cult classic phenomenon. The film features a resurrected and roboticized hero (Peter Weller) in a supercharged cyborg body, struggling to reclaim his memory and avenge his own death. Written by UCLA alumni Ed Neumeier (STARSHIP TROOPERS) and Michael Miner (BOOK OF STARS), the film is a superhero fantasy come to vivid, bloody life.
Pre-show video introduction by Barbara Boyle, UCLA FTV Chair and former SVP of Worldwide Productions at Orion Pictures!
Join us for a post-show conversation led by TFT Dean Emeritus, Bob Rosen, featuring (schedules permitting) Paul Verhoeven (director), UCLA alumnus Peter Weller (Alex Murphy/RoboCop), Nancy Allen (Anne Lewis), UCLA alumnus Ed Neumeier, UCLA alumnus Michael Miner (co-writer), Phil Tippett (ED-209 visual effects designer...
June 1, 2012 - 7:30pm
Co-Curated by Marina Goldovskaya and Samuel B. Prime
A Melnitz Movies and Documentary Salon Co-Presentation
Join us for a post-show Q&A with Battiste Fenwick, Kahlil Hudson, & Alex Jablonski, moderated by Marina Goldovskaya!
ONE MORE CHANCE:
ONE MORE CHANCE is an intimate portrait of Pedro Mata, a.k.a. Risky. Pedro joined a Los Angeles gang at age eleven and has been in and out of prison ever since. He has two violent felonies on his criminal record. If he commits a third one, he'll automatically spend the rest of his life in prison. He's twenty-five now and for the first time in his life, he wants to put the gang life behind him and stay out of prison. Pedro yearns for change and in an attempt for a complete transformation, he joins a firefighter training program. As Pedro embarks on this extraordinary journey of redemption, his demons resurface and it becomes clear that the biggest challenge he faces lies within his own soul. Pedro is a man with a big dream but what happens when the thing you fear the most is yourself?
LOW & CLEAR:
The story of two one-time friends, J.T. Van Zandt and Alex “Xenie” Hall. J.T. is the fresh-faced son of a legendary musician and...
June 5, 2012 - 7:30pm
Iris is both Jack’s best friend and his dead brother’s ex — which makes them almost like siblings. It also complicates the not-so-platonic feelings Iris may have developed for Jack. Lynn Shelton’s 2009 film HUMPDAY balanced an out-there premise — two straight men test their male identities by making a gay porn — with a grounded understanding of male friendship and post-twenties anxiety. YOUR SISTER'S SISTER builds upon HUMPDAY’s emotional honesty and naturalistic humor, marking a true maturation for Shelton as a filmmaker.
A year after his brother’s death, Jack (Mark Duplass) still see-saws between emotionally wobbly and outright volatile. When he makes a scene at a memorial party, Iris (Emily Blunt) intervenes with a plan: Jack must oil up his old bike and trek to her father’s cabin on an island on Puget Sound, where isolation will give his brain a chance to detangle. When Jack gets to the woods, however, he finds not solitude but Iris’ sister Hannah (Rosemarie DeWitt), herself nursing a wounded heart and a bottle of tequila. After several shots and some slurred commiseration, liquor isn’t the only fluid these two end up sharing. Their hangover descends in the form of Iris...