This week, the oddest DVD to appear on release lists is:

“Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.”

New to Blu-ray is this 2006 horror comedy from that zestfully tasteless purveyor of the weird, wacky and crude, Troma Entertainment. This spicy bit of lunacy describes what happens when a fast-food chicken franchise is built on a sacred American Indian burial site that is rife with restless spirits. The result: zombie chickens!

Director Lloyd Kaufman and writers Daniel Bova and Gabriel Friedman are apparently suckers for shameless fast-food puns as they populate the tale with a hapless hero named Arbie; his lesbian sweetheart, Wendy; the blustery General Lee Roy, founder of the American Chicken Bunker franchise, and a bevy of fast-food workers with names like Denny, Carl Jr. and Jose Paco Bell. The wink-wink silliness reaches a self-referential zenith in the name of the sorely offended Indian tribe – the Tromahawks.

Of course, in its long history Troma has never experienced a moment of subtlety or a lapse in tastelessness as it has given us such aggressively low-brow classics as “The Toxic Avengers,” “Class of Nuke ’Em High,” “Surf Nazis Must Die,” “Pterodactyl Woman From Beverley Hills,” “Chopper Chicks in Zombietown,” “Dead Dudes in the House” and many that can’t be named in a PG-rated (or even an R-rated) blog. So “Poultrygeist …”  seems like a bland nugget in Troma’s usually raunchy happy meal.

“Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead” comes out on Blu-ray Tuesday. Its running time is 99 minutes, and the suggested retail price is $29.95.

– Dennis King

Documentary filmmaker Bradley Beesley

The Sooner filmmaker who put hand noodling for monstrous catfish on the cinema map now points his camera at a much more rarefied and elegant form of fishing in a splendid new short film titled “Currents of Belize.” Bradley Beesley, the Austin-based, independent director with deep Oklahoma roots, is a guy with a restless eye and a taste for decidedly off-the-beaten-path subcultures.

With a resume that ranges from the 2001 cult fave “Okie Noodling,” to the rough-and-tumble world of female roller derby in “RollerGirls,” to the hardscrabble doings of cowgirls behind bars in “Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo,” to the Boswell-like chronicling of Oklahoma City’s famed indie rockers The Flaming Lips in films such as “Fearless Freaks,” “U.F.O’s at the Zoo” and “Christmas on Mars,” Beesley has proven himself to be a filmmaker for all seasons.

In “Currents of Belize,” a half-hour documentary look at the sun-dappled Caribbean fly-fishing paradise and the increasing strains of tourism and development that the country struggles with, Beesley strikes a deftly balanced tone of concerned environmentalism and elegiac celebration.

Belize, a country often referred to as “Mother Nature’s best kept secret,” is experiencing an economic boom as tourists, especially globe-trotting saltwater fly anglers, flock to its sandy beaches and azure waters and as developers with foreign money buy up prime seaside property for construction of condos, resorts, golf courses and restaurants.

Two key figures in this story – the portly, grandfatherly Lincoln Westby and the athletic, darkly handsome Abbie Marin, both native Belizians and professional fly- fishing guides – stand astride the country’s difficult conflict between development and conservation.

Belize, with the second-largest barrier reef in the world, is a prime territory for the “big three” of light-tackle saltwater gamefish – bonefish, tarpon and permit. Of those, permit, as flat as dinner platters and silver as rays from the noonday sun, are among the most prized and elusive of ocean prey. It is said among serious fly fishers that a man can pursue permit around the globe for a lifetime and be lucky to catch one or two.

Abbie Marin’s sun-leathered father credibly claims to have caught more than a thousand. And, indeed, in the film Abbie casts gracefully and manages to land a prime permit as Beesley’s camera looks on. So both Marin and Westby certainly know how to catch fish and earn lucrative livings from helping tourists pursue them. They know the Central American country’s mangroves and saltwater flats intimately, and they know what a fragile ecosystem their livelihoods depend upon.

So, as Beesley’s cameras roll, each man speaks out on the wisdom of catch-and-release fishing. And each evolves as an eloquent advocate for careful, thoughtful development balanced with the pressing need to keep the pristine ocean environment of Belize healthy and unsullied by blind commercialism.

Al Perkinson, an executive for Costa sunglasses, the film’s producer, notes that Belize is “home to the best flats fishing on the planet.”

“You see the paradox being created there,” he said, “in that the more people come there to fish, the higher the chance the area has of depleting its natural resources and eliminating the livelihood for generations of fishermen.”

Beesley, who previously co-directed an environmental documentary titled “The Creek Runs Red,” which examines the toxic legacy of Picher, Oklahoma’s, lead mining industry, seems to uniquely adept with this sort of material. Neither too strident in his political thrust nor too blithe in his celebration of the land’s dazzling beauty, his “Currents of Belize” is a passionate yet reasoned plea for a thoughtful balance of development and preservation.

To view the documentary and get more information on conservation efforts in Belize, log on to www.currentsofbelize.com.

– Dennis King

For movie lovers who in this online, digital age are still enamored of old-fashioned, ink-and-paper journalism, there’s a rich repository of classic Hollywood movies that chronicle the dicey doings of the trade’s dogged newshounds, gossip columnists, sensation-seeking editors and sappy sob-sisters.

Newspaper yarns of all stripes have been a movie staple throughout film history – dating back to the wild-and-raucous days of “The Front Page” to the grand megalomania of “Citizen Kane,” and on through the buttoned-down investigative procedures of “All the President’s Men.”

Beginning April 9, New York’s Film Forum will host a four-week festival called “The Newspaper Picture,” celebrating the good, the bad and the ugly of daily journalism. In a 43-film extravaganza highlighting some of the best films ever made about newspapering, the fest will present daily screenings along with panel discussions with several notables of the profession.

High on the roster of scheduled movies – all in 35mm prints – is: Billy Wilder’s “Ace in the Hole” with Kirk Douglas; Mervyn LeRoy’s “Five Star Final,” with Edward G. Robinson; Michael Curtiz’s “Front Page Woman,” with Bette Davis; “Deadline U.S.A.,” with Humphrey Bogart; Sam Fuller’s “Shock Corridor”; Alexander Mackendrick’s “Sweet Smell of Success,” with Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis; Frank Capra’s “Meet John Doe,” with Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck; Howard Hawks’ “His Girl Friday,” with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell, based on Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s “The Front Page,” and Lewis Milestone’s rare, original 1931 version starring Adolphe Menjou and Pat O’Brien.

Special guests for panel discussions will include Brooke Gladstone, co-host of NPR’s “On the Media,” Randy Cohen, “The Ethicist” of The New York Times, V.A. Musetto of the New York Post and writer James Lardner, son of screenwriter Ring Lardner Jr. and grandson of humorist and old newspaperman Ring Lardner.

For Oklahoma fans who can’t quite manage a trip to New York for the festival, all featured films are available on DVD or video. Log on to www.filmforum.com for a complete list of festival offerings and organize your own at-home festival.

And in case you’re too quick to write off newspapers as cultural dinosaurs and newspaper movies as Hollywood relics, check out a couple of recent additions to newsprint-on-celluloid genre – “State of Play,” with Russell Crowe as an old-school print reporter investigating the murder of a Congressman’s mistress, and “The Soloist,” with Robert Downey, Jr. as a Los Angeles newspaper columnist who champions Jamie Foxx’s homeless violin virtuoso.

Who says newspapers are dead?

– Dennis King

Just as baseball’s future stars learn their chops playing in the minor leagues, Oscar, too, has its own unofficial farm system for training major-league filmmakers of the future.

It’s the nation’s fertile league of university film programs, and to these the call has gone out for entries into the 37^th Student Academy Awards competition. Applications are open through April 1 for budding young directors to submit short films of 40 minutes or less for prize consideration. Deadline for foreign entries is March 25.

Since the Student Oscars’ inception in 1972, as a way for the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence in filmmaking at the collegiate level, an impressive roster of future filmmaking stars has garnered trophies (though not actual Oscar statuettes) and cash prizes.

Notable student Oscar winners who have gone on to successful film careers (and even big-league Oscars) include:

John Lasseter (California Institute of the Arts), a two-time student winner who went on to become a creative force at Pixar, earn five Oscar nominations for his animation work and take home two statuettes (for the short film “Tin Toy” and for special achievement for “Toy Story”).

Robert Zemeckis (University of Southern California), who went on to earn an original screenplay Oscar nomination for “Back to the Future” and an Academy Award for directing “Forrest Gump.”

Spike Lee (New York University), who would go on to earn two Academy Award nominations (for the original screenplay of “Do the Right Thing” and in documentary feature for “4 Little Girls”).

Pete Docter (California Institute of the Arts), who went on to become another Pixar creative force and win Oscar nominations for the screenplay of “Toy Story,” for “Monsters, Inc.,” for the animated short “Mike’s New Car,” for the screenplay of “Wall-E” and this year two nominations for “Up” (best original screenplay and best animated feature).

Trey Parker (University of Colorado), who parlayed his student animation prize into a partnership with Matt Stone and a signature animation style that’s marked their work on the irreverent TV series “South Park” and its 1999 film spinoff.

The competition, aimed at recognizing and encouraging young filmmakers with no previous professional experience, is limited to those enrolled as full-time students in accredited, degree-granting programs.

Gold, Silver and Bronze Medal Awards (along with cash grants of $5,000, $3,000 and $2,000, respectively) are given in four categories – animation, documentary, narrative and alternative.

Guidelines and application forms for the 37^th Student Academy Awards can be found on-line at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences website. Announcement of winners will be made at the Student Academy Award Presentations on June 12 in Beverly Hills, CA.

- Dennis King

BY DENNIS KING

Spring is jam-packed with film festivals in varying shades of hipness, exclusivity and adventurousness, most of them aimed at showcasing the latest, cutting-edge works of cinema.

But for the old popcorn-munchers among us, for whom cinema dreams most often occur in black-and-white (and, well OK, occasionally in widescreen Technicolor with plush curtains and footlights), a brave new film festival is in the offing. And it’s one that’s both exhilarating in its originality and comforting in its traditionalism.

It’s the first, and one hopes annual, TCM Classic Film Festival taking place April 22-25 in that most mythic of movie meccas – Hollywood.

Turner Classic Movies has since its founding in 1994 been the go-to cable TV channel for lovers of old movies. Its extensive library is a priceless treasure trove of everything from silent films, to screwball comedies of the 1930s and ’40s, film noir of the 1950s, glamorous escapist musicals, weepy melodramas, tingling mysteries, galloping cowboy movies and virtually anything else that might be classified in film as “classic.”

So, who better to initiate such a celebration?

Over four days and nights, the TCM festival – taking place at storied venues such as Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel and the Egyptian Theatre – will feature some 50 film screenings with special appearances by actors, actresses, directors, producers and other notables. There will also be red-carpet galas, tributes to classic stars and filmmakers, first looks at newly restored films, a sneak preview of the new documentary “Moguls and Movie Stars: A History of Hollywood” and interviews and panel discussions with an impressive roster of movie luminaries.

Naturally, rubbing shoulders with Hollywood blue-bloods such as directors Mel Brooks (who’ll unveil his new star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame) and Peter Bogdanovich, actors Norman Lloyd, Tony Curtis, Martin Landau and Jerry Lewis, writer Buck Henry, film critic and historian Leonard Maltin, 100-year-old actress Luise Rainer and, of course, TCM’s own host with the most, Robert Osborne, doesn’t come free.

From out here in the deep balcony seats of Oklahoma, it’s a far piece to Tinseltown. But for those who can spring for air fare and lodging, festival tickets are now being sold through TCM’s website (www.tcm.com/festival).

Passes are available on three levels – The Classic, The Essential and The Spotlight – carrying escalating perks and access. And they’ll set you back, respectively, $499, $599 and a whopping $1,199 (which provides V.I.P. entry to all events and venues).

But the opportunity to view such classics as “Casablanca,” “The Adventures of Robin Hood,” “The Magnificent Ambersons,” “The Producers” and more on the big screen in archival prints is reason enough to celebrate this rare festival.

TCM’s website contains a list of films being screened, special events, panel discussions, invited guests and amenities for festival-goers. The site is updated regularly as new festival features are announced.

This week, the oddest DVD to appear on release lists is:

“I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle”

This 1990 low-budget British horror spoof sounds like an unlikely mash-up of conventions from pulpy horror movies and “Popular Mechanics” magazine.

It’s set in Birmingham, England, and features a bloke named Noddy (Neil Morrissey) who buys a beat-up old motorcycle – a classic 750cc Norton Commando – to restore. But, it turns out, the bike has a bloody history, having once belonged to an occultist who was murdered by members of a motorcycle gang.

So the bike is possessed by a vengeful spirit and has a taste for blood. Every time it’s revved up, it tears off on a murderous, tire-squealing rampage that leaves gory road-kill and mutilated Hell’s Angels in its wake.

It’s goofy stuff, indeed, and the movie given an extra measure of British loopiness by the fact that Morrissey is the guy who provides the voice for the kiddy cartoon favorite “Bob the Builder.” Also, inhabiting the role of an eccentric priest who attempts to exorcise the bike’s evil spirit is actor Anthony Daniels, probably best remembered as the fuss-budget voice of “Star Wars” robot C-3PO.

“I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle” is due out Tuesday on DVD from the distributor Redemption USA. Suggested list price is $19.95.

– Dennis King

This weekend, it hit the wires that Kevin Smith, the director of “Clerks,” “Chasing Amy,” “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” and the upcoming “Cop Out,” was asked to leave a Southwest Airlines flight from Oakland to Burbank when the flight crew determined he was too heavy to fit in one of their seats.

In the hours following the flight, Smith sent out a flurry of Tweets from his popular Twitter account, @ThatKevinSmith, castigating the airline for ejecting him from the flight when he claimed he could easily pass the “arm rest test,” meaning he could fit between armrests in the seat.

According to Smith, he is not to the point where he cannot pass that test.

“I’m way fat, but I’m not there just yet,” Smith Tweeted.

More about the situation at  Staticblog.

- George Lang

Now that the 82^nd Academy Awards nominations have been announced, the silly season of movie punditry is in full swing.

Everywhere – from blogs such as this, to slick magazine layouts, to TV talk shows, water-cooler conversations, coffeehouse bull sessions and barroom arguments – movie “experts,” film buffs and popcorn junkies alike will fill up the days until the March 7 awards broadcast with nitpicky analyses of all things Oscar.

Already, we’ve seen floated these bits of Oscar arcana:

– Meryl Streep’s nomination for best actress for “Julie & Julia” is her 16^th, an all-time high. Following are Katharine Hepburn and Jack Nicholson with 12 each. Wow!

– Kathryn Bigelow, nominated as best director for “The Hurt Locker,” is only the fourth woman ever nominated for directing. And how can you miss the fact that she’s competing against her ex-husband James Cameron, who’s nominated for “Avatar?” Juicy!

– The field of 10 nominees for best picture is a first in decades for the staid old Academy and opens up a whole field of debate concerning the artistic merit of tasteful, low-budget art films and big-budget studio juggernauts. Hmm. Interesting.

– “Up” is only the second full-length animated feature nominated for best picture. The first was “Beauty and the Beast” in 1991. Zowie!

– And this really obscure bit of trivia: “The White Ribbon” (“Das Weisse Band”) from Germany is the ninth predominantly black-and-white film to be nominated for cinematography since 1967, when a separate category for black-and-white was eliminated. Woo-hoo!

It’s all in good fun and helps generate some interest, excitement and heat through the dankest weeks of winter. But it’s always worth noting at this time of year that all our deepest insights and brainiest prognostications are just so much babble. All that really counts is the voting tally of 6,000 (give or take) elite members of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences.

They’re a pampered gaggle of Hollywood insiders consisting of artists and professionals who work in the film industry. The Academy is made up of 15 branches representing a range of crafts vital to creating and marketing motion pictures.

Those branches and their membership numbers are: Actors (1,205), Art Directors (374), Cinematographers (200), Directors (366), Documentary (151), Executives (437), Film Editors (221), Makeup Artists & Hairstylists (118), Music (234), Producers (452), Public Relations (368), Short Films and Feature Animation (340), Sound (405), Visual Effects (279) and Writers (382).

In addition, there are various life and at-large members not assigned to specific branches, and all Oscar winners each year are automatically afforded Academy membership.

So, try as we might to read the tea leaves and divine some logic or pattern in the process, predicting Oscars is a futile exercise. Given a business that’s rife with political intrigue, boardroom wheeling and dealing, closely held loyalties, fierce grudges and fragile egos – not to mention an arcane voting process – it’s all about as precise and fair as voting for high-school prom queen.

But the Oscar babble goes on, and we’ll join in the blah-blah-blah occasionally from way out here in the cheap seats. So pass the popcorn, please.

– Dennis King

BY DENNIS KING

It may seem morbid to say, but one of the most compelling, if not entertaining, features of each year’s Oscar telecast is the video montage paying tribute to Academy members who’ve died in the past year.

Generally, the montages – consisting of stirring music, still photos and film clips, along with the dearly departed’s name and show-biz distinction – are tasteful and artful. But that’s undercut with a bit of Hollywood tackiness as the more famous dead inevitably illicit an uncomfortable smattering of applause while less-famous figures – producers, make-up artists, screenwriters and the like – ghost past to ho-hum silence. The big stars get their final curtain call; the little people get respectful indifference.

Anyway, the list of Academy members who’ve gone on to the Big Craft Services Table in the Sky since last year currently numbers 78 (there’s a list on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences website).

Among the most recognizable are: Gene Barry, Dom DeLuise, Farrah Fawcett, Henry Gibson, Karl Malden, Brittany Murphy, Natasha Richardson, Ron Silver, Arnold Stang and Patrick Swayze – actors all.

A few non-actors who might stir an inkling of recognition include: screenwriters Horton Foote (“Tender Mercies,” “A Trip to Bountiful”) and Larry Gelbart (“Tootsie”),  Roy E. Disney (a member of the Executives Branch and Walt’s uncle), musical composer Maurice Jarre (“Lawrence of Arabia,” “Doctor Zhivago”) and director John Hughes (“16 Candles,” “The Breakfast Club”).

Tune in to the telecast of the 82^nd Academy Awards on March 7 to bid farewell to these and other less famous Oscar insiders. R.I.P.

This week, the oddest DVD to appear on release lists is:

“The Bad Girls of Film Noir, Volumes 1 & 2”

Back in the 1940s and ’50s, when double features were the norm, some of the juiciest movie roles for women came in playing femmes fatale in shadowy film noir crime sizzlers. These black-and-white B-pictures were generally low-budget programmers concerning some poor sap of a male who falls prey to the wiles of a sultry, calculating vamp.

This week marks the release of two DVD volumes featuring some steamy hallmarks of the hard-boiled genre. Volume 1 includes “The Killer That Stalked New York,” “Two of a Kind,” “Bad for Each Other” and “The Glass Wall.” Volume 2 features “Night Editor,” “One Girl’s Confession,” “Women’s Prison” and “Over-Exposed.”

The roster of the deadly dames slinking through these choice roles includes the likes of Lizabeth Scott, Gloria Grahame, Evelyn Keyes, Cleo Moore, Audrey Trotter and Ida Lupino. And the male actors who fell victim to their murderously seductive ways ranged from Edmund O’Brien to Charleton Heston to Vittorio Gassman.

The films are newly restored, re-mastered and available for the first time on DVD, while still retaining all the grit and smoky, bad-girl vibe of the originals. Bonus features include original theatrical trailers, an interview with “Two of a Kind” co-star Terry Moore, a vintage TV episode of “The Payoff” with Janet Blaire and Howard Duff and more.

Both four-film sets release on Tuesday and retail at a suggested $25 each.

– Dennis King