'Midnites for Maniacs': Great 'bad' movies

It started out as an all-night slumber party - with free cereal served at 5 a.m. - called "Midnites for Maniacs." It was where bad movies went to be loved, and it soon became a big-crowd staple at the Castro Theatre. Except that founder and programmer Jesse Hawthorne Ficks almost doesn't believe in bad films.

"There are always movies that are misunderstood at the time," Ficks said over lunch at a downtown Thai restaurant. "I do feel I've seen a few bad films that have left me absolutely empty. But if a film is earnest, I can bring something to a movie myself - and make it good. As an audience, maybe we are active participants."

Ficks' latest Friday triple feature, the last of the year, is a 1990s program that includes Paul Verhoeven's "Starship Troopers," Baz Luhrmann's "Romeo + Juliet" with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes in gangland, and Josh Whedon's original "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," with Kristy Swanson originating the role that Sarah Michelle Gellar would later make famous on television. "Starship Troopers" is "the greatest war movie ever made," says Ficks, who is not kidding, adding it has a correlation to the United States' conflicts.

Ficks, who teaches film history classes at the Academy of Art University and is the operations director at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, began "Midnites for Maniacs" at the 4 Star, where he worked from 1998 to 2003. He moved it to the Castro in 2005, where it was an immediate hit. Overall, the series has shown films such as "The Garbage Pail Kids Movie," "Roller Boogie" and the underrated (according to Ficks) "Gremlins 2."

The highlight of the series so far was a tribute to Peter Bogdanovich earlier this year, in which the master himself showed up - genuinely touched that Ficks would have an interest in "At Long Last Love," his Burt Reynolds-Cybill Shepherd vehicle that most consider a turkey. As it happened, Shepherd was in town for a play, and appeared onstage to sing with Bogdanovich.

"It was an unbelievable night," Ficks said. "I'm more inspired than I ever have been before."

Ficks' latest quest is to rehabilitate the reputation of Jean-Claude Van Damme. The martial arts action star of the '80s and '90s has fallen out of favor, which automatically touches Ficks' heart. He went to the Toronto Film Festival last month to scout Van Damme's latest, "JCVD," in which the Muscles From Brussels plays himself - a washed-up action star.

"It's a Belgian film that deconstructs his genre," Ficks said, his eyes lighting up at the prospect of a Van Damme retrospective. "All the movies I play are personal favorites. I don't program things I am not passionate about."

Shows Fri. ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer" 7:15 p.m.; "Romeo + Juliet" 9:15 p.m.; "Starship Troopers" 11:45 p.m.) at the Castro, 429 Castro St., San Francisco, (415) 621-6120, www.castrotheatre.com.

- G. Allen Johnson, ajohnson@sfchronicle.com

This article appeared on page G - 30 of the San Francisco Chronicle