Ray Harryhausen at the Balboa
“The 7th Voyage of Sinbad”: It’s tough to think about 1950s science fiction and horror films without thinking of the innovative stopmotion animation work of Ray Harryhausen, at least in an intuitive sense. Like Chesley Bonestell’s interplanetary landscapes that so defined ’50s sci-fi, even if you don’t know the name, you know the work. A visual feast for children and adults alike, “The 7th Voyage of Sinbad,” Harryhausen’s first color film, creates a hypnotic, Technicolor-saturated fantasy world of eye-popping monsters, including a giant cyclops and sword-fighting skeleton. There’s an appealing roughness to Harryhausen’s work, which he called Dyna-mation, that has been lost in today’s cool, efficient, convincing computer-generated (CGI) effects. Think of CGI as a realistic photograph and a Harryhausen film as an impressionistic painting. To think, he was relevant from the 1940s through 1981’s “Clash of the Titans.” 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 15, at the Balboa Theatre, 3630 Balboa St., S.F. (415) 221-8184. www.cinemasf.com/balboa.
“Jurassic Park”: The early 1990s one-two punch of “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” and Steven Spielberg’s start to the “Jurassic” franchise is what helped kill off Harryhausen’s methods for good. And as much as we like Harryhausen’s dinosaur-ish creature in “The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms” (1953), “Jurassic Park” is the first movie in which dinosaurs were convincing. But Spielberg’s strength, even in his action films, is always story, and his visual inventiveness often expresses itself in subtle ways. With all of that special effects technology at his disposal, Spielberg first introduces us to a T. rex not with a scary CGI monster but a footprint, a shaking puddle of water and the far-off low-bass sound of gargantuan footsteps approaching. 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 14, at the Paramount Theatre, 2025 Broadway, Oakland. (510) 465-6400. www.paramounttheatre.com.
Japan Film Festival of San Francisco: The final weekend of an intriguingly eclectic mix of new Japanese cinema. Take your genre pick between anime (“The Case of Hana and Alice,” 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 13; “The Tale of Princess Kaguya,” 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 15); Pink (“Kabukicho Love Hotel,” 9:20 p.m. Friday, Aug. 14); documentary (“The Birth of Saké,” 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 15; noon Sunday, Aug. 16) or short films (“Tokyo Short Shorts,” 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 15). Through Aug. 16 at the New People Cinema, 1746 Post St., S.F. www.jffsf.org.