(Alternate title: I Regret Nothing!)
So it was a Movie Marathon first last night: we threw in the towel two movies shy of the end. I'm not ashamed and I'm not disappointed by this. Two things killed us. First, lots and lots of shoveling. Second, the movies playing during that critical 3am - 6am timeslot were terribly dull (more on that later). It stop being fun and started being work, and everyone was dying to just go to bed, so I called it a night. We missed Footloose, which we've all seen, and Hedwig, which is actually a shame but I have no doubt I made the right call. As for the rest:
Bloodsport - Best marathon opener yet. Everyone was hyper, and on, and we just really enjoyed it. This movie is the template for so many martial arts movies that followed. Secret tournament, combatants with different backgrounds and fighting styles, and the hero wins. Excepting Timecop and that movie where he played twins, every Jean-Claude Van Damme movie since this is just Bloodsport with a different name.
Raising Arizona - Started brilliantly. The bit before the opening credits, which must have been fifteen minutes or so, moved at a mile a minute and I remember thinking they can't keep this pace up, can they? And they don't. It settles down after that, but it's still really funny. And it's... not quite surreal--let's say hyper-real? The movie gets crazy, but not so crazy that you get alienated and stop caring.
Casablanca - I thought this played well, but it's my absolute favourite movie so I'm a little biased.
Holes - I think most attendees picked this as their favourite movie of the night. I missed at least half of it while I was out exhuming cars from the driveway. When we all did our nerdy ranking of the movie selections, this one ranked second highest, and I probably wouldn't have thought to include it otherwise. Good call, folks.
Grey Gardens - Holy, holy, holy hell was that an excruciating movie to watch. I think the fact that it was a shared experience made it more tolerable, just so you could turn to your friend and say, "Is that actually cat shit on the their kitchen counter? For real?!?"
The Warriors - I almost didn't include this because it ranked so poorly, but it played fantastically. Fundamentally, it's a pretty silly movie, but it's perfect for a night like this. I love the idea of themed gangs, and that there were about six hundred different gangs in the city. Don't know about you, but I'm a Baseball Furies guy myself.
Cube - Hadn't seen this since it first came out, and it's a great little film. You've got to admire the ingenuity of it--getting so much out of one small set and probably not a lot of money. And it's Can-Con, which is another Marathon first.
Hard Candy - Strangely, this was the movie that ranked highest, a movie about a a pedophile who's captured by one of his potential victims and threatened with castration. It had a perfect tone for that time of night, had us on the edge of our seats. Mostly due to sympathetic groin discomfort.
Suspira - Such a terrible disappointment. Had wanted to see some Dario Argento, then caught a quote from Entertainment Weekly claiming it was "one of the scariest movies of all time," and then it just went and absolutely sucked. It starts with over-the-top gore, and then nothing happens for the next ninety minutes. As noted on Twitter, I was (briefly) the last one standing at this point.
Sunshine - Fairly boring despite a promising premise. I passed out about eighteen times and only Jorge caught the whole thing from start to finish. I didn't miss anything, apparently.
And that's when we surrendered. Despite the end, I still consider the event a success. I'd say last year was the best so far, because the late night movies were awesome and the energy was high from start to finish. Then comes this year. Then 2006 (too much -ploitation, too much late night black and white). Check out Barking Space for the A/V component of the night, which amuses the hell out of us.
So it was a Movie Marathon first last night: we threw in the towel two movies shy of the end. I'm not ashamed and I'm not disappointed by this. Two things killed us. First, lots and lots of shoveling. Second, the movies playing during that critical 3am - 6am timeslot were terribly dull (more on that later). It stop being fun and started being work, and everyone was dying to just go to bed, so I called it a night. We missed Footloose, which we've all seen, and Hedwig, which is actually a shame but I have no doubt I made the right call. As for the rest:
Bloodsport - Best marathon opener yet. Everyone was hyper, and on, and we just really enjoyed it. This movie is the template for so many martial arts movies that followed. Secret tournament, combatants with different backgrounds and fighting styles, and the hero wins. Excepting Timecop and that movie where he played twins, every Jean-Claude Van Damme movie since this is just Bloodsport with a different name.
Raising Arizona - Started brilliantly. The bit before the opening credits, which must have been fifteen minutes or so, moved at a mile a minute and I remember thinking they can't keep this pace up, can they? And they don't. It settles down after that, but it's still really funny. And it's... not quite surreal--let's say hyper-real? The movie gets crazy, but not so crazy that you get alienated and stop caring.
Casablanca - I thought this played well, but it's my absolute favourite movie so I'm a little biased.
Holes - I think most attendees picked this as their favourite movie of the night. I missed at least half of it while I was out exhuming cars from the driveway. When we all did our nerdy ranking of the movie selections, this one ranked second highest, and I probably wouldn't have thought to include it otherwise. Good call, folks.
Grey Gardens - Holy, holy, holy hell was that an excruciating movie to watch. I think the fact that it was a shared experience made it more tolerable, just so you could turn to your friend and say, "Is that actually cat shit on the their kitchen counter? For real?!?"
The Warriors - I almost didn't include this because it ranked so poorly, but it played fantastically. Fundamentally, it's a pretty silly movie, but it's perfect for a night like this. I love the idea of themed gangs, and that there were about six hundred different gangs in the city. Don't know about you, but I'm a Baseball Furies guy myself.
Cube - Hadn't seen this since it first came out, and it's a great little film. You've got to admire the ingenuity of it--getting so much out of one small set and probably not a lot of money. And it's Can-Con, which is another Marathon first.
Hard Candy - Strangely, this was the movie that ranked highest, a movie about a a pedophile who's captured by one of his potential victims and threatened with castration. It had a perfect tone for that time of night, had us on the edge of our seats. Mostly due to sympathetic groin discomfort.
Suspira - Such a terrible disappointment. Had wanted to see some Dario Argento, then caught a quote from Entertainment Weekly claiming it was "one of the scariest movies of all time," and then it just went and absolutely sucked. It starts with over-the-top gore, and then nothing happens for the next ninety minutes. As noted on Twitter, I was (briefly) the last one standing at this point.
Sunshine - Fairly boring despite a promising premise. I passed out about eighteen times and only Jorge caught the whole thing from start to finish. I didn't miss anything, apparently.
And that's when we surrendered. Despite the end, I still consider the event a success. I'd say last year was the best so far, because the late night movies were awesome and the energy was high from start to finish. Then comes this year. Then 2006 (too much -ploitation, too much late night black and white). Check out Barking Space for the A/V component of the night, which amuses the hell out of us.
Comments
I would have to agree about last year being the best so far, but this year had more peaks, I think.
Our own movies are getting funnier, if I may say so.