I am not a gun, either.
The Iron Giant played REALLY well to a good-sized Midnight Movie crowd last night. To a crowd that I think was larger than the ones that turned out for either The Nightmare Before Christmas or Raising Arizona, in fact, and that (to quote Gandalf) is a gladdening thing. Even with 30-ish-degree temps and on-and-off drizzles, people showed up. I hope people keep showing up, especially when weather gets better. And thank goodness the Bagdad was warm inside, to reward the people who showed up.
That film's grown on me. I actually liked The Iron Giant less than I thought I would when I saw it in 1999 (maybe someday I'll post my original review saying so), but I did see it again in the theaters that year and multiple times on small screens since. I was rewarded by revisiting it. I'm truly glad it's found a following, to a lesser extent than what The Shawshank Redemption got but more than, say, what one of my personal favorite movies (Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen) ever got. All really good films, at least I think so, but with varying audiences.
Now I kind of wish that Shawshank would be a Midnight Movie, but it probably wouldn't be a good choice. It may actually play better on smaller screens with smaller audiences; it's not a rah-rah sort of film that would get cheering, chanting crowds (like what The Iron Giant got last night, in fact). But do you know what is going to be a good choice for a Midnight Movie? What is in fact going to be February 5th's Midnight Movie?
Road House! The swimming-in-beautiful-muscle-cheese Road House! Patrick Swayze and Sam Elliott cleaning up a roughneck bar, armed with the power of tai chi, shirtlessness and hair! It's throat-rippingly good!
(This is the closest a mention of The Iron Giant has EVER been to a mention of throat-ripping.)
P.S. As I wrote two years ago when I finally saw all of Road House for the first time,
It probably says a lot about me that when watching Road House I find Kathleen Wilhoite far hotter than Kelly Lynch.
That film's grown on me. I actually liked The Iron Giant less than I thought I would when I saw it in 1999 (maybe someday I'll post my original review saying so), but I did see it again in the theaters that year and multiple times on small screens since. I was rewarded by revisiting it. I'm truly glad it's found a following, to a lesser extent than what The Shawshank Redemption got but more than, say, what one of my personal favorite movies (Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen) ever got. All really good films, at least I think so, but with varying audiences.
Now I kind of wish that Shawshank would be a Midnight Movie, but it probably wouldn't be a good choice. It may actually play better on smaller screens with smaller audiences; it's not a rah-rah sort of film that would get cheering, chanting crowds (like what The Iron Giant got last night, in fact). But do you know what is going to be a good choice for a Midnight Movie? What is in fact going to be February 5th's Midnight Movie?
Road House! The swimming-in-beautiful-muscle-cheese Road House! Patrick Swayze and Sam Elliott cleaning up a roughneck bar, armed with the power of tai chi, shirtlessness and hair! It's throat-rippingly good!
(This is the closest a mention of The Iron Giant has EVER been to a mention of throat-ripping.)
P.S. As I wrote two years ago when I finally saw all of Road House for the first time,
It probably says a lot about me that when watching Road House I find Kathleen Wilhoite far hotter than Kelly Lynch.