marathon wrapup
Last year was better, but this year was well worth going.
Cast and Credits
The marathon was pretty empty. The front stage had empty spots, the balcony was at best half full, and the number of people I knew was quite small. I hung out in the balcony with Dan Alt & his girlfriend Lee, Dan's friend Rachel Thurston(sp?) who was very nice, Malcolm & his girlfriend Karen, and that's about it. Scarily, the CTO of my company, Miguel, was there for a big chunk of it. He recognized me. There was also way too many fucking little kids. And their parents were even worse. They were very annoying, and it was enjoyable when one other marathon goer actually told a lady to please "shut up, or at least shut up your damn kids!"
People got a big kick of out of my "Republicans For Voldemort" shirt, especially Patty.
Dr. Pepper... of DOOOM!
I brought a pizza, a big batch of chocolate chip cookies, 3 packs of chewy sprees and 6 20oz bottles of Dr. Pepper with me. When I opened the first Dr. Pepper, it sprayed quite a bit. I cleaned it up and resolved to open the next one over a trash can. Good thing, because it sprayed a whole bunch too, soaking my tshirt. The third one I tried to open over the water fountain upstairs. Spray hit the walls a good three feet over the top of the fountain. I gave up and threw the other ones away.
I have no idea why this happened. They weren't very cold, once I got to the marathon I set them upright and I didn't move them up at all until it was time to open them. My best guess is that the higher elevations in the balcony did it ;-)
Quick Reviews
I saw all of 9 movies, and big chunks of two more, plus 2/3 of the truly dreadful "Lost Planet" serial. I went home to sleep and missed Stay Tuned & Robocop, coming back more than halfway through Spy Kids 2, but the four hours of sleep were well worth it. When the second surprise turned out to be Minority Report I went home and relaxed a bit and changed my tshirt to one that didn't have Dr. Pepper all over it.
Anyway, t0d posted some quick hits if you want. Here is the real quick hits:
The Lost Planet serial - Dear god. This was awful. Malcolm claimed it was a lot better than the Flash Gordon serial (getting the Queen theme music from the movie stuck in my head in the process) but this was plenty bad in every way.
The Core -- ok, this sucked. Really badly. Maybe it's just me, but I find Hilary Swank or whatever the hell her name is to be unattractive and not a good actress. Not that good acting would have saved this movie. A real groaner. Think Red Planet with even worse science, and no hot chick to look at.
Titan A.E. -- surprisingly, this was the first time I'd seen the entire movie. Not a horrible movie, but not much good either. As Dan said, it'd be better called Titan Eh.
Battlestar Galactica -- The first surprise was a nice new print of a not particularly good movie that was appreciated by most of the crowd. Some parts were very imaginative, but it's hard to believe this film came after Star Wars and still has suck lousy space sequences. What, did Lucas have a monopoly on talented effects guys?
Beware! The Blob! - Uh, right. A bad B film. Fun at times, and there were definitely characters who I was glad to see eaten. A popular choice to sleep through.
I went home and slept through Stay Tuned & Robocop, and missed half of Spy Kids 2. Too bad, because what I saw of Spy Kids 2 was very good. On the other hand, me showering before returning was also very good.
The Three Stooges in Orbit - The 3 Stooges can do no wrong in my mind, even in this later version with Curly Joe. Great fun. I think Malcolm and I were the only two people there who were looking forward to this film. Which just goes to show that Malcolm has excellent taste in some areas.
Last Action Hero - I love this movie and it was great to see it again. I think this is the best Ahnuld movie, barring only T1 and maybe Predator. Even better this time because it has a lot of lines ripping useless politicians, and the governor jokes were many and legion. Plus Tina Turner as the mayor!
The Truman Show - I'd seen this before. The first time I wasn't much impressed, but on a second viewing I think that this is actually one of the better movies in the last 10 years.
Surprise II was Minority Report, which I've seen (and liked) so I went home and cleaned up and relaxed. Amazing how much more awake just the simple act of brushing your teeth can make you feel.
Americathon - This movie was horrible. It was SOOOO much fun. I highly recommend it for a bad movie night. It had Pinto from Animal House, Fred Willard, John Ritter as POTUS, cameos from Meat Loaf, Elvis Costello, Jay Leno, Jay Leno's chin, George Carlin doing voiceover, and a great deal of fun. Political Correctness was very obviously not a consideration in 1979 and thank god for that. Best bits were the throw away line that "in the 1980s China had beaten Russia in many area, including ping pong and nuclear war", England as the 51st state of the US, and the revelation that "After Carter got the Israelis and the Arabs to agree on peace terms, they discovered they liked it so much that they unified their countries and formed the Unified Hebrabic (sp?) Republic, based on the principles of world conquest, domination, and throwing great parties on Saturday night." Plus they sold San Diego to Mexico to make money, and it was renamed Tijuana Heights. Dan thought it one of the worst films he'd ever seen, and on the surface I have to agree, but I had a great time. How many movies do you know that have both a rip on Cleveland ("I don't mind owning some parts of the US. Hawaii is nice, and I like Idaho, but who wants Cleveland?") and even better, on North Dakota! They show a postcard of Mt. Rushmore (which is in South Dakota) where each president has an earring, and say "it had firm support from North Dakota, the first openly gay state!" Yeah, everyone in the theater turned to stare at the guy yelling for that line - Dan & Malcolm broke up. Nice to be famous. I don't know which is more amusing - that they got the geography wrong or the idea of NoDak as a gay state. Rent this sometime when you're in the mood for stupidity. Even better, WRUW has the soundtrack. On vinyl, of course.
LXG - great production design, bad scriptwriting. A good bad movie, but the potential they wasted from the original comic is just painful. Apparently the Nautilus is in fact bigger than a modern day Los Angeles class sub and much much faster than any other ship or sub in the water. Whatever. If you pretend logic doesn't exist and don't compare it to the comic, it's pretty good.
Since the marathon was a good three hours behind schedule at this point I decided sleep trumped Rollerball and went home after walking Rachel to her car.
Mark down 1/14-1/15 2005 for the 30th marathon. It's gonna be great!
Cast and Credits
The marathon was pretty empty. The front stage had empty spots, the balcony was at best half full, and the number of people I knew was quite small. I hung out in the balcony with Dan Alt & his girlfriend Lee, Dan's friend Rachel Thurston(sp?) who was very nice, Malcolm & his girlfriend Karen, and that's about it. Scarily, the CTO of my company, Miguel, was there for a big chunk of it. He recognized me. There was also way too many fucking little kids. And their parents were even worse. They were very annoying, and it was enjoyable when one other marathon goer actually told a lady to please "shut up, or at least shut up your damn kids!"
People got a big kick of out of my "Republicans For Voldemort" shirt, especially Patty.
Dr. Pepper... of DOOOM!
I brought a pizza, a big batch of chocolate chip cookies, 3 packs of chewy sprees and 6 20oz bottles of Dr. Pepper with me. When I opened the first Dr. Pepper, it sprayed quite a bit. I cleaned it up and resolved to open the next one over a trash can. Good thing, because it sprayed a whole bunch too, soaking my tshirt. The third one I tried to open over the water fountain upstairs. Spray hit the walls a good three feet over the top of the fountain. I gave up and threw the other ones away.
I have no idea why this happened. They weren't very cold, once I got to the marathon I set them upright and I didn't move them up at all until it was time to open them. My best guess is that the higher elevations in the balcony did it ;-)
Quick Reviews
I saw all of 9 movies, and big chunks of two more, plus 2/3 of the truly dreadful "Lost Planet" serial. I went home to sleep and missed Stay Tuned & Robocop, coming back more than halfway through Spy Kids 2, but the four hours of sleep were well worth it. When the second surprise turned out to be Minority Report I went home and relaxed a bit and changed my tshirt to one that didn't have Dr. Pepper all over it.
Anyway, t0d posted some quick hits if you want. Here is the real quick hits:
The Lost Planet serial - Dear god. This was awful. Malcolm claimed it was a lot better than the Flash Gordon serial (getting the Queen theme music from the movie stuck in my head in the process) but this was plenty bad in every way.
The Core -- ok, this sucked. Really badly. Maybe it's just me, but I find Hilary Swank or whatever the hell her name is to be unattractive and not a good actress. Not that good acting would have saved this movie. A real groaner. Think Red Planet with even worse science, and no hot chick to look at.
Titan A.E. -- surprisingly, this was the first time I'd seen the entire movie. Not a horrible movie, but not much good either. As Dan said, it'd be better called Titan Eh.
Battlestar Galactica -- The first surprise was a nice new print of a not particularly good movie that was appreciated by most of the crowd. Some parts were very imaginative, but it's hard to believe this film came after Star Wars and still has suck lousy space sequences. What, did Lucas have a monopoly on talented effects guys?
Beware! The Blob! - Uh, right. A bad B film. Fun at times, and there were definitely characters who I was glad to see eaten. A popular choice to sleep through.
I went home and slept through Stay Tuned & Robocop, and missed half of Spy Kids 2. Too bad, because what I saw of Spy Kids 2 was very good. On the other hand, me showering before returning was also very good.
The Three Stooges in Orbit - The 3 Stooges can do no wrong in my mind, even in this later version with Curly Joe. Great fun. I think Malcolm and I were the only two people there who were looking forward to this film. Which just goes to show that Malcolm has excellent taste in some areas.
Last Action Hero - I love this movie and it was great to see it again. I think this is the best Ahnuld movie, barring only T1 and maybe Predator. Even better this time because it has a lot of lines ripping useless politicians, and the governor jokes were many and legion. Plus Tina Turner as the mayor!
The Truman Show - I'd seen this before. The first time I wasn't much impressed, but on a second viewing I think that this is actually one of the better movies in the last 10 years.
Surprise II was Minority Report, which I've seen (and liked) so I went home and cleaned up and relaxed. Amazing how much more awake just the simple act of brushing your teeth can make you feel.
Americathon - This movie was horrible. It was SOOOO much fun. I highly recommend it for a bad movie night. It had Pinto from Animal House, Fred Willard, John Ritter as POTUS, cameos from Meat Loaf, Elvis Costello, Jay Leno, Jay Leno's chin, George Carlin doing voiceover, and a great deal of fun. Political Correctness was very obviously not a consideration in 1979 and thank god for that. Best bits were the throw away line that "in the 1980s China had beaten Russia in many area, including ping pong and nuclear war", England as the 51st state of the US, and the revelation that "After Carter got the Israelis and the Arabs to agree on peace terms, they discovered they liked it so much that they unified their countries and formed the Unified Hebrabic (sp?) Republic, based on the principles of world conquest, domination, and throwing great parties on Saturday night." Plus they sold San Diego to Mexico to make money, and it was renamed Tijuana Heights. Dan thought it one of the worst films he'd ever seen, and on the surface I have to agree, but I had a great time. How many movies do you know that have both a rip on Cleveland ("I don't mind owning some parts of the US. Hawaii is nice, and I like Idaho, but who wants Cleveland?") and even better, on North Dakota! They show a postcard of Mt. Rushmore (which is in South Dakota) where each president has an earring, and say "it had firm support from North Dakota, the first openly gay state!" Yeah, everyone in the theater turned to stare at the guy yelling for that line - Dan & Malcolm broke up. Nice to be famous. I don't know which is more amusing - that they got the geography wrong or the idea of NoDak as a gay state. Rent this sometime when you're in the mood for stupidity. Even better, WRUW has the soundtrack. On vinyl, of course.
LXG - great production design, bad scriptwriting. A good bad movie, but the potential they wasted from the original comic is just painful. Apparently the Nautilus is in fact bigger than a modern day Los Angeles class sub and much much faster than any other ship or sub in the water. Whatever. If you pretend logic doesn't exist and don't compare it to the comic, it's pretty good.
Since the marathon was a good three hours behind schedule at this point I decided sleep trumped Rollerball and went home after walking Rachel to her car.
Mark down 1/14-1/15 2005 for the 30th marathon. It's gonna be great!