Another great weekend, thanks to Bruce and Jeff and all involved!
Seemed like a healthy crowd this year. The late announcement and lack of early ticket sales didn't seem to hurt the attendance too much. Met a number of new folks this year. I hope they all had a good time and will come back for more.
The snarking was pretty tolerable this year, ie. not much at all. One guy wouldn't shut up for most of Attack The Block, but after that movie he seemed to get the message that he wasn't funny. Heard some whining going on during The Captains, and while understandable, for one or two folks it seemed to quickly reach a rather pitiful level. If you hate a movie that much and can't wait for it to be over, please, just get up and walk out. Don't sit there in your seat and whine like a 4-year-old for 30 straight minutes. Shatner sez: Get a life!
Overall, the film lineup seemed to be a bit weaker than the past few years, and yet I still really enjoyed the event as a whole. I think that's really telling of just how great the marathon format is what a great job Bruce and Co do with programming it.
The costume contest was the best one we've had in years, props to all who participated. My favoite was actually the group of 5 hooligans from Attack The Block. For some reason they didn't seem to go over very well. Oh well, I liked the idea.
Christopher Walken contest was pretty good too. Nice way to mix things up, and nice work by the participants to pretty much come up with something on the fly. You go to hell!
Did Spaceboy really not play this year? I just assumed it played with the really early trailers before noon, or I somehow missed it during a bathroom break. Suffice it to say, I didn't miss Spaceboy.
Very happy to see the return of Gravity. I could tell that a number of folks around me had never seen it before, and unsurprisingly they all enjoyed their introduction to it.
What the hell was that French thing we watched at the start? That was some seriously weird shit. Entertaining. Bizarre. Thanks for digging it up. Four days later, I'm getting a deja vu feeling that I've seen it before, but I think that's just some 4 day old memories.
Personally, I did a pretty good job of staying awake this year. I slept through about 20 minutes of Manborg, and about 20 minutes of Reptilicus, but was awake for everything else. Don't think I could ask for much more than that.
In general order of favorite to least favorite:
Battle Royale - A great piece of film-making and a great snapshot of Japanese youth. A really entertaining variety of kills, and a great blend of humor and action and drama. Not sure you can ask for anything more than that out of a movie.
The Last Push - I kind of thought I'd like this, though I was a little worried that it'd get boring. I needn't have worried. A very entertaining film with a couple surprisingly gorgeous visuals considering the budget, and some good character building from the lead, thanks in part to well-defined supporting characters. And then to think it got even better after the movie ended, as we were treated to a brief discussion with a director who seemed to GENUINELY care about what we thought and seemed to truly appreciate our reactions. A gigantic thumbs up to him. So impressed was I that I may even consider buying the dvd now, which believe me, is not common.
They Live - Outstanding! I'm pleased to report that some folks around me were being introduced to this gem of a film for the first time, so good job Bruce for showing it. (I could hear that they had no idea how awesome that fight scene was going to be.) Really love the whole tone of it, and yes, the world always comes full circle and it's as appropriate as ever today. Therefore I declare it to be visionary. I have spoken.
Attack The Block - Seen it before, and I'm pleased to report that it held up extremely well on second viewing. Moses is a great character, and it's a truly powerful moment when we find out he's just a kid. Lots of great characters and scenes throughout, its just a flat out entertaining movie.
Brainstorm - As mentioned by others, the robot hijinks really struck me as out of place, but this film deserves some credit for going to some interesting places. A couple scenes really made it great to see with a marathon crowd.
Source Code - I could've flipped this spot with Brainstorm. I hadn't seen it before, and I enjoyed it. An interesting idea, though I had some trouble with the ending. Maybe I was just a bit too sleepy at that point, so maybe I misunderstood it. Did our hero really steal that other guy's life? If so, it bothered me quite a bit, that didn't seem right at all. I have to admit, I was kind of hoping that he would turn out to be the villain, that would've been an acceptable twist.
Reptilicus - Holy smokes, what a gorgeous print. I had no idea that such old films could look so good! Reptilicus is a fun little flick, nothing special, just your stereotypical characters going up against your typical monster, with the usual Danish travelogue mixed in throughout. (Who didn't enjoy the singer at the restaurant?)
Green Slime - I see some folks above describing it as great fun. I don't think they watched the same thing I did. It was a good to decent movie, and it was especially appreciated as a step back into normal-moviehood after the back-to-back super slow flicks that preceded it. Nothing awesome, but I certainly enjoyed it simply for the fact that it was a normal movie.
The Captains - Oh boy, where to start? Let's just say that I FULLY SUPPORT DOCUMENTARIES and look forward to seeing more in the future. I'm a bit of a Star Trek fan, and I certainly found a good portion of this to be entertaining. Overall, I enjoyed it, though I think most can agree that the first 60 minutes was far more watchable than the last 30 minutes. That Shatner is something else, isn't he? Oh boy, you gotta admit, that thing got the crowd good and united at the end. I love Sisko and Deep Space Nine, but holy shit, Shatner and Brooks should NEVER EVER be allowed to be in the same room ever again. Spock's brain would have exploded. The universe will break down if it ever happens again. Bakula is as awesome as always (that reminds me, I want Lord Of Illusions at this year's horror thon), and some of the exchanges between Shatner and Kate Mulgrew were just SHOCKING. "You're wrong about how you feel." Wow, Shatner, just wow. But that amazingly long lead-in from Shatner to Stewart at the end just really took the cake. The continuing cutaways to Stewart just sitting there were classic. I laughed and cried at the same time for different reasons.
Once again, overall I enjoyed this (though they could have cut a good 20 minutes from the end, hello ducks in the park).
Electroma - I won't say I hated it because I most certainly did not hate it. But this was definitely not a marathon movie. Definitely artsitic and experimental filmmaking. The opening 8-10 minute shots of the car driving should have been a sign to most folks here to leave. Too bad a lot of folks didn't get the message. Sure, it absolutely could have been shorter, but that wasn't the point. That would have made it a different movie. Props to the ice cream cone. Interesting shrubbery in the desert.
Manborg - The parts that I was awake for I found to be semi-acceptable, but not exactly worth staying awake for. So I didn't. This may have been better appreciated at a better hour. Then again, maybe not. It was exactly what it advertised itself to be, so it really doesn't deserve any complaints heaped on it.
Hmm, I guess I wound up appreciating just about everything in one way or another, so maybe this wasn't such a weak film lineup afterall.
Ask me again in another month or two.
|