Better late than never. I suppose. I had a very busy week of work last week, so didn't get around to the site until today. I don't think I am going to go through a film by film breakdown. Just a few film comments. Okay, I lied.
The only negative I have, which is getting more negative as I think about it, is my hoodie. I'm the one who had his new hoodie go missing. I almost bought a t-shirt, decided no, let's splurge and get a sci-fi hoodie, since I have a horror one from years back. I thought I had left it on my seat when I went to turn in my ballot and get my starter cup of pop. I came back to find someone in my seat. He was nice enough to move. I was three rows from the back, next to the new seats. It actually worked nice getting in and out. Anyhow, I had put some of my stuff with another marathoid and thought the hoodie was there. I decided to run it out to the car and noticed it wasn't in with his stuff. Looked around, the folks around me looked around and that is when we figured out it was gone. I thought perhaps the guy who had grabbed my seat had mixed it in with his stuff by accident, but I didn't recall him well enough to find him. I said something to Joe and Bruce but alas, I still don't have it. I was hoping it was an innocent accident, I have never had anything go missing before and I still think it may be with someone's stuff and they never heard Joe and Bruce's comment and they are trying to figure out why they have it. The bummer is, by the time it was gone, all the shirts were sold out.
As for the nudity, sex, violence aspects with regards to parenting, Sergei, my older son who will turn 13 in May, was old enough to go this year and wanted to go, but was swimming at the Central/SE OH/ WV Championships in Canton. I might have steered him away from this year. As someone else mentioned the sex and or nudity isn't the problem in a film like Starman. It is the way it is handled in some of the other films that would make me uneasy about it. But I knew when the films were, it is my job to figure it out, not the job of Bruce or Joe.
Nice to see a big crowd. Will the remodel reduce the number of seats, the new ones are bigger and have more leg room, so I would think it would have to cut the seating numbers down. Will this start selling out? I had to make a last minute decision this year, I did not buy my ticket until Friday night. Again, to echo a previous poster, I thought the crowd was a bit too quiet, especially given the size. So many serious, we need to be respectful, films up front kind of put a damper on the crowd. The Donald Trump comment at the start of Mad Max was quite funny though.
Hoping the cafe comes back, the concessions were fine, the staff great. Excellent booth work this year. Like the new bathrooms. Noticed at one point they redirected the ladies to the old bathrooms. I assume the water still worked there, but not for the men's because it would have been nice to have access to both, the line was a bit long.
Okay, I lied a couple quick thoughts on each film.
I like when we do the bookends, Alien/Aliens, Terminator/T2. I had not seen this one in a long time and had actually forgotten how long it took before his wife and child died. I was thinking it was end of the first act or so and the taking down of the gang was more drawn out.
Starman. I had a huge crush on Karen Allen as a kid between her roles in this, Raiders and Scrooged. I like the chemistry and I always laugh at the Red Light, Green Light, Yellow Light bit.
I liked Arrowhead except for the little things like supplies where I had trouble suspending disbelief. I wasn't the one who asked the director that questions but was of the same opinion.
It had been a long time since I saw The Man Who Fell To Earth. I forgot that it had Little Women (or as my wife would say Return of the King) disease, in that you keep thinking this would be a logical place to end, but wait there is more.
I wasn't that impressed with High Rise, because like others said, the leap from all is well to chaos seemed way too sudden. The acting was fine, I just think I probably should pick up the book.
Zardoz - Not so much on the film, but I did have to explain to Sergei why the guy in the red diaper beat the well crafted Tom Servo in the Costume Contest. Which by the way, I was happy to see a really good costume contest.
Turkish Star Wars - Had recently seen part of it in a list of video clips where they gave it props for keeping the original Wolfman that Lucas edited out in later versions of a New Hope. Going back to Karen Allen she had a better smile when Marion's Theme played. Actually, I'm not sure if she ever smiled when it played, will need to rewatch Raiders, but I knew a smile was coming when the song started in this movie.
Jason X - I'm okay with slasher films. I wouldn't sit through a Jason or Freddie or Halloween marathon, but I don't hate them. And I have no problem with this one playing at the SciFi. This movie is Alien with a more familiar monster and not as accomplished of a cast. And more folks survive. If you sat a group of average movie goers down and had them watch Jason X and High Rise, I suspect more would pick Jason X as Sci Fi. In outerspace? Check. In the future? Check. Androids/robots? Check. And I was fine with High Rise being shown. Heck, I like the documentaries we have shown, so I am in the big tent camp for what can be shown. I just don't get the vitriol some have for this movie.
Fantastic Voyage - I imagine I agree with Dave on the science of shrinking films. Still this was a nice film, though I might have swapped it and Destroy All Monsters. It was still a bit early and a couple spots it is a tad slow.
Destroy All Monsters - I don't know that we need one every year, but I grew up on these when I was a kid watching Superhost on Channel 43 out of Cleveland on Saturdays. I'd like to see one at least every other year. I'll even take the 90/00s remakes.
Fury Road - I confess with my wife's health issues and a 4 and 12 year old, I rarely get to the movies and I hadn't seen this one, though I had heard a ton and I wasn't disappointed. It almost could have been split into two films, though. Or at least it felt long enough. I really thought when they got on the motorcycles to go across the desert that was going to be the end of the film.
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