The Ohio Sci-Fi and Horror Marathons

Now that my brain has temporarily leaped back into my head and stopped beating me up for depriving it of so much sleep, here are some random impressions from the recently completed 23rd ANNUAL OHIO SCIENCE FICTION MARATHON (aka IT CAME FROM THE DREXEL NORTH, CAPITOL THEATER, SONY CONTINENT, DREXEL GATEWAY/GRANDVIEW, ARENA GRAND) TRAVELING ROADSHOW AND BACK PAIN JUNKIE CONVENTION:

-FIRST ON THE MOON was a real treat, one of the better premieres from the recent Marathons. It's always nice to have some broccoli in the lineup to counter the cheese and other filmic foodstuff.

-Hadn't seen THE CRAZIES in nearly ten years, and boy was I impressed. It's semi-primitive stuff, but you can see Romero growing as a filmmaker before your eyes. What a Romero CV for Richard Liberty: crazed incestuous dad and crazed underground scientist.

-The shorts from Seattle were nice, but too many of them seemed slight. Much better was the MAX HEADROOM pilot. I'd never seen the British version. Still very prophetic and ahead of its time.

-Surprise highlight of the fest was seeing Beefy Batman from the serial getting his bat tukkus handed to him again and again. After so much punishment, the shock of seeing Keaton's borderline psycho-Bats sent me into a deep sleep coma.

Big hats off to all involved and all attending. The Marathon marches on!

Quickie update before I slip back into Hibernative Naptosis ...

"First on the Moon" really was a genuine opportunity. Probably the best use of archival footage I've seen since "The Right Stuff" and a remarkable glimpse into Russian history (both real and imagined.)

"Godzilla: Final Wars" is hands-down my favorite of the "modern age" Godzilla films. Unashamedly rips off of a hundred different scifi/anime films, but does it extremely well. Incredibly enjoyable ride.

Enjoyed watching "Invisible Boy" ... hadn't realized it had such a "Forbin" like plot. Would make a great pair to it at a later marathon.

The print of "Westworld" was in FANTASTIC shape. Really one of the best prints that we've had at a marathon. One of my high points, having not actually seen "Westworld" on the big screen before.

And I still think "Serenity" rules .

EDIT: Was also tremendously glad to see the original UK release of "Max Headroom." For a long time that gem was notoriously difficult to find, and I've always thought it was two tonnes of fun.

_________________
David A. Zecchini; Creature of the Wheel, Lord of the Infernal Engines
"Damnati Im Ludum" (VitruvianZeke@att.net)

Only a little to add to what was said before. Like the others, I had a great time, and there wasn't, for me, a bad film in the lineup. I was right in front of Zekestrom, so if we ever need dirt on our Admin, I have it, if I can get it out of my brain.

My nephew had a good time, though he gave me a few moments where I swore Sergei will have a better grounding in the classics than my nephew. For example, he told me he liked the original King King better than the one he was watching at the marathon. It took me a moment to realize the Peter Jackson film was what he considered the original. During the Kong trailers, he grew more and more frustrated at how unrealistic the Kong's were. The kid is 10 and thanks to ILM and their ilk apparently has little ability left to suspend disbelief.

He did like Forbidden planet and was fascinated with the concept of the monster of the Id. He was a little bored with Invisible Boy early on, but liked it as the pace picked up. He didn't like that it was in black and white, another oversight in his upbringing.

One complaint. Actually several complaints about the same group. It was a group of three folks, 2 guys and a girl. They must've gotten in line late and were trying to find three seats in the center of the theater together. They tried some seats in front of us, but someone was holding seats so they were off center a bit. After King Kong all of my group (my friend, my nephew and I) went out for soda, er, pop. So did the guy next to us. When we got back to our seats, my nephew found a sweathirt on his seat. It turns out this group of three had moved up to our row and had taken the lone guy's seat and the two empty seats next to him. When the lone guy got back they looked at him stupidly when he told them they were in his seat. I repeated what he said, saying they had taken his seat. They looked at me like I was speaking another language. They wouldn't move. Fortunately we had an empty seat next to us, so we shifted down one and the lone guy had a seat. I got a PM from one of the memebrs of this group. First, a tip of the hat to the guy for using a PM to avoid any flaming. I am mentioning his message, hoping that things will stay nice and peacedful, but also so his side gets heard. They were trying to find seats together and noticed that the emtpy seat next to us, and the two empty seats next to the sweatshirt guy. Since we were in the lobby they took the seats assuming that we would move down one seat. I agree that using a set to hold stuff and keeping folks from sitting in it is bad form. I'm not sure why they didn't say that, he mentioned I raised my voice so maybe he was trying to avoid trouble. He said he and the guy in the sweatshirt talked and were cool about it later, which is nice. If we hadn't all went to lobby, he probably could have asked us, I'm still hung up on the fact he didn't seem to say anything at the time.

I understand wanting to sit with your group. I understand wanting a nice seat. If you want both, I suggest you find a sacrifical member of the group to grab a spot in line. I have no idea if they read this or not, but just throwing it out there. It all wroked out, and we didn't have to call the staff in. .He points out, rightly, I think, the staff would have just had us shift down, which is why we did that.I was tempted to, but didn't want to disrupt the marathon because of this.

The next thing they did was one of them would shake the chair of the guy diagnally in front of hime whenever he fell asleep and started snoring. He never told the guy why he was shaking his chair, I guess he just assumed that the guy knew he was snoring.According to the guy, he actually told the snorer the first time he was snoring very loudly. He didn't bother the later times. I missed him saying that to him, which is fair. Snorer's don't bother me, I am able to tune them out, somehow, though I can see where it is disruptive to other folks.

The last gripe about this group was even though they were left of center (as facing the screen, they always walked to the right aisle (across us) when they came either in or out, even though that meant they walked in front of more people. Had they not stolen the other guy's seat, and kept waking up the snorer, I probably wouldn't have cared about them stepping over us. He said this was niotpicky on my part and he is probably right. In my defense, as I said, it was a cumulative thing. I wouldn't have noticed or cared, without the other "transgressions."

They never fell asleep as a group. Or if they did I never noticed. Probably just as well, because I likely would have been more vindicive than their transgressions warranted.

To close on more positive notes. I also loved "First on the Moon," I'm going to order it and looking forward to shwoing it to Sergei when he is old enough to get it. The modern scenes remind me of where we stayed in Russia. Kind of a sad, run down place where a lot of the folks look like they have given up.

The King Kong print, while not prisitine, looked pretty darn good. I concur that was a great print of Westworld, only Mothra last year, looked better, at least in my recent memory.

My brother-in-law brought my nephew but they didn't get there until the doors had opened, so I was already inside. They went through the line themselves, and my nephew told my mother-in-law that he had fun in line. Folks were nice to him and talked to him about Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon. I was pleased to see there were maybe a half dozen kids around 10 years old this year. They were well behaved as far as I could tell, and seemed to be enjoying themselves. Quite a few of them stayed well into the night, if not the whole night. I kinda lost track of them. My nephew wasn't feeling well and hung it up around 8 pm. He is looking forward to next year, especially since it will start on his birthday.

Thanks for the fun everyone.

_________________
The wages of sin are royalties.

HAH! I must have accidentally bumped your chair a million times. I do apologize ... the seats were positioned at just the wrong distance for my legs, it seems, and every time I tried to reposition myself I ended up with a nasty *thump* to the back of the chair in front of me.

Very sorry .

_________________
David A. Zecchini; Creature of the Wheel, Lord of the Infernal Engines
"Damnati Im Ludum" (VitruvianZeke@att.net)

Okay, I'm back and fully recovered from the wonderful experience this weekend. I know you all have been anxiously awaiting my analisis so here you go:

General atmosphere: It was great to have the marathon back in a larger, newer theater. The Grandview was great and I felt very welcome but spending 24 hours there was more of a test of endurance than at our spacious new home with the big screen.

I was pleased at the size of the crowd and I think that we will have no trouble selling out in the future assuming that the plan for stability regarding a date and location remain intact for at least the forseeable future. I was in the back and there was one guy in the very back row in the corner who seemed to think that everything and everyone sucked so I was curious as to why he was even there. (If you are reading this, please respond). Even he wasn't disruptively obnoxious, and I really didn't see any major problems with crowd control.

In regards to the earlier posts about people having trouble finding seats, I saw some of that as well. I think people have just gotten too comfortable with having extra space around them. Please be courteous. Assume that a stranger is going to sit next to you and then when everyone is settled, we can start to spread out a bit.

The early projection problems were annoying, but I think that was in general corrected as we went along like Bruce said. They never quite solved the volume problem except for with the newer prints of Serenity and Final Wars. Maybe it was just because I was in the back, but It was a struggle to hear at least half of what was shown. Plus, it seemed that everything started out either out of focus or mute. I don't know anything about projection, but I wondered how something new and in the same format had to be adjusted from the previous film. At least, for the most part, the booth was fast to correct it. I just don't understand why we had to get focus and volume at the beginning of EVERY screening block. Granted these are only minor annoyances and there were far fewer problems than the last couple years at the Grand.

I was disappointed that there is no setup for 16MM, but I thought the transitions between things on DVD projection and film was very smooth. I'm glad the only things on DVD were the things that were only available in that format. I would never want one of the features to be a DVD projection except for very new premieres like FIRST ON THE MOON and the shorts which were not available anyway else. The DVD projection was not as grainy as I've seen in other theaters, so it was acceptable for what it was required for.

The "as confirmed as it's going to be" announcement of next year's date was awesome! I'm hoping that early next year, Bruce will keep us informed on this great new website to make sure things are still going according to plan. My marathon obsession takes up a considerable amount of my free time and I hope the good attendance and the shiny new website encourages us all to keep in touch year-round. I know I'll be checking the boards at least weekly.

Anyway, I'm babbling, thank you for your time. I want to say a few things about the films but I will save that for a later post.

_________________
Aliens? Us?
Is this one of your Earth "jokes?"

Okay, now for the films:

THE BATMAN: At long last, a serial that finally puts those shifty-eyed Japs in their rightful place! Seriously, though, this was great goofy fun. I kept wondering when Batman/Chuck White was going to come up with a better plan than "rush in and punch everyone a few times" because that obviously wasn't working for him.

KING KONG: Great print, great to see on the big screen. I had forgotten how relentless the action was. Impressive effects, especially for 1938. You can never convince me that modern CGI is all you need to make effects work.

FORBIDDEN PLANET:I had never seen this all the way through, oddly enough, and I enjoyed it. The print was in better shape than Bruce suggested. Still suffers from the same problems as a lot of older movies by resolving the plot with talking and drawing a conclusion based on no evidence. Great special effects for it's time and solid pacing.

THE INVISIBLE BOY: I was surprised at how bad this movie is. I was expecting it to be an example of a decent film in an era of bad Sci-Fi films, but it's just another representation of that low budget, bad writing and acting thing. It started off okay and then the plot totally veered off course and I don't know what the hell the message was supposed to be. It was okay goofing on it for a bit, but ultimately uninteresting.

FIRST ON THE MOON: I totally didn't get this film. Others give it high praise and I certainly wasn't bored, but I just didn't get into it. I think the whole mockumentary genre is just wearing thin on me. I'm glad I got to see it, though. A unique experience.

A side note about trailers and extras: I was pleased with the early start of the first batch of trailers. Combined with the late finish, we had a 25 hour marathon! Bruce admitted the Anne Francis interview needed to be edited and I completely concur. In years past, we have been treated to a block of trailers for the upcoming marathon films at the beginning of the marathon and I miss that. I like the fact that the trailers are theme linked to their respective films, but I didn't like that we had to wait until 8AM to see previews of the summer blockbusters. Overall good selection and good pacing. Any chance of seeing VOYAGE OF THE ROCK ALIENS at a future marathon? Also, THE GREEN SLIME contains neither green nor slime: Discuss.

GODZILLA FINAL WARS: Let me preface by saying I hate Japanese monster movies. They show one every year and everyone loves it and I tolerate it. That being said, this was a fantastic filmgoing experience. All derivitiveness aside, it was great seeing this film with this crowd. And it was perfectly placed when everyone was ready for a loud obnoxious action fest.

SHORTS: Hit and miss. The so-so ones were short enough that it didn't matter. THEY'RE MADE OUT OF MEAT I think warrants future showings, but maybe not every year. I like shorts because they are unique and don't take up a lot of time. MAX HEADROOM was a treat. It's amazing that it was made 21 years ago. Ancient computer screens and graphics yes, but the themes were eerily modern. Amanda Pays must be older than I thought, I remember having the hots for her on THE FLASH.

THE CRAZIES: Interesting and simplistic. Very effective use of minimal gore that films of it's type should aspire to. Seeing rare treats like this in the middle of the night is what the marathons are all about.

BATMAN: There's a new superhero in town and his name is NAP MAN! Nice revisit, well placed for those who choose to snooze.

SERENITY: I had never seen it and I loved it. People you actually care about and they are driven to danger and some of them DIE in shocking ways. I wasn't lost in the story yet I could tell it was part of a broader picture, very sucessful for a franchise film. I couldn't help but wonder if there is an R-rated cut out there somewhere. The violence, while intense for PG13, I could tell seemed toned down and could have made an even more visceral impact. Man I hate PG13.

WESTWORLD: Great print, great ender, plot holes and all. What happened to the remainder of the real guests when the system went haywire? Why did all the workers suffocate after being trapped for an hour or so in a moderately sized room with apparently no air ducts? It essentially boiled down to an unresourceful nerd being chased by a robot, but still a fun older flick.

All in all a great mixture and wonderfully paced. One of the better marathons. Many thanks again to Bruce and staff. See you next year!

_________________
Aliens? Us?
Is this one of your Earth "jokes?"

And once again the trend continues, this film has more non-kaiju fans rallying behind it than anything else that I've ever seen while the majority of G-fandom tends to rule this into the "even worse than GINO" category for some ungodly reason, very interesting indeed. If it makes you feel any better IamJacksUserID, next year I'm pulling for a non-kaiju Japanese sci-fi film, 'Casshern', it totally rocks IMHO!

As for the thon? As always I loved it! And with the location shift I also think we managed to pull in one of the largest attendance numbers that we've had in a while, or maybe it just looked that way to me because we were in a different theater.

As for repurcussions....

Buying Serenity on DVD.

With tons of movie nostalgia washing over me I trotted over to the Barnes and Noble and bought a large hardcover book called 'Hollywood Horror', which actually covers allot of sci-fi as well and is loaded with some gorgeous photos of all the classics and more.

Passed out 4 hours after the marathon with a total of 32 hours of sleep deprivation under my belt and not waking back up until 12 hours later.

Now searching for 'Invisible Boy' and 'Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell' in any format that I can find them.

Thanx one and all, and see you next year!

General thoughts:

The obnoxious guy in the back was fairly close to me and drove me nuts the entire time. He literally hated everything on the screen and was totally obnoxious during the costume contest. Total jerk.

The theater was great and the staff was quite friendly and helpful.

The crowd was really well-behaved (save the aforementioned butt nugget) and seemed to enjoy all of the films.


The films:

KONG

I've never had the pleasure of seeing this on the big screen. It's amazing how an effects film from 1933 can hold up so well. Fay Wray was a babe. Too bad she died before filming began on the Jackson version. He was going to give her the last line in the film.


FORBIDDEN PLANET

Very nice print. Imagine what the archival one would have looked like!

THE INVISIBLE BOY

Uneven, but fun. It had some whacked-out dark stuff that I didn't expect. TCM has shown it in the past for anyone who wants to have a copy of it.

FIRST ON THE MOON

Though the digital projection gave me a headache, I really liked this one. It was short, to the point, and original. Great ending.

GODZILLA: FINAL WARS

I had seen this one on DVD but had so much more fun seeing it with an appreciative audience. People keep talking about it being derivative, but I think that they miss the point that it was intentional. The director wanted to throw in everything including the kitchen sink. You could tell that the whole movie was just one big giggly geek-fest. People who take man in suit movies too seriously frighten me.

THE SHORTS

Except for the first one which was amateurish at best, the others were all interesting with THEY'RE MADE OUT OF MEAT and COST OF LIVING being my favorites. The technical aspects of MICROGRAVITY were top-notch, but the story(?) left me a little cold.

THE CRAZIES

I saw this for the first time a few years ago and was blown away. It is one of my favorite Romero films, after the Dead films and CREEPSHOW. Very timely considering the clusterfrak that is the current administration. FEMA anyone?

BATMAN

Dozed off. Couldn't help it. Except for the production design, this one hasn't held up for me.

SERENITY

I have only seen few episodes of FIREFLY but was totally drawn into this one. Engaging characters and exciting action set-pieces. It's a shame that Fox had no faith in Whedon. The show could have run for years.

WESTWORLD

This is one that I've seen parts of through the years but never the whole thing. I enjoyed it but feel like there isn't enough backstory or plot progression. It kind of falls apart in the end and peters out, but it's still cheesy fun.

THE BATMAN

teehee. Worst. Batman. Ever. Dude got his ass kicked every fifteen minutes. Dug the Brillo-Haired Boy Wonder, though. Great fun.



By the way, YOU HUMANS ARE CATTLE!!!

I noticed my chair getting bumped a few times, but it wasn't bad and is the nature of the event. No worries. I think you were right behind me, we shifted a few times first when the other group bumped the lone guy and then later when my nephew left. But at least early on, it was you in the middle with a woman and a man on either side of you, I think you also were a group of three.

_________________
The wages of sin are royalties.

Of the shorts, I definitely liked Cost of Living the best. They're Made Out of Meat is a close second, though I'm not sure it is in the Spaceboy/Gravity class. Least favorite was the dance mix one, the title eludes me at the moment.

I apologize for the vagueness of the description of this. One short I haven't seen in years and would love to see again was the one involving a planet that collected skyscrapers. At least that is what I took away from it. Was local, the effects probably look really cheesy now, but it was short and fun.

For the feature films, my favorite was probably Final Wars, it was just silly fun. Tied for second were Serenity and First on the Moon. I missed Bruce's intro to First on the Moon because I was taking my nephew outside so his Dad could pick him up. I figured just leaving him at the escaltors by the bar was probably not the responsible thing to do.

Least favorite film? That one is almost tougher than favorite mainly because none of them were bad. I think I am going to have to go with Batman. I liked how Burton dealt with Bruce Wayne and I thought Keaton did a great job playing Bruce. I am bothered, as was someone I was in line with, by Burton's treatment of Batman, in the sense that Batman doesn't kill. Yes, people may die, but he doesn't traditionally blow up a facotry full of bad guys. The henchman falling to his death in the Cathedral is also slightly troubling but no where near as bad as the bombing. And don't even get me started on The Joker's death.

That said, I enjoyed it and all the other films and top to bottom, I think this is one of the most solid lineups we have ever had.

_________________
The wages of sin are royalties.

I don't think I could have picked a better time to make this year's 'thon my first. As much as I enjoy the Grandview theater, I don't believe I could've stuck it out there. The Gateway should be the locked location for all future 'thons. Just my little ol' opinion.

Anyhow, besides the already mentioned Fanboy in the back, the crowd was very mellow. Usually when people yell at the screen it annoys me, but at the 'thon I found myself chuckling at most of the quips.

The Flicks:

KING KONG: I'd only seen the original "Kong" once before this screening. The flick is still a hoot to watch even though it's nearly 75 years old. I couldn't believe the condition of the print which was nearly as good as the "Batman" print. On a side note, did anyone notice that the remake parodied some of the scenes between Anne and Jack as they talked on the deck of the ship? Good stuff.

BATMAN serials: Not worth much more than a good belly laugh. I can't see how these kept a 1943 audience excited about the caped crusader since he always seemed to get his ass handed to him. Did anyone else notice how once a fight started Robin transformed in a 40 year old with 5 o'clock shadow? Wierd.

FORBIDDEN PLANET: Had never seen this before and was pleasantly surprised. Some of the characters were a tad annoying, but the cinematography was fantastic. Great use of cinemascope.

INVISIBLE BOY: After about 15 minutes of this my buddy and I headed to Taco Bell.

FIRST ON THE MOON: This was one of the most interesting "docs" I've seen in a while. My only complaint was the pacing was dreadfully slow. Even though I was interested that didn't keep my from dozing off.

GODZILLA FINAL WARS: I'm another person who isn't the biggest fan of the Japanese Monster movies. They have never been able to excite me. What I was excited about was that the director of "Versus" was tackling Godzilla. His influence definately showed with the addition of Kung-fu to the tired "man in a suit on a rampage".

SHORTS: With the exception of the first one shown, I thought that all of the shorts were very well made and probably deserve a showing at future 'thons.

THE CRAZIES: I took a good snooze through this one not because I didn't like it, but because it hadn't been that long since I'd first seen it. Not Romero's best effort, but a fun flick for the early morning.

BATMAN: Wow, was I surprised with this one. I used to watch this movie on a daily basis when it first hit VHS in 1990. Boy does it not hold up very well. I can't really put my finger on it, but I think it's Burton's depiction of the Caped Crusader and his giving more attention to the villians that ultimately make his "Batman" films not work.

SERENITY: I won't lie, I'm a Browncoat. I was estatic when I saw that "Serenity" would be screening at the 'thon. Not only was this film heads and tails better than that last "Star Wars" flick, but probably one of the best sci-fi movies to come out in years. It's too bad that some people that hadn't seen it probably left early.

WESTWORLD: Sadly, I left before this one started. I typically like whatever Michael Crichton has to offer so it's too bad I missed a showing of that pristine print. Some other time I guess.

My brain has finally returned to a state where I think I can coherently talk about the Marathon. It's great reading everybody else's take on the weekend.

For starters, this was the best year I can ever remember for standing in line. Every year, I prepare myself for total misery until the doors open. It's either FREEZING, or SNOWING or RAINING, or... you get the idea. It's usually miserable. Not this year! Beautiful morning on Saturday - could not have paid the weatherman for a better day. The temp was ideal, no rain, etc. For newcomers, this is probably no big deal, but for the rest of us, it's very, very unusual to have the weather so utterly cooperative on 'Marathon Morning'.

Another thing about standing in line this year: They let us in earlier than I can ever remember. Honestly, this is the one year when I wouldn't have minded standing outside for another 30 minutes, but it was nice we didn't have to. Also, the trailers starting early was cool - another detail I never remember happening. This was a year of firsts, I guess.

First impression of the Gateway: Awesome. Like the Grande, but closer to our roots as far as location is concerned.

My one rant: The guy behind us was hacking, couging, blowing his nose and sucking his snot (that was the most annoying, and most frequent) throughout the ENTIRE marathon. (Excuse me if I'm being gross, but there's just no other way to accurately describe how disgusting it was.) There were times when I was eating, that I simply could not endure hearing him, and had to take a break from my seat. He'll be the guy I avoid next year when I'm picking a seat.

The films:

KONG

I've never seen this on the big screen, so it was quite a treat. Perfect start to a near perfect Marathon.

FORBIDDEN PLANET

Great print. I never get tired of this movie. In my opinion, it's in a catagory with The Day The Earth Stood Still and War of the Worlds. There's a guy around Philadelphia that has his own radio show late at night on the weekend, calls himself 'Mr. Movie'. Mr. Movie knows absolutely everything there is to know about films in general. Every detail, the years they were released, all the backstories, the actors, their salaries, you get the idea. He claims that Forbidden Planet is his favorite film of all time. I've never heard why he likes it so much, but it would be interesting to hear a guy with such a vast knowledge of film explain why Forbidden Planet beats out every other film ever made.


THE INVISIBLE BOY

It was interesting how this movie went from cute and fluffy to dark, then back to cute and fluffy, then baaack to dark. A roller coaster ride. I liked it, though, and thought it was a perfect marathon movie. This was my first time seeing it.

FIRST ON THE MOON

This was not the sort of movie I would have enjoyed if I were watching it in my living room by myself. However, I loved seeing this at the marathon. I like it when the line up of films is well balanced - in other words, each film has its own 'feel', and they aren't all basically along the same plain.

GODZILLA: FINAL WARS

One of the major highlights from this year's lineup. I don't like a load of Japanese films, but this one was great fun.

THE SHORTS

Cost of Living was my favorite. They're Made Out Of Meat was a close second. I would be very interested in seeing both at future marathons. I don't think either one could be substitutes for Gravity.

THE CRAZIES

I didn't care for this movie at all. I'm glad to be able to say I've seen it, but that's about all. I find practically everything from the 70's utterly stupid and frankly, gross - except for Beatles' music, and a handful of films. (Westworld and Superman to name a couple.)

BATMAN

Nice to see it on the big screen again, but of all the movies, this was the hardest one to stay awake for.

SERENITY

I did not get to see this while it was at the theaters. I did see it several months back on DVD. I'm extremely happy Bruce and the gang played this, because not only did it look great on the big screen, but seeing it the second time around was even better than the first. I would be thrilled if they continued making these films and kept the story going.

WESTWORLD

It had been years since I saw this on VHS. Seeing it on the big screen was of course, a great thing. I would be happy if we got this back in a few years.

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""Well, doesn't this mean anything to you?" He tapped the numerals 451 stitched on his char-colored sleeve.

Fantastic lineup and a great time as always. That said I do find it a little depressing that in the early days we would get 13 features and now we're down to 9. Some of the shorts are great, and I'd hate to lose classics like Gravity and Spaceboy. But I think one or two Batman serials were more than enough, and I looked around during the Max Headroom pilot and didn't see a single person near me awake. Then I fell asleep. These are nice fringes, but it's still the features that most people are coming for. I couldn't help feeling like we should be watching a movie and not Max Headroom. But it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the marathon. I have some new DVDs to buy now including Westworld, King Kong, and Final Wars. Sometimes a movie is just waiting for me to buy it and then it plays a marathon and that seals the deal for me. My favorites this year were Final Wars and Westworld. The Crazies would have been up there, but it's played twice in Chicago recently. I did miss the Cafe Flesh trailer, but maybe next year. I was especially impressed by how many people stayed to the end. Good show Bruce, good show.

_________________
"I came here to chew bubble gum and kick a**. I'm all out of bubble gum."

The same thing happened to me involving 'Serenity' and 'Invisible Boy', one Amazon purchase later and they are on the way.

On a side note I got to see first hand what future marathons may be like with the bar next door. While at the concession stand waiting for some pizza I got to listen to a bunch of drunken idiots in OSU jerseys scream vulgarities at a nice looking blond that had walked in and then got to watch the theater personel wrestle some drunk back over to the bar who staggered over and started knocking tables and chairs over. The crap the Gateway folks have to put up with because of the damn bar must be a real pain, they truly have my sympathy.

That does have to suck. I must say that after not being on OSU campus for a few years, it was kind of depressing to see all the character sucked away in place of just another generic shopping and condo district. It looks just like the Arena district and Easton. In fact I bet if you were to take a drunk to all three places in one night, he'd never know he left. At least the Gateway is a great theater. Also the girls in miniskirts jumping on trampolines at the Skye Bar provided some laughs.

_________________
"I came here to chew bubble gum and kick a**. I'm all out of bubble gum."