the short 24 hour wrapup

[spatch]

The good of Dedham Community Theater: Comfortable seats. Coolidge's seats weren't made for endurance movie viewing; Dedham's seats had padding.

The bad of Dedham Community Theater: It's near the end of a bus line that starts at the end of the Orange Line. I'm not one to play Cosmopolitan/Provincial, since I hardly grew up in the center of Western Civilization (Western Mass, sure) but I can say that when you rely on public transportation, Dedham is the sticks.

The other good of Dedham: It's got a small-town feel. The locals were on to us! The old lady behind the counter at CVS asked me if I was "at that movie marathon." I replied "Why, yes. How'd you know?" and she said "Cause everybody coming in that I don't recognize is part of that movie marathon."

Best movie: A toss-up between The Dish, a marvelous understated human comedy from Australia about the radio dish in Parkes that served as the link between the Earth and Apollo 11 during the first moon landing (it's so sweet, do watch if you can) and Robot Stories, an independent anthology of a film featuring four short stories about robots and technology and human problems, all done in a real Bradbury kind of way. The Dish just made me happy; Robot Stories mostly made me sad. But they're both marvelous films.

Worst movie: Demonlover. Horrible, stupid, boring, pretentious, wannabe shocking, filled with insipid characters you'd like to see all die in a horrible bus accident, and about two hours too long. And I still can't find the "science-fiction" in the movie (and no, hentai websites featuring poorly-rendered 3D hentai porn ON THE INTERNET doesn't count as "science-fiction.") The worst part of the film is that it makes everything it illustrates (car chases, corporate intrigue, porn, hentai porn, lesbian porn, lesbian hentai porn, conspiracy theory, sex with Connie Nielsen) -- it makes everything look INCREDIBLY FUCKING BORING. Not only were we applauding in anticipation at the end of every fadeout ("Yaaaay, it's over") but we were also audibly groaning when the next scene would inevitably come on. And I got so bored I just started shooting everybody on screen I saw with my finger guns. Pchew! Pchew!

Cool-Ass prize won: A "Supercar" t-shirt.

Best Idea for next year's SF-30: Blinking palm crystals for everyone! Renew! Renew!!

I'll write a film-by-film account when I next am conscious.

Comments

[damned-colonial.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I love "The Dish". The team who made that do a lot of good stuff.

[abbetaka.livejournal.com]

I ended up all night last night... and once it gets to a certain hour I start thinking "I wonder what time it is on the east coast?" and wondering if the east coast people are going to "come around" in one way or another soon.

So this morning & last night I remembered several times that you were at this thing... and looked at your post to see what movie you were in at the time. :)

Uh, yeah. Good times. Glad you had a good movie marathon.

[aussie-nyc.livejournal.com]

I do love The Dish.

[archangelsk.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Demonlover, for totally wrecking my image of sex with Connie Nielsen.

[tyopsqueene.livejournal.com]

I'm particuarly interested to know what you thought of 28 days later (ah, parochial interests - the roadblock place is based in my locality. So rare to have movies with recognisable locations, too.)