Breakfast in Austin is Different
Maybe I could have had this experience anywhere in the world. I could be romanticizing a bit.
But I think not. I think I could what happened could only have happened in Austin.
I should be writing up my summary of the films we saw at this year’s Butt-Numb-a-Thon but I’ll tell you, I like writing about the things that make Butt-Numb-a-Thon about so much more than 24 hours in a movie theatre. If all you do is spend 24 hours in a movie theatre, you don’t get it. I read comments from folks who see a particular line up and complain that it is lame. They don’t get it. The movies we watch are a big deal. But they aren’t everything.
Raiders of the Lost Ark – The Adaptation
This last weekend, I attended Butt-Numb-a-Thon (BNAT) in Autstin. I’m going to do a write-up on the movies I saw at the festival but because I’m a Raiders of the Lost Ark geek, I’m starting with a post about the movie we watched the night before Butt-Numb-a-Thon because it isn’t all that often you wait ten years to see something.
I begin with a flash back to Butt-Numb-a-Thon 4. In the early years there was typically a breakfast break at around 7:00 in the morning that lasted about an hour. We’d just watched House of 100 Corpses and Tiptoes and neither film had gone over well. In fact, for long time BNAT attendees, Tiptoes is frequently cited as the single worst film ever screened. We were all quite certain that the festival was going to end with The Two Towers so while the last two films had been something of an ordeal, we were all but positive what was coming next was going to be amazing.
At the Alamo Drafthouse, they play video in the background between movies. It is usually really messed up stuff that will catch your attention at least once – if only long enough for you to say “what the fuck is that?” One year, we realized we were watching a Hentai version of Star Wars.
At BNAT 4 we were eating breakfast and slowly we noticed that what was playing on the screen looked like a remake of Raiders of the Lost Ark featuring a bunch of teenagers. It was obviously an amateur production but these kids are doing every scene. They light their set on fire for the bar fight scene. They drive a truck into a tree and set it on fire for the Cairo street scene. They couldn’t get a monkey so they used a dog. A really cute dog.
Alphabetical Movie – King Kong (1933) and King Kong (2005)
The first time I saw King Kong was at Butt-Numb-a-Thon 3 in 2001. I know, I’m a movie geek and it is ridicoulous I’d never seen the film. As I’m fond of saying, there are way more films that I haven’t seen than films that I have.
Now, if you are going to have a first experience watching King Kong, seeing a newly struck print of the film projected on the big screen is pretty much the best way to go. I was in love with the movie from the moment the title hit the screen. I knew that new print of King Kong was out there and eventually would be available on DVD. When that DVD finally hit the market, I bought it the same day.
The first time I saw Peter Jackson’s re-make of King Kong was at Butt-Numb-a-Thon 7 in 2005. I liked it a lot. But as I mentioned in my blog about Kick-Ass, when you watch a movie at Butt-Numb-a-Thon, it can be difficult to determine how good or bad it is outside the context of Butt-Numb-a-Thon.
Alphabetical Movie – The King and I
Two characters, separated by over forty years. Both of them are characters who died tragically – perhaps before their time. Both died for the same reason. Both of them leave their audiences asking the same question.
“Wait – what did they die of again?”
I’m talking, of course, of the King of Siam and Padme Amidala.
Think about it now. Why do they die? Both of them die because they lost the will to live. Amidala loses the will to live because her husband crossed over to the dark side and force choked her. The King of Siam lost the will to live because the woman he secretly loved convinced him to show compassion.
The horror.
Alphabetical Movie – Kim Possible: So the Drama
You know, I really didn’t think I was going to have to watch this movie. I was pretty sure it was straight to video and the rules clearly state that I’m only watching films that received a theatrical release. I figured I’d be skipping right over this one.
Unfortunately, my wife had to tell me that she was pretty sure at least one Kim Possible movie was in movie theatres and because she told me that, I was forced to look it up. Once I looked it up, I discovered that I was, in fact, going to have to watch the film.
Movies like this one can prove to be a rather major obstacle for the Alphabetical Movie Project because I really don’t want to watch them. The movie isn’t awful but it is pretty banal. Sure, you say, I could have skipped it. There is nothing forcing me to watch it except an arbitrary set of rules that I put in place because I decided that I should really watch every movie we own at least once.
Alphabetical Movie – Kill Bill Vol I & II
When I talk about Kill Bill, I typically refer to the two films as my favorite Tarantino films. I differentiate them from what I consider his best film because those are two distinctly different concepts. One is talking about the movie I derive the most pleasure from watching. The other is evaluating the skill of the filmmaker.
Both are subjective measures, of course. Calling a film your favorite is a far more honest measure and one that doesn’t invite any useful argument. How can you possibly disagree with me about which Tarantino film is my favorite?
We can disagree all over the internet about which film is his best. Yet those arguments are always informed, at least a little bit, by which ones are our favorites. Read More…
Alphabetical Movie – Kiki’s Delivery Service
My youngest is at the age where he is capable of watching movies over and over again. He’s reached the point, though, where he doesn’t watch the entire movie. He’ll only watch parts of it.
He seems to be keyed in to the Alphabetical Movie Project a little bit. This may be a result of the fact that I try to watch most kids’ movies with the kids. Makes it a nice family event. What it means, though, is that Devon has typically already been watching the next movie on the list.
He won’t watch the movie all the way through, though. He’ll just watch his favorite parts over and over again. Often he’ll watch the end of the movie and then skip to somewhere in the middle and then skip to someplace near the end again and then go back to the beginning. It’s as if he is taking these films and trying to cut them together the way Quentin Tarantino might.
Alphabetical Movie – Kick-Ass
I’ve written about Butt-Numb-a-Thon a few times over the course of the Alphabetical Movie Project. It is one of those unique moviegoing experiences that I’m supremely fortunate to experience every year.
One thing about being in a room filled with rabid, cheering film geeks, however, is that I never really know how good a film is.
I mean, Harry tosses something awful at us almost every year, but that’s on purpose. He also shows us a lot of premieres that I inevitably enjoy because of where I am watching them. When I sit down and try to evaluate them later, I’m left puzzled to determine if I liked them because they were good movies or if I liked them because of the unreal environment that is Butt-Numb-a-Thon.
Alphabetical Movie – The Kennel Murder Case
If there is one thing that I really enjoy about the availability of cheap DVDs, it is the ability to pick up an old film I’ve never heard of for just a couple of bucks. Most are horrible, grainy copies of movies that are in the public domain but they aren’t on Netflix so how else am I supposed to watch them?
Aside: Why aren’t they on Netflix? They are in the public domain!!!!
The Kennel Murder Case is just such a movie. I was browsing the shelves at half price books and there it was for a measly $2.00.
Now Half Price Books has a lot of cheap old movies for sale. I don’t buy every one of them. Hell, I hardly buy any of them.
But this one had William Powell in it and I have a hard time saying no to a $2.00 movie starring William Powell.
Grail Diary 