Post your comments here about the February 2012 SF/37 Film Marathon! After (or during) the event, natch........ ;)

L.A. Connection wrote on Feb 18^th, 2012 at 2:16pm:

Post your comments here about the February 2012 SF/37 Film Marathon! After (or during) the event, natch........ ;)

But not from inside the theater while a movie is running.

I'm tempted to just copy-and-paste my tweets, but maybe I'll want to exceed ~110 characters...

RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES:  I was surprised to really like this one; the series pretty much leaves me cold.  Still, I was impressed; it works as a smart sci-fi thriller in isolation and ties in with the original movie in fun ways.  I especially dig how the filmmakers structured on of the big turning points:  In-joke you know is coming and then, while it's got your guard down, surprising thing that moves the story forward.  That's the way to handle the job of reviving a property.

BRAINSTORM:  Dug it, although it's a shame the 70mm gear at the theater isn't ready yet.  A welcome reminder that Louise Fletcher is fantastic, and it seems Christopher Walken didn't really have a pre-self-parody period.

(Also, didn't those modems with acoustic couplers top out at like 300 baud?  Sending VR through that must have involved amazing compression!)

WAR OF THE SATELLITES:  Eh.  Not a big fan of camp/cheese/etc.  Dick Miller and Susan Cabot were OK, the rest about what you'd expect.

ENDHIRAN:  I think this kind of wore the audience out; Kollywood(*) is a very different set of rhythms from American movies, and by the time it was getting completely bonkers, a lot of people seemed ready to be done.  The second time I've seen this one, and the audience experience was much different:  "Superstar" Rajini is HUGE in the Indian community, especially Tamil-speakers; when I saw it first-run in Fresh Pond in September '10, I thought I was the only one not in on some sort of drinking game, because everything he did provoked a huge reaction, and Aishwarya Rai was like an afterthought.

A reminder for those who didn't have it seared into their brains:  Aishwarya Rai is really, really pretty, and a big part of why I occasionally go to Indian movies.

(*) Major Tom was inaccurate in calling this "Hindi" and "Bollywood"; India has at least three major languages (Hindi, Telegu, and Tamil), each with their own movie industry ("Bollywood", "Tollywood" [I think], and "Kollywood"), though Bollywood/Hindi is what usually shows up subtitled in the US.

DIMENSIONS:  Second time in two days, and while it was fun to catch stuff that the directors had mentioned after the show on Saturday night, it's kind of weird that nobody ever really has a forceful "this isn't healthy" conversation with Stephen or Annie, isn't it?

I'm sure David will bring this experience up the next time somebody suggests "upgrading" the theater to digital.

ATTACK THE BLOCK:  This is still a ton of fun, innit?  I love the monster designs, brilliantly focused and simple as well as being designed to look good as either CGI or practical effects.

ISLAND OF LOST SOULS:  Spiffy version of Dr. Moreau, even if neither Laughton nor Lugosi is doing his best work.

SCANNERS:  And here I started nodding off, which ticks me off, because I loved what I saw of this ("hey, isn't it kind of neat to see Michael Ironside playing it low key AND HOLY sh!t!") and it's apparently not readily available on home video right now (I shall have to start checking out used sections).  What the heck is up with that?

FRANKENSTEIN:  Every time I see this, it's like discovering it anew.  Looking at this print, it's hard to believe Uni feels the need to do restoration for their 100th this year; I suspect that will be done digitally and not look quite as good.

RE-ANIMATOR:  Another one I missed much of, and will catch up with when it hits Blu-ray.  I've kind of avoided it for a while because I'm not generally a big fan of the way it combines horror and comedy, and now I'm kicking myself for not seeing it with Coombs & Gordon in attendance at Fantasia in 2010 (they were also there for their Poe play).

COWBOY BEBOP: THE MOVIE:  More sleeping, but at least this one always had something cool going on when I woke up.  Faye seemed to spend a lot of time tied up, though, which is just a little creepy.  Remember digging it when it first came around (the music and fight choreography are insanely good for an animated action movie), though, and I'll have to pick up the TV series now that it's cheap.

PAUL:  I skipped the first part getting breakfast, half-remembering it as getting funnier as it went along.  Apparently that's the case, because this was much funnier than I remembered.  A crowd that digs the jokes probably doesn't hurt.

MISSION GALACTICA: THE CYLON ATTACK:  So, not good, but not as bad as I'd feared.  That is a lot of re-used footage in very little time, though.

FOLKLORE:  Kind of surprised the crowd turned on this one; it struck me as kind of amusing when I saw it in the fest section, although it's not a thing I need to see twice in rapid succession.

Jay Seaver wrote on Feb 20^th, 2012 at 5:07pm:

FOLKLORE:  Kind of surprised the crowd turned on this one; it struck me as kind of amusing when I saw it in the fest section, although it's not a thing I need to see twice in rapid succession.

I think festival movies are just different from marathon movies. Especially the last spot on the schedule. Paul would have been a perfect movie to end with. Folklore was just...painful here. Might have been OK earlier in the morning but the final film really needs to be just right.

I  was trying to figure out how the unicorn thing worked. She said she changed when the sun was highest/warmest each month. But the sun is on a yearly cycle, not a monthly one. I guess it's technically possible but it's kind of stupid.

Flying out of town soon. More notes later.

First of all - THANK YOU to everybody who said hello, and to all who had a hand in putting on the show. We do have a great crew as Major Tom said. There are LOTS of folks behind the scenes.

As to FOLKLORE. It just doesn't work as a film. It's flat, one note and (good intentions aside) poorly executed. There is a difference between the hermetically sealed environment of a Film Festival and the "real" world of movie theaters, DVD, Internet downloads etc. - not to mention the Marathon. There are numerous examples of films that have done well on the Fest circuit, but die both critically and commercially when the wider world encounters them. No doubt, the Filmmakers had their heart in the right place. Too bad it didn't pan out.

Back soon....

Folkore was a poor choice to close out the thon.  Fran and I watched about 30 minutes and we made our exit as there was really nothing funny happening on screen and the lack of audience reation was obvious.  The intention and desire to entertain was there but the execution was a miss. 

And so, with another marathon in the can and my body recovered from 32 hours of sleep deprivation, it's time for my annual rundown of this year's films. Please note that I shot another time lapse and it should be loaded onto YouTube in the next day or so. Watch this thread for the link.

Now, to the movies!

1.) Rise of the Apes

This movie was a pleasant surprise for me when I first saw it last year. I think my favorite thing about it was that it's more a remake of the original Planet of the Apes than the remake of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes that I was expecting. Yes, I acknowledge that the apes seem to get really organized in a day or so, but I'll just chalk that up to the magic retrovirus making Caesar and the others actually more intelligent than humans. As for those apes they broke out of the zoo, I'm convinced that they were mostly cannon fodder and decoys to let the enhanced apes get away. The thing I liked most was that the apes were clearly not out to kill all humans, and that our downfall comes from the terrible safety protocols in effect at The Worst Bioresearch Lab EVER! I think I'd like to see the rebooted series continue.

2.) Brainstorm

I've seen Brainstorm. A lot. I own it on video, in facr. You know what? It needs to be shown in crazy huge-ass 70mm with surround sound and everything. The print we got was kinda scratchy and worn, but there's still good ideas struggling to get out of this admittedly flawed film. To this day, I love the look of the memory recorder and its shiny 2 inch Mylar reel to reel tape with that laser playing over it as it winds. The thing I hate are those damned fluttery angels at the very end. Ah, well, that scene with Louise Fletcher dying from a heart attack and still trying to make her last seconds of life count for something is still a great moment in science fiction film.

3.) War of the Satellites

There wasn't much of a war, was there? It was more of a Break the Curfew of the Annoying Aliens. I liked those acceleration couches, with their brass studs and no sign of anything holding them to the floor. Although the vast forces of acceleration didn't seem to affect our heroes much. Most hilarious moment for me was Dick Miller breaking into the solar energy room (Supposedly seconds from our heroine being vaporized) and just pissing around for about half a minute before slowly carrying her out. Also, that was a hell of a satellite, seeing how they broke through the barrier around Earth and seemed to immediately fly to Andromeda.

4.) Endhiran - The Robot

Some movies are about the journey and others are about the destination. For me, this was all about getting to the hilarious final battle at the end, with the army of Chittis launching a massive attack of the Photoshop clone tool. My only real problem with it was that it's an Indian movie, with all that entails. Yes, Aishwarya Rai IS extremely pretty, and it's funny to think that she'd be so smitten with a nerd who seems to be twice her age. Still, you have to wade though what seems like half a million musical numbers, only two of which I thought were fun. I'm not sorry I saw it, but I think I'd like to see an edited version.

5.) Dimensions

I'm sorry to say, but I went out for food and ended up missing the first hour of this one. What I saw was well done, and the film makers were great people to meet, but I can't speak on this one till I watch it properly.

6.) Attack the Block

Oh, man. This was fun, but I seriously needed subtitles at some points. The aliens reminded me of animals that showed up in a video game called Another World, which I used to play on my Amiga. No details, just a black outline and then shining teeth as it came to end your life. It was a clever twist on alien invasions because it opens with the scary alien essentially getting mugged by kids and then turns into a totally justified vendetta on the invaders' part. I was glad that Moses (Who I hated at the start of the story) actually redeemed himself and his friends by the end.

7.) Island of Lost Souls

What an odd entry from the time before the Hayes Code. Charles Laughton was (at times) the swishiest S&M mad scientist ever, either lounging seductively on his fainting couch or cracking his whip at his unfortunate experiments. At last, I finally know where that hairy face you see in the sequence at the end of Amazon Women on the Moon comes from. And the movie's worth the price of admission just for the sets and Bela Lugosi's Lawmaker scene! Truly, this is the film that dares to ask the question "Are we not men?!" How sad some of us were that only a few in the audience knew to reply that no, we are Devo.

8.) Scanners

Dammit, dammit, dammit! At this point, the lack of sleep got to me and I ended up drifting in and out of a movie I really, really wanted to watch properly. Even so, it's still a great piece of 80's low-budget sci-fi. And it's a foreign film, from Canada! Got to rewatch this when I'm properly awake.

9.) Frankenstein

Fortunately, my unintentional nap meant that I was wide awake for Frankenstein. You know what? Fritz the hunchback got what he deserved, and Henry Frankenstein must have been crazy to hire him. The monster himself is still a great creation, but he doesn't get the tragic character development he deserved until the far superior Bride of Frankenstein was made. Even so, this one stands as a great achievement and everyone needs to see it at least once.

10.) Re-Animator

Seen it. Many, many times. Decided to nap through it. Failed, because it's one of the loudest damned movies ever. I swear, it seemed like there was nothing but screaming for the last half-hour.

11.) Cowboy Bebop - Knockin' On Heaven's Door

This is one of the very rare cases where I wished that we'd gotten the excellent dub instead of this flawed subtitle. The translation really skimped on some important dialogue. On the upside, it was a lovely print, and I think this movie works even when you haven't seen the TV series. The high points of this one for me are the martial arts scenes, which the artists took such care in rendering. In fact, that great fighter battle at the end almost seems unnecessary, since the real final battle is that brutal slugfest between Spike and Vincent. I also loved Alva City's cosmopolitan feel, with all the various cultures represented. For those who don't know, Cowboy Bebop takes place in a future where Earth was devastated when an orbital warp gate exploded in the early 21st century, forcing humanity to colonize the other planets in the solar system quickly. This is why the city is such a conglomeration of different cultures, including the native Americans who live in the mostly unihabited areas near the outskirts. It's a rich world and I highly recommend that you check it out, even if you normally don't watch anime. It's been playing on Cartoon Network for about the last 10 years, so just set your DVRs to catch the episodes that play over night. You won't be sorry.

12.) Paul

I'd seen this one before, and it's just about the perfect film for this crowd. It's about fans, full of jokes that only fans will get, and it's a great time for everyone watching. And it would have been the perfect film to end on. However...

13.) Mission Galactica

This was so odd for me to watch. I love old Battlestar Galactica, and I especially loved the two-part episode The Living Legend, which introduced us to Commander "I am not Patton!" Caine and the Battlestar Pegasus. To my eyes, the effects work on this show is still beautiful, with fantastic models and all the explosions a 9-year-old boy could ever want. Hell, I still think those Colonial warrior uniforms are pretty cool. And this movie gave us a chance to see the Cylons back when they were the snarkiest robots in space. How can you not laugh when that one Cylon spots the Pegasus and says "Sir, if I may... I really think you should take a look at the other Battlestar." Or when Imperious Leader is making his ribbon-cutting speech and then says "What, praytell, was that?" when everything starts exploding. Praytell? Really?

Then everything got very weird, because they blew up the Cylon base ships and suddenly slapped 20 minutes of the episode Fire in Space on the end of this, just to pad it out even more. Fantastic. Terrible, but wonderful at the same time. I would have liked to have ended the marathon on this one, too. HOWEVER...

14.) Folklore

Ooh. Ouch. A good concept for a 15 minute short, stretched out to a running time that felt like five minutes short of forever. The characters are amusing...for a few minutes. The problem is that we stayed with them for a lot longer than a few minutes, and it all felt like it was going nowhere. I'm not surprised that the crowd turned on this, because when you've been up for around 30 hours, a cutesy little project that meanders all over the place and which is only occassionally funny gets annoying, fast. The two alien twins felt like a Catherine Tate sketch that had gone horribly, horribly wrong, and by the end I wanted to punch every character in the face. Oh, well...

We'll meet again. Don't know where, don't know when--

Wait a minute, I know exactly where and when. See you next President's Day Weekend at the Somerville Theater!

Thanks in advance for the time lapse.  Nicely done...

Another great marathon!

RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES:  I enjoyed this during its original release, and appreciated it even more with this crowd. It was much better than I expected it to be. I'd see another in the series for sure.

BRAINSTORM:  I'd never seen this, but was surprised to see how similar it is to Strange Days, which could very well be an unofficial sequel taking place in the same world after the technology has gotten a bit better. The pair would have made for an interesting back-to-back screening, except for the fact that Strange Days did not hold up as well as I remembered it when I rewatched it recently...

WAR OF THE SATELLITES:  I don't regret seeing it, but wish it could have been swapped with Frankenstein, as I'd much rather have been wide awake for the latter and dozed for the former.

Also: I may be over-analyzing, but I was really confused by the aliens' behavior in this one. Ostensibly they don't want humans leaving earth and exploring space. So they set up the space wall, and when that isn't working they assassinate the scientist in charge of the space program. At that point the opposition in the UN are ready to vote down the defunct space program and the aliens have won. Mission Accomplished! But then, they inexplicable resurrect/clone the scientist, the one thing that actually SAVES the program they were trying to abolish, and then singlehandedly assure that humans DO complete the program and make it in to space. Am I missing something, or are they just really bad villains?

ENDHIRAN: If this had been two hours, it would rank as an all-time marathon highlight, and I'd be scrambling to find a copy to show to friends. At 3 hours, the drag outweighed a lot of the greatness. I suspect this would have gone over better if we paused at intermission to continue with other features, and then picked up the second half later in the marathon, rather than sitting through it all at once.

DIMENSIONS:  As a big fan of Primer, I was expecting (and hoping) to love this, but just liked it. The main characters were hard to identify with, and identity of the Professor from the beginning was obvious (rule #1 of the time-travel genre -- if there is a mysterious character in the beginning, you'll find out it's a Main character post-travel). That's not necessarily a problem, but it meant the "will he or won't he" plotline in the second half was just filler. And given the main character's obsession I don't at all understand why he would have destroyed the working machine rather than attempting a journey himself, especially given that (from the way it was presented) the failure was primarily due to Mr Moneybags trying to go too far into the past rather than an inherent flaw in the idea.

I would have liked to hear from the director, but ran out to grab dinner so as not to miss much of:

ATTACK THE BLOCK:  Loved it in the theatre, loved it even more this time.

ISLAND OF LOST SOULS:  Dozed a bit here, but saw enough to know it was far superior to the Kilmer/Brando version. Not that that is necessarily very high praise...

SCANNERS: I thought I'd seen this, but apparently never had. Really enjoyed it.

FRANKENSTEIN:  Nothing to add about this one, except that I thought it warranted a "prime-time" slot.

RE-ANIMATOR:  Very fun. Worth watching just for the gloriously inappropriate literal visualization of "giving head".

COWBOY BEBOP - THE MOVIE:  I was looking forward to this one, but alas something needs to be at this time, and I needed a nap. I'll be checking it out on dvd shortly.

PAUL:  I was disappointed by my high expectations when I saw this the first time, but it was fully redeemed in the marathon environment. What a difference an audience can make! I echo others in wishing this had been the marathon closer.

MISSION GALACTICA: THE CYLON ATTACK: I'm glad this was on the list, but I would have enjoyed it more dozing in and out at 4am than having it try to follow Paul at 11am.

FOLKLORE: I didn't dislike this as much as others, but agree it was not remotely worthy of the final closing slot for the marathon. I think the idea actually has potential for something really fun, with a more focussed script and a budget that allows for makeup and/or CGI to create interesting non-humanoid beings (like, say, a centaur) to really sell the reality of a world with supernatural beings, as opposed to the mundane world they filmed which could just as easily have been interviews with a lot of delusional (and irritating) humans in a mental hospital.

My apologies to all my friends for failing to say goodbye but Folklore was simply killing the great buzz that fran and I had going about SF37 and so we watched about 30 minutes, packed up our shite and bolted while we were elated.  It was a grand time.  My favorite line-up in some time.  So a hearty farewell to all of our buds.  We will do it again next year and I will say farewell twice as hard unless of course we have a Folklore on tap......

About 3/4 of the way through the Marathon, whilst chatting with Major Tom in the lobby, it struck me that I've been attending the Boston version of these all-day all-night paeans to insomnia for fourteen years now (in addition to numerous other Marathons I've attended since 1993.)  In the best tradition of multiple dimensions and bending time, I alternately felt like I'd been heading up here for both a much longer and much shorter period of time.  So that being said, I'll hold off on a film by film breakdown and instead jump around to some of the highlights (and lowlights.)

*This was my second time seeing ENDHIRAN in a Marathon format, so even though I loved it the first time around, I had some concern about how much I'd dig it again.  But I was thoroughly thrilled throughout once again, possibly partially fuelled by a desire to see how the Boston crowd would react to its eccentric charms.  The Somerville's top notch projection and dynamic sound system greatly abetted my enjoyment, transforming what could be more of a goofy lark in a smaller setting into an overwhelming, exhausting and exhilarating sensory experience.  I also enjoyed my first viewing of ATTACK THE BLOCK, although throughout its running time I kept thinking of how conventional it was compared to ENDHIRAN.  Is that a fair comparison?  Maybe not.  Yeah, I'm a bit of a masochist, and the latter film is twice the length of the former.  But its also audacious in so many ways, while ATTACK is a fairly standard, but well-executed, stalk and chase film.  But that's not an indictment...or maybe it is....aw, screw it, no more ranting on this topic.

*My first viewing of RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES was a month ago, late at night.  As a result, I missed out on some of the machinations of Caesar's plot, details which made this screening a bit more enjoyable.  I'm still a bit baffled at the gushing critical praise this received upon release.  It's very good, way better than expected, but it still suffers from overly cartoonish villains (the pilot neighbor should've worn a PLOT ADVANCING DEVICE placard throughout, Draco Malfoy practically twirled an invisible mustache, etc.) and a miscast James Franco (who, in other circumstances, I really like).  But Andy Serkis's performance generates real audience empathy and the effects are generally top notch, so kudos to the filmmakers for pulling a non-demon rabbit out of the hat (ooof...a TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE reference....yeah.....)

*Marathon premieres are often a tough lot to gauge.  Twenty years ago, when small distributors were still relatively strong, Stuart Gordon or Brian Yuzna could provide a 35mm print of a mildly budgeted film with a genre stalwart or two in the cast, that at least had the veneer of respectability.  It was respectability caked with sleaze around the edges, but still.  Now, in an environment where premieres like this often skip straight to more seemingly MAJOR fests like SXSW, etc., it's much tougher to secure fare that stacks up in the same way.  It's not necessarily fair that the Marathons are viewed as far lesser cousins by some distributors, but its a fact of life nonetheless.

I didn't stick around for FOLKLORE because the trailer made it look absolutely terrible.  From the comments I've read so far, my choice of sleep seemed to be appropriate; L.A.'s comments about the hermetically sealed environment of general festivals seems to be spot on in assessing a film like this.  But I did watch DIMENSIONS, which I genuinely enjoyed.  Yes, there are parts that play as a bit stock when measured up against the time travel canon.  But the film is also beautifully lenses and strongly acted.  I particularly loved the late transition from the shot of Robert ballet dancing his way through the time loop model to that of he and Annie jointly dancing the same path.  I just wish that Sloane and Antony had been given more time for a post-screening Q+A (as Ben Rock and James Bai were given in recent years.)

*I'm a major Cronenberg fan, but for years I considered SCANNERS to be somewhat subpar fare.  But I had also only seen it once, years ago, so this time around I really dug it.  True, this might be the result of an early-era Cronenberg binge that I went on in the weeks leading up to the Marathon, although the film itself is also a fairly heady brew of ideas in an admittedly low budget concept.  Can I just say that between seeing this and THE BROOD recently that I love '70s-era Candian architecture?

*Why would I want to see ISLAND OF LOST SOULS again, after a 35mm screening a year and a half ago and a Blu-ray revisitation last October?  Maybe the more accurate question is "who wouldn't want to see this in 35mm as many times as possible?"  Yeah, I'm pretty crazy about it, for all of the reasons most of you have stated and more.

*I can't remember a previous Marathon where leaving early was such an easy option for me.  But faced with PAUL as the only one of the final four films that I had any desire to see (I loved COWBOY BEBOP ten years ago, but its placement in the schedule knocked me out), I jetted out around 6:30am.  Scheduling these events is always a difficult juggling act, and L.A. did all he could with what he was given.  But at a certain point, the booking process has to take what works best when into account, a consideration that seems to have been somewhat missing this year.  Ideally, you want to keep as many people around until the end as possible, and scheduling GALACTICA and FOLKLORE for the final two slots (hell, booking them in the first place) is a big, flashing sign to all that checking out early is a viable option.

*Finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't heap praise upon Ian, David and everyone at the Somerville for keeping this beautiful electronic palace up and running.  To have such a dynamic and magnificent venue for the Marathon has become one of the main reasons that I keep making the trip every year.

Oh and....NO YOU GO TO HELL!

which would you rather have: "folklore" or an extra 5 minute break between features?


RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES:
truly awesome cgi. i think this is due to the fact that the actors are in all cases performing with another human (albeit sporting white pinpoints) being. i waited to see this at the marathon and i'm glad i did.

WAR OF THE SATELLITES:
good 50s trash. but this was the only 50s film. i'll do the statistics later but i think it's rare that the marathon only has one 50s movie.

BRAINSTORM:
natalie was helping her son get out of the pool and some guy snarked "show him how to swim". you could see how frightened she was of water. she grasped the rail with both hands, kept her distance as much as possible and extended her foot to him.

ENDHIRAN:
why do they switch between english and hindi with no rhyme or reason? it's like, moonoo hasho gomblah gomengira hogloduumara. let's get on this bus. jomanny lagoroddivva mengela.

DIMENSIONS:
oh the plot holes the polt holes. if he wants to make sure she doesn't fall into the well he could do alot better than to just steal her skipping twine. i mean if you sacrifice your life in order to create an alternate reality which by your own theory is already in existence anyway??

ATTACK THE BLOCK:
pretty good.

ISLAND OF LOST SOULS:
pretty good

SCANNERS:
this was a first marathon appearence of my hero patrick mcgoohan.

FRANKENSTEIN:
it was a difficult decision but i took my nap here

RE-ANIMATOR:
awesome to see with the audience. it was great to get reactions from people who hadn't seen it before.

COWBOY BEBOP: since wasting 2 hours of my life by watching akira, i've been leary of anime. but i thought this was ok.

PAUL:
i'm not a fundamentalist christion but i don't agree with the insinuation that the girl's morals and rules for decorum were completely baseless and therefore abandonned after a mind meld with an alien

MISSION GALACTICA: THE CYLON ATTACK:
my problem with bg is that they always give the cylons the first shot. shoot them in the back, it's fine, they're robots. the fighters are always flying like jets. in space if you want to reverse direction the first step is not to fire full thrusters followed by an arcing turn.  that ony serves to take you farther away from your final destination and waste fuel. and sometimes the rayguns are coming out of the ship and converging to a point that is only 20 feet in front of it. but in every single case the first 2 shots miss.

FOLKLORE:
garen, what were you thinking. i stayed to the bitter end and enjoyed trashing it.

Okay, I have to confess I started this marathon in not the greatest of moods. My groups usual seating (front row left or right side) were full when I arrived. Found some okay seats though. Garen mentioned next year may see reserved seating available. I've always wondered how there are so many rows cordoned off when we first arrive anyway.
Said hi to some regular marathon attendees/old friends and joined my group in going through the marathon goodie bags. Great job as always to the prize guy. There is always at least one "what the hell?" item. This year there were tiny plastic space ships that were from old Japanese animated shows & movies, wild!
On to the films.
1) Rise of the Apes- Enjoyed seeing this again even more than I thought I would. It's just so well written to take in the original Planet of the Apes movie plus some great performances especially by Andy Serkis as Caesar. You just know there is a special Oscar in his future since they won't nominate him as an actor.
2) Brainstorm- I ended up missing a most of this because Garen asked me if I wanted to be interviewed for the docu he is making about the Welles. Ended up talking to friends in the lobby till it was my turn.
3) War of the Satellites- Again missed most because of the docu. Ending looked really nutty, really sorry i missed the beginning.
4) Endhiran- Wild, since it's played for comedy it was a very easy film to laugh along with. The musical numbers were mostly part of the film, except for one set in an Aztec-like city where I wear the song was just random phrases tossed out. Kept me off balance when the cast would go into english in mid sentence. A near perfect marathon movie.
5) Dimensions- Enjoyable in an art house way. Good placement too. Early enough so we had some patience.
6) Attack the Block. Fun but needed subtitles as much as Endhiran. Great creature designs too.
7) Island of Lost Souls- I have not seen this since SF4 and its still a great film. Really daring with all it's implied bestiality. Pre-code horror from Hollywood at its best, no wonder it was banned in Britain for 25 years. Laughton looked like he was enjoying himself, Lugosi was buried beneath a mask of hair/fur asking "are we not men?" Back at SF4 we knew the answer, to quote Booji Boy "we're all Devo!"
8) Scanners- Kind of surprised how this has not aged that well. I fell asleep during part of it. The head explosion still packs a wallop though.
9) Frankenstein- Classic film with a fantastic cast. Karloff really does shine even behind all that makeup. I was surprised to see the scene where he throws the girl into the river, that's usually cut from American prints. I noticed the doctors comment about knowing what its like to be God was still cut. Still a great experience seeing all the classic sets on the big screen, man that lab was cramped.
10) Re-Animator- And an unrated print too. Very sick but the humor keeps it from getting too upsetting.
11) Cowboy Bebop- Problem with a lot of anime movies is they are based on shows and designed for fans of the show. This one seemed to have characters who were bored with what they did, and that computer geek had the most annoying voice I've ever heard. I nodded off a couple of times but I don't think I missed anything.
12) Paul- As i expected, seeing this with the marathon crowd added a whole new level of enjoyment. How did I miss the bluegrass version of the Cantina theme before? Also though it was a film that had a lot of heart to go with its humor. Also a film that struck a chord with me from trips I've taken with friends to conventions. Put it on a repeat list for the future.
13) Mission Galactica- How generic can you get. This really betrayed its origin from TV eps, even the opening credits seemed to be written in flat type thatshowed no thought went into its presentation.  BTW, bad news, there is a THIRD Galactica film out there called Conquest of the Earth.
14) Folklore- Overlong and poorly placed, MIGHT have gone over a little batter in late afternoon. But really, main trouble is it's an idea that would make a cute short stretched WAY too long.

Ending music of We'll Meet Again again brought a tear to my eye as the crowd filed out (and I sang along.)
See ya all there next year.
Can i request a second end music song? I'd really like to hear Happy Trails To You again. 

   

da_Bunnyman wrote on Feb 21^st, 2012 at 10:36pm:

BTW, bad news, there is a THIRD Galactica film out there called Conquest of the Earth.

how much cash would it take to get you to edit this from your review and never mention it again?

As to the scheduling of FOLKLORE last. You can chalk it up to the event now being officially a Festival now. Part of the Festival game is that it can be prestigious to be selected as the "Closing Film" of a Festival. We've done this before with stuff like last year's ZONAD, SLEEP DEALERS and the German film SPACE PATROL. The Festival aspect has done well with giving the event some wider attention, and, it appears, an uptick in ticket sales.

In other circumstances, PAUL would have been my choice as the closing film.

Hang on, everyone. I finished editing the time lapse, but made the mistake of using copyrighted music that got it auto-blocked. Let me use something a little less illegal.

L.A. Connection wrote on Feb 22^nd, 2012 at 12:08am:

As to the scheduling of FOLKLORE last. You can chalk it up to the event now being officially a Festival now. Part of the Festival game is that it can be prestigious to be selected as the "Closing Film" of a Festival. We've done this before with stuff like last year's ZONAD, SLEEP DEALERS and the German film SPACE PATROL. The Festival aspect has done well with giving the event some wider attention, and, it appears, an uptick in ticket sales. In other circumstances, PAUL would have been my choice as the closing film.

Ok I get all that.  All I am saying to Garen is that he pick a more polished film as the closing film of the thon er.... "festival".      

I don;t want to give the impression that the thon was bad.  On the contrary, I really enjoyed this year's thon.  For me, it was one of the best line-ups in sometime.  I liked all of the other movies and really enjoyed most of them.  Scanners, War of the Satellites, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Paul, Attack the Block, Island of Lost Souls, Frankenstein, Re-Animator, Cowboy Bebop were all very enjoyable.

I liked Dimensions and about half of Endhiran.  Galactica, well it was ok.


No all in all it was a most enjoyable year.  I just would have ended with a different film.

Okay, let's try this again. Sadly, I was at a loss for what music I have on hand that would fit and not trigger the robo-censors on YouTube, so I'm afraid I just reused the same music from last time. For those who are interested, the thing which got the video blocked was my use of the track "Drezzed" from the TRON: Legacy soundtrack.

Anyway, please clicky-click the link and check out the video.

L.A. Connection wrote on Feb 22^nd, 2012 at 12:08am:

As to the scheduling of FOLKLORE last. You can chalk it up to the event now being officially a Festival now. ... We've done this before with stuff like last year's ZONAD, SLEEP DEALERS and the German film SPACE PATROL. The Festival aspect has done well with giving the event some wider attention, and, it appears, an uptick in ticket sales.

Well... "Folklore" was no "Sleep Dealers."  I agree with others that it was an unfortunate end to a great Marathon.  It was a lot to take on so much sleep deprivation.  It was a cute idea and they were trying sooo hard... but it really didn't work.  By its halfway point I wanted to punch everyone involved with making it [ETA: rereading this thread, I see I wasn't the only one having that reaction], and well before the end I was kind of hating the entire event.  It was not the way I wanted to feel walking out of the theater.

But if it helps to drive buzz and sell tickets, I'm all for that.  And I'm glad to say the feeling didn't last long.  I thought it was a really good year.  There wasn't a single other film that felt like a chore to sit through.  (Well, I napped during "Galactica.")  And all the films were new to me.

Just a few selected other reactions:

ENDHIRAN — Wow.  Not my favorite of the films but certainly the most memorable.  I think the dialogue with the mosquitos was when I realized it was completely nuts, but I still didn't see that last third coming.  One thing I love about the 'thon is that I get to see some bizarre things I would never have discovered otherwise.  This was one of those.

I love ejs's thought of splitting it up at the intermission and showing the second part later in the schedule.  That could have been a lot of fun.

Question, possibly for Jay Seaver from upthread: if you're used to Bollywood/Kollywood/whatever conventions, which I am not, how much less insane does that make "Endhiran" in context?  I assume the music videos are to be expected, but what about the rest?

DIMENSIONS — I loved the tone and the look of this one so much that I forgave the disappointing denouement.  (If you didn't have the Professor's identity down to at most two possibilities, you've never encountered science fiction before.  When an old guy shows up in the opening scene, doesn't give his name, and talks about time travel, that's kind of a gimme.)  A really affecting and beautifully made film.

Somebody mentioned that, after the Saturday showing, the filmmakers pointed out some interesting details that we might have missed on a first viewing.  Anybody want to share?  Or got a relevant link?

ATTACK THE BLOCK — I was really excited about this from the word of mouth and it didn't disappoint.  Whoever came up with making the teeth glow in the dark deserves a freaking Oscar.  This was probably my favorite this year.

FRANKENSTEIN — never seen it, thought it was great.  Another cultural literacy gap filled.

RE-ANIMATOR — I was a little turned off by the gore till I realized how funny it was.  Excellent choice for the wee-hours gut punch timeslot.

PAUL — much funnier than I'd mostly heard.  I agree that it would have been a fabulous ending film.  Perfect audience to see it with — really, this was the audience it was made for.

All told, great year.  Thanks to Garen and everybody else involved for what I'm sure is more hard work than I can imagine to make this thing happen every year.  I keep trying to rope new people in and I really thought I had a couple of them lined up this year.  Maybe next time.

Hey, do any of the rest of you ever skip films in the theater that you think will show up at the 'thon?  I had a feeling about "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" (which I didn't especially want to see anyway, but whatever).  I was dead sure "Cowboys & Aliens" was going to be on the schedule, too.  Though from what I hear that was no great loss.

Hey Neil_N — thanks so much for posting the time lapse, I got a huge kick out of last year's.  Is the picture quality the same?  I can't seem to find myself this time.  (Also, it's still got the 2010 dates on it, FYI.)

As far as picture quality, it's the same as last year, only zoomed out a bit more and (sadly) a bit out of focus at times due to my having forgotten to lock down the auto focus. I'm afraid that it was never designed to be a good low-light still camera.

I'll try to do better next year. And hopefully have new music that won't trip the copyright censor.

i always say that revilement, abysmal quality, revulsiveness and unwatchability are not reasons to exclude a film from the marathon. it's fun when something like folklore gets panned. for those of you who left there was the usual crescendo of derision leading up to the end of folklore. the credits rolled for a minute and an outtake scene appeared. the whole audience let out a scream of agony. no more! no more!

kirok wrote on Feb 22^nd, 2012 at 8:10am:

i always say that revilement, abysmal quality, revulsiveness and unwatchability are not reasons to exclude a film from the marathon. it's fun when something like folklore gets panned. for those of you who left there was the usual crescendo of derision leading up to the end of folklore. the credits rolled for a minute and an outtake scene appeared. the whole audience let out a scream of agony. no more! no more!

Oh, sure.  Absolutely.  Dealing with dreck is an important part of the 'thon.  I'll never forget the cheers that erupted at George Segal's tragic death at the end of "The Interminable Terminal Man."  Or the god-awful "demonlover," which if memory serves had a lot of deceptive false endings to prolong the agony.  And I'm sure we'll all be remembering "Folklore" similarly years from now.  But having it last on the schedule, with no chaser, was not fun.  I don't think the reaction would have been nearly so intense if it hadn't had to be the closing film.

L.A. Connection mentioned "Sleep Dealers."  That was a genuinely deserving film, which also happened to have a hugely cathartic happy ending.  I felt really good leaving that year.

I think it'll help now that we know what the deal is, and won't necessarily be expecting a crowd-pleaser at the very end.  Expectations management, you know?  Next year I'll probably have my stuff together just in case I want to duck out during the last film (although I'll be very surprised if we get another "Folklore" as the selection).

God, I hope the "Folklore" people aren't reading this forum.  They seem like really nice people and they so obviously put their heart into it.

(Neil_N — the video is just fine, I was only curious.  I love having these and I hope you keep producing them.)

Brother Matthias wrote on Feb 22^nd, 2012 at 2:10am:

ENDHIRAN — Wow.  Not my favorite of the films but certainly the most memorable.  I think the dialogue with the mosquitos was when I realized it was completely nuts, but I still didn't see that last third coming.  One thing I love about the 'thon is that I get to see some bizarre things I would never have discovered otherwise.  This was one of those. I love ejs's thought of splitting it up at the intermission and showing the second part later in the schedule.  That could have been a lot of fun. Question, possibly for Jay Seaver from upthread: if you're used to Bollywood/Kollywood/whatever conventions, which I am not, how much less insane does that make "Endhiran" in context?  I assume the music videos are to be expected, but what about the rest?

I think Endhiran is nuts no matter what your cultural background.  I'm not really a big Indian-movie fan (I go when there's something playing that might be up my alley for other reasons), but the thing you've got to get used to is that these things try to be all things for all people, so they're going to have big action, broad comedy, melodrama, musical numbers, etc.  And they're going to last a while; they're meant to be an entire afternoon's or evening's entertainment for the whole family.

Plus, you're dealing with a different culture.  There were certain bits of this movie that the mostly-Indian audience I saw it with a Fresh Pond reacted to with huge noise/applause/laughter (Rajinikanth apparently has a few tics that carry over from movie to movie, so when he wags his finger, the crowd goes nuts).  There tend to be cameo appearances that I generally don't get, and you'll occasionally have really violent thrillers that are very prudish where sex is concerned.  As in, I was actually kind of surprised when Aishwarya Rai's character kissed Rajini's, on-screen, toward the start, because her reputation has always been that she's a good girl and wouldn't do that.

I don't think breaking it up like a serial would have worked; it's designed to have a moment for the audience to stretch their legs or hit the restroom/concession stands, but it picks right back up where it left off without re-establishing things.


Brother Matthias wrote on Feb 22^nd, 2012 at 2:10am:

DIMENSIONS - ...Somebody mentioned that, after the Saturday showing, the filmmakers pointed out some interesting details that we might have missed on a first viewing.  Anybody want to share?  Or got a relevant link?

The thing I remember them mentioning is the bit where "The Professor" holds the jump rope between himself and Stephen and basically saying they were the same guy at two ends of their lives.


Brother Matthias wrote on Feb 22^nd, 2012 at 2:10am:

Hey, do any of the rest of you ever skip films in the theater that you think will show up at the 'thon?

Skip films at the theater?  Ha ha ha ha ha...

Some comments on prior posts:


Jay Seaver wrote on Feb 20^th, 2012 at 5:07pm:

BRAINSTORM:  Dug it, although it's a shame the 70mm gear at the theater isn't ready yet.... ENDHIRAN:  A reminder for those who didn't have it seared into their brains:  Aishwarya Rai is really, really pretty, and a big part of why I occasionally go to Indian movies.

It really doesn't matter if we had 70mm installed by now: there probably are no 70mm prints available for  BRAINSTORM. For all the shouting about showing ALTERED STATES in 70mm this year, we were not even able to procure a 35mm print, because the studio only offered Blu Ray (and we saw how THAT looked on the big screen with DIMENSIONS & FOLKLORE!). I did manage to find a private print of ALTERED STATES, but even the print collector admitted that we "probably didn't want to rent it because it had faded totally red".

You really have to add a few more "really really"'s about Rai's prettiness.  ;)


Neil_N wrote on Feb 21^st, 2012 at 2:42pm:

11.) Cowboy Bebop - Knockin' On Heaven's Door This is one of the very rare cases where I wished that we'd gotten the excellent dub instead of this flawed subtitle. The translation really skimped on some important dialogue. On the upside, it was a lovely print, and I think this movie works even when you haven't seen the TV series.

Surprised an anime purist would prefer dubbed. But, I disagree about the movie working for non-fans of the series. As enticing as it was to see and hear, about 10 minutes in, I felt that the characters were already acting like it was reel 3 of the movie. I kinda figured out what was going on, but felt that all the nuances were inexplicable.


ejs wrote on Feb 21^st, 2012 at 7:14pm:

ENDHIRAN: If this had been two hours, it would rank as an all-time marathon highlight, and I'd be scrambling to find a copy to show to friends. At 3 hours, the drag outweighed a lot of the greatness. I suspect this would have gone over better if we paused at intermission to continue with other features, and then picked up the second half later in the marathon, rather than sitting through it all at once.

Totally agree. At 2 hours the audience would have loved the experience. But, by the 3rd hour, I think a lot of attendees were simply worn out (accounting for the smattering of boos). But, as Jay will attest, it is not unusual for Indian films to hit the 2 1/2 hour mark and more. It's a cinema tradition (not to mention a cheap night's entertainment for the masses). And, we did consider splitting the film in half at the intermission point and running something short like WAR OF THE SATELLITES in between so the audience could catch their breath. A good 5-10 minute Intermission alone would have been helpful, but it was a no-go because the schedule was so packed.

da_Bunnyman wrote on Feb 21^st, 2012 at 10:36pm:

11) Cowboy Bebop- Problem with a lot of anime movies is they are based on shows and designed for fans of the show. This one seemed to have characters who were bored with what they did, and that computer geek had the most annoying voice I've ever heard.

It's even worse in the English dub.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfqGIr2W0_o

I enjoyed most of the 'Thon!  Thanks to all who helped make it a fun event as always. 

RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES: Good reboot of the franchise.  Smart story with a few issues.  It's on my list to watch again. 

ENDHIRAN: A fun time, but way too long.  An one and half hour version would have been more than acceptable.

DIMENSIONS: I appeciated the effort the filmmakers put into this movie.  Making a period piece on an indy budget is probably not the easiest thing to do.

FRANKENSTEIN and ISLAND OF LOST SOULS:  I can never grow tired watching these two movies.  Thanks for including them.

PAUL: A nice suprise and should have been the 'Thon closer.  Would have been a great, fun way to end it. 

FORKLORE: An amazingly unpleasant movie watching experience!  Almost a perfect example on how to NOT to make a feature-length movie.  A 5-10 minute short film at best.  Too bad this was the last movie.  I should have left after viewing it for 10 minutes.  Ugghhh!!!...

This just in folks

2012 GORT AWARD WINNER FOR
BEST FEATURE FILM
Dimensions: A Line, A Loop, A Tangle of Threads
Director: Sloane U'Ren
Screenwriter: Ant Neely

BEST DOCUMENTARY
The Golden Age of Science Fiction
Director: Eric Solstein

BEST SPACE MOVIE
The Last Push
Director: Eric Hayden

BEST ROBOT MOVIE
Time of the Robots
Director: Erik Hammen

BEST MASH-UP MOVIE
Time of the Robots
Director: Erik Hammen

BEST CRITTER MOVIE
Millennium Big
Director: Kenneth Cran

BEST DIRECTOR
Justin Calen Chenn, Folklore

BEST ACTOR
Khary Payton, The Last Push

BEST EDITING
Pig

BEST ENSEMBLE ACTING
Folklore

BEST SCREENPLAY
Zero One, Kareem Gray

BEST SCORE
Zero One

HONORABLE MENTION
Collapsed
Director Justin McConnell

L.A. Connection wrote on Feb 22^nd, 2012 at 11:40pm:

Some comments on prior posts: For all the shouting about showing ALTERED STATES in 70mm this year, we were not even able to procure a 35mm print, because the studio only offered Blu Ray (and we saw how THAT looked on the big screen with DIMENSIONS & FOLKLORE!).

I think the biggest problem with the video projection is that the projector itself was underpowered. There are excellent video projectors that can throw enough light to make it more watchable in Blu-Ray.

True, there are better Blu Ray projectors, but, with a screen the size of the Somerville's (not to mention the distance from the booth), it still is a big comedown from a 35mm print (let alone 70mm).

The Somerville is going at least partially digital this spring. That means we will be showing recent films digitally likely beginning next Marathon. Unfortunately, there seems to be little movement so far by studios to properly convert archive titles into proper digital "prints". Rather, they seem bent on offering DVDS whenever possible.  :(


Neil_N wrote on Feb 23^rd, 2012 at 11:16pm:

L.A. Connection wrote on Feb 22nd, 2012 at 11:40pm: Some comments on prior posts: For all the shouting about showing ALTERED STATES in 70mm this year, we were not even able to procure a 35mm print, because the studio only offered Blu Ray (and we saw how THAT looked on the big screen with DIMENSIONS & FOLKLORE!). I think the biggest problem with the video projection is that the projector itself was underpowered. There are excellent video projectors that can throw enough light to make it more watchable in Blu-Ray.

Frank wrote on Feb 23^rd, 2012 at 4:15pm:

This just in folks 2012 GORT AWARD WINNER FOR ... BEST ENSEMBLE ACTING Folklore

To be fair, you should see the other guys!  Or not.

Personally, I think Folklore is less a bad movie than one that apparently caught folks at the wrong time, and whatever else you say about it, the cast does work well together; I'd argue that the only other "ensemble" in the running with them was Dimensions.  Besides, from that awards list, it looks like Garen & company were hell-bent on giving anyone who showed up personally or who was half-competent an award.

Which is problematic in itself - it reminds me of the current owners of the Boston Film Festival who appear to be much more interested in having celebrity guests than showing movies.  Garen's weakness appears to be premieres; he boasted about how many world/NA/local premieres the fest had, but, honestly, most of those were not premiering at higher-profile festivals for a reason (The Millennium Bug, In the Renaissance, Neander-Jin, Sol, and Time Again were all pretty awful).  I tend to figure that the festival would be better off booking some good things that played Fantasia/Fantastic Fest/Sundance than a bunch of terrible premieres, and not just because I paid actual money to see those things.

Of the stuff that played the festival, The Last Push would have been a pretty great finale for the Marathon in the place of Folklore; folks should seek that out when it eventually gets some sort of VOD/DVD distribution.

That movie played at any hour would have been terrible.  That it was played as the last movie is worse but not by much. 
To say that this is not so bad because the others were worse is to damn it with faint praise.
At best it would have been an ok 15 minute short. 

The fact that a bunch of bad actors work well together is hardly praise.  The annoying camera girl, the interviewer straight man.  Just bad.  This movie is not good as a full length feature on any level.   

I will take your word on Last Push and I will catch it when and if I can.  As I said I don't ind ending with a festival film but you have to make sure that it will entertain. 

Jay Seaver wrote on Feb 22^nd, 2012 at 8:37pm:

The thing I remember them mentioning is the bit where "The Professor" holds the jump rope between himself and Stephen and basically saying they were the same guy at two ends of their lives.

Thanks, Jay.  I think that did get past me.

I've been overthinking "Dimensions" and I had this thought.  Stephen appears in the opening sequence as the Professor, as an old man.  Why is he there?  It's not to take the jump-rope, obviously, because he doesn't take it in the version of the scene as we see it play out — Conrad goes on to drop it down the well.  So could this Stephen have come back to prevent Victoria from dying in some other way?  If so, it was futile: the jump-rope goes down the well and she still dies.  Which raises the question, in the scene at the end of the movie, is Victoria going to live, or will she die in yet another way?  Is there an endless chain of Stephens, doomed to travel back in time to try to save an endless chain of Victorias?

That depressing speculation doesn't really fit with the many-worlds idea expressed in the film.  But I am curious exactly what Original Stephen was doing there.  (...Goes looking for an email address for the filmmakers...)

as i said in my reaction post this movie is frought with plot holes. but that's inherent in any time travel movie. steven and conrad both gave up their 1920 lives and had to wait from roughly 1870 to 1923 just to steal a "skipping rope"?? they are taking a hell of a risk that victoria will fall down the well for some other reason. her true motivation was not to rescue her "beloved skipping rope". primarily she wanted to prove to the boys that she was not a "fraidy cat knocky knickers".
and i see no need to personally transport to the past. instead send the following message: "dear victoria's mom. it is imperative that you weld an iron plate to the top of the well and seal it tight. your daughters life is in danger. also your husband should avoid military service if possible"

steven transported to 1870 with knowledge of not only relativity and quantum mechanics but also powerred flight, wireless and the reciprocating automatic weapons (machine gun, the gattling gun is not a machine gun). he worked as a proffessor and managed to keep his mouth shut. kudos.

why in fact does steven go back in time, wait 50 years and steal a "skipping rope" in order to create an alternative reality which by his own theories is already in existence and in which he will not get to be with victoria?

Frank wrote on Feb 24^th, 2012 at 1:08am:

That movie played at any hour would have been terrible.  That it was played as the last movie is worse but not by much.  To say that this is not so bad because the others were worse is to damn it with faint praise.

See, I think that's unnecessarily harsh.  It's a shotgun movie, tossing out 100 gags in the hope that 40 or so work, but to call it "terrible" strikes me as an exaggeration.  There's bits that work, and while it may strike you as damning with faint praise, I think the cast works well together, despite having stretches without anything interesting to do.  Even when gags don't work, it's not because the various actors aren't meshing.


kirok wrote on Feb 24^th, 2012 at 12:53pm:

as i said in my reaction post this movie is frought with plot holes. but that's inherent in any time travel movie.

It's not, actually; most writers just don't bother to fully sketch out the cause and effect, or vacillate between working a closed loop or a changeable future.  There's no reason not to have tight plotting in a time travel movie other than audiences letting writers and directors get away with it.

(Plus, I sort of get the idea that this one had a bunch of half-explored ideas meant to create deliberate ambiguity)

Anyway, from what I could tell, Stephen & Conrad weren't elderly because they'd hung around for years, but because traveling through the portal is damaging (remember Robert?).    As to why they just took the jump rope instead of doing something more proactive, I'm guessing they did in other timelines - the 1921 at the beginning is "one of many", and I suspect they traveled into another, making the 1921 - 1936 period the "tangle of threads" of the subtitle, as opposed to a loop.

if you have access to a time machine the first thing you do is make a plan to keep an accurate log of every time that you lost access to the time machine. then you immediately go forward in time to retrieve the diary. armed with the details of all the events wherein you lost your time machine, you would then go back in time and make preparations that would prevent each event. for example h.g. wells would tell himself "don't leave your time machine unattended. some creatures called the morlocks will drag it into their cave"
now that you have guaranteed perpetual acces to you machine you can always do what bill and ted do. make a plan to use the time machine to put a key under a rock etc...

Jay Seaver wrote on Feb 24^th, 2012 at 1:42pm:

It's a shotgun movie...

Yeah, kinda like a shotgun wedding. :D

Sorry Jay just not feeling it for Folklore.  I did not see actors meashing together here.  Certainly not to the degree where it would merit praise.  It's an interesting idea for a short film but the story did not have the horses for a full length feature and the acting was pretty uniformly bad.  I guess thay meashed in that sense.  I stayed with it for about 30-40 minutes but the gag of see the silly producer woman have fun with the goofy interviewer got old rather quickly and for a planet where these legendary creatures are part of our world, the crew seemed a bit lost.  It felt as if I was watching some amateur improv group.  Yes, they all get along marvelously, they just aren't very good at what they do.   

Re: Dimensions, it was a reasonably enjoyable film, though I felt it worked better as a period piece or romance than a time travel film. It kind of felt like a poor man's Somewhere in Time to me.

I found the relationship between the children pretty unbelievable. Well, throwing the jump rope down the well I believed but the kissy face goosey gander stuff, do kids ever act like that in real life?

I wondered too about taking the jump rope, it didn't seem like it would prevent the death. The little creep would have thrown something else of hers down there. It's kind of like the best scene in the remake of The Time Machine where (SPOILERS) Guy Pearce is able to go back and save his girlfriend only to have her run over by a carriage while he is buying her flowers. Watching that unfold through the window behind him made me laugh so hard. Nobody else was laughing though. Am I sick?

But compared to most of our indie premieres it was a decent movie. Pretty to look at certainly.

the best laugh in folklore was unintentional. some one on screen wisecracked about whitney houston and several people snarked "too soon! too soon!"

L.A. Connection wrote on Feb 24^th, 2012 at 12:03am:

True, there are better Blu Ray projectors, but, with a screen the size of the Somerville's (not to mention the distance from the booth), it still is a big comedown from a 35mm print (let alone 70mm). The Somerville is going at least partially digital this spring. That means we will be showing recent films digitally likely beginning next Marathon. Unfortunately, there seems to be little movement so far by studios to properly convert archive titles into proper digital "prints". Rather, they seem bent on offering DVDS whenever possible.  :( Neil_N wrote on Feb 23rd, 2012 at 11:16pm: L.A. Connection wrote on Feb 22nd, 2012 at 11:40pm: Some comments on prior posts: For all the shouting about showing ALTERED STATES in 70mm this year, we were not even able to procure a 35mm print, because the studio only offered Blu Ray (and we saw how THAT looked on the big screen with DIMENSIONS & FOLKLORE!). I think the biggest problem with the video projection is that the projector itself was underpowered. There are excellent video projectors that can throw enough light to make it more watchable in Blu-Ray.

I will take some loss in quality if we are able to open up titles found only on DVD/Blu-Ray and if we had a better projector.  Hell, we have shown some awful film prints over the years.  I don't suggest an all dvd  thon but one or two films not otherwise available would be fine with me and probably most of the audience.  There are a handful of purists who won't have it any other way but it's time to let that go and open up film availability.  Hell, we are having a tough time getting 35mm prints from anywhere but private sources.  I say go for it.  Major Tom and I were discussing this at the end of the thon.

Because of my work schedule (and living 3,000 miles away), the Festival isn't possible for me to attend (plus, I think it should be more compact, it runs too long even for local residents), so I can't comment on those entries.

But, even if you had flipped FOLKLORE with the other Festival film DIMENSIONS, FOLKLORE would have still gone over very poorly with the Marathon crowd. In fact, even more people may have dashed for the exits as it would have served as a dinner break in that time slot. Heck, there were those who left before it even started because of having seen the trailer! And, this is one trailer that DOES represent the film. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Er6RLuqVluc

ALL 

TOO 

WELL.........................




Jay Seaver wrote on Feb 24^th, 2012 at 12:40am:

Frank wrote on Feb 23rd, 2012 at 4:15pm: This just in folks 2012 GORT AWARD WINNER FOR ... BEST ENSEMBLE ACTING Folklore To be fair, you should see the other guys!  Or not. Personally, I think Folklore is less a bad movie than one that apparently caught folks at the wrong time, and whatever else you say about it, the cast does work well together; I'd argue that the only other "ensemble" in the running with them was Dimensions.  Besides, from that awards list, it looks like Garen & company were hell-bent on giving anyone who showed up personally or who was half-competent an award. Which is problematic in itself - it reminds me of the current owners of the Boston Film Festival who appear to be much more interested in having celebrity guests than showing movies.  Garen's weakness appears to be premieres; he boasted about how many world/NA/local premieres the fest had, but, honestly, most of those were not premiering at higher-profile festivals for a reason (The Millennium Bug, In the Renaissance, Neander-Jin, Sol, and Time Again were all pretty awful).  I tend to figure that the festival would be better off booking some good things that played Fantasia/Fantastic Fest/Sundance than a bunch of terrible premieres, and not just because I paid actual money to see those things. Of the stuff that played the festival, The Last Push would have been a pretty great finale for the Marathon in the place of Folklore; folks should seek that out when it eventually gets some sort of VOD/DVD distribution.

For the first time in a long time I left before the last film to catch a bus back to NYC (the last time was weather related, and leaving early ended up saving me major headaches).
From all that I've read here it was a good thing.
As it was, I was left with the soft, comforting glow of a successful 'Thon, with no misses to speak of.
After watching that trailer I thank the scheduling powers above for sparing me the experience that was Folklore.

The Palme D'Or once went to "Demonlover". The Oscar went to Roberto Benigni for "Life is Beautiful"....Now it's Gort's turn to honor:

Fecklore!  8-)

Yes, Marathoids, there's a place far snarkier and less polite than this one...and the amazing thing is people use their real names there. Just wait till they get the news!

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t214/Karen_Tom/Movies/feckbook.jpg

No doubt the choice will generate controversy and the 'Thon will grow in prestige. As Irish writer Brendan Behan once observed: "The only bad press is your own obituary!" ;)




Quote:

re: Folklore Frank: [quote]That movie played at any hour would have been terrible...The acting was pretty uniformly bad.

Metaluna: re Shotgun Movie

Quote:

Yeah, kinda like a shotgun wedding.

etc...etc...etc...[/quote]

R_F_Fineman wrote on Feb 25^th, 2012 at 5:49pm:

Quote: re: Folklore Metaluna: re Shotgun Movie [quote]Yeah, kinda like a shotgun wedding. etc...etc...etc...

[/quote]
Hey, sorry but it was there and I couldn't resist.

I thought the acting wasn't so bad. It did seem very improvish. I was wondering how tightly scripted it was. I think the same group given better material could be much better. I agree with others that it could have made a nice short.

Except the alien twins who seemed not at all alien and very much annoying. I thought the time traveler had potential but...it never really took off. I'm still not sure what to think of the shape shifting spider woman. :-/

I think another part of the problem is that it's a bit too far afield for a Sci-Fi marathon, it veers too far into fantasy. I know we stretch the definitions and I often don't mind that. But it only works when something is really good. I could see this playing well at Arisia. Maybe.

The only movie of this sort that really seemed to fly was Invasion/Top of the Food Chain. And I honestly can't tell you why that worked when so many others failed.

my two cents worth...

Rise of the Planet of the Apes - pretty darn good even if parts of it are pretty hard to believe. But, James Franco aint no Chuck Heston!

Brainstorm - can't believe i forgot how loopy Chris Walken was even back then! call me sexist, but Natalie Wood looked way too old to be Walken's wife. The Brainstorm effects were well done and I enjoyed it all pretty well. Can u believe they could show pubic hair in a PG film back then!?  :o :o Oh, and YOU can go to hell, too!  :P

War of the Satellites - we might be pushing it with all these 2nd rate B movies at the marathon, but I still had fun with this

Endhiran - loved it! Hated it! So much to enjoy and so much to take. about half-way through i had to duck out and grab something to eat. can't believe there was still more than an hour to go when i got back-- and I still don't think I missed any real plot. That Rai chick is smoking hot

Dimensions - on the bright side - it's much better than the other premiere we got. on the down side - pretty boring. I know they were trying to make something classy, but at a certain point you just gotta get on with it

Attack the Block! Now we're talkin'! dumb stoopid and lotsa fun. if only i could figure out what they were sayin' half the time!!

Island of Lost Souls - creepy and fun. Charles Laughton must be the swishiest Mad Scientist ever - and he's whip-snapping incredible in the part! Are we not Men? WE ARE DEVO!!!

Scanners - it still has that great gross out head explodin' opening, but the middle is kinda slack. I still liked it, but no mo' Cronenberg for a while, please.......

Frankenstein - a classic - and it deserves to be remembered. nice to have the two censored scenes back in, but you couldn't really hear the 'I know what it's like to be a god' line

Re-Animator - oh, boy, is this one gross! I loved it, but not sure it really fits at the sci-fi marathon - for a 2nd time no less.

Cowboy bebop - glad this one was buried in the wee hours. I needed some rest time. from what i saw it looked good and the music kept jarring me awake at times, but damn did it seem boring to non-fans of the show. no idea why this was booked at all when there are so many more recent anime movies out there....

Paul - like it in theaters, LOVED it with this crowd! it's like it was made with US in mind!

Battlestar Galactica - hey, i enjoy cheezy 70s tv and i had fun LAST YEAR with the first Galactica movie, but WTF showing this back to back years? I mean really, WTF!??

Folklore - WTF Part Two! WTF Times infinitiy! what were those folks smokin' at the Festival that they liked it so much and gave it two bleeping awards?! Was the place packed with crew members? I dont care if I saw this fresh from a 9 hour nap - it would still SUCK! For the first time ever, I walked out of the marathon during the last movie not because i wasn't feelin' well or had someplace to be -but because of disgust at how baaaaaaad the movie was. right DOWN there with the worst marathon movies ever

despite that last movie, I still had a pretty good time . see u next year!

COWBOY BEBOP was tough to schedule. We've done anime early in the schedule and that has gotten some resistance. AKIRA was in primetime, and it's still one of the more controversial entries at the Marathon. By process of elimination, COWBOY sort of ended up where it did. Of course, if FOLKLORE weren't last, the schedule would have been adjusted to accommodate PAUL as the closing film.

And, what are all these strange posts with references to "rest", "Sleep", "naps" etc?????

I hadn't heard about the "opening film, closing film" business. It's a good idea, but I really think the film has to fit the honor to get a spot like either of those. Why not give one Festival winner a midnight spot ... or 8 p.m., or whatever. Besides, I love it when the Marathons kick off with a big, crazy Hollywood film. And I've always wanted to leave on a high note. "Late for Dinner" remains one of my favorite closers. For a number of years now I've been lobbying for the (marginally SF, terrific, and hard-to-get) "Blast from the Past" to end one of them. It's a true crowd pleaser.

Hyman Roth wrote on Feb 21^st, 2012 at 9:04pm:

*Marathon premieres are often a tough lot to gauge.  Twenty years ago, when small distributors were still relatively strong, Stuart Gordon or Brian Yuzna could provide a 35mm print of a mildly budgeted film with a genre stalwart or two in the cast, that at least had the veneer of respectability.  It was respectability caked with sleaze around the edges, but still.  Now, in an environment where premieres like this often skip straight to more seemingly MAJOR fests like SXSW, etc., it's much tougher to secure fare that stacks up in the same way.  It's not necessarily fair that the Marathons are viewed as far lesser cousins by some distributors, but its a fact of life nonetheless. I didn't stick around for FOLKLORE because the trailer made it look absolutely terrible.  From the comments I've read so far, my choice of sleep seemed to be appropriate; L.A.'s comments about the hermetically sealed environment of general festivals seems to be spot on in assessing a film like this.

While there are many other festivals out there, it's also true that it's mainly established indie players that avoid the smaller venues. Most newbie filmmakers are just dying to get their films seen (a fact emphasized when you see 1 or 2 year old (and sometimes older) copyright dates attached to some of these "premieres". Unless you have a track record (or name actors attached), most can't just roll the dice on getting into something big like Sundance.



Hyman Roth wrote on Feb 21^st, 2012 at 9:04pm:

*I can't remember a previous Marathon where leaving early was such an easy option for me.  But faced with PAUL as the only one of the final four films that I had any desire to see (I loved COWBOY BEBOP ten years ago, but its placement in the schedule knocked me out), I jetted out around 6:30am.  Scheduling these events is always a difficult juggling act, and L.A. did all he could with what he was given.  But at a certain point, the booking process has to take what works best when into account, a consideration that seems to have been somewhat missing this year.  Ideally, you want to keep as many people around until the end as possible, and scheduling GALACTICA and FOLKLORE for the final two slots (hell, booking them in the first place) is a big, flashing sign to all that checking out early is a viable option.

GALACTICA was a nightmare to schedule, Hyman. It was thought by some that FOLKLORE would have the place leaving in a good mood at the end (and apparently the "hermetically sealed" Fest-goers agreed!).

Joe er Mr. Hyman Roth played it smart.    It was a mistake to schedule BG and Folklore as the final two films.  BG is nowhere near as bad as Folklore but it is a cut and past middling tv show made into a feature using the same effects over and over and over again.  That was the feint that set us up for the knock out punch.  As for Folklore well enough has been written about that.  I understand that the final schedule does not rest in Tony's hand and I am in no way holding him responsible for the order.  In fact, he warned me about Folklore and recommended that I view the trailer.  In retrospect, Fran and I should have bailed after Paul.

Open and closing film be damned.  End strong.  Make me want to stay for the entire thon.  Let me leave the theater feeling tired but elated.  I understand that they can't all be winners but BG was not exactly well received last year and just watching the trailer for Folklore should have told any experienced marathoid that it would be a tough sell to the thon crowd as a closing movie.    

However, if this happens next year, I will take a cue from Mr. Hyman and leave Havana way before things get ugly.

I think Ed is gonna be forking over another T-Shirt to me again. LATE FOR DINNER did not close SF/17. It was 2nd to last (Stuart RE-ANIMATOR Gordon's FROM BEYOND was last that year).

::)

(
ed symkus wrote on Feb 27^th, 2012 at 8:42pm:

I hadn't heard about the "opening film, closing film" business. It's a good idea, but I really think the film has to fit the honor to get a spot like either of those. Why not give one Festival winner a midnight spot ... or 8 p.m., or whatever. Besides, I love it when the Marathons kick off with a big, crazy Hollywood film. And I've always wanted to leave on a high note. "Late for Dinner" remains one of my favorite closers. For a number of years now I've been lobbying for the (marginally SF, terrific, and hard-to-get) "Blast from the Past" to end one of them. It's a true crowd pleaser.

L.A. Connection wrote on Feb 27^th, 2012 at 9:27pm:

I think Ed is gonna be forking over another T-Shirt to me again. LATE FOR DINNER did not close SF/17. It was 2nd to last (Stuart RE-ANIMATOR Gordon's FROM BEYOND was last that year). ::) ( ed symkus wrote on Feb 27th, 2012 at 8:42pm: I hadn't heard about the "opening film, closing film" business. It's a good idea, but I really think the film has to fit the honor to get a spot like either of those. Why not give one Festival winner a midnight spot ... or 8 p.m., or whatever. Besides, I love it when the Marathons kick off with a big, crazy Hollywood film. And I've always wanted to leave on a high note. "Late for Dinner" remains one of my favorite closers. For a number of years now I've been lobbying for the (marginally SF, terrific, and hard-to-get) "Blast from the Past" to end one of them. It's a true crowd pleaser.

Unless that was Ed's last film for that year, heh-heh.  Stranger things have happened. 

L.A. -- You are absolutely right! My memory is ... sometimes ... ya know. I did leave before the final film that year. I guess I was feeling too good!

At a certain point, a film's appropriateness for closing a Marathon can be pretty self evident.  I try to be fairly open about premieres fulfilling this role (The Independent in 2002 was a great choice), but anyone viewing the trailer for Folklore could see that it screamed out "amateur hour."  Being forced to schedule a film like this last exposes it as the hollow attempt for an (ahem) OFFICIAL FEST CLOSING FILM that is was. And no, Tony D., that's absolutely no knock on you.

Joe Neff wrote on Feb 27^th, 2012 at 9:39pm:

At a certain point, a film's appropriateness for closing a Marathon can be pretty self evident.  I try to be fairly open about premieres fulfilling this role (The Independent in 2002 was a great choice), but anyone viewing the trailer for Folklore could see that it screamed out "amateur hour."  Being forced to schedule a film like this last exposes it as the hollow attempt for an (ahem) OFFICIAL FEST CLOSING FILM that is was...

Supposedly, FOLKLORE played well in the Festival portion of the program - and was voted two awards (Cast Ensemble & Direction). I guess the Marathon-only attendees missed what made it work in the prior venue.

I propose we ask that it show in Ohio in April. You know, a 2 out of 3 tie-breaker!! And, this way Hymie and Joe Neff would have a second chance to make FOLKLORE's acquaintance!!


                         http://www.metalunajewelry.com/images/devil.gif   EVIL L.A.

Goosey loves her gander.
p.s. kill conrad!

Folklore?  Why subject anyone else to that mess?

L.A. Connection wrote on Mar 2^nd, 2012 at 2:54pm:

Supposedly, FOLKLORE played well in the Festival portion of the program - and was voted two awards (Cast Ensemble & Direction). I guess the Marathon-only attendees missed what made it work in the prior venue.

It played OK at the Fest more than well; there were two ladies behind me laughing loudly enough to make up for the bulk of the audience who enjoyed it well enough but didn't love it.  The director was also there, and it was clear Garen was 110% behind it (nearly as nutty in his praise as some others have been in their disdain), and asking "so... just what was supposed to be funny about the spider-lady?" during the Q&A is not something many people REALLY want to do.

As to the awards...  I don't think it's as blatant here as with the undead shell that was once the Boston Film Festival, but it looks like showing up or basic competence gets you one.  It's the same thinking that gets us crappy premieres and the continued existence of the Alien Mating Call contest; it looks like it will encourage publicity and participation, but doesn't do much for the event's reputation, which is its main currency.

Jay Seaver wrote on Mar 5^th, 2012 at 3:14pm:

L.A. Connection wrote on Mar 2nd, 2012 at 2:54pm: Supposedly, FOLKLORE played well in the Festival portion of the program - and was voted two awards (Cast Ensemble & Direction). I guess the Marathon-only attendees missed what made it work in the prior venue. It played OK at the Fest more than well; there were two ladies behind me laughing loudly enough to make up for the bulk of the audience who enjoyed it well enough but didn't love it.  The director was also there, and it was clear Garen was 110% behind it (nearly as nutty in his praise as some others have been in their disdain), and asking "so... just what was supposed to be funny about the spider-lady?" during the Q&A is not something many people REALLY want to do. As to the awards...  I don't think it's as blatant here as with the undead shell that was once the Boston Film Festival, but it looks like showing up or basic competence gets you one.  It's the same thinking that gets us crappy premieres and the continued existence of the Alien Mating Call contest; it looks like it will encourage publicity and participation, but doesn't do much for the event's reputation, which is its main currency.

Well I for one would not verbally bash anyone in a public venue about their movie.  Love it or hate it, it is something that the makers worked very hard to accomplish.  I never liked being grilled in a public setting and I won't do it to others.  However, the movie is bad.  It is not nutty to bash it.  If anything your take seems a little nutty to me.  It is supposed to be funny and there is not a lot of funny to be gleaned here.  The outrage may not have been so great if it had played at a different time in the thon but regardless of the slot, it would have brought the proceedings to a grinding halt.  I did not stay for the entire painful affair but I have not heard that it was accompanied off screen by a chorus yelling "That Sucked!  That Sucked!"  This has happened to some movies at the thon so it could have been worse.  Give me a story... Sleep Dealers worked.  Gonad worked.  Neither are especially great movies but they are entertaining more than annoying and that is important.  Folklore, unfortunately, is far more annoying than entertaining.   

As for the awards ... I am afraid that you are dead on target.....

Alright, beyond the obvious FOLKLORE, what was the one or two OTHER FILMS ON THIS YEAR'S SCHEDULE YOU WOULDN'T HAVE MINDED TO SEE DROPPED???

L.A. Connection wrote on Mar 6^th, 2012 at 12:00pm:

Alright, beyond the obvious FOLKLORE, what was the one or two OTHER FILMS ON THIS YEAR'S SCHEDULE YOU WOULDN'T HAVE MINDED TO SEE DROPPED???

Cowboy Beebop.

Frank wrote on Mar 5^th, 2012 at 4:07pm:

Gonad worked.

that's Zonad Frank.
@caleb. delete mission galactica of course. next cowboy bebop.

Pretty much just GALACTICA; this was a really solid line-up.  I did duck out to find some pizza at DIMENSIONS's start time, as I had seen it the night before.

If scheduling were on me, I would have pulled the last two movies, added some shorts and 10 minutes to stretch in ENDHIRAN, and used THE LAST PUSH or PAUL as the finale, with PUSH replacing FOLKLORE in the line-up regardless.

GONAD is a better title!  :D

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA wasn't a bad choice in and of itself. I had a lot of fun with the original film the previous year. We just didn't needed to see this follow-up film the very next year.

SCANNERS is a good film - but 3 straight years of Cronenberg was too much as well. Oh well, let's enjoy THEY CAME FROM WITHIN/SHIVERS around 3 am next February.... ::)

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-jWy4Q-DMx30/TYxDUwaOpyI/AAAAAAAAAOs/56tbXoy1lKE/s320/%25281975%2529+They+Came+From+Within.jpg


kirok wrote on Mar 6^th, 2012 at 12:19pm:

Frank wrote on Mar 5th, 2012 at 4:07pm: Gonad worked.   that's Zonad Frank. @caleb. delete mission galactica of course. next cowboy bebop.

No such thing as too much Cronenberg - I say we get his son Brandon's Antiviral for next year!

L.A. Connection wrote on Mar 6^th, 2012 at 8:54pm:

GONAD is a better title!  :D BATTLESTAR GALACTICA wasn't a bad choice in and of itself. I had a lot of fun with the original film the previous year. We just didn't needed to see this follow-up film the very next year. SCANNERS is a good film - but 3 straight years of Cronenberg was too much as well. Oh well, let's enjoy THEY CAME FROM WITHIN/SHIVERS around 3 am next February.... ::) https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-jWy4Q-DMx30/TYxDUwaOpyI/AAAAAAAAAOs/56tbXoy1lKE/s320/%25281975%2529+They+Came+From+Within.jpg kirok wrote on Mar 6th, 2012 at 12:19pm: Frank wrote on Mar 5th, 2012 at 4:07pm: Gonad worked.   that's Zonad Frank. @caleb. delete mission galactica of course. next cowboy bebop.

I actually stole that from LA who referred to it as Gonad in a PM last year.  I actually liked the movie but I thought Gonad a much better title.  What is the problem, does Gonad detract from the important message that is at the core of the movie.  ;D

My apologies for taking so long to do a full recap. Work, travel, life, etc etc.

Again, want to express my heartfelt THANK YOU to everybody who helped put this show together. There are so many 'invisible' folks who work very hard to make this happen - the Acknowledgments on the back page of the Program only scratches the surface.

For me, this was a good schedule this year - with reservations. There were a number of very fine selections, along with 2 or 3 questionable ones which kind of drag the average down a bit. And, if there is such a thing as - too much of a good thing - this year exemplified that. We went nearly an hour over schedule and still had no time for real breaks, a longer Q & A with the DIMENSIONS folks or just to stretch your legs and chat with the folks in the theater. Just one fewer feature would have had a multiplying affect on enjoying the event.

On to the films.........

TRAILER REEL - Another victim of the too tight line-up is that we had to drop a 2nd trailer reel from our Ohio master - Bruce Bartoo. What trailers DID appear in the pre-show: THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW,PANIC IN YEAR ZERO,THE STAND,12 MONKEYS, THE WORLD, THE FLESH AND THE DEVIL, no loud talking PSA & THE QUIET EARTH.

RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES - After our tribute to the Atomic Fireballs creator and the 'Never gets Old' DUCK DODGERS, on to our first film. RISE held up well on second viewing. Too much happens too quickly, and there are too many too convenient plot twists, but this is a smart re-boot even if it still doesn't hold a candle to the 1968 original. And, I re-iterate that anyone who hasn't seen the fine 2011 documentary PROJECT NIM should really do so. An obvious influence on this film.

BRAINSTORM - No film on the schedule did I look more forward to, no film frustrated me more. Parts of the movie hold up incredibly well as a thoughtful and exciting piece of hard SF, others parts are creaky. Douglas Trumbull is one of cinema's true visionaries, but a smooth Director he ain't. As in SILENT RUNNING, the ideas and visuals outstrip his ability to do them full justice. Still, BRAINSTORM has more solid ideas than 99% of SF films even attempt. The film is caught in odd catch 22 - it's technology has been both long since been surpassed (the mylar tape & laser show!), and, in other areas, not reached yet (true emotions and senses transmitted via VR). I also love that this is a film in love with Science, from the gadgets to the photos of Einstein to the self-sacrifice of the wonderful Louise Fletcher, this is a movie that celebrates the world of knowledge. And, damn, was Christopher Walken that off-the-wall even then!!?? Sadly, poor Natalie Wood looked very tired. My other quibble is that the sound was way too soft (a problem all the Mono films seemed to have) - I often strained to hear the dialogue. Sure, a semi-mythical 70mm print with Stereo surround sound would have been great, but just pumping up the sound levels would have increased my enjoyment tremendously.

WAR OF THE SATELLITES - A nice print for a better than expected Corman quickie. The audience seemed to have fun with it, not just at it.

ENDHIRAN - Or, should it be "ENDURE-AN"? A true highlight of the Marathon, even if it did tax one's patience at times. This is like a first film in a series AND it's sequel all in one. Again, the too loaded line-up didn't allow for the Intermission to be more than a 2 second card on screen - it really would have helped to have a 10 minute break, no? The loopy songs have a lot of energy even if you have to wonder about the subtitle translations - "Your stomach is like a baby's chair"?!! But, it doesn't hurt to have to stare at Aishwarya Rai for 3 hours. As a movie, it's only fair - but, this was an experience.

DIMENSIONS - A not bad Premiere. It's the kind of film you want to like better. The good intentions are there. A decently mounted low-budget period piece. But, the script was too slow in getting going, and once it gets there, you sorta just shrug. Earnest, but minor.

ATTACK THE BLOCK - Dinner break at Joshua Tree. Having seen this with Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish in person, it was the one to skip. Came back for the last reel or so, and it seemed to please the Marathoners.

ISLAND OF LOST SOULS - Glad this is an improved print from the one I saw several years ago. This film really holds up. I absolutely adore Charles Laughton's ripe performance and Kathleen Burke's Panther Woman creeps me out every time. Too bad a handful of yahoos took one look at the Black & White upon the screen and decided it was cool to start up a Mystery Science Theater 3K session - luckily, they were mostly shouted down. One of the few 30s Horror films that really gets to you after all these years (FREAKS is another).

SCANNERS - I have to admit I agree with Metaluna and others, that some of these early Cronenberg's don't hold up as well as you would like. Cronenberg has gone on to be one of our best filmmakers (A DANGEROUS METHOD is one of the better films of last year), but, his earliest films find him reaching for a maturity and style. Of course, all of the filmmakers who were influenced by him have dulled the shock value they once had as well (not to mention showing Cronenberg 3 straight years now at the 'Thon). SCANNERS still works as a whole, and there are a number of good ideas and Michael Ironside is terrific. Unfortunately, the lead, Stephen Lack, lives down to his surname and drags the film down with him at times. Ironside is so much more magnetic.

BAMBI MEETS GODZILLA - Ah, brevity is the soul of wit.

FRANKENSTEIN - Unfortunately, my utter adoration of BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN has always put this '31 original in its shadow. But, I have to say, it quite impressed me this time around. Although I still don't agree, I won't be so quick next time when someone says they prefer this to the more rococo BRIDE. Stark, expressionistic and truly landmark, it is remarkable that 80+ years on, how it still holds up as the virtual blueprint for the horror genre, such as..........

RE-ANIMATOR - Sort of the naughty bad-boy FRANKENSTEIN, Stuart Gordon's still taboo-breaking schlocker was a lot of middle-of-the-night fun. I took especially sadistic glee in hearing a young woman seated behind me, grimace, "WHAT are we watching!!!?" Gleefully nasty.

COWBOY BEBOP: THE MOVIE - A curious selection for this year's line-up, but not too bad even if it's 116 minute running time is too much for the uninitiated. Those who argue that some familiarity with the comics or the shorts isn't necessary are too familiar with them to know better. I never quite got into the storyline, but the vibe, music and visuals were mildly entertaining.

PAUL - As soon as I heard the one line synopsis of this last spring, I thought it would be a perfect fit for this crowd and lobbied for it. The audience did eat this up. It's hardly a great film -- there's a whole lotta lazy and messy scripting going on (a bit of foul cursing goes a long way, but, when you have even 69 yr. old Blythe Danner dropping F-Bombs it kinda delutes the impact) -- but, this was prime Marathon viewing. It should have been the closing film (and was on my original scheduling), but, we still had........

MISSION GALACTICA: THE CYLON ATTACK - I had a lot of retro cheez fun last year with the BATTLESTAR GALACTICA pilot film. But, like the ill-fated THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO! back to back experiment (which got worse when the sequel didn't show up and we instead got the same movie again!!), why piggy-back on what was, at best, lazy nostalgia?? Having said that, the print was nice (though not as outstanding as David K advertised), Lloyd Bridges & Lorne Greene were solid rivals and it's painless enough (Except for the 108 minute running time. Also, this had the same dull too soft sound problem as BRAINSTORM).

FOLKLORE - We've beaten these filmmakers pretty badly here. Sure, the film stinks. It doesn't....work...at...all. It does look like a bunch of folks got together at a Comic Con and said, "Hey, we got some costumes - let's make a movie!" Still, they got the movie made, there are some very very sporadic decent bits in it, and they obviously had their heart in it. Showing this at the very end did it no favors, but it never would have worked with this crowd. It's ineptitude makes any meaningful dissection superfluous, but a couple of points: 1. Couldn't they have at least tried and put a few crew members in the background of the main office set??!! It looked like what it was - an EMPTY building! 2. More to the point, we never are given any reason to believe than ANY of these 'Folklore' creatures are anything but delusional humans. The budget was tight, but geez at least try to convince us! If it had been flipped with DIMENSIONS, at least people could have had dinner, I suppose.

All in all, a pretty good time. Ed did a good job with the (too rushed) Trivia Contest, but the the other contests were....unmemorable. Ending with PAUL (as a number of people apparently did do!) would have left the crowd with a better feeling.

Darn, we have to wait an extra day this year for the next one!

8-) 8-)

after an appropriate waiting period i would like to voice a complaint. the audience and i had to endure not one but two political rants from marathon personel. dave the projectionist chose to use his brief speech regarding print quality as a platform for his sarah palin hate. then ed symkus used the marathon trivia contest award ceremony to call mitt romney a robot. just remember the words of randy quaid in independence day: payback is a bitch.

L.A. Connection wrote on Mar 11^th, 2012 at 3:31pm:

...there are some very very sporadic decent bits in it...

That's the blurb they should put on the poster

IamJacksUserID wrote on Mar 11^th, 2012 at 6:17pm:

L.A. Connection wrote on Mar 11th, 2012 at 3:31pm: ...there are some very very sporadic decent bits in it... That's the blurb they should put on the poster

End it with a "!" instead of a "." and it just might work. I am sure some people out there don't know what "sporadic" means.

Maybe this should be a separate section but I always look at the marathon films in different ways.
There are films I think we should not have run, like Cowboy Bebop
Films I'm glad we ran but could live without ever seeing again, like Galactica, Scanners
And films I liked and would not mind seeing again at a future marathon like Island of Lost Souls, and especially Paul.

Hmmm, maybe a section just on past marathon films that deserve a repeat showing?

My take a la Da Bunnyman on this year's lineup:

RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES - Worth showing
BRAINSTORM - If the semi-mythical 70mm print shows up, it may be worth reconsidering down the road
WAR OF THE SATELLITES - a nice bit of arcana
ENDHIRAN - Enjoyed it, but it would never work twice
DIMENSIONS - thanks to Ms.U'ren and Mr. Neely for coming
ATTACK THE BLOCK - worked for this crowd
PAUL - ditto
SCANNERS - Cronenberg needs a hiatus from the Marathon
ISLAND OF LOST SOULS - Worth repeating with decent intervals
FRANKENSTEIN - More for a semi-mythical regular Horror Marathon, but a definite treat this year
RE-ANIMATOR - showing it twice is enough for now, but it was a gnarly good time in the wee hours
COWBOY BEBOP - pass
MISSION GALACTICA - ditto
FOLKLORE - when hell freezes over!!



da_Bunnyman wrote on Mar 12^th, 2012 at 11:41am:

Maybe this should be a separate section but I always look at the marathon films in different ways. There are films I think we should not have run, like Cowboy Bebop Films I'm glad we ran but could live without ever seeing again, like Galactica, Scanners And films I liked and would not mind seeing again at a future marathon like Island of Lost Souls, and especially Paul. Hmmm, maybe a section just on past marathon films that deserve a repeat showing?

Kirok wrote: 
[after an appropriate waiting period i would like to voice a complaint. the audience and i had to endure not one but two political rants from marathon personel. dave the projectionist chose to use his brief speech regarding print quality as a platform for his sarah palin hate. then ed symkus used the marathon trivia contest award ceremony to call mitt romney a robot.]

Kirok -- Actually, I read that from someone's contest sheet. It made me laugh. Hey, I'm still laughing. HAR! HAR! HAR!

ed symkus wrote on Mar 14^th, 2012 at 9:20pm:

Kirok wrote:  [after an appropriate waiting period i would like to voice a complaint. the audience and i had to endure not one but two political rants from marathon personel. dave the projectionist chose to use his brief speech regarding print quality as a platform for his sarah palin hate. then ed symkus used the marathon trivia contest award ceremony to call mitt romney a robot.] Kirok -- Actually, I read that from someone's contest sheet. It made me laugh. Hey, I'm still laughing. HAR! HAR! HAR!

so 5 or 6 years ago when the trivia contest had a finish the quote format and the partial quote was "get your stinking paws of me..." my responce was; "get your stinking paws off me President Clinton".
that's at least as funny as calling mitt a robot yet you chose not to read it.
p.s. for future reference, i don't care about getting a prize. a good audience reaction is enough for me.

da_Bunnyman wrote on Mar 12^th, 2012 at 11:41am:

Hmmm, maybe a section just on past marathon films that deserve a repeat showing?

Know what I haven't seen in forever? Aliens. I don't think I've even seen it show up on cable any time in years. Maybe that will change now that Prometheus is coming out.

Should we send these guys a link to This Thread so they know how FOLKLORE was greeted during the Marathon!??

:D

Peripheral Vision: Boston’s Sci-Fi Festival Believes in Folklore
http://www.cinemaspy.com/spotlight/peripheral-vision-bostons-sci-fi-festival-believes-in-folklore-12893/

L.A. Connection wrote on Mar 12^th, 2012 at 7:24pm:

BRAINSTORM - If the semi-mythical 70mm print shows up, it may be worth reconsidering down the road

     I have now located not one, but two 70mm prints of Brainstorm, & one of them is for sale as we speak.
     Not so "semi-mythical" any more, is it?  Of course, we wont be able to run it, because of the rotation of titles.
     I told you guys to wait!   :'(

             No one listens to the projectionist.....I swear.....

David the Projectionist wrote on Dec 9^th, 2012 at 11:30pm:

L.A. Connection wrote on Mar 12th, 2012 at 7:24pm: BRAINSTORM - If the semi-mythical 70mm print shows up, it may be worth reconsidering down the road      I have now located not one, but two 70mm prints of Brainstorm, & one of them is for sale as we speak.      Not so "semi-mythical" any more, is it?  Of course, we wont be able to run it, because of the rotation of titles.      I told you guys to wait!   :'(              No one listens to the projectionist.....I swear.....

what?

kirok wrote on Dec 9^th, 2012 at 11:54pm:

what?

     Clarify?  I thought what I wrote was crystal clear.  Theres some ambiguity?

Brainstorm should be due again about SF/49 or so. Can't wait.