Looking at the flightlist, this may be The Youngest Lineup Ever! Even if you subtract 37 years from SF-1 films or 36 years from SF-2 films(etc.), it is still a very young lineup.

The five oldest films
(1958) Incredible Shrinking Man
(1962) Reptilicus
(1974) Phase IV
(1996) Escape From LA
(1997) Fifth Element

Five Films from 2012-2013
(2013) Motivational Growth
(2012) John Carter
(2012) Ghastly Love of Johnny X
(2012) War of the Worlds: Goliath
(2012) Safety Not Guaranteed

-The same story is true for the Shorts :
(2013) In Memoriam
(2012) Asternauts
(2012) Death of a Shadow
(2011) La Luna
(1960s) Twilight Zone

This demonstrates the vanishing 35mm print problem as well as anything else. It's not that the films weren't good. It's just that the tradition of featuring a lineup that spans decades may soon be a thing a past.

I'm tempted to mostly cut and past from what I tweeted during the fest, but...

John Carter - I thought it was pretty good during its theatrical run, where I saw it in 3D IMAX; I think it might work better in 2D (it was a conversion job).  Whatever the case, it got a pretty raw deal from critics, Disney's marketing decisions, and industry press last year, which seemed anxious to spread poor buzz.  It's a pretty good movie with a few issues (cut the framing sequences down, please!) that should have been recognized as such.

"In Memorium 2013" - Nice idea, pretty bad execution, as the selection of clips often seemed to make the piece more of a guessing game than a tribute.

Reptilicus - Eh.  I had an early-afternoon nap during its last act (I was up until 3am because I went to a midnight movie on Saturday), and figured it was kind of amusing as this sort of B-movie goes.

The Ghastly Love of Johnny X - Had some pretty good bits, but bogged down like crazy during the speaking (vs singing) parts, and the way it shuffled characters from protagonist to antagonist and the like.  On the other hand, it was pretty and had random and funny use of Paul Williams.

War of the Worlds: Goliath - I saw it less than 24 hours previously, so this was a good time to hit Boston Burger Company.  I got back for the only part that I'd really recommend:  Teddy Roosevelt killing Martians.  The other hour and fifteen minutes don't have nearly that sort of hook, with mediocre action and very bland characters.

"Asternauts" - I laughed, quite a bit, especially since it wasn't the sort of "insulting to rural folks" movie I was expecting.

Battle Royale - That's so good, folks.  Its satire comes out of a specifically 1990s Japan place, but works everywhere, and the violence is vicious enough that it makes The Hunger Games look like the joke it is.

Safety Not Guaranteed - I really liked it when I saw it earlier this year, but kind of felt remorse for giving it such a high rating afterward - it's such a thin thing, right?  But it's also really funny and sweet and has a great design in the end, so, yeah, I guess I really do like it that much.

The Twilight Zone:  "Time Enough at Last" - Nice half-hour story.  I hope the guy who yelled out at the end got beaten up by his neighbors but good.  Sure, it probably wasn't a spoiler for most of the crowd, but there's something to be said for just experiencing the movie as opposed to showing how clever and aware you are.

The Incredible Shrinking Man - Saw it at the Brattle a few months earlier, still like it quite a bit.  It's basically a B-movie at heart, but a well-executed one, and it has moments in the middle and end where it reaches toward something more ambitious than a lot of its contemporaries.

"Death of a Shadow" - Wasn't terribly fond when I saw it in the Oscar shorts package, not a big fan of it here.  Steampunk trappings for a not-particularly-interesting tragic romance; it strikes me as the kind of movie that talks a good game but doesn't really offer that much.

Phase IV - I really love this movie; it's about a superintelligent ant colony and doesn't try to make its villains particularly human; it's got the stark style of both Saul Bass and 1970s sci-fi in general.  And who among us wouldn't really like to see the deleted "Phase IV" section at the end?

Motivational Growth - Man, the way the marathon can turn on a movie is amazing.  FWIW, when I saw it on Friday, I basically thought it was uneven, a few good parts with as many poor ones, and Combs's voice performance generally elevating it to a bit above mediocre.  I didn't watch much of this second screening (to be frank, I needed to spend some time in the restroom), and from what I did re-watch, it doesn't seem to repeat very well, but let me tell you - it wasn't in the top half of hatable movies I saw between the festival and marathon at all.

V For Vendetta - Is it just me, or does this have a really cheap look to it, like it was shot on video or the set-decoration was half-done or something?  I'm guessing Dave would lay the blame at the 2K DI, but even without that, kind of aponderous alt-reality/future mystery.

"La Luna" - Liked it in theaters.  Still like it here.

Escape from L.A. - Man, that thing couldn't be more mid-nineties and built on Los Angeles cliches if it tried, could it?  I kind of dig its general goofiness, though, and kind of think that Big Trouble in Little China is the only other time Carpenter had nearly this much fun making a movie.

The Fifth Element - Well, Dave did warn us about the print.  It remains a great deal of fun, and kind of stands out as the last of the big model/rubber costume/elaborate set movies, since the Star Wars prequels and Lord of the Rings would be around in fairly short order and change how these big fantasies are made.  T5E is the form at its apex, especially good because Luc Besson uses it as a (first) opportunity to do a bandes-dessinees-style adventure, zipping between characters in great, peppy style.

Jay Seaver wrote on Feb 18^th, 2013 at 11:00pm:

I will post my reviews of the films when I Escape Back to L.A..

For now, I just want to give a hearty THANK YOU to everybody involved with putting together the Marathon from Garen, to Ian and the Somverville staff, to David the perfectionist projectionist, to Frank and Fran, to Major Tom and his MLO volunteers, to our Ohio emissaries Joe and Viktruvian, to everybody else involved in the Festival and Marathon. And, also a big THANKS to everybody who took the time to chat, reminisce and look forward to the future of the Marathon.
Even in 24 hours there just wasn't enough time to catch up as much as I'd like to have.

7 of the 12 features had shooting, explosions, blood, canon fire, machine guns, knives, more blood, building collapse etc..
i'm sure this was an unintentional oversight but i felt i was in a war movie marathon, not a sic-fi marathon.

David the Projectionist wrote on Feb 19^th, 2013 at 11:33am:

Huh.  The thing was, V For Vendetta was the only one of the Blu-ray sourced things that really looked that bad in that particular way to me, to the point where I checked to see what it was shot on when I got home and was kind of surprised to see 35mm (which then got its resolution reduced to 2K by the DI).  Whatever the case, it looked weird.

da_Bunnyman wrote on Feb 19^th, 2013 at 8:49pm:


One thing I've heard is that there was a lot of bad blood between the live-action people at Disney and the Pixar folks, who were given a lot of prominent positions in the company after the merger and were perceived as acting like they knew the business better than the veterans.  Said veterans had cultivated relationships with the entertainment media, and leaking bad things about the production fed their interests.  Supposedly the press didn't like Andrew Stanton individually much, either.  Combine this with the stupid games Disney played with the name because of The Princess & the Frog and Mars Needs Moms and the way Tron 2 tanked (it, like John Carter, had Pixar people as the driving force behind it), and the movie had more enemies than friends.

Quote:


Thank you. The real thanks goes to mrs. F. Not only did she help develop, find, and download forty titles, when she heard that "Motivational Growth" had replaced  "Hands of Orlac", she might have reached for a chainsaw; but no. She rushed over to Starbucks, got a WiFi connection and found songs to go with the smack-talkin' mold.

Thanks to you too Bunnyman. Leading the crowd sing-along with "High Hopes" really brought energy to a sleepy "Phase IV" crowd. Maybe I will play "Happy Trails" next year in your honor.