First of all, again a thank you to everyone involved and especially to those who came up to chat. It was a great honor to represent the Marathon spirit by receiving the Shannon Malony Award. It was much appreciated.
The crowd was smaller than hoped for, but energetiic and enthusiastic (but, I do wish the "Door" thing would wither away). Let's hope for a bigger audience as pandemic fears recede. On to the movies!
In Memorium -- A nice recap of those we lost over the past year. Bittersweet to see names and images of several people I have personally worked with over the decades. RIP
Eosphere (2022) - Decent short film even if it never fully takes off (shown because it was bumped from the festival)
Duck Dodgers - I was still abuzz fromt the Award ceremony, but it was great seeing this one after two years "off"
STARGATE (1994) - Hadn't seen this one since it came out. It still has a decent concept, but, Emmerich and Devlin do little with it. It has good production elements and the 35mm film print was good.
ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES (1971) - Still the most enjoyable of the original sequels even if it eventually plunges into some pretty dark territory. McDowall does wonders under all of that makeup, Montalban is a treat and Goldsmith's score is a winner combining some of his themes from the first film with more 'modern' elements. The print was clean, but, sadly, faded.
TERMINATOR 3 (2003) -Another I had not seen since its original release. It's more jokey than I had remembered. Arnold is spitting out one liners faster than Don Rickles at his peak. Most fail to land, even if a few are amusing. Clare Daines is hapless in a poorly written role, and Loken is asked to do little but look hot. The big action sequence is in the middle leaving the ending to just sort of peter out. It does doevetail nicely with the first film in the series. Never have watched any of the three subsequent sequels. Missing much? The 35mm print was exquisite.
AFTER YANG (2022) - The best sci-fi film from last year. Saw it in theaters, so I headed out for dinner.
BACK TO THE FUTURE PART II (1990) - The middle of a trilogy is often a difficult task, especially after an enormous success. Here, Zemeckis and his writers take the easy way out and make it as lite-weight as possible. Combined with shooting this back to back with the third film makes this little more than a stopgap. It does have some amusing bits and it's fun to see how 2015 was portrayed. Wait....maybe it DID happen that way but I ended up in a rogue DeLorean?
The 70mm print showed off the best aspects of that medium with it's glowing luminescence.
BILL AND TED FACE THE MUSIC (2020) - Some ok ideas, but Keanu and Winter simply waited too long to do a third movie. I laughed a couple of times at their jokes, but, they rely almost totally on nostalgia even for those. The two daughters perk things up and, frankly, they would have made for a more interesting storyline. Anthony Corrigan (TV's Barry) is a hoot as the self-conscious robot.
HAPPY ACCIDENTS (2000) got derailed by a bad disc. As I noted on stage, it's available on DVD and you can find it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkL8S8u3a-M&t=12sGODZILLA (1954) - The greatest Kaiju film and one of the finest Sci-Fi movies ever made. Revisiting it is always a stark reminder of how dark and terrifying Inoshiro Honda's film is. Made less than a deade after the twin nuclear bombs were dropped on the country. The scenes where radiation victims, accompanied by babies crying and Akira Ifukube's brilliant score is almost too much to bear. Yes, Godzilla gets to crunch some fine minatures, but even his death scene isn't cause for celebration, but sober reflection. A classic.
FUTURE-KILL (1985) From the sublime to the ridiculous. The H.R. Giger poster (and home video) art suckered some folks into seeing this one which resembles a: What if Troma ripped off THE WARRIORS with a little TOXIC AVENGER tossed in?! The fantasy quotient is minimal as are the attempts at humor and social commentary. The best review I saw recommended to pick up the cover art, admire Giger's work -- and then put the VHS Box/DVD case back down unwatched! The 35mm print was decent, but, the low budget production values still keep it pretty dim looking.
La Jetee (1962) In 28 minutes Director Chris Marker creates an entire universe that transcends time and space. Using mainly only still photographs, narration and sound, it's a remarkable achievement which has lasted the test of time.
UFORIA (1985) - Quirky tale about true believers, UFOs and a strange sense of what was to be the 80s generation. The three main cast members have all passed on in the past few years, giving it an even stronger sense of the bittersweet which is inherent in the material. Because of it's offbeat storytelling and music rights issues, it has never been properly released on home video (just an old P&S VHS). This nice 35mm print not only preserved it's proper widescreen framing, but also its full song score. THIS is what makes the Marathon great.
BEYOND THE TIME BARRIER (1960) Edgar Ulmer's low budget film is like an extended Twilight Zone episode with a jet pilot going forward in time to the horrifying year of 2024! Next year promises to be full of mutants and inverted triangle designs! Please send the pilot back to prevent that!It's a decent B movie which cleverly makes use of a 'futuristic' display at a state fair, as well as an abandoned air field.
ALIEN (1979) - Not much more can be said about Ridley Scott's sleek and polished original entry in the Alien series. That's a bit of a double-edged sword. As well made and effective as it is, there really isn't much to reward repeated viewings. It's extremely well made production-wise, the creature design was unique at the time and the cast of veterans is flawless. Of course, it was the breakthrough film for Weaver; that underwear scene would never fly today! Still, for all that, there isn't much there to really delve into thematically. It's "just" a good creature feature. Unfortunately, the 35mm print was in pink-o-vision.
TOTAL RECALL (1990) - Time has made this one look sillier and sillier. Few of author P.K. Dick's themes survive the Arnold treatment that Verhoeven and his writers fashioned. The garish digital print does the visuals few favors and the bulging eye bit is laughable. But, as entertainment, it does pass the popcorn test. Never bothered witht the 2012 version, because the reviews were so bad.
And, that was that. We ended about 45 minutes early because of the unHappy Accidents thing, but, with the preshow - it stll was 24 hours+!
The crowd was a hearty bunch with a pretty high staying awake quotient. I thought it was very enjoyable overall even if it seemed a little lite overall.
On to 2024 and SF/49!
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