2001: A Space Odyssey

The first movie is...

2001: A Space Odyssey. 1968, MGM/Turner Entertainment
Starring: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Douglas Rain
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Buy 2001 at Amazon.

If there has ever been a science fiction movie that could be described as a work of art, it's this one, and it was an easy pick to kick off this project, not to mention that it's a movie that I've seen enough times that I can go ahead and post this entry well before the movie's conclusion. Beautifully photographed, and with amazing attention paid to details (how many movies in space can you name where any action outside takes place with no noise?), 2001: A Space Odyssey is a true classic.

It could be argued that 2001 is the story of the evolution of man, and how he evolves from a primitive, plant-eating beast on the verge of extinction into a higher form of life who does not need tools or any kind of advanced technology, perhaps aided by the unseen alien life forms placing the famous black monoliths at crucial times in mankind's development.

The last half of the film, where the super computer HAL 9000 rebels against its human programmers, forcing astronaut Dave Bowman (Dullea) to rely on his wits to reenter the space craft and disconnect it is one of the truly great filmed sequences, perhaps better illustrating the idea of man versus machine than any other movie.

Highly recommended, although younger viewers may find many scenes with little to no dialogue or action boring to sit through.

Back tomorrow.

WB & CC?

From Monday, February 28, 2005, and still just as relevant today:

Warner Bros. is the new Criterion Collection. How the DVD label cleaned up its act (and its digital transfers).

...I still think it would be funny if anyone seriously stated out loud that they wanted to "go rent a Paramount DVD" or "see the new Columbia Pictures film".

Prologue

Six years ago, writer and performer Kevin Murphy, perhaps best known for writing for, and playing the part of Tom Servo on Mystery Science Theater 3000, released his book A Year at the Movies [buy at Amazon]. Having found himself increasingly unsatisfied with the moviegoing experience since MST3K ended production in 1999, Murphy sought to rekindle his passion for the cinema by seeing a movie every day in the year 2001, whether it be in a theater, or watching an in-flight movie on domestic or international flights. Murphy engaged in a few stunts to keep things interesting, such as smuggling an entire Thanksgiving dinner into a theater for an afternoon screening of Monsters Inc., visiting the smallest commercial theater in the world (the Terrace Theater in Tinonee, NSW, Australia, which is someone's private residence converted into a 22 seat public theater), and he even devoted a chapter to successfully sneak into a movie theater without getting caught.

I have re-read the book several times, and I've enjoyed it every time. It also made me wonder, could I ever do this? Do I have the patience to sit down at watch at least one film every single day for a calendar year?

Well, starting on Monday, December 1st, I'm going to try to duplicate Kevin Murphy's journey. But, there will be two noticable differences:
1. Instead of actually going to the theater, I'll simply be watching selections from my collection.
2. With the exception of attending B-Fest in Chicago at the end of January, it's very unlikely I'll be traveling anywhere just to watch movies. So, sorry, there won't be any trips down to Tinonee, New South Wales to sit in someone's private screening room, or anywhere else that Murphy visited in 2001.

I think I have spent more money on new DVDs this year (mostly of older films) than any other year, and I have been asked the same question several times: When are where are you going to watch all of these? My answer has usually been "I'll figure something out" or "I'm doing my best." This really isn't an attempt to watch every movie that I own in the space of 13 months, but I certainly won't mind watching more than one movie on a day off. Also, I won't be limiting myself to just movies, so unlike Kevin Murphy, I will have the option of watching television shows on DVDs, live concert videos, or anything else that's on a disc.

With all of that said, I invite you to join me here, starting on December 1st for the first movie, which I haven't chosen yet. This is going to be a blast, and I'm looking forward to getting started.

Wal-Mart

Every so often, I'll take a good look at my DVD collection, and several titles will always stick out like the proverbial sore thumb, since they're not really my taste or whatnot.

Well, if it weren't for Wal-Mart and their $5.00 discount DVD displays, I'd probably have 40 less titles in my collection. I still make it a point to check things out whenever I go in, although nothing has really screamed "buy me!" in the past few months aside from the complete series of the old HBO football sitcom 1st and Ten (again, for five bucks).

I always look forward to seasonal and holiday sales of movies, since Wal-Mart will usually start selling titles they wouldn't normally carry at any other point during the year. It's great.

For the most part, though, I usually buy my DVDs from Borders or Barnes & Noble, with the occasional order placed to Columbia House when they're having a sale.

Sad Movies

There are two movies that have made me cry, both times when I was a little kid.

The first one was Superman II, specifically the scene where the three escaped Phantom Zone villains, General Zod, Ursa and Non, engage Superman in a battle in downtown Metropolis. The scene where Superman is sent crashing through a Marlboro truck parked on a street caused me to break down and jump onto my mother's lap sobbing. Yeah, we were in a theater at the time, so I made a bit of a scene there.

The other film was Snoopy, Come Home. I've never quite understood why it caused me to cry a river every single time, although as an adult, I have discovered that I wasn't the only person affected this way. Apparently, there are more than a few people who all are quick to agree that Snoopy, Come Home could very well be the most depressing movie ever made.

You may be familiar with the movie: Snoopy is contacted by a former owner named Lila, who has been hospitalized for a few week. He quickly runs off to see her with Woodstock in tow, leaving Charlie Brown totally in the dark about who this girl Lila is, or what her connection is to Snoopy. Linus Van Pelt takes it upon himself to do a little investigation, and to the shock to both him and Charlie Brown, Lila is revealed to be Snoopy's original owner.

After Snoopy's visit, he makes the decision to return to Lila, who had to give him up after her family moved into a new apartment building, one that doesn't allow dogs ("No dogs allowed" is a recurring theme through the movie). There's an emotional going away party complete with tears and presents, and Snoopy departs with Woodstock to live with Lila full time...until he discovers that Lila has a pet cat. Snoopy hates cats. Noticing that the apartment building still doesn't permit dogs as pets, Snoopy races back to Charlie Brown's neighborhood. All is well, the end.

Amazingly enough, when part of this plotline first appeared in Peanuts close to forty years ago, it ended after Linus told Charlie Brown about Lila's role in Snoopy's past, and it was decided that Snoopy wouldn't want to return to Lila because he "wouldn't be happy in an apartment". The final panel showed Snoopy as the World War I flying ace, atop the doghouse, and pursuing the Red Baron. Lila was never mentioned in the comic strip again.

Still, when I was a kid, Snoopy, Come Home never failed to make me cry, and apparently, I wasn't the only one.

Now, as a somewhat amusing ancedote from the fall of 1994, my mother once rented Snoopy, Come Home for my nephew when he was four years old. I couldn't believe it, since I didn't think it was a good idea for Mom to rent something as depressing for a four-year-old, cartoon or not. So, I took it upon myself to hide in my room until it was all over (I was eighteen at the time). It turned out that my nephew handled it much better than I ever did when I was closer to his age, and I was glad he did.

Ten Movies Not to Be Watched on a Computer

Just because I need to put something on here to kick things off in a low key fashion...

This is an article informing everyone that with the rising popularity of watching movies on the computer, there are ten movies that you should never, ever watch while surfing the internet.

For the record, those ten movies are:

1. Lawrence of Arabia
2. Last of the Mohicans
3. Jaws
4. North By Northwest
5. Star Wars
6. WarGames
7. Barry Lyndon
8. Raiders of the Lost Ark
9. The Third Man
10. You've Got Mail

Well, they had a pretty good list going up until the last movie, where the author proved he wasn't above using the cheap email joke.