Friday, August 01, 2008

So he says, dad, what's the difference between theory and practice?

I've been meme-tagged by Becca. The rules (which as usual, I've done what I like with):

Theoretical Film Festival

1) Choose 12 Films to be featured. They could be random selections or part of a greater theme. Whatever you want.

2) Explain why you chose the films.

3) Link back to Lazy Eye Theatre so I can have hundreds of links and I can take those links and spread them all out on the bed and then roll around in them.

4) The people selected then have to turn around and select 5 more people.


As you'll see, I've added selected short subjects to round off some nights.

Night 1-



Resident Evil, Resident Evil: Apocalypse and Resident Evil: Extinction.

Probably as inspired as movies based on elements from video games are ever going to get.

Also, by programming them on night one, I'm making a statement: This festival is not going to be afraid to be stoopid. (Which, you'll remember, is quite distinct from "stupid." The Mummy Returns was stoopid. Tomb of the Dragon Emperor looks stupid.)



Night 2-Gone Baby Gone/Mystic River/The Departed.

Followed by a discussion of whether Ben Affleck will prove to be another Clint Eastwood in the young-actor-turned-old-pro-director sweepstakes.

And whether if Affleck hadn't been the director, more people would've seen Gone Baby Gone than saw the much weaker--in my view--Departed.

And whether The Departed would've won its director an Oscar if he hadn't been Martin Scorcese.

(that Gone and River are both based upon novels by the same author is merely a coincidence, in terms of my choosing them. A nice coincidence, but a coincidence nevertheless.)

Night 3-Three episodes of South Park to make one feature-length festival:

The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers,


Tsst,


Miss Teacher Bangs a Boy
Originally uploaded by
hujo27


and Miss Teacher Bangs a Boy.

And Saw II.



What's the theme, you ask?

Unexpected places to find family counseling, of course....

(added bonus: With this and The Departed, you can compare and contrast the brothers Wahlberg as actors.)

Night 4-Madonna: Truth or Dare/Medusa: Dare to Be Truthful



(OK, so this image of Madonna is about five years ahead of Truth or Dare. So sue me.)

First, remember Madonna when you still kinda loved her, before so many cracks started to show through. Then laugh a nasty laugh at Julie Brown's great parody.



But Medusa is less than an hour long, so we'll add an episode or two of Just Say Julie:




Night 5-Ocean's Eleven with the Rat Pack (1960)/Ocean's Eleven with Clooney, Pitt and the boys 2001.






How to remake a movie and make it better: You take a movie that needed to be remade; rebuild it from the ground up.



Night 6:

The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre/The 2003 remake.

How to remake a film and make it worse: First, take a film that didn't need to be remade.

Then, try to compensate for the lack of atmosphere by having Jessica Biel bouncing around like she's got tennis balls in her bra.

(It is even more coincidental that two of the films in this festival are horror/suspense movies that have stars of the show Seventh Heaven -which I've never seen-in them. Biel, above, and Beverley Mitchell has a small supporting role in Saw II. She does a nice job.)

I don't think I'm going to tag anyone specific--if you feel like picking this up, by all means, be my guest...

4 comments:

Becca said...

I think it's a really interesting idea to play the two Texas Chainsaw movies back to back! That second movie is sooo bad.

Also it's nice to meet another person who isn't in love with The Departed. I like a number of Scorsese films but this was just a bit of a dull mess. I guess I'll have to see Gone Baby Gone.

Ben Varkentine said...

By all means, do. I can't recommend it too highly.

PJ said...

Great contribution to the meme. That pic of La Biel has me spellbound.

Ben Varkentine said...

She is the only thing that makes the second Texas Chainsaw movie (barely) worth watching.