The Longest Short Weekend…Ever

The Process Behind This Weekend Blog

I wasn’t sure how I would be blogging about this weekend. Due to the fact that we couldn’t get Dave‘s wireless router to work because it is broken, we’ve decided to just update the blog on breaks, which is just fine by me.

That being said, I suppose there are many ways to blog about the weekend.

For example, one might do a separate blog entry at the end of every movie.

I will not be doing this. I will simply update what I have here by time stamp.

Get ready.



Saturday Morning – 12:45

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

I met a friend at the bus station and the ride to Ottawa was relatively uneventful (Other than an unexpected phone call from Kris).

Dave met me at the bus stop. After a quick stop at the bank machine to retrieve pizza money, we made it back to his place without incident.

Sarah was waiting and so we all had a chat and ate some delicious homemade guacamole with some hint of jalepeño nachos. There was drinking (not too much) and cat antics. All was great.

We called some friends to help us along with the wireless router problem, but it turns out the connection was broken. This after a half hour of tinkering.

And so, Dave and Sarah have gone to sleep, leaving me to my own devices. Or rather, their devices. Hence me blogging in the wee hours.

It should be interesting. The first movie is Deliverance. Hopefully I will have digested my breakfast before the movie starts.



Saturday Morning – 07:30

Wakey-Wakey

I ended up going to bed shortly after 01:30.

I’m just posting this so you understand how I am updating this entry.

The next report will probably be sometime after the first movie.



Saturday Morning – 10:00

Deliverance

For a more thorough play-by-play, you can check out Dave‘s blog. Right here.

Yes.

That’s right.

We’re simulblogcasting.

Deliverance has a special significance for us because we like to go interior camping. I don’t think Isha or Dave have seen this movie before. I will have to ask them about whether or not they will still want to go camping after they have experienced this film.

For those of you who haven’t seen Deliverance before, you should definitely give it a watch. It’s a very honest movie. Very raw.

The plot coasts along pretty calmly until about the forty minute mark. Then it takes a sinister turn. This movie will make you squirm.

I’m enjoying watching Dave‘s and Isha’s faces right now. Presently, there is a very uncomfortable silence in the room.

The rest of the movie passes with a few good lines of commentary from us, but in general I think the story hit a nerve in everyone.




Saturday Afternoon – 12:00

Superfly

Dolemite was nowhere to be found, so Dave substituted Superfly.

Even half an hour into the movie, I have no clue what it is about other than cocaine and a wicked soundtrack full of hollow bass and wah-wah guitars.

No one is really taking this film seriously, as Dave washes dishes, and some of the girls are in the kitchen putting away the food.

I’ll say at this point that Dave and Sarah really know how to host a 24-hour movie marathon. The amount of food is tremendous.

Right now the scene unfolding on the screen takes place in a bar where they are singing Pusher. I have never seen anyone fake playing the bongos as badly as the guy on the screen right now.

I think I’ve figured out what this movie is about. Apparently Priest is trying to get out of the drug business by selling more drugs than anyone ever has before. Makes perfect sense.

Somebody please shoot me.

The only redeeming line is near the end, where Priest talks about no one being able to harm a hair on his gorgeous head.

His words.

Verbatim.



Saturday Afternoon – 13:40

Drugstore Cowboy

This movie is about a bunch of friends that rob drug stores.

I personally find it moves somewhat slowly on the whole, but there are pretty good lines in there.

There’s a scene about half an hour in where Matt Dillon is explaining his logic behind what causes bad luck.

It doesn’t make sense but that’s what makes it funny.

The movie on the whole plods like a pregnant yak, yet is entertaining. I’m not sure if this was done deliberately in terms of the production, but it really works, breaking up some very tense moments with episodes of lucid visions.



Saturday Afternoon – 15:35

Logan’s Run

This will be an interesting movie.

Nothing like a film about the future that was made back in the 70s.

Some of us are getting tired.

Some of us being Isha.

For it’s time it is quite revolutionary in terms of content (not so much for the special effects).

Of course, for every interesting idea that the movie makers had, they had just as many weird ideas.

Sarah is compiling a list to be published on Dave‘s blog that has a list of what the future will and will not hold for us.

It is fuggin’ hilarious. You must read it.

This movie is way longer than I remember.

There are also a lot of really interesting errors in the movie.



Saturday Evening – 18:00

The Thin Blue Line

We took a longer than normal break after Logan’s Run, due to the fact that we were a bit behind schedule. Dave’s second play-by-play can be found here.

The tone of this movie is a lot more serious than any of the others because it’s more of a documentary telling the story of a real event. It’s interesting watching this movie because of the style in which it is filmed. It’s quite artsy.

The movie follows the wrongful conviction of Randall Dale Adams. I have to admit that I admire the man for being so composed as he tells the story of what happened to him.

The movie scares me at the thought that so many of these wrongful convictions go on all the time.

All in all, an excellent movie.



Saturday Evening – 19:40

12 Monkeys

This will be the longest movie in the 24 hours. By the end of this we will have logged twelve hours watching movies. So far it’s not as bad as I thought it would be in terms of maintaining a state of wakefulness.

Both the movies and the company have been enjoyable, so there’s no reason to be tired, really.

Other than staring at a television for twelve hours, of course.

The movie has ended and we were all surprisingly quiet.

I think the fatigue is setting in.

Pizza has arrived now and we are starting the next movie…




Saturday Evening – 21:51

Barbarella

This should be interesting. I haven’t seen this movie in a long time.

When I saw it, I was in high school, I think. It was one of those nights when I couldn’t sleep and was flipping through channels.

I don’t really remember most of it, except the bad music and the hair.

The movie is beginning as I type this, and the music is still bad.

We’re all trying to watch this thing, but it’s broken down into us having conversations that have nothing to do with the movie. Dave and I are taking this time to upload.

You can check his latest update here.



Saturday Night – 23:30

The Thing

With the blessed ending of Barbarella (blessed because it was to fuggin’ long) we now proceed right into The Thing.

I’ve never seen this movie.

Dave informed us that this movie scared the crap out of him when he was a kid.

I’m sure it will still scare the crap out of him. He’s funny that way.

I’ll have to make sure that I’m out of the reach of comfort for him.

23:52 rolls around and we all do a shot of Jägermeister. This was Dave‘s answer to not drinking. Yes, I have no idea what he was thinking either.

One thing that’s been really cool to note is that a lot of these older movies have really been touched up really well. The Thing, for example, came out in 1982. All traces of grain and artifacts have been removed from the film.

Too bad they couldn’t fix the plot from Barbarella as easily as they fixed the image quality.

It’s surprising how creepy this movie is, even today. Of course, this is offset by the fact that all of the characters fall victim to the folly of horror movie logic.



Sunday Morning – 01:20

Dr. Strangelove

Another movie that I think I’ve seen, although given the little preamble at the beginning of the movie, it doesn’t ring any bells.

I’ll have to see.

The zippy lines from the peanut gallery have pretty much faded to intermittent spurts of funny that are probably only really humourous to us.

The movie itself is labelled as a black comedy. It’s a little too political for us.

Peter Sellers, though, is undoubtedly a genius. He plays quite a number of roles in this movie.

After this movie I believe we are hitting the energy drinks.



Sunday Morning – 03:00

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer

And so we hit the tenth movie in our movie marathon. This film was quite risqué when it came out back in the 80’s.

I know I am quite tired, but at the same time, I believe I can stay awake for the rest of this little shindig.

We’ve broken out the energy drinks. I am drinking one called Monster. Isha has Rockstar and Dave is drinking No Fear. Funny enough, I think they are all the same drink with different labels.

The movie is insanely brutal. They don’t really get behind the reasoning for why Henry kills practically everyone on Earth.

In fact, in one part of the movie he’s a hero.

It’s very odd.

Of course, we’re very tired.

For all we know we could be just high on fatigue and watching the window.



Sunday Morning – 04:35

Fast Times At Ridgemont High

It’s time for a little bit of light comedy after the killing spree that was Henry.

It seems we’ve all got wind in our sales now. Most of the stuff is light from here on in (except Donnie Darko, I suppose).

Fast Times was voted number one teen movie of all time according to Much More Music. I would have to say that they are right on the money with this choice.

This movie reminds me of high school. Of course, none of us were that popular. I would also attest that times spent at our high schools were anything but fast, and no one got laid. And by no one, I mean Dave, Isha and I.

There’s a scene later on in the movie where Judge Reinhold is delivering some food to a customer in his Captain Hook uniform. He’s wearing a big hat. It reminded me of Superfly.

All the movies are running together!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.



Sunday Morning – 06:20

Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

Brainless entertainment awaits in this Russ Meyer flick. You can be sure that there will be plenty of boobs and murder. I wonder if there will be murder by boobs. It seems possible. Of course, that could just be fatigue tapping me on the shoulder and whispering in my ear.

Or maybe it’s just Dave.

The movie seems to involve women with massive breasts, fast cars and no plot. Dialogue is stilted, the story sucks, and any semblance of character development is not so much real as it is pasted onto cardboard cutouts that keep falling over.

Considering the amount of focus on the strange, erotic nature of the women in the film, there is absolutely no nudity.

Somehow, I’m not sure if I’m upset about it though. These ladies seem anatomically impossible.



Sunday Morning – 07:50

Donnie Darko

Dave has started cooking up some grub while Isha recovers from crashing on the couch during Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! Isha is the only one among us three that has any intelligence at this point.

I am setting the mood for the home stretch movie by playing Dueling Banjos on Dave‘s guitar.

Donnie Darko is one of those movies that I’ve always wanted to see. From what I understand it is quite obscure, but good. Definitely something to look forward to.

I think everyone here has seen it already, which makes me the only Darko virgin.

As we near the end, I find that the twists and turns make sense, aided by my sense of lucidity. Good thing I’m almost asleep.



Sunday Morning – 10:00

And…CUT!

That’s the end.

It’s been an interesting twenty-four hours.

I got to see some movies I’ve wanted to see for a while. I also got to see some really crappy movies.

Thanks to Dave and Sarah for hosting this awesome yet tiring event.

Included again, for your convenience, are the links to Dave’s updates…