SF 34 - It was great.
I had a great time. Thanks to xartofnothingx, daerr and kyroraz for joining me this year, as well as the N hundred of you other crazy people.
Recap:
Alien Trespass: The organizers took a gamble by opening on a brand-new and untested film rather than a blockbuster. It paid off. While a comedic parody of shlock classic "It Came From Outer Space", it wasn't an eye-rolling Zucker Brothers-ish thing (which the thon is no stanger to). After a slow start in hey look we're so totally in the 1950's land, the story confidently finds its purpose and stays interesting and entertaining.
It Came From Outer Space (in 3-D): Yes, the movie which the movie that just ended was parodying. Like a lot of low-budget SF of that era, it has a crawling pace, and totally flat cinematography. Which is ironic tee-hee since this was presented in red-blue three dee, for which all attendees received fun cheapo spex upon arrival. So hat was kinda rad, but midway though watching a different take on the same plot seed, I was ready for something new.
Chrysalis: Well, this was new, all right. Apparently based on a Ray Bradbury work that I haven't read, a man lies down on a table and turns into a being made of pure guacamole, and three other men stand around the table talking about the sociopolitical ramifications of it all. Since it was shot on video, I assumed that it was a short, and so waited patiently for the twist ending to show up so we could get along with the movies. Presently, the ending failed to arrive, and I was surprised to look in the program and learn that this was actually a feature. I proposed dinner, and dinner was got, and that's all I saw of this.
Logan's Run: Saw for the second time. It's fun. My memory that the whole movie becomes horribly dull after the protagonists get outside wasn't quite right. The one truly dull part is Logan's interview of Peter Ustinov's "Old Man" character, which we see in its seeming entirely, and is about as thrilling as watching someone else thoroughly exploring an overwrought conversation tree in an adventure game. Later on, we see the exactly same information conveyed correctly, with an hours-long conversation implied by showing only bits of it over several "time is passing" jump-cuts as the three characters walk back to the cave. It is much more interesting than having them stand around in the rotunda, as cute as all the cats are. Why didn't they edit out most of the bit in the Capitol and just keep the walking scene? Meh.
Speaking of adventure games, the movie up to and including the breakout scene made me say "Hey, this is kind of like Portal", and then after that scene I was like "Oh, ha ha, Fallout 3".
Runaway: I remembered, while watching it, that I'd already seen this 1984 Tom Selleck vehicle on HBO or something. I specifically recalled thinking that the idea of bullets that are programmed to hit one specific person was pretty cool, and being confused at the surprise appearance of a horror-movie idiom at the very end, since the movie doesn't resemble horror in any other way.
Alien Raiders: If I had to choose a single favorite highlight of this year's thon, it would be the presence of this picture, one of the world premieres that the thon gets to enjoy from time to time. Despite the generic title, this is a little gem of a low-budget modern zombie movie, written, planned and shot in just a few weeks, and starring several recognizable TV actors (all of whom had some time to spare because those few weeks happened during the recent WGA strike).
The director was in the house for this, and after the credits rolled to explosive applause and cheering, he took the to the stage for a fun Q&A session. I always love hearing directors and producers talk about their work, and my favorite question came from a young boy who asked how the alien-possessed people were able to make their loud scary screaming noises, and the director talked about the precise xenobiological reasoning that he and the writers had come up with for this. I was like, aww.
Everyone also got a goodie of a plastic severed finger in a little Tupperware container, a reference to one of the film's central plot points. As the sticker on the side of mine reminds me, Alien Raiders is having a direct-to-DVD release this week, and let this be my recommendation that you go look for it, if you wanna see a smart little SF-horror piece.
The Thing from Another World: A completely delightful counterexample to the observation that so many SF movies made during the 1950s were ploddingly paced pieces of drek. The dialogue in this 1951 picture is dense and colorful right from the start, and the cinematrography is lively and varied. The film won me over completely by the scene with the investigators on the ice sheet, determining the shape of the buried craft.
Despite not having Wikipedia in front of me, I immediately recognized Kenneth Tobey's headstrong but charismatic Air Force capiain character ("Holy cats!") as the younger version of the protagonist from the 2006 thon's "The Naked Monster", which starts out with him being summoned a retirement home for monster hunters, or something. So that was an unexpected delight.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978): We'd seen the 1950s version a couple of thons ago, and this was my introduction to this one I was somewhat surprised to find that I liked this one better. A fine film, bleak as the decade that bore it. Was fun to finally see the source material for the attached image. Was also a pleasure to deduce that the reason for all the SF film geeks in the crowd applauding the crazy man who ran around crying "They're here! You're next!" was that it was the same actor who played the protagonist in the 1950s version, in a brief homage to his prior take on the character.
Repo Man: Definitely the first time I've seen it this decade, and probably since college. Never on a big screen before. Loved it. I don't think my friends liked it as much as I hoped they would - I may have been remembering all the cool shit but forgot about all the nihilism it's cut with. It's a delicious and satisfying meal whose main ingredients include inch-long slivers of broken glass.
I also know it's been a while, because it's one of those deals where you have to update your mental DB record about the movie, changing the value of the "age of the protagonists" field from "about my age" to "half my age or less".
Killer Klowns from Outer Space: I saw this on HBO when it was new. It surprised me how much fun it is to watch in a big crowd. The clown monsters and the twisted, thematically apt gags they continually introduce to bring more wacky death and destruction to a small midwestern 1980's town keeps it fresh like hot buttered alien clown larvae.
Transformers: Being a Michael Bay picture, its half-hour long strings of chained explosions were like the gentle susurrus of the seashore to me, so I slept through most of it.
I Married a Monster from Outer Space: Ate breakfast and took a home-visit break for most of this. Came back to discover, surprise, a terribly boring piece of 1950s shlock. Listened to podcasts while waiting for it to run out of gas.
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: What can be said about this? The audience-wide cry of the title character's name, at the right moment, came as close to blowing the roof off the theater as I had hoped. Finally seeing the movie on the big screen made the ending unavoidably emotional, as familiar as I am with it, and as corny as much of it seems now. When Kirk choked up during his farewell address at Spock's funeral, I joined him.
Also, for some reason, it didn't occur to me until now how this film introduces yet another Star-Trek-style flaw into the Star Trek universe: How come, by the time that TNG takes places, there aren't Project Genesis-constructed worlds all across known space? Oh well. It wouldn't shock me if at some point they retconned up a solution where some villain used it to reformat a populated planet or two, an atrocity so grave that every side agreed to never use-nay-even-mention the Genesis Device again, or something. I am too lazy to check.
I suppose that the framing theme involving Kirk's concern with his own advancing age, and his finding a way to feel young again for a while yet, is as good as any a send-off for a local SF tradition that turns 35 next year. (And which, I gather, has been experiencing the same inexorable rise in average attendee age as just about any other annual SF gathering. There was a mini-contest before Logan's Run where emcee Major Tom gave prizes to the attendees with ages closest to 30 and 60, respectively. There was significantly more competition for the latter prize...)
This thon had a lot of tropes and coincidences shared between its films, moreso than I recall seeing with any prior set. Off the top of my head:
Aliens taking the form of earthlings: The Thing from Another Wolrd, It Came From Outer Space, I Married a Monster from Outer Space, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Alien Raider. (And add in Transformers, for very loose definitions of "Earthlings".)
Aliens, taking the form of earthlings, who then make unnatural screaming noises to communicate alarm to one another: Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Alien Raiders
A character portrayed by Leonard Nimoy dies while separated from the other characters by a glass partition: Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Star Trek II
"Amazing Grace" is played on bagpipes: Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Star Trek II (It even sounds like the same dang recording, really)
A frozen monster is held by scientists for study, then thaws and wreaks havoc: The Thing from Another World, Transformers
Bad-guy aliens are shown stacking terrible pod-shaped things like cordwood for mass delivery: Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Killer Klowns from Outer Space
A character near the start of the film makes a wisecrack about cutting off fingers right after we all watch a movie heavily involved with involuntary digital severance: The Thing from Another World
Recap:
Alien Trespass: The organizers took a gamble by opening on a brand-new and untested film rather than a blockbuster. It paid off. While a comedic parody of shlock classic "It Came From Outer Space", it wasn't an eye-rolling Zucker Brothers-ish thing (which the thon is no stanger to). After a slow start in hey look we're so totally in the 1950's land, the story confidently finds its purpose and stays interesting and entertaining.
It Came From Outer Space (in 3-D): Yes, the movie which the movie that just ended was parodying. Like a lot of low-budget SF of that era, it has a crawling pace, and totally flat cinematography. Which is ironic tee-hee since this was presented in red-blue three dee, for which all attendees received fun cheapo spex upon arrival. So hat was kinda rad, but midway though watching a different take on the same plot seed, I was ready for something new.
Chrysalis: Well, this was new, all right. Apparently based on a Ray Bradbury work that I haven't read, a man lies down on a table and turns into a being made of pure guacamole, and three other men stand around the table talking about the sociopolitical ramifications of it all. Since it was shot on video, I assumed that it was a short, and so waited patiently for the twist ending to show up so we could get along with the movies. Presently, the ending failed to arrive, and I was surprised to look in the program and learn that this was actually a feature. I proposed dinner, and dinner was got, and that's all I saw of this.
Logan's Run: Saw for the second time. It's fun. My memory that the whole movie becomes horribly dull after the protagonists get outside wasn't quite right. The one truly dull part is Logan's interview of Peter Ustinov's "Old Man" character, which we see in its seeming entirely, and is about as thrilling as watching someone else thoroughly exploring an overwrought conversation tree in an adventure game. Later on, we see the exactly same information conveyed correctly, with an hours-long conversation implied by showing only bits of it over several "time is passing" jump-cuts as the three characters walk back to the cave. It is much more interesting than having them stand around in the rotunda, as cute as all the cats are. Why didn't they edit out most of the bit in the Capitol and just keep the walking scene? Meh.
Speaking of adventure games, the movie up to and including the breakout scene made me say "Hey, this is kind of like Portal", and then after that scene I was like "Oh, ha ha, Fallout 3".
Runaway: I remembered, while watching it, that I'd already seen this 1984 Tom Selleck vehicle on HBO or something. I specifically recalled thinking that the idea of bullets that are programmed to hit one specific person was pretty cool, and being confused at the surprise appearance of a horror-movie idiom at the very end, since the movie doesn't resemble horror in any other way.
Alien Raiders: If I had to choose a single favorite highlight of this year's thon, it would be the presence of this picture, one of the world premieres that the thon gets to enjoy from time to time. Despite the generic title, this is a little gem of a low-budget modern zombie movie, written, planned and shot in just a few weeks, and starring several recognizable TV actors (all of whom had some time to spare because those few weeks happened during the recent WGA strike).
The director was in the house for this, and after the credits rolled to explosive applause and cheering, he took the to the stage for a fun Q&A session. I always love hearing directors and producers talk about their work, and my favorite question came from a young boy who asked how the alien-possessed people were able to make their loud scary screaming noises, and the director talked about the precise xenobiological reasoning that he and the writers had come up with for this. I was like, aww.
Everyone also got a goodie of a plastic severed finger in a little Tupperware container, a reference to one of the film's central plot points. As the sticker on the side of mine reminds me, Alien Raiders is having a direct-to-DVD release this week, and let this be my recommendation that you go look for it, if you wanna see a smart little SF-horror piece.
The Thing from Another World: A completely delightful counterexample to the observation that so many SF movies made during the 1950s were ploddingly paced pieces of drek. The dialogue in this 1951 picture is dense and colorful right from the start, and the cinematrography is lively and varied. The film won me over completely by the scene with the investigators on the ice sheet, determining the shape of the buried craft.
Despite not having Wikipedia in front of me, I immediately recognized Kenneth Tobey's headstrong but charismatic Air Force capiain character ("Holy cats!") as the younger version of the protagonist from the 2006 thon's "The Naked Monster", which starts out with him being summoned a retirement home for monster hunters, or something. So that was an unexpected delight.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978): We'd seen the 1950s version a couple of thons ago, and this was my introduction to this one I was somewhat surprised to find that I liked this one better. A fine film, bleak as the decade that bore it. Was fun to finally see the source material for the attached image. Was also a pleasure to deduce that the reason for all the SF film geeks in the crowd applauding the crazy man who ran around crying "They're here! You're next!" was that it was the same actor who played the protagonist in the 1950s version, in a brief homage to his prior take on the character.
Repo Man: Definitely the first time I've seen it this decade, and probably since college. Never on a big screen before. Loved it. I don't think my friends liked it as much as I hoped they would - I may have been remembering all the cool shit but forgot about all the nihilism it's cut with. It's a delicious and satisfying meal whose main ingredients include inch-long slivers of broken glass.
I also know it's been a while, because it's one of those deals where you have to update your mental DB record about the movie, changing the value of the "age of the protagonists" field from "about my age" to "half my age or less".
Killer Klowns from Outer Space: I saw this on HBO when it was new. It surprised me how much fun it is to watch in a big crowd. The clown monsters and the twisted, thematically apt gags they continually introduce to bring more wacky death and destruction to a small midwestern 1980's town keeps it fresh like hot buttered alien clown larvae.
Transformers: Being a Michael Bay picture, its half-hour long strings of chained explosions were like the gentle susurrus of the seashore to me, so I slept through most of it.
I Married a Monster from Outer Space: Ate breakfast and took a home-visit break for most of this. Came back to discover, surprise, a terribly boring piece of 1950s shlock. Listened to podcasts while waiting for it to run out of gas.
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: What can be said about this? The audience-wide cry of the title character's name, at the right moment, came as close to blowing the roof off the theater as I had hoped. Finally seeing the movie on the big screen made the ending unavoidably emotional, as familiar as I am with it, and as corny as much of it seems now. When Kirk choked up during his farewell address at Spock's funeral, I joined him.
Also, for some reason, it didn't occur to me until now how this film introduces yet another Star-Trek-style flaw into the Star Trek universe: How come, by the time that TNG takes places, there aren't Project Genesis-constructed worlds all across known space? Oh well. It wouldn't shock me if at some point they retconned up a solution where some villain used it to reformat a populated planet or two, an atrocity so grave that every side agreed to never use-nay-even-mention the Genesis Device again, or something. I am too lazy to check.
I suppose that the framing theme involving Kirk's concern with his own advancing age, and his finding a way to feel young again for a while yet, is as good as any a send-off for a local SF tradition that turns 35 next year. (And which, I gather, has been experiencing the same inexorable rise in average attendee age as just about any other annual SF gathering. There was a mini-contest before Logan's Run where emcee Major Tom gave prizes to the attendees with ages closest to 30 and 60, respectively. There was significantly more competition for the latter prize...)
This thon had a lot of tropes and coincidences shared between its films, moreso than I recall seeing with any prior set. Off the top of my head:
Aliens taking the form of earthlings: The Thing from Another Wolrd, It Came From Outer Space, I Married a Monster from Outer Space, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Alien Raider. (And add in Transformers, for very loose definitions of "Earthlings".)
Aliens, taking the form of earthlings, who then make unnatural screaming noises to communicate alarm to one another: Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Alien Raiders
A character portrayed by Leonard Nimoy dies while separated from the other characters by a glass partition: Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Star Trek II
"Amazing Grace" is played on bagpipes: Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Star Trek II (It even sounds like the same dang recording, really)
A frozen monster is held by scientists for study, then thaws and wreaks havoc: The Thing from Another World, Transformers
Bad-guy aliens are shown stacking terrible pod-shaped things like cordwood for mass delivery: Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Killer Klowns from Outer Space
A character near the start of the film makes a wisecrack about cutting off fingers right after we all watch a movie heavily involved with involuntary digital severance: The Thing from Another World