Busy day. Watched:
Today was Sunday. Sunday’s a work day for me. I don’t get home till after 1pm. Then it’s lunch, putting the kids down for a nap… and even I get a nap. Not wanting to disturb my normal routine, I watched movies when I could.
Today I watched:
I’ve decided to tall this stunt “Movies Like Malkoff” since I’m just sortakinda doing what he’s doing.
Today I was able to watch:
Bonnie and Clyde was a letdown. I’m sure in it’s day it was hot stuff but the movie just doesn’t hold up today. The storytelling is seemingly random and disjointed. I couldn’t tell if they were trying to be historically accurate or not. It wasn’t a drama or action or a love story. I really wanted it to be one of those… but I couldn’t pin it down. Every character other than Warren Beatty annoyed me to death. I remember seeing a different version back in High School that had a long, drawn-out and more emotionally stirring finale where Bonnie and Clyde were gunned down in their car. This one just riddled them with bullets and done.
Shutter Island is a lot darker than I remember. I had seen it before on Netflix but I wasn’t half paying attention. It’s got a great twist that makes all of the weirdness make sense. So darker… but so much better than I recall. Like a good novel that pays off in the last few pages. Not a movie I would suggest to just anyone… or any one at all for that matter. Again, pretty dark subject matter. Children are dead in it.
Paper Moon is in black and white… but filmed in 1973. I wonder how many films were done in black and white around the year I was born? It’s pretty hilarious. A little girl’s mom dies and a man who may be her father is tasked with bringing her to family in Missouri. The man is a swindler, the girl is street-wise so the comedy is natural and constant. Couldn’t help but think of “Better Off Dead” with the paperboy asking for his 2 dollars during the scene in the diner. “I want my 200 dollars!!!” Awesome. I found myself laughing out loud several times… and that doesn’t happen except when I’m watching Community. The little girl is amazing. They don’t make child actors like that anymore… and she actually turned into a very attractive woman. Even if you hate this movie… at least watch till you hear “Hurry up Doctor. This little baby’s gotta go winkie-tinkie”. I loved seeing Higgins (John Hillerman) from Magnum P.I. and a young Randy Quaid.
As with all of these old movies… I have a hard time finding any sort of plot. Wonder why that is.
So on day two I’m 5 movies in. Mark Malkoff had already watched 17 movies by the end of two days. I’m 12 films behind right now. Hilarious.
Mark Malkoff is a comedian and film maker out of New York. He’s done some super-creative work since I had the fortune to discover him. He’s gotten 6-pack abs in 30 days. He’s lived five days in his bathroom, with no internet. He’s had New Yorkers carry him across town. He’s lived at Ikea. He stopped by my hometown of St. Mary’s, Georgia to accept the key to the city. And one of my favorite gags: Celebrity Sleepovers where he literally slept over at as many celebrity homes as he could. Funny (and creative) stuff.
Right now he’s in the midst of filming a whole new project where he’s trying to watch over 400 hours of Netflix. That’s 250 full-length movies, credits included, on Netflix Instant in a month’s time. As of this post’s writing he has just completed day 5. Five 15+ hour days just watching movies. Sounds like a dream… but I’m sure it got old say around day 1, 3rd movie.
It got me thinking. Mark does this for a living. It’s his job to create, film and release wild and creative comedy stunts… so he can take 400 hours out of a month and spend it on a marathon movie stunt. But how about me? How long would it take a father of two, with a full-time (plus) job, and several podcasts, who could only use his free time to do the same thing? I’m going to find out.
I’ll be watching (mostly) the same films as Mark is, starting with day one. I actually started this morning. Mark is committing 15 to 16 hours every day to his project. I can only use the time I have to myself… which is most Fridays and evenings after 9:00pm. There are a few films that Mark has on his list that I’ve already seen so I will be replacing them with movies of similar length. On May 3rd I’ll be at the Marvel Marathon leading up to the Avengers movie. I’ll be counting them as replacement films as well. It’s going to be fun to see how long this takes me.
Today I watched:
So far the movies are wonderful… and disturbing. I had never seen The Graduate or Chinatown. I was amazing at how current they looked. Visually they could have been filmed this year. Where they showed their age was in the cinematography and storytelling. Apparently The Graduate is referred to as a comedy-drama… a genre I was not aware existed until today. I showed my age by recognizing the church scene at the end from what I think is a Wayne’s World sequel rather than the other way around as Wayne’s World had parodied The Graduate.
Both the Graduate and Chinatown dealt with some pretty heavy subject matter. Stuff filmmakers don’t mess with much these days. We like our movies light hearted and with a happy ending. But I’ll tell you, Chinatown got me angry. As was intended I’m sure. So much left undone. So much happened wrong… but it was so real in that way.
Bonnie and Clyde has me wondering how historically accurate it is. The way the two met and just jumped into a life of crime together seems like a movie making shortcut… unless it really happened that way. Though I’m almost halfway through, this seems like someone went back in time and made Natural Born Killers. Which I’m sure is actually a remake of Bonnie and Clyde… or at least heavily influenced by it.
After Bonnie and Clyde tomorrow I’ll be replacing A Clockwork Orange (seen it long ago and it just wasn’t my thing at all… can’t stand milk) with Shutter Island which is actually 3 minutes longer… but who cares.