Movie Marathons

So a few weeks ago we did a Lord of the Rings marathon.  Not just the cinema versions either, as intended, as I forgot my DVD copies were the extended editions only.  We started at 1:30pm Saturday and finished at 2am Sunday.  How dedicated is that? But we didn't actually do this purely for the fun of it or to punish ourselves, the purpose was to catch up on the films before 3 of us went to see One Man Lord of the Rings.  OMLOTR is a stage show where one guy acts out the whole trilogy in one hour, with no props or sound other than sound effects he can make with his own voice.  As we had previous form with One Man Star Wars, we knew it would be very quick and to keep up you would need to be really familiar with the movies.  So we watched them all with a couple of breaks.  And I have to say, these movies are still really really good.  If you haven't seen them before, or not for ages, they are worth revisiting.  Some special effects look a little outdated, but this can be easily overlooked due to the great story, acting and epic-ness of it all.  However, I'd probably recommend against a marathon of these films (extended editions in particular) unless you are truly totally nerdy and have a good ability to stay awake during long movies.  Reflecting on this though raises the question - what would be a good movie marathon?

As we are too old to go out drinking and partying these days except on special occasions, movie marathons are a good way to fill in long weekends. So now I'm considering what the next movie marathon should be.  Do you stick to trilogies because they tend to have a good story arc?  Star Wars (original), The Matrix, Back to the Future? Do you do two movies - great movies with good sequels - because you don't want to watch three whole movies in a row? Umm I can't really think of any examples of this - help me out. The horror genre throws up all kinds of options - Evil Dead, Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th etc.  But a lot of those movies don't hold up being more comedic than scary these days. What about a certain director e.g. Hitchcock, Tarantino.  Or do you just do a theme e.g. chick flicks, superheros.   Our girls' nights in the past have yielded some good double bills - Heathers & Empire Records, Corey Haim double.

I'm looking for some inspiration for future movie marathons - tell me which movies you have enjoyed  as a movie marathon before, or what you think would make a good day of extended laziness supplemented with lollies and softdrink to stay awake!  By the way the One Man Lord of the Rings was awesome, so funny and witty, it really paid off to have watched the films recently.

What are you looking forward to?

My first poll has just closed and it seems I do have some movie fans visiting.  The majority said they would see more than 15 films a year and another group said 5-10.  So with all that movie viewing ahead of us, I thought I'd see what upcoming films people are getting excited about (even though it's April already - time flies!). Here are some movies I'm interested in or actually excited to see.

1. Paul (out 14 April).  Two guys on a road trip come across an alien who has been stuck on Earth for so long he has a lot of human traits, and try to help him get back to his ship.  Why am I excited?  Simon Pegg and Nick Frost wrote and appear as the two main characters.  You love them from such great things as Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Spaced.  Seth Rogen as the voice of the alien too.  Trailer looked very funny.
2. Sucker Punch (14 April?). Layer upon layer of weirdness and arse-kicking females from Zack Snyder.  Okay, his movie 300 was so-so but he gave us the brilliant Watchmentand also the Dawn of the Dead remake a few years back.  This movie will probably be more style than substance, but so what?
3. Source Code (April). A guy keeps getting sent back in time in 8 minute blocks to figure out who blew up a train and stop it.  The plot sounds a bit done to death, but there are two reasons it will be interesting: Duncan Jones and Jake Gyllenhaal.  You know the latter, the former is the director of Moon, a genius sci-fi character piece from 2 years ago.  AKA Zowie Bowie, son of David, so he knows a bit about sci-fi.
4. Your Highness (May).  A bunch of massive silliness starring James Franco, Danny McBride (who should re-create their Pineapple Express chemistry), Zooey Deschanel and Natalie Portman. A medieval stoner comedy that will hopefully rock.  Ben will be in heaven with both Zooey and Natalie (apparently you see Nat's bum for a bit).
5. Pirates of the Carribbean 4 - I enjoyed all of the films but the new one should have an edge by focusing back on Captain Jack and there will be no Keira and Orlando mushing up the weirdness.  Barbossa is back in the thick of it too, and Pene Cruz should add some sassiness.  I'm hopeful.

Superheroes are a big theme this year.  I like the look of Thor but not so much Captain America.  There is a new reboot of Spiderman on its way, not sure about this but I do like Andrew Garfield (Peter Parker).  Cowboys and Aliens looks like it could be fun and add a new spin to the hero saves the world genre (stars Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig).  Green Lantern looks iffy and I won't be doing Transformers 3.  X-Men First Class could go either way, the first trilogy was pretty good but the first prequel, Wolverine, was average (Ben fell asleep!).

The other big unsurprising news is that Hollywood is continuing to focus on sequels, some of interest but most seeming unncessary.  Most unneccessary award goes to Fast and the Furious 5.  There are 3 Part 4s due out this year - the good should be Pirates and Scream, the bad will be Twilight Breaking Dawn.  The final Harry Potter instalment is coming soon and I can't wait to see it.  The Hangover Part 2 is my most anticipated sequel while Sherlock Holmes 2 could be fun.  Most unnecessary remakes award goes to Conan the Barbarian and The Thing.

That's my list - please tell me what you are most looking forward to seeing - maybe we can go and enjoy it together? Either leave a comment below or take the poll to the left.