Our annual Memorial Day movie marathon was today. We invite a group of friends, watch four movies back-to-back (with smoke/bathroom breaks in between) and serve booze/snacks and cater dinner. The wife and I have been doing it for 16 years now. Anyway, this year we did Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon (each movie is 2 degrees of Kevin Bacon away from the previous movie).
Tremors - Started off with one of my all-time favorites. Not a whole lot to add but this is almost the perfect monster movie. It's not overly scary so it can be shown to almost anyone. It sets up the cast so well by giving each of them little scenes early on that tell you all you need to know about them. Also sets up the monsters perfectly by slowly drip-feeding the audience information without giving away too much. Slow escalation of stakes, likeable characters, some great lines... just goes down smooth and easy. A couple of people in our group complained about the practical fx but that shit is cash.
A couple of the sequels are okay but most of them are direct-to-video crapola (I stopped watching after 4, I think?). A shame, really.
Snatch - Pretty sure I've mentioned this one multiple times here. It's my favorite of the Guy Ritchie gangster movies, largely for the quippy dialogue and the great minor characters. All kinds of ugly Brits and weird character actors that they'd never let within 10 feet of a Hollywood production otherwise. Some of the stylistic choices are very much of their time (all of the music video angles and screen cutting) and I appreciate that these movies aren't for everyone but I'll quote this movie til the day I die.
Let It Ride - I always try to include at least one oddball (usually it's an old movie or a disgusting horror movie to piss off our friends) but I decided to take it easy this year and show something that's close to my heart. Let It Ride is a weird little black comedy from the late 80s about a degenerate gambler (Richard Dreyfuss) who has a very lucky day. It's the kind of movie that would NEVER see the light of day in theaters these days. It's a small stakes story with a lot of odd humor and the women in it are all shrews or sexpots. It's not a great movie by any stretch... the music is 80s as shit and kind of out of place, the jokes whiff frequently and Richard Dreyfuss's main character is strangely hateable. That said, there's still a lot of little things I like. The weirdos and misfits he hangs out with. The bizarre fourth-wall break towards the end of the movie. Robbie Coltrane's disgruntled ticket agent that goes from hating Trotter to rooting for him by the end. The way they portray the rich cunts in the jockey club.
So this movie's close to my heart for two reasons: the first is that Jennifer Tilly in her skin-tight dress was one of those formative moments of being young and realizing I was straight and liked boobs. The second is that not long after seeing the movie (this would've been like '92/'93), my grandfather invited my family on to the set of a Civil War documentary he was filming and Richard Dreyfuss happened to be there doing prep work for something he was working on. Anyway, we were introduced and I told him how much I liked Let It Ride. Not Jaws. Not Close Encounters. Not even What About Bob. Fucking Let It Ride. Needless to say, he gave me a weird/puzzled look, thanked me and went on about his day.
The Mist - Hadn't seen it since watching it in black and white when the DVD came out (after seeing it in the theaters). The movie that makes my wife actively angry when people bring it up so I figured we'd watch this last to leave everyone on a giant fuck you. The CG did not age well and the "humans are the real monster" stuff that the movie relies heavily on seemed much more ham-fisted this time around. That said, Marcia Gay Harden is still a great hateable cunt, the pharmacy sequence is still pretty good and there's some touuuugh gore shots along the way. And of course there's that ending. Woof. Not nearly as impactful when you know it's coming (obviously) but still a bold choice all these years later.
