Favoritest Movies of 2014

"You're Welcome!"  Marvel is that at the top of their game!

So back in 2012, I conducted an experiment with the movie Prometheus; I avoided the trailers, commercials and most promotional images.  Though Prometheus eventually only placed 41st out of 87 movies at the time of being listed, the experiment was a success.  I enjoyed the theatrical experience more than if I had seen the trailers.

Going into this year of movies I avoided trailers and commercials to every movie I wanted to see: 300: Rise of an Empire, Batman: Assault on Arkham, Winter Soldier, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Dracula Untold, Edge of Tomorrow, Godzilla, Guardians of the Galaxy, Hercules, How to Train Your Dragon 2, Interstellar, Jupiter Ascending, Justice League: War, Maleficent, RoboCop, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For*, Son of Batman, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1, Transcendence, Transformers: Age of Extinction, and X-Men: Days of Future Past. An asterisk is by Sin City since I can't remember avoiding it's trailers, I would of though if I'd ever encountered any.  I used to devour trailers as soon as they hit the net, and analyze each and every frame, now I wait until after I've seen the movie.  The experience of each movie is more pure without the trailers guiding my level of expectation only to result in the movie being disappointing if the trailers have already shown the best stuff.  It especially saved me from this crime...

This is the last shot of the trailer AND the movie.
So, you're sold an epic fight between Spider-Man and Rhino and get... nothing.  I enjoyed Amazing 2 enough to joke that it was the best Spider-Man movie ever, merely horrible.  Spider-Man is a relic of comicbook movies before Marvel Studios showed how it was done with their formula of loving the source material and making that love contagious.  Audiences can now tell when a movie has the stink of being made by people who think comics stink.

Many think the current comicbook movie surge is fleeting, but it's box office dominance is guaranteed until the R rating becomes palpable again.  Expendables 3 proves how the action movies we used to enjoy can't exist in a PG-13 movie world.  When Captain America is in a bloodless brawl, it's expected, he's a superhero.  When Jason Statham stabs, or machine guns someone in a PG-13 way it's less satisfying... no wonder the Web critics went crazy for Raid 2.

This year also represents the changing of the guard of my favorite movie franchise form the /Star Wars saga to:

I've been into Marvel comics since I was 10 years old, and their run of movies is like reading a stack of comics...

But when Captain America The Winter Soldier retconned the hell out of the MCU, transforming things as subtly as Obadiah Stanes speech to an entire subplot in Iron Man 2 it showed Marvel was playing at a different level.  The fidelity to which characters, locations, themes and story are being translated to the screen are impressive, and what readers have always clamored for.

Moreover, Star Wars finalized the albatrossization of the prequels with:

More tearjerking than anything in the cinematic prequel era.

Clone Wars gets Star Wars, so does Rebels



But this blog and these lists are about movies, not television.  We'll skip the pontificating on what is television currently, though the lines are being more and more blurred.  I watched The Interview as a rental on YouTube.  The MCU has Agents of Shield,  and in 2015; Agent Carter, Daredevil and AKA Jessica Jones.  Rebels and retroactively Clone Wars are canon with the movies.  As for the Prometheus experiment,  and the most anticipated, most unlikely certainty in the history of cinema.  I knew I couldn't avoid the first trailer,  that I'd have to drop off the planet to avoid it, so I just hope to avoid the next trailer...

On to the list:

1. Guardians of the Galaxy
2. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
3. X-Men: Days of Future Past
4. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
5. The Lego Movie
6. Justice League: War
7. Godzilla
8. Edge of Tomorrow
9. Maleficent
10. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
11. Batman: Assault on Arkham
12. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1
13. The Interview
14. 300: Rise of an Empire
15. A Million Ways to Die in the West
16. How to Train Your Dragon 2
17. RoboCop
18. Transformers: Age of Extinction
19. Son of Batman
20. Interstellar
21. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
22. The Monuments Men
23. 22 Jump Street
24. Vampire Academy
25. I, Frankenstein
26. Hercules
27. The Raid 2
28. The Amazing Spider-Man 2
29. Dracula Untold
30. Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
31. The Purge: Anarchy
32. Transcendence
33. Muppets Most Wanted
34. JLA Adventures: Trapped in Time
35. Avengers Confidential: Black Widow & Punisher
36. The Pirate Fairy
37. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
38. Mr. Peabody & Sherman
39. The Fault in Our Stars
40. Chef
41. Divergent
42. The Expendables 3
43. Rio 2
44. Pompeii
45. Non-Stop
46. The Legend of Hercules
47. Noah
48. The Nut Job
49. Annabelle
50. Sex Tape
51. The November Man
52. Grand Budapest Hotel
53. Earth to Echo
54. Neighbors
55. Jersey Boys

Favoritest Movies of 2013 (Revised, one year on)

59 movies and a year later, 2013 looks a lot different.  Disney delivered their first animated classic since Mulan or Tarzan (1998 & '99) and their best since The Lion King (1994).  Then a Korean director adapts three decade old French graphic novel and makes the closest thing in science fiction this generation has to Blade Runner (1982, the same year Le Transperceneige came out) or Brazil (1985), and truly I feel Snowpiercer falls neatly between the two.  Okay, I need a sit down marathon of the variations of Brazil, I've been meaning to get and consume the different versions side by side and it's been too long since my last viewing of Brazil but until then I'll stand by Snowpiercer.

Only shortly behind the two aforementioned masterpieces stands... an almost overly prolonged entirely too protracted and only, again, ⅓ a movie...

Though, at the time of this writing I've sat through the nine hour marathon of The Hobbit theatrically.  It alone as a singular work is only rivaled by the better two Lord of the Rings chapters, but sadly like with the animated Dark Knight Returns, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, and Mockingjay... these movies are doomed to hit these lists hobbled by truncation, but these movies are stronger for taking the time to tell their stories.  Though the expanded cuts of the Hobbit trilogy will have a running time at parity with season four of Game of Thrones.  Only their run times and general genre are comparable, Game of Thrones budget is only a tenth of what the Hobbit trilogy cost.

Joining the list at #6; a farewell to the possibly the greatest auteur ever...

His movies never felt compromised, never cheated the viewer and are never selfish all while mixing whimsy




I don't rank documentaries anymore.  They get listed, put on the sheet for record, but not compared, not even to each other.  It would be unfair to pit poignance against pedagogy.  But three documentaries stood out:



Jodorowsky's Dune, and Drew: The Man Behind the Poster for I am first and foremost a space opera / sci-fi movie nerd.  But, the most gratifying was Tim's Vermeer.
When I was in school, it seemed like Vermeer was on the cover of every other art history textbook, accomplished with a taunting mastery of craft that few could ever posses, if any.  Watching a software guy with no art schooling craft a replica of a Vermeer in a way that the artist may have used is a joyful thing.

1. Frozen
2. Snowpiercer
3. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
4. Ender's Game
5. Thor: The Dark World
6. The Wind Rises
7. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns: Part 2
8. Star Trek: Into Darkness
9. Oblivion
10. Pacific Rim
11. Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox
12. G.I. Joe: Retaliation
13. Despicable Me 2
14. Now You See Me
15. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
16. The Wolverine
17. Riddick
18. Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters
19. Odd Thomas
20. Space Pirate Captain Harlock
21. An Adventure in Space and Time
22. The World's End
23. 47 Ronin
24. Fast & Furious 6
25. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
26. Evil Dead
27. White House Down
28. Superman: Unbound
29. Escape from Planet Earth
30. R.I.P.D.
31. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters
32. Movie 43
33. Scary MoVie
34. Monsters University
35. Jack the Giant Slayer
36. The Smurfs 2
37. Turbo
38. Gravity
39. The Internship
40. World War Z
41. Transformers Prime Beast Hunters: Predacons Rising
42. The Host
43. Epic
44. Phantom
45. The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
46. 42
47. Elysium
48. Oz The Great and Powerful
49. Man of Steel
50. The Wolf of Wall Street
51. Rush
52. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2
53. 2 Guns
54. The Great Gatsby
55. Iron Man 3
56. Last Vegas
57. The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
58. Saving Mr. Banks
59. Planes
60. 12 Years a Slave
61. Her
62. Jobs
63. Only Lovers Left Alive
64. Kick-Ass 2
65. Evidence
66. The Conjuring
67. The Machine
68. Blue Is the Warmest Color
69. The Purge
70. This Is the End
71. Beautiful Creatures
72. Texas Chainsaw 3D
73. We're the Millers
74. Behind the Candelabra
75. Parkland
76. Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
77. Romeo & Juliet
78. Dallas Buyers Club
79. Iron Man: Rise of the Technovore
80. Red 2
81. Europa Report
82. Lovelace
83. Escape Plan
84. The Last Keepers
85. The Lone Ranger
86. The Croods
87. American Hustle
88. The Last Stand
89. Knights of Badassdom
90. The Colony
91. Sharknado
92. Insidious: Chapter 2
93. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
94. Syrup
95. Trance
96. Captain Phillips
97. Fright Night 2: New Blood
98. The Lifeguard
99. Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa
100. All Is Lost
101. Escape from Tomorrow
102. Lee Daniels' The Butler
103. Olympus Has Fallen
104. Parker
105. V/H/S/2
106. Zero Charisma
107. Prisoners
108. After Earth
109. Dealin' with Idiots
110. Dark Skies
111. Nebraska
112. Third Person
113. The Heat
114. Age of Dinosaurs
115. The Last Exorcism Part II
116. Computer Chess
117. The Hangover Part III
118. Jack the Giant Killer
119. Don Jon
120. Under the Skin
121. The Fifth Estate
122. Grown Ups 2
123. Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return
124. Upstream Color
125. Identity Thief
126. A Good Day to Die Hard
127. Pain & Gain

Favoritest Movies of 2013 (so far)

Ties for first place between Ender's Game and Thor.
Then ties for third between four other movies
and both Ender's and Thor share individual match ties with ¾ of the bottom row.  

2013, is like a good buffet or bad catering, no one selection wins your plate, but there's a bit of everything.  There is no one movie to rule them all.

I made a change to scoring this year, documentaries will no longer be included, nor will they

If this movie were live action
it would have been the
biggest movie of the year

affect the score.  Ties still are going to happen, after much internal debate about whether they're healthy for the system or not.  But, I'd rather admit that a substantial percentage of the time, I like movies equally in head to head comparison.  Thus far this year, no movie dominates the year.  There was a brief Honeymoon with G.I. Joe: Retaliation,  just as there was a long stint of being quite angry with Star Trek Into Darkness.
I hated Star Trek Into Darkness so much that when the Blu Ray arrived for me to watch with the family, I hate it even more... well maybe.  Then, I kept it spinning in the player all of the next day, over and over and over until... it's the poster in the lower right of the collage atop the post here, and I've a 5" model of the USS Vengeance on my desk. 

Planes and Gatsby are the middle of the list.  Both have (at the time of writing, a .5, remakable at only how unlikely it is... or maybe for how likably bland they are...



Three movies though dominated getting talked about this year.  Into Darkness, Iron Man 3 and Man of Steel.  Looking at just the latter two,  I think I hate these two movies as much as I can hate movies in their specific character niches.  They're both angst ridden, unfulfilling, poor examples of their titular characters.  They were both sources of Fanboy rage, where with each, I liked the source of fanboy rage in each... wha?  (SPOILERS:) Yup, Neck snapping and Mandarin... I dig both, but the movies themselves are poor to unacceptable.  THEY basically helped Thor to the top of the list this year, by being the solo follow-up worthy of The Avengers, and by showing how super a guy from an alien place could be in a BRIGHT RED CAPE.   Without them, a movie could have been alone atop this list.  A movie about a small guy taken from the quiet of his home into a group of brash and many cases, less than welcoming peers... something... something... Dragon ... Dragon Army?  Describing Ender's Game sounded familiar for a second there... ;) On with the list for now:

1. Ender's Game
2. Thor: The Dark World
3. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns: Part 2
4. Oblivion
5. Star Trek: Into Darkness
6. Pacific Rim
7. Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox
8. G.I. Joe: Retaliation
9. Now You See Me
10. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
11. The Wolverine
12. Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters
13. An Adventure in Space and Time
14. Scary MoVie
15. White House Down
16. Escape from Planet Earth
17. Evil Dead
18. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters
19. Movie 43
20. Epic
21. Gravity
22. Superman: Unbound
23. R.I.P.D.
24. Jack the Giant Slayer
25. World War Z
26. The Smurfs 2
27. 42
28. Monsters University
29. The Internship
30. Turbo
31. The Host
32. The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
33. Man of Steel
34. Oz The Great and Powerful
35. Phantom
36. The Great Gatsby
37. Planes
38. The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
39. Iron Man 3
40. Red 2
41. Behind the Candelabra
42. The Purge
43. Iron Man: Rise of the Technovore
44. This Is the End
45. Parkland
46. Beautiful Creatures
47. The Croods
48. Lovelace
49. Europa Report
50. The Conjuring
51. The Last Keepers
52. Sharknado
53. The Last Stand
54. Syrup
55. The Colony
56. Texas Chainsaw 3D
57. Fright Night 2: New Blood
58. Dark Skies
59. The Lifeguard
60. Dealin' with Idiots
61. After Earth
62. Olympus Has Fallen
63. V/H/S/2
64. Parker
65. Computer Chess
66. Jack the Giant Killer
67. The Last Exorcism Part II
68. The Hangover Part III
69. The Heat
70. Age of Dinosaurs
71. Grown Ups 2
72. Pain & Gain
73. Identity Thief
74. A Good Day to Die Hard

Two Documentaries, were on the list; Blackfish and TWO Flight 800.  I've decided to no longer compare Documentaries with the rest of the population of movies.

I may or may not make an update to this post.  Perhaps if The Secret Life of Walter Mitty or The 47 Ronin or Despicable Me 2  break the logjam at the top in a significant way.  Did I leave anything out?

Favoritest Movies of 2012

Though no year is ever truly closed, now that I've (finally) seen Braking Dawn Part II and 38 other movies since the "so far" list for 2012 later can be at least updated.  True to self fulfilling prophecy, no movie dethroned the Avengers from the top spot, but no movie had the 'genetics' to even come close, and now I've seen all of the top 24 grossing movies of the year (domestically), and 40 of the top 50.  But, if enjoyment of a movie is a self fufilling prophecy, or that this is just an inverted metric of dissapointment for least to most (2013's "So far list coming in just a few months!!!) then why bother watching so many movies?  What's the point of watching something that I'm not looking forward to if I'm incapable of enjoying it as much as a movie I WANT to see?  Surprise.  Finding the movie that you had no interest in, that despite genre preference, desire to see it going into it, target demographic, and every other categorical disadvantage a movie may have... finding one so good that it surprises you, and satisfies you and wins you over... THAT's why I love to watch so many movies.  I WANT to find movies to love that I didn't think I would. 

2012 gave me not only one of the most fantastic, fanboytastic movies ever with The Avengers, it also gave me a movie that provided that sense of surprise, that brought me out of my genre comfort zones.  I rented Pitch Perfect for my daughter on a night when she had a friend over.  They'd requested it.  Though I say I'm a total movie slut, and will basically watch anything, I had no plan or intention of watching this with them or at any point before returning it to the Redbox as soon as possible.  The movie started, and I lingered a few seconds, and by the end of the opening scene I was hooked.  By the end of it, I'd enjoyed a teen oriented musical comedy whose plot structure was closer to a sports movie than anything else.  I still love it and have watched it multiple times now.

How did some of the other movies I HADN'T seen yet fare that I mentioned?

Lincoln:  Wonderful, but I know not when I'll rewatch it again.  Score: 0.604651163

Argo:  I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would... Who'd have thunk anything about Battle for the Planet of the Apes would have ever been connected to an Academy Award!!!  Now, we can't say EVERYTHING about it sucks... I kid, John Huston NEVER sucks, and with 15 Academy Award nominations and two wins, he alone gave at least part of Battle for the Planet of the Apes some respectability.  Score: 0.73255814

Zero Dark Thirty: Definitive. Score: 0.581395

Looper:  Looper is a mess. It's a complete disappointment.  I know, I LOVE Millennium (and it has "time quakes") and Back to the Future (and it has Marty McFly fading) so why do I hate Looper for a very similar botching of time travel.  Timecrimes has nothing like those movies, shouldn't, by nature of why I HATE Looper, I also dislike Millennium and Back to the Future as well?  Looper has three qualities that the other two don't; First, It practically breaks the fourth wall and tells you to just accept that it works and not to question it.  This same 'explanation' was given for time travel in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.  I love that movie too, but it's a comedy, not sci-fi.  Second, it litters it's universe with almost as much  availability of Time Travel as Star Trek.  It's easier to travel in time in Looper than it is in Doctor Who with less repercussions (it does the same thing with psionics too).  Lastly;  Looper is cynical and condescending to it's audience.  It's not alone, most bad science fiction dwells on explanation, and wants an audience that is stupid, ignorant and against using their imagination.  I'm surprised I like it as much as I do.  Score: 0.203488

Dredd:  Um, first... I don't dislike Judge Dredd.  It's probably the most I enjoy a movie with Rob Schneider in a prominent role, and the rest of the cast, and the visuals are wonderful.  The new Dredd, is better.  In another year, it could have easily been the best comicbook movie of the year.  This year, it's got to take third place to only Dark Knight Returns Part 1 and The Avengers.  I think Dredd would make better HBO style television than movies, but I think that of many super-heroes.  An installment of screen Dredd every 16 years is too long, and this time the title character is note perfect.  Score: 0.825581


Rock of Ages: Tom Cruise, and the music are this movie.  Score: 0.575581

Breaking Dawn Part II:  Yay!  I did the whole thing!  I'm done with Twilight movies!
Score: 0.412791

The above movies mentioned in the "So Far" entry, and their current percentile ranks average .562, pretty close to the .570 that all the movies on the "So Far" list average with thie current scores.  The movies I've seen since average only .413.  Does anticipation or desire to see a movie increase the enjoyment of it? Or, do more appealing movies, the ones you'd enjoy more anyway have a way of mandating to be seen earlier? 

Either or both, 2012 was a really fun year for movies.

1. (tie) The Avengers
2. (tie) The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
3. Skyfall
4. The Cabin in the Woods
5. Pitch Perfect
6. Starship Troopers: Invasion
7. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns: Part 1
8. Cloud Atlas
9. Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn
10. John Carter
11. Justice League: Doom
12. Dredd
13. The Woman in Black
14. Men In Black 3
15. Iron Sky
16. Paranormal Activity 4
17. Brave
18. Game Change
19. Safety Not Guaranteed
20. Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
21. Argo
22. Django Unchained
23. Total Recall
24. The Expendables 2
25. The Watch
26. William Shatner's Get a Life!
27. Dark Shadows
28. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
29. Snow White and the Huntsman
30. Ted
31. Tai Chi Zero
32. Hotel Transylvania
33. The Hunger Games
34. Underworld: Awakening
35. Lincoln
36. Mass Effect: Paragon Lost
37. Zero Dark Thirty
38. Rock of Ages
39. The Pirates! Band of Misfits
40. The Man with the Iron Fists
41. Prometheus
42. Resident Evil: Retribution
43. Rise of the Guardians
44. The Amazing Spider-Man
45. Jack Reacher
46. The Dark Knight Rises
47. Frankenweenie
48. The Dinosaur Project
49. ParaNorman
50. Sinister
51. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2
52. Silver Linings Playbook
53. Wrath of the Titans
54. Unicorn City
55. House at the End of the Street
56. Piranha DD
57. Katy Perry: Part of Me
58. Mirror Mirror
59. John Dies at the End
60. 21 Jump Street
61. Journey 2: The Mysterious Island
62. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days
63. The Campaign
64. Lockout
65. The Words
66. Chronicle
67. V/H/S
68. Les Misérables
69. This Means War
70. The Raven
71. Atlas Shrugged II: The Strike
72. Taken 2
73. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
74. Looper
75. Magic Mike
76. Ice Age: Continental Drift
77. Dr. Seuss' The Lorax
78. Life of Pi
79. Branded
80. Silent Hill: Revelation
81. Chernobyl Diaries
82. Hansel and Gretel: Warriors of Witchcraft
83. Man on a Ledge
84. The Grey
85. Beasts of the Southern Wild
86. Cosmopolis
87. The Master

Oh... one last thing.  A movie was supposed to come out IN 2012, and didn't.  G.I. Joe: Retaliation was supposed to be released on  June 29, 2012 against Ted and Magic Mike.  So imaging that G.I. Joe came out in 2012... It's score would be...

92nd Percentile!

Favoritest Movies of 2012 (so far)

I've seen 48 movies from this calender year within the year itself, and there's still a few like Lincoln, Argo, Zero Dark Thirty, Looper, Dredd, Rock of Ages and even Breaking Dawn Part II that I'm yet looking forward to seeing.  But, I doubt any of them stand a chance to top the years frontrunner.  A good number of my favorite movies, not just movies I 'like', but ones that are a shoe-in for being in my pantheon of favorites are historic accomplishments in entertainment.  Star Wars, the most successful film ever (or is someone going to pay a few billion to make sequels to Gone with the Wind?)  Star Trek the Motion Picture, from cancelled TV show that didn't make it to even 90 episodes to being a big budget, high grossing, movie & television franchise spawning, behemoth...  The Lord of the Rings Trilogy ('Nuff said). Tron Legacy, a sequel 28 years later!  What Marvel did with The Avengers, and the movies leading up to it in the prior 4 years...

Just the poster for Avengers still gives me chills, like it's impossible to be real.  It's a Wizard Magazine Casting Call column come to life!  It's what comic fans have dreamed of; the simplest formula for Hollywood to have success with super-heroes.  Don't re-invent the wheel.  Respect the creativity in the comics, and just put them on screen, as uncompromised as possible.


One small disclaimer, on the numbers, The Hobbit tied with the avengers, but it's only ⅓ The Hobbit, so second place... makes the Hobbit : Desolation of Smaug 2013's movie to beat!

1. The Avengers
2. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
3. Skyfall
4. The Cabin in the Woods
5. Cloud Atlas
6. John Carter
7. Starship Troopers: Invasion
8. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns: Part 1
9. The Woman in Black
10. Men In Black 3
11. Dark Shadows
12. Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn
13. Iron Sky
14. Django Unchained
15. Justice League: Doom
16. Safety Not Guaranteed
17. Game Change
18. Paranormal Activity 4
19. Brave
20. Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
21. Total Recall
22. William Shatner's Get a Life!
23. The Expendables 2
24. The Hunger Games
25. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
26. Snow White and the Huntsman
27. The Amazing Spider-Man
28. Underworld: Awakening
29. Journey 2: The Mysterious Island
30. Prometheus
31. The Dark Knight Rises
32. Wrath of the Titans
33. Lockout
34. Mirror Mirror
35. ParaNorman
36. Katy Perry: Part of Me
37. Piranha DD
38. The Raven
39. This Means War
40. 21 Jump Street
41. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
42. Magic Mike
43. Chronicle
44. The Grey
45. Dr. Seuss' The Lorax
46. Man on a Ledge
47. Silent Hill: Revelation
48. Chernobyl Diaries

Favoritest Movies of 1975

At a convention better than seventeen years ago, a friend and I sat in on a game of GURPS, a role playing game.  Most RPG's occupy a genre; Dungeons & Dragons : fantasy, Star Wars, Traveller, Star Trek and Alternity : space opera, Shadowrun : cyberpunk, and etc.  GURPS isn't a playable universe so much as it is a system, a ruleset like D20 D6 or CODA.  With GURPS, you can blend genres generically, blend games of incompatible rules systems, or make games out of properties yet to be licensed to a game publisher.  It's something, at it's best is very special, and very relevant, it's a distilled blank slate.
Words and phrases can boomerang around a little.  In psychology a blank slate, is the idea that who you are is not set at birth, that you can become anything; tabula rasa.  We throw it into french, and apply it to politics, we get carte blanche, you have absolute freedom of authority, dictatorial power essentially.  It sounds innocent and pure  when applying it to a baby, but powerful when applied to authority.  What was that word you just read twice? Authority.
The scenario of the GURPS session was 'a trip to the lake'.  After all of these years, I still can't imagine why anyone would want to imagine, for recreation, packing up a truck and going to a house by a lake.  If you're thinking that plenty of people do this, yes they do, in actuality.  Role playing games should serve for the participants to imagine something they can't do.  If you're rolling a D20 to see how well you mowed the lawn, you're more than welcome to mow mine.  In that game, there was no UFO at the bottom of the lake, no serial killer of the GM's design (my friend had a different thought on that, to the protests of; "You're ruining our fun!"), no zombie apocalypse, not even monolith monsters.  The GM had carte blanche, and failed to author anything that couldn't be accomplished by any group of people over 21 with at least one credit card and a drivers license between them.
Every film, novel, and comic book as well as every other artistic achievement, everything that is authored, has potential which is only limited by the author itself.
But the genres that take greater advantage of that, that require more imagination, thought, whimsy, or acceptance on the part of the viewer remain outside the mainstream of critical acceptance or regard for their artistic merits.
Our political discourse, and in many media outlets creativity, fantasy, imagination, and curiosity are continually challenged, ostracized and scorned.  Antithetical to the negative rhetoric of our increasingly ignorantly judgmental society, is the popularity of the big Hollywood blockbuster, which is always said to have begun in 1975*

*Ignoring 1937, 1939, 1956, 1959, 1965, and 1973!

1. Jaws
2. The Man Who Would Be King
3. The Land That Time Forgot
4. Terror of Mechagodzilla
5. The Rocky Horror Picture Show
6. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
7. Escape to Witch Mountain
8. The Apple Dumpling Gang
9. A Boy and his Dog
10. Barry Lyndon
11. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
12. The Eiger Sanction
13. The Hindenburg
14. Death Race 2000
15. Dog Day Afternoon

I need to see more movies from 1975.

All From John Carter

I was first made aware of John Carter of Mars by the Special Edition of the TV series of Carl Sagan's Cosmos. I took from this that John Carter of Mars was to Carl Sagan, what Star Wars and Star Trek were to me. I've always wanted to know the inspirations for the entertainments I enjoy, if selfishly, just to find more to enjoy. This graphic shows only those that seem to be most directly inspired by John Carter.

Click for Larger Size

Captain Kirk and Luke Skywalker don't qualify for this list. Captain Kirk, and Star Trek stem from Forbidden Planet and it's Commander J. J. Adams. Star Wars was a re-invention of Flash Gordon. I'm sure I've missed some candidates, Colonel Taylor from Planet of the Apes comes to mind as a possibility.

Favoritest Movies of 1976

Once upon a time...

There was a box called television.  Locally in St. Louis we had somewhere between 6-8 stations depending on how much your antenna could pick up.  The three network affiliates (ABC, CBS, NBC, there was no such thing as FOX kiddies.) We had PBS, and two locally run stations; KPLR, the network that created Voltron, and KDNL.  There was also KNLC and C-13 (WCEE) out of Mt. Vernon IL.

I paid special attention to that station out of Mt. Vernon, as I couldn't do anything to get my TV to pick it up ever long enough to watch anything and never during daylight.  But, channel 13 would have made my childhood more interesting, an entire new channel!  It had different cartoons on at different times than KPLR and KDNL did.  This was greener grass, that I was reminded of every time I went to look for what to watch.  There were no DVR's or on screen program guides, we had to read a book to see what was on.  My grandmother subscribed to TV-Guide, an expense my father didn't like, nor did my grandfather.  My dad being a complete slut for all things home-entertainment eventually subscribed to TV-Guide.  My grandfather thought the TV guide (non-branded) that came with the newspaper was sufficient.  Accuracy and articles had me favoring TV guide.
 
Then, came cable television.  Still no on screen guide.  It didn't have TV Guide (for several years), but it's own, the size of a catalog.  And one station, that cost extra to have, had a program guide all to itself.

Early cable had a lot less original programming, and a lot more of what seemed to be, whatever they could get their hands on.  So, back when MTV showed almost nothing but music videos, and it was possible to catch The Empire Strikes Back on HBO, when Nickelodeon was only on during the day, and showed mostly programs from Canada.  The Disney Channel was doing it's damnedest to be the most special place on cable.  It was the farthest thing from the seemingly wall to wall sitcoms about rich spoiled brats, whining about everything except their perfectly white, straight teeth and pristine complexions.

Back then, The Disney Channel was the channel I turned to first thing in the morning, Good Morning Mickey actually made getting out of bed for grade school slightly less dreadful, and made the oatmeal or rice taste better.  And when the Disney Channel Magazine would come in the mail, I'd eagerly look through it to discover what they were offering up throughout the next month.  Condorman was one such discovery.  But, the biggest, the best was:

The world of Asterix is of a texture we don't easily find in American comics until Jeff Smith's Bone. Like Star Wars, Pixar and Looney Toons, It's for everyone, including children.  It's something you can grow old with.  When it's forgotten that that's the best elements of family entertainment, that it entertains the family, regardless of age, we create more barriers between each other, unnecessary borders within households and across generations.

1. The Twelve Tasks of Asterix
2. Logan's Run
3. All the President's Men
4. Network
5. At the Earth's Core
6. King Kong
7. Murder by Death
8. Rocky
9. The Smurfs and the Magic Flute
10. Futureworld
11. The Omen
12. Silent Movie
13. The Outlaw Josey Wales
14. Midway
15. The Enforcer
16. Carrie
17. The Bad News Bears
18. In the Realm of the Senses
19. The Shootist
20. Lipstick
21. The Shaggy D.A.
22. The Man Who Fell to Earth
23. Family Plot
24. Robin and Marian
25. The Seven-Per-Cent Solution
26. Silver Streak
27. Shout at the Devil
28. Freaky Friday
29. Marathon Man

Favoritest Movies of 1977

So, not yet age two, or close enough, and Han Solo activates the hyperdrive and I get turned into a nerd for life.  All the top-ever movies will get their own write up, so this is not Star Wars' moment in the sun.  But, it's the first movie I saw in the theater, and there's nothing else to talk about in 1977.

Oh shit.

Alright, let's talk about you.  Let's say that you're actually a more original, more intelligent and more creative movie than Star Wars.  Let's imagine a world, not far off, (ours) where you may have deserved "Best Picture".  You have two or three moments where you actually are self aware and creative enough to see how movies can go beyond their narrative conventions, and be an intellectually interactive experiential medium.  I get that, probably only, because I was comparing you to Star Wars.  Just as Star Wars ripoffs, for the most part thought they could spray paint junk, and blow it up in slow motion, and say anything without it even being intelligible (if you just thought ""the prequel trilogy", get over it!  See a new movie or three...).   The movies you influenced mister Annie Hall, did not even notice your narrative originality, and instead acted like every guy with blue balls and an Arriflex SHOULD make a movie about just how hard his spoiled brat life is.  Sure, if Lucas made a Kurosawa film into a Douglas Trumball looking Flash Gordon serial in England, then all you did was make a '60's French movie in New York in the '70's.  And, after that the only movie that seemed to learn any actual positive lessons from you was the second Austin Powers movie.

I don't think you won Best Picture.  I think you were in the right place to benefit from jealousy, like Chicago, A Beautiful Mind, and The Hurt Locker.  You've been an ongoing life lesson that I was just reminded of the other night.  Taste is fickle.  There is so little separating the popular from the pariah, that often it's just the movement of the flock.

The other night we were watching a movie that took dramatic license with the life of William Shakespeare, with spectacular performances and production values told an all but completely impossible, but no less intriguing fiction in Elizabethan times.  Which one were we watching?

 

Romantic or Tragic?

Entertaining, or Challenging?

Satisfying or Piquing?

Lauded or Scorned?

The story goes that Lucas and Spielberg swapped points on Close Encounters and Star Wars, both thinking the other had the bigger hit.  So, if they don't know what's good, why do so many others act like experts?  The question might require more thought than that.  I've no idea what, if anything is actually "good", I just know what I like, in relation to whatever I'm comparing it to...

1. Star Wars
2. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
3. Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown
4. The Hobbit
5. The Spy Who Loved Me
6. Oh, God!
7. Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo
8. The Amazing Spider-Man
9. A Bridge Too Far
10. Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger
11. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
12. The War in Space
13. Kentucky Fried Movie
14. Annie Hall
15. MacArthur
16. Smokey and the Bandit
17. High Anxiety
18. The Gauntlet
19. Cross of Iron
20. Saturday Night Fever
21. Airport '77
22. Pete's Dragon
23. The Island of Dr. Moreau
24. Exorcist II: The Heretic
25. Orca
26. Wizards

Favoritest Movies of 1978

We join the 1978 list results already in progress:  A man who looks like Alec Baldwin enters that room full of movies ,like in the old Netflix commercials.

"Listen up movies of 1978!  The good news is -- you're tired.  The bad news is you've got, all you got, the rest of civilization to languish on cable, home video and on-demand to be watchable movies again, starting tonight. Starting with tonight's viewings. Oh, have I got your attention now? Good. 'Cause we're adding a little something to this years favoritism contest.  As you all know, first prize is being a good and loved movie. Anyone want to see second prize? Second prize's being a television pilot. Third prize is you're tired. You get the picture? You're laughing now? You got scripts. The script monkeys, carefully selected pigtailed macaques, worked tirelessly and cluelessly in a sweatshop near the Jewelry District.  So be interesting, be movies."


Okay, there's more than two good movies from '78, but, a TV pilot being one of the better ones, makes the year look bad.  I'm sure I've committed some sin by not praising Animal House.  It's proof of quality is just how high it made it on this list.  I'm just not a partier.

It's not going far, so this is our last chance to talk about a movie that did make the next round; Message from Space.  But, a movie that is going to probably place in the All-Time Top 10, owes a lot to it.  I mean, almost everything after leaving Jabba's palace, and the closer you get to the ending, the closer you get to Jedi.  This is one of the more engaging and better executed Star Wars try-to-be's.  I've tried to see as many as one can, though the line between ripoff, and greenlit because of the success of is subject to controversy, and hurt feelings.  You hear, read all sorts of stories, and the bigger the movie the more it has.  Message from Space is an anime come to life, and Return of the Jedi, is Message from Space come to life.  Science fiction led me to discover a lot of anime and still does to this day.  I've also always wondered how many other major movies have had secret anime influence, since seeing shades of Gall Force in Terminator 2.  Why, is that some Space Battleship Yamato in Das Boot?   I suspect they'll never admit it.

1. Superman: The Movie
2. Battlestar Galactica
3. Force 10 from Navarone
4. Grease
5. Coma
6. The Cat from Outer Space
7. Message from Space
8. National Lampoon's Animal House
9. Jaws 2
10. The Lord of the Rings
11. Death on the Nile
12. Harper Valley PTA
13. The Deer Hunter
14. Drunken Master
15. The Amazing Captain Nemo
16. Watership Down
17. Invasion of the Body Snatchers
18. The Bad News Bears Go to Japan
19. The Cheap Detective
20. Capricorn One
21. Return from Witch Mountain
22. Dawn of the Dead
23. Revenge of the Pink Panther
24. Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
25. Eyes of Laura Mars
26. The Boys from Brazil
27. The Swarm
28. Damien: Omen II
29. Heaven Can Wait
30. Corvette Summer
31. Every Which Way But Loose

Favoritest Movies of 1979

 The top 4 all share something in common, we owned them on CED videodisc. Our Realistic CED-1 felt like my own personal home entertainment system in our basement.

Rainbows!

My dad dove into this format with all sorts of optimism and excitement, but then stuck it in the basement.  At the time, he was also put drop ceiling in the basement, but I think he lost interest in home theater with getting cable TV not much more than a year after getting this.  I've read that the needle on CED players needed to be changed every 500 hours of use.  Ours beat the snot out of that, heck the Bugs Bunny Road Runner Movie saw at least 200 hours of play.  I'd occasionally watch TV off of the antenna down there, King Kong ('76), The Martian Chronicles, and V, and The Muppet Show just about every weeknight.  I forget if Laverne & Shirley preceded or followed The Muppet Show, but it was something my 7 year old self had no interest in.  I'd like to think my tastes have changed in the last 30 years, but 1979 just hasn't weathered the way most other years have.

1. Star Trek: The Motion Picture
2. The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie
3. The Black Hole
4. The Muppet Movie
5. Alien
6. Moonraker
7. Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
8. Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro
9. Time After Time
10. The First Great Train Robbery
11. Mad Max
12. Apocalypse Now
13. The China Syndrome
14. The Lathe of Heaven
15. Monty Python's Life of Brian
16. Escape from Alcatraz
17. The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again
18. The Concorde ... Airport '79
19. Dracula
20. The Shape of Things to Come
21. Zulu Dawn
22. Rocky II
23. Hair
24. Caligula
25. The Black Stallion
26. Love at First Bite
27. Beyond the Poseidon Adventure
28. C.H.O.M.P.S.
29. Meatballs
30. Butch and Sundance: The Early Days
31. Kramer vs. Kramer
32. More American Graffiti
33. The Jerk

Wait, we had all of the ones she mentioned by name... Maybe they DIDN'T want me watching TV! Thank you Youtube, you've explained my childhood.

Favoritest 50 Movies of the '80's!!!

Completely breaking format, I can't in good conscience put a poster on top of a list where only five non-genre movies even make this list.  Big deal that Empire is my favorite movie of the '80's.  That tells me nothing.  That embodies, nothing.  Recognizing that the '80's was to me, at the time the golden age of sci-fi movies, and one thing educated me, and opened my world to so much more than just watching Entertainment Tonight or waiting to see what would be the 'cool' movie accepted by the masses would be.  Every issue of Starlog was like a Con before I'd ever go to a convention, like a RSS feed before the internet.  Through Starlog, I fell in love with Blade Runner before having ever seen the movie.  To be fair, because of  the below photo in an issue of Starlog, I also fell in love with this series:

  Galactica 1980 !

I looked forward to this series. I couldn't wait to see it. I apparently missed it.  Actually, I had seen an episode, but had no idea that what I saw was Galactic 1980, I still have no idea that invisible Vipers and softball games are Battlestar Galactica! So, seeing this picture and dreaming of the day when I would behold this glorious show!  See, She's in a WHITE Colonial Warrior uniform.  Well, the only time Colonial Vipers were in white uniforms was when they were aboard the ship of lights!  So, naturally, my infantile fanboy self just assumed that the plot would deepen with 1980, that Galactica would become more mystery filled and epic.




So, as for the movies, and the magazine that brought me so much enjoyment related to them;

1. Empire Strikes Back
2. Return of the Jedi
3. Dune
4. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
5. Akira
6. Raiders of the Lost Ark
7. Heavy Metal
8. The Transformers: The Movie
9. Project A-ko
10. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
11. Blade Runner
12. 2010
13. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
14. The Dark Crystal
15. Highlander
16. Aliens
17. Superman II
18. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
19. RoboCop
20. Tron
21. Back to the Future
22. The Final Countdown
23. Battle Beyond the Stars
24. Die Hard
25. Monty Python's The Meaning of Life
26. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
27. Ghostbusters
28. Gandahar
29. The NeverEnding Story
30. Predator
31. U2: Rattle and Hum
32. The Princess Bride
33. The Abyss
34. Who Framed Roger Rabbit
35. Flash Gordon
36. G.I. Joe: The Movie
37. Tucker: The Man and His Dream
38. No Way Out
39. Top Gun
40. The Terminator
41. Starchaser: The Legend of Orin
42. Willow
43. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
44. Labyrinth
45. Koyaanisqatsi
46. Henry V
47. Gremlins
48. Venus Wars
49. Spaceballs
50. The Living Daylights

Favoritest Movies of 1980

Wow.  Hooray.  My hero.  What a big tough movie you are, imagine that Empire Strikes back could take on a whole year and come out on top... You'll probably win the decade as well, see you in the All Time round Empire!  Well, let's see who came in second...

What?  I feel the need to question myself here...
Q: Excuse me me, but how the Frakes in Riker's name does Flash Gordon end up with the second spot for 1980?  It's no Raiders fiasco, but you may be out of your own mind, to the extent that you could end up talking to yourself, and typing while doing it!

A: Superman II was a childhood favorite, but if you watch Superman II once a year, just once a year from, say ages 7 to 17; you can feel yourself getting older.  You start questioning just how nicely done some parts of it are, and how... (lengthy bull crap later) and where did the cellophane S come from?


Flash Gordon has gotten a boost, in just the past year or so, probably worth 7-8 places.  Actually, ironically, right this second as I'm typing this, the wife and daughter are watching Flash Gordon in the other room!  It has multigenerational appeal, even today!  Why could that be?  There's a clue on the poster... "filmed in Todd-AO" (My father used to rave about Todd-AO movies, and it was probably the second thing he thought off when thinking about Elizabeth Taylor).  The Flash Gordon movie of my youth was a dull pan and scan on tv movie, but having seen it in HD.  It's, well, beautiful.

More importantly, Flash is a movie that hits it's target.  It is everything it wants to be.  And movies that accomplish that are almost always well regarded, if not loved directly proportionally to the appeal of their goal.  For instance, if you like crime movies, than Godfather, Scarface and Goodfella's are your classics.  Hard Sci-Fi fan? 2001 and Blade Runner... Disney fare.. Lion King and Cinderella for the Classic Disney fare crowd.  Sometimes movies mix appeal base, they're still perfect, but it's where you land on both appeal orientations.  Flash Gordon is a movie that feels like it came out of an old MGM vault, like a victory lap made after Wizard of Oz.  It's everything George Lucas claimed he wanted Star Wars to be, except "believable" looking.  Flash trades realistic for retro deco.

1. The Empire Strikes Back
2. Flash Gordon
3. Superman II
4. Battle Beyond the Stars
5. The Final Countdown
6. Airplane!
7. Raise the Titanic
8. Kagemusha
9. Hangar 18
10. The Blues Brothers
11. Midnight Madness
12. Caddyshack
13. Oh, God! Book II
14. Altered States
15. The Shining
16. The Day Time Ended
17. The Return of the King
18. Private Benjamin
19. Stir Crazy
20. Somewhere in Time
21. Xanadu
22. Herbie Goes Bananas
23. Popeye
24. The Elephant Man
25. Galaxina
26. The Gods Must Be Crazy
27. Coal Miner's Daughter
28. The Watcher in the Woods
29. American Gigolo
30. Any Which Way You Can
31. Urban Cowboy
32. Ordinary People

Favoritest Movies of 1981

WTF?

1981.  We're talking about 19, EIGHTY, Freaking ONE!  The year that practically birthed the decade no one can stop talking about!  The first Space Shuttle launch, Ronald Regan becomes president. On television, Dynasty, Fall Guy, Hill Street Blues, heck just on Saturday morning cartoons we get Smurfs and Spider-man and his Amazing Friends.

Aside from all of that geekery, one movie dominates the box office, and goes on to get nine Academy Award nominations, winning five, and being robbed of best picture, sorry Best Picture by aspiring Olympic runners (Though Harrison Ford will run with Vangelis music in 1982 so Hah,)  How bad was this robbery?  Raiders of the Lost Ark has a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer of 94% (All Critics) to Chariots of Fire's 87% (All Critics).  AFI All time 100 list, Raiders is #60! Chariots doesn't even place.  Their Heroes and Villians list; Indiana Jones is the #2 hero!  Above James Bond and Rick from Casablanca!  Sure, he's below Atticus Finch, but we all know Atticus wouldn't make it to the Chachapoyan Fertility Idol!

So how in Frakes name could I pick, like, favor a movie with a RTT score of 60%.  I didn't know either.  It was hard.  Almost Empire vs. Jedi hard.  Raiders is a far superior movie to Heavy Metal.  It is one of the greatest achievements ever.  Seriously.  I wouldn't be surprised if that poster wasn't composed like the Mona Lisa just because the movie was honestly a rear kicking cultural masterpiece.  But head to head, I chose Heavy Metal.  We all want to see more movies like Raiders.  That Star Wars scale of fun, adventure, tension, the pleasant sensation of having our brain beaten to putty while our eyes were lovingly effed out of existence and our ears floated in pure euphoria.

We'll never get that.  We shouldn't want that, we wouldn't want to live in a universe that flat.  If everything were perfect, we'd become bored with perfection, start noticing differences, and even artificially create standards of quality and differentiate the essentially homogeneous media.  (Carnac the Magnificent says you're thinking: "That's what we do with movies today!")

I do want more movies like Heavy Metal, I wish we got a Heavy Metal movie every year.  An annual Animated Sci-Fi anthology showcasing a variety of styles, and stories with a a broad yet central feel, showing just how big, and in some ways, hard to define nerdom is.  We'd be better off having more movies like Heavy Metal, but sadly it's almost completely unique.  Raiders gets the #2 spot, since, I'm always seeing movies wishing they were Raiders.  Fine, I like them, some I even love... okay, I don't love any of them.  I love Raiders, Captain America and I need a few more dates before we commit, and National Treasure and I have agreed to see other people, but remain the closest of friends, not ruling out benefits.  The best part of cinematic polyamory; movies don't get jealous.  Heavy Metal, will never take offense at my wish for a harem of Heavy Metal, it just might punish me with less than better episodes of Liquid Television.

1. Heavy Metal
2. Raiders of the Lost Ark
3. The Great Muppet Caper
4. Clash of the Titans
5. History of the World: Part I
6. Escape from New York
7. Time Bandits
8. Excalibur
9. Outland
10. For Your Eyes Only
11. Stripes
12. Condorman
13. An American Werewolf in London
14. Das Boot
15. The Legend of the Lone Ranger
16. Dragonslayer
17. Omen III: The Final Conflict
18. The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie
19. Scanners
20. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior
21. Quest for Fire
22. Chariots of Fire
23. Gallipoli
24. Heartbeeps
25. Reds
26. Tarzan, the Ape Man
27. The Evil Dead
28. The Cannonball Run
29. Arthur
30. The Howling
31. Sharky's Machine
32. Body Heat
33. The Professional
34. On Golden Pond
35. American Pop
36. Tuck Everlasting
37. The Devil and Max Devlin
38. Bustin' Loose

Favoritest Movies of 1982

The lists are getting shorter, the backlog of this project is nearing completion.  The red letters denoting disliked movies says goodbye, it'll stick to hating newer movies.  I'm actually pretty fond of a little more than the top 20 from this year, and the top 6 are all childhood favorites.  There was a time when I'd say I didn't get to see E.T. as a child.  Theatrically this is true, but I was also still a child when I said it. I only saw Wrath of Khan theatrically, in the same theater my father asked my mother to marry him in several years earlier.  I was a bit emotionally attached to that room myself, as it was where I'd seen Empire for the first time.

I saw Tron, and most other movies on a big screen outdoors at the Union Electric Club, in Valley Park.  It doesn't exist anymore.  It was off of Vance Rd.  After entering  you'd see ball fields, a jet plane, a train caboose! That's the actual caboose pictured to the left.  We'd park on a white gravel lot.  There was a playground, bisected by a slightly elevated sidewalk going back to a large white, homely looking two story building.  The Sidewalks had creatures, mostly bugs painted on them.  When I was very small, I even found them a bit scary.  The playground equipment was far from what we'd consider safe, this entire place was even then a relic of an earlier era, but I didn't know that at the time.  We'd bring our own drinks and snacks.  My parents and grandparents were just that cheap.  We didn't pay to get in, it was for the UE employee's and retiree's and their families.  There was a long area of picnic style tables, end to end.  The floor was halved logs that had been laquered.  It was open air, and lit by yellow light at night.  The big attraction there was the bingo game that would go on, sometimes I believe during the movie.  Movies, baseball, playground, bingo, snow cones, heat, bugs, peeling paint, playground fixtures made of wood and steel.  It was in high ground, nothing but trees in sight.

I haven't thought of it in years.  I didn't plan on going on so long about it.  I had nothing to say when I say when I sat down to slap up this list.  But, I guess digging up old memories was the original point of this exercise.  Hundreds and hundreds of people enjoyed that place, I'd imagine most, if not all the ones who played bingo are long dead.  And nothing remains of it.  It's torn down.  I found one plea online for information, pictures of the place, and that was placed in 1998.  These lists, Facebook.  We're all loading the internet like the Pharaoh's loaded  up their pyramids.  Not morbidly so, nor necessarily with mortality in mind, but as a communal, digital time capsule of not items, but experiences.

1. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
2. The Dark Crystal
3. Blade Runner
4. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
5. Tron
6. The Secret of NIMH
7. Koyaanisqatsi
8. An Officer and a Gentleman
9. Conan the Barbarian
10. Airplane II: The Sequel
11. Gandhi
12. The Thing
13. Poltergeist
14. Pink Floyd The Wall
15. The Beastmaster
16. Fast Times at Ridgemont High
17. Tootsie
18. Android
19. The Shaolin Temple
20. Annie
21. Firefox
22. The Year of Living Dangerously
23. Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales
24. Timerider
25. Swamp Thing
26. Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip
27. Evil Under the Sun
28. The Last Unicorn
29. The World According to Garp
30. Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
31. Rocky III
32. Personal Best
33. Night Shift
34. First Blood
35. Megaforce
36. Honkytonk Man
37. 48 Hours
38. Porky's
39. Death Wish II
40. Fanny and Alexander