"When people ask me if I went to film school I tell them, 'No, I went to films.'"
- Quentin Tarantino
I remember hearing this quote back sometime in the mid-90's. Can't tell you where or when I heard it, but that's not important. It's the effect it had on me that is important. I have loved film all my life, but this quote really struck a nerve with me at the time - if I was going to tell people that I love film and movies, then I have to watch ALL TYPES OF FILM AND MOVIES. No genre or boundary was safe - my world, which consisted mainly of Spielberg blockbusters and sci-fi epics at the time, was flooded with French New Wave and Italian Neo-Realism. Where I once would worship at the altar of Pulp Fiction, I started to see that it was a pastiche of other films that I wound up liking better. I still hold on to those films that I originally had a passion for, but when you try to flood the swamp with fresh water, you wind up making a larger area that maybe has about a foot or two of clean water at the top and a shit-ton more swamp dirt at the bottom. For every immaculate Ozu movie that I found, I would also find something like the outlandish work of Andy Sidaris. Nothing was, or has been, off limits. I would watch movies, but I would also acquire them in a variety of ways as well. Might as well own them, right? I mean, what would happen if I ever wanted to watch something again? You just can't FIND a movie like Robo Vampire on iTunes or Blockbuster, and who knows when you'd get an urge to watch a movie about...well, a movie about a kung-fu ninja robot vampire that looks like a tin foil Robocop.
So, over time, I've picked up some movies here and there to add to my movie collection.
Eh - I'm gonna get honest. It has been more than 'picking up' movies. Including VHS movies, bought or bootlegged, my movie collection is up in the thousand range. Whittle it down to just DVD's and Blu-Rays, and it's about half that number. Whittle out the TV shows and kid programs, and you have even less. If we are getting specific - because, as you are about to find out, this blog is going to be all about this specific number - as of this time of writing, you get exactly 417 titles. That's a lot of movies.
This is the point in this conversation is where we come to what this 'blog project' is all about. It's that time. The urge to watch these movies that I've been collecting over twenty or so years is here. Problem is, I had no clue where to start. I'd spend a good hour or so looking through my collection, become overwhelmed with options, throw my hands in the air with exhaustion and just put on The Force Awakens again or an episode of Black Mirror (side note - San Junipero is absolutely incredible). Then, about two weeks ago, I had an idea.
I was lamenting to myself how I felt I abandoned my last project where I wrote about movies. I was hoping to write about a different horror movie for each day of October, but I became too overwhelmed with the structure of a full month of watching a set schedule. I found, once 'locked' to a list, that I was becoming bored. I wanted something unexpected. I didn't want to wake up on a Wednesday to know I was going to watch X movie - it ceased to become fun and instead became a chore. It was like planning to eat spaghetti on the 20th when I already had a ton of Italian food to eat that whole month. So I stopped. But, in the end, I was left with a thought - I would have LOVED to have written about movies for the month, but I wish I didn't have to choose what movies to watch. I wish my choices could be pulled randomly from a set of movies that I enjoyed in one way or another, for better or worse. That's when the idea hit me....
I would set up my movie collection in such a way that I could, once a week, randomly pick a film. I would take that urge I had to re-watch movies that I already owned, sandwich it between my passion for talking and writing about film and fill it randomly in the middle with a flavor of the week. Perfect.
So, in the spirit of random choice, I converted my movie collection to a database list of 417. I limited the list to what I had easily on hand - that is a mix of blu-ray, DVD's and digital movies. Tossed out the TV shows and the kid shows, but kept the kid movies and a few other 'TV movies' that were in their cases or movie folder. I downloaded a random number generator where I can set it between 1 and 417. I generate that number, then lookup the movie associated with that number. Then - VOILA - I would watch and write about that movie. When it was done, I would remove the movie from the list, thus upping the odds for the other movies to be watched. Rinse. Repeat. If I get a new movie, I just add it to the list. Simple! I can continue to watch what I want to, but I would commit to doing this project at least once a week. Maybe more if I had the time, but never less. To keep it fair, I'll provide pictures of the random number along with the movie on the list. You can also expect me to write occasionally about other things as well as my mood hits me.
ALRIGHT!
Ready?
Steady?
Here we go!
Truth be told, I'm kinda excited/nervous about this. I wish I could tell you, the reader, what resides in this list, but you will see in time...I feel there's some exciting stuff there....gonna hook up my phone so I can then download the screenshots onto my computer....
SPEED BUMP ONE. Having trouble syncing my phone to my computer. No worries - that's why I got this handy dandy flash drive here that can hook up to my phone.....
OK! Ran the number and posted the screenshot on Facebook so I am committed to the number. That number is 259.
Now time to find number 259 on the list......
Mixed Nuts. The first movie in this project is Mixed Nuts. Was kinda expecting something epic and grand, but I got Mixed Nuts. The 1994 Steve Martin/Madeline Kahn comedy with a crazy Juliette Lewis and Adam Sandler. Yeah. Not figuratively crazy. If I remember, they are legit crazy in this movie. At least its a holiday movie, eh? Kinda appropriate! Looks like we are committed! Ha! Committed! This is already a barrel of laughs.
Remind me to never ask for anything ever again.
Write-up and review coming later tonight!
- Z
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