This one is a bit long, so I'll be breaking it into at least two parts. Here is part one.
THE MORNING:
I woke up at 7am the morning of the event, my cat nustling his head into my face for attention. I pet him for a minute or so untill he wanders off to lick himself or plan world conquest. I manage to fall back asleep.
The blinds in my room are not completely drawn closed and the sun finds a position in the sky that sends light onto my face at about 8am. I roll around for a moment or two and decide to get up and take a shower before the rest of the house is awake and stealing all the hot water.
I'm dressed and ready to go by 8:45am. For the record that makes it about an hour before I am supposed to be ready. I'm like a child on Christmas morning. I've decided against the hoodie and to wear a brown faux-suide button up I have bought this week. Better to clean my glasses with. Nicer looking.
As the house begins to stir I run out of things to do. The e-mail is checked, the cats are fed, and my bag is packed with all the hygene products I can think of. The Tivo reminds me there is tv to watch. I play the new episode of The O.C. as everyone showers and gets ready for the show. Season 2 is not as good as season one so far
I will say this about my roomates Ford Tauras. I had no idea that a car like that could go 95 miles an hour. To be honest I don't think I really wanted to know that it could. And it's not that I think he's a bad driver. I just hate the idea of getting killed cause somebody has a blind spot. That and I am a bit (oh really Rod) of a control freak and was not the one behind the wheel.
GETTING IN:
The line has already formed when we arrive at The Alamo Drafthouse, and Michael has saved us a place. I see a lot of the smae faces from years past. Lyrae (who I only see at this event) spots me and we hug. That's the part I love most about BNAT. I can see somebody once a year and feel instantly close to them. A sort of ragtag family of geeks who pick up right where we left off from the last year.
All my friends arive and we spend the time chatting with others in the line and trying to guess what it is we may see tonight.
Are bags are checked as we enter. No cameras or camera phones. To my horror I also learn that they won't allow us to take in laptops either. The guy at Mondo T-Shirts is very cool, and locks the laptop up for me in his office for safekeeping.
We are given a big bag of goodies by Harry as we reach the theater lobby. Harry spots me and says, "I loved your pictures this year." It was cool that he recognized me. And the photo concept was mine (with help from my rommie Jen and pictures from Ms. Corn) so I am happy about that as well. We are also wanded down for metal (hidden cameras I assume) as we reach the theater entrance.
Now the first thing you do upon entering BNAT is check out you goodie bag. The bags are always filled with shwag from various movie studios, and generally from movies that are already out, or are old by December. There were a ton of t-shirts and a cool Lord of the Rings: Return o0f the King Weapoms guide. My favorite shwag was Napolian Dynomite Chap Stick. On the tub it quotes the movie, "My Lips Hurt Real Bad." Very funny marketing idea.
There is some mingling as the crowd files in and everyone waits for the show to begin. This is always my favorite part of the show. Before it begins. I talk to everyone I can, asking where they flew in from and if it's thier frist time to Austin. This year a woman in the row behind us flew in from the Phillipiens. Later when Harry starts the show we learn that she is the person who flew in the farthest for the event.
Harry makes his way to the front and the show begins. He starts by telling us that this year will not be as dark as the previous years. That the LOTR years were on the whole a little darker than the first two. Also that this will not be the big star studded fest that the last year was. More quirky, small, Harry-like movies this time around. I am thrilled.
THE MOVIES:
Since I had no laptop to write on, I made little notes in a notepad in the dark as the movie played. I will be sure to let you know what the note was for each movie.
Now I will say now that I was hoping for at least one of two movies this year. I was praying for Sin City. THis is a RObert Rodriguez film at was shot right here in Austin, and Robert and Harry are good friends. The other movie I wanted was Serenity, the spin of movie from the Firefly tv show by Joss Whedon. Read on to see if I got either or both of them.
Movie One - Willie McBean & The Magic Machine. (1965)
IMDB Description: Little Willy McBean joins up with a Mexican monkey named Pablo to travel back in time and stop the evil Prof. von Rotten from changing history.
Harry says this was the first stop motion movie made (for theater release?) and that it has a "racist monkey" in the movie.
At first I thought that this meant a monkey that was a racist. What it really meant was that the monkey wears a sombrero and talks with a rediculous accent.
My notes say: Professor Von Rotten is a gloriously bad name and I love it. ...is a silly place. Camalots Gay Dragon...
So there is a scene in the movie when our hero goes back to stop Von Rotten from pulling the sword from the stone and becoming the King of England. We will ignore that this is fictional history and not real history. The introduction to the castle is a song with the knights dancing around on the round table and kicking thier legs about, and I could not help but think of Monty Python & The Holy Grail. "On second thought, it is a silly place." But better than that is the dragon who comes to the castle. He is so very gay. He talks like that pink Hanna Barberra tiger, and is very funny.
I thought that Wille McBean was a great first movie, and really got everyone itno a good mood for the night to come.
Movie Two: Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004)
IMDB Description: Three wealthy children's parents are killed in a Fire. When they are sent to a distant relative, they find out that he is plotting to kill them and seize their fortune.
Moriarty introduces this movie, and has two guests for before the film. He brings to the stage Liam Aiken and Emily Browning. They play the two children who are orphaned in the movie. They were pretty dull to interview as I recall. Basicly saying that one had read the books before the movie and one had not, and that Jim Carrey was funny and fun to work with. Blah.
I am awre of this being based on children's books, but have not ever read them. I can also say that I had no plans on seeing the movie when it came out. I liked the movie though. It was dark for a children's film, but had some pretty good laughs in it.
Jim Carrey is doing his best Peter Sellers here, playing many different disguised roles as the films villian. I liked them all. It was also cool that when a character played by Billy Connelly is introduced there was applause. As a fan of his stand up comedy I was pleased by the responce.
My notes: Baby subtitles. Dustin Hoffman.
The baby doesn't speak in the film but is subtitled ala the Look Who's Talking movies. At each subtitle there is a laugh.
And for no reason Dustin Hoffman is in the film as an audiance member at a scene at the end of the movie. He has maybe two lines, and then is never seen again. Weird.
Between Movies: We were shown a sneak peak of the Dreamworks CGI film Madagascar. A movie about a lion (Ben Stiller), a zebra (Chris Rock), a giraffe (David Schwimmer), and a hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith) who are stranded on a desert island during a Zoo transfer gone wrong. The opening scene where they are stuck in crates on the ship is very funny. Good interplay between the actors (seemingly) and some funny visuals. The rest seed kinda dull.
Movie Three: The Black Swan (1942)
IMDB Description: Seas Ablaze...with black villainy, with fiery romance, with breathless deeds of daring...in the roaring era of Love, Gold and Adventure!
This movie was pretty cool. It has Maureen O'Hara and Tyronne Power as the leads, and I loved it. Very old school pirate action shot in beautiful Technicolor. O'Hara is a favorite of mine from all of here work with John Wayne (and is brilliant in The Quiet Man).
My Notes: Love, Gold & Adventure. Pillow Sniffer. "Can't go wrong drowning polatitions Captian Morgan." - Jamie Boy (Powers)
The above quote got both applause and laughter. It also sums up the attitude of the entire film for me.
There's a great moment when Power takes over O'Hara's room at and a servent brings him the pillow she sleeps on. At this point he has become infatuated with her and he takes the pillow and sniffes it. That got a laugh, and was really quite creepy for an old movie.
Oh, and from that point on if there was a lul inbetween movies or a pause between reel changes you could count on hearing a piraty AARRGGH from someone in the audiance.
Another fun movie.
Between Movies: HGTTG!
Harry introduced us to Executive Producer Robbie Stamp. For those who don't know what the above means...you are an uncultured fool. Seriously.
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is a book (radio show, television show, video game, and media empire) known round the world as one of Englands funniest things ever done. It is by Douglas Adams who is a genius by any measure.
The crowd went nuts at the introduction.
My Notes: Concept Art. Vogons! The crowd goes wild. Deep Thought. Brain the size of a planet. Sence a love for the film.
Stamp then showed us some production slides and the very first look at the Vogons. They looked exactly how I wanted them to. I am so happy about it I want to squeel. Stamp really got it. He knew how good Hitchhikers is, and he knew how much we love it. He really seemed like the right person to take care of Adams movie after his death. I was nervous about the movie before. Now I cannot wait to see it.
Vogon man...Vogons.
To Be Continued ...
Posted by rnunley at December 13, 2004 6:42 PM