10 Movie Facts About Me Meme

I slithered this way and that, like a cat one might say. But in the end, I still got tagged, this time by Scott aka elgringo of He Shot Cyrus for the titular meme you see above (I've been subsequently tagged by The Movie Mistress as well).

Luckily for my laziness, I've more or less done this twice already, just not with the number 10 attached, so you'll be getting some green (read: recycled) responses, though I'll update where needed.

Shit. Here I thought I was getting off easy, but the two separate times I posted "interesting" stuff about myself, hardly any of it was movie-related. So you get fresh facts after all. Rejoice!

1. The movie I've seen most in the theaters is Pulp Fiction with six viewings. Haven't seen anything else more than three times, and I think I only did that once. Ah, college!

2. (Aha! I get to recycle this one) Those who can, do. Those who can't - wait a sec. I've made a film. Oh yeah. It was for a college course. Two minutes long. Silent. Filmed on a Hi-8 (Super 8? I can't recall). Starred my dad, with my mom and I as co-stars. 'Twas titled Jack the Car and featured a brilliant comedic performance by my dad as a guy that gets...car-jacked (by me). It was set to the song "Stink" by John Lurie (from the Get Shorty soundtrack) and won "Best Comedy" according to my peers, er, classmates.

3. I own X number of DVDs. C'mon, really - I'm expected to count them all? Let's just say it's somewhere between 200 and 400 and call it a day, shall we? It's more than many but less than a lot of others. Though I did come across this site the other day that can and will eventually assist me with this task. It's not perfect, but it's a start.

4. Bob Hope once walked right by me as I was sitting inside the lobby of The Empress Hotel in Victoria, B.C. I was probably 10 at the time.

5. A second (or more) cousin on my father's side "played" (read: flew) one of the Mig pilots in Top Gun. He's credited as James "Jambo" Ray. To my knowledge, I have seen him at a family reunion some 20-something years ago, but I couldn't pick him out of a lineup.

6. Every trip to the theater = one "regular" sized bag of popcorn (free thanks to a Harkins loyalty tee-shirt), a half a box of Raisinets (gotta watch my girlish figure) and a 32 oz. soda ($1.00 in a Harkins loyalty cup). All too often, a trip to the theater = dinner for Mrs. Fletch and I, and we like it that way.

7. I've only walked out on one film ever: the not-even-gratuitous-nudity-could-save-it-bad Strange Wilderness.

8. The three movies I could probably do the best at in reciting line-for-line would be Fletch (natch), Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and Office Space.

9. When I was a teenager, I carefully cut out select ads for movies in the larger-than-standard Premiere magazine (basically getting miniature one-sheets) and made a collage of movie "posters" on my wall. [/geek]

10. (Not really about me but still pretty cool) Mrs. Fletch once gave George Clooney a ride from the Phoenix airport to the Planet Hollywood restuarant that used to be open. Just the two of them.


And that does it. This is the part where I say that everyone in the entire blogosphere has already been tagged, thus removing the chain of that responsibility from around my neck. Whoa, that feels better!

And then...

Pitch the LAMB: Coming-of-Age Movie

I do my best to participate in the LAMB's events (one could argue that I DEFINITELY SHOULD NO MATTER WHAT, but between X and Y and Z and sometimes D, it just ain't possible). Anyway, this one - inspired by Piper's old Plot Farms and revived by CS of Big Thoughts From A Small Mind is a creative one that inspires people to post something on their site, and better yet, there's not a whole lotta rules, so I can be as lazy as I wanna be (with thanks to 2 Live Crew).

Did I do enough linking there? Want more? Don't tempt me...

Anyway, here are the few guidelines this time around:

The Genre: Coming-of-Age

The Examples of the Genre: The Graduate, Zombieland, Almost Famous, The Goonies, Big, Heavenly Creatures, Rushmore, Sixteen Candles, Stand By Me, An Education, Ghost World, To Sir With Love, Y tu mamá también, But I'm A Cheerleader, Dazed and Confused

The 10 words/phrases to get you started:

1. Working
2. He's going to kill you...
3. Loner
4. She does not know I am alive...
5. Hey Frankie...
6. Kissed
7. Do not tell Dad...
8. Virginity
9. You did what?
10. Grounded

The Job: to come up with an idea for a film using some of the words/phrases listed above. Once you have a plot idea, post it on your blog in any fashion you choose (e.g. plot synopsis, excerpt of a script, fictional trailer, fictional film review, movie poster, etc.) and email the link to bigthoughtssmallmind@hotmail.com. Simple as that! The deadline for submissions is Tuesday March 30, 2010.


Got all that? My preference, as it was with the Plot Farms, is for folks to have to use all 10 words/phrases in their story ideas. Like forced creativity mixed with stifled creativity...or something like that. How will different people work the same ideas into different stories - that's what I want to see. Though I'm no rulemaker, I will enforce said fake rule upon myself. Without further ado:

The Title: You Did What?
The Pitch: Mitch Montgomery, 15 and like most boys his age, was always trying to get noticed. Pranks, mischief, tomfoolery - these were not just funny words to him, but a way of life. Naturally, this caused some trouble at home, where he was always begging his older sister Felicia to "not tell Dad" about that mailbox he bashed with a baseball bat or his plan to escape history class with the aid of some homemade laughing gas.

However, the most recent exclamation from Felicia of "He's going to kill you!" had nothing to do with their hard-working electrician father, but instead with Mitch's latest hare-brained scheme. No, this one was intended to get the attention of the 9th grade's most beautiful girl that no one seemed to notice but him, the bespectacled, demure Jordan Parks. "She doesn't even know that I'm alive!" said Mitch, in a futile attempt to explain his predicament, which had him volunteering as an aide to a David Blaine-ish illusionist touring his way around the country, the wildly-annoying-to-anyone-over-16 Franklin Guerrero, fresh from his hit MTV magic/reality show, "Hey Frankie!" Mitch had put himself in a position to get grounded...literally, as Frankie would be burying him alive as a part of a lavish ruse meant to make the world think Mitch was dead, only to save him at the last second.

Will Mitch emerge triumphant and see his virginity kissed goodbye...or be doomed to a dirt nap?

And then...

A time and place for everything...

Daniel of Getafilm has hopped on the meme train. He's called it The Favorite Movie Period/Place Meme, but you're actually supposed to write about your favorite Martin Scorsese films. Ok, that's a blatant lie - he just doesn't like the title.

THE RULES:
1.) Think of a place (real or fictional) and time (past, present, future) portrayed in a movie (or a few) that you would love to visit.
2.) List the setting, period, applicable movie, and year of the applicable movie's release (for reference).
3.) Explain why, however you'd like (bullet points, list, essay form, screenshots, etc.). If this is a time and place that you have intimate knowledge of, feel free to describe what was done well and what wasn't done well in portraying it.
4.) If possible, list and provide links to any related movies, websites, books, and/or articles that relate to your choice (s).
5.) Modify Rules #1-4 to your liking. And come up with a better name for this meme.
6.) Link back to this Getafilm post in your post, please.
7.) Tag at least five others to participate!

For Daniel's own entry, he chose Back to the Future Part II's Hill Valley circa 2015, as portrayed in the 1989 Robert Zemekis film. Much as I hate to choose something so close to his, my choice is remarkably similar. Although not so strictly tied to one film, I love films that are set just barely in the future, and in a world that looks remarkably like ours, but with some very subtle differences.

The two most recent and best examples I can think of this are 2003's Code 46 and 2006's Children of Men.

Look, it's (relatively) easy to come up with the kind of world portrayed in films like The Matrix or The Fifth Element - these movies are set so far into the future (at least 200 years) that the writers and filmmakers have no rules. They can fit Earth, or any other setting of their choosing, to look however they need to so that it works with the story. I'm reminded of the great line in Thank You for Smoking where Aaron Eckhart's cigarette lobbyist is talking to a Hollywood superagent played by Rob Lowe. They're discussing a possible future movie set in space starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Brad Pitt, and Eckhart wonders aloud how they might fit smoking into the film, especially since the characters would be in a highly flammable, all-oxygen environment. Lowe's answer - sure, they would probably blow up, "But it's an easy fix. One line of dialogue. 'Thank God we invented the... you know, whatever device.'"

Films set in the very near future wouldn't get away with such easy fixes. They have to play by the laws of physics and cultural norms that we are already familiar with, and they'd have trouble convincing us that there might realistically be flying cars within the next five years. We're aware of the technology that's out there, and while we're willing to make small leaps in the service of believability, you and I both know that time travel to distant dimensions ain't happening anytime soon.

Films like Code 46 and Children of Men, meanwhile, are set in worlds that look stunningly like the one we inhabit, but are given tweaks so slight, so ingenious, that we can suspend any disbelief we might have and completely swallow the medicine we're given. They're set less than 25 years into the future, but smartly don't look it (at all) at first glance. Contrast this to the doomed world of Terminator Salvation; though it admittedly is playing with a timeline that was set in stone in the mid-80s, the idea that world would or even could look like the post-apocalyptic/robot-dominated portrayed as being 2018 is ludicrous. Instead, think of the odd handheld, finger-intense video game that was being played by Danny Huston's lover (friend?) in Children (he can be seen in the background of the picture below), or the beautiful way that languages from all over the world are blended into a singular universe-speak in Code. Or the instant foam airbag replacement system on display in Demolition Man. Back to the Future II, for all it's sci-fi nonsense (ground-up coffee beans powering a time-travelling Delorean?) still showed many inspired tidbits, many of which Daniel called out in his post, from self-tying shoes to personalized entertainment channels to even the hydratable pizzas.

All of these things might never happen, but they could, and soon. Sign me up.


Other films that sometimes (or more) fit my "Period/Place:"
V for Vendetta
A Scanner Darkly
Robocop
Freejack
Gattaca
Strange Days
I, Robot

And now, for some tagging! Like Daniel, the main ingredient for picking a taggee is choosing someone whom I think will take part. And not picking people that he already chose.

* Nick at Random Ramblings of a Demented Doorknob
* Tommy Salami at Pluck You, Too!
* Tony Dayoub at Cinema Viewfinder
* Jess at Insight Into Entertainment
* Alex from Film Forager

And then...

Knockin' out a couple memes

In case you didn't already know this, I'm terrible at memes. I'm not totally sure why, but I think I have a good idea. In the end, I think it all comes down to my own jealousy and insecurity. See, someone'll tag me for one and I'll sit there with my new found invisible crown thinking "Yay! This person likes me and/or my writing enough to want to see what I have to say about this topic!"

I'm honestly flattered, and have every intention of taking part in the meme. But then I start thinking things like "Maybe they just think I have better connections than them and can use me to further the meme for their benefit" or "I like being a leader - creating my own damn meme - if I take part in this one, I'm just a follower, and I hate being a follower."

Or maybe I'm just lazy and I lack discipline. Ain't that right, Arnold?

Anyway, I've been tagged by two memes...recently. Okay, that's not true - one was recently, and the other tagging occurred sometime in the last millennium, I believe. Oh well...better late than never, right?

First up, from Deadpan, the Top 10 Man Crushes in film meme.

The Rules:

This can be a character, actor, director, really anyone working on films. The only thing is, they must be a personality. You have to really know something about them. This rules out most producers, cinematographers, etc.

If you are a man, these man crushes, obviously must be men. If you are a woman than I say they have to be a woman. They must be the same sex as the writer making their list.

You can choose anyone living or dead. They must be chosen due to their film content. If you choose Michael J. Fox and the only thing you like about him is his role in Family Ties then he doesn't work. But if you choose Michael J. Fox because you love Marty McFly, and you want to mention that you also love Family Ties, that is acceptable.

Later, in a comment, he added this:

"It seems everyone thought by man crush I just meant favorite males in movies, but by using the term man crush rather than just saying that specifically I was trying to get across that these weren't just men I admired but men I would aspire to be like in my daily life, men who make me wish I were someone else for the duration of the time I am watching them."

Luckily for Deadpan, this is the tagging that occurred some time ago (November 19, to be exact). As that's the case, we can forgive him for even using the term Man crush in the first place - it hadn't been really, truly beaten into the ground until I Love You, Man was released.


Secondly, I was tagged by Getafilm for the 10 Favorite Characters meme. No rules necessary here, as it's super self-explanatory.

To further the ire of meme-rs (?) everywhere and to further my standing within the meme community, I'm gonna be one of those people who just ignores all of the rules and makes up their own. In this case, I'll be doing this by combining the two memes into one Super Meme, picking My 10 Favorite Characters by My 10 Man crushes. Or something like that. Alright, enough exposition...

10. Can you admit when you were wrong? Can you get out of jail and act as a savior to your flailing family? Can you do it all with a giant swastika on your chest? American History X's Derek Vineyard was a role model to so many impressionable kids when he shouldn't have been, and couldn't become a role model fast enough to his own brother when he should have been. Either way, he's Edward Norton's best role by a long shot (well, maybe not that long - Primal Fear's Aaron was pretty damn good, too).

9. I'll flip you. "Flip you fo real," says Fred Fenster, Benicio del Toro's breakout Usual Suspects role.

8. I've got a bit of a man crush on Joseph Gordon-Levitt - I find him to be the most appealing young actor working today (though at 28, it's not as though he's the kid from Third Rock from the Sun anymore). Problem is, I don't particularly like any of his characters just yet. Brick's Brendan probably comes closest, though that film didn't sit all that well with me in the end.

7. Jason Statham's Transporter role, Frank Martin. Because sometimes you just wish you could kick that much ass.

6. Impatient with sunglasses-at-night-wearing dolts, quick with a pop-culture reference (Bonnie & Clyde) while stuck in the trunk of a car, and capable of knocking off banks without even so much as a gun, Out of Sight's Jack Foley is a flawed hero we can all get behind. It also served as the key ingredient to George Clooney being taken seriously as a film actor.

5. (Speaking of bank robbers...) He understands the many philosophies of the world. He can catch a football almost as well as he catches a wave. I never wanted to take Baby out of the corner or make clay pots with Demi Moore, but I could definitely stand to be Bodhi from Point Break.

4. In most cases, I'd think it loco to have a man crush on Samuel L. Jackson. But as Jackie Brown's Ordell Robbie, the man oozed style (and a bit of sleaze). Jules Winfield got all the press, but would you really want that dripping-ass mop for a head of hair?

3. Oh, to have the quick wit and on-the-spot cunning of Irwin M. Fletcher. Gun to his face and he's still cracking jokes. In jail with a pansexual ogre and the one-liners don't stop coming. If he has fear, he doesn't show it much. It's funny that Chevy Chase might be remembered most as the buffoonish dad from the Vacation series, because as he showed in the two Fletch films and the two Caddyshack films, he's capable of being one of the smoothest operators around.

2. Is it possible to have a man crush on someone old enough to be your father? Like so many others in my demographic, the influence of Ford on our lives is large and inescapable. And while Han Solo would be a worthy pick, I can't pass up Indiana Jones from his first film, where Ford showed us that we can all be brainy, tough as nails, creative, sarcastic, spontaneous...

1. Nic Cage Just kidding.

1. Do I really aspire to be couch-dwelling, pot-smoking-from-a-honey-bear slacker? Do I really aspire to be Floyd from True Romance? No, probably not - but my man crush on Brad Pitt started with this, one of his earlier film roles, and certainly my favorite (though Tyler Durden and Snatch's Mickey come awfully close).

And then...

The Alphabet Meme

This is awfully similar to the Top 50 Films I posted recently, but this time it's much more about you. Besides, I thought this was a fun idea that could spread like wildfire. Also, I've had it in my drafts for some time now and I wanted to post it before some other wildly clever individual did it and stole all my thunder.

It's a simple concept (my favorite kind) - pick your favorite film for each letter of the alphabet. Some will be tough because there's too many choices (R, S, T, L, N, E...wait a sec - that's Wheel of Fortune) and others will be tough because there are so few choices that you have trouble finding much of anything (Q, anyone?). I'm sure I missed some great ones and I'm hoping that you find them.

The Rules

1. Pick one film to represent each letter of the alphabet.

2. The letter "A" and the word "The" do not count as the beginning of a film's title, unless the film is simply titled A or The, and I don't know of any films with those titles.

3. Return of the Jedi belongs under "R," not "S" as in Star Wars Episode IV: Return of the Jedi. This rule applies to all films in the original Star Wars trilogy; all that followed start with "S." Similarly, Raiders of the Lost Ark belongs under "R," not "I" as in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Conversely, all films in the LOTR series belong under "L" and all films in the Chronicles of Narnia series belong under "C," as that's what those filmmakers called their films from the start. In other words, movies are stuck with the titles their owners gave them at the time of their theatrical release. Use your better judgement to apply the above rule to any series/films not mentioned.

4. Films that start with a number are filed under the first letter of their number's word. 12 Monkeys would be filed under "T."

5. Link back to Blog Cabins in your post so that I can eventually type "alphabet meme" into Google and come up #1, then make a post where I declare that I am the King of Google.

6. If you're selected, you have to then select 5 more people.

Here goes:

Amelie

Big Lebowski, The

Code 46

Dazed and Confused

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Fight Club (it won in a battle royale over Fletch)

Go

Happy Gilmore

Idiocracy

Jackie Brown

Karate Kid, The

Lola Rennt (I'm cheating here, as I had this under "R" originally, but I couldn't toss Raiders)

Matrix, The

Napoleon Dynamite

Office Space

Pulp Fiction

Queen, The (I guess - I couldn't find anything I liked more, really)

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Star Wars

True Romance

Usual Suspects, The

V for Vendetta

White Men Can't Jump

X-Men

You Kill Me

Zoolander


Consider yourself tagged:

Piper at Lazy Eye Theatre
elgringo at He Shot Cyrus
Daniel at Getafilm
Nick at Random Ramblings of a Demented Doorknob
Caitlin at 1,416 and Counting
Rachel at Rachel's Reel Reviews
Jason at Invasion of the B Movies
Evan/Luke at MovieZeal
Paul at Careful With That Blog, Eugene
Becca at No Smoking in the Skullcave
Wayne at Reel Whore
Fox at Tractor Facts
Nayana at The Center Seat
Jess at Insight Into Entertainment
J.D. at Valley Dreamin'

I could easily tag 10 more people, but I've already gone overboard. If you weren't tagged but want to play, feel free - the more the merrier! Good luck. If you need some assistance finding films, I found this website (http://www.mysubtitles.com/index.php) to be useful. It's not perfect in its setup and it's ad-heavy, but at least you can scan films by their beginning letter, which you can't do at IMDb.

And then...

The 12 Movies Meme

Friggin' Piper. With his fancy blog-a-thons and memes. Now guess what he's gone and done? He tagged me with a meme. And even crazier? I've accepted the tagging - he should be honored - I've avoided memes for over 18 months (though, really, there's not much difference between a meme and a blog-a-thon, and it's not like I'm scared of those).

Anyway, this one, as you might have figured from the title, is called The 12 Movies Meme. The idea, from the clown's mouth himself, was pulled from a post he read over at Strange Culture that asks if YOU could pick 12 movies to run at the New Beverly Cinema (or really any theater), which ones would they be?

"Your 12 movies should be like a good mixed tape. Strong at first, brought down a little right after, then up again, solid in the middle with a big finish.

So here are the Meme rules:

1) Choose 12 Films to be featured. They could be random selections or part of a greater theme. Whatever you want.

2) Explain why you chose the films.

3) Link back to Lazy Eye Theatre so I can have hundreds of links and I can take those links and spread them all out on the bed and then roll around in them.

4) The people selected then have to turn around and select 5 more people."

Sounds easy enough, right? I've decided to turn mine into the "Vices Film Festival."

Night One - Smoking Sunday (starting slow)
















Night Two - Mary Jane Monday (a gateway to even better films)

















Night Three - Acid Tuesday (the long trip)

















Night Four - no films scheduled. Time to recuperate.

Night Five - Cocaine Thursday (getting psyched for the weekend)

















Night Six - Gambling Friday (Viva Las Vegas!)
















Night Seven - Sexy Sunday (the final release)
















Now, some of these (Smoke, Casino, etc) may seem like obvious choices - and they are - but the group of twelve also makes up a healthy chunk of my favorite films. It just so happens that they fit into these perfect compartments. Lucky me and my vice-loving movies. As for the selection of Go for Sexy Sunday - yes, it does have sex in it, but more importantly, it really ties the week together, featuring just about all of the vices contained on the previous days.

Time for the fun part - tagging others (note: I'm only tagging people that I think might be interested in this to begin with, and I only get five):

Nick at R2D2
Mike at Big Mike's Movie Blog
Ms. Go at DC Girl @ the Movies
Wayne at Reel Whore
Nayana at The Center Seat

And then...