Movie Night!

While hanging out with my friends Jared and Beth several weeks ago we hit on the great idea of having themed movie nights where we can force people to watch painful (and not so painful) movies from our past. Okay, the goal wasn't really to force people to watch bad movies but to see what movies people would bring when given a theme. The first theme we discussed was Natural Disasters. Beth piped up with Twister, and I put in with Dante's Peak. Then it became a game to see what bad natural disaster movies we could think of (I won't regale you with the list). Other themes discussed were Guilty Childhood Pleasures, Animal Movies, Space. The list went on; I can't remember them all.

I have a tendency to think big ideas, but to never let them come to fruition. For example, my sidewalk board game day. That one hasn't happened yet. However, I was motivated on this one and on the 16th of August Beth, Jared, Trian and I decided that movie night should move forward. Our first challenge was selecting a theme. We let fate play her hand. After creating a long list of themes we rolled a 10-sided dice (d10) and fate revealed our theme.
Theme: Actor/Actress

Bugger it all. That was less than helpful. Which actor/actress? Back to the drawing board. Selecting an actor wasn't difficult, but it did include some challenges. First, you need an actor who has been prolific. This allows for a large selection of films. Second, the actor needs to have done a variety of films. Some people might debate this criteria, but I think it adds to the excitement of the night if you don't know whether you're going to get a drama, an action, a comedy, or something else entirely. Third, we had to be able to agree that we could work with that actor as a theme. Who would you name?

Our list included Meryl Streep, Johnny Depp, Christopher Walken, and a short list of others. I don't remember all of them. I've lost the list. Another roll of the dice and the theme was...

CHRISTOPHER WALKEN!

Take a moment and think about what you would bring to a Christopher Walken movie fest.

Done? Good.

As part of our movie night we also attempted to guess what the other members of the party would bring. Here's my list:

Trina: "Stepford Wives" or "Wayne's World 2"
Jared: "Wedding Crashers" or "Balls of Fury"
Beth: "Kangaroo Jack" or "Catch Me if You Can"

Here's how it actually broke down:

Me: "Batman Returns." I also brought "A View to a Kill" as a backup.
Trina: "Wayne's World 2"
Jared: "Balls of Fury"
Beth: "Seven Psychopaths"

We only allowed ourselves time for two movies. Both couples have children who get grumpier the later they stay up. And I get grumpier the later I stay up. So, instead of voting on the movie to watch we returned to the power of fate. Fate this time equaled small children. We put the movies in a bag and let the kids draw them out. The first movie was "Wayne's World 2" (I had been about to abbreviate it as WW2, but that doesn't work out well). The second was Batman Returns.

Attention and interest declined during the second movie, but there was a lot more interaction and commentary. It caused a lot of reflection about younger years, differences in the Batman depictions. For example, who was the best Batman. And separately, who was the best Bruce Wayne? Honestly, Christian Bale did a good Batman, but I don't think he did a great Bruce Wayne.

We also discovered via this conversation that Adam West was not the first screen Batman. That honor goes to Lewis Wilson (1943) and then Robert Lowery (1949) before we get to Adam West in 1966.

One of the best parts of the evenings, besides the conversation, was the food. I like to cook when I have friends over. I made pretzels and mustard, my wife made chocolate ice cream; we hauled out our collection of homemade crackers. Jared and Beth brought a bag of butter flavored packing peanuts. (No joke, worst part of the evening right there. Gross).

Anyway, I could go on and on about this, but I won't. It was a delightful evening and something I look forward to doing again in the future. If you have a great idea for a movie night theme, please comment!