| I once spent New Year’s Day watching the entire cycle of Planet of the Apes films back-to-back. It was great.
January 1 is traditionally earmarked as a day of recovery, on which we sleep off all the carousing we did the night before. Nobody is expected to accomplish anything all day. I had just received a year’s worth of cable TV as a Christmas present from my Dad, and when one of my new channels announced it would be kicking off the new year with an Apes marathon, I knew I had to give it a go.
Naturally, I fully enjoyed my day of Ape-filled laziness. By the time Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973) rolled around, my enthusiasm began to flag, but by then the end was in sight and I knew that my day of inertia would soon be capped by a paradoxical sense of achievement. I was surprised to find out later that many of my friends had spent January 1 the exact same way and spoke of the movie marathon with the same sense of excited fondness that I felt. Clearly, New Year’s Day is ideally suited for marathon viewings of overlong sci-fi movie series.
If you’re planning on vegging out this January 1 (and I sincerely recommend it), plan ahead. Have your stack of movies ready, along with whatever pile of junk food you have left over from the holiday season. Get under a big quilt, unplug the phone and nestle in for the most enjoyably unproductive day of the year. As for the movies, the choice is up to you – although the Apes marathon taught us that thematically related sci-fi seems to work best. Try some of these series:
· Planet of the Apes: Planet of the Apes (1968), Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970), Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971), Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972), and Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973). Well duh. Rent the whole shebang and marvel at how the budgets and quality drop with each instalment. The first flick is great though and will give you a positive attitude for the journey ahead.
· The Lord of the Rings trilogy: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002) and The Return of the King (2003). Chances are, this will be THE movie marathon for film nerds this January 1. The DVD of the third film has been released, many Tolkien fans received it as a Christmas gift and that shelf-load of LOTR discs is just sitting there, begging to be viewed in a daylong orgy of complete inactivity. Seldom has a film trilogy been so universally beloved. In fact, I’ve managed to alienate most of my friends by calling these movies "pretty good."
· The Star Wars trilogy: Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983). Come on, you know you wanna. This series has been available on VHS forever and fan enthusiasm is at an all-time low thanks to the disappointing prequels, but I’m guessing that the long-awaited DVD box set will be cracked open and enjoyed in more than a few basement apartments come Saturday. Most fans have done this marathon before, but what the hey – who can get tired of the Millenium Falcon? You can even throw in Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999) and Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002) if you really want to. And The Ewok Adventure. And the Star Wars Holday Special. Umm…why are we doing this, again?
· Frank Herbert marathon: Dune (1984), Dune (miniseries)(2000), and Children of Dune (2003). A few months ago, the Space network aired both miniseries back-to-back, along with David Lynch’s original stab at adapting the novel. In my opinion, that’s just way too much Dune for one day. If you disagree, this should kill a day nicely.
·Battlestar Galactica (1978/2003): Ahh, here we go – nostalgic ’70s clag. The whole of the original TV series is now available in an attractive DVD box set, shaped like a Cylon’s head. It’s great, laughable fun for those who remember actually being impressed by the original broadcast. "Intruder alert! Intruder alert!" "I’ll be there in five sentons." "By your command, Baltar." C’mon, you know the words – sing along! For a universe-conquering race, the Cylons turned out to be quite crap, never once hitting what they were shooting at. I guess that’s probably because that single red eye couldn’t keep still and because it took three of them to pilot a spaceship.
The new 2003 miniseries came out on cable TV and is surprisingly terrific. The tone is much more realistic and downbeat, and there are female characters that aren’t useless this time. The Starbuck and Boomer characters are now female, the President of what remains of humanity is a woman dying of cancer and the main cylon is a sexy blonde that may or may not be a figment of Baltar’s imagination. People die left and right and we really get the feeling that the 50,000 surviving humans are being hunted by a merciless, unstoppable alien force. It’s not much like the original series, but it’s great! A new TV series follows, although it is currently only being broadcast in Europe. I’ve seen some episodes and the quality remains consistent with the outstanding miniseries. It might be a while before we get to see all this in Canada, but be patient.
· The Godzilla movies (1954-2004): C’mon, it’s the big guy’s 50th birthday, and he’s retiring this year! (Godzilla: Final Wars is playing in Japanese theatres right now and is intended to be the Big G’s swan song.)
Science fiction not really your thing? How about movie marathons based on superheroes (Superman, Batman), or a shitload of Elvis Presley movies? Maybe you’ll opt for a comedy series such as Carry On or The Pink Panther. Whatever, just get on that couch and stay there. Happy New Year! |
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