Blocking out 24 hours of your life on a weekend this time of year for an all-you-can-be-fed film festival makes various things very difficult to catch up on, especially sleep and your day job. I've recovered enough on both fronts that I can start piecing together adequate coverage of this year's 26-hour (once all was said and done) tenth annual Butt-Numb-a-Thon. I'll be delivering full-length features on individual films and chunks of related material, topping it off with a BNAT list of some sort regarding favorites and so on. For now, I'll drill through the lineup as it happened, trailers and all, limiting myself to one line apiece. Trailers in italics, previews in bold, features in big bold. Deal with it. Part two in the morning.
Invasion USA
The Slumber Party Massacre
Pinnochio's Birthday Party
Stunt Rock
Chuck Norris fearmongering, slasher classic, terrible children's cash-in and a BNAT tradition.
Teen Wolf (with Teen Wolf live, cut short by projector malfunction)
The annual poking of fun at Harry Knowles' pal Jeff Mahler. Fake "wolf teeth" are always good for a laugh.
Viva Villa (1934)
Unintentionally homoerotic and full of man-love tension...entertaining as hell.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
I'm glad I went in without staggering expectations. One of the year's best that I've seen, but requires 2.5-hour patience, which not as many have these days.
Coraline (3D)
Freaky and full of anti-establishment sentiment. Beautiful stop-motion work. The reason 3D should exist.
Dr. Pepper Commercial
The Terrornauts
Ashley and I perked up at a commercial for our favorite soda (which we prefer the cane sugar variety of, made here in Texas) and chuckled at how badly someone can cut a trailer.
Sahara (1943)
Ashley can't roll with Bogart and feels him unappealing. I however love the guy, and he's full of salt and vinegar here.
Doc Savage
Mega Force
The Villain
Doc Savage always makes me laugh, Mega Force did not, in fact, contain the greatest stunts I'd ever seen, and I had never even heard of The Villain but now want to find it desperately.
Valkyrie (2008)
I expected to hate this movie for a laundry list of reasons that had nothing to do with giving the movie a shot. Others have said it "gets the job done and that's it," but I think that's why it's one of the most clean, efficient, no-bullshit things I've seen all year.
UP (2009)
One of my favorite things I saw. I'm in the tank for Pixar, but I didn't know what to expect. Animatics and storyboards made me well up.
Metropolis (1984 Moroder cut)
The sound was up waaayyy too high to the point Ashley and I had headaches for the next four hours or so. Hadn't seen it all the way through, and we were watching the only print known to exist.
Monsters Versus Aliens (2009)
20 minutes or so, 3 scenes
The 3D in this didn't wow me, some of the gags tried too hard, and Stephen Colbert was about the only thing that I unconditionally enjoyed. Not a fair way to judge it compared to the contiguous chunk of UP we saw.
My Bloody Valentine
The Devil Within Her
Metalstorm
I barely remember these.
My Bloody Valentine 3D (2009)
I'm not a horror fiend, gorehound, or whatever. This isn't my kind of movie, but it's much, much better than a lot of the crap being sequelized. It knows what it is and what it's doing, and I'll be damned if it doesn't use the 3D as a tool to stand out and not just blend in with the other slashers out there. A moviegoing event for the horror-hungry masses.
I Love You Man
I missed giant chunks of this due to Ashley still feeling the after-effects of Metropolis, but the consensus seemed positive among those I spoke with. Not earth-shattering, but a good pile of fun and contrast to Valentine. It was just announced as opening night film for SXSW, so I'll see it properly there.