I think I might use that as a title for a piece later on, but now, it only describes last night. Not being able sleep, I felt an urge to check out what lied deep in the bowels of my streaming Netflix Sci-Fi category. I was up for something a little weird, offbeat, and something otherwise not viewed by me.
My first choice was the 1984 "classic" The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai Across the 8th Dimension. When I had been a kid, my brother Dan and I saw the opening minutes, where the souped up jet-engine powered Ford pick-up blasts through a mountain into the 8th dimension. I remember thinking that that was so cool, but that we (or maybe just I) didn't finish the movie.
That was because it sucked. Or not, but last night I couldn't get through it. Sometimes I can sit through a ridiculous film for a clinical type reason, usually with either Corrie or Dan or Norm or my mom, but when I want to watch something for myself, for pleasure, I guess I get a little picky.
So, after investing forty whole minutes in the Buckaroo Banzai movie, I turned it off and went looking for something else.
Conan the Destroyer was among the choices, because, apparently, Netflix lumps science fiction with fantasy films, and I thought, if nothing else, I could compare the movie with an essay I read about Robert Howard (it's inescapable--I'm a filthy nerd).
Next to the Conan movie was Krull. Here we go, I thought, I've heard of this one. Reading about it online, I learned that the score was robust and surprisingly excellent. You can see how the movie affected me, if I was busy looking up information on it while it played.
I stopped it after only a twenty minutes or so.
Thinking the evening was a waste full of no-sleep, I came across one more film, one to hold my attention for the rest of the now late night. It was older, short, "classic", and satirical, and I hadn't seen it yet: Death Race 2000.
Fast paced, fast cars, some bare chests, and one David Carradine at the height of his popularity (1975) show off this glorious love letter to America's love of violence. It is campy and looks low budget, but it's also fun.
I always think it's funny how the the 1970s feel about the "future", the 90s and early 'aughts.
Those are all seriously bad movies... and not the type of bad movies I will sit through... you should have stayed with the classics Starship troopers, Core, either of the volcano movies, Dante's Peak, or Tommy Lee Jone's Volcano.... or the old Tom Hanks Meg Ryan Joe vs the Volcano...
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