Moviegasm

As you may have noticed before, I rather enjoy movies. It’s been something I’ve always indulged in probably as a result of the fact that both parents often took me to the movies, sometimes resulting in me seeing the same film twice which was actually less awesome than it sounds. Especially when that film was the Super Mario Bros movie.

To this day I am still trying to scrub my brain of the memory.

It is also a passion that Dan follows as well, perhaps with somewhat more zest than myself. Whilst I do enjoy a wide breadth of cinematic loveliness, I admit that my favorite end of the spectrum is somewhat in the…flashy region. Where I might, say, get Dan to watch The Expendables, he will get me to watch Citizen Kane. I’ll grab The Thing, and he’ll come back with a Streetcar Named Desire. A case in point, we both went to see the Avengers when it came out in Canada the other week. I thought it was fantastically enjoyable, cheesy superhero nonsense with some great fizz and spectacle, he thought it was vapid tripe with transparent characters and a large turd where the plot should have been.

He’s probably right too.

But that’s not the point because

LOOK AT THE SIZE OF MY FUCKING HAMMER RAAAARRRRRRR!!!

But of course it’s not all like that. I actually enjoyed Citizen Kane and Streetcar, much to my surprise, and he’s enjoyed…uh…well, probably nothing I’ve got him to watch. But I’m sure I enjoyed trying to make him enjoy it. Hum.

It was with childlike glee we trotted about Toronto during our first couple of weeks here. We discovered the Revue Cinema, a not-for-profit screen which we conveniently then wound up living just around the corner from, and saw Jurassic Park. Then we found the Underground Cinema in Downtown and saw Aliens and Clockwork Orange. Now, Jurassic Park we both did see (whilst being very young mind) when it came out. But Clockwork Orange predates our very existance by a number of years, and we were both the massive age of One when Aliens came out which may have been a touch young for at least every scene in the film. Though it would be interesting to study the effects on a child who see’s such a film at such a young age…

Anyway, I digress. It is with great joy that I discovered a film festival of sorts taking place both at our local Revue Cinema and another on the other side of town, Fox Theater, that will involve the showing of some of the biggest cinematic classics ever. I take particular joy in this because I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like this happen back in the UK, and it just serves to be another reminder of how fantastic a place Toronto can be. I mean, I guess there are probably cinemas in London that do this sort of thing. But in the places I’ve lived and visited that had cinemas in close proximity (Dartford, Maidstone, Lancaster, Ilfracombe to name but a few) I’ve never known them to ever show anything other than the big releases of RIGHT NOW and nothing else. Hell even then it wasn’t always guaranteed. I had it in my mind to go see Hot Tub Time Machine when that came out, and Four Lions, and neither of those were even shown at my local ENORMOUS Odeon cinema.

I can’t link this picture for some reason, so just check out this link for a second. I literally don’t know where to stop with what films I want to see on that list. Frankly, if you can’t find at least four films there that you wouldn’t want to see given the opportunity then I’m afraid you just don’t belong as a member of the Human Race anymore.

LEAVE, NOW, AND NEVER COME BACK!

So at least I know what I’ll be doing at the back end of June. I can’t say as I imagined “seeing a lot of old movies” would be one of the highlights of my trip to Canada, but hey, I’ll take what I can get!

Oh, also, I’m going to be setting up a new blog when this Canadian leg is over. Partly because having a Travel Blog called ‘Raiding Canada’ when I’m no longer in Canada would be a bit weird, but also because I’m looking to setup something a bit more…professional. Plans are afoot. Anyway I’m taking suggestions on a name right now so if you have an idea drop it in the comments box!