This is the Weekend in Home Viewing

This is the Weekend in Home Viewing for the 3-day weekend starting on Thursday July 2 and ending on July 5^th. 

 

July 4^th holiday is always a special time when it comes to viewing movies for me.  For as far back as I can remember my 4^th of July’s have been spent catching up on old movies, or just watching some of the classics ones I love.  It was on July 4^th that I first watched Almost Famous.  Another 4^th of July I watched Red Cliff.  I think of July 4^th and New Year’s Eve as big drinking Holiday where there are a lot of people out on the roads that should not be, so I am perfectly fine staying home with some good movies.  Over the last four or five years I had gotten into the habit of spending the Holiday watching the original three American Pie movies.  We can debate on if these should be classified as good movies or not.  However, I find them hilarious and they remind me of simpler times.  The old jokes still get laughs out of me on each annual viewing, however, the laughs have come less and less often.  So, this year I decided to come up with a different formula. 

 

It is well document here that I am on a Sci-fi bender to likes of which most people can’t even begin to comprehend.  Since March we are approaching nearly 70 or 80 Sci-fi movies.  I felt that the birth of my nation deserved a little bit more than just Sci-fi and forcing my way through the Sci-fi list.  For example, the list would have had me watching Alphaville on the 4^th of July and to me that just felt wrong, to watch a French Movie on the 4^th of July.  Now, astute reader, I know what you are thinking, you watched a Chinese one once on the 4^th.  Ok, so maybe it was more, I didn’t want to watch Alphaville this weekend.  I wasn’t in the mood for black and white and subtitles.  There are you happy.  So, I decided to split the weekend up.  With some all-American movies and some Sci-fi.   I spent some time, not a lot, into looking at movies that defined America and the American dream. 

 

Interesting what you find when you look up movies about the American Dream and about movies that define America.  There were certain movies that kept popping up on my research.  Saving Private Ryan, American Tail, Glory, and American Graffiti show up on almost all the lists.  Hidden Figures, Zero Dark Thirty, Vice, and Hamilton show up on frequently as well.  One movie that I was surprised that kept showing up with National Treasure with Nicholas Cage.  Now don’t get me wrong, I liked National Treasure, and at one point could stand watching Cage, but is this really a movie that defines America, I wonder.  So, in no particular order my roster of movies became Private Ryan, American Tail, Glory, Hidden Figures, American Graffiti, National Treasure 1 & 2, Zero Dark Thirty, Vice, and Hamilton.  I should note that Saving Private Ryan is the only movie that I have watched since the pandemic started that I had already seen.  I think I really wanted to watch it again.

 

My roster quickly blended into an outline of movies I wanted to watch and as I said then I mixed in some Sci-fi classics as well as some other Sci-fi and movies I just wanted to watch.  In my mind summertime, the 4^th of July and America are synonymous with baseball.  Therefore, as I was going through the list of movies to watch over the 4th of July the movie “42” quickly found its way into my roster.  Another movie that kept coming up on the American Dream movie lists was Rocky.  Creed II has been sitting on my watch list for a very long time, so I recruited Creed II to my roster as well.  Other movies that made my roster from the Sci-fi movies I had wanted to see were Barbarella, Titan AE, and the Book of Eli. 

 

My definitive viewing list for the long weekend in viewing order went like this:

 

•          Saving Private Ryan   – Top American Spirit/Dream Movies
•           Zero Dark Thirty – Top American Spirit/Dream Movies
•           Hidden Figures – Top American Spirit/Dream Movies
•           Invasion of the Body Snatchers (78) – Top 100 Sci-fi movies
•           Barbarella – Dealer’s Choice
•           42 – Dealer’s Choice
•           Hamilton – Top American Spirit/Dream Movies
•           Edge of Tomorrow – Top 100 Sci-fi movies
•           Titan AE – Dealer’s Choice
•           Glory – Top American Spirit/Dream Movies
•           Creed II – Dealer’s Choice
•           The Last Starfighter – Top 100 Sci-fi movies
•           The Book of Eli – Dealer’s Choice

Some of these movies we will go into in more detail. I am planning on Entries on Hidden Figures and 42 for sure.  I am not sure I have the words to describe Glory, but I will try.  I might spend some time on Barbarella only to mock it, probably same with the Body Snatchers.  If I have time, I will spend time writing on Edge of Tomorrow and The Book of Eli.  The first three movies I mentioned are special.  They are very special to me.   I had assumed I would want to revisit Private Ryan but I won’t.  The movie is amazing and brilliant but not something I want to rehash or watch again.  Movies I would recommend form this list not mentioned above would be Hamilton, Titan AE, Zero Dark Thirty, and Creed II.  The Last Starfighter should go back to 1984 and stay there.  Well I would recommend all them except Barbarella (Unless you want to see Jane Fonda’s boobs b/c she was a babe and she does do some topless work), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Never trust a movie with that Kiefer spawning bastard Donald Sutherland, actually nothing against him, I just liked the line from American Dad), and The Last Starfighter.  The others all have their own merits and I will try to dig into those this week.