The importance of movie days

It’s that time a year again, the weather outside is gloomy and unless you are up on the mountain twisting turns (or something else sporty), you’re probably relegated to the couch. It’s also the time of of year where I am so happy for new movie season and to have my AppleTV and its endless supply of movies. Well, endless depending on your taste. My movie collection, my favorite movies; endless.

I’m a huge advocator for the occasional movie day. They provide a chance to be inspired by stories you’ve seen before and new stories that may encourage a different perspective. They cause you to slow down. And, they clear your head of all the other things in life.  My Saturday went like this, woke up to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, then Lethal Weapon, then Avatar (at the theater), then Good Will Hunting when I got home. All very different movies. I’m going to talk about two.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a movie that came out while I was in high school and I don’t think I truly appreciated its brilliance until this last go around. In fact, I don’t think I ever made it through the full movie before. The gross irreverence for the American Dream is entertaining as hell for those of us turned off by certain aspects of American Culture. Too many good scenes in this movie to name and two of my favorite actors in Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro. I carry around Del Toro’s autograph in my wallet from a random run in at a Blazers game. He was not full of fear and loathing, he was just nice.

Avatar however, was a whole different kind of brilliance. It’s may be once in a decade that a movie comes out like this one. It’s easy to pull themes of the movie from everything else that’s been done – and James Cameron was definitely playing with fire with the themes in Avatar. Besides a few cliche moments, he did a damn fine job – it could have been a trainwreck. Visually it’s completely stunning – this is where it changes the game. I had the chance to see it in 3D and would recommend it to anyone. The line that stood out to me was, “they killed their mother.” A stinging statement, but really, compared to the Navi of Pandora, we have lost our connection with our planet. Go see it.

Movie days inspire. They cause you to slow down. They clear your head. Do not feel guilty from a movie day, embrace it. Oh, and go see Avatar in 3D, it’s amazing.

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