Since I have Monday off and I have a cold, I figured I would spend my 3 day weekend on my couch watching movies. I love movies. I love going to the movies, watching movies at home, talking about movies, quoting movies, reading movie gossip. Occasionally I think that I should have gone into the movie business but then I realize that this is a crazy, crazy idea. I would hate movies if I worked in the movies.
One of my favorite things to do is create my own movie marathons. I could spend the time watching made for TV movies or reruns of America's Next Top Model but that seems like a waste of valuable viewing time. Making up my own movie marathons is a great way to combine my love of movies, themes, and my love of lists. So let's talk about some ways to make your own movie marathon:
- Focus on an actor, actress, writer, or director. This makes it easier to pick movies AND you can play one of my favorite games "Spot the Stock Actors." This is really easy to do with John Hughes's and Savage Steve Holland's movies. The brother-in-law in Sixteen Candles is the janitor in The Breakfast Club. (I got a million of these.)
- Focus on a genre. Say you like zombie movies (which I do), you can create a balanced marathon of classics, modern interpretations, and unexpected gems. This works with most genres and sub-genres.
- Pick a theme - road trip movies, camp movies, movies where everyone dies, movies made before the star was famous (this is a super fun theme), movies featuring 80s teen idols that probably shouldn't have been made. The list goes on.
- Don't select a theme or genre if you don't like that particular type of movie. If you don't like horror movies, don't plan a marathon of horror movies. You will spend the day hiding behind a pillow being scared. Marathons are not the time to experiment with movies you don't normally watch.
- Once you've picked your theme, you should also pick themed snacks and drinks. If you're going to watch James Bond movies the clear option is martinis (shaken, not stirred) and fancy h'orderves. Camp movies? S'mores, hotdogs, and Dr. Pepper.
- If you're having people over for this marathon, you can also extend your theme to dress/costumes. I really want to throw the John Hughes marathon listed below as a costume party - dress as your favorite John Hughes character. I call Allison from The Breakfast Club.
- Create a drinking game around your movie marathon. This is more fun if you're having friends over to watch with you but I won't judge if you want to do this and you're watching movies by yourself. If I wasn't on cold medicine already I'd probably center my drinking game on how many times Molly Ringwald says something isn't fair or rolls her eyes. If we were playing a Rhinestone drinking game, we'd have to take a shot every time Dolly Parton said something sassy (which is always).
Here are some of my favorite marathons:
John Hughes Taught Me Everything I Needed to Know About High School (and Possibly Love)
- Sixteen Candles
- Weird Science
- Pretty in Pink
- The Breakfast Club
- Some Kind of Wonderful
- Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Girls Who Rock
- Satisfaction
- Mystic Pizza
- Desperately Seeking Susan
- Girls Just Want to Have Fun
- Heathers
- Modern Girls
- Night of the Comet
- Just One of the Guys
Feeling Presidential? (Get in the mood for the election without having to watch the news)
- Frost/Nixon
- Dave
- Primary Colors
- The American President
- Dick
- All The President's Men
- JFK
- Game Change (If you don't have HBO, find a friend who does. This was a really good movie and Julianne Moore was amazing as Sarah Palin.)
Random Things That Make No Sense When You Think About Them but Perfect Sense After Viewing
- Rhinestone (Fun fact: The DVD of this movie costs $98 on Amazon. I want a copy badly but not $98 badly.)
- Xanadu
- UHF
- The Neverending Story
- Cat People
- Red Dawn
- Howard the Duck
- Killer Klowns from Outer Space
- Labyrinth
- Breakin' and Breakin' 2 Electric Boogaloo
This is just a starting point. I haven't even started on 80s horror movies (the Sleepaway Camp series, Prom Night-amazing), John Candy movies, musicals, movies featuring the Coreys, zombie movies, action movies for people who don't like action movies, and movies that I probably never should have watched as a child.
Now if you don't own all or any of the movies on your list remember that you can usually find a handful of them on VH1, Oxygen, Comedy Central, and ABC Family on the weekends. Check on the free movies on demand through your cable provider (if only Comcast would have Rhinestone, Night of the Comet, and the Breakin' movies available this weekend). I'm fairly certain you can watch most of them online too or through Netflix. Basically there's no excuse not to watch movies and spend an entire weekend sitting on your couch.
I haven't decided on my weekend movie marathon yet. Any suggestions?
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