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| Name: Ryan Roe Email: prawnrr-rmv@this.com-yahoo.com Position: Movie / Television / Comic Book / Trivia Geek View Ryan's Personal Profile |
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| This summer, I've been watching movies outside. Throughout New York City, a number of parks hold free screenings during the hottest months, and the experience is hard to beat. Sitting in the grass in the summer air, surrounded by tall buildings and New Yorkers eager to be entertained... It's really a great way to see a motion picture. Because I'm a nerd, I started thinking about what kind of movies I would schedule, were I in charge of one of these things. I've come up with a list of eight -- that's two months of free movies -- which I'm calling the Outdoor Free Film Festival, or OFFF for short. I think it's a good selection of films that would be fun to watch with a crowd of movie-lovers eager to be entertained. Week 1: The Great Muppet Caper We'll kick things off with my favorite Muppet film, a grand homage to classic musicals that's fun for the whole family. Folks can cheer for Miss Piggy's daring motorcycle stunts, boo for villain Charles Grodin, and turn to each other to ask "How did they DO that?" during the every-Muppet-riding-a-bike sequence. Week 2: Strangers on a Train This is a good, solid Hitchcock movie, and a less obvious choice than Psycho or North by Northwest. Besides, everyone already knows the "twist" in Psycho anyway. Strangers, a tale of murder, guilt, and tennis, is suspenseful enough that audience members will be gripping their blankets, barely able to stand the tension. Week 3: A Fish Called Wanda What's better than a hilarious farce? Watching a hilarious farce with a park full of people laughing their heads off. By the end of the film, I would except people to applaud every time Kevin Kline appears on screen. Week 4: The Conversation Having gone from thriller to comedy, we next bring in some more thrills. This intense 1970s classic starring Gene Hackman as a surveillance expert who overhears the wrong exchange at the wrong time is actually more accessible than The French Connection, which is the Hackman movie people talk about more often. Plus it'll be fun when folks recognize a pre-Laverne & Shirley Cindy Williams. Week 5: Safety Last! Most people in the audience will have never seen a silent film, and this funny, exciting Harold Lloyd picture (the one where he hangs off the big clock hands) would be a perfect introduction to the era. It's not very long, so perhaps it could be paired with a short starring Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton. A live pianist or organist providing musical accompaniment would enhance the evening even further. Week 6: Who Framed Roger Rabbit? This genre-defying crowd-pleaser is just an excellent movie. Week 7: The Music Man This musical is highly entertaining, and nearly every song is instantly memorable... but we'd have to start it pretty early in the evening because it's really long, and folks have to get home by bedtime. I would encourage people to sing along, but only if they really know the words. Week 8: either The Rocketeer or Dick Tracy I can't decide. Both are underrated early 90s comics-inspired adventures with brave heroes and scary villains. I think the gathered throng would dig either one. What do you think of my choices? What would YOUR free outdoor movie festival look like? Please let me know in the comments down below. (Also, just for the record, if I could do nine weeks of movies, my choice for the extra week would be A Hard Day's Night, one of the funnest movies ever made.) Comments on this post are closed. |
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| I already clap every time Kevin Kline appears onscreen. It won't surprise you to learn that I've only seen #1, 6, and 7 (and #9 if you include it), but they're all dandy choices. Nor will it surprise you to know that I'd have to include "Clue" in my own list. |
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| I already clap every time Kevin Kline appears onscreen. It won't surprise you to learn that I've only seen #1, 6, and 7 (and #9 if you include it), but they're all dandy choices. Nor will it surprise you to know that I'd have to include "Clue" in my own list. |
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| D'oh! I clicked "Refresh" to see if anyone else had responded, and it posted my comment a second time. Muujware, why must you mock me? |
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| I like #9 also, but the other choices are good too. I think I've actually seen all of them, but they are all worth seeing again. Especially outside on a beautiful summer night. |
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| Michal, I would have eventually got around to deleting your duplicate comment (eventually), but now that you've referenced it in a third comment, I cannot. :-) Actually, there's something wrong with the RSS feeds, causing them to not update, so I've been missing a lot of posts and comments lately. |
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| (Ha! I fixed the feeds. I had fixed an earlier problem with the website by copying the database to another folder. However, the RSS feeds were reading the data out of the old folder.) |
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| Michal: You're cute when you're baffled by technology. And Clue is an excellent choice... if I were to make another list like this, it would definitely be present. Tricia: A Hard Day's Night really is a good one to watch with lots of people on the big screen. I saw it when it was re-released theatrically and it was lots of fun. |
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| I watched Clue the other night when I was feeling sick and could do nothing much else but lie in bed. I had bought the DVD a while back, but I had never actually watched it. I like how the DVD lets you play it with a random ending. That way, even if you've seen it before, you only have a 1:3 chance of guessing the correct ending. |
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| "Communism was a red herring!" Let me guess: You got the DVD for $5.50 at Wal-Mart? |
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| That's highly probable, Ryan. However, it's almost equally probable that I bought it from Amazon.com on impulse when buying something else on impulse because the price was low and shipping was free. Who knows? |
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| "Silence of the Lambs," except for full dramatic effect, have several guys wearing one of those masks jump out from behind bushes and cars and yell "gotcha!" when the crowds are walking out of the park. What about "The Out of Towners?" Or, maybe Laurel and Hardy's 30 minute film, "The Music Box," followed by a Marx Brothers movie. |
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| Cool site Thanks. |
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| You're welcome! Boy, if there's one thing I love, it's editing comment spam to remove the spam parts. |
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| Hi all! Nice site! G'night |
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