the fundamental interconnectedness of all things

[freckles_and_doubt]

We invented a new game on Friday night, possibly because we were delirious on Up, chenin blanc and the Jewel Tavern's crispy duck with pancakes and three-cup pork spare rib. The diversion grew out of our so far extremely successful (on one outing thus far) DVD club, with two movies chosen by theme, for a given value of "theme". Jo's point was that with only two data points, it's actually possible to find a thematic link between any two films. Any at all. Mostly because Hollywood's repertoire tends to the limited and cliché-ridden. This, of course, fired us with insane enthusiasm, resulting in a rapid-fire series of increasingly unlikely pairs, most of which we subsequently reduced to common theme with no trouble at all. ("Untouchables and Incredibles!" "Heroism. Duh." Dirty Dancing and Terminator gave us a bit of trouble, though. Still not happy with any drunkenly mangled thematics we came up with).

Stv is, of course, particularly good at this. Viz:
Jo (drunkenly): ..."OK, Ghost and... Star Wars!"
Stv (immediately): "If you kill me, I shall become stronger than you can possibly imagine!"
Table: *collapses*

I recommend this innocent pastime to you film buffs out there. It's extremely entertaining, even without the alcohol.

In other news, I am very full of food, and have been since Friday night. The week only gets worse. I have taken to adopting Jo's mad regimen of hot water, although my impulse is to put lemon in it. I suspect it's the bit where I don't allow any actual food to pass my lips until the next dinner party that will actually make a difference. Since I'm committed for Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday I doubt I'll starve. However, I have also been unable to continue with the Middlemania on the grounds of my pressing social obligations. Pshaw.

Comments

[grumpyolddog.livejournal.com]

Remains of the Day and Transformers

Good luck.

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

Tricky, since I don't think I've seen Remains of the Day. I'd take a stab at "emotionally wooden responses while dominated by epic, uncaring powers."

[khoi-boi.livejournal.com]

Dirty Dancing and Terminatator? "Women need ... a mullet to save them from the men(-like robots) that threaten them"

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

Hee! Mullets!

[grumpyolddog.livejournal.com]

Nobody puts Sarah Connor in the corner.

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

That's actually the sort of line along which I was thinking - "being protected by Bad Men who are actually Good".

[wolverine-nun.livejournal.com]

Yes, I was lying awake thinking about this at 3 this morning, after K bumped her head, forcing her to yell for us loudly enough to wake her sister who then cried for 15 minutes.

Boy is potentially Very Bad for Girl, but turns out to be Very Good. But then, doesn't this describe 80% of films?

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

Well, apart from all the ones where Boy is clearly Very Bad for girl and gets righteously dumped in favour of the hero...

Seems unfair to be lying awake at 3am because of howling kiddies, at least the universe could allow you to blame it on late-night partying or too much booze.

[wolverine-nun.livejournal.com]

Yeah. We've had a bunch of disturbed nights because A has been having unexplained fevers and wakes up crying. However the fevers appear to have gone, only to be replaced by annoying sisters with bumped heads. You can't win. Oh, and then K came through twice to our room to demand something to drink. I'd have thrown her in the drink had any been handy.

[strawberryfrog.livejournal.com]

Jo's point was that with only two data points, it's actually possible to find a thematic link between any two films.

Yes, this. Your theme of "RDJ" is just not trying hard enough. How about "Iron Man" and "Tropic Thunder" as "Films in which RDJ has an alternate identity".

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

My theme of "RDJ" is not trying at all, I thought we'd established that!

[(Anonymous)]

Soapdish and Wonder Boys as RDJ + gender bending? (Or Soapdish + Kiss Kiss Bang Bang as RDJ + metamoviemaking...)

There is certainly a way to get your rdj fix with a legitimate theme.

scroob

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

Alas, I feel absolutely no need whatsoever to attempt to legitimate my RDJ craving with an actual, coherent, meaningful theme. This is the fundamental divide between me and the rest of my DVD club. I'm OK with that ;>.

[mwotn.livejournal.com]

Suddenly, I feel like I know nothing about films.... clearly a youth misspent, and all that jazz.

Here's a poser for you: Animal House and Hellboy 2 (actually very very easy, assuming you have seen both). Prize if you can guess why i suggested these.

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

damn you, sir, you made me research Animal House. Bleah! I am going to go with the theme of "really messy frat boy rooms", more or less randomly. If you're going to admit that you saw them both recently, I will have to be shocked. Animal House? Pshaw.

[mwotn.livejournal.com]

Remember, I'm just starting university, while you have the joy (possibly?) of teaching at one. So our attitudes may be slightly different.... well, there's probably more factors than that, but hey.
That probably works as a theme. "Completely unkultured films" probs works just as well, but hey.