So, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, there’s another site (mostly a political one) that does a Movie Night every Saturday. No, we all don’t go to see Rocky Horror together, although it did play at the Grandview
in Saint Paul last night; I didn’t go, because I wasn’t sure if there would be anybody squirting water during the rainstorm scene, as is good and proper. There WAS a live version some years ago where audiences were encouraged to participate in the customary rituals, and it had retired news anchor Don Shelby in it:
Here’s the way this works. You play the movie on yer TV. (If you have a smart TV, this should be pretty easy; if you don’t, but you have a PlayStation or XBox, that works as a smart TV by itself. I’ve got a dumb TV hooked up to a PlayStation and Blu-Ray player.)
We all start the movie at 7 PM (just like a baseball game!) and make comments during the movie. Comments like “this part is cool” or “this person is kinda weird-looking” or “um, there’s a boom mike in the shot,” anything goes, so long as you’re basically cool to others.
I’ve been participating in this on the other website for a little over a year, and it’s generally really fun, unless the movie either A) is really dull or B) is a depressing bummer.
It’s no fun if nobody participates, though — just like GameThreads are no fun when the Twins stink and I’m the only one making comments.
So we’ll be trying this for a few weeks, and see if it works out, or if anybody wants to suggest a few changes.
Here’s the schedule:
November 7: The Jackie Robinson Story (1950)
The version 42 with Chadwick Boseman and Harrison Ford is pretty good; so’s the original, with Robinson as himself. Free on YouTube and Internet Archive.
November 14: Long Gone (1987)
TV movie about a fictional last-place minor-league team. I’ve never seen this, but it’s also free on YouTube. The Wiki page says “it’s the best baseball movie most of you never saw.”
November 21: Angels in the Outfield (1951)
A mean, cussy manager learns to be nicer, with the help of some divine intervention and a very-lovely Janet Leigh. This is free on Internet Archive. Spanish subtitles you can’t turn off, but they won’t hurt you.
November 28: Bull Durham (1987)
About a experienced catcher and experienced groupie who teach a young pitcher a thing or two. Written/directed by Ron Shelton, no relation to Twins manager Derek Shelton… but Ron DID play on a team with Derek’s dad. It’s available on Bezos Prime, but also on free streamers Plex, Pluto, Roku, and Tubi (with commercials, I’d imagine). It’s on the free library streamer Kanopy, and on library DVD.
So, that’s the lineup, for now. Two YouTubers, one Internet Archive, one that’s available on multiple platforms.
I’m open to suggestions like changing the regular day/time, and of course any movie suggestions. Free ones are best, but I’m not opposed to ones we’d all have to go get the library DVDs for. Any baseball movie counts; I’d say we can also do movies about other sports, too. I haven’t seen Hoosiers in a zillion years.
I’ll put the posts up at 6 PM, with appropriate links where there’s a YouTube or Internet Archive version available. And I’ll try to have a few facts about the making of the movie for you. Showtime, again, starts at 7 PM.
If people like it, I’ll extend the schedule out further. If not, well, these are all movies I don’t mind watching again. Except if Long Gone really stinks, then I’m coming for the bum who suggested it! (I’m sure it’ll be better than some of the Saturday movies we watched at the other site. Creature From the Black Lagoon was… really, pretty bad. Neat monster suit design by Millicent Patrick; Ricou Browning wore the suit underwater, sometimes holding his breath while swimming for up to four minutes at a time while wearing a big rubber monster suit! But the movie was… booooring.)
So, join us next Friday, if you like! Make some popcorn! Or drink beer! Or both, or neither! It’s up to you!
I’d like to leave you with a movie to watch, but it’s Halloween, and there aren’t any baseball horror movies. Not any good ones, anyways — there’s been some cheapo slasher films. So instead, I’ll give you the silliest horror-rock song I’ve ever heard, “D.O.A.,” by Fort Worth metal band Bloodrock:
Yes, it is eight minutes long. It is told in the first person, by a guy who’s just experienced a mid-air plane collision. He’s describing falling to the ground, his body parts missing, corpses all around him, etc. It was actually a mild hit, reaching #36 in the charts. 1971 was a weird year.
I heard this two years ago, driving to rehab therapy a few weeks after breaking the s**t out of my arm. At like, 6:30 in the morning, and it was dark & snowing outside, and since it was the first snow dusting of the season, cars were crashing, you could hear ambulances in the distance.
It was perfect.
See you next week for the Jackie Robinson movie!
