Movie Podcast: 101 Films You Should Have Seen

101 films you should have seen podcast logoWith two kids, a job, a house, and other boring adult responsibilities, I don’t have much time to read these days. Instead, I usually occupy my time doing chores with podcasts. I’m always looking for good movie ideas for my next marathon, so I thought I’d survey iTunes for some good movie podcasts.

I’m a bit picky with my podcasts. I start to get testy if they go long, especially if the hosts start rambling and go off topic. I’m also looking for a good blend of information and entertainment – so the hosts have to give me some facts, but they also have to have a bit of charisma and chemistry together.

Given my personal criteria, my favorite podcast so far is 101 Films You Should Have Seen. Ian and Lewis are two guys from the UK that don’t take themselves too seriously, but are on a similar mission as me to see great movies they otherwise wouldn’t have seen. Their About Page says as much:

In a nutshell, ’101 Films…’ is a podcast dedicated to the films you probably should have seen, but for some reason never quite got round to watching… plus a few obscure ones that you’ve probably never heard of but should watch anyway.

They have a good list of movies – some I’ve seen and some I’ve not – so I’m looking forward to listening to their older episodes. Bonus: their episodes typically run a half hour each, which is right at my sweet spot.

I listened to some other podcasts as well, but none of them really clicked for me. For completeness sake, here’s what I found:

  • Best Movies by Farr – 2 minute long episodes that go over one specific movie. Great idea, but publishing seems to have stopped in 2012.
  • Doug Loves Movies – A hour traveling comedy routine. Its a long podcast and I didn’t get it.
  • Movies You Should See – A diverse group of people talking about movie topics. This sounds like it should be right up my alley. However, I just couldn’t get into an entire hour of witty banter about A Christmas Story. This is probably because there isn’t that much more to say about “A Christmas Story” that hasn’t been said. A lot of this episode sounded like filler.
  • The Film Vault – A couple of guys talking about movies – typically about lists of interesting things from movies (e.g. “top 5 taglines”). This podcast was ok, but was long (an hour and a half) and this episode and many episodes were about film buff sort of stuff (e.g. actor debuts) instead of discussions of specific movies.

To be fair to the also-rans, they are very popular and well-reviewed on iTunes, so perhaps I just caught them at the wrong episode for me.

A Kid-Friendly Horror Movie Marathon?

Something Wicked This Way Comes DVD A 10-movie, kid-friendly, horror movie marathon. Oh Internet, only you could create such a crazy, useless, yet intriguing list.

This list features almost everything you might need for your 24-hour kid-friendly, horror movie marathon, including:

 

That’s almost everything you need. If the author Jacob Hall truly aspired to movie marathon greatness, he’d provide runtimes and a suggested schedule. I would provide those myself, but I think I’ll save the effort until the day I plan on running this marathon (i.e. never).

But I kid Jacob and his list. If I were in the business of judging useless lists on the internet, I wouldn’t be in the business of writing this weblog!

Nightmare on Elm Street Movie Marathon

Clocking in at nine movies, the Nightmare on Elm Street movie franchise is one of the longer-running movie franchises. Conveniently, you can purchase a box set and two extras (Freddy vs. Jason and the Nightmare On Elm Street reboot) to get the full collection.

The entire Nightmare on Elm Street franchise is 849 minutes long. This is a little more than 14 hours of watching Freddy Krueger crack jokes before murdering teenagers in creative ways. This isn’t really enough for a 24-hour movie marathon, but perhaps it is a good way to waste a day in a way you probably shouldn’t tell your friends about.

Despite Freddy’s wit and charm, the mute, dead, dumb-as-a-brick, and probably stinky serial killer Jason Voorhees still has bragging rights, with a total of 12 movies under his machete-holding belt.

But then, Jason wouldn’t brag. He’s the strong, silent type.

MST3K Turkey Day Revived!

All the way back in 1991, I was at the annual Thanksgiving family get-together . It was easy to get lost in these events, as my mom’s family consisted of 11 aunts and uncles, their significant others, and an unknown, but large, quantity of cousins.

I glanced over at the TV, and noticed that Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster was playing. This made me happy, as I was an avid 1970’s-style Godzilla fan at the time. Then I noticed the little silhouettes at the bottom of the screen. And that was the night I became a huge fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K).

What I had stumbled upon was the first of five Turkey Day marathons of Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes. Each turkey day run for about 30 hours. Turkey Day was always a joyous occasion, since I could use it to fill in the gaps in my ever-expanding VHS library of MST3K episodes. In retrospect, I wonder if Turkey Day planted the seed that would later become my great delight in hosting and attending movie marathons.

25 years after MST3K debuted, Turkey Day is back! It is a web event curated and hosted by Joel Hodgson – the creator and original host of the show.  It will be six episodes long (as opposed to, say, fifteen) and starts at noon on Thanksgiving. I don’t think I’ll be able to make it myself, but it sure sounds like a fun event! Sign up if you can!

How to Stay Awake At a Movie Marathon

I am a veteran of fifteen 24-hour movie marathons, and I have earned the distinction of never having fallen asleep during any of them. I am proud of my track record, and I thought I’d share some words of wisdom on how to stay awake at a movie marathon.

It isn’t easy, but with hard work, dedication, and a lot of caffeine, you too can have a successful career of staying awake all night watching movies. I hope you find these tips useful. Good luck!

Know Your Enemy

“You always win the war you don’t fight” – (Impressive-sounding quote)

If you want to survive a 24-hour movie marathon, you need to know the movies you are facing. The biggest consciousness-killer isn’t a caffeine crash or the ambient room temperature – it is boring, uninteresting movies. The best strategy to stay awake at a movie marathon is to do whatever you can to make the movie schedule awesome before you start.

The worst case scenario comes when a tedious, overly long movie pops up in the 2:00 AM – 6:00 AM time frame.  Your circadian rhythm is pretty sure you should be sleeping by this time, and does its best to make it happen. If you don’t have an interesting movie to watch, and you are in a dark, cozy environment – the best I can say is: “Good night, and good luck!”.

But no matter what the movie schedule is, there is hope. If you can make it past 6:00 AM, the same circadian rhythm dragging you down earlier should give you a boost. Your body is used to being up and about in the mid-to-late morning (right?).

Prepare Yourself

Navy SEAL Desert Operations
Are you ready for this movie marathon?
  1. Pay off your sleep debt. Get a good night’s sleep before you even show up at the marathon. You need to catch up on whatever sleep you missed throughout the week. You wouldn’t run a 5K right the day before running a marathon, right? Even if you can’t sleep a full night through, even a 90 minute nap can help improve your odds for staying awake during the marathon.
  2. Skip the caffeine. Stop drinking caffeinated beverages for as long as your can prior to the movie marathon. This helps you build your caffeine tolerance. This allows your caffeinated beverages to work when you need them the most.

Weapons of Sleep Destruction

Caffeine is great!
Caffeine is great!
  1. Caffeine is your friend – Drink a steady amount of caffeine during the marathon to avoid peaks and valleys in your alertness. This ride shouldn’t be a rollercoaster. If you shotgun a couple Red Bulls in the first fifteen minutes, you’ll be a twitching, sleeping husk in an hour, right after your friends peel you off the ceiling.
  2. Skip the alcohol – If you want to survive a movie marathon, you need stimulants, not depressants. Your bodily functions will be moving slow enough, don’t press the brakes even more!

Hand-to-Hand Sleep Combat

“An ounce of prevention is worth a 67.6 fluid ounces of cola”

  1. Don’t get comfortable. Sit on that metal folding chair. Take off your sweatshirt and cool down. Sit up straight. It is hard to fall asleep when you are not totally comfortable, as the Princess and the Pea documents.
  2. Get up and move. Get up and do something. Talk to people, use the bathroom, refresh your cola, look at the movie from a different angle – it doesn’t matter! Getting those feet on the ground gets your blood pumping and those neurons firing.
  3. Keep busy. Even when you are sitting and watching the movie(s), keep part of you moving. This can be as simple as chewing some gum or as complex as working on a hobby like knitting.
  4. Have fun. Nothing keeps you awake better than not wanting to miss a minute of fun. Great movies, awesome friends, and good food will keep you awake better than any chemical solution can!

This has gotten me through fifteen marathons and counting. I hope you find it helpful!

12/19/2016 Update: Updated with the latest tips from Movie Marathon Like a Navy SEAL article.

Photo by Kelrsten Marle