the groundhog day project

On the one hand, I feel like I neglected the commentary track because I got to rambling about my own experience at summer camp--well, one particular detail of it, anyway; I could probably ramble about more, actually. Now, this isn't so bad, because if there is any point to this current sub-project of the Groundhog Day Project , this childhood deconstruction thing, ties right into it. I mean, what matters is what these movies taught me, sure. What they instilled in me when I watched them over and over again when I was young. But also, what came later? What memories get twisted into these movies? What do they make me think about? The Star Wars trilogy, for example, reminds me of one particular day when I was home sick from school and I rested on the couch and watched all three in a row. And, by the time Return of the Jedi was on, I was feeling a little better, so I was playing with my AT-AT and my action figures and that AT-AT was far more dexterous than any in the movies, standing...

I don't expect a lot of words today. Meatballs is a film I've seen dozens of times at least. And, if it was ever on cable in the past, I would likely stick around for a bit. It wasn't one of those few films that demanded I watch until the end even if it was late and I was about to go to bed--and, yes, those exist--but it's such a classic comedy, and something I know way too many lines from... (So many lines from this one have found themselves into my everyday life, and sometimes it makes me sad when people don't recognize those lines. They 're not exactly known for their taste, though, so fuck 'em.) It has its flaws. I don't know if it is, for lack of a better term, cinematically great. But, it works for what is is. An early version of what would probably peak with Porky's --an innocent sex comedy. With heart. An interesting detail: my DVD of Meatballs had never actually been opened. I bought it just a year or two ago, for potential use in this ...

I don't really want to talk about Heaven Can Wait again. If it taught me anything when I was a kid, it was bad things--that one guy can change the world with a few words, that love is magical and comes upon you out of nowhere, and it can conquer all. The film's take on reincarnation and the soul didn't fit with what church and bible class in school were teaching me, and neither take was particularly positive given I was being told regularly that the world was going to end . I mean, who cares if you go to heaven when you die, if your "soul" sits wound waiting for Christ to return and then you get to spend forever in the presence of God, or if you get a brand new body (maybe) after you die, when in a few short years this body you have right now is going to burn in a nuclear holocaust, or if by some slim chance it survives, you're going to die slowly from radiation poisoning, starvation, or some sort of post-apocalyptic factional violence? What points is romanti...