The Liebster Award Part Three!

Surprise!
Just like Peter Jackson's announcement that The Hobbit is going from a duology to a trilogy - so too is this award acceptance post!

After receiving a hat trick of Liebsters from blog buddies Kaijinu of Sticky Red: A Bodycount Compendium; Harry from Maynard Morrissey's Horror Movie Diary; and Michelle from The Girl Who Loves Horror - that fourth quadrant from my stolen Liebster Award graphic now has an actual benefactor:

M Hufstader from The Smoking Pen!

Thanks so much M!

Well, since pretty much everyone changes the rules - I will too. Here are the rules as M. listed them, and my edits on them:

1. Tell us 11 things about yourself

2. Answer 11 questions the blogger who awarded you asked

3. Pass the award to 11 people  - I gave the award to two people - 1 and 1 - 11, get it? - and one of them promptly stopped blogging - so no more of that!

4. Give them 11 questions.  - I can't give 11 questions to people I haven't passed the award on to.

5. Tell them about the award.   Tell who?

6. Don't award people who are recipients already.  This was the easiest of all!

Eleven more things about me! Why not? I love talking about myself!

1. I am currently in a deep and abiding love affair with Pasta Carbonara.
2. My longest night at the drive-in was a marathon showing of Friday the 13ths 1-4.
3. My longest time in the movie theater was Gettysburg - all 271 minutes of it.
4. I own movies in formats I can't play.
5. I have been in 26 of the 50 United States.
6. I have been off the continent - but never out of the country (Hawaii).
7. Both my favorite actress to work with and my least favorite actress to work with were angels...
8. I have attended The Rocky Horror Picture Show at a midnight screening in costume. (Want to guess who I dressed as?)
9. Before satellites, networks would send celebrities to each affiliate station for telethons in the 70's. Thanks to this practice I spoke to Shari Lewis - and Lambchop! - and Valerie Bertinelli on the phone after pledging money my parents gave me.
10. Got Leonard Maltin to change a review in his TV Movies book.
11. I have had letters printed in Fangoria, Entertainment Weekly, and The Amazing Spider-Man.


Okay, and here are the eleven questions M. had for me:

3D--yes or no?

• Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Quiet, British kitchen sink drama with Judi Dench and Michael Caine lamenting their grandson's descent into crime? Nah, flat is fine. Some goofy ass flick like Piranha 3-D - by all means yes! (not to mention it kinda had to be - what with 3-D in the title and all..) I've also grown weary and wary of upconverts - but could easily be persuaded in spite of that if the movie seems like a worthy subject for some 3-D. But at the same time, I gotta tell you - as I figured out while ranting about the Friday the 13th movies a while back (and about to be cut and pasted and reworked slightly right in here from that post) What the 1980's 3-D movies had that newer ones don't: there was a lot brought off the screen at you - sometimes fast, more often slowly - so the field of depth went back into the screen, but then you had objects extended out from the screen in front of you to about where your hand stretches out to the end of your arm. When someone stretched a clothesline pole out at you, or juggled apples up at you, they appeared to come out to the same proximity. Other than one extended shotgun in My Bloody Valentine in 2009 and one long boat mast sticking out of the opening scene (and a corpse) in Final Destination 5, it appears that all the modern 3-D is mostly from the screen's plane extending back in, depth wise, and very little extends off, other than occasional CGI flying objects that are moving too fast to really look cool anyway. I'm not sure why this is, but anyone shooting a movie in 3-D would do well to check out Friday the 13th Part III to see how it should be done. I'm not necessarily saying every object held in the movie should be thrust out of the screen - but a few definitely should.
  
  Aren't you sorry you asked now?

Lord of the Rings or Star Wars?

• I truly enjoyed the Lord of the Rings movies - own them, watched them a couple of times - but I saw none of them in the theater - and I've seen every Star Wars movie (not counting CGI cartoon features) in the theater, starting with the original movie in June or July of 1977. I don't care what he did in that second trilogy - I don't care how much he tinkers with them - those original three are the very definition of Movie Magic to me.

What movie would you like to see in theaters that you never got to see?

• Goldfinger or Thunderball - quintessential Connery Bonds - one the peak of his run, the other a giant 2:35 exercise in glorious excess - either would be a treat to see projected. (Maybe I'll get a chance with these Fathom Event screenings. Fingers crossed!)

What's your major draw for a movie: actors, director, or script?

• Any of them can and have been. Script is actually probably least. There are actors and directors I have followed across entire careers.

Who is your favorite person to watch movies with?

• Definitely my wondrous wife Suze for certain movies - and after that it's a tie between my movie pals Sandra, Ray, and James.

Who are your top three favorite action heroes?

• James Bond, John McClane, and Dirty Harry Callahan.

The zombie apocalypse is upon us--what movie characters do you want in your camp to keep you alive?

• The T-800 from T2 or T3; Robocop; and Alice from Resident Evil. Armor, firepower and eye candy all in one handy trio. Wait - there's no number in the question. Throw in Superman and Elvira too. Now my team has invulnerability, flight, and a bodacious rack.

Who is the one actor you love to hate?

• Andrew Scott - the guy who plays Moriarty in the new Sherlock British show? Wow I want to punch him in the throat for being such a dick - which is perfection in performance.

...And the actor you hate yourself for loving?

• Steven Seagal. The suspect back story; the sissy pony tail; the refusal to stay in shape; the reality show; the energy drink; the indifference to actually appearing in your own movies instead of being doubled for tough stuff like walking scenes; and yet...and yet...I love the big lug.

If they made a movie about your life, who would play you?

• Jonah Hill. Dammit.

If you could change one movie ending, what would it be and why?

• Spoiler alert! I would change the ending of Death Game (1977) - because the only thing better than an ending where your leads die being hit by a random bus tearing down a suburban street - would be to have the leads hit by TWO buses - the first knocking them right into the path of the second. WHAM - WHAM! Credits.

Thank you again to M. - you rock the Blogosphere with your badass self - it's always a pleasure when you drop by LGOOH.



Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!