Ramblings of a Geek

My wife does not like to watch things twice. I occasionally will see an episode of Seinfeld, Friends or something else and will be happy to watch at least a part of it if I remember liking the episode. She can’t stand that for whatever reason.

The same goes for movies. While at least 95% of the movies I’ve seen in my life I’m content to see once and never again a few fall into one of a couple of categories for me: 1.) Movies I’ll watch somewhat regularly which usually means about once per year and 2.) Movies that I’ll be happy to see multiple times but less regular. This is usually is not a yearly affair, but if it’s on TV or I just happen to want to watch it I will.

For me this is my list of “regular” movies that I watch about once a year:

• Major League – I usually watch this around the time that pitchers and catchers report for spring training which is in about mid-February.
• Enemy of the State – I just like the movie and it’s pretty easy to watch and just veg out.
• The Jackal (1997) – See Enemy of the State
• Die Hard 1 and 2 – See Enemy of the State again and I usually watch these right around Christmas mostly because they’re set in the same time of the year.
• Christmas Vacation – my favorite Christmas movie – also watched around Christmas time.
• Gone in 60 Seconds (the newer one) – See Enemy of the State.
• Matrix 1 and 2 (not so much 3) – It is the Matrix after all.

Movies that aren’t quite “regular”:

• The Lord of the Rings Trilogy – Easily three of my favorite movies but due to their length it’s tough to get them watched with any kind of regularity. I generally watch one of them a year if not two. When my kids are old enough we’ll probably watch them together.
• Starwars 1-6 – While the prequel trilogy was nowhere near as magical as the first three I still liked them so I am happy to watch them from time to time. My biggest problem with Episodes 1-3 is that the dialog pretty much was terrible. The effects and CGI were amazing which pretty much makes up for any lacking plot or dialog. I’m a huge Starwars fan, but I don’t hold the movies on a pedestal like some of the other fans do. I liked the revised original trilogy and I’d be up for them re-doing the CGI again to make them as close to the new trilogy as possible. This could be a whole other blog entry which I may get to, but not today.
• European Vacation and Vacation – both are very funny and since I don’t own them I see them very infrequently so when they’re on and I have free time I’ll watch at least part of these films.
• Caddyshack – shouldn’t require explanation.
• Jurassic Park 1-3 – another CGI film that are all very well done and fun to watch.

I’m sure there’s more that I have forgotten about and it’s eerie that Chevy Chase is a common factor. The regulars seem to be mostly comedy and action flicks that I can mostly just turn my brain off while watching. One of the things I do as I’m watching these movies is to do some work where I really am not missing anything by not devoting my whole attention span to the movie. Probably doesn’t help my tendency to have a little ADD but it seems to work for me so we’ll just go with it.