EXCLUSIVE: 25th Annual 24-Hour Ohio Science Fiction Movie Marathon!

Hey everyone, Aaron here to bring you the report from the 25th Annual 24-Hour Ohio Science Fiction Movie Marathon. I've been attending this event for seventeen years, and the other folks here at MovieWeb suggested I should cover the event here.

We had a pretty awesome line-up of films, and a major special guest for the event. The line-up consisted of:

Battlestar Galactica (Theatrical Pilot)
Sputnik Mania
The Day the Earth Stood Still - With special guest, Academy Award-winner Patricia Neal
Journey to the Seventh Planet
The Andromeda Strain
Big Man Japan
Lady Terminator
1984
Pitch Black
Stranger from Venus
and
A Clockwork Orange

The Marathon began at noon EST on Saturday, April 19, 2008 and ran until noon(ish) on Sunday, April 20. So, without further ado, here's my recap of the event.

Battlestar Galactica (Theatrical Pilot)
I'll confess to never having been a fan of either Battlestar Galactica series, either the classic version on the more modern remake on the Sci-Fi Chanel. But this was a pretty cool viewing, especially since we had the archival print of the film from Warner Bros. It was a beautiful print, but it did mean that we had to actually stop the film between reels.

Sputnik Mania
This documentary is about the space-race between Russia and America, prompted by the launching of the Soviet satellite Sputnik. It was a great documentary, and pretty interesting, and I'm sure I'd love watching it on The History Channel sometime, but it was kind of an "eh" experience during the marathon.

The Day the Earth Stood Still - With special guest, Academy Award-winner Patricia Neal
This movie is just a classic, and if you haven't already seen it, then you need to. From the message of the film, to the not-so-subtle Christian allegory, to the killer performances from Michael Rennie and Patricia Neal, there is just nothing that can be improved about this movie. And then we had a guest appearance by Patricia Neal herself.

Ms. Neal was charming and funny, and was a perfect guest. Despite being 82 years old and having recently suffered from a stroke, she entertained the audience with grace and wit, answering questions about her career and reminiscing about actors and directors she had previously worked with. The esteemed Ms. Neal even recited the classic line "Klaatu Barada Nikto" for the audience, to their delight. She also shared her thoughts on the planned remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still. She thinks it's a terrible mistake, and when told that Keanu Reeves would be taking the role of Klaatu, she mischievously asked "Who?"

It's safe to say that many of you have never heard of this 1962 turkey of a science-fiction movie made in Denmark. It concerns a trip to the seventh planet of the solar system, which is of course, Uranus. (And yes, the audience made lots of fun of this fact.) The explorers are bedeviled by a one-eyed brain living in a cave with telepathic powers. If this somehow sounds interesting, then I have misled you. It was all-in-all a terrible film, made bearable only by the fact the audience mocked the film from the opening credits all the way to the end.

The Andromeda Strain
Another case where we had the archival print from Warner Bros., and the classic film written by Michael Crichton shows why it was a landmark film in science-fiction history. It suffers only from immensely slow pacing in the second third of the film.

Big Man Japan
This mockumentary followed one of Japan's giant-sized superheroes. Most of the time, our protagonist is an ordinary man, and a bit of a loser. But by running electricity through himself, he is able to grow to giant-size and fight off the giant monsters that routinely threaten Japan.

This movie was hilarious, and does a wonderful job of paying tribute to giant monster movies. To say that it was strange goes without saying, but I heartily recommend it to fans of the genre.

To watch the trailer for Big Man Japan

Lady Terminator
There is little positive to be said about this movie. Made in Indonesia and trying desperately to combine gratuitous nudity with a myth about the South Seas Witch and stealing blatantly from Arnold Schwarzenegger's classic film The Terminator, this was just a mess. I will grant that it was fast-paced, and featured a lot of explosions and bare breasts, so the film will appeal to some people, but... wow.

Just in case you want to know more about Lady Terminator, you can get more information if you

1984
Another classic, starring John Hurt, Richard Burton and Suzanna Hamilton. This movie is a great adaptation of George Orwell's novel of the same name, and the print we had of it was in good shape. It remains a masteful film, and is all the more relevant in today's world. As a nice bonus, we were led into the film by a series of trailers for other dystopian films, including Logan's Run, THX 1138, V For Vendetta, Terry Gilliam's Brazil and the classic silent-film Metropolis.

Pitch Black
This is not a good film. It's full of plot holes and most of the performances are amazingly one-note. But it does feature Vin Diesel fighting a bunch of aliens in a totally dark environment, and it never tries to be more than it is. As such, I appreciate the film for being itself, and it was a welcome switch after a series of good but slow films.

Stranger from Venus
I will never know why Patricia Neal, who was so wonderful in The Day the Earth Stood Still, and who won an Oscar for her role in Hud agreed to do this film, which is basically a British remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still - but without the cool giant robot. It was pointless and slow, and if it weren't for the fact that I will probably never again get the chance to see it on a big-screen, I'd have left the theatre for it.

If you simply must know more about Stranger from Venus then by all means

A Clockwork Orange
Anything directed by Stanley Kubrick deserves a good watch, and to this day, A Clockwork Orange remain in my top five favorite films from the director. (Coming behind The Shining and Dr. Strangelove, but ahead of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Full Metal Jacket). Sure, the pacing is a little slow in parts, the 'hero' of the film is a sociopathic reprobate who doesn't deserve his cure, and the story is somehow hollow without the final chapter of Anthony Burgess' novel. But A Clockwork Orange remains a classic film, and an important lesson in morality and the importance of free will and moral choice.

To anyone who finds themselves in Ohio in the spring, I highly encourage them to attend this event. The people who put it on also organize a horror movie marathon each October, which is just as good of a time. To find out more about the event visit the official 24-Hour Ohio Science Fiction Movie Marathon website.