Alien

Okay... so I skipped about thirty movies in my list. Sue me. I was visiting my boyfriend across the country and wanted to snuggle during a scary movie. And from what I hear, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington isn't very scary (although who knows! The last two movies were completely different than I expected).

But, before I talk about Ridley Scott's Alien, let's jump back a couple months and talk about Saturday Night Live. This past season, Sigourney Weaver hosted an episode and during that episode, Laser Cats 5 aired. Let me put it this way... I AM A HUGE FAN OF LASER CATS/ SNL DIGITAL SHORTS/ THE LONELY ISLAND!!! There. I said it. I think they're absolutely hilarious. However, Laser Cats 5 was not quite as funny. Why was this? Because it was a parody of Alien (and James Cameron movies in general) and I'm not dissing parodies, but I hadn't seen Alien, so I just didn't get it.

So, I had to see Alien.

And I did.

And then I watched Laser Cats 5 again. And not only did I laugh hysterically at newly understood jokes, but I also realized how much Laser Cats 5 spoils of the movie! I'll just put a SPOILER ALERT here so I can talk about how Ash is a robot. This exciting twist in the movie was completely "spoiled" in Laser Cats 5 when they make Fred Armisen's character, The Captain, a robot too. END SPOILER ALERT. Now, I put quotations around "spoiled" because I didn't realize that it was spoiled until I watched Laser Cats 5 again after watching Alien. This intrigued me. Either I have a terrible memory and should go to the doctor or because I hadn't seen Alien and didn't get the joke, it went over my head and I just didn't remember it because there wasn't anything to remember. Now, how much am I walking around in life, running into pop culture references to movies I haven't seen, books I haven't read, songs I haven't heard and just not remembering? This may account for the seemingly strange phenomenon that after seeing a particular movie or learning about a particular thing, it seems to suddenly be everywhere. Maybe it's because it was everywhere, but it just went over your head so you didn't remember it and didn't really think about it. It's like learning how babies are really born when you're little and suddenly an entirely other world you were completely oblivious to comes into your consciousness. Perhaps these are all old realizations for everyone else on this planet, but it has finally come to me in actual writeable words, and made me realize why this blog has been so difficult to write.

Because, it seems to be that for most of these classic films I have seen thus far, despite their constant appearance in parodies, etc. my experiences of the films haven't been spoiled yet. Which is kind of what this entire blog was based on...

Let's just wait until I get to Psycho though, which I accidentally read the ending of in a magazine. Maybe then my opinion of the success and level of interestingness of this blog will change... if you give a damn.

COMING SOON: "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." ... It's Rob Reiner's The Princess Bride.