— पांच हजार आठ सौ इक्यावन —
It was my pick last night for Action Movie Night, and since I had chosen
Gremlins as my "Christmas movie" when I got to choose back in December, I decided my next choice would be its sequel, which I love almost as much:
Gremlins 2: The New Batch.
The bummer was that this week had unusually low attendance—only six people: Jake, Chris B, Derek, Andrew, Daniel, and me. Two people who are usually reliable regulars were out this week: Tony, who was on a trip somewhere with Sarah; and Shobhit, who is in Portland this week. More often than not, Chris G comes (he can usually be relied on to bring a vegetarian pizza), but he didn't make it this week either. Without those variables we might have had at least nine. Ryan usually comes too and didn't this week, and Ben comes maybe half the time but didn't this week. A much newer guy, Greg, was given the movie choice last time but wasn't here this week either.
I lucked out, given the smaller attendance, that I had two vegetarian options at the pre-movie potluck: I made macaroni & Cheese with sauteed mushrooms added, which went over pretty well, and I made the perfect amount—just two 6oz boxes. I had only to have a small second helping in order to finish up the dish. Besides that, Daniel brought a take-and-bake spanikopita pizza, and I had a small slice of that.
Jake brought the usual bags of burgers from Dick's, and Derek brought bags of fried chicken from QFC. Shobhit and I are the only ones who bring homemade food every time. A couple of others bring something homemade occasionally, but no one else does it every time, or even very often.
The cocktail I brought with me was iced milk with two shots of vodka and one shot of Irish Cream.
With Tony being gone, he gave me the code to his condo door so I could go in and grab the box he keeps in his refrigerator of all the beers he keeps for sharing at these Action Movie Nights. I had to do two rounds both going down and coming back up again, just to account for that box of beers.
— पांच हजार आठ सौ इक्यावन —
— पांच हजार आठ सौ इक्यावन —
Even though the original
Gremlins played incredibly well with the group back in December, I felt slightly nervous about how
Gremlins 2 would play—it's so much more bonkers and goofy than even the original was, but it also has moments where it's clearly making fun of the original, and its incongruously self-serious moments. The original has scenes that play like genuine horror, and the sequel is just a straight-up comedy. I really love them both, though, almost equally.
There wasn't a lot of laugh-out-loud moments with the group, so I couldn't quite gauge how the others were responding to it, though there were pretty cosistent snerks at gags in the movie. When it ended, Jake declared: "That is a fucking phenomenal movie." Then I felt pretty good about myself.
— पांच हजार आठ सौ इक्यावन —
I
was going to take myself to see
Fantastic Four: First Steps tonight before picking up Shobhit and Ivan at the train station, but I have decided it's best to bump that to next week. The score on MetaCritic is 65, so clearly I'm not missing anything super special. (Also, if
Superman is any indication, I'll probably think it's stupid while a bunch of other people really like it.)
I still need to do some light cleaning in anticipation of Ivan's arrival, anyway, particularly in the guest bathroom. I did do the vacuuming last night, before I made the macaroni and cheese.
Most critically, I need to convert the North Cascades National Park / Winthrop travelogue email for cross-posting here—it'll get done, I swear! And if I don't do that tonight, it'll take another several days. There's no way I'd have time for it if I took myself to a movie. Tomorrow after work I want to go to the opening of the brand new Pier 58.
— पांच हजार आठ सौ इक्यावन —
[posted 12:30pm]
