Can King Jong-Il stop us from watching movies for 36 consecutive hours?
Thirty-six hours of non-stop movies.
That’s the agenda. Once upon a time (approximately a year ago), my friend Ben Schaible and I set out to watch movies for 24 hours in a row. We did it, but weren’t incredibly prepared for how it would go. We lacked substantial food, overpowering our stomachs with sugary candy and soda, leaving us to crash in the middle of the night and making the middle hours of the venture incredibly miserable.
(Note: I planned to link the original diary of the 24-hour marathon to this post, but realized I have deleted the blog I posted it on, and the computer I had it saved on is long gone. So the diary is not to be found anywhere).
Anyway, this time we had to one-up ourselves. 36 hours beginning at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday and ending at 1:30 a.m. Friday. We thought we could do it, but knew it would be difficult, especially the early morning hours.
Just as I did last year, I kept a running diary of my random thoughts throughout the 36 hours. One of the reasons was to keep myself awake when things got rough, and another because it would be funny to look back and see how things went. We also invited other friends to come join us along the way.
Anyway, here we go.
1:30 p.m. – It’s me, Ben and Andy beginning the 36 hours with an absolute classic: Beavis & Butthead Do America. Ben: “This was the pinnacle of comedy at one time.”
1:40 p.m. – A search through Butthead’s Wikipedia page is no help in our search to find out if his real name is ever revealed. The mystery continues.
1:54 p.m. – Legitimately laughing out loud at this movie. Forgot how funny it is.
2:02 p.m. – Bruce Willis, Demi Moore and Cloris Leachman all play voices in this movie. Shocking.
2:24 p.m. -The part where Beavis is tripping in the desert makes this whole movie.
2:49 p.m. – Beavis & Butthead is over. Now on to True Lies, you know, so that we can watch two similar movies back to back.
2:53 p.m. – For some reason, I didn’t know James Cameron wrote and directed this movie. I feel stupid.
2:56 p.m. – Andy: “Arnold sucks at every language. Even Austrian.” Also, who thought it would be a good idea to cast Tom Arnold as Arnold’s partner in an action movie?
2:58 p.m. – Random note: I used to be addicted to pop and haven’t had a sip since January. I’m breaking that for this marathon and am currently three Mountain Dews in already.
3:04 p.m. – 14-year-old Eliza Dushku plays Arnold’s daughter. Weird.
3:19 p.m. – Ben brings up a good point that maybe the reason there is a Middle Eastern on the anti-terrorist team is so they don’t catch as much flack for having a bunch of Middle Easterners playing terrorists. Of course, this was pre-9/11.
3:30 p.m. – Ben: “You think Osama’s ever jumped from a building on a motorcycle into a swimming pool?”
3:37 p.m. – Jamie Lee Curtis looks like Fran Schaible in this movie when she’s being a mom. For those of you who don’t know, Fran Schaible is Ben’s mom. “There’s a strip scene later so I’d appreciate if you don’t say that,” Ben said.
3:43 p.m. – Bill Paxton with a mustache = child molester.
4:09 p.m. – Reminding Ben that JLC looks like his mom right before she enters Arnold’s room for a striptease.
4:29 p.m. – Maybe this chick is so pissed off because Garth dumped her.
4:35 p.m. – Andy: “Before I die I want to snap someone’s neck.” Me: “If I ever only have days to live, I’ll let you snap my neck.”
4:39 p.m. – Consensus: 1994 Arnold would kick both GSP and Brock Lesnar’s ass. Andy: “UFC is fake. This shit’s real.”
5:10 p.m. – True Lies is done. Alex and Paco are here and Andy is leaving. Decided on next movie being Eurotrip because we let the two newcomers pick.
5:20 p.m. – I haven’t seen this movie in years, although I have caught the last 30 minutes of it on Comedy Central about 50 times.
5:28 p.m. – Wondering who suggested to Matt Damon to make a cameo in this movie? He’s pretty good in it.
5:36 p.m. – Just looked up the Guinness World Record for consecutive movie watching. It’s 123 hours, 10 minutes. Contestants weren’t allowed to divert their eyes from the screen at all during movies, but were allowed a 10-minute break between movies. If we were playing by those rules, I would have lost already.
5:48 p.m. – The chick from Harriet the Spy is hot.
6:10 p.m. – Alex thinks the main character (who is a dude) is hot.
6:19 p.m. – Just looked up Bratislava to find out what it is/where it is. It’s the capital of Slovakia. You learn something new every day.
6:30 p.m. – Just realized I deleted my blog that had last year’s 24-hour movie marathon on it. Dammit.
6:43 p.m. – Eurotrip done. Casino is next. That’s three hours killed with one movie.
6:46 p.m. – Sike. Actually 2001: A Space Odyssey… on Blu Ray.
6:57 p.m. – I just found some mustard in Ben’s fridge that expired in December 2009. I still used it. Just kidding. Ben feeling the back of his PS3: “Wow, this thing is really cookin.” Alex: “Put some food back there.”
7:22 p.m. – The fact that this is what people in 1968 viewed 2001 to be has us thinking of what life will be like in 2050. I think it will be like this movie. Also, in 2019 the world will be just like Blade Runner.
7:45 p.m. – Alex dipped out. Ben knows so much about this movie it’s ridiculous. How shots were made, etc. He even met Gary Lockwood, the actor who played Frank Poole.
8:28 p.m. – HAL just killed the three people who were cryogenically frozen. Ben: “Well, at least it was only three.” Also, Brent-o-nino is here, and it’s starting to get dark out. We’re seven hours in.
8:34 p.m. – We’re marveling at the fact that this movie came out so long before Star Wars. Paco: “But Star Wars had laser beams.” Andy: “Yeah, and Natalie Portman.”
8:38 p.m. – Just looked up how long you could survive in space without a helmet, because Dave does so for a short period of time. Answer: If you’re in space without a helmet for 30 seconds or so, you’ll probably be OK. Good to know.
8:48 p.m. – Paco just convinced us all that at the time 2001: A Space Odyssey was filmed, we only knew of the planets through Jupiter. We felt pretty dumb when Brent (a genius) convinced us that they’ve known about Saturn for hundreds of years.
9:09 p.m. – 2001 is over. Forgot how awesome it is. Now we’re watching Unthinkable, because Andy illegally downloaded it…. I mean, we went to the theatre and saw it? Or it’s out on DVD already? Yeah, something like that.
9:14 p.m.: Samuel L. Jackson, Trinity from the Matrix, stapler dude from Office Space and Peter Scottson from Weeds are all in this movie.
9:48 p.m.: Trinity: “If these bombs go off, there will BE no Constitution!” Me: “More like Blownupstitution.”
10:43 p.m. – Updates were infrequent during Unthinkable because it’s the first movie of the night I hadn’t seen. It was pretty good. Samuel L. kicked some ass per usual. Best part of the movie – terrorist plot was similar to True Lies, which we watched several hours ago. Also, Jaye’s here now. Next up: Snatch, a movie I haven’t seen in long enough that I remember virtually nothing from it. We’re over nine hours in and I’m wired on Mountain Dew. Have to cool it now, though, so I don’t have too bad of a sugar crash later.
10:53 p.m. – One of the running subplots of this venture is the fact that Ben and I have no money to purchase food. We’re running on a few hot dogs we can microwave, some chips, and little else. We’ll see how that affects us in the future.
11:22 p.m. – Thanks to a really long rain delay, my attention has been swayed for the past few hours by the White Sox-Angels game, which I’m following on my computer. Good news is that Sox are currently winning 5-1. Weird thought is that this game and tomorrow’s game will be over before I go to sleep again.
11:34 p.m. – Paco and Jaye got Arby’s and made me starving. This whole food thing could become a real problem.
11:58 p.m. – Our first non-Blu Ray and non-hard drive movie has problems with skipping.
Thursday, July 8
12:20 a.m. – Andy’s calling it a night. He’s too tired. He’s been here the whole time, with the exception of an hour and a half period where he got dinner with his girlfriend. He said he’ll be back in the morning. Jaye, Paco and Brent are still with us.
12:31 a.m. – Birthday boy butthead Paco fell asleep toward the end of Snatch.
12:35 a.m. – Snatch done. Now watching Jackie Chan’s Drunken Master. Main reason is because Jaye loves Jackie Chan.
12:45 a.m. – Drunken Master is 1978 Jackie Chan. He’s 24. This movie is dubbed in English. Set up for hilariousness.
12:49 a.m. – It should also be noted that we just saw Jackie Chan in the new Karate Kid movie less than a week ago. I’d say these are two pretty similar roles.
1:22 a.m. – Brad dropped by for a late-night visit. Susan and Misty came and brought us pie. They rule. Drinking green tea now because I know these next seven or eight hours are going to be the most difficult.
1:32 a.m. – Trying to figure out the age of the man who plays Jackie Chan’s drunken uncle. IMDb is no help, but my guess is he’s the man in the movie who is listed at 66 years old at the time of filming, and dies the year after. Also, we’ve been watching movies for 12 hours now. 1/3 home. 24 more hours to go.
2:33 a.m. – Drunken Master is over. Umm…. I’m tired. Paco and Jaye fell asleep during that. Now we’re going to watch Palindromes, a Todd Solondz film that I’ve seen half of and is incredibly weird. Everyone except Ben and I are calling it a night now, meaning this will be the toughest stretch yet.
2:44 a.m. – I can’t post on this blog the conversation that just took place between Ben and I, but I can tell you it involved Dollhouses and farts. It’s a sign of sleepiness.
3:15 a.m. – Even though I’m linking the IMDb pages to each of these movies, I find it important to tell you that Palindromes is a story of a young girl who longs to become pregnant, only the girl is played by multiple actors of multiple races and genders. The reason I needed to type that is because of how incredibly messed up of a concept that is, and typing it just made it seem even more like that. Plus I’m tired.
4:21 a.m. – The end of Palindromes was torture. Going to try to stand up for as long as possible as we watch Peter and the Wolf, an animated short nominated for an Academy Award in 2007.
4:57 a.m. – Peter and the Wolf was a silent film. Not a good idea. But only 32 minutes long. Now going with a Marx Brothers film to lighten things up as the sky gets light as well. Hopefully by the time it’s over the sun will be shining through the window. A Night in Casablanca is what we’re watching.
5:00 a.m. – I know these updates have gotten lame. That’s what the long night will do to you. In 2 1/2 hours we’ll be halfway to our goal.
5:36 a.m. – It’s impossible to fall asleep when Groucho Marx is on the screen.
6:24 a.m. – We shift from A Night in Casablanca to Bullitt, starring Steve McQueen. It’s light out, but overcast so no sun yet. I want it to be six hours later so our friends would come back over and help keep as awake. If we were just doing 24 hours again, I’d feel like we were close to being done. This is movie No. 11.
7:13 a.m. – Ben’s cat is being a bustard custard.
7:30 a.m. – Oooooooooohhhh we’re halfway there. WoooooohhhOOOOOHHH liven’ on a prayer. Shut up.
7:32 a.m. – Ben and I have both caught each other dozing off at different times. Things are getting serious. It needs to become daytime ASAP.
8:12 a.m. – Not gonna lie, I don’t have the slightest clue what happened in Bullitt. Too distracted by tiredness. All I know is that Steve McQueen was running around shooting guys and was all sweaty the whole time. Did that sound gay?
8:21 a.m. – Bullitt is mercifully over. It may be a good movie. But not here, not now. Went for a quick walk outside to see the beautiful weather. Too bad I won’t be enjoying any of it. 17 hours until freedom.
8:25 a.m. – Step Brothers it is. Quite the change of pace. Both of us have seen it 10 times. Neither have ever fallen asleep during it.
8:26 a.m. – Opening scene of Will Farrell making nachos: Me: “That looks so damn good.” Ben: Let’s make nachos.” Me: “Make some. I’ll eat them if you make them. Deal?” Ben: “Deal.”
8:51 a.m. – I’ve seen Step Brothers a lot, but it still gets funnier every time I see it. Especially funnier when you’re loopy tired.
8:59 a.m. – The first time I saw this movie I swore Brennan’s brother was Cillian Murphy and his wife was Angela from The Office. I was wrong on both accounts, obviously.
9:28 a.m. – Boats and Hoes. Ben: “Richard Jenkins is way too good of an actor for this movie.”
9:37 a.m. – “The kink in her back got worse so I had to put a yoga move on her.”
10:09 a.m. – Step Brothers is done and we are wide the F awake. Still being cautious and watching light movies until friends come over. Now starting: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.
10:33 a.m. – Alex just swung by on his way home from last night. Cloudy is very entertaining. Witty dialogue and a clever story, plus great animation.
10:45 a.m. – Sequence where main character attempts to ask cute girl out on date is the funniest thing I’ve seen in a movie so far during this sequence. Too tough to explain. HILARIOUS. (Note, I tried to find a clip online of it later to post with this, but was unsuccessful).
11:34 a.m. – Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs is a really solid, animated kids movie. Would recommend it to most anyone. Signs is next, because we want to see Mel Gibson kick some alien ass. Also…. need food.
12:01 p.m. – Ben: “What happened to M. Night Shyamalan? He just forgot how to direct.”
1:14 p.m. – Signs is a bad ass movie. It’s been far too long since I’ve seen this. Also depresses me about recent M. Night films.
1:18 p.m. – Next up is Terminator 2: Judgement Day. No, we haven’t watched the first Terminator during this.
1:31 p.m. – We’ve officially hit one goal. We’ve made it past one full day of movie watching after doing exactly one day last year. 12 more hours to go.
1:35 p.m. – Andy came over and brought us tacos, officially sealing his title as best friend in the history of history.
1:54 p.m. – “My name is T-I don’t give a F.” I should’ve written this movie.
2:08 p.m. – As we find out the Terminator has to do anything John Connor says, Ben suggests John Connor orders Terminator to do something inappropriate. You can use your imagination.
2:51 p.m. – Andy: “Skeletons are cool.” Me: “Skeletons rule.” Ben: “Skeletons are literally the coolest thing in the world.”
3:02 p.m. – Sarah Connor is a bitch.
3:49 p.m. – End of T2 and Brent is back. We’re making him and Andy select our next movie because we’re sick of doing it. Reservoir Dogs.
3:52 p.m. – We just realized that the last time Ben’s Playstation 3 was turned off was when we watched Snatch. According to this diary, we started Snatch at 10:50 p.m. last night.
4:12 p.m. – Haven’t watched Reservoir Dogs in years. Had to think for a second who the rat is. It’s Mr. Orange. Oh yeah, spoiler alert.
4:30 p.m. – Poll question: Who is your favorite Reservoir Dog? Ben: White, Paco: Orange, Collin: Orange, Andrew: Goofy Movie, Brent: ….
5:12 p.m. – Ben: “Chris Penn looks like a fat Sean Penn.” Me: “I think he looks like a dead Sean Penn.” There is something wrong with us.
5:26 p.m. – Mr. White shoots both Joe and Nick Guy Eddie. Hard to tell upon initial viewing.
5:31 p.m. – Reservoir Dogs finished, Starship Troopers next with eight hours to go, Weisheit is in the house.
5:41 p.m. – All the main characters in this movie are supposed to be graduating high school in this movie. Their ages? 29, 29, 27, 26, 24. Also, according to the book, their all supposed to be Puerto Rican. At least that’s what Ben says.
6:04 p.m. – Had to clarify that the news announcer’s voice in this movie is not the same guy as the agency voice in the Crackdown video games. Swore it was, but it was not. Also, Andy, Paco and Ben are making pacts about everything because of the pact the friends make in this movie. I tried to make a pact with Jaye for us to pick each other’s noses, or test each other for breast cancer, but she didn’t like the idea.
7:17 p.m. – I’m hyped up enough at this point that I don’t feel the need to lay down. We’re just over six hours left and I think it’s in the bag at this point. Wild card will be when it gets dark, how that effects us.
7:33 p.m. – As Starship Troopers ends, I admit to becoming increasingly distracted by the fact that LeBron James is set to announce his decision in a very short time. I hate it, but I’m very intrigued.
7:43 p.m. – Next up is Sin City. We’re planning on Team America World Police later, but that’s the only future plans we’ve made. We’ve got six hours left and Ben and I are still going strong. This is going to be a piece of cake. The only struggle was that 3-4 hour period in the early hours of the morning.
7:46 p.m. – Sin City on Blu Ray is incredible. Ben: “Sin City is the best looking DVD I own.”
8:33 p.m. – So LeBron is going to Miami. He’s an idiot, but that’s for a different time and a different story. Anyway, Clive Owen’s character is my favorite in Sin City. Brittany Murphy (dead) is really hot, but Jessica Alba in this movie is probably the hottest non-nude performance I’ve ever seen by an actress.
8:50 p.m. – If hookers in real life were like hookers in this movie… I guess I’d like hookers quite a bit.
9:19 p.m. – Alright, we’ve got the rest of our night planned out. Finish Sin City, then Speed, then Team America World Police and it’ll be 1:30. Booyah.
9:42 p.m. – Sin City over. Speed next. Let’s do dis.
9:49 p.m. – Speed is only in full screen on Netflix Instant. We should just turn off Netflix and find this on cable and it will be better quality.
9:53 p.m. – Dead-nis Hopper. Let’s stay classy.
10:20 p.m. – Sandra Bullock yells something obnoxious at the bus driver. My response if I were the bus driver: “Shut up you obnoxious bitch.” I should write these movies.
10:21 p.m. – Things you notice when you’ve been up for over 36 hours: The last three movies we’ve watched have started with S. The one before was an R, the next one is a T, so we’re going R, S, S, S, T. Damn.
10:36 p.m. – Scene where Sandra Bullock crashes into the baby carriage full of cans and thinks it’s a baby. Ben: “It’s just a baby. It’s not like she would’ve killed a real human or anything.” Me: “Yeah, they just gave her an abortion a couple of months later than normal.”
10:39 p.m. – We came up with a fun drinking game we could play to this movie. Drink every time Sandra Bullock is an annoying bitch. That’s all I’ve come up with right now.
10:52 p.m. – The scene where they jump the gap on the bus. “This is absurd,” Jeff said.
11:04 p.m. – I can’t wait for Dennis Hopper’s head to fall off. Although I wish he’d kill Sandra Bullock first.
11:18 p.m. – I hate that when they get off the bus there are still 25 minutes left. For the love of god end this movie!
11:38 p.m. – This movie is mercifully over. Nobody cares about you, Keanu Reeves or Sandra Bullock. Get off my movie screen. Now… Team America! After… Sleep!
11:44 p.m. The official start to the last movie of the evening. I couldn’t be more excited, both for the movie and for the end of the movie.
11:51 p.m. – Everyone has AIDS.
Friday
Midnight – We’ve now been watching movies in three consecutive days.
12:05 a.m. – People are dipping out early because they’re TOO TIRED. I hate them.
12:25 a.m. – I can’t believe it’s come down to this one last hour.
12:20 a.m. – Sex scene.
1:21 a.m. – Team America is done and it’s close e-damn-nough. What would we do for nine minutes, anyway? I have to admit, the past 5-6 hours were easy, but the last two hours were torture. Time to go to sleep for 100 hours. Thanks for reading.
Moves Watched:
1. Beavis & Butthead Do America
2. True Lies
3. Eurotrip
4. 2001: A Space Odyssey
5. Unthinkable
6. Snatch
7. Jackie Chan’s Drunken Master
8. Palindromes
9. Peter & the Wolf
10. A Night in Casablanca
11. Bullitt
12. Step Brothers
13. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
14. Signs
15. Terminator 2: Judgement Day
16. Reservoir Dogs
17. Starship Troopers
18. Sin City
19. Speed
20. Team America World Police
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