Enough already Alia

While I am still very confused about a career or what I want to do with myself, one thing has become abundantly clear after three years of law school. I hate studying; and not just a little bit. It pains me to do it. I will clean the dust from my ceiling fans before I study. I’ve been known to spend hours at the gym instead of studying. One of my favorite delay tactics is the all day film festival. For those of you preparing for finals, I’ve listed a few of my favorite themed film festivals. Netflix, cable television, and the internet have made it wonderfully easy for everyone to enjoy a day of fine movie watching.

A Day with Charlton Heston: We know it’s his God given right to carry a gun. He does it exceptionally well in so many roles.

• Touch of Evil: Orson Welles directs Chuck as a Mexican police officer newly married to Janet Leigh. Actually one of my favorite movies.
• Ben Hur: Chuck likes the Biblical roles and in this one he plays a wealthy Jew who is enslaved then freed. Along the way he meets Pontius Pilot and Jesus.
• The Ten Commandments: He’s Moses.
• Soylent Green: Spoiler Alert! Soylent Green is people!!!
• The Omega Man: Before Will Smith, but after Vincent Price, Chuck portrays Dr. Robert Neville trying to stay alive as the last man on Earth.
• The Planet of the Apes: Maybe his greatest role of all time

Screwball Comedy Day: If you just want to laugh and don’t mind black and white, this is the way to go. Many of these films have modern versions that aren’t nearly as clever or fun to watch. Another plus is that most of these movies only run about 90 minutes so if you really want to get back to studying or whatever after one, it’s not that much of a time suck.

• His Girl Friday (1940): Scheming newspaper publisher (Cary Grant) is confronted by his ex-wife (Rosalind Russell) and her fiancé.
• It Happened One Night (1934): Classic story of boy (Clark Gable) meets girl (Claudette Colbert), boy and girl hate each other, boy and girl are stuck together, and finally boy and girl fall in love.
• The Philadelphia Story (1940): The night before Tracy Lord’s (Katharine Hepburn) wedding, her ex-husband (Cary Grant) and a sneaky reporter (James Stewart) show up and turn things upside down.
• Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936): Small town Mr. Deeds (Gary Cooper) inherits $20 million from a long lost relative and everyone around him is trying to get a piece of it.
• Sullivan’s Travels (1942): A director (Joel McCrea) disguises himself as a hobo to see what the real world is like.
• My Man Godfrey (1936): A socialite (Carole Lombard) takes in a homeless man (William Powell) after finding him on a drunken scavenger hunt.

Ray Harryhausen, a Retrospective: If you love classical mythology or just love stop-motion animation, Harryhausen is your guy. He is most certainly a special effects pioneer who recreated dinosaurs and walking skeletons without CGI! His films require no description. Just watch and learn.

• Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977)
• It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955)
• One Million Years B.C. (1966)
• Clash of the Titans (1981): Release the Cracken!!!
• Jason and the Argonauts (1963): This one is my favorite.

Well folks, if you want to take a break, this is as good as anything. If you have any film suggestions, please add them. I will post more film festivals as I formulate them. I never get tired of watching things.