comment #1

Rich S. says ...

Or you can watch Judd Apatow movies.

comment #2

Edward says ...

Good one Rich. Judd's certainly giving us HEers an huge opening.

comment #3

Richardson says ...

I disagree, Jeff. The last time I had the flu, "Fun With Dick and Jane" made me feel better about myself.

comment #4

The Bandsaw Vigilante says ...

PCU.

"Can you blow me where the Pampers is?"

comment #5

Joshua Mooney says ...

That's more or less exactly how I figured Apatow got stimulated. Why would he be watching Bresson? Maybe he should be reading Faulker, too. I just started re-reading "Abasalom, Absalom!" and the fact that I have done so is probably exactly why Judd is Judd and I'm nobody.

comment #6

CinemaPhreek says ...

I'm with Apatow on this, but for a different aesthetic reason: why waste a great film when you feel lousy?

Then again, I don't get the Apatow hate at all. I guess it's simply the "Frat Pack" movies he has worked on, because his own stuff I have yet to be disappointed in. I mean, I will never hopefully see ANCHORMAN again but I could watch VIRGIN again easily.

comment #7

The Pope says ...

And what did Bresson/Tarkovksy/Dreyer watch when they were under the weather? Bergman? De Clercq? Robbe-Grillet? And would you bitch and snipe about it if they had not? You're the worst sort of elitist; one who thinks he is a catholic cineaste.

comment #8

sutter kane says ...

I'm with CP here. I watched Before the Devil Knows You're Dead while getting over the flu, and while I could tell it was an extremely well made movie, watching the characters' downward spiral just made me feel worse and worse, and by the end I kind of hated it. Had I caught it healthy, I'm sure I would've appreciated it a lot more.

Same reason I never watch movies on airplanes.

comment #9

Shane says ...

Didn't Kubrick once say a really inspiring thing for him as a young filmmaker was to watch terrible movies, because it made him realize he could do better? I can't find the verbatim quote.

comment #10

shawn says ...

Jeff, it's so weird you should mention Bresson. About 8 years ago I had what I thought was a really bad allergy bout and turned out to be pneumonia, and I rented a big pile of Bresson movies and watched them -- some more then once -- while I shivered under blankets in a warm room. A very fond memory.

comment #11

Jay T. says ...

Gee, when I have the flu and feel like shit, I usually like to do a little math, maybe solve an advanced proof. Or not...

comment #12

Ponderer says ...

Have to agree with CinemaPhreek on this one. I don't know about any of you, but most of the time when I'm sick, there's no way I have the focus or concentration to fully enjoy a film. Why ruin it when you can't take it all in? It's like opening a century-old bottle of wine when you have a stuffed nose; you lose half the pleasure just getting started.

Better to take in Malick's prescription and pop in a DVD of Zoolander, I think. Save Carl Th. Dreyer for when you have critical faculties up to speed.

comment #13

George Prager says ...

Fuck! I feel like shit today! I'm going to call in sick and then do a Mouchette/Au hasard Balthazar double feature!

What about hangover movies? I get the feeling that Apatow doesn't drink, so he doesn't do hangover movies. The best are the ones on the local syndicated UPN network station. Something like BLACK RAIN or THINNER, or CITY SLICKERS 2: THE LEGEND OF CURLEY'S GOLD or the criminally underrated HEAD OFFICE. The commercials are part of the fun. The hangover usually comes on a Saturday, so you're watching commercials for those hospital beds you can get for your home, since you're the only person under 70 watching the movie.

comment #14

D.Z. says ...

"Fun with Dick and Jane" was actually good; the only reason people hated it was because it didn't have some stupid pretentious anti-50s and anti-consumer subtext like Cable Guy and The Truman Show.

comment #15

lipranzer says ...

I'd have to dig out the article from my collection, but I believe Cameron Crowe said something similar when he wrote a diary about the making of SINGLES that he published in Rolling Stone. Something like that when he was reeling really down after making a movie, or dealing with the studio in marketing it, he couldn't watch contemporary movies that were supposed to be good, but either classic movies he had seen over and over again, or really cheesy movies (he mentioned an Elvis movie, I believe).

As for myself, if I'm sick or just feeling tired, I'd rather watch something I've seen before so I don't have to follow something new.

comment #16

George Prager says ...

"I learned about the facts of life from "The Facts of Life"!

comment #17

D.Z. says ...

Oh, and the lame stoner intellectual commentary of "Eternal Sunshine".

comment #18

Craptastic says ...

Anything from the "Something Weird" catalogue will cure what ails ya.

comment #19

George Prager says ...

D.Z. is racking his brain for more. Let's see....

Oh, and the bogus family values dichotomy of "Liar Liar".

...and the P.C. speciesism of "Ace Ventura".

...and the brain dead yuppie existentialism of "Doin Time on Maple Drive"

...and the facile jejune insincere insousance of "Earth Girls Are Easy".

comment #20

Richardson says ...

"the only reason people hated it was because it didn't have some stupid pretentious anti-50s and anti-consumer subtext like Cable Guy and The Truman Show."

No, it had a poorly executed anti-capitalist theme instead. I wouldn't even say I hated it; it was just a bad movie, but it was so flat that my reaction wasn't hatred so much as apathy. At least 'The Number 23' was fun-bad.

comment #21

Richardson says ...

"Didn't Kubrick once say a really inspiring thing for him as a young filmmaker was to watch terrible movies, because it made him realize he could do better?"

I know I've said that with regard to 'Fear and Desire'.

comment #22

D.Z. says ...

George: No, I was actually ok with Ace Ventura, and am not sure what anyone would expect from Earth Girls Are Easy. I also heard Maple Drive had one of Carrey's better performances, so I'll give it a shot one of these days. Now if you go after Simon Birch, that'd be a different story.

comment #23

Ponderer says ...

"I know I've said that with regard to 'Fear and Desire'."

Hell, even Kubrick said that about Fear and Desire. He tried to buy up all the prints of it, which was his second greatest unfinished venture.

comment #24

Richardson says ...

Oh, I know. But, honestly, it is genuinely inspiring to see how truly humble and almost-but-not-quite-entirely-awful his first effort is. I don't even think 'Killer's Kiss' works as a movie, but it's a big leap forward. And 'The Killing' is a quantum leap forward.

I'd rank it third, behind 'Napoleon' and 'A.I.' But, of the three, that's the one I'm glad he didn't finish.

comment #25

T. S. Idiot says ...

It's logical that tolerance for bad/mediocre movies would be higher when sick, but I find I get more irritated by them. Like my dear friend C'phreek, I would not risk a demanding film, but something undemanding yet well done would be good. Anything with Astaire, for example. Except, of course, On the Beach.

comment #26

Edward says ...

After studying hard for months for our masters comprehensives, a few of us decided to catch an escapist fantasy called "Sorcerer" boy were we surprised.

comment #27

Richardson says ...

I had, to date, the worst flu of my entire life the week that 'Deadwood' premiered. I tried to watch it, and really didn't click with the show at all, and now, whenever I've tried to watch it, I have a pavlovian response, and my body starts to feel sick. I do want to catch up with it all someday, because I'm sure that most of what I remember was actually a fever dream and didn't happen.

comment #28

Ponderer says ...

What, a little carbon-monoxide suicide scene might suppress someone's immune system? Losers.

comment #29

JckNapier2 says ...

Aside from not wanting to waste a good film when you're feeling sick and/or sad (you don't want to associate the film with a bad day or a bad event), when you're sick, your tolerance becomes lower and your standards become almost non-existent. Everything is entertaining, sad, or funny.

Vaguely related story that this post made me remember...

When I was about eleven, I was out of school for about two weeks due to a flu that became phenomena. I distinctly recall lying on a couch in the study under 'the sick blanket' (a thick, comfy quilt that was reserved for when you were sick) and watching a random episode of Tiny Toons. Even at eleven, I knew that Tiny Toons was mainly mediocre, with hints of cleverness that paved the way for Animaniacs. Anyway, I'm watching this random episode of Tiny Toons, and every single punchline had me laughing so hard that I couldn't breathe. It was the weirdest thing I would experience for many years.

Ages later, last year, while I was home sick from work during the period that my wife was pregnant, I caught a nasty case of 'sympathy symptoms'. In this case, emotionalism was my symptom. I knew something was up when I caught the denouement of Batman Begins and welled up during the final scenes at the charred remains of Wayne Manor. It only got worse. I was watching various episodes of The West Wing, seasons 1 and 2 (the eps with commentary), and I swear I watered up at every single emotional beat. It was the strangest thing...

comment #30

nemo says ...

My wife always sends me out to fetch a pile of Audrey Hepburn movies when she's sick. Or Kate Hepburns, if I can't find enough Audreys.

comment #31

lipranzer says ...

Aw, I liked Tiny Toons. True, it was a warm-up for Animaniacs (not to mention Pinky and the Brain), but it was still fun.

comment #32

JckNapier2 says ...

I didn't outright hate or even dislike Tiny Toons, but it was the first gasp of quality in afternoon animation in ages and there were growing pains to be had (to this day, I love the baby Plucky sketches... it's dumb but adorable).

And, although I consider it part of the same canon, credit must go to Pinky & The Brain. It was a great one-joke premise on Animaniacs, but the spin-off really found clever things to do with the characters. Best animated political gag of the decade - As P&B are in Moscow to invade a peace summit, they pass Gorbachev lying in the gutter, with a sign around his neck reading - 'will sell secrets for food'. It was both very funny and made me feel smart for getting it back when I was thirteen.

comment #33

Richardson says ...

my friends and I still quote the Alfred Hitchcock bit from 'Animaniacs' on a semi-regular basis.

"Absolutely perfect... BUT we're going to do it again."