"From The Desk Of Reg Dunlop" is dead, and out of the ashes "You Baby Gorilla" has been born.
Before I start down the road on this new project, I should mention that I like going to the movies so much that I'll see just about ANYTHING. I'll try to hassle people to accompany to movies which I have only the most passing interest in seeing, despite the fact that a movie ticket in New York is at least $11.50. When I was living in New Brunswick and had easy access to the AMC via five minute car ride, I saw at least a movie a week, if not two, thanks to AMC's weekend morning policy. For the uninitiated, any showing before noon on either Saturday or Sunday at any AMC is (about) half price. That means five or six dollars, and at that price, I will quite literally see anything. For instance, I was tricked into seeing Stomp The Yard, and I didn't even really care.
The AMC theaters in New York have the same deal, but the closest one to me is in Manhattan and at least a 40 minute train ride. So making it to a movie at 11:45 in the morning means waking up at 10:45 instead of 11:30, and my various associates tend to be wieners at that time of morning and will forego a cheap movie to sleep later.
There's also a theater in Sunnyside, Queens that has $4 movies on Tuesday nights, but for whatever reason that's the one night nobody I know can go to the movies.
As a general rule I'm really opposed to going to the movies by myself, as that's a practice I feel is generally reserved for lepers and guys in raincoats. The first time I saw "No Country For Old Men" I went alone but that was because my friend bailed last minute and I had time to kill and was way too excited not to go. And it wasn't as horribly shameful as I'd feared, but it's still more fun to go with people.
The point I'm finally getting around to is that in the interest of having a coherent and unifying theme for this blog and thereby avoid post after sporadic post of "so a funny thing happened today at the blipeededoo store when I saw Stevie Fartface do a snorglejumble", I decided to make this all movies, all the time. That will include Netflix, movies on TV, occasional selections from my DVD collection, as well as anything I see in theaters.
Before this intro prattles on further than it already has, I think it's worth listing my top 10 movies of all time to give you, the reader, an idea of my general taste.
1. Dirty Work
2. Slapshot
3. Clerks
4. Billy Madison
5. Eddie Murphy Raw
6. Vacation
7. Animal House
8. Caddyshack
9. Grandma's Boy
10. Superbad
At a later date I might break down this list and explain each choice, as well as some of the obvious omissions (Kingpin, Tommy Boy, The Jerk). But it's worth mentioning now because I think it gives an accurate idea of how my mind works. Laughing is right up there with breathing as far as my priorities go. There are some incredible non-comedic movies that I've seen, and that I love, but I'd have to make at least a top 50 list before I could even consider including any of them. They just don't rate if I don't laugh.
Onward and upward, and welcome to You Baby Gorilla.
