Movies that passed the Bechdel Test
- Beyond the Mat (WWF wrestler Chyna goes shopping with her friend. That barely counts but I’m partial to weird shopping scenes.)
- The Celebration (Lots of little chats.)
- Pan’s Labyrinth (Again, lots of conversations.)
- Terminator (A few small chats.)
- Terminator 3 (Feminine Terminator steals a woman’s stuff… Can I put only the car chase in bold?)
- Doctor Who: Carnival of Monsters (The Doctor’s sidekick tries to enlighten a woman who is stuck in a timeloop.)
- The Pee Wee Herman Show (Miss Yvonne and Hermit Hattie talk about make up.)
- Big Top Pee Wee (This one is probably for fans only.)
Movies that failed.
- A Scanner Darkly (My rational mind rates this movie as only medium-good, but some other part of me has a lot of affection for it. The sad ending. The perfect Philip K. Dick moment when Keanu is told to put himself under extra surveillance. It has a purity.)
- Jean Claude Van Damme
- Bloodsport (Probably would not have been fun without watching JCVD.)
- The Godfather
- The Godfather Part 2
- Terminator 2
- Terminator 4
- The Dark Knight (I’m fascinated that I find this movie so satisfying and so fascist at the same time.)
Bold means I’m glad I watched it.
This month’s lists are evidence that my neighbours Casey and Jessica are fond of renting entire series of Hollywood movies. I have also watched with them: all the Die Hard movies, all the Rambo movies, Alien and Predator in preparation for Alien vs. Predator, and probably more.
The fact that I go along for these action movie marathons could probably go in the same category as the facts that I only like to watch sports when international championships are broadcast at 4 in the morning, and that if I don’t see the midnight premier of questionable superhero movies I probably will never watch them. Bland content is a good foil for intense viewing contexts.