2000AD Sci-Fi All Nighter

Arthur's Review of 2000AD Sci-Fi All Nighter

It had probably been almost 10 years since Arthur had attended a film festival of any considerable size when this event appeared. Arthur had been told about it by a friend who read 2000AD and although most of the films being shown were old, Arthur decided it was still definitely worth going as he had never seen many of them on a big screen.

The line up of films was slightly more complictaed than usual; The cinema had 2 screens and there would be different films showing on each one at the same time, except for the first film 28 Days later. The festival was attended by Arthur and 3 friends who chose to see Bladerunner, The Thing, Mad Max 2 and Neon Evnagelion (Japanese animation) in addition to the compulsory film 28 Days later.

Arthur drove everyone up to Oxford and found parking a few streets away pretty close to the cinema. Upon entering the cinema they got a goodie bag with some comics, chocolate, free beer etc. Arthur arrived a bit early but too late to join in the sci-fi themed pub quiz in the bar (This was a bit annoying as Arthur and his friends seemed to know most of the answers between them).

The first film, 28 Days Later, was introduced by the director Danny Boyle who was on a whirlwind tour of the UK promoting the film at special advance screenings such as this. The film was good and a slightly different, modern take on the traditional zombie film.

Of the 3 classic films screened during the night, The Thing was the most enjoyable, closely followed by Mad Max 2. Unfortunatley the prints used were very old and scratchy. The begninnings and ends of each reel were particularly dirty. Blade runner, whilst a good film, was a bit too slow for the small hours of the morning and Arthur found himself having several power naps between scenes during the really slow bits.

Rahxephon was the unintentional comedy highlight of the night. It was a Japanese animated film that was essentially 24 half hour epsiodes of the regular Evangenion series pulled into one film with some new footage tacked on the end. The film makers simply chose to show various scenes, each lasting anywhere between 30 seconds and 5 minutes, and then with no explanation jump to the next scene with little cue cards inbetween each one saying something like "2 years, 48 days and 6 hours later....", This went on for the entire film and was so utterly incomprehensible it was hilarious.

Whilst the festival wasn't anywhere near the endurance marathon of the 10 film Black Sunday events of old, Arthur wasn't as young as he used to be and 10 years later, trying to stay awake all night wasn't anywhere near as easy! It also didn't help that Arthur had given up all caffeine several years earlier. Arthur had decided to make the evening a special exception to his "no caffeine" rule and took some Pro Plus with him. Unfortunatley, he had not anticipated the effect a sudden influx of large quantities of caffeine in tablet form would do to him and having taken a whole pill at the start of Mad Max 2, he spent most of the film having hot flushes and twitching with an unnaturally high heart rate! Having learnt a valuable lesson in taking the correct doses of any medicine, once the effects had worn off and Arthur was again feeling tired, he ensured he stuck to nibbling small quantities of each pill, which was not that easy given how small each one was in the first place!

The cinema also ordered pizzas for people from a shop just dowen the road. This sounded like a good idea and everyone was eating pizza during the films but unfortunatley the pizza shop in question was a bit high class and the pizzas that arrived had flavours like Aubergine or Beef Stroganoff. They were quite possibly the most unpleasnt pizzas Arthur had ever had the displeasure of eating. Still, it was food and at 3 am in the morning there really wasn't a lot of choice.

After the festival had finished, Arthur drove everyone home. It turned out there had been a storm during the night and the roads were covered with branches and flooded water. It was still quite windy with some occasional rain and trying to drive in such conditions was pretty tricky given that Arthur was particulalrly tired after a night with no sleep.

It had probably been almost 10 years since Arthur had attended a film festival of any considerable size when this event appeared. Arthur had been told about it by a friend who read 2000AD and although most of the films being shown were old, Arthur decided it was still definitely worth going as he had never seen many of them on a big screen.

The line up of films was slightly more complictaed than usual; The cinema had 2 screens and there would be different films showing on each one at the same time, except for the first film 28 Days later. The festival was attended by Arthur and 3 friends who chose to see Bladerunner, The Thing, Mad Max 2 and Neon Evnagelion (Japanese animation) in addition to the compulsory film 28 Days later.

Arthur drove everyone up to Oxford and found parking a few streets away pretty close to the cinema. Upon entering the cinema they got a goodie bag with some comics, chocolate, free beer etc. Arthur arrived a bit early but too late to join in the sci-fi themed pub quiz in the bar (This was a bit annoying as Arthur and his friends seemed to know most of the answers between them).

The first film, 28 Days Later, was introduced by the director Danny Boyle who was on a whirlwind tour of the UK promoting the film at special advance screenings such as this. The film was good and a slightly different, modern take on the traditional zombie film.

Of the 3 classic films screened during the night, The Thing was the most enjoyable, closely followed by Mad Max 2. Unfortunatley the prints used were very old and scratchy. The begninnings and ends of each reel were particularly dirty. Blade runner, whilst a good film, was a bit too slow for the small hours of the morning and Arthur found himself having several power naps between scenes during the really slow bits.

Rahxephon was the unintentional comedy highlight of the night. It was a Japanese animated film that was essentially 24 half hour epsiodes of the regular Evangenion series pulled into one film with some new footage tacked on the end. The film makers simply chose to show various scenes, each lasting anywhere between 30 seconds and 5 minutes, and then with no explanation jump to the next scene with little cue cards inbetween each one saying something like "2 years, 48 days and 6 hours later....", This went on for the entire film and was so utterly incomprehensible it was hilarious.

Whilst the festival wasn't anywhere near the endurance marathon of the 10 film Black Sunday events of old, Arthur wasn't as young as he used to be and 10 years later, trying to stay awake all night wasn't anywhere near as easy! It also didn't help that Arthur had given up all caffeine several years earlier. Arthur had decided to make the evening a special exception to his "no caffeine" rule and took some Pro Plus with him. Unfortunatley, he had not anticipated the effect a sudden influx of large quantities of caffeine in tablet form would do to him and having taken a whole pill at the start of Mad Max 2, he spent most of the film having hot flushes and twitching with an unnaturally high heart rate! Having learnt a valuable lesson in taking the correct doses of any medicine, once the effects had worn off and Arthur was again feeling tired, he ensured he stuck to nibbling small quantities of each pill, which was not that easy given how small each one was in the first place!

The cinema also ordered pizzas for people from a shop just dowen the road. This sounded like a good idea and everyone was eating pizza during the films but unfortunatley the pizza shop in question was a bit high class and the pizzas that arrived had flavours like Aubergine or Beef Stroganoff. They were quite possibly the most unpleasnt pizzas Arthur had ever had the displeasure of eating. Still, it was food and at 3 am in the morning there really wasn't a lot of choice.

After the festival had finished, Arthur drove everyone home. It turned out there had been a storm during the night and the roads were covered with branches and flooded water. It was still quite windy with some occasional rain and trying to drive in such conditions was pretty tricky given that Arthur was particulalrly tired after a night with no sleep.

It had probably been almost 10 years since Arthur had attended a film festival of any considerable size when this event appeared. Arthur had been told about it by a friend who read 2000AD and although most of the films being shown were old, Arthur decided it was still definitely worth going as he had never seen many of them on a big screen.

The line up of films was slightly more complictaed than usual; The cinema had 2 screens and there would be different films showing on each one at the same time, except for the first film 28 Days later. The festival was attended by Arthur and 3 friends who chose to see Bladerunner, The Thing, Mad Max 2 and Neon Evnagelion (Japanese animation) in addition to the compulsory film 28 Days later.

Arthur drove everyone up to Oxford and found parking a few streets away pretty close to the cinema. Upon entering the cinema they got a goodie bag with some comics, chocolate, free beer etc. Arthur arrived a bit early but too late to join in the sci-fi themed pub quiz in the bar (This was a bit annoying as Arthur and his friends seemed to know most of the answers between them).

The first film, 28 Days Later, was introduced by the director Danny Boyle who was on a whirlwind tour of the UK promoting the film at special advance screenings such as this. The film was good and a slightly different, modern take on the traditional zombie film.

Of the 3 classic films screened during the night, The Thing was the most enjoyable, closely followed by Mad Max 2. Unfortunatley the prints used were very old and scratchy. The begninnings and ends of each reel were particularly dirty. Blade runner, whilst a good film, was a bit too slow for the small hours of the morning and Arthur found himself having several power naps between scenes during the really slow bits.

Rahxephon was the unintentional comedy highlight of the night. It was a Japanese animated film that was essentially 24 half hour epsiodes of the regular Evangenion series pulled into one film with some new footage tacked on the end. The film makers simply chose to show various scenes, each lasting anywhere between 30 seconds and 5 minutes, and then with no explanation jump to the next scene with little cue cards inbetween each one saying something like "2 years, 48 days and 6 hours later....", This went on for the entire film and was so utterly incomprehensible it was hilarious.

Whilst the festival wasn't anywhere near the endurance marathon of the 10 film Black Sunday events of old, Arthur wasn't as young as he used to be and 10 years later, trying to stay awake all night wasn't anywhere near as easy! It also didn't help that Arthur had given up all caffeine several years earlier. Arthur had decided to make the evening a special exception to his "no caffeine" rule and took some Pro Plus with him. Unfortunatley, he had not anticipated the effect a sudden influx of large quantities of caffeine in tablet form would do to him and having taken a whole pill at the start of Mad Max 2, he spent most of the film having hot flushes and twitching with an unnaturally high heart rate! Having learnt a valuable lesson in taking the correct doses of any medicine, once the effects had worn off and Arthur was again feeling tired, he ensured he stuck to nibbling small quantities of each pill, which was not that easy given how small each one was in the first place!

The cinema also ordered pizzas for people from a shop just dowen the road. This sounded like a good idea and everyone was eating pizza during the films but unfortunatley the pizza shop in question was a bit high class and the pizzas that arrived had flavours like Aubergine or Beef Stroganoff. They were quite possibly the most unpleasnt pizzas Arthur had ever had the displeasure of eating. Still, it was food and at 3 am in the morning there really wasn't a lot of choice.

After the festival had finished, Arthur drove everyone home. It turned out there had been a storm during the night and the roads were covered with branches and flooded water. It was still quite windy with some occasional rain and trying to drive in such conditions was pretty tricky given that Arthur was particulalrly tired after a night with no sleep.