Mixed Tape Movies: What we did on our summer holiday

In the eighties it was the-thing-to-do to make a mixed tape (like an mp3 but touchable, always in need of a pencil and definitely cooler). On it you would make a little playlist of all the cool songs. Now the trick was to make each song correspond with the rest of the tape. In this post I will try to do the same with movies.

Every once in a while I will select a general topic and select movies to accompany it. As you can see the more child-friendly movies are at the start of the day, but  when night falls: ‘here be monsters’. Please feel free to give suggestions of other unknown movies.

One rule though: Auteur themes like ‘Shakespeare’ or ‘James Bond’ are not allowed. ‘Spy-movies’, naturally, are.

Theme: Summer holiday.

While I am writing this on the third day of Christmas it's actually freezing outside. So a perfect time, for me, to explore some sun filled summer movies.

08:00-10:00

Swallows and Amazons: The ultimate summer holiday kids film. I prefer the 1974 One over the other versions because it has the best mixture of childish joy and adventure. True, this version is probably terribly boring for today’s kids (I almost fell asleep when I re-watched it a few months back) but still here it is.

10:00-12:00 

Troop Beverly Hills: Spoiled children and dirt: always a wonderful combination. Troop Beverly Hills proves that there is movie material even in the fleetest of single-joke-concepts. Still it works because the writers managed to give this movie a bit of heart. Even the most cynical part of me can’t deny that. 

12:00-14:00

Camp nowhere: A hilarious comedy that’s gradually building up to the final act in which the movie can go absolutely bonkers. In this sense it’s a one trick pony, but with a heart of gold.

The kids are shipped off to a camp they don’t want to be in. And the camp leader is in no way, fit to control the children. But in the end he, in his clumsiness, learns them all the valuable lessons in life. As a good movie should do.

14:00-16:00

Don’t tell mom: the babysitter is dead: A very uneven movie that was sold to the cinemagoers as a black comedy featuring an evil incarnate 80+ babysitter. Nothing is further from the truth.

DTMTBID is basically a troop of abandoned children trying to make do in which every endeavour succeeds far above any (reality based) expectations. As ‘80s movies usually do.

I would have preferred an all out war between the babysitter and the kids (like Schatjes). But, then again, the end result is too sweet not to like. Plus it features Mulder (David Duchovny) playing an absolute bastard.

16:00-17:00

The great outdoors: Two John Candy movies back-to-back. First The great outdoors. John Candy was great at playing the ‘regular’ father who ends up in a whole mess of problems. This movie is no exception. But with a twist: there is a big scary bear chasing him.

17:00-19:00

Summer rental: The second Candy movie is the better one. The balance between the family members and their own problems is a bit more leveled out. Also this movie features a delicious villain and some strange pirates.

19:00-21:00

What we did on our holiday: Billy Connolly is one of the greatest comedians ever. But he’s also a rather gifted actor (just take Mss. Brown for instance). Here he plays the grandfather of a bunch of kids who likes the idea of a viking burial. So, when he dies on the beach, they grant grandpa’s last wish.

Which isn’t something their parents quite agree with.

21:00-23:00

Welp/Cup: Boy scouts. I could have opted for the classic Follow me boys!. But that one is a bit too patriotic for my taste. Cup shows what boys truly are like (getting the porn mags out the minute their leader left). With this grounded approach to scout-life this movie offers a wonderful dark tale of a madman in the woods. And since this is a European movie, don’t expect all the scouts to survive the night.

23:00-01:00

Sleepaway camp: The ending. Oh, my, God, the ending.

I started at the screen for a solid three minutes when I saw it. Then I started in a giggly fit.

It is also one of the most brutal yet bloodless slashers I’ve ever seen.

 
01:00-03:00 

Friday the 13^th: The classic. What went on at Crystal Lake? The original is perfect in every way. True, you need a small acceptance for bad acting. But apart from that it’s a wonderful ride because you never see Jason coming.