My Summer Challenge

Well, it's summer...or so my sweat glands tell me so.  it's hot out, people are dressing with less and less everyday, and the giant burning ball of death is staying in our sky longer.

So what better way to celebrate than to challenge myself to another movie marathon.

Oh, you didn't hear about the first one?  That's a shame, but I shall retell the tale.

As everyone knows (or should know by now) I am a huge fan of two things.  First, Joss Whedon.  The man has such an awesome touch to everything he does, and his shows are among my favorites.  Second, the Marvel movies that have been coming out the past 10 years.  What can I say, aside from a few bad ones, they are all generally pleasing to my inner geek.

So when The Avengers was scheduled to come out, my lovely wife pointed out that our local theatre was doing an Ultimate Marvel Movie Marathon.  That event entailed Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor in 3D, Captain America in 3D, all leading up to the midnight release of The Avengers in 3D.  In total that's over 14 hours in the theatre.  14 glorious hours of movies and geekery.

So what's a person to do?  I bought two tickets, and took one of my closest friends, who was also available that day.  Neither of us had tried this before, and so we packed appropriately, dressed in layers, hired some street urchins to be our messengers and delivery boys for food, and packed in.

Needless to say, we survived.  It was tough (it's surprising how much sitting takes out of a man) but we made it through all the awesomeness and glory, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!

But it left me with a hunger...a hunger for more events like this...

So now we're at the Summer Challenge.  This is my way of enjoying summer, and what a task it is!

Here are the rules I'm setting forth:

1.  Every day I watch a movie, I will spend time at the gym equal to the running time of the movie I will watch.

2.  I will watch them in order, without fast forwarding past boring, scary, confusing, or stupid parts.

3.  I will not buy or rent the DVDs to watch, instead, I must find them on Netflix (or anywhere else on the Internet) or borrow them from friends.

4.  I will review each one after watching it.  Here, on my blog.

5.  I will finish the entire list prior to the first day of Fall, which is September 22nd, 2012.

There you go.  The rules are set, now all I need is the list.  Thanks to Glenn Kenny, one has already been compiled for me.  Here's the list, in order:

50)  Ghostbusters 2
49)  Cars
48)  Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
47)  The Bourne Ultimatum
46)  Conan the Barbarian
45)  Gremlins
44)  Friday the 13th
43)  Risky Business
42)  Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
41)  For Your Eyes Only
40)  Minority Report
39)  Ocean's Thirteen
38)  The Bourne Identity
37)  The Fifth Element
36)  You Only Live Twice
35)  Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl
34)  Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
33)  Toy Story 3
32)  Mission Impossible 2
31)  The Omega Man
30)  Tron
29)  Psycho
28)  The Shining
27)  Trading Places
26)  Predator
25)  War of the Worlds
24)  Mission Impossible
23)  Return of the Jedi
22)  Total Recall
21)  Coming to America
20)  The Road Warrior
19)  Top Gun
18)  Die Hard
17)  The Blues Brothers
16)  Independence Day
15)  Back to the Future
14)  Jurassic Park
13)  Aliens
12)  The Avengers
11)  Ghostbusters
10)  Terminator 2
9)  Animal House
8)  Raiders of the Lost Ark
7)  The Empire Strikes Back
6)  The Dark Knight
5)  Blade Runner
4)  E.T.
3)  Alien
2)  Jaws
1)  Star Wars A New Hope

Now, the only issue with this list is that by the time I get to #12, it will be out of the theatres, but not available on DVD or Blu-Ray before my deadline, but since I've seen it thrice, I think we can call that one watched...

So, dear Readers, will you join me on this indoor movie fest?  Maybe even just the exercise part?