So I finally got around to watching a movie my wife has long pushed me to see. Labyrinth. For those of you unfamiliar with it, this is the premise: Sarah (Jennifer Connolly) wishes that goblins would kidnap her screaming baby brother. When they actually do, she is forced to find her way through a massive labyrinth in order to re
scue him. She has all sorts of adventures along the way and befriends several mystical creatures (Jim Hensen Muppets) who give her the self-confidence to eventually confront the Goblin King Jareth (David Bowie). Clearly, as you can tell, it's an edge of your seat thriller.Bewildered as to how I managed to escape the eighties never having seen it, Melbo put Labyrinth into our Netflix queue the moment we signed up. "Mysteriously", in almost two years it's never managed to find itself in the "on deck" circle... that is, until last week. Melissa pulled a fast one and it ended up in poll position. She assured me, however, that it would be 101 minutes well spent. In hindsight, I'm convinced she's sporting a pair of rose-colored nostalgia glasses. After all these years, she still knew every word of each musical number and couldn't stop laughing at the farting bog of eternal stench.
Don't get me wrong, I didn't think it was all that bad... just over-rated. It certainly didn't bowl me over with a rush of childhood memories. Maybe to fully appreciate this cinematic opus, I needed to see it as a youngster. Perhaps then I'd be the one sporting those rose-colored glasses and would
rank Labyrinth right alongside my own childhood favorites like The Goonies, The Princess Bride, The Secret of Nimh, or Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Who knows, it may well be that others who didn't see these films when they were young might regard them much as I do Labyrinth. I think it's either that or, much as I might hate to admit it, I'm losing touch and becoming an old fart.
26 comments:
That would be pole position. What, didn't you have an Atari 2600 in the 80s either? Apparently not.
Touché
My favorite movies from when I was growing up are Rad and Thrashin', identical plots, one is BMX one is Skateboarding. But even if you watched them for the first time today you'd love them.
Let us not forget the classic, Gleaming the Cube!
I cannot believe that you went through childhood without seeing Labyrinth until just recently. I’ve always wanted a big flying dog after that movie. I feel that you were in some way robbed of your youth... at least The Secret of Nimh and The Goonies are on your list, had you missed them too I might nearly die.
The NeverEnding Story is what really gave me the itch to get a big flying animal. I'm still kinda' interested in one actually.
I loved the Labyrinth. We used to walk around my house singing, "What kind of magic spell to use: slime and snails or puppy dog tails." I seriously was in love with David Bowie. He's the only man I know of who looks hot in blue eyeshadow.
Thank you for illustrating my central point Dreamer... Blinding nostalgia is the only conceivable explanation for one who thinks David Bowie looks hot in blue eyeshadow.
Well Bohn we have something in common! I mean aside from our love of politics. I too have never seen the Labyrinth. I have caught a minute or two on TV and I have to say I don't feel that I was robbed at all. In fact I am now making it a personal goal to go the rest of my life with out seeing it. Despite being questioned numerous times why I had never seen such a great film.
Well, I've never seen Gar in blue eyeshadows, so maybe he looks hotter than Bowie...but that would be pretty hard to do.
Ah, the Labyrinth, David Bowie was spookie and hot at the same time. I would like to add Dark Crystal to the list. I loved that movie, it had so many weird creatures in it. I don't remember too much because it has been many years, but maybe I will add it to my Net Flix list, thanks for the reminder Marc.
I have seen this movie a couple of times, "You remind me of a babe. What babe? The babe with the power! What power? The power of Voodoo. Who do? YOU DO! Do what? Remind me of the babe!!!!!" What a great song. By the way, I only watched this movie in my youth. So for me these are real memories, not fake memories conjured up by watching the movie as an adult. Only losers do that.
Hey TFB,
"I saw my baby, crying hard as babe could cry
What could I do?
My baby's love had gone
And left my baby blue
Nobody knew:
What kind of magic spell to use?
Slime and snails
Or puppy dogs' tails
Thunder or lightning
Then baby said
Dance magic, dance
Dance magic, dance
Put that baby spell on me
Jump magic, jump
Jump magic, jump
Put that magic jump on me
Slap that baby, make him free."
Now I have to download the soundtrack of the Labyrinth to my iPod. And a large poster of Bowie in really tight Spandex for my wall.
Tough to get in on these so late in the game (mostly embarrassed my memory of the film doesn't come with the soundtrack). I must concur with the thumbs-up. I still get sick to the stomach and stressed out thinking about the evil little monsters turning the direction tiles in the ground every which way. Some may call it childhood paranoia of getting lost - I call it superb filmaking. Plus, no one but a genius could think up a BOG OF ETERNAL STENCH!
I personally thought David Bowie resembled Satan. My favorite from childhood is The Neverending Story, complete with Bastian, Atreyu, & Falcor (the aforementioned flying dog). Our dog, Malcolm, shares a strong resemblance to Gmork (the bearlike assistant to The Nothing), though he did frighten me as a child. BTW Marc, Goonies is pretty good even when you watch it as an adult. We saw it just lst week on TBS or something.
I agree... Goonies rocks. But did you see Goonies as a kid though? Whose to say we're not seeing it through rose-colored glasses? That said, it may be tough to get a reliable test subject here to prove my hypothesis because any kid that didn't see Goonies probably has issues from his upbringing anyway.
What about "The Vagatarians IV", I loved that movie as a kid! I watched it 3 times yesterday, and it's still sweet.
Time to stop milking this blog, Bohn. Let's have some new content.
Oh yeah yeah... the neverending story, maybe I haven't seen Labyrinth. Oops.
Time to stop nursing at the teat of this blog, Bohn.
Is there an echo in here?
Maybe the echo is telling you that it's time for a new post.
Maybe he was holding out for my response...
Don't let him fool you everyone, give it a few more viewings and Marc will be singing these tunes right along with us. The blue eyeshadow and tights came much sooner than that.
he doesn't need to post a new blog till commenting has died on this one... that way you get maximum comments per blog.
Maybe he will lose readership if he doesn't post again. I had to delete people from my blog links because they never updated their blogs. Let that be a warning to you Marc.
It's been seven days Dreamer... I think you're being a bit rash.
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