I'm one of those guys who loves watching movies... but doesn't enjoy watching The Oscars. Sure... I'll look to see who won some of the major categories in the morning. But that's only because all of my friends will be discussing it tomorrow at lunch and I don't want to be completely oblivious.
Nope. While millions of people are laughing at Jimmy Kimmel's jokes, playing drinking games, and finding out whether or not Denzel Washington takes home his third Oscar... I'll be sleeping. Yup. Sleeping.
I've been sick the past few days with a head cold... and tomorrow I'm back in the classroom, so I need to get as much rest as I can.
However... before I hit the sack, here's a quick recap of some 2011 Panini Americana blasters I broke over the weekend.
I picked up ten of these blasters off of Dave and Adam's during their Black Friday sale for $55. Each blaster contained 8 packs (5 cards per pack) with one guaranteed relic card per box.
With only 100 cards on the checklist, I figured I would be able to make at least one... possibly two hand collated sets.
2011 Panini Americana #12
Unfortunately... I came up one card short. Anyone out there have an extra Gloria Stuart laying around? I have plenty of doubles, triples, and quadruples to trade.
Don't worry Panini. It's not like I purchased these boxes for the base cards. I was mainly interested in pulling a James Dean or Marilyn Monroe relic. Let's see how I fared...
I kicked things off with a movie I had never heard of before. At least I recognized both of the stars featured on this card and it looks like this movie was nominated for an Academy Award for Outstanding Production (Best Picture) back in 1934.
Relic #2: The Towering Inferno (1974)
I watched this movie years ago, but never realized it won 3 Academy Awards (Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, and Best Original Song) back in 1975. I just remember that there were a lot of famous people in the film.
I've heard of this film, but have never seen it. According to Wikipedia, it won four Academy Awards (Best Actress, Best Screenplay Writing, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress), so maybe I should give it a shot.
Vivien Leigh took home an Academy Award for Best Actress for this movie... and for another film you may have heard of... Gone with the Wind.
Relic #4: National Velvet (1944)
Okay. I'm starting to realize that most of these relics involve movies that premiered way before I was born.
Never heard of this movie... but I have heard of Elizabeth Taylor. She's the woman that stole Carrie Fisher's father away from her mom. Oh... and she won a pair of Academy Awards for Best Actress too.
Relic #5: Rebel Without A Cause (1955)
I'm a huge fan of movie posters and this one is pretty awesome. Plus... it's my first chance at pulling a James Dean relic. Let's see if I do...
Aww shucks. Oh well... at least Natalie Wood is a nice consolation prize. She was nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for this movie.
Duplicate. See Relic #3
Relic #7: Mezzogiorno Di Fuoco (High Noon) (1952)
I'm a big fan of westerns. Heck... Wyatt Earp, Young Guns, and Tombstone would all fall within my top 200 movies of all-time. But surprise, surprise... I've never heard of Mezzogiorno Di Fuoco. Grace Kelly? Yes. Who hasn't heard of Princess Grace? Gary Cooper? Hell yeah! Pride of the Yankees is one of my favorite sports films of all-time. But sorry High Noon fans. This film just wasn't on my radar.
However now that I know that it took home 4 Academy Awards in 1953, I'm excited to check it out.
Yeehaw! A sports film! Wait. Haven't heard of this movie either. Was this the prequel to Caddyshack? With Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis starring, it's safe to assume that this is a comedy. And it looks like some of the biggest names in golf made cameos.
Relic #9: Rebel Without A Cause (1955)
Another shot at a Dean relic... and another miss. Oh well. At least this is a dual this time. This time Wood is paired up with Sal Mineo, who was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for this film.
Laurie was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role (The Hustler) and nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role twice (Carrie and Children of a Lesser God). But like most of the movies featured in this post... I hadn't heard of her.
Which means that the Cardboard Gods made sure to load me up with her cardboard. I pulled both of her insert cards:
Wrapping up these blaster boxes were these two numbered parallels:
The Noth will go into my Prime Numbers PC, while the Ventimiglia will go into my ever-growing box of non-sports inserts/parallels.
I didn't pull a Dean or Monroe memorabilia card... and you can pick up these blasters for $10 less now... but overall... I'm happy with this box break.
Now it's time to rest and recuperate. In the meantime, maybe you can help me out. Outside of The Towering Inferno, I haven't seen any of these films featured on these relics.
Which of these films would you recommend to others?
Enjoy The Oscars! Happy Sunday and sayonara!
11 comments:
Chris Noth! Looks like you had a blast(er). too bad not more from our generation.
Forgot to say hope you feel better-
My mom would drag me to all those star loaded disaster movies: Towering Inferno. Earthquake. Even the none disasters like Midway. If it was filmed in Sensorround, we caught it in the theater.
Hope you feel better! If you are ever looking to unload movie relics like these, I am your guy!
Some pretty big names there, Elizabeth Taylor, Mae West, Cary Grant, McQueen ... I haven't seen it but I'm partial to the 1920's and 30's (Marx Bros. era) so I'd personally look for the Mae West, Cary Grant film.
I didn't know you could catch colds in California. Feel better Fuji.
As for films I'd recommend to others, I'd say go with foreign films that aren't in English. Try and see what filmmakers in other countries have to offer. Akira Kurosawa films are my first go to recs (because #JapanesePride) but then I usually try and recommend others that aren't so revered like L'Enfant from Belgium or randomly plucked out Bollywood films.
For being a movie buff who has seen literally thousands of movies, I can't say I've given any of the ones above much thought. I probably haven't seen any of them - but then again I'm not a drama guy. I'd recommend The Caddy because it's a comedy, even though I've never seen it.
You got some big classic names there, and 2011 Americana was mainly classic actors when it came to relics. And if I was living in the US, I'd certainly pay $50 for 10 hits plus pretty close to a full set. (I might already have a set, though.) Busting boxes of Americana is always fun.
Looks like a fun break for a decent price! Bummer about the collation though
Good stuff...old movies I have never heard of before.
My Mom doesn't like many movies past 1965 so I've seen a lot of these!
b man - this product was weird. the base set contained a lot of modern people i didn't recognize... and the stars from the 70's, 80's, and 90's were mainly "b" level, while the relics were all about the classic movies. at least most of these people were icons
jedijeff - not really familiar with sensorround, but i think i might have seen earthquake too.
sport card collectors - thanks. feeling much better. not sure what i'm going to do yet. kinda tempted to order more of these and build the set ;)
hackenbush - i'll have to see if that one is available online. i don't think i'll be buying the dvd or bluray anytime soon
zippy - i'm a huge fan of kurosawa films. well at least his samurai ones. own all of them and watch them every now and then
ryan - the caddy was probably the second film i was going to look into... right after rebel without a cause. i'm actually considering busting twenty more boxes of this stuff and trying to build the set.
ketchupman36 - yeah... not sure what's up with the collation. eighty packs and no set? at least the relics were cool.
sumomenkoman - lol. me either
matthew scott - would you highly recommend watching any of these?
Post a Comment