fine whine

I'm beginning to think I've seen too many movies. While I've had this inkling of a suspicion for quite some time, tonight the point was driven home.

Knowing there was no general DVD release of it yet and thus my library wouldn't be acquiring it soon, I used one of my preciousssss Netflix queue spots for Martin Scorsese's After hours. I'd heard good things about it though as usual I was skeptical, since most of the good things I'd heard and read originated from the films' most rabid fans.

So it goes. I put in the disc (prominently marked FOR RENTAL ONLY) and let it go.

Slowly, though, I started to have an inkling of a suspicion of familiarity, and this was not the familiarity to the seedy, paranoid and surreal undercurrent below our cities' dark cultures but the familiarity in the literal sense of having seen it before. I'd watched the movie before, likely on AMC, and in the past five years no less.

Except that I'd forgotten everything except for a couple important but small scenes starring Cheech and Chong.

I could use the excuse that I've seen four hundred films in between, but to have forgotten 90% of a film completely and utterly boggles my mind.

The film, forgettable as it apparently is, is amusing and even pretty smart at times, but I could well find myself stumbling across it again and wondering if I'd seen it.

The strangest thing is that I'd apparently never moved it across lists from "to watch" to "watched" on my Palm. Now why would(n't) I do that?