One of our listeners, the lovely Chris Bright, emailed me the other day about a new segment for Fulltime Casual: the best movies to watch when hung over. Its a bloody great idea, but being a lazy bastard, I asked him to write the first post. His first perfect hangover film is coming, but before then, Chris wrote up some guidelines as to how to pick the perfect hangover film:
Hangovers – we’ve all had one, and let’s be honest, when Saturday morning comes around we’ll all be sitting on the couch again, feeling and smelling like we’ve died a little inside.
So what can you do during this time of pain and regret? My advice is to have your girlfriend run to McDonald’s while you put on a movie, kick off your slippers and let your brain escape this horrible reality.
Selecting the perfect hangover movie is a difficult feat, and one that should be taken seriously. Nobody wants to sit for two hours while Ben Affleck makes your day worse than it already is.
The following guidelines can be used to avoid situations such as this:
1 – Genres
Keep it simple – comedy, action, adventure; no twists, minimal plot and entertaining enough to keep you occupied for the afternoon. Try to avoid any emotional dramas, thrillers with major plot twists and all horrors (at the slight chance that they are actually scary).
P.S. DO NOT WATCH ‘THE ORPHANAGE’ WHILE STONED! For anyone in the cinema that night, I apologise – wee actually came out.2 – Directors
Some knowledge of a director’s history will be required. As a rule of thumb, try to avoid anything written, directed or produced by Guillermo del Toro, Terry Gilliam, Richard Kelly or David Lynch. Most of these films will be far too complex for your brain to comprehend with a hangover, or they are simply just a collection of random thoughts that make no fucking sense at all.
3 – Actors
This is where it gets tricky, because you can’t select a movie based on an actor’s history. You also need to consider their potential to entertain (stick by Robert Downey Jr. and Sam Rockwell) and their relationship with the director (Johnny Depp is usually bankable, unless the movie is directed by Tim “Johnny Depp and my wife playing weird, take 14” Burton). As a rule of thumb, try to avoid anything written, directed, starring or even offered to David “I’m a whiney bitch” SchwimmerChris Bright
