Did you ever see the movie Fight Club? It is pretty good, if a bit disturbing, and is sometimes known in popular culture for the bars of Fight Club Soap that were given out to journalists and probably also movie theater owners as a promotional item when the film was first released. While soap-making is a sub-plot thread within the film (don’t ask) these bars of soap do not actually appear in the movie. In short order, however, sellers of novelty items started making Fight Club soap that you could actually buy, and now you can find these bars all over with a variety of sayings on them. Because that is how it works.
It is no secret that two of my favorite things to do are drinking and watching movies. So, I’m sure you can imagine how filled I was with ecstatic delight when I received a review copy of this fun new book called Lights Camera Booze! What a great title! Lights Camera Booze is a book filled with hilarious, illustrated Drinking Games based on many very popular movies such as American Pie, The Big Lebowski, Fight Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. Exciting!
Authors Kourtney Jason and Lauren Metz (with illustrations by Amanda Lanzane) have come up with games for thirty-three films, most of which are just legendary (“Bueller?”), so watching them while playing a drinking game can possibly make them even more memorable – or not, depending on how well you hold your liquor! Just looking through the pages of games made me want to start drinking and watching movies right away!
Dirty Dancing Drinking Game
What makes this book even more insanely fun is that the ladies of Lights Camera Booze have also inccluded cocktail recipes related to a central theme/meme of each film (which they call the “Drink of The Game”) so you can get even more nerdily into it. For example, you can:
Take a sip from a Sex Panther each time Anchorman’sRon Burgundy incorrectly states a fact!
Guzzle a glass of McLovin-Ade each time Seth draws a Penis in Superbad!
Down a White Russian each time The Dude, well, downs a White Russian in The Big Lebowski!
Trivia From Legally Blonde
And in case your head is not already exploding in anticipation of playing all of these games while enjoying moments of sweet nostalgia during your favorite movies, each game is also accompanied by a list of interesting trivia associated with that title. Did you know that after the film Scream’s release, the use of Caller ID more than tripled? I did not know that!
Lights Camera Booze would make the Best Christmas Gift Ever for the film-addicted booze hounds on your list and absolutely must be kept on hand for all of your future Movie Watching Parties.
Lights Camera Booze can be purchased in both Paperback and Kindle formats via Amazon.com by clicking This Link!
The first time I saw Fight Club, the wonderful, mind-fuck of a movie based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk, I was so seriously enthralled and dumbfounded by the film, I somehow convinced myself that I’d just watched a brilliant work of science fiction. I’ve seen Fight Club a couple of times since then and I can’t really recall why I originally thought the film had a science fiction theme, since it’s really about a guy who’s either severely mentally ill or just an extreme sociopath (and maybe the two aren’t mutually exclusive).
What made Fight Club so memorable, for me, was the insane originality and rich complexity of the plot. I figured Palahniuk had to be some kind of amazingly twisted writer to come up with most of the key plot devices in that film, because, seriously, who thinks of shit like stealing human fat to make soap? Secretly, I prayed that more of Chuck Palahniuk’s novels would be made into great, edgy films – and now my prayers have been answered!
Brad William Henke and Sam Rockwell in Choke
Last night I attended an advance screening of the new comedy Choke, Sponsored by Radar Magazine as part of their Summer Solstice Screening Series. Based on Palahniuk’s popular novel of the same title. Choke stars Sam Rockwell (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind) Angelica Huston and Kelly MacDonald (No Country For Old Men), and is directed by triple-threat actor/screenwriter/director Clark Gregg. You might know Gregg from his ongoing role as Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s ex-husband in The New Adventures of Old Christine. In Choke, Rockwell plays Victor, a sex addicted colonial park tour guide whose mother (Huston) has been committed to a home for the mentally ill.
Victor also runs a little scam on the side, pretending to choke on his food while dining in restaurants, either to simply gain attention or to somehow score a monetary settlement from the restaurant. I don’t want to give away too much about the film because there are so many twists and turns on his completely hilarious, deeply psychological and outrageously sexual journey that I think it’s best seen with a “fresh head” – knowing as little in advance as possible. If you’ve read the novel, I understand that Gregg achieved a very faithful adaptation. I absolutely loved the movie. Choke is rated R for lots of sex, nudity and bad words, but who doesn’t love that?
After the screening, we were treated to a brief Q&A session with a Palahniuk, Gregg and Rockwell who answered a half dozen or so questions about how the film was made (on a very tight budget within a schedule of less than 30 days) and their personal experiences of working on the project. Thanks to Radar Magazine and additional sponsor, Belvedere Vodka, screening guests received a gift bag stuffed with a huge coffee table book of photography, a CD, a copy of Radar, a canned coffee drink, a sex toy and John Varvatos aftershave and cologne – not a bad haul for a free event!
