‘Twas a long weekend for me thanks to the Columbus day holiday and my usual Fridays off. Didn’t accomplish much, unfortunately, as I got sidetracked about halfway through last week with something strongly resembling the flu or thereabouts, which I still haven’t totally shaken.

That said, I spent quite a lot of the last four and a half days installed on the couch resting, recouperating, and dozing through a parade of movies, most of which I remember.

The highlights? I watched the entire original Planet of the Apes five-film cycle, thanks to a good deal on the Blue-Ray set at Costco a couple of weeks back. I’ve seen them all multiple times, though this was the first time I saw them all in such quick succession. It’s interesting to watch the aspirations for storytelling to go up while the production budget goes down as you progress through the series. I’ve also always been intrigued by the fact that (despite the big reveal at the end of film one), you can start the series pretty much anywhere and are able to coherently watch the films in order.

I also finally caught “The Rocketeer,” a movie that’s always been praised but I’ve never seen. And yeah, I can see how it was pretty much Joe Johnston’s demo reel for “Captain America.” Also, Jennifer Connelly in a 30s LA period piece is pretty much amazing.

I watched the usual “I’m sick and I give up” double-feature of “Bring It On” and “Real Genius,” two huge comfort films for me that I never get completely tired of.

Finally, I did some digging through the Star Trek catalog (thanks to the whole of it being available on Netflix instant now), and saw, among other things, the TNG episode “Q Who” which is the first introduction to the Borg. I remember this episode totally blowing my mind as a teenager, with the whole “things will never be the same!” vibe it brought with it. Those cyborg guys in the big cube ships were seriously ominous in that episode. Even with their being so de-fanged later in the series, it brought a smile to my face to see them at their most fearsome and unstoppable.

And yeah, in moments of lucidity, I finished off a playthrough of “Fallout: New Vegas” – hitting the level cap is pretty much the signal to hurry up and finish things already instead of just digging around in the rubble, isn’t it?