Three point five hours shy of a Wednesday three.

Three films I saw over the weekend, in no particular order:

• Pearl Jam Twenty: probably only for die hard fans so it's good that I am one - Cameron Crowe did a really, really great job.
  
• My Own Private River: a compilation of extra shots from My Own Private Idaho that Gus Van Sant (in a possibly ill-advised state of mind) consented to James Franco making into a movie.
• My Own Private Idaho: to remind myself that the original was really brilliant and I miss River Phoenix.

I can't leave the last two at that though. The original was filmed in Portland twenty years ago, so the "remake" screening was a benefit for a local nonprofit theater, and I happily paid a hefty price to be able to sit 10 feet from James Franco and Gus Van Sant for 30 minutes while they explained Franco's interpretation of the film. The film itself... Well, I hadn't seen the original in years and I meant to watch it before the benefit but didn't get around to it, so I'm sure some of it was lost on me.

(Digression: As a result, after the viewing I tried to Netflix the original ($^%& new Netflix! NOTHING WORTH WATCHING IS STREAMING!) and then drove to the local rental place to snag the last VHS copy they had.

Yes, I still have a VHS player. In case you needed more proof that I am behind the times. End of digression.)

All in all, I thought Franco did a much better job capturing the intimacy between the two main characters and explaining the overall story... but I also thought it was about an hour too long. A combo of the two would have been amazing.

The original is still brilliant, although somewhat misguided in its attempt to incorporate Shakespearean dialogue. (Our street folk are good, but they're not that good.)

I was actually a bit surprised to learn it was filmed in downtown Portland. One of their frequent run-down haunts is a frequent more-upscale happy hour haunt for us twenty years later.

Kinda neat.

Kinda weird.