A Strange Affliction...

There's something that happens to me every once in awhile, that I just can't explain. Honestly, there are a number of things that happen to me that I can't explain, but this one in particular stands out at the moment. It's a very minor issue, not like a disease or terrible hardship. Just an oddity.

Every so often--from a few months to a couple of years apart--I get the overwhelming urge to watch the movie Lucky Number Slevin. Most of the time, I'm only barely aware that the movie exists (I assume this is the natural state in which most people exist with regards to this film), and can go ages without giving it a single thought. But then all of a sudden, I think to myself, "Wow, I really want to watch Lucky Number Slevin!" Which is not such a terrible thing, I guess. There are plenty of much worse movies I could watch. It has Morgan Freeman, Ben Kingsley, and Stanley Tucci in it, after all, not to mention Lucy Liu. But what makes it so strange is that... I was only moderately entertained by the movie the first time I watched it. And it's not one of those movies that gets better and better over time, either. I still find it only moderately entertaining. I'm also not a big fan of Josh Hartnett.

But for some inexplicable reason, every once in awhile, I just feel like I have to watch the movie. And it's not a particularly easy task. I don't own it because, as I've said, it's only an average film at best. It's not available for Instant Viewing on Netflix, it's not a film they show on TV very frequently, and it doesn't appear to be on YouTube in its entirety, like a lot of films are. I always check, just to be sure.

I suppose I could pay to watch it on Amazon Instant, or put it at the top of my Netflix queue and watch it in a day or two... But it never seems worth it, because, much as I want to watch it, I know in my heart it's only a mediocre movie. So I usually end up not watching the movie. I just bear with it, and eventually the feeling passes.

The very odd thing is that this overwhelming, inexplicable urge is how I ended up seeing the movie in the first place. Before the film's release, I saw the trailer and it looked pretty stupid. I promptly forgot all about it. Then, awhile later, a few weeks after the movie came out, I suddenly said to myself, completely out of the blue, "You know, I should totally go see that movie!" And I was really excited about it, too. So I paid to see it in the theater. It was OK. And I promptly forgot about it again, until maybe a year later, when I decided I really wanted to watch it a second time.

It kind of makes me wonder... Did this ever happen to me BEFORE the movie Lucky Number Slevin came out? There have been plenty of times in my life when I've really wanted something, but had no idea what it was. Could these have been early manifestations of Slevin Syndrome, that my brain just didn't know how to interpret, because the movie hadn't yet been made? I think this would be an issue worth considerable pondering, if I were ever to take up getting stoned.

So anyway, the other night, I happened to be flipping through the channels, and I noticed Lucky Number Slevin was about to be on, so I DVR'd it. And now I'm thinking of watching it. And thinking... "Meh. It's not really that great of a movie." Guess I'll just keep it around until the inevitable Slevin Syndrome sets in again...