Drive-in Resuscitation

Posted on July 20, 2008
Filed Under The culture of Movies | Leave a Comment

So all you ‘80’s babies are OK, but I was the one that wore it first. Hell if I dig through the clothes at my mom’s house I could possibly find some of the outfits I wore as an actual 1980’s teen. From fat laces and Vans to skate boards and scooters you can bring all that back but the one thing you really need is more access to; The Dive-in Movie Theater. The Drive-in isn’t just apart of 1950’s Americana, in the actual ‘80’s it was still very much a right of passage. I personally was fortunate enough to be able to run the whole gamete of the drive-in experience. From a young girl sitting on lawn chairs in front of the family car to meeting teen boys with friends to going on dates….at the drive in. I took for granted that the drive-in would always be around and future generations would be able to experience the vast knowledge acquired within the parameters of the giant screens.

I don’t remember the exact date or even year my twenties seem so long ago. Hell I don’t even remember the name of the movie, I’ll tell you about why. What I do remember is that this experience is what killed the drive in for me. My friends and I had our radio tuned into the station that plays the audio of what’s on the screen. The movie started and we settled in to watch, then it started. Every big rig truck on the nearby freeway had their CB radios on and apparently they sheared the frequency with the theater, so every few minutes the dialogue was interrupted by CB chatter. It was I guess a busy night for trucks so it got to the point that we couldn’t follow the plot. Hence why I can’t remember the title of the movie. Anyway, that particular drive-in closed not long after that experience and became a flea market, its two screens can be seen as a blur on the freeway, but inside they are hardly noticeable a forgotten relic of a bygone era that we call Americana.

But I will say that in Cali anyway we still boast a top five spot with twenty remaining theater’s. In the heyday of drive-in’s California’s highway’s boasted hundreds of them, easily accessible to the greatest number of vehicle’s and as industry moved forward large amounts of development, housing, and of course those pesky trucks. With ticket sales down, development had its way with the bay; drive-in theaters became strip malls, Condo’s and the dreaded or loved flea market. It is really very sad that there is such an experience with going to the drive-in that you can’t get at the walk-in movies, it is not so stuffy and regulated. The drive-in always reminded me of camping with a really big screen, I mean you damn near bring camping equipment with you when you get cold or hungry.

So it is a new century now, we take for granted all the technology around us, honestly when was the last time you left your cell phone at home, or didn’t bring your charger when you knew you were going to be out late? At the drive-in you can answer your phone but let’s be honest at the drive-in you’re either with who will call i.e. your good friends or they know not to call. Think about it if you remember them and ask if you don’t it will definitely bring a smile to that person’s face cause the drive-in was fun. There is now so much technology and so much alienation I think the drive-in is a perfect way to re-engage with the human not just an avatar. Don’t be afraid you don’t even have to get out of the car, well unless you have to pee.

In the time of I-phones, internet and satellite radio why can’t you just put a little money into the drive-in. Maybe it isn’t as profitable as a million-plex but sometimes what is gained is human loyalty, why couldn’t it be used in the off season for gatherings and parties; that could make some of the money up. The technology to improve the audio possibly exists if it doesn’t it is close. Much of what we associate with American culture has already disappeared soon children will only know how others interrupt our culture. Children are no longer able to appreciate a great movie because the next great movie is pushing the first off the big screen to the home screens.

The Name of the Rose

Posted on July 20, 2008
Filed Under A Movie you Might have Missed | Leave a Comment

     So as a huge fan of movies I love when I find what I call “a movie to fall asleep to” all my friends know because they tease me.  Here’s how it works, I see a movie in the theater and I really enjoy it, so I buy it on DVD, then at night I put it into my DVD player and if after that first night I fall asleep after the first thirty minutes then in my DVD player is where it stays for the next month.  “A movie that I can fall asleep to” this is defiantly an area where I get to talk about those movies, as well as some movies you should give a second chance to.  This time it is a little gem from 1986 called “ The Name of the Rose” , it was released amongst the “The Terminator’s” and “The Beverley Hills Cops”  that is why you missed perhaps.  Jean-Jacques Annand directed “The Name of the Rose” based on Umberto Eco’s Italian novel “Il Nome Della Rosa” released in the early 1980’s.  I love when a movie like this one catches my eye, it is like possessing a secret that few have, and hell I’ve never been good at keeping secrets so I’m sharing with you.  I want to give you enough to make the movie  interesting enough in seeing the movie, so I will try as much as possible to give information without spoiling the plot too much, and for those that have seen it, SHH.
     “The Name of the Rose” takes place in a 14th century Benedictine Abbey.  Yes, I know it is a period piece but it is really a great story with creepy and haunting visual’s, the 1980’s really had something with their period pieces there are a few more that I will get to later.  Anyway, Sean Connery and a very young Christen Slater star as William of Baskerville and Adso of Melk, respectively.  The story is narrated by Adso as an old man writing his memories before he can no longer remember them.  This story is like one of his memories, a stroll through a man living in a very complicated time, trying to reconcile his own journey.  At one point he reminisces about a sexual encounter that is pretty graphic on the screen, and I have been a Christen Slater fan ever since.  OK back to the movie, the story starts with William and Adso’s arrival at the Abbey, and they are greeted with odd fellows that are not happy to see the traveler’s.  They learn of a death that occurred and William is asked to find if it was an “unholy” means of death.  While William and Adso investigate the death more deaths occur with the coming of the Franciscan’s, seeking to close the Abbey, the monk’s are desperate to keep their secrets close. As William start to unravel the mystery they are drawn to a mysterious artifact that seems to be the center of the deaths. What I most enjoyed about the plot is as it continued to the climax the suspect list grew, and The Franciscan monk William uses his intellect to solve the crime much like a detective in a “Who Done It” way.  Much to the disgust and unease of the monks.
     This movie has of course some religious undertones to it but done in the period, its aesthetics felt as if I had traveled in a time machine, like I should take a shower after I watch the movie because of the grime I collected in the 14th century.  It has blood, gore, suspense, mystery, the only thing that this movie is missing is a car chase, and everything else about the movie more then makes up for it, really come on they didn’t even have cars in the 14th century.  I know it’s an old movie I’m sure that you can find it very easily I did.  Let me know what you think and don’t spoil the plot to much but I do hope you like it.

I Feel Left Out

Posted on July 19, 2008
Filed Under The culture of Movies | Leave a Comment

So I spend a lot of time watching TV and trying to find entertainment for the thirty to forty set.  With the exception of Law and Order why is TV marketed for those under or over thirty?  I like cheesy reality TV but I feel like advertisers don’t care if I watch, I just sat though one and noticed that all the commercials were targeted towards the unders.  Even with the one series that I watch doesn’t market to me. I usually flip channels during commercials and then forget to turn back. I loved Transformers, it wasn’t marketed to me but I liked it so much I bought it on DVD, even though as the statistics in the world say to leave me out. I get the whole get the most for your money, but not all of us have disposable enough income to buy a high end car nor children under the age of five.  Some of us however, do have children old enough to get a job, thus a little money finally, to myself.   So how old or young are you if you are in your thirty’s? Lots has been said about “The thirty’s being the new twenty’s” but I don’t see any problem with being thirty.  I’ve also felt that as a woman in my thirty’s that I’m not young nor am I old.  In my twenty’s I was confused and running wild and somehow like magic I turned thirty and the world suddenly became clear.  Everything was beautiful, and I was, what is that saying “young enough to know better and old enough not to give a damn” well that is how I felt drinking my drinks on a cruise for my introduction to womanhood, I mean my thirtieth birthday.  I felt great, sophisticated, grown, then it hit me, nothing is marketed to my age range and suddenly the sought out girl of twenty became the left out women of thirty.  What the hell, single, older child, disposable income why isn’t advertisers trying to sell me anything.  I mean in less I’m depressed, or married with children, but maybe I want to buy a Hybrid vehicle, what only young people can care, why are all those ads geared toward young college students.  I don’t get it, it goes back to the whole gotta pick a side thing immature or over bearing, why can’t we just be grown?  I mean how do you, advertising think those in the forty plus set found you in the first place?  Not every women watch sports with men, we also don’t always want an overly sappy gimmick, speak to us honestly, we can handle the truth.  Hell it is to hard to remember what lie you told you end up contradicting yourself, that’s something I learned in my twenties.  As far as I can see I might as well just save my money because no one wants me to spend.  I enjoy hanging out with my friends going to the movies but we don’t necessarily want to see a “Chick Flick” or “Romantic Comedy” or “Family Film”.
We thirtyers have to choose between being immature or overbearing but why can’t we like action packed movies with a storyline that doesn’t have to be a corny romance.  Sometimes a girl wants to go and see the cars chasing and the guns blazing.    I am not a fan of the romantic comedy and that seems to be all that’s geared towards women of thirty, WHY?  I ask again why can’t their be a time in your life when you can relate to your children and relate with your mother?  The  way I see it this period of my life has been the most drama free I have ever been and I gotta tell you I’m lovin’ it, why shouldn’t I?  So why don’t movies reflect the real women of thirties?  So this is what I say it is OK to have a movie with a good story, lots of action and explosions, and no romance just cause you think that’s why we the thirty set wants to see.  With gas prices the way they are we aren’t really trying to drive to far so the movies are perfect, but movies that are geared for my age group are a little corny, the remake of movies that we grew up on, they were exploited in the 1990’s so why not come up with a new character?  And don’t forget to include the women between thirty and forty into the storyline, cause if the story is good lots of women will want to see it.

“I Miss Mystery”

Posted on July 19, 2008
Filed Under Future of Film Genre | Leave a Comment

     So when was the last time you saw a “Who done it”?  I mean a real “Who done it” where the audience doesn’t know who the killer is until the sleuth solves the case?  When I was young there was no cable, no video games, no cell phones, and defiantly no internet, as a child I read. I know it’s a crazy concept but unless you could go outside (I couldn’t) you were at home with nothing to do, so why not read. Anyway, I was introduced to Sherlock Holmes at a very young age and although I could never solve the crime before Holmes, I could not stop reading.  When I got a little older and TV got cable, I found Agatha Christie’s book’s made into movies on TV.  Herclue Periot was a great detective the stories were entertaining and I still could never figure out who the killer was.  Their are a couple of more “Who done it” television, books, but what about movies.  Why are their no “Who done it’s” on the big screen?
     So what is so wrong with the “Who done it?”  Why can’t we, the audience try to solve the case for ourselves?  Has Holmes become a dinosaur, someone that is studied in specialized college classes?  Has technology so wiped our short term memory that we as a society can no longer think and observe at the same time?   I feel like we should all be insulted by the insinuation that because movies are targeted to the youth that they wouldn’t be interested in something that we may not understand at first.  Though there are many movies that left a twist to the end my favorites are “The Usual Suspects” and “Primal Fear” they are great.  They still aren’t “Who done it’s” but if a movie with a final twist can be popular then why not mystery?  I know that some of you will rattle off names of movies that fit a mystery like criteria but they aren’t.  We all ways know who the bad guys are and who will be going to jail or dieing in the end. 
     If it is a matter of technology there are all kinds of gadgets and technology that can be used in the guise of a good mystery.  If it’s a matter of violence, sex, or criminality, it’s a mystery the story could really go where ever the imagination will take you.  Like a good science fiction, a mystery can be as realistic or fantastic as the mind can go.  Oh I know what the problem is, what if it doesn’t make any money, but why couldn’t a good mystery make as much money as science fiction? Or is there to much reality in mystery to make moviegoers watch? What I mean is that murder and mayhem pollute are news channels and makes us ever aware that death lurks on every corner.   Could this avoidance of mystery be a larger statement of the fears of our real world?  We live in very uncertain times and murder is everywhere.  Maybe that is why Hollywood shies away from mystery, but the audience isn’t the killer and in real life it isn’t always case closed so neat and tidy.  I say give them mystery and the people will come.