Monday, June 02, 2008

My Perfect Movie Experience

I come from a small town outside of Chicago. When I was growing up the population was about 8,000 people. I swear to God, I lived in a yellow house on Main Street. My dad was a teacher and coach at the high school - my mom a nurse at a nursing home right across the street. It was really a pretty fantastic childhood. We had a movie theater in town -- The Hub. And I saw a lot of movies there -- Back To The Future 1 and 2, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure 1 and 2, Hoosiers, Dirty Dancing, (which I had to sneak into because it was too racy, according to my mother) Clash of the Titans, Indiana Jones and a bunch more that I don't remember. There were three screens. Well, Rochelle has grown and The Hub after being closed down for a long time has reopened.

I'm home visiting my folks and last night they sent me out, by myself, with five bucks in my pocket to go see Indiana Jones at the Hub.

Best freaking time I've had at the movies in ages!!

The Hub is exactly the same as it was - I swear the Coming Soon posters could have been for Back To the Future III. The floor is still the stickiest floor known to the movie going public and the seats still recline so far back that half the time I wondered if they were all still broken. No air conditioning so the sound has to compete with two giant fans at the front of the theater.
It was nostalgia at it's best. And then - Indy. Oh! Indy. Now, granted - last night I was the easiest movie goer in history. I couldn't have had a critical thought if they paid me.

Sinead and I got in an argument a while ago. She argued that no sequel was going to be as good as the first Indy movie and my point was - with this freaking team they should knock this movie out of the park. It should be better than the first and I realize now - it's not possible. Indiana Jones was a great movie at a great time - it's about the context of nothing being like it before and nothing but imitations after. But this 4th installment seemed to hit all the right notes. Great effects, great one-liners, great side-kick (I laughed out loud at the blatant nod to the Wild One - my Mom is going to love that) Excellent villain. Great stunts and great Indy. And then - then they bring back Karen Allen and it becomes this fantastic wink at the audience. It's both totally current and totally nostalgic.

Plot-wise it goes off in to left field and Indy is more indestructible than ever, but all in all - it was a movie experience that is going to be really hard to top.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey,

I saw this past weekend as well, and loved it, for the nostalgia of it. The plot is ridiculous, but I didn't care, because it was Indy and I even managed to love Temple of Doom, so obviously my fandom runs deep.

But let's talk about Hellboy 2..

Amy Ruttan said...

Oh man I want to see Indy so bad!!!

I'm telling you the last time I went to the movie it was to see Enchanted with my oldest.

*sigh*

I need to see Indy. Who doesn't love Indy?

And thanks for bringing back the past, Clash of the Titans and Bill and Ted. ~Excellent~

Maureen McGowan said...

I HATED the Indy movie. LOL. I have a rant about it on my other blog.

LOL

My movie going experience was about as opposite to yours as can be. Was supposed to meet friends for dinner first and we didn't find each other. then the theatre was packed and we couldn't get seats together. Perhaps my foul mood going in affected my impression of the movie, but I really thought they blew it, big time.

Okay, bits were amusing... but not enough to make up for the bad stuff. Not for me.

Molly O'Keefe said...

Maureen - you scrooge! I will admit by the third waterfall and everyone getting out of the water without so much as a concussion I was beginning to wish I had had a seat during those story meetings.

It requires a huge suspension of disbelief - but all of those movies did and I really don't think this was over the top in terms of the franchise.

You should have been at the hub maureen - we could have shared a $1.50 box of milk duds.

K J Gillenwater said...

I am close to Maureen's feelings on this...I didn't hate it, but I was sad b/c it really was not as good as it *could* have been if they'd just taken a bit of time to fully flesh out all the characters, toss in some more whip use, and start it off on the right scene...with INDY for heaven's sake! Just like the last 3!!!!!

The crazy search was fine. A little odd, but fine. But everything building up to it was weakly done...and this is from Lucas/Spielberg who *know* how to make movies!?

As a writer, I just wanted to play script doctor to make this better. Just like Indy deserves.

Maureen McGowan said...

I am a scrooge. Maybe you're right. I needed to be at the Hub eating Milk Duds.

Abby said...

Molly, no one went to the story meetings. I have a feeling the story meetings consisted of George Lucas sitting alone, scratching his silvery beard and thinking "now what?"

Stretched plot and flat characterization.. a little like the last 3 Star Wars movies?

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