the mooooovies

got the day off from work today - i am behind, but rather than going into the office (the daily haul!) i decided to work from home. not something i can do often, but it's a nice option when it is available.

i am backing up some files to free up some space on the ol' HD, so i got a couple min free. might as well kill it with the blog. or whatever.

beautiful day - smogy, as usual, but it feels nice and the air is gentle, if it can be called that. it's just nice to cruise around hollywood and hang out for a quiet day at my place - it's nice to get some work done here too, as opposed to being office-bound. no commute, no ants crawling onme. i mentioned that already, huh. also i can look out my window at the lemon trees, and gawk at the hot chicks exiting the apartment bldg next door.

so i thought i would write an uncharacteristic post about the theater. "what? ron hates things that everybody else likes! Oh be quiet dammit (it's hilarious how many different
friends of mine like to tease me about that, independently of one another).

it's been years since i have been an honest-to-goodness movie buff.. in fact i have really only had a passing interest in that whole scene, in general. sure, i like films, but as i have often written, i never usually get juiced up to see some movie or other, really. there's often something i might be somewhat interested in seeing, but really i never have this feeling like "ohhh i NEED to see this film!" I guess i used to feel that way when i was a kid, i can think of a couple different episodes in my history.. more on that later. I guess growing up in a time when there'd been such a heavy emphasis on interactive entertainment, it was always more compelling to me to spend my leisure time DOING something rather than just sitting back and observing. If only what i was actually "doing" all those years involved more physical activity, outside in the sunshine, rather than sitting in front of the tube with a Nintendo controller gripped between my adolescent fingers. Sigh, like i said, symptomatic of my generation (and also, we jewish children are usually too nerdy to be jocks) I guess i can blame my parents for not forcibly kicking me outside more often anyway. If i am ever a dad, that's something i would force my kids to do "go...outside.. and PLAYYYY!!!" Even if they hate me for it, it will be better for them.

Anyway, so movie memories - yeah, for me, my past experiences with films usually pertain to what was going on in my life when i saw some film or other, and the circumstances leading up to seeing it. if the film sucked, then whatever, but if it was a good (or interesting) time leading up to that, then a good film would be received much better (or, at least more memorably).

I look back on my childhood and remember the films i saw as a kid - mostly it would just be my folks dragging me to a film, i don't remember really nagging my parents to take me to this film or that very much (it's happened a couple of times, but not a normal thing) I remember my dad took me to see the Muppet Movie when i was like.. 3???? I enjoyed it, but the part with Mel Brooks and the Electric Yarmulke scared the crap out of me. I guess I must have seen Star Wars @ 1981 or something, i am not totally sure when that was. Unlike 90 percent of my generation, i have never held that film in such unbelievable reverence.. I enjoyed it, but I never felt so utterly captivated by it as my peers claimed to. Even back in the days, i can't remember the other kids being quite so ga-ga about it (at least no more so than anything else). i guess it just wasn't a big Star Wars scene in Framingham, what can I tell you. A couple of things stand out, however.. early in the film, when Luke's adoptive family (and their entire town) is referred to as having been destroyed while he was away, it really FREAKED me out!! So much so that I had this uneasy feeling for the entire rest of the film, i never could get over that. (well, i have by NOW). Also I remember the film seemed to be extremely LONG. I enjoyed it but when it was draggingon I'd get anxious and just want the amn thing to wrap up already ("Ron are you sure you're not Gay?" I can hear it now..) I remember my dad took me to The Empire Strikes back when it was released and enjoying it so-so, not terribly memorable for me at the time (I guess i was like 8 or something) - though by the tme the final one released, I was interested in seeing that one. Hey , i just realized, I am writing a BLOG about STAR WARS. I have finally come full circle!

I guess that's my queue to change the subject- though I will mention, I had a playroom as a child, and my mother bought all these cool posters to hang up in there (Muppet Show with the full cast, etc) and this awesome Darth Vader poster. My little brother's friend would get scared and cry when he saw it, so she took that one down (awww...)

I guess I should get this one out of the way, I also saw Tron when I as 8. Man, that movie was weird. I don't know if I compelled my mother to take me to that picture, or if they just did anyway, but man.. that film was WEIRD. I was a pretty big videogame freak even at that young age, and this film just completely sucked me in. It's still pretty taboo to refer to it in mixed company these days, unless you're kind of a hardcore dork, but I don't care - my brother and I loved that film, even though it waqs truly bizarre and surreal and overall really firghtening, foreboding and nightmarish. The visuals, the concepts, the overal ambience, the music, everything about it just seemed like this crazy alien world.

More than a few films coming out in that period reflected a general cultural tone, again I'll refer to the star wars movies - more so than in the 70s and prior, we had a lot of high-concept sci-fi films and stuff sort of gathering notice in the mainstream, these htings were getting serious budgets (relatively), expensive fantasy was becoming this new and marketable thing in a way that it never was before (always very much niche, prior). I guess anyone who witnessed the 70s and 80s would have to agree about that. It's funny, since I am so apathetic about fantasy now in my adult life, but as a child I grew up absolutely immersed in it... it was hard not to!

Damn how long does this CD take to BURN????

A couple of other films. i remember when the Transformers movie was being released in 1986, I was 11 years old. MAN OH MAN was a I a huge fan of that show - It was a very unusual thing for a movie version of a TV show to be released, and so I was suitably excited for this one. I remember the day it came out, there was a hurricane warning and my mother did not want to drive mt to the movie theater. OH MY GOD, you would think I had just found out I was going to be jailed or something, i was so very upset with my poor mom... I wailed and whined and almost cried, I wanted oh-so-badly to see this movie "HAVE to see the Transformers movie!" Well she gave in, ultimately, and drove us to the theater - i think I missed the prologue (who cares), but I was riveted. In hindsight.. SUCH an upsetting and violent movie! I won't repeat what's been said so many times before, but that was sort of a traumatic day of my young life. 10 minutes into the film and half of the characters are shot and killed. That's hilarious.
Man, it's just a cartoon.

I am tired of writing about my stupid nostalgia...

I remember going to see Pee-Wee's big adventure with my friend Danny Kaufman (or was it Dan Freedman? i don't remember). This was another example of one saturday afternoon, I am minding my own business, and my mother says "I am going to drive you and Danny to the movie theater to see Pee Wee's Big adventure." Me: "Mom what the hell is that? I don't wanna see some dumb sounding movie called 'Pee Wee's Big whatever', it sounds so stupid" Her "Well you're going, put on your shoes" Man.. needless to say, she dragged me there and dropped me off, but about 5 minutes ino the film I had totally come around on the subject. that movie KICKED ASS. I guess my mom is pretty cool. Sigh.. I could watch it RIGHT NOW.

In a similar vein, i remember going to see the Weird Al movie "UHF" when it came out in 1989. Ever since i was a young'un i LOOOOOVED weird al - he was just so, uh, "weird.." I saw a preview for that thing and knew i had to see it. The movie was awful, but honestly it was probably one of the best movie theater experiences i have ever had! I have never laughed so much in a theater in my life. That thing was amazing. For years my friends made fun of me for enjoying it so much, until they got a little older ad could appreciate it the way I did. Sigh, it's a difficult thing when you are so much smarter than EVERYONE around you, y'know what I am saying? Y'all?

That year (1989) was the first "big movie year" I can remember. Yeah.. 1989. Just finished up middle school, getting ready to start as a freshman at Framingham North High. The new Batman movie with Michael Keaton was coming out, with tonnnns of hype behind it. the new Indy film also. I was pretty excited. I had to go see Batman the first day it was playing, at the first showing. I had already bought the comic adaption but kept it stowed away so as not to ruin the surprise. I kept watching the 20/20 sneak preview on VHS to get psyched for it. Batman was my favorite. I had on my batman tie-dyed Tshirt. i was ready.

I was disappointed. the movie sucked. well it did not suck, but man.. it kinda bored me. it started out cool but just deflated pretty quickly. the action scenes were sparse and strangely shot, there was too much joker time and not enough batman kicking the shit out of the criminal underworld time (though, the action scenes were pretty tight). I thik I was just let down by the hype. Still, I had to see it again, and I enjoyed it. The next few summers, they started rolling out the new Action fests pretty regularly, each season being phenomenally more expensive than the last, you had all the Schwarzenegger films (T2, total recall, etc), Disney movies were in vogue suddenly (hip and stylish, not just for little kids anymore)

When I went to college, this was around the time when movies were starting to be something that could be collected - growing up I'd always see them advertised in the TV guide VHS review section with MSRP's @ $120 or so - buying a film was a retarded idea! We'd just dupe them if we liked them, not with flawless results, but that's how it was and so you didn't mind (besides, you could fit a couple onto a tape, at the sacrifice of more quality). "tapes," those days were all about "tapes." VHS tapes, cassette tapes.. people even called NES cartridges "tapes." People are idiots. THERE'S NO "TAPE" IN THERE, YOU STUPID WHITE TRASH MORON!! Sorry, i am still a little bit angry. there, there.

Anyway, College. So now people were buying VHS tapes of movies left and right, @20 a pop - they'd also release them onto video much soon after the theatrical run would conclude (it used to take what seemed like ages, like.. at LEAST 6 months for a video to release after the theater was thru squeezing it dry. No matter what the film was!) Anyway the point was, being in college suddenly meant watching WAY more movies. Lots of my friends had at least small collections of films, and half the time we'd be hanging out in someone's dorm watching something or other, drinking beer, eating delivered pizza, making out, usually at least half the people in the room would be under the influence of some controlled substance or other.. sigh, yeah, those were the days! We had this thing called "HSCN" (Housing services cable network) which would prety much be showing newly-released videos 24/7. no flash, just cheesy-looking Amiga Toaster graphics with bulletins about a pep rally or committee meeting or NCAA game and a bunch of movie times, some shit you'd like to see, some you wouldn't. some you wouldn't even know WHAT it was, but if it was on and there's nothing else to do then might as well give it a shot, luck of the draw eh? It's free anyway (saw some cool movies, randomly, that way. "barton fink") Also back in those days, for the first time in my life, we'd go in HORDES to see movies. Your dorm-side was your extended family, so about 15 or so of us would pile into the car's of whoever was privileged enough to actually OWN a ride, head out to the mall, and just all catch the latest flick together. yeah, those were GOOD times, 'cause even if the movie was atrocious ("jim carrey film") it was the weekend and you were out having a blast causing some mayhem with all of your gang. then you'd go back to campus and get loaded. Whew!!

I remember going out to see "te new Quentin Tarantino flick" during early sophmore year. I had seen reservoir dogs years before, and enjoyed it enough, but not enough to become, I suppose, a connoiseur. Anyway, there was a preview for this thing called "Pulp Fiction" and it looked.. well.. not so wonderful, in the preview. and I am one of those retarded peopl who "hates some words" and Pulp is not a word that i like. "Orange juice pulp" - it just sound gross! But i LIKE orange juice! It's alright. Anyway, what do you want from me. Anyway point is i was not too psyched to see this film, but i got dragged along. John travolta's in it? How can it NOT be good? (haha) Anyway I won't state the obvious, let's just say that the movie definitively altered the path for popular culture for some time. Shawshank Redemption came out arond the same weekend and got DESTROYED. I remember seeing it later and enjoying it very much, and feeling like they got super-shafted...

I remember going to see Shindler's List.. haha i snuck a subway sandwich into the film with me and chowed on the thing for the first 20 minutes of the Holocaust. What am I if not classy, though? I remember there was a fair degree of hubbub surrounding the film (duh) at the time of it's release, though at a party college campus you're not really going to get waves of excitement over such a thing. Still my interest was piqued, and my half-german roomate was eager to see it (we each dressed in the opposing team's colors for the event.. we also carried little flags to cheer the teams on. He even had a giant foam finger with a swastika on it.. oh ok, enough already) Seriously, that was a tough film to watch, I remember when it ended the whole audience just sat and stared at the screen, silently, through the entire credit roll. then we went outside to wait for a bus to bring us back to campus, it was snowing and freezing and bright (though very late)-- the bus took like another hour to arrive. It was a bizarre night.

Movies.. movies movies... Danny Freedman (who I also went to see Bill and Ted's Excellent adventure with.. we weren't daring enough to skip scholl to see it like the Skids did, though) wet with me to see Police Academy IV, I guess we were in Middle School? I will always remember that (terrible) movie as the one that had the longest dragging-on ending. I had to pee sooo bad, but i really wanted to catch the ending. Which sucked. I don't know what is wrong with me. i sat there twitching in my seat for like 25 minutes. OCD anybody?

I remember seeing the Disney flop "the rocketeer" - and then going to see "the naked gun 2 1/2" wth my friend Pat (1990?) As his folks pick us up, he tells me "tell them we're going to the rocketeer" then after they left us off at the theater, we got our Naked Gun tix and walked on in. About 20 minutes into the film, his mom and dad show up - IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FILM - and somehow find us and drag him away "Patrick, you are coming with us!" And he spilt. So weird! What the hell? Did his dad have a thing against leslie nielsen? All i can think of is that they didn't like the double-entendre name and thought it was some completely different kind of movie. I'll never know.

Okay this has been a long and pointless ramblefest. I have plenty of other appendages to this story, but my DVD is done burning, and I have stuff to do. So, that's where I go now.