Trivia about movies and me
Based on this:
http://www.avclub.com/articles/avqa-worst-moviegoing-experiences,24745/2/
When I was a little kid my mother watched the Sweeney Todd in which George Hearn plays Sweeney Todd, and it scared and upset me. Angela Lansbury's in it, too.
My mother took me to see Snow White and the Seven Dwarves in July of 1983, and I had a good time.
One time in either 1982 or 1983 my father and I took garbage to the local dump, came back to the house, and watched Kung Fu on TV while eating baloney and American cheese slices. That was pretty good.
My parents took my sister and me to see Pinocchio sometime in either late 1984 or 1985 (I remember that it was the winter because I was wearing a puffy blue jacket), and the eaten-by-a-whale scene fucked me up so bad that I regarded the movie theater as a dangerous and occult place until June of 1989, when a 10 o' clock show of Batman at Kevin Browning's birthday party exorcised it. Seriously, I remember going to see the Care Bears movie (some girl in front of us talked loudly about how she wished the movie would go ahead and start, and I got the distinct feeling that she was trying to seem cooler than the movie and that she was embarrassed to be there), and I remember hoping that the Care Bears' movie wouldn't be too violent or upsetting.
The first movie I drove to the theater to see after getting my driver's license was "Casino," in late December of 1995. I saw it at the Center Point 6, which by then was a dollar theater. There were only five people in the theater. No one was prepared for the cornfield scene, and during it one middle-aged friendly-but-clearly-has-had-a-life-in-which-he-has-both-seen-and-had-to-put-up-with-some-shit black guy near the front stood up and said "Aiight, that's enough," and walked out.
I remember seeing part of the light saber fight at the end of Return of the Jedi on the drive-in screen of the Mustang Theater in Center Point. This would have been in 1983. I'm almost certain that my parents didn't take us to see it, because I remember a conversation in 1986 in which they were talking about their plans to rent Back to the Future as well as Return of the Jedi, as they had not yet seen either. I must have seen this light saber fight as I was being driven home from my grandparents' house. The Mustang theater was where the Bruno's grocery store is in Center Point nowadays.
There used to be a video rental store in Montclair, near Eastwood Mall, that had a fantastic selection. It might have been a Movie Gallery, but it seemed local. It was in the old sandwich shop that stopped being a sandwich shop sometime in Reagan's first term. This is the building (now demolished) near the 48 Lanes bowling alley (which, as far as I know, still exists). I rented Death Race 2000 from that place, as well as Lenny, and a bunch of other esoteric-to-the-mind-of-a-high-schooler stuff from that place.
For some reason, my mother took me and my sister to see The Witches. The film broke, and the lights came on, and we had to wait 40 minutes until the movie continued. I seem to not have liked the movie very much, because when I think of it now I feel that it never quite came together as a narrative. I think that was in 1989. I hope my mother had a good time.
I dragged my friend Scotty to see Richard Attenborough's Chaplin, which I thought was an excellent movie, and as a result of having seen it I may have unintentionally adopted its main character's history with women as a template for my own (much later) social life. Scotty was bored by Chaplin. Later, he dragged me to see Loaded Weapon 1, which at the time I thought was awful. Years later, in college, I saw Loaded Weapon 1 on television and seem to remember enjoying watching it.
While grounded and subject to unusually-cruel-even-for-my-upbringing treatment in 1994 (long sad story involving a pretty clear-cut case of terrible, are-you-trying-to-turn-your-kid-into-Klebold-or-Harris parenting), I was allowed to go with my mother and sister to the theater during Spring Break to see a movie. This was literally the only entertainment outside of assigned readings for class and Stephen King's "The Wastelands" that I was allowed from January 11 to June 20. I went to see "Naked Gun 33 1/3" alone, which might have been the first time in a long history of going to see movies alone that I sat through a movie alone. I remember enjoying the movie a good deal, though it must be borne in mind that it was the only filmed entertainment I had seen in half a year. I remember being so honest that I didn't even turn on the television when my parents left the house. That didn't do me a lot of good though, in the long run. I remember getting a beating for turning on the television even though I scrupulously and, as it turned out, stupidly never in fact turned on the television. This is getting off the point.
The Curtis Mathes across the street from the Zippy Mart on Huffman Road (which was near a defunct steakhouse called Bonanza which later became a funeral parlor (no kidding) and even later became an Appleby's) was one of the first places in Center Point to rent videos (before Video Xpress [sic] opened). I was drawn to the cover of Eating Raoul, which I would see on USA Up All Night in the mid-90s, and which was (unbeknownst to then-me) directed by Paul Bartel, director of the not-yet-seen-by-me Death Race 2000.
About two weeks ago I saw the Hamlet with Ethan Hawke in it. Paul Bartel was in the scene featuring the duel between Hamlet and Laertes. I was shocked to see him. Turns out it was his last film role.
I think if I saw Bill Murray I would start crying. But that doesn't make me like his Polonius, in the Ethan Hawke version of Hamlet.
My tenth birthday party featured a showing of the Power Glove commercial The Wizard. We all seemed to enjoy it, even though in hindsight it is obviously shit. We were excited to see the as-yet-unreleased Super Mario Brothers 3. Later that day my friend Joseph knocked a hole in his head in my parents' basement and had to be driven to the emergency room.
The Rocketeer (1991) was a disappointment, and we knew it even then.
Dick Tracy (1990) made no damn sense, but had a catchy set of songs in it. Then I grew up and learned that Stephen Sondheim wrote all the songs I found so catchy. Go figure.
My gifted-track teacher Larua Sanchez showed my class "My Fair Lady" when I was ten or eleven. I was bored by it at first, but only an idiot is bored by "My Fair Lady." She had to fast-forward past the part when Eliza says "move yer bloody ass!" because we live in America where as a society of school administrators we pretend like children don't say shit and fuck and piss all the time.
We were also shown a little-seen but youtubeable movie called "Tomes and Talismans," which is a post-apocalyptic didactic movie about using the library to build a laser.
Jenny Agutter of Logan's Run might be responsible for my first awareness of certain drives. And since I'm sure that Logan's Run was shown on a Ted Turner-owned station, Ted Turner likely plays a role the early formation of my preferences and tastes stemming from and informing those drives.
http://www.avclub.com/articles/avqa-worst-moviegoing-experiences,24745/2/
When I was a little kid my mother watched the Sweeney Todd in which George Hearn plays Sweeney Todd, and it scared and upset me. Angela Lansbury's in it, too.
My mother took me to see Snow White and the Seven Dwarves in July of 1983, and I had a good time.
One time in either 1982 or 1983 my father and I took garbage to the local dump, came back to the house, and watched Kung Fu on TV while eating baloney and American cheese slices. That was pretty good.
My parents took my sister and me to see Pinocchio sometime in either late 1984 or 1985 (I remember that it was the winter because I was wearing a puffy blue jacket), and the eaten-by-a-whale scene fucked me up so bad that I regarded the movie theater as a dangerous and occult place until June of 1989, when a 10 o' clock show of Batman at Kevin Browning's birthday party exorcised it. Seriously, I remember going to see the Care Bears movie (some girl in front of us talked loudly about how she wished the movie would go ahead and start, and I got the distinct feeling that she was trying to seem cooler than the movie and that she was embarrassed to be there), and I remember hoping that the Care Bears' movie wouldn't be too violent or upsetting.
The first movie I drove to the theater to see after getting my driver's license was "Casino," in late December of 1995. I saw it at the Center Point 6, which by then was a dollar theater. There were only five people in the theater. No one was prepared for the cornfield scene, and during it one middle-aged friendly-but-clearly-has-had-a-life-in-which-he-has-both-seen-and-had-to-put-up-with-some-shit black guy near the front stood up and said "Aiight, that's enough," and walked out.
I remember seeing part of the light saber fight at the end of Return of the Jedi on the drive-in screen of the Mustang Theater in Center Point. This would have been in 1983. I'm almost certain that my parents didn't take us to see it, because I remember a conversation in 1986 in which they were talking about their plans to rent Back to the Future as well as Return of the Jedi, as they had not yet seen either. I must have seen this light saber fight as I was being driven home from my grandparents' house. The Mustang theater was where the Bruno's grocery store is in Center Point nowadays.
There used to be a video rental store in Montclair, near Eastwood Mall, that had a fantastic selection. It might have been a Movie Gallery, but it seemed local. It was in the old sandwich shop that stopped being a sandwich shop sometime in Reagan's first term. This is the building (now demolished) near the 48 Lanes bowling alley (which, as far as I know, still exists). I rented Death Race 2000 from that place, as well as Lenny, and a bunch of other esoteric-to-the-mind-of-a-high-schooler stuff from that place.
For some reason, my mother took me and my sister to see The Witches. The film broke, and the lights came on, and we had to wait 40 minutes until the movie continued. I seem to not have liked the movie very much, because when I think of it now I feel that it never quite came together as a narrative. I think that was in 1989. I hope my mother had a good time.
I dragged my friend Scotty to see Richard Attenborough's Chaplin, which I thought was an excellent movie, and as a result of having seen it I may have unintentionally adopted its main character's history with women as a template for my own (much later) social life. Scotty was bored by Chaplin. Later, he dragged me to see Loaded Weapon 1, which at the time I thought was awful. Years later, in college, I saw Loaded Weapon 1 on television and seem to remember enjoying watching it.
While grounded and subject to unusually-cruel-even-for-my-upbringing treatment in 1994 (long sad story involving a pretty clear-cut case of terrible, are-you-trying-to-turn-your-kid-into-Klebold-or-Harris parenting), I was allowed to go with my mother and sister to the theater during Spring Break to see a movie. This was literally the only entertainment outside of assigned readings for class and Stephen King's "The Wastelands" that I was allowed from January 11 to June 20. I went to see "Naked Gun 33 1/3" alone, which might have been the first time in a long history of going to see movies alone that I sat through a movie alone. I remember enjoying the movie a good deal, though it must be borne in mind that it was the only filmed entertainment I had seen in half a year. I remember being so honest that I didn't even turn on the television when my parents left the house. That didn't do me a lot of good though, in the long run. I remember getting a beating for turning on the television even though I scrupulously and, as it turned out, stupidly never in fact turned on the television. This is getting off the point.
The Curtis Mathes across the street from the Zippy Mart on Huffman Road (which was near a defunct steakhouse called Bonanza which later became a funeral parlor (no kidding) and even later became an Appleby's) was one of the first places in Center Point to rent videos (before Video Xpress [sic] opened). I was drawn to the cover of Eating Raoul, which I would see on USA Up All Night in the mid-90s, and which was (unbeknownst to then-me) directed by Paul Bartel, director of the not-yet-seen-by-me Death Race 2000.
About two weeks ago I saw the Hamlet with Ethan Hawke in it. Paul Bartel was in the scene featuring the duel between Hamlet and Laertes. I was shocked to see him. Turns out it was his last film role.
I think if I saw Bill Murray I would start crying. But that doesn't make me like his Polonius, in the Ethan Hawke version of Hamlet.
My tenth birthday party featured a showing of the Power Glove commercial The Wizard. We all seemed to enjoy it, even though in hindsight it is obviously shit. We were excited to see the as-yet-unreleased Super Mario Brothers 3. Later that day my friend Joseph knocked a hole in his head in my parents' basement and had to be driven to the emergency room.
The Rocketeer (1991) was a disappointment, and we knew it even then.
Dick Tracy (1990) made no damn sense, but had a catchy set of songs in it. Then I grew up and learned that Stephen Sondheim wrote all the songs I found so catchy. Go figure.
My gifted-track teacher Larua Sanchez showed my class "My Fair Lady" when I was ten or eleven. I was bored by it at first, but only an idiot is bored by "My Fair Lady." She had to fast-forward past the part when Eliza says "move yer bloody ass!" because we live in America where as a society of school administrators we pretend like children don't say shit and fuck and piss all the time.
We were also shown a little-seen but youtubeable movie called "Tomes and Talismans," which is a post-apocalyptic didactic movie about using the library to build a laser.
Jenny Agutter of Logan's Run might be responsible for my first awareness of certain drives. And since I'm sure that Logan's Run was shown on a Ted Turner-owned station, Ted Turner likely plays a role the early formation of my preferences and tastes stemming from and informing those drives.