Posted by
Emmett of the Unblinking Eye on Wednesday, July 30, 2008 11:06:11 AM
When I was little, there was a Kiddie's Matinee at the old
Mesa Theater in Costa Mesa, California, every Saturday afternoon. The first time I went there was when I was 5, dragging my 3 year old brother along with me, to see a circus movie. Dropped off by my mother. By ourselves. All alone. And it was grand -- and can you imagine that happening today?
The Mesa was a great theater -- sticky floors, great concessions, a crying room, and a giant blue-lighted clock right on the back wall. And on Saturdays it showed every
Jerry Lewis
,
Bob Hope,
Randolph Scott, or
Roy Rogers movie ever made, along with all of the
Commander Cody serials and any others with
Buster Crabbe. I went nearly every Saturday for the next 7 years or so -- except when they made some disastrous programming decision, such as showing
It! The Terror From Beyond Space,
The Bat, or some equally scary
Vincent Price epic. My love of trailers comes from experiencing the crowd reaction to the ones shown then -- particularly if they showed a little flesh. After all, kids have no self-control until it's beaten into them by society.
Which brings me directly to
Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D, the latest
Brendan Fraser offering. Even if this remake has its flaws -- and there are many, commencing with the first scene, which basically gives away the remainder of the movie and could have been deleted with no ill effect -- it is still one of the most fun and entertaining movies released so far this year. Non-stop action, great visuals, good effects, giant fish with needle-sharp teeth, man-eating plants, dinosaurs, yo-yos (and what 3D movie can be without a good yo-yo scene?) -- it'll take you right back to when you were 10 and experienceing movies for the first time.
But see it in 3D -- I doubt that it would have the effect you'd like without it.