Showing posts with label scifi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scifi. Show all posts

Dec 29, 2025

Are You Also Divergent, Friend?


Twelve Monkeys
Universal Pictures (1995)
This Terry Gilliam classic is turning thirty years ago today.  It's one of my favorite sci-fi and post-apocalyptic films that I've ever seen.

Dec 5, 2025

I Come From A Planet A Long Way From Here


I found this little guy at the bottom of a tote when I was packing up Christmas decorations last year.  It's a keychain that my grandmother gave me when I was a teenager.  Grandma could be a handful, but she was a generous woman with a good heart.  She knew that I liked aliens, so when she found something with an alien head, she's get it and put it away for me to give to me for Christmas, or my birthday, or just because she thought that I'd like it.

This also reminded me of one of my favorite Christmas songs.  It's not one that I hear on the radio too often, but it's has an ethereal and soothing sound that stops me in my tracks every time I hear it.  It was released by Chris de Burgh in 1975.  The singer/songwriter is probably best known for The Lady In Red and Don't Pay The Ferryman, but I think this is the song of his that I like the best.
A spaceman came traveling on his ship from afar
Twas light years of time since his mission did start
And over a village he halted his craft
And it hung in the sky like a star, just like a star

He followed a light and came down to a shed
Where a mother and child were lying there on a bed
A bright light of silver shone round his head
And he had the face of an angel, and they were afraid

Then the stranger spoke, he said "Do not fear
I come from a planet a long way from here
And I bring a message for mankind to hear,"
And suddenly the sweetest music filled the air

And it went
La la la la la la la la la la la
Peace and goodwill to all men, and love for the child

This lovely music went trembling through the ground
And many were wakened on hearing that sound
And travelers on the road, the village they found
By the light of that ship in the sky, which shone all round

And just before dawn at the paling of the sky
The stranger returned and said "Now I must fly
When two thousand years of your time has gone by
This song will begin once again, to a baby's cry"

And it was
La la la la la la la la la la la
Peace and goodwill to all men, and love for the child

Oh, the whole world is waiting
Waiting to hear the song again
There are thousands standing on the edge of the world
And a star is moving somewhere

Nov 23, 2025

Welcome To The Wasteland


Sci-Fi Wasteland
The Gap Theatre - Wind Gap, PA
I'm a big fan of dystopian science fiction, and the mystery film marathons at The Gap are always a good time.  For as much of a bummer as it was to miss the film at the end of the first annual Mahoning Wine Fest, I couldn't miss this.


Here are the movies that played for Sci-Fi Wasteland:
Movie #4: Hardware (1990)

I'm not a big fan of Fist Of The North Star, but it's pretty cool to have had the opportunity to see it on the big screen.  I didn't care too much for Hardware either.  However, I love A Boy And His Dog.  I saw it for the first time when I was a teenager and it's a bizarre and fun ride.  My favorite movie of the night was Warrior Of The Lost World.  I don't think I've seen it before this screening, but parts of it looked familiar.  I think I might have seen part of an MST3K episode that riffed on it.

Nov 11, 2025

Reality Can Be A Pretty Scary Thing...




The Gap hosted a free screening of what is in my opinion the best sequel to The Matrix; the 2003 animated anthology The Animatrix.  I'm not sure if it ever had a theatrical run, but it's the only film in the franchise that I had never seen on the big screen, and I'm very grateful to have had the opportunity to change that.


"In the beginning, there was man. And for a time, it was good. But humanity's so-called civil societies soon fell victim to vanity and corruption. Then man made the machine in his own likeness. Thus did man become the architect of his own demise."

- The Instructor

Oct 7, 2025

Santa Claus Of The Subconscious


Strange Days
20th Century Fox  (1995)
This Kathryn Bigelow cyberpunk neo noir masterpiece premiered across the United States thirty years ago today.  Strange Days was underappreciated in its time, earning just $17 million back of its $42 million budget, but it's one of my favorite movies of the decade.  I saw this for the first time when it was released to the rental stores, and it hasn't popped up yet at the Mahoning or The Gap, so it's on the list of movies that I most want to see on the big screen.

Jun 2, 2025

The King Of The 90's


Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA
This weekend at the drive-in was two nights of double features featuring films from the 1990's starring one of my favorite actors, Keanu Reeves.  Friday night was dedicated to his sci-fi flicks while Saturday highlighted two of his most popular action films.


The first movie of the weekend was my favorite Keanu Reeves film, the 1999 sci-fi classic The Matrix.  I was obsessed with this movie after I saw it for the first time on home video, and although I missed it during its first run in theaters, I managed to catch it on the big screen last April for its 25th anniversary.

I've written about this movie a few times before so I don't have too much to say about it, but it's still one of my favorite science fiction movies ever made.  I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it before, but I strongly suggest skipping over the sequels.  There's a few decent ideas in The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, but it's a huge drop off from the first film, and while The Matrix Resurrections started off strong, it devolved into an absolute mess after about the first twenty minutes.  The Animatrix is very good, but aside from that, I'd suggest sticking with the original and letting your imagination take over from there.


The second half of the double feature on Friday night was the 1995 sci-fi flick Johnny Mnemonic.  This has been on my watchlist for many years, and unfortunately, it still is.  It can be difficult for me to stay awake on Friday nights at the drive-in because I wake up at 5:00 am for work.  I can usually make it through the second movie with no problem as long as I'm sitting outside, but it started raining during The Matrix and it started coming down even heavier for Johnny Mnemonic.  The kiss of death was the fact that it was about 45 degrees and I had to turn the heat on in the car.  I don't think I could have stayed awake if I had an intravenous drip of Red Bull.

It looks like a pretty interesting movie from what I saw in the first 15-20 minutes.  I'm pretty bummed out that I ended up sleeping through it because I can't imagine it'll come back to the drive-in any time soon.




Our friend Wayne (left) promised Kate that he was going to show up on Saturday in "full fish" after she commented on his fish flip flops.  Unfortunately, Kate wasn't feeling well so she didn't get to see this outfit in person, but we did send her a photo.

Tom and Jen (right) may have the record for the most raffle wins at the Mahoning, so I had to snap a picture of the two of them performing the ritual of using the light on their cell phone to see if they had the winning ticket.  They didn't win this time.


Saturday night kicked off with an action film that was released in the summer of 1991, Point Break.  I've never watched this movie before, and didn't even know what it was about or who else was it it besides Keanu Reeves, so I was going into this screening with a totally blank slate, which is my favorite way to see a movie for the first time.

The action movie genre falls into kind of a weird place with me.  When I hear that a new action movie is being released, or when somebody recommends one to me, I'm usually not all that interested in it.  However, when I do manage to sit down and watch an action movie with no distractions, I usually end up loving it.  You would think after this happening numerous times that I'd realize that I really enjoy a good action flick and that I'd make more of an effort to check them out, but I don't seem to be able to clear this mental roadblock.  The new Mission Impossible movie is in theaters right now and I have no interest in going to see it (nor have I ever watched any of the other movies in the franchise) despite the fact that I'd probably like it.

Point Break was no exception to this pattern.  I loved every minute of it!  The concept of the Ex Presidents gang who rob banks in 90 seconds without ever touching the safe was brilliant.  Keanu Reeves was excellent as always, as was Gary Busey, Patrick Swayze, and Lori Petty, all of whom I had no idea were even in this movie if that tells you how little knowledge I had about it going into this screening.  On a brief side note, Lori Petty is one of my favorite actresses of all time.  She's incredible in everything I've ever seen her in.


The final movie of the King Keanu weekend was the 1994 action blockbuster Speed.  I saw this movie for the first time when it was still on the new release wall at Blockbuster Video, and I don't think I've ever seen it since.  It didn't really make too much of an impression on me.  I thought it was pretty good when I first saw it, but the countless pop culture references and parodies that it inspired, and the ridiculous sequel on a cruise ship that was released three years later have tainted my memories of this film a bit.

Seeing Speed on the big screen at the Mahoning served as a reminder of why this film was such a hit.  It's a damn good action flick that keeps the audience engaged from start to finish.  The only thing that I found schlocky was the last scene where the subway track is unfinished.  I mean, come on!  He's in another vehicle with a road that's incomplete?!  Still, this is a very enjoyable movie, but if I'm being honest, Point Break was my favorite of the two films by a wide margin.
 

And that's a wrap on King Keanu.  The folks at the Mahoning suggested that this may come back as an annual or semi-annual event.  There's enough content in the Keanu Reeves filmography to keep this going for years without showing the same movie twice, so I hope they do bring it back next year.

May 31, 2025

May Movie Wrap Up


These are the movies that I got to see for the first time in May 2025 that I haven't already written about.
Watched on May 5th, 2025
This movie premiered in theaters in the United States on March 14th of this year, but you'd never know it if you were living in Northeast PA.  I never saw a trailer for it.  My local Regal Cinema didn't screen it.  I had no idea that this movie even existed.  I'm not sure how that's even possible in 2025 with businesses advertising on everything from streaming platforms, to social media, to the little screen on the gas pump when I'm fueling up.

Director Steven Soderbergh has gone public with his frustrations that his "mid-level budget, star-driven movie can't seem to get people over the age of 25 years old to come out to theatres", but I think his wrath would be better directed at the marketing team that was hired to promote this film.  Pal, I'm 44 years old and between Regal Unlimited and the Mahoning, I go out to theaters to see over 200 films a year.  If your marketing team couldn't reach me, I guarantee you that the average potential moviegoer has absolutely no clue that your movie exists at all.

It really is a shame too because this was a damn good spy thriller.  My wife found it while browsing through Peacock to find something to watch and we both enjoyed it quite a bit.  But... yeah, Steven... you're selling me a product here, not the other way around.  It's your job to find me and sell it to me.  Plenty of other filmmakers have worked with people who found ways to connect with an audience.  If the studio or the marketing team aren't up to the challenge, cut them loose.  Adapt or get left behind.

Watched on May 5th, 2025
This is another movie that we found on Peacock and it absolutely blew me away.  The story begins in the English countryside in the years leading up to World War II.  Sisters Thom and Mars Hanbury were orphaned at a young age, but are now young adults who live together and take care of each other.  Thom is a genius who invents a device called Lola which allows the sisters to receive over-the-air broadcasts from the future.  This allows experience music from the future, like David Bowie and The Kinks, but it as Great Britain enters World War II, it also allows them to see news broadcasts of the aftermath of German air strikes before they happen.

I don't want to say any more than I already have, but this is a film that is absolute worth your time.  It does an excellent job of exploring the concepts of time travel and parallel dimensions, and it really pulls you into the world of the story that is being told.

Most of the plot descriptions that I've come across for Lola refer to it as a found footage movie, but don't let that dissuade you if you're not into that sort of thing.  I'm not a big fan of found footage either, but it's used in a manner that is very creative and goes hand-in-hand with the plot.  This one gets my highest recommendation.
Watched on May 12th, 2025
There was a period of time in the mid 2000's when movies about magicians seemed like they were Hollywood's flavor of the week, but I never managed to catch any of them.  To this day, I've still not seen The Prestige, The Illusionist, or The Sorcerer's Apprentice, and I was only vaguely aware that Now You See Me existed.

This is a fun popcorn movie, but it's not the kind of thing that I would recommend to everyone.  If you're the type to pick a film apart for inconsistencies and plot twists that defy logic at times, this movie will probably drive you crazy.  However, if you're able to switch off your critical brain and just enjoy a movie for what it is, this is an enjoyable experience.  I'm going to have to see if I can find the sequel.

Watched on May 14th, 2025
My friend Mike recommended this movie to me.  He recommends a lot of movies to me, but I don't remember him ever being as enthusiastic as he was when he praised this 1957 film and told me that I had to check it out.  He was absolutely right.  It's so incredible that I can't believe that it's not more well known than it is.

A Face In The Crowd stars Andy Griffith in a role that could not be more different than the roles on The Andy Griffith Show and Matlock that made him famous.  He plays a drunken drifter named Larry Rhodes who is discovered by a radio show host named Marcia.  He is unexpectedly very charismatic and Marcia is inspired to fight for him to have his own radio show for the man who she has given the moniker "Lonesome Rhodes" to play guitar, tell stories, and share his views on the world.  This leads Rhodes down a path in which he becomes highly popular, influential, and dangerously powerful, and he becomes more unhinged with each passing day.

This movie is fascinating and I highly recommend it to anyone who has any interest in motion pictures at all.  It feels like a voice from the past warning us about the ways that a narcissistic con artists can rally the angry and ignorant masses with bluster and bullshit in their rise to power.  Sounds oddly familiar to what we're living through today. 


Clown In A Cornfield 
Watched on May 14th, 2025
I'm kind of played out on the idea of clowns being used as monsters in horror films.  It's a trope that has been done to death in horror films like the Terrifier series, the Killjoy series, the Camp Blood series, the book, mini-series, and feature films for Stephen King's It, House Of 1000 Corpses, The Devil's Rejects, 3 From Hell, and one-off films like Killer Klowns From Outer Space and Carnival Of Souls, and many others.  Letterboxd has a Clown Movie Master List that has over 600 films that feature clowns, and the overwhelming majority of them are horror films.  I honestly wonder if kids in elementary school in 2025 have any concept of clowns as entertainers, or anything other than a monster in a scary story.

I went to see this solely because my friend Tom told me that he enjoyed the book that the film is based on.  He and I have pretty similar tastes, but I was still kind of skeptical walking into the theater to see this.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that Clown In A Cornfield is a pretty damn good slasher flick.  It's mostly set in the present day, but it feels very much like the kind of horror flick that I would have brough home from a rental shop in the late 80's or early 90's.
Watched on May 19th, 2025
The Final Destination films are my favorite horror franchise of the 21st century.  Some movies in the series are better than others, but all of them are enjoyable, and the rules of how fate hunts down the people who have cheated death are consistent.  Bloodlines is no exception.  In fact, I think it's one of the best movies in the series.

This movie takes the lore of the Final Destination series in an interesting new direction.  It explores the possibility of a large group of people who cheat death.  Fate goes after the survivors in order of how they would have died if they hadn't cheated death, so if the group of people is large enough, the rest of the survivors would have time to grow older, have children and grandchildren, and generate an extensive branch of their family tree of people who wouldn't have existed if they had died at the moment that fate intended.  Would these people be safe, or would fate come for them to correct the mistake when their parent or grandparent cheated death.

I don't want to spoil the plot, but I will say that it has one of the coolest disaster scenes in the beginning of the film, and a very awesome story about how all of those people cheated death and how their lives played out afterward.  It also features the last on-screen appearance of the great Tony Todd before his passing on November 6th of last year.


Cooties
Watched on May 20th, 2025
This is one of those movies that is so dumb that it can't help but to be fun.  It's the story of a zombie outbreak in an elementary school that is caused by one girl eating an infected chicken nugget.  Everybody in this movie, including its star Elijah Wood, are way over-the-top for most of its runtime.  It's available to watch for free on Tubi, and it's the perfect movie to laugh at with a group of friends over pizza and beer.
Watched on May 20th, 2025
Most of the reviews that I've come across for the 2016 movie Passengers have ripped it apart.  Frankly, I think they all have a screw loose because I found this to be one of the most interesting and well made science fiction films in recent memory.  A lot of the bad press that I've read about this movie seems to be fans and critics passing a morality judgment on Chris Pratt's character and, for some reason, lashing out against the film as a whole because of it, which I find to be asinine.  You're not supposed to think he did the right thing.  You're supposed to examine the grey area, and maybe have an honest moment of self-reflection and ask if you would have done the same thing.

This is the story of a man who is awakened too early from suspended animation to find that he is alone in a spaceship on which he will die of old age before it gets to its destination.  The explanation of who these people are, where they're going, and how this ship is being financed are fascinating and left me wanting to know more about the world and human society outside of this ship.

Passengers is available to stream on Amazon Prime.  Do yourself a favor and skip the bullshit opinions from people who forgot that good storytelling is not all about taking every opportunity to virtue signal to the world what wonderful people we all think we are.  Watch this movie and judge for yourself.


Drive In
Watched on May 21st, 2025
Finally, we have the 2000 indie slasher Drive In.  My friend Bill has been telling me about this movie for months.  He found an old copy of this on VHS at Goodwill for 25 cents, marked down from 47¢, and he went out and bought a VCR just so he could see it.  The premise is that the mentally challenged son of the drive-in manager has seen so many horror movies on the big screen that he goes on a killing spree.  It's very low-budget, but it's not one of those movies that's deliberately bad in the hopes of being labeled "so bad it's good".  It's a sincere attempt at a horror movie, with acting performances that could best be described as amateurs doing their best, and it's not terrible for what it is.  Just don't go into it expecting to see a Hollywood blockbuster.

May 30, 2025

The Battle Of Cadillac Heights


2025 Patreon Screening #2
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA
The second Patreon screening of the year was a very pleasant surprise.  The clues that we were given in the preshow was that it was going to be a 90's sci-fi flick on 35mm, and the music that Mark placed (which often hides clues to the night's movie) had several references to the police and Detroit.  All of the signs pointed to a very popular action sci-fi franchise which had two films released in the 90's, but I quickly dismissed those as possibilities.  There's no way they were going to show that on a Patreon night, right?  Right?


This was one of my favorite Patreon screenings yet!

May 25, 2025

May The Force Beam Be With You


The Force Beam
Image Brokers Ltd (1977)
In honor of the release of the first Star Wars film on this day 47 years ago today, here is one of the most successful bootleg toys of all time.  The Force Beam was essentially just a cheap plastic flashlight with a long plastic tube glued to the light and some stickers on the handle, but it was a massive success, especially since Kenner wasn't able to put an official Lightsaber on the market.

Ron of the Star Wars Collectors Archive has an excellent article with lots of pictures of this and the other knockoff lightsabers that were on the market.

May 15, 2025

Do We Have Any Of That Plutonian Nyborg Left?


Heavy Metal
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA
The fourth punch on my Thursday Thread-Up card for the 2025 season was the 1981 animated classic Heavy Metal.

Show banner designed by Andrew Kern
Show poster designed by Tom Bifulco

I have heard of Heavy Metal since I was in middle school, but I've never seen it before.  If I'm being completely honest, I never really had too much interest in seeing it.  I had never read or even heard of the Heavy Metal magazine/comic until very recently, and the cover of the VHS tape for this movie made me think that it was a direct-to-video tape of crudely animated barbarian women fighting and undressing to random guitar riffs.  I like rock music, sword fights, and nudity as much as the next guy, but it just kind of struck me as one of those things that I might get into one night if I was really stoned and didn't have anything better to watch.

When it was first announced on the Mahoning calendar, I figured "what the hell".  It's been over thirty years since I first became aware of Heavy Metal.  If I didn't come out to the drive-in to see it tonight, I was probably never going to see it at all.


There was an awesome surprise on the big screen before the start of tonight's movie.  Rob screened a 35mm print of the music video for the 1984 A-ha song Take On Me.  This is not only one of my all-time favorite songs, and probably my favorite music video of all time, but it's also what my wife and I have called "our song" since we started dating in 2006.


If there's one thing that I have learned about movies since we started going to the Mahoning Drive-In Theater, it's is to be skeptical of any opinions that you may have about a movie before you see it for yourself.  I'm not saying that you should disregard the poster, the box, the trailer, the reviews, or the opinions of family and friends entirely, but don't be too quick to use any of these things as a reason to dismiss a film.  Sure, you may end up "wasting" a few hours here and there on something that isn't necessarilly your cup of tea, but that price is more than worth paying for all of the excellent movies that you'll be able to enjoy and discuss with your friends that you would have missed out on.

Heavy Metal is an excellent animated film.  It's an anthology movie with a half dozen different stories with another wrap-around story to tie them all together, and it features voice acting performances from John Candy, Eugene Levy, and Harold Ramis, among many others.  Granted, I wasn't too far off the mark with my assumption that it involved a lot of naked cartoon ladies.  In fact, I don't think there was a single female character that didn't take off their clothes, but there's so much more to Heavy Metal than that.  The sci-fi elements and social commentary in Harry Canyon was brilliant.  Den was hysterically funny with an excellent performance from John Candy as the title character.  Captain Sternn made me think that the story was the inspiration for Zapp Brannigan.  The sex robot in So Beautiful & So Dangerous would fit right in beside him.  Now that I think of it, the whole movie seems like it belongs in the Futurama universe.  All together, this is one of the most entertaining adult animated features that I've ever seen, and the music was incredible.
 

It's been raining a lot recently, but we got lucky and didn't have a drop throughout the entire movie.  There was a dense fog that started to move in towards the end of the film, but we got lucky again in that the worst of it held off until after the credits rolled.

May 10, 2025

Graboids, Dancing, and the Afterlife


Bacon Bits: Flatliners / Footloose / Tremors
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA
This weekend's tribute to Kevin Bacon was the last event that was originally scheduled before the passing of the Mahoning Drive-In Theater owner and master projectionist Jeff Mattox which had to be rescheduled.  This event was originally scheduled for the weekend of May 10th and 11th, 2024 and was delayed by almost exactly one year as it was rescheduled for the 2025 season.
 
Show banner designed by Andrew Kern
Show poster designed by Tom Bifulco

I've been cutting back on t-shirts this season, but this one was too good to pass up.  The artwork on the shirt was created by Tom Bifulco and is the same design as what was used on the poster.


Actress Finn Carter was in attendance both nights to meet fans, take pictures, and sign autographs.  She played Rhonda LeBeck in Tremors; a role for which she received a Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
The first movie of Friday night was Joel Schumacher's 1990 psychological horror film Flatliners.  It features an ensemble cast that includes Kiefer Sutherland, Julia Roberts, William Baldwin, Oliver Platt, and the namesake of the weekend's event, Kevin Bacon.  They play the role of five med students who are conducting secret experiments in what appears to be an abandoned church in which they bring their peers to a point where their heart stops (or flatlines) to explore what exists beyond death before they are then brought back through the use of drugs, a defibrillator, and CPR.

I've only seen this movie one time before this weekend.  When I was 12 years old, I lived with my dad, stepmom, and stepsister in South Florida.  My stepsister and I got along well and we'd often hang out in her room and have a movie night.  One of the movies she rented on one of these nights was Flatliners.  My memory of this film is that I thought it was cool, but I didn't really remember any of the details.  It all started coming back to me as we watched the story unfold on the big screen at the drive-in.  My feelings on this movie haven't changed 33 years later.  Despite the critical reviews which are pretty rough, I still think it's a very cool and atmospheric film and one that I'd recommend to anyone who loves movies.


The movie that kicked off the second night of Bacon Bits was the 1984 teen drama Footloose.  This film has become synonymous with the 80's, but for as much time as I've spent watching films from the decade of my childhood, I have never seen Footloose before tonight.  The only thing I knew about the film is that it starred Kevin Bacon and John Lithgow, and it's about a small town where dancing is against the law.

This is not a difficult movie to find so I've had plenty of opportunities to see it over the years, but I didn't think it would be the kind of thing that I'd like all that much, so I never gave it a chance.  In fact, I came very close to passing up this opportunity to see it on 35mm on the big screen.  I only got tickets to Bacon Bits: Night One when tickets first went on sale last year, and if not for the fact that a lot of my friends on the lot told me that they were going to be at this show, I probably would have sat this one out.

I'm very glad that I did decide to give Footloose a chance because it's a pretty damn good movie!  It's not exactly filled with plot twists that you won't see coming a mile away, but it's an entertaining story with solid performances throughout the cast, including an incredible performance from John Lithgow as the reverend (and father of Kevin Bacon's love interest) who is responsible for the town's dance ban.
 

Since the second feature of both nights features monsters that live underground, Rob included the 35mm commercial of Dig Dug in the intermission trailer reel.  I'm always happy to see this hit the big screen.  It does a good job of taking the audience out of 2025 and bringing them back to a time when theaters showed a promo for an arcade game prior to the feature film.  It's things like this that make this place more than just a drive-in theater.


The second film that was screened on both Friday and Saturday night was the 1990 modern monster flick Tremors.  I slept through about 45 minutes of this film on Friday night, but that has nothing to do the movie or my interest in seeing it.  First of all, it's hard for me to stay up on Friday nights since I wake up for work at 5:00 am.  Second, it started drizzling, so we had to pack up the lawn chairs and head into the car for the second half of the double feature on Friday night.  I can usually stay awake even if I'm tired as long as we're sitting outside, but when I settle in behind the wheel in a warm car with the seat back and a pillow behind my head, I almost always doze off for at least part of the film.  Finally, I knew that I would be coming back the next night when they'd be playing Tremors again, so the incentive to try to force myself to stay awake and alert just wasn't there.  I had no trouble staying up to see it tonight.  It was kind of chilly, but there was no rain so we were able to sit outside for the whole night.

Like Flatliners, Tremors was a movie that I have only ever seen one time before.  When I was ten years old, I went on a road trip with my maternal grandmother, her husband, my uncle Kuuipo and his wife, and a bunch of my cousins to spend a month staying with my Uncle Sumo and his family in Provo, Utah.  I didn't get along too well with my mother's side of the family when I was a kid, and that has only gotten worse as I've gotten older as I haven't spoken to any of them in years.  Frankly, I'm glad to not have them in my life and I'm sure that most of them feel the same way about me, so it's for the best.  Despite this, my memories of our time in Utah aren't all bad.  One of the more pleasant things that I remember from the Summer of 1990 was the movie night we had.  One of my uncles brought home Back To The Future and Tremors on VHS from the rental shop.  We popped some popcorn and watched both of them in my Uncle Sumo's living room.

I remember that I thought Tremors was pretty cool when I saw it as a kid, but the only thing I remembered about it nearly 35 years later is that it took place in a desert town in the US Southwest, and it's about giant worms that are terrorizing the people who lived there.  I enjoyed it even more seeing it on the big screen at the Mahoning.


And that's a wrap on Bacon Bits.  I'm not sure if this is going to become an annual event, but there are plenty of Kevin Bacon films to choose from (including one that was shown as a secret feature), so they could keep this going for many years to come if it draws a crowd.  It was a fun weekend, so I'm rooting for it to make a return in 2026.
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)