M.T.10.M.M.M.E.* – Part the Second
*My Top 10 Most Memorable Moviegoing Experiences..
6 – 10 can be found here.
5. The Phantom Menace – As I mentioned last time, our generation is under George Lucas’ thumb. We’ve grown to regret it recently, but before this movie was viewed (and later hated by the general populace) we were singing his praises. He was giving us more Star Wars and we could finally have our own trilogy to experience as most of us were to young to see the O.G. trilogy when it was originally released. Opening night was the hottest ticket in town and I was so happy to go. Saw it at the midnight showing and I saw it again the next day. So was it a great movie? No, not really. Was it fun? Yeah, the podrace was cool. Was it worth the wait? I guess that depends on you. The thing that made this great for me was the anticipation of seeing it. I don’t think anything has matched it since — and that was probably it’s ultimate undoing. But that’s another blog post altogether. Moving on…
4. Army of Darkness – I saw this in Westwood and I think that this may have been one of the first midnight viewings of a movie I have seen — and I’m not even sure it was midnight. All I remember is that there was just a general vibe of weirdness going on and people wanted to see this movie and for some reason non-sequiturs were being shouted out for no apparent reason. “E-rector Set!” That pretty much says it all. The movie was all kinds of weird too… but the crowd was much more interesting.
3. Whatever movie Jon and Aubrey were watching - Turns out it was Harlem Nights and this has already been discussed at length.
2. Pulp Fiction - There really isn’t much that could top this movie going experience. Opening night at Mann’s Chinese theater for a movie that completely blew everyone’s minds. Most of the time when I go to movies, I can sort of figure out the plot before the movie gets there and I don’t know if this says more about me or the movies I go to see. This was one of the rare cases where I could not see where we were going and even if I could have given my best guess as to what was going to happen next, it was still miles away from what QT had up his sleeves. When Butch bursts into the back room of the pawn shop for example… One of the many scenes that are just from out of left field and just grab you and holds your attention like nothing else. Also, the start of Sam Jackson ruling pretty much everything. Just awesome.
1. Say Anything - Above Pulp Fiction? Really? I know. I know! But hear me out. This movie will always be special to me because it was the beginning of when me and my high school friends were able to go out on our own due to Jon getting his license and having a car. It was the beginning of when we turned the corner from being dependent on our parents to independent (even though I still depended on Jon to drive but we’ll gloss over that for now). It was the harbinger to one of the best summers ever. I’ll go ahead and say it: I’m in love with my friends. I will adore that time in my life forever and always and it seems like this is where it all started. Bonus: I also fell in love with Ione Skye. Ah Ione… She’s the cheese and I’m the macaroni…
So there’s my ten. What are yours?
