We took the family to Thoroughbred Street in Rancho Cucamonga tonight. The street is infamous for its over-the-top Christmas light displays and Southern Californians pack the neighborhood every year to enjoy the show.
The house pictured above has a few Star Wars decorations each year. I was hoping there would be a BB-8, but their droids were A-OK.
Carrie, Mark, and Harrison.
Twenty two.
That’s the number of times I saw the original Star Wars in a movie theater.
Somehow I convinced my parents to let me go every time the opportunity presented itself. Whether it was with my cousins or classmates, I was not going to miss out on seeing the movie set in a galaxy far, far away.
I saw it at the Pasadena Academy, a huge palace of a theater that now houses a multiplex. I saw it at the General Cinema in the mall, where my brothers and I always giggled at the opening music. I saw it at the drive-in.
I even saw an early bootleg copy on my uncle’s Betamax.
With The Force Awakens less than a month away, I’m curious to see how many times I end up seeing it. The last movie I saw twice in a theater was Avatar, thanks to the game-changing 3-D effects.
My wife and I have had our tickets for opening night for months (thanks to our local comic book store, which is hosting an early private screening) and I’m assuming that we’ll take our niece and nephew when they visit for the holidays. So that’s at least two times I’ll be in the theater. Of course, I’ll have to see it in IMAX, so that’s a third viewing.
But I don’t think I have the desire to see any movie 22 times in a theater. I’ll probably stop after the IMAX version. Of course, that won’t stop me from watching it at home several times after the Blu-Ray release … as long as J.J. Abrams doesn’t pull a George Lucas by adding a bunch of unnecessary CGI to everything.
In fact, can we start a petition for the Blu-Ray release to have FEWER lens flares? I’ve seen one in the trailers so far, but I’m sure there will be plenty more.
Note: This entry was inspired by this excellent article. If you lived through childhood during the 70s and 80s, you’ll appreciate it.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Regular readers know how fired up I am about Episode VII and I thought this was pretty funny. I was hanging out with my nephew and I played the Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer on Youtube.
Nephew: Not again!
Me: You’ve seen it already?
Nephew: That’s all daddy watches!
Me (laughing): The Force is strong in our family.
Metaphors be with you.
Pictured above: a t-shirt that I LOVED, but my local store didn’t have my size.
It’s one of the most clever Star Wars-related shirts I’ve seen. I’ll be back soon to see if my size shows up when they re-stock.
Or hopefully they’ll start selling my favorite shirt, this Han Solo/Indiana Jones mashup.
Light saber chopsticks
It’s great seeing how popular Star Wars Day (May 4th, as in “May the Force be with you”) has become over the years. Not that I need an excuse to wear a Star Wars shirt, discuss Star Wars, or use my light saber chopsticks to eat a meal. It’s the movie that defined my childhood, as it did millions of others, and I’ll never grow tired of it.
I made it a point to watch the original film today. I rented the DVD from the library, which is the non-special-edition version of Star Wars. It’s a shame that this (and the Blu-Ray version) is the only available version of the movie; no alterations were made, but no restoration was, either. Not until there’s a remastered high-definition copy with no special edition extras will I throw more money into the Disney coffers.
I used this inferior DVD for a live-tweeting session tonight. I kept my snarkiness to a minimum and learned a few things; mainly, live-tweeting a 38-year-old movie is tougher than it sounds. It was more fun than a farm boy shooting womp rats, though, so I’ll probably do it again for the sequel. Perhaps tomorrow, the Revenge of the 5th?
