What about Eddie?

Let me start with a little about myself. Hi my name is Eddie and I’m the resident movie geek. I was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley and spent the better part of my childhood, as many others, playing outside in the neighborhood with friends till the street lights came on, then watching TV till the dreaded time call for bed time, which was always too early for my liking.

Back in the day, from the summer of 1976 to the fall of 1979, my parents, in an effort to get some together time and hold on to their sanity, came up with an interesting plan. They would drop off both my brother and me every Saturday, rain or shine, at the Americana 6 movie theater in Panorama City as it opened around 10.30 a.m. My mother would buy us each a ticket to the first movie playing and hand us about $7.00 each, for food and yes, you could actually eat two basic meals plus get popcorn back then for about $7.00. How times have changed.

Here’s the beauty of the plan my parents devised. They would leave me and my brother at the theater until about 9:00 p.m. It granted a long break for my parents while, for my brother and me, they left us with a freedom of choice as to our movie selection and food for a day. It was great, as this was still in the era of double features and as it turned out a great time for movies.

I saw more movies in that time period than most critics will see in their lifetime. I saw everything from Jaws to Heavy Metal, from Looking for Mr. Goodbar to Battlestar Galactica, from Rocky to Smokey and the Bandit. I got hooked from the get-go and have loved movies ever since. I, like most kids my age, was enamored with action films and monster movies (a.k.a., Godzilla movies), but Sci-fi was king and when a little movie named Star Wars came out, I was forever changed. Mesmerized by what I saw, I couldn’t get enough, even after seeing it 52 times in the theater.

After seeing Star Wars, I knew that I no matter what, I would work in the movie industry. It also sparked my imagination and got me to be more interested in Sci-Fi/Fantasy and eventually got me to write. After all those years of movie going, I have developed a wide and varied taste in movies. I like almost all types of movies. I’m not really into hard core foreign art films too much, but then who is besides the French. I still love the shoot ‘em up action films, the Sci-Fi flicks, the comedies, romantic slapstick and more. I like mystery thrillers, especially with a good twist and horror movies, though I prefer the scary to the slasher types.

I can appreciate and like some the hard drama’s, but I think those movies are made for people in the world who live vicariously through others, rather than lives of their own. I have, over the years, learned the difference between great actors/actresses and what is a great performance and I’ve also learned that the 2 can be mutually exclusive. A great actor/actress will not always give you the best performance or be cast in the right part, but by the same token even the least of accomplished thespians can deliver the performance of a lifetime, under the right conditions.

I love the old movies, not because of the vintage or overblown nostalgia about the movie or the stars, I like the old movies that stand up to the test of time and the actors that can never be replaced or emulated no matter how hard Jim Carrey tries. In the end I love movies for what they are. They are a portal to another time and place. A glimpse into a universe that takes us for a ride and shows us the sites. They give us a look and a feel for these amazing places and give us a taste of their local fare, be it archaic, exotic, strange, or very familiar. They allow us to remove ourselves from the present and indulge in the many worlds set before us by the story tellers.

As Americans, we have a relatively young and short history. We have no great philosophers of old or great civilizations of ancient glory, nor do we have artists or composers of centuries renown (American Indians not withstanding). What we Americans do have, other than Jazz and the Western genre, are motion pictures. The motion picture is the American art form, the medium in which we put our hearts and souls into. It is our contribution to, not just the world, but to all humanity and our legacy to the ages.

That in no way means every movie is a masterpiece, or even worth watching for that matter. So, based on my knowledge and taste in movies, I’m here to let you know if it’s worth a crap, or at least, in my opinion, if it’s worth $10.00 and 2 hours of your time.