Blade Runner is the only movie I've seen that was better than the book it was based on, though that may be influenced by the fact that I saw the movie first. Was the book bad? I finished it.
I'm watching Blade Runner right now. Probably finish it tonight. I've seen it before but it's been a while. Movies better than the book are rare. That's for sure. Jojo Rabbit is better than the book. Taika Waititi deserved the screenplay oscar for that correction. Stir of Echoes is also better than the book. The movie would be a bona fide legend if it didn't come out the same time as The Sixth Sense. Still, if you want a cool ghost story, you should check it out.
I didn't even finish Blade Runner. I watched about 3/4s of it and then looked up the Tears in Rain monologue on YouTube and figured that was close enough.
The story’s brilliant, but the visuals, music, and sound effects of that film play a major role on why it (for me) remains so unforgettable. So good it’s chilling.
I haven't seen the sequel, 2049, since it came out in theatres. It's also quite excellent. That's going to be my next 4K Blu-ray purchase but right now it's like $40 for some reason :/
That's Villeneuve. A very slow and particular director, but I his style. style. Arrival and Dune are pretty great examples of his work too. And Sicario. Saw The Batman today. Very interesting and dark take on the Batman character and Gotham from Matt Reeves. The Riddler was fantastically menacing and the mob felt intimating instead of pathetic as most Batman movies make the mistake of. The semi-noir pacing and low musical tones were driving and grating. Cinematography was stellar at times too. The script left more to be desired though. Good monologs, but the narrative arc felt a little lacking and behind. Some earlier scenes easily outshine the climax. It's very long though, which was good for drawing out some characters, but others could really have used more. Overall, a decent start to a new wave of DC films, one of which sets the tone I think DC films should have had from the start. They aren't Marvel and I'm glad they've stopped pretending to be.
I saw it at a drive in theater. In the last year I saw them tear down those screens. They were in a serious state of entropy by then. Haven't been used in decades.
I think there is still an extant outdoor movie theater up in Powell, Wyoming, but I'm not sure. Going to the drive in theater was always a treat when I was a little girl. I remember going to see John Wayne in the Alamo when when lived in Kingsville. We got to wear our pajamas and thought that was the coolest thing ever.
There are two that I know of in California. One is in Santee, on the eastern edge of San Diego Metro area. The other is in Barstow, near the eastern terminus of State Hwy 58 at Interstate fifteen. This information is about three years old so I'm not sure either is still open. I saw Planet of the Apes at the Skyline in Barstow when it first came out.
The Santee/Lakeside one is still open regularly. I drive by it almost everyday. Somehow never went in though.
We used to drive through Barstow in the early seventies on our way back to visit family in Texas. It was the epitome of a podunk town in the middle of nowhere. I went through several years ago and could not believe the city that has risen in its place and all around it. I preferred podunk myself, but the locals are probably happy with the increase in amenities, if not the increase in congestion.
Ok I saw The Batman. It's the best Batman. He's the best Batman. The climax was a bit flat but there was a clear thematic arc it was going for.
I saw Jaws at the old Campus Drive in near SDSU. Saw Animal House at the one, I forget the name, but it was in the slough between National City and Chula Vista. Just looked at a map, I think it was where the Chula Vista Walmart is now.
The agricultural extension service, the accompanying gardens, and a housing area occupy the site of our old outdoor movie theater.
It was founded as a company town for the Santa Fe railroad (Named for a man who was president of Sante Fe RR in the early 20th century.) Both grandfathers and my dad worked there. Maternal grandfather retired in the position of Yard Boss, in charge of assembling trains at the switching yard at the junction of ATSF and the Union Pacific. Automation reduced the local workforce at the switching yard and the diesel shops closed in the seventies. In the 1950s interstate fifteen went through connecting LA and Vegas and tourism started to take up the slack. As the population has grown everywhere the town's population has stayed steady for over fifty years now, and has gotten poorer.
So have towns around it sucked up all the area, making it look like it's bigger than it was, or am I missing something?
20-25k for over fifty years. There are "suburbs" that add maybe 10-15k. Major employers are BNSF, USMC, (the rail yard on the right is a logistics base) and the Army whose largest desert training base is about twenty miles north. The white band running horizontally through is the Mojave river, which only flows on the surface after it rains, but the aquifer provides water for the agriculture that can be seen. West of town is Hinkley, the town made famous by Erin Brockovich. The Skyline Drive In theater is just north of river above the I15 symbol.
Mrs. A and I watched this last week or so and while it had its moments, it was so close to its (myriad) source material that we had to keep reminding each other that it was intended as satire and not just crap writing. It's a fine line these days.
"We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold." That's all I know about Barstow. Spoiler: Citation The opening line of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, by Hunter S. Thompson. @minstrel used to be a stickler about citations for everything, so I'm including it here for propriety's sake.
