Bill, Ted, and Ledger

 It finally worked. I had been working for years to try and convince Parker, the guy who programs movies at the local theater, that he needs to show a 'Bill & Ted' movie. The last Friday of every month the local theater, the Regent, shows an older movie. Usually an old favorite or cult classic. Every time I saw Parker I would tell him that he needs to program a Bill & Ted movie. Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure is my favorite movie ever and I've always wanted to see it on the big screen. Well, all that pestering finally paid off! He wasn't able to do the first one, but he was able to book a screening of Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey! Good enough for me- I'll take it!

Now it was time to enact my plan: to introduce my son to Bill & Ted! There are a handful of movies that I love so much that I want Ledger to appreciate them as well. For that reason, we haven't watched them yet, I want to wait until he is old enough to appreciate them for himself. That's why I hadn't shown him the movies yet. But with him being 13 years old now, this was the perfect opportunity to watch them together.

I prepped him a little bit and let him know how much I love these movies, and how much they mean to me. We then watched Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure Friday evening and an hour later, all three of us went to the theater to see Bogus Journey. And you know what? It worked! He absolutely loved the first one and loved the second one even more! It has been a dream come true! I must have done something right with raising our boy, because he thoroughly enjoyed both movies, laughing at the dumb jokes, giving me looks at the awesome parts, and just genuinely enjoying them completely! For several days after watching the movies, he is constantly quoting them to me, which is the greatest thing on earth! I am a very happy and proud father. Excellent! Wyld Stallyns rule!

Chicken Jockey

As we were bringing Ledger's friends home last weekend from his birthday party, I suggested we do it again the coming weekend and this time go see the Minecraft Movie with everyone. They were all pumped at the idea, so we made it happen!

All the friends that came to the party were invited back Friday to go see the movie together. Four of the boys were free and able to come over again. They walked home together from school and funneled right into Ledger's room to continue their gaming fun. At around 6 we piled into the car and stopped for a pre-movie meal at Wendy's. Finally, it was time for the big show: Minecraft at the local movie theater!

It was opening night and all five of them were beyond excited, they had been talking about it and quoting the commercials nonstop for the last month straight, hardly taking time to breath and now it was finally here! 

Fortunately, the movie was pretty good and very funny. The crowd was all in on this opening night, even erupting in cheers when the endlessly memed lines were spoken. In fact, when Jack Black uttered the phrase 'chicken jockey' I even saw a few high fives. It was so strange, I don't think I've seen a more raucous movie crowd in my life! And it honestly warmed my heart to see this young generation loving the movies!

Afterward all the boys recounted their favorite parts and quoted the parts they loved. It was a boisterous drive as we brought each of them back home. 

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A Super Dog Movie

One of my favorite things to do is hop on YouTube from time to time and catch up on all the latest movie previews. Often times I'll see that a new big movie dropped a trailer, so I check it out and watch five or ten more trailers for movies I've never heard of. Well, I had heard that the first Superman trailer was just released, so I turned on the TV to check it out. I knew that it was going to feature Krypto, Superman's dog, so I figured ol' Wiggins would want to watch it as well! I scooped him up and pressed play. The preview itself was pretty great, lots of great dog stuff. Surprisingly, Wiggins wasn't very interested, but that didn't stop me from enjoying it!

(I didn't realize it at the time, but my wife was watching me and laughing at me the whole time- even had time to take a picture! Rude...)

The Annual Boo Fest

One of Ledger's favorite traditions for Halloween is rewatching an old classic: Curious George: A Halloween Boo Fest!

When he was little this was his very favorite movie. He would often watch it twice in one day, just start it up again immediately after he finished it. As the town gets ready for the fall fest, the man in the yellow hat tells the story of a spooky scarecrow from the town's past called 'No Noggin'. Absolutely harmless but also adorable!

We all gathered in the living room for the special screening, popcorn and drinks ready to go. We accidentally forgot to watch it last year, so Ledge was champing at the bit to see it this year! The whole thing is actually quite delightful and cute- it's even got a few banger songs that were stuck in our heads for the next several days...

After a really fun night, the DVD goes back on the shelf. We will make sure we don't miss it next year!

Special Showing

One of my favorite things about my small town is the local movie theater. It's an old one screen movie house from 1919 that was bought by the town and restored. They show recent movies each week, but every once in a while they have special events. I've attended them before, in fact, I try to attend every single one I can! Not just to see whatever they are showing, but also to support the town and movie culture in the area.

They had a special event recently that I was able to go to. This one was a short documentary called 'Jeanie's Face Exploded' that was created by someone in the area about Jeanie Jeffries, a woman who played an important part in the old horror movie 'Dawn of the Dead'. She played a small part in the movie, but was an important part of the make-up and effects as well. The documentary was an interview with her along with old photos and behind the scenes looks at the whole process. What was really neat is that Jeanie was at our showing as well as the director. They went up and discussed what went into making this doc and a few extra stories not included in the film. It was really cool to be a part of the premiere of the doc and everything!

Double Date

It's been way too long since I saw good ol' Aaron. I figured, with a new Marvel movie coming out, it was time to correct that. He's come over to Allegan and we've gone to see movies at the Regent many times over the years, but this was the first time that he's brought a date!

I convinced Diana to come along, so we planned it as a double date. I can't remember the last time we've gone on a double date with my friends, so we were quite excited. They stopped by so we could hang out for a bit and chat. Eventually we headed downtown to see the movie. It was hilarious- we were laughing the whole time! I was surprised how much Diana liked it considering she hadn't seen many of the movies being referenced. Aaron and Lara loved it as well!

After the movie we wandered around downtown Allegan for a while, looking for a bar to hang out at. We found one that was open, unfortunately they only had their own brand beer- and it was pretty gross! Oh well. We called it a night and parted ways. Truly a fun night together!

Oscar Museum

Bucket List day continues! Now, it's my turn... Aaron got to see his beloved car museum, now I get to see the Academy Museum! Home of the Oscars!!! This was the one thing I told Adam I wanted to do while we were in LA, and now we are here!

After we finished at the car museum, we only had to walk across the street and we were at the Oscar museum! As you might expect, I was pretty giddy about it. We walked around the building and found the entrance. We walked into the main floor and there were tons of awesome Oscar statues around and a viewing room where they were showing old clips from classic movies. We wandered in there and found a cozy round couch to chill for a few minutes. Ledger was pretty exhausted, so he kind of camped out in that dark room while Aaron and I checked out the museum shop. There were some pretty cool things in there with Oscar stuff on them. I ended up getting a neon light in the shape of an Oscar statue- perfect for my movie room back home!

It was pretty cool to be in the place that they always reference during the Oscars each year. I was a happy boy!

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Three Dimensions

I kind of splurged on myself... Ever since the first Avatar movie came out, I've loved seeing movies in 3D. I loved the 3D boom the years following that movie's release. The wife and I would go see tons of movies in the theater and always opt for the 3D option. As they started making 3D TVs, I was always jealous and wished I could afford one. Alas, I was just a poor school teacher and couldn't afford the $2000-3000 dollar TVs or 3D players. Oh well, that just meant that I would have to make sure I saw everything I could in the theater. I distinctly remember having a talk with my wife about how I really had to go see Pacific Rim on a Thursday night, neglecting her and my young son, because it was the last day it was going to be in the theaters and I would never get another chance to see it in 3D!

Well, all of that has changed! I recently found an amazing deal on a 65 inch 3D TV, 3D player, and surround sound system! The wife and I talked it over and the price was so low that we decided the upgrade was worth it. So now I am the proud owner of a whole 3D entertainment set up in my movie cave of a basement! I'm so pumped I can hardly believe it!

First thing I did once it was all set up? Watch Avatar, of course! In 3D! Now I have the chance to see those movies in 3D again! Over the past week or two I've been visiting all the different used movie stores and buying up literally any 3D movies they've got. They don't make them anymore, so there are only a limited number of releases I can get. That totally doesn't matter because I am so pumped to watch 3D movies at home! And yes, I did find a 3D copy of Pacific Rim, so I plan to see it again like I never thought I would.

Oscar Party

It's my favorite day of the year: Oscars day! I am a little bit obsessed with movies and watch between four and five hundred per year. One of my favorite parts of the movie industry is awards season. And the biggest award of them all is, of course, the Oscars.

I spend the months leading up to it watching all the movies that are nominated for Best Picture so that I can vote along with them. I've been obsessed and watching them for decades; I remember demanding that my parents let me stay up to watch them when I was in Middle School- and the did!

Typically watching the Oscars was a solitary event, I didn't really have any friends or family who was at all interested in them like I was. I've been able to rope in Diana to watch them with me every year since we got married, but she is always more interested in the dresses than the awards... A couple years ago Barbara and James joined us for my first ever Oscar party and it was a blast- finally people to share it with! Last year they were not able to make it, but this year they were all for it. Barbara came even though she was feeling sick so she wore a mask the whole night- now that's real love! I felt seen and supported like never before! I took the night off so I could enjoy it fully, and printed out ballots for everyone. I even made a booklet with summaries for all the different nominated movies so everyone else could be familiar with all the films in the show.

We had gotten a bunch of food and had a whole delicious spread to enjoy through out the festivities. I wasn't rooting for any particular film this year, so I was happy with whatever the results were. It was a really fun night. Now, only 12 more months until the next one!

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Swifties

 Diana is a bit of a Taylor Swift fan. An obsessed fan, really. When she found out the Eras Tour was coming to movie theaters, she wanted to immediately get tickets! She made plans with her friend Miranda and we actually got them tickets to see it on the biggest screen possible: IMAX! We bought them almost immediately after it was announced and we still had a hard time getting good seats!

Finally, the day of the show, Miranda came over and the two of them got to show each other the outfits they picked out. Apparently fans have been dressing up as one of the different album styles to go see the movie. The two of them were giddy with excitement! They had a bunch of friendship bracelets as well. I am told that also has something to do with seeing the movie? I don't know, but I love that they are excited to see a movie in the theater, so I'm totally supportive!

They headed out to the theater with huge grins on their faces, surpassed only by the grins on their faces when they returned. They absolutely loved it and had a blast! We have had nothing but Taylor Swift music blaring at the house ever since...

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Share A Favorite

I've been working hard these past several years to instill in my son a firm love of movies and especially going to the theater. I've taken him to basically every single kids movie that's been released in the last 6 years, plying him with candy and popcorn. You know, just basically associating positive things with the theater going experience. I've also been exposing him to some of the family movie classics from when I was growing up, like 'Honey, I Shrunk the Kids', and 'Flight of the Navigator' (both of which he loved, by the way). As he is growing older I am trying to navigate when to show him some of the 'bigger kid' movies. Recently the theater forced my hand by rereleasing 'Jurassic Park' on the big screen for it's 30th anniversary (gah, I'm old...). Well, I guess that means it's time for Ledger to be welcomed to the Park!

Jurassic Park was a very important movie for me growing up, I was already obsessed with movies by that age, but this one was such a big cultural event that everyone seemed to be excited for it in a way that hadn't happened since 'Batman' in 1989. In preparation I read the novel by Michael Crichton, so my little 13 year old self was ready and eager! It came out the summer between middle school and high school, so I was exactly the right age to be sucked in and love it! On the Friday it was released, my friends and I made sure to get tickets to the first showing of the day so we could be the first ones to see it. We loved it, of course, and when we were leaving the theater, there was actually a local news station there to interview those who saw it first. My friends and I gushed about how amazing it was and actually ended up on the 5 o'clock news because of it! Over that summer we went on to see it six more times in the theater. It was kind of like one last hurrah of my childhood before we became high schoolers, so needless to say, the movie holds a very special place in my heart. And now, I am able to pass some of that joy down to my son as he watches it in the theater for the first time! Oh- and it's in 3D!

We made a special father/son day of it and had a good time chatting and being silly on the way there. We loaded up on snacks, and experienced the magic in the theater together! Did he like it? yeah, but not as much as me. I'm ok with that; he doesn't have to love the same things as me, but I want to at least provide the opportunity for him to. In the end, even if it didn't blow his mind the way it did for me and my friends at his age, at least we had a great afternoon together doing something fun!

Avatar: The Way of Awesome

I have been waiting for this for 13 years! Way back in 2009 the movie Avatar came out and I absolutely loved it! I got to see it several times in the theater in 3D, even once with family and friends in IMAX 3D. Granted, it's not the most original movie ever made, but the world it created and the astonishing 3D effects made this an instant favorite. Soon after the movie became such a huge hit they announced a sequel. Then they announced 4 more sequels. And then we waited. And waited. As time passed, the idea of 4 sequels to the film seemed a bit ludicrous, but my opinion has always been 'if James Cameron says we need 4 sequels, then we need 4 sequels'. That man cannot make a bad movie!

So I have been patiently waiting for a new Avatar movie. I even had the opportunity a few years ago to go to the Pandora land at Disney World, and it was amazing. 13 years of waiting and it's finally here! Now that we finally have a second Avatar movie, I knew I needed to see it in the best format possible, so I roped in Aaron to go to the IMAX 3D showing in Grand Rapids. I got the tickets and made our plans. As usual, my work tried everything it could to screw up my plans, but even though I had just worked a 22 hour shift, I wasn't going to let that ruin my excitement. I met up with Aaron and we were both giddy with excitement to finally revisit the world of Pandora. And wouldn't you know it, The Way of Water did not disappoint! James Cameron, you crazy man, you did it again! I will definitely be going to see it again in theaters! 

Halloween Movie Time

 With our silly and imaginative solution to Halloween at home, we decided it was the perfect time to watch the perfect Halloween movie: Nightmare Before Christmas! We watched it for the first time a couple years ago and Ledge absolutely loved it. We had played the soundtrack for him back when he was 4 or 5 and it terrified him half to death! We avoided it for a few years because of that, making sure he was old enough to handle the creepiness. Well, now he adores the movie, just like the rest of us, so it was exactly the right movie to finish off our stay-at-home Halloween! It may not have been what Ledger hoped it would be, but we made the most of it and created some wonderful memories along the way!

That's the Ticket

I'm a bit of a movie fan. I love watching movies at home, but nothing compares to the transcendent experience of seeing a film in the theater! I've been obsessed with going to the movie theater my whole life. Growing up in a family that didn't really care for movies much, it usually fell on me to pester and pester until they would take me to see a movie (sorry Mom and Dad...). Usually I would be able to talk them into seeing something, but they eventually got sick of it and started letting me go see movies by myself. I remember the first movie I got to see by myself was Ducktales: The Movie, which means I was only 10 years old and they left me at the theater by myself! Crazy! Whenever I would see a movie I made sure to save my ticket stub for it. I've been stuffing them away for the past 30+ years! I happened upon one of those old stashes of stubs recently and was looking through them. Most of the really old ones were blank because the ink had worn off them over the years. The oldest one in the bunch that I could still make out was for Home Alone 2 from 1992 (which I remember seeing with Adam and his mom at the theater in Holland). I saw a great idea recently of what to do with them- put them in the clear case of the DVD. So I collected up all the old stubs I've got and went through my collection and put them with the DVD I have. Now I have a new goal: to own every DVD that I have a movie stub for!

Land Before Time Banner

 I don't remember being really in to dinosaurs, but my favorite movies growing up might tell a different story. I absolutely loved 'The Land Before Time'. I was only 9 when it came out, so I was the perfect age for an animated movie about cute kid dinosaurs. I remember when the movie came out there was a Pizza Hut toy tie-in where, for 99 cents, you could get one of four rubber hand puppets of the cast. Growing up it was a bit of a special occasion for us to get Pizza Hut, so it took a lot of convincing to talk my parents into getting pizza, let alone shell out an extra dollar for me to get one of the character puppets. It eventually worked and I got Ducky. I loved that thing so much! I distinctly remember bringing it to school and playing with it at recess, showing it off to my friends. Not satisfied with only one, I kept pestering my parents to go to Pizza Hut again and get another character. Surprisingly it work and I got the Spike puppet as well! I was delighted, to say the least. I played with those things so much that I wore off most of their paint! The promotion ended and I was disappointed that I didn't get all of them.

Well, wouldn't you know it, when the movie came out on home video a year later, Pizza Hut did their puppet promotion again- and this time added two new characters! My pestering started back up again, much to my parents' chagrin. They decided to humor me and get pizza again. The two of them went to go pick it up and when they got home I excitedly asked them 'Did they have any of the different characters?' Reluctantly my mom pulled out of a bag the Cera puppet. I was so excited! She was far from my favorite character from the movie, but that didn't matter because I had a new one! As I was excitedly checking out this new puppet, my mom said 'Oh, and they had this...' and she pulls out of the bag a Littlefoot puppet as well! What?!? I was thrilled! I was jumping around with excitement at this point, one new character in each hand. Papa watching, laughing. 'And this...' Mom says as she pulls out the Petrie puppet. Unable to process this glorious bounty, I scream with excitement. 'We figured we'd finish the set...' My mom declares as she pulls out the final, and largest, Sharptooth puppet. I honestly fall to the ground unable to process what is happening! I am unable to form words because I am so excited, squirming with joy on the dining room floor. I have done it- I've collected all 6. Probably my life's greatest achievement at that point. Life does not get better than this for a 9 year old!

I've treasured those puppets my whole life, and along with it the movie they came from. So to say The Land Before Time has a special place in my heart is an understatement.

As the years went on I continued to display my Land Before Time character puppets in my room. Eventually some straight-to-video sequels came out, but by the time they did I was 14, way too old and cool to rent them from the video store and watch them. I continued to keep an eye on the series as the sequels kept rolling out. I never watched them but made a solemn promise to myself: some day I would watch each and every sequel released. Fast forward to a year ago- all the sequels are now streaming on one of the services we have! Guess who's going to finally fulfill that blood oath? That's right, I took a deep dive into all 13 sequels and loved every terrible minute of them! This renewed passion for the series had me looking one day on Facebook Marketplace for anything Land Before Time related. There were a few fun items, but the thing that really caught my eye was a 12 foot banner for the theatrical release of the first movie! As soon as I saw it I knew it must be mine. Even though we couldn't really afford it, Diana gave the go-ahead, and I bought it! It took a little time before we had the right place to display it, but now that I've got those great new movie shelves, the perfect place to display it was obvious: right above all my movies! Now, every time I'm down in my movie den, I gaze upon it and remember how passionate I was about the series and how much joy it has brought me over the years. Is it ridiculous for 42 year old man to love an animated series this much? Yes, and that's what's so wonderful about it.

Movie Shelves

 So, there's been some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that the local video store has gone out of business. The good news is that I got some of their stuff! I was scrolling through Facebook when I saw a post by the video store saying that they were giving away their shelves and anyone who came by and disassembled them was welcome to have them for free. I didn't even get done reading the post and I was already in the truck on my way! I grabbed my screwdriver and was on the road! I was the first person who came to get their shelves so they told me I could have as many as I wanted. Well, I wanted all of them! I didn't end up going that crazy, but I did end up taking two full aisles of shelving. I had been combing Marketplace for the past 6 months looking for shelves to put my collection in and had some success, but it ends up creating a hodge podge of different shelves and kind of looks junky. Now I can have uniform shelves and really make my movie area in the basement look amazing!

Ledger came along with me as I took apart a full row of shelves, helping me carry the different parts out to the truck. We got everything in the truck bed and filled it up. I thanked them and told them I might be back for more. They laughed. True to my word, the next day I came back and took apart a second row of shelving! Hey, free is free, right?

I made quick work of cutting them to fit and reassembling them in the basement. It took a bit to organize and reshelf my collection, but the whole thing looks 10 times better than it did before! Now it's a collection and display to be proud of!
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inspired by the wizard

We recently watched part of that old 80's movie 'The Wizard'.  If you are my age then you are probably very familiar with it, its the one that starred Fred Savage and was a glorified Nintendo commercial.  My wife somehow had never seen it before.  I was talking about the scene were they show off the Power Glove and how terrible it was.  I popped on that scene and we had a really good laugh at how the character was so '80s cool and then announced 'I love the Power Glove, it's so bad'.  Ledger was apparently inspired by this and wanted to create his own version with Rolly, and I've got to tell you, its hilarious!  (click on the photo to see it better)

onward movie night

Before all of this quarantine thing happened, Ledger and I had planned to go see the movie 'Onward' in the theater.  Unfortunately we weren't able to make it to the theater before they all closed.  Now that it's already on Disney Plus, we decided to make it into a special event.  We got popcorn and drinks, I even picked up some theater candy when I was at the gas station last, turned out the lights, and fired it up!  It was a really special night- all three of us enjoyed the movie and Ledger was pleased that we made the whole thing into a special event for us!  He really loved the movie too, he spend the next couple days being inspired by it in his drawings.
It takes a little bit more effort, but having these sorts of special events during this quarantine are helping to make it more bearable.

our film critic

Movies have always been my interest, my hobby, and my obsession.  I have not been shy about trying to get my boy to share that passion with me, but it doesn't always work.  Sometimes he's interested in movies, but usually his time is spent thinking about and playing Minecraft and Roblox.  He does always like to go to the movie theater, and I take him to every single kid's movie that comes out.
Well, he recently brought something home from school that is a bit of a milestone for me as a proud father: his first movie review!  His subject? The Pixar animated film 'Wall-E'.  In case you can't read it in the picture, he wrote 'Ratings- I would give Wall-e five out of five starts.  It was a really good movie.  Repetition: Wall-E was simply great.  Comparison: If you like robots and spaceships, you will like Wall-e'.  Genius! Perhaps the new Ebert?

oscars!

My favorite day of the year isn't a holiday, but it should be!  The Oscars is my favorite event all year.  My hobby through out the year is keeping up on all the Oscar gossip and making sure I do everything I can to see all the movies that might be nominated.  I get up early so I can watch the nominations announced on tv, and listen to hours and hours of podcasts about the Oscars leading up to the big day.  Ever since I was little I've watched the ceremony; it was always a big deal for me and my mom and dad humored me and it would be the one day of the year where I could stay up until it was done, which usually meant 11:30pm or later- which is a pretty big deal to an 11 year old!
Every year I tend to watch it alone, not because I'm anti-social, but because it's really hard to find anyone else who loves it as much as me.  Since getting married, I've roped Diana in to watching it with me, but we've never gotten a group bigger than that together... until this year!  On a whim, we invited Barbara and James- and they accepted!  Well, this calls for a party!  I spent the first part of the day putting together a packet of all the nominees of lesser known categories like 'best animated short' and the like.  I also printed off some extra ballots so everyone could make their guesses before the ceremony and follow along as we watch.  Since we so rarely get to host guests, we went all out and got a bunch of party snacks and hors d'oeurves.
The night went smashingly and we were treated to an amazing show with some great twists and turns at the end.  I was able to see eight of the nine nominees (sorry, JoJo Rabbit...) and even went to see all the short films, live action and animated, in the theater this year!  This was certainly one of the best Oscar days ever!
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