I am late to the party when it comes to watching Jaws, I will wait for you to pick up your jaw. Better now? I remember seeing parts of Close Encounters of the Third Kind but I have tried to block it out because all I remember is being with dad while he watched it. But Jaws? I have one parent afraid of the water and the other who loves the beach, so neither watched it, at least as for as I know.
I think Encore is the movie channel that has the whole series on On Demand, so one night I opted to watch this film because I was really the last person (besides my parents) to have seen it. I loved it! It doesn’t make me not want to go into the water so bonus for me. Of course, I prefer poolside as opposed to beach, so maybe that is why it doesn’t bother me that much.
I DVRd a special about the movie from the History Channel (and OMG! I started watching American Pickers today and got hooked on that too) and thoroughly enjoyed it. I knew that Bruce the shark had caused all kinds of problems but the whole thing could have been a flop and Steven Spielberg would have been a one note wonder in terms of directing had this gone the other way.
This goes back to my love for movies when special effects weren’t inundated within a film. I like my Star Wars original trio the way they are, so what if I can see the wires they used for the flying scenes. I am intelligent enough to suspend reality for the length of the movie. I liked that Jim Henson and crew created Yoda as a puppet, it added to the films. I don’t need CGI clogging up the film, special effects that allow you to think for about two seconds and realize that the actor is talking to a stick, not interacting with the puppet and the puppet handler.
I have watched the sequel to Jaws and yes, it was a bit campy for my tastes but I am growing in my appreciation for a good story telling as opposed to blowing everything up because they have a computer that can do that.
Squid? They used squid for the final, blowing up scene? Gross but it made it all seem real, even though it was that poor mechanical Bruce who got it in the end.
I guess I have always liked older movies, I mean, I did pay ten bucks to see The Wizard of Oz in the theater last year. And it was magical.
I do admit to loving the Harry Potter movies, although the books are by far better, but if you asked me how many movies I actually go to see in the theater, well, it is normally two to three a year. I have stopped going, even when there is one that catches my eye. I don’t know if I can attribute it to the economy, the expense of actually going to see one or if there aren’t that many that actually make me want to go and see them.
But I will be heading to the theater November 19th and yes, I am a dork. That is something I will freely admit to. At least I don’t take it to the extreme and see the midnight release. I have some control and well, I would be asleep before the first credit came on.
Stumbling Through Life 