Jaws at Midnight!!!

This Saturday night, 21 June 2008, bring that case of the munchies you've undoubtably developed over to the Ken Theater in the Kensington area of San Diego and watch Steven Spielberg's Jaws. It's part of their Midnight series and just featured such cool films as Evil Dead 2 and Friday the 13th, but this week they have Jaws- The first real summer blockbuster that was one of the last summer blockbusters to be, you know, good.
So bring your stomachs, the Ken has popcorn with real butter on it (if I could only get them to serve Mexican Coke), and bring you friends.
Something this cool must be supported.

San Diego Union A-11. Friday 20 June 1975. (Hey, that's like, 33 years ago!)

She may have been the first, but she was not the last...

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In Memory of Stan Winston

Thanks to Stan Winston, your nightmares will never be the same again.
If a good movie was made with convincing creatures, odds are Stan Winston was involved. He came to prominence with a movie no one expected much of, from a director no one expected much of, The Terminator. James Cameron may have been the engine that drove that movie, but Stan Winston made it both frightening and alluring. His attention to detail in wounds and then in the brilliant plausibility of the T-800 exo-skeleton led to critical and financial success, and more important, a creative legacy that continues almost 25 years after its premiere.
The Terminator may not have been Stan Winston's first work (he had nominations for numerous TV movies and features), but it was the beginning of one of the more impressive creative pairings of the 1980s and 1990s: James Cameron and Stan Winston were unstoppable as a filmmaking force.
Against all odds, they made two sequels which should have been anomalous cash-ins by the studios near classics. Aliens, made for a fraction of the cost of its predecessor, surpassed the original in technical and cinematic terms. For whatever reason, Stan Winston brought fiberglass and plastic to horrific life: you can almost hear the creatures breathing whenever they appear on screen. I was checking around doorways when I first saw it.
But bringing the unimaginable to life wasn't enough- the birth cry of modern CGI was the roar of the tyrannosaurs rex in Jurassic Park in 1993- helped in no small part by Stan Winston.
These films are just a sampling of the fine work Stan Winston did over 35 years. He gave your dreams and nightmares plausibility. You believed in the impossible because under his expertise and guidance and care, the fantasies became real.

Stan Winston left us today. Before he went, he worked on Iron Man, which also looked great thanks to his exacting demand for quality and natural inclination towards cinematic greatness.

I leave you with a few examples of the great work which have influenced hundred of films since, and will continue to influence thousands of films yet to be.

San Diego Tribune C-5. 18 July 1986.

San Diego Tribune F-4. 26 October 1984.

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...The Madness...

I promise to get back to trashy movies and move away from respectable stuff in the near future, but I've been somewhat busy with a lengthy project that is nearing an end and...
Well, the purpose of this post is call up memories of a Best Picture winner that has been somewhat forgotten (unjustifiably, even if I don't think the BP for the year in question should have gone to another film).
Harkening back to the days of its Roadshow Origins, the Cinerama Theatre premiered Amadeus in San Diego.  This was one of the last great runs the Cinerama would host, and once it ended, Amadeus would make a few returns to the Cinerama when the crap booked to play ended up showing only to bored employees and rats that soon decided they had other things to do (like terrorize the bowling alley next door). I make no effort to hide my love of this theater, and the large project I completed is available at Cinema Treasures- just click on any of the links I've sprinkled in the preceding text.

San Diego Tribune. Friday 21 September 1984.

And for the record, 1984 gave the world Ghostbusters, The Terminator, and Under the Volcano. While I'm not saying any of those deserved the prize, they were worthy.

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2001 Plays in San Diego

I missed the 40th Anniversary of 2001 in San Diego. However, since it played for 44 weeks at the Center Theatre in Mission Valley... I figured there was plenty of time to celebrate.
So, I present an ad for 2001 in its Premier San Diego run at the Center- which is still standing, if in an ignomonius function as a discount shoe store.


San Diego Union E-5. Sunday 28 June 1968.

And here's an advance ad for 2001 from 19 May 1968, just days before 2001 opened.

Some information on the Center, from an earlier post.

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The Solution to Gas Prices

Come on, do I have to explain this?



Such awesomeness from June 1982 found in the San Diego Tribune.

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Ewoks are 25 Years Old

Take a moment or two, an think about how much joy stubby, furry things and, "Yub Yub," have brought to our lives.
Think the Iron Curtain fell because our way of life was superior to that of Communist Russia? Nope. It was Ewoks. Those lovable little lugs came into our world, 25 years ago today.
25 Years ago, today, Return of the Jedi premiered to reasonably good reviews and (somewhat justified) criticism of Ewoks.  In San Diego, Lucas eschewed the majesty of a single screen venue (like the Valley Circle or the Cinerama) and elected to open ...Jedi at mu;tiplexes. Only one of which is still operating today (the La Jolla Landmark, known for their great midnight movie series).
I was lucky enough to see ...Jedi at one theater which achieved a strange kind of infamy which you'll read about below. And because my parents were cool, they pulled me out of school early to see the first showing.

San Diego Union A-13. Wednesday 25 May 1983.

San Diego Tribune D-6. 13 May 1983


San Diego Tribune B-1 and -8. Thursday 26 May 1983.

And since you'll want to see ad from other films of the Trilogy...
Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back.

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Indiana Jones Comes to San Diego

Well, La Mesa actually.
Raiders of the Lost Ark is the pinnacle of George Lucas' creative power as a filmmaker.  It's also one of the last great engagements at a San Diego area theater.
Raiders... first made its way to San Diego through a sneak preview on June 5, 1981.
It then premiered to never-ending crowds at the Cinema Grossmont on June 12, 1981. It was the only place in San Diego County to see Raiders... and what a way to see it: 70mm-Dolby Stereo.
For 58 weeks, the crowds came to see the quintessential Lucas / Spielberg movie. Great effects, great music, quick cuts, and characters just compelling enough to get caught up in the action but not overthink the spectacle.  It's the perfect movie.
I'm not sure if 58 consecutive weeks is the longest engagement of Raiders... in the US, but it has to be up there (certainly longer than anything in Los Angeles). It's the longest run of a movie in either the 1980s or 1990s. Even E.T. was gone after the one-year mark at the Loma. And it was enough of a landmark to bring the producer of Raiders..., Frank Marshall, to San Diego for the one-year celebration. With cake!
I wasn't at that showing, though I distinctly remember seeing Raiders... at the Cinema Grossmont when I was in Kindergarden. I was five. Of course I loved every second of it. I've seen Raiders... many times since (at a trilogy screening in Carlsbad in 1993, at the Mann Plaza Midnight shows in Westwood about four or five times in the late 1990s) and none of them have ever bested the Cinema Grossmont. Equaled, maybe, but never bested.
So, as you settle into whatever multi-box theater you've decided on to watch Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (phew!), imagine yourself in a big theater with no obnoxious "pre-show entertainment" and only the energy of 900 other movie fans high on real Coke and hot buttered popcorn, enjoying the greatest effort of adventure filmmaking the 1980s would have to offer. You'd never have a better experience watching it, ever again.

San Diego Tribune C-15. Friday 12 June 1981.
San Diego Tribune C-4. 11 June 1982.

The Cinema Grossmont today. Like the Ark, it's waiting.

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A Great Reason to Attend Medical School

Student Nurses! Unfortunately, Roger Corman is involved so the payoff will never be as good as the promise, but shouldn't you be thinking of... the humanity? I mean, that's a good reason? Right?

San Diego Tribune B-10. Wednesday 02 December 1970.

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Long Day Dreams Open All Nite

More quality offerings from the Tower. Also, It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World continues at the Cinerama.


San Diego Union. 29 April 1964.

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Bruce Lee Kicks San Diego’s Ass

And in 1973, San Diego needed Bruce Lee.
Bruce Lee is the greatest star of all time.
To take nothing away from Bogart, Marilyn Monroe, or even (gasp!) Clint Eastwood, Bruce is a greater star than any of them.
Those other, they have to act out scenes and do something before you know what they're all about.
As soon as the camera finds Bruce Lee, you know something's gonna happen. Somebody is going to get kicked. And then punched. And then kicked again.



San Diego Tribune. Wednesday 29 August 1973.

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