Movie Traditions

Before we had kids, Corrie would, on New Year's Eve, marathon watch the second of the Lord of the Rings movies---The Two Towers and The Return of the King. We didn't have The Fellowship, so it was never involved.

Anywho, Cass has been interested in knights and armor and battles---because what kid isn't?---and Corrie said, Well, there are these crazy vivid, involved, movies that have monsters, wizards, magic, sword-play, HUGE battle scenes, ghost armies, tiny half-sized people...it's pretty cool! And Cass's eyes went wide and he said: What the sigma are we waiting for (this is new slang for us oldies)?

So, before we left for Colorado, Corrie put on the extended versions of the Lord of the Rings films. The 12 hours of epic movie split nicely over two weeks---somedays we'd watch an hour, others an-hour-and-a-half---always ending for bed or shower at a reasonable place.

I didn't catch all of the extended versions, but from what I did see, some things were filled in, or nuance I was unaware of got explained. Like Aragorn being 87 years old, and being one of the "dudes who live for a few hundred years" typed of humans. I had no idea...

Anywho number two, that left Corrie and I with the desire to watch something new on New Year's Eve, and we had settled on wanting to put eyes on Ivan Reitman's "Evolution" from summer of 2001. We had just driven through the beautiful Glen Canyon area of Utah and Arizona---the site for where the movie takes place---and we quote it regularly...so the decision made sense.

One evening back in the pre-9/11 summer of 2001, Corrie, Tony, and I went to see this movie in the theater, but not in San Luis. We drove down to Arroyo Grande to a tiny single-screen theater (most likely the Fair Oaks Theatre), most likely having been drinking and partaking the whole drive down, only to crack up laughing over and over. I have a soft spot for this movie.

We put it on for the kids, but they weren't as interested as us, so we put it on after they went to bed. I spent some time online after watching it, to see if the online community loves it as much as I do (they decidedly do NOT), and to check specific filming locations and the like.

The third act climax is silly, and the end bad-guy in this essentially Ghostbusters-retooling is, eh, let's say pushing the boundaries of believability, but the physical nature of David Duchovny, Orlando Jones, and Julianne Moor's comedy cracks me up just by thinking about it. The chemistry between Duchovny and Jones in the small moments ("Ready for lunch Harry? Or...have you already eaten?"), or just Orlando Jones line reads ("God gave you two goddamned hands for a reason!"; "We're just trying to look after these little guys, your majesty!") or to him ("This is not a nightclub!") or Arizona's governor, played by Dan Ackroyd, ("Somebody take this bag of snakes and lay them out straight for me.") provide endless quotes for Corrie and me. And I haven't even mentioned Sean William Scott ("I do this!"; not a quote, but his face upon hearing his terrible boss was killed by a monster is priceless.)

After purchasing a new DVD player, I hope to return this movie to our rotation. It could make for a nice New Year's Eve movie, but I wouldn't want it to only get seen once a year. If you haven't seen it, I would say it's worth your time, but I also understand the main complaints about it.

The times, though, when it came out were the height of frivolity in America---the pre-9/11 summer of 2001. It's from a different era, and it takes me back there, which may be why I still adore it so much.