LOVE BUG SAVES MAN'S LIFE
"Herbie the Love Bug" saved my life. I was 15 and going through the typical teenage
angst of depression, self-loathing and acne the size of moth balls. Good thing we
didn't have Marilyn Manson in those days. I was rather impressionable. Yet, luckily
back then I fell in with an unruly Pizza eating gang called a church youth group. I was
invited cold turkey by a friend and I discovered the movies, and the way they were
supposed to be, in a theater in the dark and not outside with a 7 lb speaker hanging
on your car window and a mosquito coil burning on the dash. The fantasy and hope of the
movies was born in me that day. If a lowly 6-volt Volkswagen could win the Grand
Prix, I could survive puberty.
That is how I feel about Cinemark Movies 10 in Fayetteville, It's "Batman and Joker"
colors and tall ceilings have always given me that feeling I had the first time I
walked into that first movie house to see the Walt Disney movie about the little
car that could. To some people, seeing a movie is just about the actual film. Not to me. It
is the experience; the pleasantries of smiling at the ticket taker, alive with the
hope that today's show will share the meaning of life, or at least who that masked
man was.
I want to note that Cinemark in Banks Station is THE place to go to start making these
type movie watching memories. It's a dollar theater and in addition to this wonderful
fact, it will be offering "50 Cent Tuesdays" all this summer. All movies on Tuesday will be half a dollar all day and night and they will be giving away prizes no less!!
I recently went with a great friend of mine to see Star Wars Episode 1: The Overhyped
Menace. The thing is, he brought along his adult daughter who he also had taken before
to see an earlier Star Wars Picture (taking her out of school even). I sat in the
movie thinking how great that was, for them to have shared two such insignificant,
unimportant events together. More fathers, sons, mothers and daughters should try
it. Frank Capra would say that is why movies were invented. Well, he would if he
wasn't dead.
Actually, I think movies are good for all sorts of physical ailments too. Got a fear
of heights? watch "Vertigo." Fear of drowning? "Titanic." Got sinus pressure? "Silence
of the Lambs." Nauseous? "Alien." If you just need a little pep try "The Natural."
If you need to lose weight: "Any Chris Farley or John Candy movie.
As I look back and compare, I don't know today if I could find such quality cinematic
fare as "Herbie, The Love Bug," but I don't think back then I could get into the
movie theater for just 50 cents either. All things being equal, it balances out.
So, if you have been racking your brain for an inexpensive way to start making memories with
your family. Or, if you just want a cool dark place to dream and hope alone, try
Cinemark Movies 10 soon. And besides, where else can you find all this and dump your
trash on the floor too?
Billy Murphy -- 6/4/99