Hello!

Trailers from Hell’s Alex Kirschenbaum has a new article up that recalls the 1999 duel of movie blockbusters for the hearts and minds of American moviegoing kids. One of these pictures filled every multiplex and mall theater across the country, and made a billion dollars despite being a sad excuse for a movie. Yes, I was there too, with teenagers. My audience jeered at a pitifully uncool George Lucas character.

Then I got lectures from 16-year-olds on how the sub-reality adventure of Neo was the Greatest, most brilliant movie ever made. Well, I won’t cop to some of the movies of 1966-70 that I thought were the greatest ever made …

Is 1999 what passes for nostalgia today?  I guess so. And maybe I’ll see The Matrix again someday, and actually pay attention. Alex’s memoir captures the phenomenon as I remember it, sometime around when Clinton was dodging questions about what happened in the White House conservatory with Miss Mustard Lewinsky:

And CineSavant’s advisor Gary Teetzel found some fun online with this vintage episode of You Bet Your Life. The first guest ushered in by George Fennemann is none other than a noted Science Fiction author:

Ray carries himself well, and even dares to poke a bit of fun at his host!  Groucho tries but cannot embarrass Bradbury with a line of questions to make him boast about his writing success. Ray first speaks up at about the 2:45 mark, but the whole show is a winner. We enjoy You Bet Your Life just to see the contestants — back in 1956, ordinary people that might land on a quiz show were genuinely ordinary, many with distinct regional accents … Groucho always gets to talk to a broad selection of friendly, pleasant folk … unaffected by our 21st century social anomie.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson