Raiders of the Lost Serials

Long before Henry Jones II, AKA: Indian Jones, there were Saturday morning serials. Fantastic black and white episodes that kept kids going back to the theater each week to find out what happens to their hero - heros like Buster Crabb. When our parents were kids, they'd venture to their local theater and watch cartoons, cliff-hanger serials and feature films all day. It was George Lucas and Steven Spielberg who dug back into yesterday's Saturday morning serials and made off with the chills and spills that lured our parents and grandparents. George and Steven dusted off the genre and brought us exciting movies like the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises. It's the reason I went to see them when they first came out. I liked the old serials and l loved what George and Steven recreated them. The effects were much better but most of the scenes and stunts were stolen from those old cliff-hangers of yesterday.

Gina and I went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. You all know that it's the long awaited fourth in the Indiana Jones franchise. Don't worry -I won't spoil any thing for you. I will say that I am not disappointed. There were familiar elements in this movie from the previous Jones movies. I thought Spielberg did a wonderful job with this installment. I don't really think anyone could be disappointed with the characters and storyline. Spielberg gave us another winner. The movie did make me feel kind of old because our hero has gotten a bit crusty. I was a young man when Raiders first hit the big screen and now I am pushing fifty. Harrison Ford, I guess is well into his sixties (and looks it). Nevertheless, Indie took on the Soviets as he did the Nazi's years before. The effects are great and the story is great. Spielberg took the old Saturday Matinee Serials and did them better. He still can!

Gina's mom was kind enough to take care of the children Saturday so we could have a long date. It's been difficult as of late to find time to just hang out together. The business takes so much of our time. We ate at Pasghetti's in Rainbow City and then drove over to catch the next Narnian chronicle - Caspian. Though this movie didn't stick too close to the origian story, I will still give it five stars. I appreciated the underlying moral of the story and appreciated the darker feel to the overall movie. Since grandmother had the girls, Gina called her mother and asked if we could go ahead and see the Indiana Jones movie. Gina felt like a kid, she had never seen two movies in a row. Both movies were very entertaining and not a let down.

We got to slip away a few weeks ago to see Iron Man. Both Gina and I were very entertained by that movie as well. There are a lot of blockbusters out this Summer. I hope you take the time to see them while on the big screen. I caught the preview of Hellboy II. It looks like it might be just as good as the first one.

By the way, The Sandmountain Twin Drive-In has Indian Jones & Iron Man together this week. I use the www.WQSB.com homepage to check area movie times.