Even Better The Second Time

Went to the movies last night and got home today, well 2:30AM this morning.

Last night the MMC went to the “local” drive-in, The Big Mo, in Monetta, SC. I use Master’s Miata Club loosely, there were three cars that made the trip. Two other cars did show up at Sonic and eat with us, but didn’t go the extra 35 miles to see the movies. That’s right, movies, for six bucks a head you get to see two first run pictures. A couple years back they added a second screen so you actually have a pick of two double features. Screen #2 was showing What Happens In Vegas and Made of Honor, while on the original screen Indiana Jones and Iron Man were playing. Of the three couples going, one had seen the Vegas movie, one had seen the Indiana Jones movie and one had seen Iron Man. Guess which movies we went to see?

Right, the two that started with the letter I. When we got to the drive in they had already been letting cars in for about 10 minutes and the place was already 2/3rds full. We were parked by 7:15 and only had an hour and a half to kill before the first feature started, so we did what happens at any Miata Club gathering, we broke out the food.

First up was Indiana Jones and the Last Temple of the Lost Crystal Kingdom. My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed the first movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark, the next one not so much and skipped the third entirely, so let’s say we were not as excited to see this installment as the other four folks. One, maybe two, cracks about Indy’s age would have been cute, but they got old (pun intended) fast. Don’t get me started on the “thrilling” chase sequence through the jungle… I will have to give them credit as they managed to not fall into the trap of the eternally ready torch (which I have whined about here in the recent past). They had an explanation that worked, for this movie. When entering an ancient crypt deep in a cave below a mountain or pyramid or something in the Andes Mountains, someone yanks a torch off the wall and before he lights it says, “Hey, this is fresh. Someone’s been in here recently.”

The drive in is not an ideal venue for watching a movie (except for the kind they used to show in them in the 70s), so if Donna and I hadn’t seen Iron Man in a nearly ideal setting a couple of weeks ago, seeing it at the Big Mo would have driven me to want to see it in a real movie theater. In spite of a chunk of the bottom right of the screen missing due to the SUV in front of us, the car idling next door so they could run their AC, the steady stream of people passing in front of us on their way to and from the concession stand, the crying baby, the biting ants and knowing what was going to happen next, Iron Man was even better the second time. If you haven’t seen it yet, call in sick to work tomorrow and catch a matinee, you’ll thank me for it.

I wonder if I can pre-order the DVD on Amazon yet? Yep.