When I was younger and someone older started out a conversation with the words, “Back when I was a kid…”, I can remember on several occasions rolling my eyes and thinking, “Well, here’s another tale of yesteryear…gosh I hope it’s a short one.”
But here’s the thing that you end up figuring out for yourself somewhere down the line, YOU (at some point in your life) end up becoming that same storyteller…often times going on about how good things used to be when you were younger or how much more simpler things were in the past.
As such, nothing quite makes my niece and nephews' eyes roll more than when I eulogize the passing of mine and my sibling’s youths…as I place it along with that oh so sacred time span of the 1980s and early 1990s as well as the pop culture (music, TV, toys, technology, food products and movies) that we all grew up with like a shiny trophy on a mantle. Yet still, sometimes I question whether that era was as great as I remember it being or was it just that we were younger, impressionable, and more carefree with a lot less options for things to fill our minds.
Along these same lines, THIS JULY, the Vogue Theatre is showing four films (now deemed as classics!) that were all released in the SUMMER OF 1982 which is widely regarded by cinephiles as THE BEST summer season ever for movies released from May through August.
A glance at the list of these films and it’s hard to argue (although I would suggest that the films released in the Summer of 1984 are equally great).
Regardless here's a list that includes several of those iconic films from that summer:
Conan the Barbarian, Annie, The Road Warrior, Rocky III, Poltergeist, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, E.T., Blade Runner, The Thing, The Secret of NIMH, Tron, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, The World According to Garp, Night Shift, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, An Officer and A Gentleman
I would also throw in the extremely entertaining films that, while not as great, are still pretty darn good (Grease 2...yep Grease 2...love it!, Firefox, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, The Last American Virgin, Friday the 13th Part III, and The Beastmaster).
Out of the list of the above films, the Vogue will be playing the following four in July as a part of their $2 Wednesday Classics:
Annie (July 6)
Poltergeist (July 13)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (July 20)
The Thing (July 27)
Yet the question still remains…are these movies better than anything being released today (theatrical or streaming) or are some of us just kind of stuck in the past, unable to move that pop culture needle past the 1980s?
On Wednesdays in July...you can answer that question for yourself at the Vogue Theatre when each film will show at 10 AM and 7 PM on their respective date. All shows are $2!
And yes that last sentence was a blatant plug for the Vogue.
In any case...see you at the movies!
For more information: https://voguetheatremanistee.org/2-classics