Laugh Lines

"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-pound

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 of 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?

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