Retros at Willow Creek

I've written before about the retro movies Willow Creek Theater shows every weekend (see Back to the Future, December 2009). Every weekend, they play a blast from the past, some good, some not so, but I like movies so I go to see most of them. In recent weeks, I've seen Beetle Juice, Forrest Gump, Batman, The Blues Brothers, Silence of the Lambs, The Never Ending Story, Fight Club, Terminator II, Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Reservoir Dogs, in addition to the movies mentioned in the December post.

At first, most of the retro movies were in an inferior digital format but they are all film now. It makes a big difference. Some of the prints show their age but most are pretty good. The prints for Jurassic Park and Terminator II were pristine. This week's showing is Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, which I will be skipping. I thought Temple of Doom was vastly inferior to Raiders of the Lost Ark and just kind of icky in its own right.

Next week, however, they are showing Jaws, the 1975 film that created the Summer blockbuster and redefined how the world views sharks, probably for the worse. The retro showings are Friday and Saturday nights at midnight and Saturday and Sunday at 10:30 AM. Being an old man who needs his sleep, I go to the early shows, usually Sunday. Willow Creek is easy to get to if you're in the Twin Cities metro, at the intersection of I-394 and highway 169. Onvoy employees already know this, as it's across the street from where we work. Check out future showtimes here.

Oh, a point of trivia, for what am I good for if not for trivia? The great white shark is the ocean's penultimate apex predator. What is the apex predator? The bluefin tuna. While the great white is big and voracious, it's a specialized eater, preferring easy to catch bite-sized prey like seals. It will leave most healthy aquatic animals alone. The bluefin, however, is faster and will eat anything, although mostly fish. It also hunts in packs and can grow to over 10 feet long and weigh 1000 lbs. Unfortunately, the bluefin is being over harvested and will likely be extinct in my lifetime. If you're ever offered bluefin sushi, just say no.