Want to hear something amazing? Watching movies is more fun than writing about them.
With that in mind, I’m going to skip this week’s editorial and go directly to the movies.
Recommended: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Commons Park, Ross, Friday,
8:30. I agree with common wisdom: Raider of the Lost Ark is a masterpiece of escapist action entertainment. But I split with the herd on this second sequel; to my mind, it improves on near-perfection. The action sequences are just as well done, but the pacing is better; this time Spielberg knew exactly when to give you a breather. Best of all, adding Sean Connery as the hero’s father humanizes Jones and provides plenty of good laughs. Just don’t confuse The Last Crusade with the wretched Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. And don’t confuse this DVD presentation with how the movie looks on real film.
Noteworthy: Brainwash Drive-In/Bike-In/Walk-In Movie Festival, Alliance for West Oakland Development Parking Lot, Friday and Saturday nights, 9:00. Despite the name, Brainwash TV has nothing to do with Fox News. In one of the odder Bay Area movie traditions, this strangely-named organization projects short subjects in an Oakland parking lot one weekend every summer. It’s different program each night, so attending Friday is no excuse for not attending Saturday.
Recommended: The Hidden Blade, Opera 
Plaza and Shattuck, opening Friday. Those who loved Yoji Yamada’s Twilight Samurai are going to like this one a lot, too. Like his previous period film, The Hidden Blade concerns itself with the daily life of lower-rung samurai at the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Masatoshi Nagase stars as a samurai in love with a peasant girl and intimidated by new, western methods of warfare just coming to Japan. Matters get worse when a close friend is accused of treason. The misleading title suggests an action flick, something that The Hidden Blade only becomes–”in a calm, meditative way–”in the final act. While it lacks Twilight Samurai’s urgent desperation, and ends a little too happily, it’s still an intriguing, unglamorous look at the warrior’s life.
Not Recommended: Cars, Lark, opening Friday. So much for the animation studio that could do no wrong. Pixar’s first bad movie suffers from two inexcusable faults. First, the protagonist is neither likeable nor interesting, despite being voiced by Owen Wilson, who in live action is usually both. And second, the 116-minute picture is too slow for the slight story and shallow characters. Cars provides plenty of opportunity for your mind to wander, and mine wandered towards some very basic problems with the premise that I wouldn’t have noticed in an entertaining movie.
Recommended: Citizen Kane, Union Square, Saturday, 8:30. How does a movie survive a half-century reputation as the Greatest Film Ever Made? By being really, really good. True, there are films more insightful about the human condition, pictures more dazzling in their technique, and movies more fun. But I’d be hard pressed to name many this insightful that are also this dazzling and fun. Now I’ll identify Rosebud: It’s a McGuffin. Unfortunately, this will be a DVD presentation.
Recommended: American Graffiti, Rafael, Saturday, 7:00; free. A long time ago, in a Bay Area that feels far, far away, George Lucas made an entertaining (and extremely profitable) movie without action, a big budget, or special effects. Talk about nostalgia.
Recommended: Around the World in 80 Days (1956), Stanford, Saturday through Monday. If ever there was a movie that depended on a big screen in a big theater, this is it. Watch Mike Todd’s comic spectacular on TV–”even on the well-made widescreen DVD–”and you’ve got a pretty good 90-minute comedy stretched out to three hours. Watch a good print on a huge screen with the original stereo mix (which emphasizes the width of the screen in way that modern mixes don’t), and you’ve got a highly entertaining mix of comedy, circus, and period travelogue. It helps to know enough old movie stars; a 
lot of the fun is watching them pop up in one bit part after another. The Stanford will screen an original Technicolor dye transfer print with four-track magnetic stereo sound, turning this into a very special experience.
Recommended: Memento, Rafael, Wednesday, 7:00. Only this exceptional thriller by Christopher Nolan. And how many tell the story backwards, putting you into the mind of someone who can’t remember what just happened? Okay, but how many give that man a mental disability that guarantees failure and makes him extremely dangerous both to himself and to innocent bystanders? Too many to name. How many thrillers center on a hero bent on identifying, and then killing, the man who murdered his wife? (If you didn’t understand the above, try reading it after watching Memento.)
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