Bazi Kanani, anchor, KUSA-Channel 9
Bazi Kanani’s summer-movie memory is not about one she saw, but about one she was in. Growing up in Wiggins, in northeast Colorado near Fort Morgan, there may be only one chance in a lifetime to be an extra for a major Hollywood movie shoot. So Kanani and her brother jumped at news of a casting call at a local truck stop.
“When we showed up for filming that day we recognized the main star in the movie. My brother declared, ‘Hey, it’s the white guy from “In Living Color.”‘ His name was Jim Carrey and the movie was going to be called ‘Dumb and Dumber.”‘
The shoot in the transformed diner was the usual combination of fascination and tedium. “It was a really long workday for a scene that was only a couple minutes long. We didn’t mind. We were getting paid, and better yet, we were skipping school to be there.”
When the film finally arrived in theaters as a hit in December 1994, “we had made the cut,” Kanani said. “There we were in the corner of the screen behind Jim Carrey, shamelessly overacting our minuscule part. My brothers loved the movie, but I thought it was indeed dumb.”
Matt Hobbs, winner in the student category of local film competition at the recent Aspen ShortsFest
The summer-movie memories of a 17-year-old are more recent than most. Hobbs, who has won praise for his short film about Basalt High School’s soccer team, goes all the way back to … 1998.
“‘The Truman Show’ was one that had the most impact on me. After that, for a while I thought I was in a TV show and no one was telling me.” He also has a big place in his heart for the terrifying shark-bait movie “Open Water” from last summer, a tiny-budget indie movie that went on to make $30 million. “They made it with the same equipment I have, so it gave me hope for what I’m doing.”
AnnaSophia Robb, 11-year-old star of “Because of Winn-Dixie,” and Tim Burton’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”
(The exclamation marks are hers.)
“Two summers ago, my dad took my mom and I to see ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood!! The El Capitan is an old-fashioned theater; it only shows one movie at a time, which makes it even more special! The theater was all decked out in pirate scenery. The employees were wearing pirate outfits and there were gold coins all over the floor and memorabilia from the film set was set up everywhere. It was terrific!!!!! The box seats had skeletons, smoking cannons, dangerous swords, and overflowing treasure chests. There was a pirate organist playing old sea songs before the movie started. All of a sudden the organist and the organ started to drop into the floor, the lights dimmed, and the velvet curtain lifted.”
Stephanie Two Eagles, film consultant and former Colorado film commissioner
“When I was a kid, I saw ‘The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming.’ Brian Keith is in it, Jonathan Winters, Carl Reiner, Alan Arkin. I saw it again last summer at the Starz FilmCenter. It’s such a good anti-war film. I fell in love with John Phillip Law, who played a Russian sailor. I was 12, and I pretended that I was the girl he falls for. I spent my whole summer being that blond girl.”
Joan Fitz-Gerald, D-Golden, president of the Colorado Senate
For a busy politician, the first summer movie that comes to mind is exactly what the season was meant for: pure escapism.
“Endless Summer” is Fitz-Gerald’s pick, the 1966 surfing documentary that fueled the athletic-slacker lifestyle and launched a thousand daydreams of sand and waves: “It reinforced for me that if I’d ever have free time, I’d love to spend it traveling. It was a complete fantasy. Not to surf, but to finally see the perfect beach.”
Kathy and Robin Beeck, founders of the Boulder International Film Festival
Kathy: “We were going to see ‘Used Cars’ at the drive-in. We were so psyched. We loved – oh, what’s his name?”
Kathy: “Kurt Russell.”
Robin: “Kurt Russell.”
Kathy: “A bunch of us piled into the car and did the trunk thing. Robin’s driving. We pull in. She gets past the front entrance, then she pulls up right at the concession stand and decides to let everybody out. Of course, we were caught. But we snuck back in to see the movie.”
Robin: “Under the fence at the Holiday Drive-In in Boulder.”
Mayor John Hickenlooper
“In 1977, while doing field work in Bozeman, Mont., for my master’s degree in geology, I went to see ‘Star Wars.’ I had not seen any ads for the movie, so I went in without any preconceived notions, expectations or general idea of what I was about to experience., I was completely blown away.”
, Colorado Rockies center fielder
“My strongest memory is from when I was really young, maybe 5 or 6. My first drive-in movie was dual features – ‘Hoosiers’ and ‘Three Amigos’! I remember going to that and sitting on the hood of our Buick LeSabre for the first time. In Tulsa, Okla. It was hot. But it was great.”
