======= ======= ====== ====== ====== ===== ==== ====== ====== ===== ==== ======= ======= ====== ====== ====== ===== ==== ====== ====== ===== ====
Far too often I hear people complaining about how they just can’t think of an activity to do with their latest fling. Last summer, I was in the same spot, absolutely desperate for date ideas. I had exhausted the usual – making dinner at my place, getting drinks overlooking a scenic area, dining out, necking in the back of a movie theater, etcetera and so on. I needed something fresh, lively, and altogether out of the box. I found precisely that in a park near my house.
The event had been dubbed “The Summer of Cage,” lasting through the summer and promising a different film once or twice a month (although my memory is hazy on just how often they showed these movies) starring Nicolas Cage. Cities all over the country do this for free, courtesy of the local parks department and when you mix Nic Cage and the phrase “free for anyone” you have a winning combination.
The movies would be shown outdoors in the park, and it was free for anyone to go. As a huge fan of picnics and also not spending money, this was an ideal date for yours truly.
As darkness slowly descended over Chicago, the sun dipping ever so slowly below the skyline, and I could tell that it was going to be a beautiful summer evening despite the fact that near where I had planted my quilted blanket down there were three homeless guys drinking canned beer out of paper bags and screaming at each other.
I had popped a bottle of white wine and had even brought along a bucket full of ice to keep the shit cold. Snacking on BLT pasta salad, we watched from a safe distance as park security escorted them out of my vicinity, but my date and I had already missed the entire first scene of National Treasure because of these yahoos.
If for some ungodly reason you haven’t seen National Treasure before, this scene sets up the premise for the entire movie. Luckily we had both seen it several times over so it wasn’t that big of a deal. And Nicolas Cage doesn’t actually enter the movie until we see him cruising around the Arctic Circle in this ridiculous snowmobile monster truck, anyway.
National Treasure is a cinematic masterpiece, a film that will go down as one of the greatest of all time and I’m not just saying that to be annoying. Nicolas Cage doesn’t get enough credit as an actor.
Yes, he’s had some stinkers – Ghost Rider and Drive Angry come to mind – but he has a fucking Oscar and you don’t so let’s just cool it with the anti-Cage rhetoric. Anyway, we get into the movie.
My ass is going numb from only sitting on a quilted blanket on top of grass, but I’ve got my arm around this girl and we’re sipping wine and loving every minute of this movie. Eventually we get to the scene. “I’m gonna steal the Declaration of Independence.”
I’ve been in both bars and stadiums during big game moments. I’ve seen buzzer beaters and hail marys completed in some of America’s most iconic venues, and I can tell you that the moment when Cage uttered that phrase stacked up to all of them.
In front of a couple hundred people in a park in Chicago last summer, you would have thought that this crowd had just heard that ISIS had just been wiped off of the face of the planet or that it was the WWII and Germany had just surrendered to the Allies. The crowd went wild. People stood up from their blankets and chairs and started screaming like they were at a NASCAR race. The rabid, joyous throngs lept from their seats like a shot out of a cannon.
I’ll never forget that night because not only was it a wonderful date, but it was also one of the most pleasant moviegoing experiences I’ve ever had. No, it wasn’t a new movie and lets face it, National Treasure isn’t exactly The Godfather.
But it was free, and I was allowed to bring booze and snacks in without having to hide it in my Longchamp carryall and that really made all the difference. If you’re looking for a date idea – something altogether different from the standard “drinks and dinner” look no further than a movie in the park. That shit is electric, especially when you’ve got Nic Cage on the big screen. .
Image via YouTube
Respond
jduda@grandex.co
To high treason.
“Not to be Johnny Raincloud, but we’re still trapped down here.”
Great take.
For all the Denver-area/Colorado Springs people, Red Rocks have movie showings every few weeks there and that’s a great place to go for a date.
Saw Slumdog Millionaire for the first time in Millennium Park a few weeks ago while visiting Chicago. First open air cinema experience too, shit was top notch.
We gunna send em to Arizona State!
You can’t talk about Nic Cage stinkers without mentioning The Wicker Man. What a disaster
Houston does a series in October that’s outdoors, have circled a date and ran it by the lady. Thanks Duda
Despite it being a mediocre movie at best, National treasure is in my top 10 all time favorites. I watch it 10 times out of 10 when I catch it on TV.
I don’t watch television.
Nicholas Cage does nothing that can be described as mediocre.
When is it?