Movie Day!

It is exceptionally rare for me to go see a movie in a theater.

It is even more rare for both boys to join me.

Yesterday though, we had to make it happen. We *had* to see Ted. Why? Well, we knew we would all enjoy the raunchy, Seth MacFarlane film. Yes, the humor is crude, but with often very intelligent and spot on cultural references that are quite hysterical.

References such as this classically horrible 1980s B movie:

Yes, that is Flash Gordon starring Sam Jones.

We know Sam Jones. His post-Hollywood life lead him to our area of the world and one of his sons is the same age as 15 and they played both baseball and football together before high school. Sam was one of the assistant coaches on the pop warner team. So we knew him as Coach Sam.

Apparently coach Sam couldn’t resist the call from Seth when he was creating Ted and got the idea to feature Flash Gordon in the movie. The main character (Mark Wahlberg) and his bear are strangely obsessed with the movie. Scenes from the flick “flash” across the screen at random points. But the kicker for us is that 2012 Sam plays himself in the movie! Yes, he’s in his 50s now and is a bit thicker all around than the 1980s version but the crack up is that they didn’t try to hide THAT…..but they did give him Flash Gordon blonde hair parted down the middle! We squealed with extra loud laughter whenever he was on screen.

I kept thinking “He has kids in jr high and high school – is this cool, or mortifying for them?!”