Consorting with the Enemy

Sorry these posts can be so long...but enjoy!

So I just got back from nice run on another amazing Los Angeles morning.  This weather is crazy.  Sunny, not a cloud in the sky, in the 50s...perfect running weather.  I love it!  Now if only I could get up early during the week to run...

Anyway, yesterday I had a great day at Universal Studios Hollywood.  I'll be happy to tell you a bit about it here.  Everybody who's out here on co-op from my studio at UC got together and went to Universal.  It was Klye, Alyssa, Jenn, Jenn's roommate out here, Tessa, and I and we all had a lot of fun.  It was great to see familiar faces!

Universal City sits on the side of a hill looking out into the Valley.  I had heard people always talking about the valley, but I didn't really know what it was until yesterday.

In this picture you can see the Universal backlot down at the bottom, past the golf-course is the Warner Bros. studio which I can't wait to check out as well, and I think there's a possibility that the Disney Studio is down there in the valley behind those tall buildings on the left, but i'm not sure.  

Anyway, the first thing we did at the park was the Studio tour.  The studio tour is probably the coolest thing at the park, because you see sets that are actually used for real mainstream movies on a regular basis.  At the beginning you drive by a bunch of huge soundstages and your tour guide basically tells you that there's cool stuff inside, but if you want to see that stuff you have to pay like a lot of money for the VIP Tour.  

Then you get to the backlot where things get cool.  They drive you through many streets of city sets.  These sets are used all the time by movies, tv shows and music videos, Bruce Almighty and U2's Vertigo video to name just a few.  Part of the city is the Courthouse square where the Back to the Future trilogy was filmed.  Unfortunately, the courthouse has been remodeled since then and is now used for filming on Jennifer Love Hewitt's show Ghost Whisperer, but I guess that's part of the coolness of the backlot, that it is always changing and being utilized.  While down in the city they take you into a huge soundstage where you meet a big King Kong animatronic that's pretty cool.  

You drive past some Western sets, used for countless movies and a set that they said was used when the Pirates sacked Port Royal in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie.  The cool thing about the Western sets is that some of the doorways are smaller than normal to make the heroes seem larger than life when standing in front of them and some doors are extra large to make the damsels in distress seem even more helpless.  

You drive past some cool cars used in movies like the Bluesmobile, an original Delorean, some sweet Jurassic Park trucks and cars and Fast and the Furious stuff.  I don't remember the orders of everything, but the tour also takes you into a soundstage with a massive Earthquake scene.  There's a somewhat disappointing Jaws scene where the shark kind of jumps up out of the water and flies as he goes by the tram.  

The tram also drove us through all of Wisteria Lane, where they film Desperate Housewives.  and past a very cool set from the War of the Worlds, where a plane crashes into a neighborhood.

One of the coolest sets on the tour is also one of the most historic sets anywhere, the Bates motel and house from Psycho.  It was pretty terrifying, but I do love that movie.  I know Kevin isn't scared of it, but I definitely am.

Let's see, what else?  Well, they also take you into a tunnel in a Mummy scene that's pretty cool, and past the house that was the log cabin at the end of the Mark Wahlberg movie Shooter, which is really cool because a few of us just watched that movie a few months ago. 

Soon after, the tour comes to an end.  All in all, it's a pretty packed tour, lasting almost an hour, and is probably close to worth the price of admission.

There are, however, a few other rides and shows that are cool.  Let's see, Jurassic Park: the Ride is a pretty cool water ride, although shorter and not as scary as I had imagined.  Still, anything Jurassic Park is cool, and it does the movie justice, not to mention making sure John Williams' awesome theme song is stuck in your head for the rest of the day.

Surprisingly, the walkthrough based on the rarely-remembered Ron Howard/Kurt Russell movie Backdraft was really cool.  They show you a movie set with A LOT of fire and throw in a surprise or two to really knock your socks off, which I didn't know could happen in a walkthrough.  

Revenge of the Mummy, a roller coaster based on the Mummy movies, was very cool but not quite as scary as I expected either.  I thought more stuff would be jumping out at me.  Maybe I'm just getting older and hard to scare.  

Let's see, the Shrek 4-D movie was disappointing, because it doesn't give you any frame of reference or tell any real story.  You essentially sit in a movie theater and watch a ten minute long 3-D Shrek Movie while your seat moves and they spray water and air at you.  But it's not like you're actually riding in the carriage with Shrek, you're watching Shrek ride in a carriage, so when your seat rattles like a carriage, it doesn't make sense.  But what can you expect from a Dreamworks/Universal collaboration?  Ha.  

Unfortunately the famous Back to the Future ride is closed and being replaced with a Simpsons ride.  I'm disappointed that I never got to go on the Back to the Future ride.  I'm sure it would've been cool.  

Luckily, there still was fun to be had at the House of Horrors, a walkthrough Haunted House.  It actually was very cool, Kyle, Alyssa and I went in.  Many famous Universal horror stars show up, including Lon Chaney's Phantom of the Opera, the Wolfman and Chuckie.  The sets were great and very spooky.  It's always good being a guy to go into a Haunted House with a girl, because then the people inside don't try to scare you, they always try to get the girl to scream.  I did get scared at one point though, when there was this freaky maze of mirrors, and towards the beginning there was an opening with a shower curtain.  I was in front, and as we walked by the shower curtain, Mother from Psycho stabbed through it with her knife.  I of course was terrified and she chased us as we started running through the hall.  I think Mother could tell that I was seriously scared, because even though I was in the front of the group of three of us, it seemed like she was trying to get to me.  Luckily when we got to the end of the mirrors she disappeared.  It was a lot of fun though.

The last thing we did was the Waterworld show, a surprisingly cool stunt show based on the big budget Kevin Costner flop.  It was very cool, though, with some impressive Jet Ski driving and big explosions like this one at the end of the show.  Good job Universal!

In conclusion, Universal Studios is a cool place, but it isn't the rides, shows, or in-park areas that make it cool.  With only a few exceptions park itself doesn't really completely transport you into a movie or out of the real world.  It is the fact that real movies and tv shows are filmed here that makes it so cool.  In terms of capturing the "Spirit of Hollywood," I'm obviously biased but I think that the former Disney-MGM Studios does a better job of that.  

Still, I had a blast and am not disappointed that I paid to be an Annual Passholder and can go back to the park for free anytime in the next year.  I'll definitely go back, especially if the writers strike ends and production amps back up and when the Simpsons ride opens.  Universal Studios isn't Disneyland, and that's okay.  I don't need it to be to have fun there.  I had a great time with some great people, and I'll look forward to going back.  

Just don't get me started talking about Universal's "deals"...I'll save that for a future post.

I hope everybody has a great rest of the holiday weekend!  

Oh and guess what, Friday night I decided to splurge and use my ticketmaster gift card to buy a floor seat for the Matchbox Twenty concert here in March.  I'm stoked!

much love,

Alex