On the latest episode of The Substandard, JVL, Vic, and I talk a bit about the Super Bowl and use that as an excuse to chat about our favorite sports movies. Needless to say, my list is perfect while JVL's is garb. Subscribe! Leave a review. Tweet your thoughts to JVL, he'd love to hear from you.
In addition to talking about sports movies, we also discussed theme parks because Vic took his kids to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Leaving aside the wisdom of letting Victorino Matus into your theme park filled with tweens, it made me think about how much more I used to enjoy Paramount's Kings Dominion than I do Kings Dominion.
Those of you who grew up in the northern-to-central-Virginia region will remember a glorious time between 1993 and 2006 when Paramount's Kings Dominion was a sort of homeless man's Universal Studios: lazy movie branding was slapped onto a bunch of half-assed coasters to create the veneer of something memorable. It was great, I loved it.
The best area, of course, was the Wayne's World section, which featured a roller coaster named The Hurler and had Mike Myers and Dana Carvey introducing the ride in addition to a restaurant named Stan Mikita's. There was also a ride called the Outer Limits Flight of Fear—an indoor coaster that was broken roughly half of the time you came to the park. And, of course, the Italian Job-themed ride that was renamed "Backlot Stunt Coaster" after Paramount sold the park.
It's actually kind of weird to go back and ride those rides now—like eating generic cereals after a youth of General Mills products. They might as well call these things "Kaboom! The Ride" and be done with it.
Anyway! Give the podcast a listen. You won't be sorry. And if you hate it, well, I'll send a refund in the mail first chance I get.