What is your favorite movie?
By This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it | Corridor Inc. Staff Writer
Originally published August 2007

     Air-conditioned theaters, shocking special effects and hot, buttered popcorn. Summer is the perfect time to check out the latest Hollywood blockbusters.
     And the West Coast big wigs scheduled a slew of big screen releases this summer, from “Spider-Man 3” and “Transformers” to “The Simpsons Movie” and “The Bourne Ultimatum.”
     But what do movie buffs in the Baltimore-Washington Corridor really line up to see —  the latest adrenaline-pumping action feature or a new comedy guaranteed to bring
laughter-induced tears? Corridor Inc. decided to brave the lines and get your silver screen reviews.
     Oh, and in case you’re not that excited about this summer’s movies; stay tuned, we hear 2008 means “The Incredible Hulk,” “Speed Racer” and the fourth Indiana Jones flick.

     Hannah Byron knows all about movies. Maryland’s assistant secretary of tourism, film and the arts has a list of her top choices from the past and present and a file on upcoming movies she’s looking forward to seeing.
     “I have a preference for things filmed in Baltimore,” she says, which includes “Live Free or Die Hard,” the latest Bruce Willis project and “Invasion,” a Nicole Kidman picture coming out later this summer.
     But Byron’s all-time favorite flicks are the 1971 classic “Harold and Maude” and the black and white version of “A Christmas Carol.”
     While she tries to go to the theater as much as possible, she says she loves everything at the Charles Theatre, Baltimore’s historic movie house that features Hollywood classics and foreign films.
     Byron also admits she’s a Netflix addict, laughing that she checks her list of movies from the home delivery rental company as much as she checks emails and voicemails.
 
     Chevy Chase Bank employee Richard Sawtelle prefers hitting the cinema instead.
     The movie fan has already seen “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” and “Spider-Man 3.”
     “I like the action,” he says, noting “Fantastic Four” was his favorite because he enjoyed reading the comic as a kid.
     Next on the list for Sawtelle is “Ocean’s 13.”
     
     Allan Goldberg will pass on the Clooney hit, he’s more of a science-fiction guy. The Rockville videographer admits he doesn’t get to the movies as often as he’d like because he’s too busy making his own.
     But the one movie he still remembers fondly is the original “War of the Worlds.”
     There was something about the sound the aliens made. While walking home on a summer evening, the crickets made the same eerie sound, he recalls.
     Goldberg appreciated the original James Bond series too.
     “But after they started changing the lead, I lost interest,” he says.

     Comedy is something Elaine Amir can get behind.
     “I tend to like two types of movies. Movies that make me think and movies that make me laugh,” says the executive director of Johns Hopkins Montgomery County.
     Oh, and anything with Billy Crystal.
     Laughter aside, Amir, misses the good old superhero.
     “I was fascinated with Superman from the first time I saw a Superman movie. I think we need a hero, especially in America. We need more heroes, we’re really lacking that right now,” she says.

     “The Wizard of Oz” was one movie Gayle V. Economos didn’t mind watching with her daughter.
     “It’s timeless,” said the owner of GVE Media/Public Relations LLC of her all-time favorite movie.
     While the Anne Arundel County resident said she does like period films and documentaries, there’s nothing hitting the theaters right now that she wants to see.
     It’s the summer, time to do outdoor things, she says.

     George Scheeler tends to agree. He can’t recall any favorites from his childhood because of that.
     “I was outside playing, not inside watching movies,” he says frankly.
     He says when “Spider-Man 3”comes out on television, he’ll watch it then.
     “I guess I’m just patient,” Scheeler says.

     Illustrations by Dennis Oakes