Where are Potsie and Pinky Tuscadero?: A drive-in double feature!

That's right, kiddies. My better half and recently took a time warp back to the early 1960s and saw two -- count 'em, two! -- movies at a drive-in last weekend. The place was maybe 10 miles out of town and 40 years into the past.

Really, it was pretty weird. Even with being able to listen to the sound over the car stereo vs. tinny -- not tiny -- speakers, it's downright strange to sit in your car for four hours or so. You might think it's like a road trip, but it's different when you don't go anywhere. Then you really get to know just how comfortable your car seats are. (Ours? Not so great.)

On the plus side, the concession stand was pretty cheap compared with a regular movie theater -- 75 cents for Raisinets! -- and the crowd was surprisingly civil, with only the occasional shadowy passing figure distracting us from the movies. As for the movies, we got a classic mix of something for the kids and something for the adults (sort of):

Were-Rabbit? There rabbit: "Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit"

Have to admit I wasn't going to see this otherwise. Oh, I was sure it was well done and great fun, but there just wasn't a big pull factor for me. Not sure why, since I saw "Chicken Run" and liked that. Anyway, no matter.

The verdict: Pretty amusing, and damn impressive considering it took five years to make. (Some people need a hobby.) Apparently Wallace and Gromit go back a ways, and here they find themselves having trouble keeping rabbits from eating the townspeople's vegetables.

Gromit, who I'm betting never has anything to say, is the funniest one here, clearly smarter than all the others and plenty expressive even without uttering a word. Not that other dialogue isn't clever at times, and this looks like one of those movies you can watch a few times and discover all sorts of little details, i.e. a naked Wallace covered up by a box that reads "May Contain Nuts." Actually, there were plenty of good pop culture references, too. To top things off, the 85-minute run time made my wife a fan; she grimaces when anything goes over two hours.

You little devil: "The Exorcism of Emily Rose"

Here's another I would have passed on but seemed perfect for the drive-in. If I recall correctly, this got mediocre reviews at best, and that's being generous. Sure, there might be a few scares here and there, but for the most part this was too preachy -- pun intended -- and a little sad in general.

Not much in the way of basic plot. We start with a girl being pronounced dead and a priest being charged with negligent homicide in her death. Turns out she was possessed by the devil, and efforts to save her ended up with her wasting away. Yeah, there's a fun way to start a movie, even if it's a true story.

Tom Wilkinson is the priest, and he, quite frankly, can do this stuff in his sleep. I mean, it's not so different from "In the Bedroom." Laura Linney plays his defense lawyer; you may recall she played a prosecutor in "Primal Fear." Here, she has better hair. Perhaps most disturbing was Campbell Scott as the prosecutor. Oh, his performance is fine, but his mustache most definitely is not.

But what of the possessed girl? She's played by someone named Jennifer Carpenter, and I guess she does a good job. I don't know ... it's just hard for me to be impressed when there's such a high standard for this kind of thing. I'm speaking, of course, of "All of Me" with Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin. OK, OK ... not that. (Although it is funny.)

I mean "The Exorcist," which still gives me the willies. I mean, Linda Blair sold that performance, and the two priests -- an old one and a young one -- were pretty amazing, too. In fact, I've found that chanting "The power of Christ compels you! The power of Christ compels you!" works in almost any situation.

But yeah, as good as a few scenes of "Emily Rose" were -- the actual exorcism was spooky enough -- it just paled compared with little Regan yelling, "Your mother sucks c*cks in Hell!" I mean, that's classic. If only Emily had given us a 360 with her head ...