I’ve been a “Grease” fan since I saw the movie when I was little. If you’ve never seen it, you won’t get my next reference so I suggest you stop reading and go rent it RIGHT NOW! Toward the end of the movie, we see the gang at the drive-in, contemplating the troubled times of their high school existence. Because of this scene, I’ve always wanted to go to a drive-in. I mean, who wouldn’t want to hang with a bunch of friends, watching a movie in a car, spreading the word that Rizzo’s prego?

Well, last night I got to experience going to a drive-in for the first time in my life. For several months I’ve been wanting to go to the Delsea drive-in in Vineland, NJ, the only drive-in that’s left in NJ, so I was excited when one of my friends suggested we go. They were having two double features on two screens. Our choices: “Contagion” and “Our Idiot Brother” or “Shark Night” and “Apollo 18”. Needless to say, we chose the former.

About an hour away from us, the entrance to Delsea Drive-in is a dirt road, and can be picked out by the large Delsea Drive-in sign. At the entrance you pay for your ticket and any food you wanna bring in (although they do have a nice food selection there as well) and then park at the screen that’s playing your movie. Some tips:

1) If you’re going, go early. Box office opens at 6:30 and honestly I would get there by then so you can have a nice choice of where to park. It’s also good if you want to get food there, because the lines can get long and you could be spending a good amount of time waiting, so you don’t want to be getting food 10 minutes before the movie starts.

2) If it’s nice, definitely try to go in a truck so you can sit in the bed. It was a bit chilly the night we went, but we still did it and it wasn’t too bad. Just be sure to dress accordingly and bring plenty of blankets and pillows to be comfortable. If your only choice is a small car and you have more than 3 people going, bring 2 cars for sight line reasons.

Movie choice is also something to think about. Drive-in’s are great places to go when there are two movies playing back to back that you really want to see cause it’s only $8. If out of the two movies that’s playing you’re only interested in seeing one of them, you can always leave after the one you want to see. I think this only really works if the one you want to see is playing first, though. You could go late, but you’d have to time it really well.

Out of the two movies I saw, “Contagion” was definitely my favorite. Starring Matt Damon, Kate Winslet and Jude Law (among others), “Contagion” tells the story of a man whose wife dies from an unknown virus that rapidly spreads throughout the world. Not knowing what caused the virus, the World Health Organization and CDC work around the clock to figure out the mystery before the epidemic can wipe out half the world’s population.

The story line was interesting, presenting an epidemic that could possibly happen in real life. It deals with the serious side, how people may react, and how long it would really take for a vaccine to be found, tested, and manufactured. In some ways it resembled the movie “Breakout” where a deadly virus from a monkey quickly creates a world wide epidemic, but since it was a bit more realistic, “Contagion” gets extra points.

The only down side to “Contagion” that I saw was I felt it could have ended before it actually did. The actual cure was found a little more than half way through, and then the rest of the movie was just the aftermath and how the government distributes the vaccine. Interesting enough if you want to know how those types of things work, but otherwise a little like waiting for something exciting to happen only to be slightly disappointed.

“Contagion” is a movie to watch when you want to have the realization of how much stuff people touch every day. I couldn’t stop myself from cringing every time someone coughed in their hand and then touched a glass. So this movie isn’t really made with germaphobes in mind, and I don’t recommend watching it if you are sick or are getting sick. It might just freak you out.

“Our Idiot Brother” takes second place because I went into the movie thinking it would be stupid. I like Paul Rudd, but the previews just didn’t appeal to me. In fact, I had planned on leaving after “Contagion” but then plans got changed and I ended up staying. In a way, I’m glad I did.

“Our Idiot Brother” was not as bad as I thought it was going to be, but it still wasn’t made of gold. I laughed a few times when Ned (Paul Rudd’s character) said or did something that would make you face palm if someone did it in real life. But although the movie is marketed as a comedy, I didn’t really find it comedy worthy. In fact, it as more of a feel good type movie.

Ned spends the entire movie helping out his family, and accidentally telling them what other people have said about them and what’s been going on behind their backs. While the family gets pissed at him for doing this, it’s obvious that he’s doing it out of love, especially because some of the situations are bad enough to ruin their marriages, love lives, and jobs. There is nothing truly laugh out loud hilarious about this movie. Just a few chuckles here and there. I even got tears in my eyes toward the end when it really becomes obvious Ned is doing what he does out of love for his family. The fact that the movie is called “Our Idiot Brother” when it’s really about family togetherness is kind of like the movie world saying that the people who care about us most are idiots or do idiotic things. But in the same sense it’s like they’re saying, what you think is idiotic may really be done for your own good.

Overall, the drive-in experience was adventurous and exciting, something that everyone needs to experience once in their lives. “Contagion” was a realistic look on world-wide epidemics, and “Our Idiot Brother” was a non comedic, slightly heart warming film about family. Go see both movies. I’d love to know other thoughts.

Contagion: A-

Our Idiot Brother: B