On the back of numerous recommendations, I stepped into tourist central and visited Universal Studios. It is a bunch of themed shops (including the travel book shop from Notting Hill, which is weird because I'm pretty sure that was filmed in the UK) and a bunch of movie related shows/rides.
Universal is known for its horror movie, especially in the early days, so they have a house of horrors. It is very very lame, but you wouldn't know if form the shrieks that surrounded me. The special effects stage was kind of cool but I had expected a lot more from it...where's old Pete Jackson when you need him?
There is quite a bit of 3D and 4D stuff. Terminator 2 combines live performance with 3D, moving seats and timely sprays of water. Apart from the mediocre acting, it was enjoyable and even got a little jump out of me. Shrek was all on screen but also quite good - moving seats and sprays of water again. The final 3D was the King Kong part of the studio tour, complete with moving bus (which we were sitting in). It's the biggest 3D screen in the world and you are in a tunnel with screens on both side. Tres cool.
The studio tour also featured a trip into a revolving rock (The Mummy); an earthquake in a subway complete with gas tanker falling through from the road above, crashing train and flood. An episode of Bones was filmed on the set. Water is definitely the theme of the day so we also had a flood in a mexican town. None of these are particularly scarey - unless you count the other passengers who I was worried were going to have a heart attack from fear. Bunch of wusses :P
The tour drives past a lot of outdoor sets - Desperate Housewives, Back to the Future, the hotel and house from Psycho, the crashed 747 in War of the Worlds. The sets are re-used over and over again so many of these famous sets have made appearances in other movies/tv shows. If you thought America always looks the same in movies - it's true. They're all filmed on the same set. The Back to the Future set, for example, is now the town in The Ghost Whisper.
Waterworld was on of the better shows of the day. Great pre-show where they warmed up the crowd by throwing buckets of water at you if you didn't shout loud enough - good incentive. The show had lots of water going everywhere, excellent explosions (I love explosions) and stunts. The acting was pretty bad - just like the real thing I guess.
There were two more exciting rides of the day The first was the Mummy which is a roller coaster through mostly pitch black tunnels. I may have made a sharp intake of breath or two (okay and a small scream). I blame it on hanging out with too many Americans :) The reaction of some others on the ride was a little over the top. Some sensible fellow finally said "the ride is over, you can stop screaming now".
The second ride was Jurassic Park. A gentle ride through a canal of water with small squirts of water from dinosaurs on the shores (there is NO need to scream people, it's just a little water). The ride ends with an almost vertical drop down into a pool of water. I will forgive those who screamed - I, of course, was far too cool (and wet) to scream.
I didn't see everything, but I saw everything that I wanted to and had thoroughly enjoyable day. If I did it again, I would only change one thing: do not wear a white t-shirt!
Universal is known for its horror movie, especially in the early days, so they have a house of horrors. It is very very lame, but you wouldn't know if form the shrieks that surrounded me. The special effects stage was kind of cool but I had expected a lot more from it...where's old Pete Jackson when you need him?
There is quite a bit of 3D and 4D stuff. Terminator 2 combines live performance with 3D, moving seats and timely sprays of water. Apart from the mediocre acting, it was enjoyable and even got a little jump out of me. Shrek was all on screen but also quite good - moving seats and sprays of water again. The final 3D was the King Kong part of the studio tour, complete with moving bus (which we were sitting in). It's the biggest 3D screen in the world and you are in a tunnel with screens on both side. Tres cool.
The studio tour also featured a trip into a revolving rock (The Mummy); an earthquake in a subway complete with gas tanker falling through from the road above, crashing train and flood. An episode of Bones was filmed on the set. Water is definitely the theme of the day so we also had a flood in a mexican town. None of these are particularly scarey - unless you count the other passengers who I was worried were going to have a heart attack from fear. Bunch of wusses :P
The tour drives past a lot of outdoor sets - Desperate Housewives, Back to the Future, the hotel and house from Psycho, the crashed 747 in War of the Worlds. The sets are re-used over and over again so many of these famous sets have made appearances in other movies/tv shows. If you thought America always looks the same in movies - it's true. They're all filmed on the same set. The Back to the Future set, for example, is now the town in The Ghost Whisper.
Waterworld was on of the better shows of the day. Great pre-show where they warmed up the crowd by throwing buckets of water at you if you didn't shout loud enough - good incentive. The show had lots of water going everywhere, excellent explosions (I love explosions) and stunts. The acting was pretty bad - just like the real thing I guess.
There were two more exciting rides of the day The first was the Mummy which is a roller coaster through mostly pitch black tunnels. I may have made a sharp intake of breath or two (okay and a small scream). I blame it on hanging out with too many Americans :) The reaction of some others on the ride was a little over the top. Some sensible fellow finally said "the ride is over, you can stop screaming now".
The second ride was Jurassic Park. A gentle ride through a canal of water with small squirts of water from dinosaurs on the shores (there is NO need to scream people, it's just a little water). The ride ends with an almost vertical drop down into a pool of water. I will forgive those who screamed - I, of course, was far too cool (and wet) to scream.
I didn't see everything, but I saw everything that I wanted to and had thoroughly enjoyable day. If I did it again, I would only change one thing: do not wear a white t-shirt!
hahahaha - love it! I x
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great day!
ReplyDelete