We love going to the movies. It was our first date and still is our favorite date, although we don't go to as many first-run films anymore because even matinees are too expensive to put up with idiots on cell phones, people talking like it was their living room, advertisements on the screen that can't be muted, and a general decrease in the quality of today's movies. The first film we saw together, "Day for Night," by Francois Truffaut, remains among our all-time favorites. As much fun and as rewarding as reading is, nothing compares to sharing a movie in the magic of a darkened theater.

Our movie reviews appeared in three newspapers and were published continuously from 1976 until 2002, when I left journalism. By the end, we were not writing as often about the movies. That was mostly due to being too busy on weekends and my involvement at that time with the SLO International Film Festival. I resigned from the festival board in 2001 after five years. We offered to keep writing periodic articles for the San Luis Obispo Tribune when I left, but the Features Department never returned our phone calls. I was a stranger due to lots of staff turnover.

We first wrote for the Rohnert Park-Cotati Times, a weekly which no longer exists, but was the start of my journalism career. Then we wrote for the Five Cities Times-Press-Recorder from 1979 to 1991. Between 1991 and 2002, we wrote for Focus, the weekend entertainment section of the San Luis Obispo County Tribune , the largest daily in the county, with a Saturday circulation above 40,000. Focus was renamed "Ticket" in December 1998.

Since the The Tribune printed reviews of new movies, we concentrated on highlighting trends and genres, career retrospectives, current events, American culture and history, and county film series and festivals. But we also participated in Movie Date, where the The Tribune sent someone from the community with us to see and review a current movie.

Our reviews while at the Five Cities newspaper earned second place National Newspaper Association awards in 1986 for "Rambo" and in 1991 for "Longtime Companion."

We have uploaded our reviews to our web site, starting with the most recent and working backward.

In addition, we keep a list of recently seen movies and individual lists of our personal favorite films. If you've seen any of these films and want to discuss them and our views, lists or favorites, please send me e-mail at jbunin@slonet.org and/or Mary Shaffer at Mary Shaffer.

So read, respond and return. We look forward to seeing you at the movies.