There’s just too much money to be made plundering the past for the technology not to be invented and deployed to shopping malls across America, where it can take up space between the water-massage tables and the abandoned oxygen bar.

When rock stars make movies, they make the hearts of cynics and masochists alike beat faster. But potshots aside, the quality continuum between “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Shanghai Surprise” is dotted with titles deserving of rediscovery.

Today, ventriloquism is at the bottom rung of the showbiz ladder — slightly above wearing a pizza costume and waving at cars. But thousands of years ago, ventriloquism was no trick; it was the key to deep religious belief.

You’re talking about water falling from the sky in great cascades; fat raindrops smacking against windshields and rooftops. We rarely get to see anything like that up here in Seattle.