Only at the movies

Michelle and I had a chance to go see a few movies this weekend that I’ll be reviewing here shortly. However, I first wanted to share with you about our experience going to the movies. In the end, that always seems like the most interesting part of the journey. No matter which theater we go, no matter what city, something odd always happens, only at the movies.

This trip was no exception. It started half way through The Village, all of a sudden the sound just got warbled. No idea where it came from, but for about 5 minutes it was messed up. I waited about 2 before I got up to find a manager (no one else seemed to want to do it, so off I went). Shortly there after they fixed it, but now I’ll never know what was said at the wedding scene. That wasn’t too bad, but from there the fun only continued.

We had purchased one of their new large combos – you know two drinks, big popcorn, two candies, free refill kind of thing (those are always good when you are seeing more than one movie in a day). In any case, I chose a crackle Snickers bar. So in between The Village and Collateral I decided to break it out (one of those king sized ones). I get part way through the first piece and I start reading the contest information on the side. “Pick the NFL’s hungriest player: Purchase does not increase your odds of winning.” Contest starts at midnight on 8/13/03 and ends 12/22/03 (no wonder purchase does not increase my odds of winning!).

So we were joking about it, I figured it would be fine to eat the rest as you’d assume with all the preservatives the shelf life would be good for a year. Well, I ended up getting goaded into going and asking a manager about it and one just happened to walk by. He was a little stunned, “We just got these two weeks ago from our distributor.” “Yeah, now you know why you can give them away for free.” All in all it was a good laugh, though now I’m a little concerned about having eaten it.

Yet even there the fun didn’t end. We were sitting on a bench in front of the theater as it let out, and I was shocked to see nearly a dozen kids under the age of 10 coming out of the film Collateral (now how’s that Sunday family values) and at least two infants. I was also completely amazed at the folks over 65 who were walker-ing out of there as well.

So we got into the movie really early so we were the first ones there (Tom can tell you about my obsessive nature to get to a move early – think High School High circa 1996). So were hear all this bickering as we are sitting there. It becomes clear that it’s an older couple (really old), the husband is tossing around Christ’s name at her a few times about how slow she is going, tripping over things. She’s complaining it’s too dark (we had actually just turned off the cleaning lights when we came in – one of the advantages of Michelle having managed so many theaters (Celebration Cinema in Lansing, and Rave in Fort Wayne) and could hardly see. So they finally picked a seat about 8 rows back from the screen and her husband sits her down.

Well she’s not happy we are too far to the left, “I won’t be able to see the whole movie” “Damn it woman, we are in the exact center of the theater, you can’t get any more in the middle than we are”. “Oh, I didn’t know that, I thought I just couldn’t see the edge of the screen.”

The bickering continued for another 5 or 10 minutes. At one point they were passing back and forth a drink (it had two straws in it), and as the wife passed it over to her husband, she commented, “This one is my straw – the one sticking up.” “Huh?” “This one is my straw, the one that is taller.” “Huh?” “THIS IS MY STRAW.” “Fine.”

I was crying.

But things like this happen all the time when we go out. It’s humorous. Once while we were at Rave, this rather large woman, a child, a very elder person (obviously blind) and a dog come into the film about 5 minutes late (the trailers are still on though) and the over weight lady decided do drag the blind woman and the dog to the very top of the theater (where we are stilling) and sit down about 4 seats from us. It was quite the ruckus. And then, as the real kicker, they pull out Burger King, spread out their food and proceed to have lunch right there. The blind woman is obviously hard of hearing as well because the fat lady has to provide running commentary for the whole thing. (Now you know why I bought a big T.V. and just download movies when I get a chance).

People are just odd, there are also the folks who show up, and with an entirely empty theater decide to literally sit right next to us. No reason, they just do. What in the world. I guess, it only happens at the movies.

So speaking of movies, here’s what we thought of them:

The Village – PG-13
Overview from Movies.com: “Residents of a rural Pennsylvania community believe that the woods surrounding their village are filled with strange, unseen creatures. A truce has been struck, allowing the community to peacefully co-exist with the dangerous beasts, so long as no one strays beyond the town’s borders.”

Now The Village has gotten a lot of bad press. “Oh, it’s not scary, the twist is unbelievable, and therefore it sucks.” These are of course the same folks who though The Ring (which I laughed most of the way through – dumbest movie ever) was scary and a the best movie since the 6th sense. So if you are of that crowd, then perhaps you’ll hate it as well. Personally I liked it. It had a few jumps, but the movie wasn’t so much about being scary, it had a much more driven message than that. There are some who have claimed this movie as the most openly Christian since the Matrix (though I would argue that neither are openly Christian, merely that folks who are Christians like to take some of the visuals and super-impose their own belief meanings to them), and it has some interesting parallels. However, since many or you haven’t seen the movie, I won’t go into those here, but I’m always open for a discussion. Visually the movie was stunning, M. N. S. has always been a master in the use of color as theme in his films, this one is no exception. His obvious thing for the color red continues as well. The movie was well acted and was very enjoyable to watch. Any who, on the grand scheme of things I’d give this movie a 7.5 and is certainly “Christian” friendly (meaning no bad words, no sex scenes).

Collateral – R
Overview from Movies.com: “A struggling comedy writer named Max (Jamie Foxx), who drives a cab in Los Angeles to earn a living, gradually realizes that the passenger he’s been driving around all night (Tom Cruise) is a hit man who has been rubbing out people at every stop. Max has to figure out how to prevent the killer from knocking off his last victim and how to come out of the situation alive.” – Note, this is incorrect, Max is not a struggling comedy writer; they must have been smoking something when they wrote that.

This was the movie that prompted our whole reason for going out this weekend. Michelle is in love with Tom Cruise, so it doesn’t matter how many movies are out there that we’ve wanted to see, we always go to Tom Cruise on opening weekend. Now there are some who would argue that Tom hasn’t had a hit in years, I would totally disagree, I thought The Last Samurai was amazing, both visually, acting, and thematically. However, that aside, Tom has a hit here with Collateral. The movie is a great thrill ride filled with humor, action, lots of violence and strong language (note: not Christian sensitive), and some interesting philosophy to think on. I was never able to decide if Tom was a bad guy with a good heart, or just a plain bad guy who wasn’t 100% evil. But the movie was certainly very tense and I give it an 8. Jamie Foxx does a great job in the film, and it was nice to see pretty boy Tommy get smacked around a bit.