The Sinner Showing is Better

Chef and I capped his big 30th birthday weekend by attending what I like to call the "Sinner showing" at the local movie theater. It's the early Sunday morning (or in LA early Sunday afternoon) showing--you know, when most people are in church? Well, we sin, so instead of church, we saw "The Hangover 2." But I'm a non-practicing Catholic, so I can just add that to my list of other more relevant sins (hello? nearly 7 years living with a man and not being married or related to him), confess, say my "Hail Marys" for something other than sporting events and be absolved.

Until then, I was happy to be able to go to a movie in LA without a crushing crowd. Chef and I have hit this strategy a few times when there's a popular movie out that we want to see without having to deal with the annoyance of other people. Nothing can ruin a movie-going experience faster than being behind question girl ("Why is she doing that? Where is he going?") or narrates his own experience guy ("That is SO funny!" "I canNOT believe they just did that!").

We went to Arclight Cinemas in Hollywood and when we left, Chef and I agreed that it was sad that the actual experience of going to the movie was almost more noteworthy than the movie itself (which was good, but not as good as the first and we think will probably grow on us over time--in case you cared). We decided to see which movie theater had the highest rating on yelp to see if we could up the ante. I mean, it is the movie capital of the world, right? We should be able to get a VIP movie experience.

Here's the thing about Arclight. When you buy the tickets-online or in person, you pick out your seats. None of that general admission stuff. You know where you're going to be watching the movie and don't get suckered into buying tickets and having to sit in the front row. You know before you go.

Also awesome is the fact that they don't seat people after the movie starts. If you're not there when the feature begins, you can get a later showing or a refund, but you're not going to be interrupting everyone's movie by climbing over people 20 minutes in. And there are a few previews but NO ads, so the movie starts about 5 minutes after the posted time.

And if that weren't enough you can buy cocktails and beer at the concession stand (not at the sinner showing but for the late matinees and night showings for sure). Plus the seats are giant cushioned things that have moveable armrests in case you want to snuggle. Oh, did I mention they use real butter on the popcorn? REAL BUTTER!

These seem like small things. And they probably are, but think about it. Movie-going has slowly declined and become such a hassle that I'd rather wait for a DVD and watch it at home than go out. But now, I'm totally sold on going to the movies again.

Stupid Triathlon

It's not enough that people actually volunteer to run, swim and bike all over God's creation in the name of fun, but do they have to shut down the roads too? (Chef to me yesterday: You know you'd do one if you actually could.  He's probably right.) Yesterday as Chef and I were leaving to go see Moneyball, we were confronted with a big problem. We were on one side of Olympic Avenue and the movie theater was on the other.

The thing about this movie theater is its awesomeness and the fact you prepay for your tickets to select your seat. So we couldn't change theaters. And the triathlon route ran from Santa Monica to downtown LA, so there was no easy way around it. Keep in mind that had we lived one measly block further north we'd have had no problem.

After having a near panic attack (those of you who know me know that I cannot stand being late to movies, theater, basically anything that starts on a schedule gets me anxious--I want to be there, in my seats, waiting), Chef called the theater, told them we weren't going to make our early sinner showing and got us in to the next showing 50 minutes later.

In the end, we got there just in time. And it was totally worth it. Moneyball was everything and nothing like I expected it to be. In the end, it was just great storytelling, and isn't that what any good movie or book is supposed to be?

Sinner Showing Strikes Again

Two story  panels for
 World War Z at Arclight Hollywood

It's still our favorite time to go see a movie. Early on Sunday morning. There were literally 13 people in the theater we saw World War Z in this morning. I have been waiting for this movie for a while. Read the book. Loved it. Was curious about how it would be as a movie, as the book is not really an edge of your seat kind of thriller. The movie, however, is. I think I jumped at least three times. The ending has been much bemoaned, and I will agree it's not the strongest, but I'm not sure In think of how I would've ended it that would have lived up to the momentum that was built throughout. Plus Brad Pitt is in it. So there's that.

Since I don't want to ruin it for you, I'll just say that I give it 3.5 stars out of 4. Loved it. But I'm pretty easy on most movies nowadays. Chef and I have been talking about how much we've been enjoying going to movies now. I don't know if it's the proximity to those who actually make the movies or the buzz about town that seems to be inescapable, but the love I've always had for being whisked away by a story has multiplied the older I've gotten. Maybe I want to escape reality more and more or maybe I just value good storytelling more now, whether it's in written or visual form.

Anyway, I've seen four new movies in the last 5-6 weeks. (World War Z, Star Trek: Into Darkness, Man of Steel and Now You See Me). And I can only see more in the future since Matt Damon's new one is coming out in August. I'm also curious about The Lone Ranger. Less because of Johnny Depp or anything other than nostalgia. The Legend of the Lone Ranger (1981) was the first movie my parents took me to see as a child. We even had it on VHS to watch, along with a copy of the first movie that my brother ever saw....Star Wars. I think he might've gotten more of a classic.

Is it just me or are there a lot of good movies out this summer? What do you want to see?

Potter-ific

This past weekend was Harry Potter-filled. I had resigned myself to getting up on Saturday morning (and by morning, i mean 8 a.m. not midnight), heading to the local Borders, and grabbing the lastest edition with some coffee, to tuck in for a long day's reading.

However, as Friday wore on and I saw that I didn't really have anything planned, I decided to take a different tact. I took a "nap" from 7 p.m. to one a.m. on Friday night, drove to Wal-Mart (which an hour after the affair was sure to have the least amount of adults sporting eye-liner drawn lightning scars) and picked up the "Deathly Hollows."

Don't worry, I'm not going to spoil anything. But I did stay up until 6 that morning ready, got up at noon and then continued reading on and off for most of the day. I convinced Chef that we needed to see the Order of the Phoenix on the Imax in 3D and he was game. So, we chose what I like to call the "Sinner Showing" of Imax, 9:30 a.m. on Sunday morning. There were plenty of other people there, but not nearly the bone-crushing, arm-rest fighting numbers that would've been later.

Of course, we got next to the group of very obese people that acted as if they had never been to the movies before and were indeed watching the feature from their living room. They were all five sitting behind us with two of the ladies taking up two seats. Chef and I were in the row in front of them, but had moved towards the center as to not be directly in front of the group. While he was mostly spared, this did little for me.

The two larger ladies moved to our empty row (so chosen because in two and a half hours, I know that I'll have to pee at least once, no matter what the movie is). So now I had to maneveur through them when I wanted to pee. They got up no less than two times to refill the two large popcorns. None of this would've bothered me if they'd have spoken at a normal level, but instead, they decided to screech "When ya get up, make sure to grab me some napkins or something because I'm going to be crying when Sirius dies." Not that the majority of people didn't know the twists and turns of the book, but some didn't and that's just damn rude.

I was annoyed the whole time, but still enjoyed the movie. We enjoyed the IMAX part, but there was only about 15 minutes of 3D in the movie. It was cool, but not THAT cool.

So I finished the book last week so that no one (namely Chef who doesn't read the books but chats with people who does and then comes in to shout surprising plot twists while I'm reading) could spoil it for me.

Part of me is sad that the books are over, and the other part is glad that I'll actually live like a human being this weekend.

A Thin Line Between Normal and Serial Killer

If I took Attila to the movies,
chance are he would just crawl
up next to me and sleep.
 Just sayin'

Yesterday, Chef and I went to see The Avengers, because we're American. And apparently all of America went to see it this weekend. Even in our beloved sinner showing, there was a fairly full house--and we chose to see it without 3D. Partly because I think that 3D is just a way for movie executives to test how stupid moviegoers will be to see a movie. I think the fact that they've made five versions of The Fast and The Furious should be enough of a case study, but I guess they want to fuck with us more because those glasses keep getting more and more hideous.

Hideous glasses aside, I also fear that 3D will end up corrupting versions of the movie and we'll look back in 20 years and laugh at what we thought was so advanced. Don't believe me? Catch Jaws 3 next time its on TV and see how stupid that shark looks coming at you. And how short shorts could be and still be considered acceptable. Dennis Quaid, I'm talking to you.

So we're sitting there in a relatively packed theater and a family comes to sit down after the previews have started. I actually like seeing the previews, but since Youtube means that I can watch the ones I'm interested in at home, I get a little less pissed off about people talking during them. What does piss me off, though, was the little shit behind me that felt the need to kick my chair for 20 minutes.

I know a lot of you have kids where I have cats, but I have no sympathy for a parent who is so engaged in a movie that you don't seem to notice the toddler (who shouldn't have been in that movie at all -completely inappropriate for that young of a kid) that was standing --not sitting in their seat--and kicking the back of a chair in front of them. An area that just happens to be my HEAD. At first I tried to pretend it was like a massage chair when I get my pedicures that had some how gone on the fritz, but it didn't work for long. I gave a few pointed looks to the mother behind me, but it didn't work. She never did do anything to control her child. I wondered why the kicking stopped but when I went to the bathroom I saw that the kid had fallen asleep in his chair. Mystery solved.

Hunger Games: Not So Much A Winner

The Hunger Games: Not
so much a winner

Like half the known world, I was excited for The Hunger Games to come out this past weekend. I knew it was going to be popular, so I went ahead and hedged my bets and got Chef and I sinner showing tickets. It was still pretty full for 10:15 on a Sunday morning. We went to ArcLight Hollywood and sat in the Dome, which apparently didn't open until 10 a.m. so there were a lot of people in the cold, rain waiting for the damn doors to open. In defense of the theater, it's not cold and rainy enough in LA to think ahead on that one, but I digress.

I may be the only person in the world that didn't like The Hunger Games. Let me rephrase that: Chef and I may be the only people in the world that didn't like The Hunger Games. Look, I realize that movies based on books rarely live up the books, but I also curb my expectation to match that reality. It'll never be as good in my head as on the screen. And I'm okay with that. But this wasn't just that.

Also, I like taking Chef to movies based off books because chances are good that I've read the books and he hasn't. So, there's a fresh perspective from someone else on why things did or didn't work out in the movie when they are clearly explained in the book. Here are some of my top highlights of things that aren't placed in any sort of context in The Hunger Games (movie):

• Why Peeta was partnered with the careers in the beginning
• Why Katniss plays up the romance with Peeta during the Games (it was there, but not explained enough where Chef knew why)
• The names, stories or any kind of way to identify the other tributes (other than Rue). The name "foxface is literally uttered one time. Cato gets like 3-4 mentions. We could've gotten this with a creatively written montage of their pre-game interviews, but we didn't.
• Why we should care about Rue. I cried in the theater but only because I knew the book version when Katniss was thinking of Prim as Rue. 
• Any of the other stylists, and some significant time with Cinna.
• Any kind of fear of Snow. 
• What the hell each of the districts produces
• Why the Capitol is so rich (this gets brushed over).

There's more, but honestly it just makes me sad. I realize there's a challenge when the book is written in first person and half the movie takes place in a world where you can't really say your inner monologue aloud because the world is listening, but come on. The script just didn't work for me. They could've cut at least one uttering of "May the odds be ever in your favor" with some actual dialogue that moved the story forward. It could've been done. It just wasn't.

It doesn't make me exceptionally hopefully for the next two movies. Chef said "Was the first the worst of the books?"  No, it was the best. "Oh, I was hoping maybe they had better source material for the next ones."

Yup, that about explains it. 

Harry Potter is Dead. . .Kind Of

More than a week after it came out, Chef and I went to see Harry Potter: The Dealthy Hallows Part 2. While we certainly could've gone last week, I wanted to wait a week for a couple of reasons. 1) I'm never a big fan of watching movies in large crowds. Cell phones, texting and annoying conversations are more likely the more people are involved. Hence my love of the sinner showing. 2) I wanted to hold off on the last piece of a long era. It's like saving favorite gummy bear flavors in a pack until the end.

And so Chef and I packed up this morning and went to The Grove. It's not our favorite movie place Arclight rules), but HP7 wasn't being played at the Arclight Hollywood, so it was either hit The Grove (about 10 minutes door to door) or drive 35 to the next nearest Arclight. Of course, the tipping point was that I thought I had gift certificates to the Grove theater, but it turns out, I did not. Oh well. We'll definitely use those on another occasion.

In the end, I loved the movie and thought it did just as well as the others in capturing the Harry Potter spirit. In the end, I was thinking about all my Harry Potter memories and one in particular came to mind. It was the summer just after I graduated from college. I had gone home to help take care of my mother while she was ill and that summer wasn't the best in my life.

One of the high points was that Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire came out. I had pre-ordered my copy through Amazon and unfortunately had to go to my day job at GE when it was supposed to be arriving at my house. My mom had ordered something from QVC too, as was her past time. She decided that she'd make something special out of our packages arriving, so she said she'd wait until I got home and we could open them together. Kind of like a Christmas, even if we both knew what we were getting.

So I got home, and we tore into the packages like it was Christmas morning. I danced around the living room so excited and a few minutes later hole myself up in my room to read. I don't remember what was in the box for my mother. I do remember it was a surprise to her because she opened it and said "Oh, that's not what I thought it was going to be!" and was excited genuinely as well.

Now Harry Potter is over and I think about those kinds of memories. The story was great, but the context of where i was in my life when I read or watched the story progress is something different and special altogether. I mean, I know I'll remember this movie because it was the only Harry Potter I saw or read for the first time as a wife.