Movie Day ....

Ok, so both Captain Corky and Tink blogged about going to see The Dark Knight. Do you think this is going to stop me from blogging about it though? Hell NO!

First a bit about me and going to the movie theater. As much as I enjoy movies, I hate going to the theater. It’s always full of kids running in and out of the theater, people either talking to each other or on their cell phones and there’s almost always some seven foot tall cowboy who refuses to take his hat off that comes in and sits right in front of me. Not to mention the uncomfortable seats.

The last time I actually went to the theater to see a movie was to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Yeah, we’re talking 2005. I’m a “get them on DVD from NetFlix” kind of guy. But, I really couldn’t stand it this time. I HAD to go see The Dark Knight.

Luckily I got there early so I could get the seat I wanted. Our cinema here in town (yes, we only have one) has eight small theaters with a strange seating configuration. Along the back there is a row of only seven seats. Right in front of that row is a row of only four seats. Then all the “normal” rows from there on down.

So, I got there early enough to get an isle seat on the back row, which meant there was no seat directly in front of me. Then I just relied on my intimidating presence to convince everyone else who came in to go sit in another area of the theater. It worked perfectly as the theater was only about half full. Actually they had two theaters showing TDK and a couple of people walked in and saw me and turned around and left and went to the other theater.

BTW, sorry Captain Corky, but I didn’t do the ice cream thing. I stuck with the traditional movie treats of popcorn (stale) and bottled water (room temperature) which only cost me $10.50. What a bargain! Of course there were also the seats that are made for people the size of Vern Troyer. Come on people, even on the crappiest of airlines the armrests can be raised to give me a bit more room! And ... not to complain or anything but I really enjoyed how the temperature in there went from around 80 degrees at the start of the movie to around 42 degrees at the end. That’s ok. My balls weren’t turning into ice cubes at all. At least my bottled water was finally getting cold. Oh yea, one last thing. Again, it’s not my style to complain or anything, but would be too much to ask for them to put up a sign or something and let us know which is the ladies restroom and which is the men’s?? Really. It might help avoid some embarrassing situations. I’m just sayin.

And of course there were the previews. The first two previews were for the next James Bond movie The Quantum of Solace and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. After each of those previews I was doing mental fist pumps and saying things like "Yeah! That's gonna be great!" while everybody else in the theater sat stone cold quiet. Then they showed the preview for Step Brothers and I sat there wondering how anyone could possibly pay money to see Will Farrell movies and everybody else in the theater was clapping and laughing and saying things like "OMG! I can't wait to see that!" I guess it's possible that I'm the one with crappy taste though.

And they showed a preview for some movie that is supposed to be release in September of 2009. Thanks for the advanced warning on that one guys. Really? Fourteen months notice? Do you think that's enough lead time for us?

What's that? Oh yeah, the movie rocked. Really great. Enjoyed it immensely. Heath Ledger was even better than advertised. Christian Bale was good, although the Clint Eastwood impression gets a bit old. Yeah I know, Bruce Wayne has to disguise his voice, but I think I might have gone for Sean Connery myself. That would really throw people off. And Maggie Gyllenhaal was pretty good too. I was going to say that she was way better than Katie Holmes but then, aren’t we all?

Anyway, it was definitely worth going to see. In fact, I was so fired up afterwards that I seriously considered trying the old “duck into the restroom and hide out there for 10 minutes and then casually walk into the theater showing Hancock which started 15 minutes after TDK was over” move. But, I just couldn’t. You know me. Mr. Honest. Nobody was checking tickets or doing a head count or anything like that, but it just wouldn’t be right.

Ha! Just kidding! There was a big sign on the door to the theater where Hancock was showing that said that the air conditioning was out in there. So I went home.