Posts Tagged ‘movie theater’
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I’ve never gone to a movie while stoned, but I can understand that there are certain movies that would certainly benefit from it. Like maybe really amazingly cheesy horror movies or one of those movies that no one would complain about the crowd being a little extra ghetto. That being said, I have no idea why on earth the couple that sat next to me when I went to go see “A History of Violence” this past Tuesday decided to get stoned out of their heads before going to see this particular movie.
The film is very serious slow paced drama with long thoughtful shots and some really great acting in it. There are scenes in it that have some humor in them, but they are generally the exception to the rule. That’s why it was so damn annoying that the couple next to me (the woman in particular) was laughing and giggling at every little thing going on. At first I thought they were some of those annoying people who go to films of “important directors” and just scoff at every little thing because it makes them feel big about themselves and their superior film knowledge. But then I realized the smell wasn’t cigarette smoke like I initially thought. By the end of the movie either their buzz had worn off or they were getting really into it because the laughing was at a minimum.
I think other parts of the audience were high on something too, because there were also some inappropriate laughs. What sucks is that if enough people laugh at things it gets people in a mood to laugh so they start looking for humor and it’s just bad for everyone who is smart enough to know they’re being stupid
I always think that we’re past completely ridiculous dates in science fiction movies. Minority Report took place in the year 2054. The Island is supposed to take place ony 14 years from now??? Who are they kidding? I mean sure, this is also from the same movie where the video games are virtual reality Xboxes, but come on people! I mean, the Big Dig has taken almost twenty years and I don’t even know how far along they are at this point. The original budget was something like $2.5 billion and now it’s closer to $15 billion last I checked.
Minority report we’re to believe that Washington D.C. has now become a place where people commute to work through automated cars set on highways that soar over the city and take the rich and wealthy individually to their homes? Fourteen years is enough for some secret corporation to create a vast underground facility housing hundreds of thousands of clones, and that the above facility creates a massive holographic image to make it look like the surrounding area is some idyllic Caribbean setting? It’s going to take years for us just to convert all our TVs to HDTV. Please, sci-fi writers, stop putting dates on your work.
This is inspired by my experience going to see the French horror/slasher film “High Tension.” If you didn’t know already, this movie was initially going to be NC-17, but Lions Gate Films decided to cut out some of the violence to get an R rating. A few minutes into the film I noticed none other than a four year old child walking around.
When I saw this in the past I used to blame it on parents/guardians who couldn’t find a babysitter that night, but I’ve simplified it into thinking that some people are just dumb. Beyond that, the only other explanation I can find is that they were probably taken to horror movies as a kid too and they figure that they turned out all right so it’s okay for their kid to see men getting beheaded via large wooden bureau, a woman’s throat slit with blood splashing all over the room.
Other movies I’ve seen kids at include “Saving Private Ryan” and “Freddy vs. Jason.” The latter of which was the most disturbing because the kid was crying to their parent/guardian that they wanted to go, and this person actually physically batted the kid away and told him to sit down. That really annoyed the piss out of me. Thing is you can never really say anything because these are the types of people you don’t want to tell how to raise their kids. It’s disturbing to think that there’s probably not a horror movie playing in the city that doesn’t have a small child watching scared out of their mind. People can really suck sometimes.
This one’s actually just for the New York crowd, I don’t expect anyone from out of town to get this one. The movie theater at Union Square used to be owned by United Artists, then it was bought by Regal Entertainment. I don’t even remember how long it’s been owned by them because I still call it the UA and all my friends call it the UA. This never struck me as odd until I went to see Batman Begins last night with a bunch of people from work including the new intern. We were standing around in a circle talking about the UA when he kind of gave us a blank stare. I had a nice little New Yorker inner-squee moment at this semi-exclusive knowledge.
This was me this past Saturday. Despite the positively gorgeous weather I was inside most of the weekend. My venture to the great outdoors on Saturday was for the purpose of finding the last three volumes of the GTO manga. Alas I was only able to find one volume and at a Barnes & Noble to boot. So I figured I should do something else in Manhattan since I made the trip so I thought I was going to see a movie. Sadly there wasn’t a single movie I was interested in seeing that I hadn’t already.
I had a vague interest in Amityville Horror, but I figured that would be best seen with a friend. Otherwise Sin City and Kung Fu Hustle were the only ones and I had already seen both. Pathetic really. Looking at movie release dates there are only a handful of films within the next few months that I’ve actually been anticipating.
If you read my Livejournal then you already heard this story (I need to learn to pace how I share my stories/turn them into comics). This was the scene when I went to the Regal Entertainment theater in Union Square to see “Kung Fu Hustle” (which was excellent by the way). Someone had taken the time to set up stands with scenes from the movie complete with painted Chinese characters and some banners that hung around different parts of the theater.
Next to the line to get in was one of those guys you see all over Chinatown, Times Square and any other tourist area that paint your name with some kind of design. The woman taking care of the line handing out the cards sounded so excited that they had this special treat for the Kung Fu Hustle screening. It’s just so odd to me because anyone who’s lived in New York for just a few weeks know that these guys are everywhere and they clearly aren’t reflective of some deep Chinese tradition. I often wonder where the school is where these guys are taught how to paint these name things. I can see a big classroom full of people learning to paint the exact same things and then given an assigned area of Manhattan.
I find it funny that people feel so obligated to really play up Chinese stuff when given the opportunity. Kung Fu Hustle is a great movie, but it’s also tremendously commercial, but because it’s Chinese it’s kind of exotic so that means that it’s treated with a kind of reverence that equally commercial foreign films might not be.
Another thing I find funny are the ExploreChinatown.com ads that you see in the subway talking about the rich history of Chinatown with its temples and antiques that you can go there to see. Looking at the photos there reminds me of photos from an NYU pamphlet where every single picture is centered around Washington Square Park. My view of Chinatown is really dirty streets with small crowded sidewalks, weird smells, bootleg anime, cheap DVDs and horribly touristy gift stores.
Chinatown is so driven towards tourists that any attempts to play up its culture just make me laugh. Maybe if you’re idea of being immersed in the culture means going to a restaurant where they don’t give you chopsticks because you’re white, then knock yourself out. Chinatown is at its most commercial during Christmas when all the policemen are at home which means ten times the amount of people selling fake Rolex watches and knock off Louis Vuitton bags are on the street.
I know some people fortunate enough to be able to tune out most outside disruptions while watching a movie, but I’m unfortunately not one of those people. Sometimes after a film I’ll ask a friend or family member if they noticed a person talking or something else that happened in the audience but it’ll come as news to them. I think lately I’ve noticed fewer cell phones ringing during movies the past few times that I’ve gone, but people still keep them on and check them during the film.
Some cell phones have a low level glow when they’re on (mine is one of them) and others look like they have halogen lights in them. I’m not even talking about the ones that are like a phone version of Las Vegas which you often see Asian teenage girls with. Just the regular camera phones that you buy now have really bright lights and I hate it when a person next to me checks it during the movie. Are they text messaging? Or are they seeing who called them during the movie? I obviously really love going to movies and now more than ever it’s a special time since I don’t get to do it often. I just don’t understand people going to a movie and checking their phone messages during it, why the hell did they go if they were so disinterested?
I remember a while ago an article where stupid movie executives were blaming text messaging for declines in movie ticket sales. The reason they said was that people were finding out sooner that movies sucked because people were texting their friends during movies instead of telling them afterwards. Basically they were searching for any reason other than the fact that they’re producing crappy movies. Dumb.
For my Valentine’s Day I pondered a few things all meant to be deliciously contradictory for the holiday. First one (most likely candidate) is to go to work, go to hapkido class and then go straight home, eat leftovers and watch anime. The second was going to see a brainless action film just to observe how empty the theater is. Though the latter has more potential to be depressing so I’m just going to go for the first. It’s my hard earned right as a single person to have absolutely no obligations on this day so I’m taking it dammit!
And for those who are on the fence about “Hitch” I’ll tell you now that it’s actually a good romantic comedy in my humble opinion. I hate most romantic comedies so when one comes along which I can sit through and even take something out of when I leave the theater then I feel obligated to mention it. Kind of like with kid’s movies that don’t suck for adults.
I don’t understand why weather.com had to change the layout of their front page. The first annoyance was when I got to the front page and suddenly all the temperatures were in Celsius! I couldn’t find how to change it to Fahrenheit, and after a while it finally changed back. Though now they don’t have the five day forecast on the front page. Now they have the current weather, tonight’s weather and the weather for tomorrow, what gives? I liked it before so that I could tell if it was going to be a nice or crappy week in terms of the weather. This freak snowstorm certainly wouldn’t have caught me by surprise like it did.
I woke up last morning and the weather was normal, later on it started snowing a bit. All I thought was “Oh it’s snowing, I didn’t realize it was going to snow today.” Later on in the day I realized it had reached full on blizzard mode and had stayed there for a very long time. By the time I got out of the movie I saw there must’ve been five or so inches on the ground. The snow also very efficiently ruined my evening plans which had already been pushed back a week and will not be pushed onto next weekend, grrrr.
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