Summer Movie Update
At the start of the summer I wrote about my movie plans. My list at that time was 19 strong. As of today it has been expanded to 22 movies and last night we saw Total Recall which was #16 for me this summer. I will have a more detailed post about the whole experience coming in September but my initial thoughts are these:
1) When you see this many movies in a short period the pre-movie commercials go from cute, to annoying, to pure torture.
2) I have been forced to think about variety in my movie candy selection. Eating 22 boxes of Milk Duds in one summer is just wrong.
3) Weeknight movies are the best. Best seat choices, fewer noisy teenagers and if you go on Tuesday, matinée prices!
4) I’ve seen four different people bring babies or very young toddlers to loud action movies. WTF people?
pre-movie commercials
Including trailers?Report
No way. Trailers are awesome. I enjoy them almost as much as the movie itself.Report
Okay, good. (Just trying to wrap my head around this.)Report
For me, it varies. If I never see that Katy Perry movie trailer again, it’ll still be three times too many.Report
Those Coke commercials at movies are always a special kind of annoying.Report
Those Coke commercials are always the most insipid and miscalculating.
They need a new ad agency.Report
Re: item 4.
I have a friend whose parents were separated and he lived with his dad. Dad liked horror movies, but not paying for babysitters. So friend as young child was often taken to the theater to see horror movies. As an adult he still hates movies.Report
There seems to be a lot of this. It seems very narcissistic to me.Report
Burt – I think it’s really just people having kids and not wanting to accept that means you have to change your lifestyle a bit. In my 20s I went to a party once and found out a girl there had brought her baby and it was sleeping in a spare bedroom. My fury burned like the sun and the only thing that prevented me from giving her an ear-beating was that I barely knew anyone there and thought I might not make it out alive.Report
“…it’s really just people having kids and not wanting to accept that means you have to change your lifestyle a bit.”
Exactly. Narcissism. “Selfishness,” if you prefer.Report
MD-
I think that parties are different than movies, for two reasons:
1.) Parties can be made baby friendly, even if only temporary. A room can be made off-limits if the baby needs to sleep or nurse, guests can use quieter tones or be mindful of their movements, etc. Of course, this requires that the guests do these things willfully or voluntarily. Demanding it of folks is, indeed, narcissistic. A movie isn’t going to adjust because there is a baby in the theater.
2.) Movies are often in theaters for weeks or months at a time and then are essentially available for eternity through DVD, Blu-Ray, whathaveyou. Parties might be a one-time event. A random Friday night kegger? I see your objection. But an annual Labor Day cookout or something? A bit of a different story.
I think it comes down to what adjustments the parents make. A couple just had the first baby amongst one of my groups of friends. They opted to attend an annual party with the baby in tow. But, they handled themselves differently than they had in previous years, sans baby. No drinking for mom; a single beer for dad. They came late and left early, before the baby started to fuss or otherwise cause anyone a problem. They changed it immediately before the party. Etc. It was also the first time many of us out-of-towners (myself included) got to see the baby. I have trouble putting this situation in the same category as the people who bring infants to midnight showings of horror flicks.Report
As Kazzy observes, parties can be made baby friendly. Me, I took my infants around in a backpack and never let the idea of children get in the way of a social life. I’d go to upscale restaurants, when I was making reservations, I’d request a table by the door so if the infant squeaked, I could get up and out in a hurry. People used to joke because I was always turning my chair sideways so I could sit down with the infant. My wife joked that I carried those children longer than she did.
Parents’ lives don’t have to revolve around their infants to the exclusion of a social life. A child who’s held in a backpack cries less and only cries for a reason. It’s funny, before you have kids, you hear a child cry and mentally growl “make that baby be quiet”. After you have kids, you hear an infant cry, you can tell “oh, that child’s hungry or tired. Oh, that child needs a nap. That child needs to be held.”
Children aren’t porcelain figurines. They can cope surprisingly well. They don’t need a lot of attention, they just need it all the time. When I have a party, children are welcome. Just got back from a wedding where I did the photography, at a large hotel in Chicago. The hotel thoughtfully included grab bags of children’s toys.
When children aren’t welcome, that’s something of a problem. Granted, I wouldn’t leave my infant on someone else’s bed whilst I was in the other room. But people with small children are already in the midst of a lifestyle change: it’s hard enough getting out to see friends. More importantly, children need to be socialised early. It’s those Careful Parents who never take their kids out whose kids always act out and get in trouble.Report
My mom started me on horror movies when I was fairly young (9 or 10, I can’t remember exactly). We’d get a group of them together, and gather up all the murder weapons (or something similar) to have with us while we watched. Generally, this was like a plastic knife (Halloween) or a feather (Birds), but it was super fun. It wouldn’t work with a baby, but I have some hope of indoctrinating my own children at a young age.Report
Question from a Louisvillian-in-exile: do you have a preferred/hated movie theater? I find that when I’m in town and go to see something, I wind up at Baxter Avenue — mostly from a combination of I’m so behind on movies that it’s the only one showing what I still haven’t seen, and because when the only two that are reasonable drives are it and Tinseltown, I’ll take the one without middle school kids, thankyouverymuch.Report
I prefer Tinsletown because it is close to my house. I’ve learned that all the theaters except Baxter have the kid problem, thus my preference for weeknight movies. I tend to only go to Baxter for limited-release movies and the odd midnight showing of Indiana Jones or something.
What theaters did you go to when you lived here? I grew up going to Showcase and the Raceland theater.Report
FemRex and I tend to walk the 2.5 miles to a local AMC-plex for the first show on either Saturday or Sunday (generally between 10 – 11). Early, cheap, rare rude audience members. Walk back, get home in the early afternoon in time for any chores or activities. We’re old and fat so we no longer buy snacks; bring a couple of See’s Candy lollies or a fiber bar. Downside? Not much, but I imagine the largely empty theater isn’t real conducive to the shared audience experience that makes comedies work better.
When we both worked at UCLA, the routine was a 5 pm show on Friday after work in Westwood (where there are many big, opulent first-run theaters right at UCLA’s doorstep).
Addendum: for the crap movies (aliens, no-star sci-fi, shoot-em-ups) that FemRex has no interest in, I go to a 5 pm show on Tuesday (before my trivia league) and load up on nachos or popcorn since she’s not around.
Disclaimer: I’m a film goof. Majored in it. Worked in it — have an IMDB page. All my favorite movies are good ones with no embarrassment factor, but I love going to see explosive junk and eat trash. Just sitting in the theater as the lights dim still gives me goosebumps (I’m in my 60s). What a nerd.Report
If a person could only see one movie this summer, what on your list would you suggest? Not all of us have even a prayer of a chance to making it to 22 movies.Report
Miss Mary,
I think it has to be The Avengers (if you like superheroes and stuff). A sleeper favorite for me was Savages.Report