Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Christmas at the movies

I woke up at 7:00 (ish) thanks to my friends in other time zones who decided to text message me at what was certainly a decent hour on the Atlantic Seaboard. Merry Christmas to you, too.
Unable to go back to sleep, I got the brilliant idea that I would spend the day watching movies. There are so many good ones in the theaters and I haven't been to see one since Roy was here. Besides, after all my years working at theatres, it just seems like the place to be. First, a bit of cocoa and crumb cake which I purchased at the farmer's market on Sunday. Delicious!Since I didn't want to run the risk of Jamie breaking down on Christmas Day and the Arclight is just blocks away, I hopped online, did some calculations and came up with a plan. Juno was first on my list and at 10:00am I pretty much had the place to myself. The concession stand staff was friendly and joking and because I'm an Arclight member, I got the popcorn free! (Yes I had popcorn at 10am--I can't watch a movie without it) The movie was excellent and made me cry. I suspect I was a wee bit emotional to begin with, but it was sweet and sad and charming and (sniff, sniff) I really, really liked it. On my way out, I bought a ticket to Sweeney Todd at 1:30. I just missed the 11:40 showing in dome, damn it.

I walked home the roundabout way and was accosted by an old woman who asked, "Is it Tuesday?" When I replied that it was, she told me, "Don't forget Sunday is (incoherent babble) and the bus passes are (more incoherent babble)." I feel like she was telling me something very important, but I had to pee so I kept on walking.

I had a bit of lunch and then back to the theater. Apparently, the presents were unwrapped, the brunches eaten, and the family was getting on everyone's nerves, because the place was packed. I chose a seat in the back ( X25--the exact same seat for both movies) and was flanked on either side by The Floppersons, an entire family wholly incapable of sitting like normal people who must flop into the chairs as if their legs can only hold them upright for a few minutes at a time; and by single possibly divorced/possibly gay male, who sighed heavily at the quietest moments of the film. The Flopperson (two rows of them) spotted the Mercers in row D, seats 22-29. Everyone say "hello" to the Mercers. "Hi"--jump up, wave, flop back into your seat. Oh, please do it one at a time, too. I stared straight ahead and willed the film to start.

What can I say, Sweeney Todd was great. How can Johnny Depp manage to be hot even when he looks like crap? Is it wrong that I'm really hungry for a Chicken Pot Pie now? And the preview for Stop-Loss, has Ryan Phillippe never looked better? Those abs--holy moly!
At the end, the Floppersons were credit watchers and SPD/PGM sat and conducted the score over the closing credits. I was trapped!! Finally, I was able to climb over the conductor and make it out.

Now I'm debating between The Golden Compass and National Treasure 2. I do love me some Nicolas Cage.

2 comments:

Neila said...

I saw Sweeney Todd as well this weekend. I'm nor sure if I liked it or not. Johnny Depp was great and deserves the Golden Globe nominee; I liked the way it was shot and the sets; Helena Bonhman Carter was wonderful! I just didn't like the story itself...and all the "blood" got to be a bit much. It was very much a typical Tim Burton film. We wanted to see National Treasurer 2 but never managed to find time to get there.

dizzy von damn! said...

i heard sweeney todd was amazing... i have heard more than one person call it a 'typical tim burton film' but that's sort of a two way street- he didn't create the story- he just chose it.

and national treasure? REALLY?

=(