Let’s cut to the chase, shall we?
I don’t enjoy going to the movies anymore.
There. I said it.
Most of you remember that when I was in college, I would oftentimes drive to Jackson and literally spend the entire weekend seeing movies. It was not unusual for David and me (in our pre-dating days), along with Todd, to see four or five movies in a weekend. We would plan the whole excursion around what was being shown at Northpark, and I had this movie journal thing-y where I would chronicle everything we saw. Every December, when Entertainment Weekly printed the list of all the movies its critics had reviewed over the previous year, I’d usually seen 80% of them. Movie crazy, that’s what I was.
Todd left State to go to film school in California, but David and I continued the movie-going tradition. Then, when Todd was back in Mississippi for holidays, we would have huge Film Fest weekends and take in as many movies – both at the theatre and on video – as humans could possibly manage within a two day time span.
After David and I got married, we went to the movies almost every Saturday morning for that first year. We’d get together with friends, head to the theatre, and see whatever suited our fancy. We’d usually go around 10 in the morning so that we still had a chunk of Saturday left when the movie was over. It was a pretty good system, because if the movie was bad, we wouldn’t feel like we had wasted our day.
Then we bought a house. And that, my friends, was the beginning of the movie end for me.
I realized after we bought the house that I wanted to clean it. And decorate it. And buy things for it. And work in the yard. With a full-time job, there just weren’t enough hours in the day for me to be able to do all my house stuff and go to the movies, too. So David started going to the movies with his buddies, not me, and oddly enough, I didn’t miss it much. I still tried to be a good sport every now and again because David loves loves loves going to the picture show, so once every couple of months I’d forsake my cleaning / project time and go along for the ride.
Eventually our favorite theatre dropped their 10AM showings, and movie-going had to be done with the masses. I am not a fan of the masses. I cannot tell you how many times, in the last two years we were in Louisiana, that I went to the box office after spending mere minutes in a movie and kindly requested a refund. Either people wouldn’t stop talking, or their cell phones rang, or we were surrounded by merry bands of teenagers, or all the speakers weren’t on, or SOMETHING happened to ruin the experience for me. I’d gotten used to those Tinseltown shows at 10 in the morning, so seeing a movie with a room full of 14 year olds armed with cell phones was hardly a relaxing, enjoyable movie-going adventure. As a general rule, I do not enjoy spending $7.00 to listen to other people predict what’s going to happen next or explain why girlfriend needs to get on up out of that house or announce to the person on the other end of the line that yes, they’re in the movie, but it’s okay, they can still talk. No really. They can!
Once we moved here, I pretty much gave up altogether. At the time we had two theatre options on our end of town: The Summit, which is always always always packed, and Brook Highland, which is very, very small. Neither option appealed to me. So trips to the movies? Few and far between. Don’t believe me?
I give you evidence. Here is what I have seen at the theatre over the last five years. I’m not kidding. Hollow Man, X-Men, Unfaithful, Insomnia, SpiderMan, Vanilla Sky, Anchorman, SpiderMan 2, Spanglish, and Syriana.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
And if you notice a comic book theme, that’s because I usually go to the movies with my husband, who will see anything – ANYTHING – based on a comic book, which means that ten minutes into the movie, I’m fidgeting like a small child in an auto supply store. MISERABLE.
Of the ten movies I’ve seen in the last five years, I have liked approximately two: Anchorman, which is hysterical, and Syriana, which is not, but excellent nonetheless. 2 out of 10. 20%. Are you picking up on my movie issues?
If you factor in the toddler and all that he entails, I think I’m pretty much done with movies in the theatre until at least 2016. And for several years, yes, I did try to stay culturally caught up by watching DVD’s, but after awhile it just got to be too much trouble, and I was too tired, and half of what I would try to watch was so bad that it made me sort of angry. If I’m going to dedicate two to three hours of my weekend to “entertainment,” I would prefer not to be angry when I’m finished. Happy would be good.
But that’s just me and my crazy talk.
All that being said, I give you my list of five movies I cannot live without, and you can add your own list in the comments:
1. Waiting for Guffman
2. Erin Brockovich
3. Terms of Endearment
4. Coal Miner’s Daughter
5. Notting Hill
And by the way, we now have a lovely, large Rave theatre on this end of town, and the three times I’ve been, it’s been a most pleasant experience.
So there’s hope for me yet.
I just had no idea y’all were so bashful – I expected for all you opinionated peeps to rattle off your top 5 movie lists in no time at all…but I guess I should have remembered how SHY all of you are!?!?!?! :-)
I feel like I’ve talked too much.
Besides, with the age gap and all, your peeps probably wouldn’t be familiar with my movie picks. :)
No, I’m not shy. Just afraid I might hit a nerve or something with you. I had no idea this was such a sensitive subject. But I think I heard some violins in the background as I was reading about your unplesant experiences with the cell phone using movie-goers….(sob, sob)
Ok, well, “currently popular” movies kind of rotate on and off my favorites list, but here’s my standard Top 7 list in no particular order (no making fun):
1. Godfather II
2. The Graduate (love the movie and a young Dustin Hoffman reminds me of a young J)
3. The Way We Were
4. Funny Girl (no comments about me including 2 Babs movies)
5. Broadcast News (BooMama brought this movie into my life)
6. Sixteen Candles (a sentimental favorite)
7. Coal Miner’s Daughter (BooMama must have had some impact here too, or maybe it’s just coincidence. I literally cannot flip the channel away from this movie when it’s on TV.)
Um, Sister, did you not see my list with the 80’s All Stars? And Daphne’s list with the 70’s All Stars? I promise we’ll be able to dig.
And yes, Merritt, you did hear the distinct sound of violins playing in the background.:-)It grieves me. But I still want to read your list, if you’ll share.
Hey, BooMama, did you know that I STILL haven’t seen Erin Brockovich?
Stop it with all that blasphemous talk. Stop it right now. YOU WOULD LOVE IT. LOVE IT. She would become one of your all-time favorite movie heroines. Sassy McBritches, she is.
How did you know that was me who said that about the violins? I honestly didn’t mean to sign it “Anonymous” but I was at work, and I guess the computer didn’t know it was me? Weird. Anyway, here are a few movie favorites off the top of my head (in no particular order)and I’m sure I’ll think of more later.
1. Gone With the Wind
2. The Way We Were
3. Dumb and Dumber (please don’t make fun)
4. Heaven Can Wait
5. Glory
6. Ordinary People
I’ll add to list when I think of more.
Oh, I’m very crafty that way. Seriously – when I’m logged in to this comment program, it shows an internet protocol number (computer ID) for every comment. Most just have a random string of numbers, but yours has the name of the place where you work in parentheses. Mine does the same thing…I guess because of the kind of work we do, they don’t want us to be too anonymous on the interweb. Probably not a bad thing.
Okay – I had forgotten all about Heaven Can Wait. I LOVE that movie. I have never seen Ordinary People, but I remember that Sister and Barry liked it. Dumb and Dumber reminds me of two very guilty pleasures: The Waterboy and Anchorman. I cackle at both. And I doubt I’ll get The Way We Were theme song out of my head the rest of the afternoon. :-)
Some of my fave movies:
1. Almost any John Wayne western or war movie
2. The Dirty Dozen
3. Top Gun
4. Rain Man
5. Independence Day
6. Men In Black
7. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
8. The Lion King
9. Con Air
10. All the Young Guns movies
11. Just about anything with Sam Elliott, Nicholas Cage, Tommy Lee Jones, and several others I will think of immediately after I publish this.
Here are a few of mine….and only one repeat of other greats already mentioned. I’m also including some tidbit of what brings them to my mind.
Driving Miss Daisy – “aw you need to go on way from here Miss Daisy” or “her grandfather would jump out of his grave and snatch her bald headed”
Broadcast News – “I can sing while I read, I am singing….and reading BOTH” or “meet me by the place, near the thing, where we met that time”
Arthur – “normally one must go to a Bowling Alley to meet someone of your stature” or “do you think he wants some cheese?”
Five Weddings and A Funeral – W.H. Auden – and “duckface”
Best in Show – “we both like to talk, or not talk…..we both like soup”
“Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone
Silence the piano and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come….”
It’s one of the few poems I’ve committed to memory. Best line from that poem? “I thought that love would last forever. I was wrong.”
Shall we discuss poetry next? :-) I can talk about WH Auden all day long. He’s a favorite…I love me some rhyming iambic pentameter. :-)
Re: Broadcast News – “It must be great to think you’re the smartest person in the room, to always think that you know better.” “No. It’s AWFUL.”
And I have to say – we’ve got a pretty strong “must see” list if we combine everyone’s favorites.
I’m really, really glad no one mentioned “Citizen Kane.” I think it’s one of those movies people say they like because it sounds important – but good grief it’s boring.
“All About Eve” almost made my top 5 list, though. Love it.
Yeah, I noticed that, too.
Terms of Endearment is my all-time favorite, Soph!
I can’t speak for Bubba, but he may have meant Five, just because there’s a couple who isn’t married but very much together…hence the Auden poem that he mentioned.
Or it could have been a typo.
BUBBA?
Yeah, but that was the funeral.
Once again, I am in the deepest, darkest depths of BooMama, thus this comment will probably not be read. My complete fav list is too long and would have to be categorized, but for the (Alex’s) record, I’ve decided to list my Top Films prior to 1960 :
1. Goodbye, Mr. Chips
2. The Philadelphia Story
3. The Best Years of Our Lives
4. It’s a Wonderful Life
5. Father of the Bride (1950-original)
6. Rear Window
7. A Face In The Crowd
8. Teacher’s Pet
9. North By Northwest
10. Pillow Talk
P.S. I did not list Citizen Kane because my shallow self just didn’t “get it”.
Well I would love to say that there was some deep symbolism to my typo but there’s not. Fingers just got away from my brain…and I didn’t proof before publishing!
Pillow Talk – I love that one. Love “That Touch of Mink,” too. Nobody was cuter than Doris Day…all those fun stoles and high heels she used to wear. Another one I love, though it’s post-1960, is “The Parent Trap.” Even now I would love to have that grooovy California home.
you all have to know my favorite!!!
Raising Arizona
Shawshank redemtion (is that right?)
The family stone
Grease
Urban Cowboy
T,
I always forget Raising Arizona, but it is definitely one of my favorites (and one that always makes me think of you). Grease is another sentimental favorite that would make my list too.
Liked The Family Stone a lot, but I think you and I might have been the only people in the free world to see it. I love that Luke Wilson.
You need to see The Constant Gardener. If you would like to see a very realistic movie about Memphis, watch Hustle and Flow.
Where is Todd these days?
And here are some of my favorites:
1. Capote
2. Cache’
3. Downfall
4. Layer Cake
5. Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels
But, then, there’s always Raising Arizona to get me thru a bad day…
Todd is still in LA, doing fancy schmancy sound editing stuff on movies. He was just here in B’ham for a visit back in January – he’s great about making trips to see us so he can bond with the child (he’s Alex’s godfather). He has only visited the blog about 2 times, because, you know, fancy schmancy movie work takes up a lot of his time. :-)
I of course have not seen anything on your list, but it’s funny to see Cache’ on there because D just mentioned last night that he wants to see it, and I’d never heard of it in my life. I would like to see Capote because I love Phillip Seymour Hoffman – but I don’t know if I can take the “Capote voice” for 2 hours. Never heard of #3 and #4 but will be Googling them shortly.
Hello S! This is not related, but I was telling someone the other day about your Buick Regal and the nite we were surronded by the MSU SWAT Team (aka Campus Police) in “The Hump” parking lot for doing donuts – with no fewer than 25 people PACKED in the car… No one outside Starkville could ever appreciate how funny that was.
Thanks for the info on Todd and such (think the last time I saw him was the Peach Bowl when we played NC St. – you know, back when we went thought the Peach Bowl was sooo second-tier for our football team… ha!). Please tell Todd I said hello.
Ok, on topic, “Layer Cake” is a Brit movie starring the new James Bond, Daniel Craig. Good gangster flick. “Downfall” is about Hitler’s last days – great performance by the actor playing Hitler. “Capote” – you could stand the voice just to see this movie. Its awesome and was my favorite this year. And “Cache'” is so freaking suspenseful and will have you on the edge – and asking lots of questions about it afterwards. Very ‘Hitchcockian’ – if that’s a word…
You know, MAIND, we made our own fun, didn’t we? I would like to mention that I have long lauded TRiels’ ability to talk her way out of ANYTHING, and her skillz served us well that night, as she somehow convinced the MSU SWAT Team that we had done absolutely nothing wrong. Well done, TRiels. Well done. And yes, there were approximately 25 people crammed in my car. So fun.
I’ll make sure D sees what you said about Cache – maybe we can make it to the the-ay-tur sometime soon.
Have you ever heard the story about the time Marion “anonymously” called the MSU police department?
Oh yeah, one last thing about “Cache'” – its a French film with subtitles. As a lover of fine films like “Waiting for Guffman,” I’m sure that doesn’t bother you, but some of my friends (the great ‘unwashed’…) just get bent out of shape when they have to read subtitles.
And I’d forgotten it was TR who sweet-talked us out of that encounter with the PO-leece. I just remember the police almost tearing your seats out looking for just one drop of alcohal. They could not believe we were engaging in such stupidity SOBER! ha!
Anyway, I would like to know about Marion “narcing” on someone – or whatever she was doing. (I talk to her bro, John, up here all the time, so I’ll be more than happy to pass this along to him…).
Have a good weekend. As your man, Ryan Seacrest would say, “TV – out!”
Uh, did Bubba mean “Four Weddings and a Funeral”?