Random Factoid #55

21 09 2009

The amount of times that I have seen movies in theaters seems to have sparked lots of interest, so I will continue on this theme for a while.

The only movies I can remember seeing four times are “Big Fat Liar” and “Shrek 2.”





Random Factoid #54

20 09 2009

When I was in first grade, I developed a mild obsession with the movie “Galaxy Quest.”  I went to see it with my dad the day after Christmas at a brand new theater, and they were giving away lots of free gimmicks, one of which included a poster for “Galaxy Quest.”  I taped it to the door of my room and soon began putting other “Galaxy Quest” related items on the door, such as a sketch of the ship.  Like I said, totally mild.





Random Factoid #53

19 09 2009

I am still obsessed with movies, but as my pallette has expanded, I usually choose to see more movies rather than one movie multiple times. Thus, the movies that I saw the most frequenly were the ones from my childhood when my options were limited to G and PG.

The movie that I saw the most in theaters was “Finding Nemo” at a whopping five. Once with my dad opening weekend, once with an uncle, once with my mom and brother, once with my grandma, and once with my friends.

I saw several movies five times before they were released on video such as “Big Fat Liar” and “Shrek 2,” but one viewing of each came in a hotel room which doesn’t really count. At least to me.





Random Factoid #52

18 09 2009

I hope I don’t sound like a goody-goody when I say this, but I have never watched a pirated movie online.  I respect the amount of time and hard work that the director, actors, and crew put into making a movie, be it “Milk” or “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” that I feel that it would be wronging them to cheat them of the money that they deserve.





Random Factoid #51

17 09 2009

If you haven’t noticed, when I love a movie, I will never stop talking about it.  If you go and look at some of the very first posts, I mentioned “(500) Days of Summer” in almost every post.  As I was thinking about my factoid for today, I had a friend remind me of all of the movies that she saw only because I was constantly raving about them, such as “American Beauty” and “The Dark Knight,” both of which are in my top 10 at the moment.





Random Factoid #50

16 09 2009

I am firmly against cell phone usage during movies, but I must admit, I have done that which I condemn.  During the movie “You, Me, and Dupree” in 2006, my neighbor called me about talking care of her dog, and I picked it up and had a brief conversation.  There were very few people in the theater, so no one seemed to notice.  But that doesn’t mean that people weren’t bothered by it.  So, at the risk of sounding preachy, I once again push the point DO NOT TALK ON YOUR PHONE DURING A MOVIE.

This has been a life lesson from Marshall and the Movies.





Random Factoid #49

15 09 2009

My subscription to Entertainment Weekly began in July 2003 when my family became members of Blockbuster Video.  They extended a free trial, and I loved looking at it so much that my mom began paying for a subscription.  I often saved them and cut pictures of movies out of them.  I stored the cut-outs in an old Nike shoebox.  On occasion, I would take similarly themed clippings and put them together in a collage which hung on my wall.  I recall creating a Star Wars, Walk the Line, and a Reese Witherspoon collage, who was then my favorite Hollywood star to drool over.





Random Factoid #48

14 09 2009

A few years ago, after having seen several movies that were ruined by their trailers, I went through a stretch where I would walk out of the theater or bury my head in my seat to avoid seeing anything about the movie.  Call me strange, but for anyone who saw the movie “Funny People,” doesn’t this trailer basically tell you the whole movie? (Sorry, no one on YouTube was kind enough to lend me an embeddable and unadulterated trailer.)

Because I’m really tired, you were spared my tirade on overly revealing trailers.  Lucky you.  But check out my other posts in which I am more than happy to feature trailers that are the polar opposite of that.





Random Factoid #47

13 09 2009

I participate in the My Coke Rewards program only to get free movie tickets at AMC Theaters.  A ticket is 485 points, and it usually takes me a few months to get it (or rather, for my parents to down all that Diet Coke).  There are probably much cooler things out there, but they cost too much and I would use a free movie ticket more than anything else.





Random Factoid #46

12 09 2009

I have 25 movies in my iTunes library, and it takes up an obscene 30.5 gigabytes on my hard drive.  The sad thing is most of the movies really aren’t that great.  A lot of them I bought because I always wanted a movie on my computer that I had yet to see (this was before the dawn of iTunes movie rentals).  Thus, I have “The Longest Yard” on my iPod but not “American Beauty.”  I know it’s a problem; I’m working on it.





Random Factoid #45

11 09 2009

As I stare at the blinking cursor struggling to come up with a factoid at this late hour, I think to myself, “What could I possibly say to to entertain my readers more?”  I am waiting, watching that cursor appear and disappear pensively as if it holds the key to unlocking the factoid inside of me.  From black to white it turns, and I’m sure by now, you are thinking, “Quit buying time and give me the darn factoid!”  Well, fine!  Here it is, you voices resonating in my head.

I make my own “Academy Awards” each year; that is, I nominate and award who I think should be receiving the Oscar.  Sorry, “Slumdog Millionaire,” all your Oscars went to “The Dark Knight.”  And Helen Mirren, hand back that statue; it’s going to Kate Winslet for “Little Children.”

I used to make this list at the end of the year, but now I start in May.  I already have the majority of the big categories filled with the exception of Best Supporting Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay, in case you were wondering, which obviously you were if you have trekked through the entire factoid to get to this last extraneous bit of information that I could let run on for forever, but I have chosen to give you a break and end the sentence now.





Random Factoid #44

10 09 2009

I still practice my Academy Awards acceptance speech in the shower.  It has slowly been refined over the course of a decade.  The award itself fluctuates between Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Screenplay.  I can’t decide whether I am going to cry yet.  I don’t know whether to spend my speech thanking people or using it to express sincere gratitude.  I’m debating on whether I would even write it down because if I didn’t, that might make the speech seem more heartfelt.

And my Oscar is usually a shampoo bottle.  I like to imagine that I will hold it tightly when I get up to the podium.





Random Factoid #43

9 09 2009

I have never seen a movie that has made me want to go wait in line and watch it again.  When that movie comes, I will be banging the gong again and again on the blog.  Trust me.

NOTE: I am referring to movies in theaters.  I have rewound many DVDs, mainly out of confusion as to what happened in the end.





Random Factoid #42

8 09 2009

This isn’t my first movie reviewing phase.  I wrote several reviews during summer 2006 and intended to send them in to the Houston Chronicle.  For some reason that I can’t remember, I never sent them.  I think it was probably due to the fact that I wrote mainly about kids movies like “Over the Hedge” and “Cars.”  But I can’t pinpoint a specific reason.





Random Factoid #41

7 09 2009

In the second grade, I became interested in the box office grosses of movies.  I began keeping a notebook that recorded the top 12 movies at the box office each weekend, beginning the weekend of August 18, 2000.  I didn’t remember the exact date, but I recall writing in the opening weekend take for “The Original Kings of Comedy,” which the Internet told me opened on that day.  I think it stopped towards the end of 2001, but my last distinct memory of logging anything in the book was April 1, 2001, when I hurriedly jotted down the gross of “Spy Kids” on its opening weekend as I dashed out the door to go see it myself.