Random Factoid #10

7 08 2009

I was often made fun of when I was younger for my laugh.  Some people said it was too loud, others just said it was just plain obnoxious and wierd-sounding.  Some of you might be wondering what on earth that has to do with movies.  Well, it has influenced the way I watch comedic movies.  I hate to watch comedies in theaters where there aren’t many people because I am afraid that I will my distinctive laugh will be the only one to ring out in the theater and create an awkward moment.  So to combat this, I usually go to comedies on opening weekend or, at the very least, at night.


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Random Factoid #9/Shameless Advertisement #1

6 08 2009

The length of a movie should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.

– Alfred Hitchcock

RANDOM FACTOID:

I hate going to the bathroom during movies.  If you read Random Factoid #7 about how I hate watching movies when they aren’t exactly from the beginning, then you might have seen this coming.  Part of the problem is the giant cups at movie theaters.  The small is enough to burst the bladders of a family of four.

SHAMELESS ADVERTISEMENT:

I honestly have no idea how I stumbled across this site.  But www.runpee.com is a site that tells you exactly when you should go the bathroom during a movie.  It tells you the exact time in the movie, what you will be missing, and how long you have in the john.  There is even an iPhone app for this, so it really comes in handy when you are in theater.  If only I knew about this site when I went to see “King Kong”…


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Random Factoid #8

5 08 2009

I have only fallen asleep while watching a movie in a theater once.

The movie was “Iron Man.” I love the movie; in fact, I just watched it yesterday and I think I may like it even more than I thought. But I had just spent a week at a Young Life camp in Canada, and I was completely spent. By 10:50 when the movie started, we had traveled for 8 hours on buses and ferries. I managed to stay awake for the first half, but I fell asleep right aroud when Tony flies in his new suit for the first time. I was awakened from my sweet slumber by the hand of my Young Life leader yanking me forward. He later explained to me that he had tried gently nudging and talking, but eventualy it came to the point where he had to give me a hard pull, and I would either wake up or get a pavement sandwich.

Watching movies at my humble abode is a different story. If it is past 11:00, I often slip into the world of my dreams, even in some of my favorite movies.


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Random Factoid #7

4 08 2009

I have only been to a movie alone twice.

The first time was in December 2006. It was the last day “Stranger than Fiction,” the Will Ferrell movie, was showing in theater. Finals were over, and I had spent all December studying to boost my grades to have options for high school. And I had relatives in town all Thanksgiving, so I didn’t have a chance to make a break for the theater. One day, my mom and brother decided they were going to see “Unaccompanied Minors.” I checked the showtimes and sure enough, there was a “Stranger than Fiction” that started about 20 minutes later. So I tagged along, sat through 15 miserable minutes of “Unaccompanied Minors,” and then went to my theater.

The second time was this year, at the end of February after practically every Oscar was given to “Slumdog Millionaire.” I had seen that “Revolutionary Road” was performing poorly, and I figured that the theater would probably give it one more week to satisfy Oscar stragglers like me. But the word was it that the movie was a real downer, and I couldn’t get any of my friends or family to go with me. So, rather than wait until June for the DVD, I decide to go on a Saturday morning before rehearsal. It was probably wise not to go with anyone because it gave me some time to reflect on the movie and not spread my depression to other people.

NOTE TO READER: I’m sure you’re wondering, “Why can’t this guy just say ‘I have seen two movies alone’ and be done with it?” Well, to you I say that I have a really strange memory. I can remember lots of details about something that I really love. For some people, this is parties or food, for me, it is movies. And plus, if I get Alzheimer’s, I can look at this blog to factoid #7 or #24601 and get a sense of what I have forgotten. So that is why I make you suffer through incredibly wordy and possibly superfluous factoids. Because I can and I am the writer and I have the power.


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Random Factoid #6

3 08 2009

I have to watch movies from the beginning.  If I don’t, I get stressed out think about what I’ve missed rather than focusing what’s on the screen.  The best way to show the way I can be is a scene from “Annie Hall,” which I am having trouble finding on YouTube, but the dialogue goes like this:

Annie: So do you wanna go into the movie or what?

Alvy: No, I can’t go into a movie that’s already started because I’m anal.

Annie: That’s a polite word for what you are.

But I have never refused to go into a movie that has already started.  I saw “The Iron Giant” twice in theaters; once I missed the first half, the next time, I missed the first ten minutes.


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Random Factoid #5

2 08 2009

My parents were very protective of the movies I saw, and I will always remember the first PG-13 and R movies that I ever saw.

The first PG-13 movie I saw was “Ever After: A Cinderella Story.” It was shown to me by a babysitter who now runs her own stationery line.

The first PG-13 movie I saw in theaters was “Legally Blonde 2: Red, White, and Blonde.” I got to see it as a reward for my days spent fighting off a viral pneumonia in the Monterrey County Hospital (that’s right, I got pneumonia while vacationing in Pebble Beach).

The first R movie I saw was “Crimson Tide.” My dad started watching it on Encore when I was in the room, and he let me watch it with him.

The first R movie I saw in theaters was “Flags of our Fathers.” The only reason that I was allowed to see it was because I had read the book for a school assignment.


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Random Factoid #4

1 08 2009

I have only walked out of a movie once.  The movie was “The Return,” a crummy 2006 horror film with Sarah Michelle Gellar.  It was my first time to go to the movies as a social occasion, and I couldn’t understand why people didn’t want to go see the infinitely better “Casino Royale” which was opening that day.  I now realize that for big gatherings, it’s best to see movies that you don’t actually want to see because you just sit in the front and talk, irking other moviegoers who then call the manager and get the loudest members of your group kicked out.  After a fair few of my friends had been not so politely escorted out of the theater, the remainder of us decided to leave.  I have absolutely no desire to watch what I missed, or even to go on Wikipedia and read what I missed.

I guess, technically speaking, I walked out of “Bruno” too.  There were about 20 minutes left in the movie, and I noticed that the picture was getting especially blurry.  I leaned over and I asked my friend if she noticed it, and she didn’t seem concerned about it.  Sure enough, about a minute later, the projector broke and the lights came on in the theater.  We decided to wait it out as they fixed it, but when the movie came back on, it resumed in the wrong spot.  The theater booed until they turned it off and tried to get us back to the right spot, but that just led to it breaking three more times about every two minutes.  After about the fifth break, we were among the last twenty people in a previously packed house, and we decided to just leave.  I would have stayed until the very raunchy end had it not been for the projector.


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Random Factoid #3

31 07 2009

My theater of choice is the Edwards Greenway Grand Palace 24 in Houston, Texas. It opened in 1999, and I frequent it because it is close to my house and it is always clean. The theater is now owned by the Regal Entertainment Group, which thankfully offers a rewards program for frequent guests called the Regal Crown Club. Points are awarded for each dollar spent on tickets and concessions, with occasional bonuses thrown in every once in a while. My family got the card in late 2004, and as of this posting, we have accumulated 2,156 points. And I have only been to the theater a handful of times in the past year.

P.S. – I just discovered that you can only earn 15 points in a day.  I discoverd this on my points statement today after shelling out $42 for the family to see “G-Force.”


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Random Factoid #2

30 07 2009

My first movie in theaters was “Pocahontas” in 1995.  I have no memory of it whatsoever, and I’m not sure if I have seen it since.  I don’t know anything about the plot other than that it is completely inaccurate in a historical perspective, something every history teacher I have ever had seems to bring up at least once every year.


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Random Factoid #1

29 07 2009

I feel a strange compulsion to prove myself as a true movie fan in case I actually get random readers, so each day, I will offer up a little fact (AKA – a factoid) about my moviegoing habits.  So, without further ado…

Random Factoid #1:

I collect movie tickets.  I tape them in rows on 8 1/2 by 11 inch sheets of printer paper, stick them inside of sheet protectors, and brad them into a green folder that, in a former life, used to house my “Got Milk?” ad collection.  There are now 12 pages inside the folder; the first ticket is from November 5, 2000, and the last is from July 21, 2009.


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