Random Factoid #255

9 04 2010

A week ago, I almost blew a fuse at the ticket kiosk.  I had just looked on my iPhone Fandango app and seen that it was going to cost me $10.50 (too much) to see “Clash of the Titans.”  With parking garage traffic looking congested and not much time to spare before the movie started, I decided to grab my friend’s cash and bolt for the theater to buy the tickets.  The following conversation took place with the woman at the counter.

MARSHALL: I’ll have two tickets for “Clash of the Titans” in 3D at 1:40.

TICKET LADY: That will be $23.00.  Do you have your Regal Card?

MARSHALL: My gosh, have you all raised your prices?

TICKET LADY: It costs more for 3D.  (Side commentary: Well, DUH!)

MARSHALL: No, it didn’t always cost this much to see a 3D movie.

TICKET LADY: I don’t know.  (Side commentary: Yes, you do.  You just don’t want to get outsmarted by me.)

Then there was just awkward silence.  But I almost said, “You can’t keep raising the prices like this or you are going to start losing business.”

I could have used the price discrepancy to get my refund, and I could have used the quality of “Clash of the Titans” as further reason.  But I didn’t.


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Random Factoid #254

8 04 2010

Where have all the sneak previews gone?

They were such a staple of my childhood – I remember seeing “Hercules,” “The Princess Diaries,” and “Freaky Friday” weeks before the general public.  Sure, I still manage to see movies early thanks to free screenings.  But there’s just not the same vibrant atmosphere, something I believe to be due largely in part to the fact that free screenings are filled with people who might have trouble affording movies.  Thus the crying babies and often lacking etiquette.

Anyone else care to lament with me?


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Random Factoid #253

7 04 2010

The inspiration for this factoid came from The M0vie Blog reporting that there have been so many people demanding refunds for “Greenberg” that L.A. theaters have had to post signs about it (such as the one on my left).

I have never been so upset by a movie that I have gone to the ticket counter and demanded a refund.  I was actually quite tempted to do so on Friday for “Clash of the Titans,” but there was more to it than that.  Look for more on my experience in a future factoid.

But based on the quality of a movie alone, I have never gone to demand a refund.  Usually I’m mad at myself for seeing the movie; I have a hard time blaming the theater owners.

Hopefully I’ll never have to declare this factoid false.  But what about you?  Anyone seen the movie that really is that bad?

(Oh, and another random little tidbit: I wouldn’t have found this amusing post had it not been for Anomalous Material’s review of “Greenberg.”)


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Random Factoid #251

5 04 2010

Today’s factoid inspiration comes from NPR blogger Linda Holmes’ article “The Shusher and the Shushed.”  I read the article a few weeks ago, and it was one of those perfect reads where a very intelligent writer strings together all the thoughts you have floating around in your head.  Here, she connects all my angers and frustrations about people talking at movies.

Unfortunately, out of the past three times I have shelled out the big bucks at the theater, I have had to use my voice to “shh” some very rude patrons in the theater.

Yesterday, at “How to Train Your Dragon,” there were a few whiny crying babies.  I have written many times about this being a pet peeve (Random Factoid #32, for instance), but I’m more inclined to forgive it during a kids movie than in a movie like “Funny People.”  But these kids were screaming at the screen!  I gave one forceful “shh,” but I knew it wouldn’t do much.  Eventually, I managed to drown out the kids.

But two weeks ago, when I went to see “Avatar” again, I was appalled at the talking going on in the theater.  A grown man was having a phone conversation on the row in front of me.  Correction, MULTIPLE phone conversations.  Everyone in my family gave him a “shh,” but I must have given over a dozen.  By the time you are that age, moviegoing etiquette is common sense.  You just don’t take a phone call in the middle of a movie.  Step out into the lobby at the very least.

I’m not afraid to “shh.”  If I pay $10 to see a movie, I’m going to enjoy the experience being presented to me in the theater.  Your phone call isn’t going to ruin that for me.  Phone calls don’t just interrupt a movie, like the ads say.  They interrupt me, and the movie isn’t going to stop and snap at you.  I am.

Any fellow bold souls out there willing to stand up and say that you have fought for your right to enjoy a movie?


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Random Factoid #250

4 04 2010

Hop-py Easter, everyone!

One Easter memory that pertains to my blogging activities: I really hoped that the Easter Bunny would bring me the “Finding Neverland” DVD.

Did I get that? No, the Easter Bunny felt fit to give me “Fat Albert.” In retrospect, he gave me the more endearing classic, and I respect his decision.


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Random Factoid #249

3 04 2010

It’s Easter Eve, which means one faithful thing: “The Ten Commandments” is on ABC tonight.

I’ve watched it in bits and pieces several times over the past decade or so, but I’ve never sat down to watch the whole thing start to finish.  I’ve hit all the high points: “LET MY PEOPLE GO!” and the parting of the Red Sea.

The 5 hour run time is a little intimidating.  But maybe next year…


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Random Factoid #248

2 04 2010

Call me a geezer, but I’m developing a sort of technology resistance.

Specifically, to Blu-Ray players.  I don’t own a Blu-Ray player and I don’t ever intend to.

I don’t think they are any higher quality of movies.  In fact, I think watching a movie on a Blu-Ray player makes a movie seem a lower quality.  The characters all seem like paper dolls, and everything seems so unrealistic.

Am I the only one that hasn’t drunk the Blu-Ray Kool-Aid?  Or does anyone else feel like Blu-Ray is kind of a sham?

P.S. – I’m not a factoid repeater.  This is different from Random Factoid #69.


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Random Factoid #247

1 04 2010

One morning in 2009, because I truly had nothing better to do, I stopped for breakfast at Chick-fil-A and then waited outside of Target for 15 minutes.

For what?  To be the first person to grab the 2-disc “Pineapple Express” DVD.  Oh, and it had a bonus digital copy.

But if you think about it, that was kind of stupid because I had to go to school in 30 minutes … so it’s not like I could watch it right away.

I’ve never actually stood in a line to get a DVD.  Any movie that is worth that kind of a wait I will have already seen in theaters.


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Random Factoid #246

31 03 2010

I actually feel legitimate disappointment when good movies have bad DVD covers.

Case in point: “Up in the Air.”  Come on, Paramount, is that really the best you can do?  A picture of George Clooney laughing surrounded by a whole bunch of empty blue space?

There’s nothing happening on the cover, and if I knew nothing about the movie, I would see it and walk away.  I fear that in the future, people will see this DVD and not even think twice about it.  Which is such a shame.

What about you?  Any DVD cover (or poster, for that matter) really disappoint you?


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Random Factoid #245

30 03 2010

It gets pretty hard to come up with a factoid every day once you get in the hundreds.  Thankfully, I discovered a nice tool for inspiration courtesy of WordPress.

They have a nice button called “Random Post” that randomly selects some post that I have published, in case you couldn’t figure it out from the title.  Since I’m fairly factoid heavy, most of the time, I get a factoid.  Sometimes I’ll see an idea or thought that I liked and expand on it.

Several factoids from the past week have taken their inspiration from this button.  Including this one.


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Random Factoid #244

29 03 2010

I’ve heard a ton of talk amongst the box office reports this weekend about ticket prices at movie theaters skyrocketing over 20% in some places.  Honestly, enough is enough.  This is probably the first time that I have gone on the record about the ridiculous ticket prices, but I can assure you that it won’t be the last.

I looked through my movie ticket collection today and looked at how much the first ticket cost.  When I saw “Remember the Titans” in 2000, it cost $5 for a child’s admission.  In 2010, that same ticket at the same theater would cost $7.  That’s a 40% increase in one decade.  Insane.


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Random Factoid #243

28 03 2010

223 factoids later, I finally return to report the results of Random Factoid #20 / An Experiment.

I was trying to see how many people I could draw to my blog using popular people and things as tags, but I think I only got one hit off of the tags.  I think it came from “cats,” but I’m not entirely sure.

Safe to say: experiment FAILED.


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Random Factoid #242

27 03 2010

With my review of “Whip It,” I have officially marked 100 reviews.  Wow.  It’s hard to believe I’ve cranked out that many.

While I’m at it, I thought I might list a few other amusing stats just because I don’t call them random factoids for nothing.

  • 11,445 views
  • 355 comments
  • 8 subscribers
  • 1,180 tags
  • 975 spam comments deleted (thanks, spammers!)

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Random Factoid #241

26 03 2010

In the fifth grade, a chapel speaker came to my middle school that asked the audience a series of responsive questions. He wanted people that knew the answers to raise their hands.

The first question: “Who can name the last five winners of the Academy Award for Best Picture?”

Of course I knew the answer, so I shot my hand up. Mine was the only hand raised. Awkward…


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Random Factoid #240

25 03 2010

When I was 10, I heard a five-second clip of Catberine Zeta-Jones singing  “All That Jazz” from the movie “Chicago” on the news and suddenly became obsessed.  I bought the soundtrack knowing nothing of the movie but those five seconds.

I proceeded to learn every musical number in the blink of an eye.  There was a five-year span between buying the soundtrack and seeing the movie, so I knew the music thoroughly when watching it.  But it was weird to put context to the songs I had known for so long.


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