I Remember Why I Don't Go Out to See a Movie

For some reason, rainy days puts me into a mood of going out to see a movie. I've always been a Kevin Smith fan, so I went to see "Zack and Miri Make a Porno". This is one of my guilty pleasures, full of obscenities, juvenile thoughts, but something to make us laugh. But this blog is not about Kevin Smith, so let me get to the point.

The goal is to see the 7:40 pm showing, so I show up about 30 minutes early at least. One nice thing about AMC Theatres is they have a kiosk where you can pay for your ticket by debit/credit card, instead of waiting in line for the box office. Being the geek that I am, I'd rather go the technical, self serve route, instead of paying someone standing in a cramp, enclosed booth with 4 other poor souls.

I get in the theatre (after getting my soda and popcorn), and get myself settled in the stadium style seating. After sitting there for 5 minutes, I now remember why I hate going out to see a movie ... especially at AMC Theatres

1. All they have now are multi-plex theatres (this one had 16 screens). The feeling in these multi-plex theatres is so impersonal, and it doesn't have a quaint feeling that movie-going used to have.
2. AMC has these annoying TV ads ... they have some deal with Turner, and were showing countless ads for several featured shows on TNT and TBS. These last so long, you figure that by the time they finish these annoying ads, the movie would be ready to start ... not!!!
3. Next, they show 3-4 trailers ... dang, I could do this going to the Apple trailer site! I got say annoyed, I was tempted to shout out "Start the friggin' movie already" ... but the calmer side of me refrained from that. After watching these trailers, I am appalled at the quality of movies they are making. Lots of fluff, almost comic book type movies ... what I like to call live-action comic books. In the 10-15 minutes of watching trailers, I felt my IQ drop 50-100 points.
   

Finally, the trailers finish, and the movie starts soon after. I think next time, I will wait for mainstream movies to show up on video, and only go out to see movies that normally aren't seen by the general masses (i.e. artsy fartsy movies, you'll see at Landmark or Camera Cinemas). Yes, I'm a movie nerd, but I can't help it. Maybe the next time the weekend is washed out, I'll go artsy fartsy ... tonight I just wanted to shut my brain off, figuratively ... but I think tonight, it literally did shut off.

Oh and the movie??? It was typical Kevin Smith. If you are not a fan of Kevin Smith, are massive obscenities, then you won't like this. But if you have seen Kevin Smith movies in the past, and enjoyed them, you'll love this. I sure did.