A Night at the Movies

I like movies. All kinds of movies. They are a great, temporary escape. From everything. There was a time when I used to go see at least one a week. Usually it was half price night, every Tuesday, with my pal, Butch. That was before the advent of the $10 movie ticket. Even the matinee shows now cost more than a full price ticket in my movie prime. Butch and I covered the spectrum from Ferris Beuller's Day Off and Major League, to Batman, and to The Blair Witch Project. We saw a lot of movies. Of course it does seem like the movie experience was a lot better back then, and just movies in general. I mean, Nicholson, in Batman? How great was that?

Now, on the occasions I do get out to the cinema, my choice of fare is usually heavily loaded with animation. I am lucky enough that my boys are able to handle some more mature movies (meaning not necessarily young child movies) that allows me to get my Sci-fi/Fantasy fix like Eragon, Narnia, Revenge of the Sith, and Fantastic Four (Caz still walks around proclaiming that "it's clobbering time!"). Sometimes that works out really well for me because I will get to see a movie twice: once for a due diligence viewing and a second time, if the movie passes muster, with the boys. I was even able to take Caz to the Return of the King. A 3 hour plus movie, and only one bathroom trip. I did have a lot of concern that the battle scenes in the Lord of the Rings movies would be too violent for my boys. We had some long talks before they got to see those about movies, stories, and reality. And even then I reserved the right to cover their eyes.

My kids are great in movies. My wife and I taught them early one, that the cinema was like a library except it is OK to laugh out loud. They don't talk during the movies. That stuff drives me nuts. You get people who think they are watching a movie in their living room. I think that is the negative impact of the DVD culture. Don't get me wrong, I love my DVD collection. But you get so used to watching without other people around that you tune them out (and common courtesy) at the movies. Just a theory. It could be that I am just naive and people just s*ck.....But I am not a pessimist my nature. The family movies setting seems to be the worst. You get people all the time that think it's a good idea to bring a screaming baby to the movies. Or think it is family chat time. But I will say that the worst offenders seem to be senior citizens. You get a senior couple at a movie and you know you are going to get commentary through out. I think it is either they are old and don't care, or are old and can't hear each other. Demi and I saw an early evening show while visiting her mother in Delray Beach, Florida (aka Del Boca Vista). There were 5 other couples, and we were the youngest couple by 30 -40 years. The entire movie there were 5 conversations going on. Aye carumba!

Well now that the venting is done, the point of this was a movie review. Flushed Away came out on DVD recently with voice overs by Hugh Jackman and Kate Winslet. This is a great family movie. I give it a 4 out of 5 Chins. There is some good humor for everyone. I get a kick out of seeing my kids laugh. They have a totally different perspective on what is funny. And how can you, as an adult, not laugh at a 6 and 8 year old singing Tom Jones: "whoa, whoa she's a lady!" They have the dance moves down and everything. Flushed Away is definitely worth checking out.