Mike at the Movies

I have always been a fan of the movies. Two hours in the dark with popcorn and a goodstory that takes me away from the cares of the world and is what I need weekly. Actually, in the last four years Carol and I have averaged 90 movies a year.(I keep the stubs until year's end). We started this when we lived in Married Student Housing at OSU. We had no air conditioning and little money. After we finished work on a hot summer day, we would sometimes go to the early evening movie. For 90 cents each and a large popcorn and coke, we could set in air conditioning and watch (in color) a movie, while our apartment slowing cooled down. This became a habit that continues. Over the years we have gone less (when the kids were small) and more(when the kids were gone). We hit a peak a few years back of 103 movies! To do that you have to see good, bad and ugly movies. There are 16 screens in Muskogee or a short trip to Tulsa and there were times that we had seen them all! We are slowly getting smarter.

As we get older, the Movie directors are getting younger, and we are becoming more discerning. Watching the trailers of coming attractions, we look at each other and say "good", "rental", & "for get it". We also walk out on more movies now (after the popcorn is gone) and go to less movies.

I like more substance and less car chases (unless it is Jason Bourne). I like good humor like "Juno" & the current "Smart People", but a movie like " Forty Year Old Virgin" should be posted No one under 55 allowed. The idea that 20 year olds acting 13 and saying the F word three times a sentence is not humor to me. I didn't like those people when I was 20!

There are good movies though and many are the independent films made by people who have stories to tell and not a formula to make box office the first week so the DVD will sell good.
Napelon Dynamite, Juno, Waitress are examples of this. In the main stream almost anything by the Coen Brothers from Raising Arizona to No Country for Old Men makes the two hours worth while.

I am considering a media room in my home, but nothing can replace setting in a dark theater with popcorn and Hot tamales!

PS: Monday nights are when the Theaters are empty and the cell phones are off.