Movie Experience Not The Same
My wife and I used to love going to the movies.
Now we have children, and we've only been to the theater three times in the past five years.
We don't go to the movies much for several reasons.
First off, in my opinion, there hasn't been a must-see movie come out since "Saving Private Ryan" in 1998. I've been interested in a few movies over the past eight or so years, but they either get terrible reviews or I'm just willing to wait until it comes out on DVD. Watching it at home is cheaper and less inconvenient.
Plus, I can drink a beer or a glass of wine.
The big cost of going to a movie these days isn't the theater. It's hiring a babysitter at $7 to $10 an hour. That means spending $21 to $30 on a sitter, and that's if the film clocks in at under two hours.
If we hire a sitter, we go on a dinner date, so we can have adult talk, drink a little wine and enjoy a good meal.
Just before the birth of our first son five years ago this month, we went to see "Black Hawk Down," a really great film. I don't know if the soon-to-be-born baby liked all the noise, because he almost kicked his way out during all the explosions and machine gun fire.
The next one we saw, while the grandparents babysat, was "Catch Me If You Can" in 2002. I really liked that movie, but the wife got ants in the pants because the film ran longer than expected, and she was worried about the toddler we left behind. It was understandable, because it was the longest she'd been without the boy since his birth.
Last Friday, we decided to go see "Children of Men," one of the first movies in five years that I really wanted to see in the theater.
I remember paying under $4 for movies. On Friday, we paid $7.25 a ticket. At least we didn't pay upward of $10, as movie goers do in some cities.
For about $5, the wife got the large bag of popcorn. I paid about the same for "nachos." I expected a big pile of chips in a boat and covered with piping-hot processed cheese and a fistful of jalapenos that would make me crap fire in the morning.
However, what I got was luke-warm pre-packaged nachos. And nary a jalapeno. This wasn't nachos. It was cheese dip.
Like most movie goers do, I ate the whole thing before the previews started and then started in on the wife's popcorn, which I'd hoped would come in one of those big buckets and free re-fills, like they used to.
The film was fantastic, though. I'd give it four out of five stars, in fact. I won't tell you anything about it. You can just Google that.
For a new release, and one that got fantastic reviews, I was surprised that more people weren't at the theater. We hit the 7:30 p.m. showing, and the theater wasn't half full, from what I could tell. I wonder if going to the movies just isn't that popular anymore.
Maybe they should re-think the elimination of the bottomless popcorn bucket and the nachos with butt-searing jalapenos.
Or maybe just make better movies.
Now we have children, and we've only been to the theater three times in the past five years.
We don't go to the movies much for several reasons.
First off, in my opinion, there hasn't been a must-see movie come out since "Saving Private Ryan" in 1998. I've been interested in a few movies over the past eight or so years, but they either get terrible reviews or I'm just willing to wait until it comes out on DVD. Watching it at home is cheaper and less inconvenient.
Plus, I can drink a beer or a glass of wine.
The big cost of going to a movie these days isn't the theater. It's hiring a babysitter at $7 to $10 an hour. That means spending $21 to $30 on a sitter, and that's if the film clocks in at under two hours.
If we hire a sitter, we go on a dinner date, so we can have adult talk, drink a little wine and enjoy a good meal.
Just before the birth of our first son five years ago this month, we went to see "Black Hawk Down," a really great film. I don't know if the soon-to-be-born baby liked all the noise, because he almost kicked his way out during all the explosions and machine gun fire.
The next one we saw, while the grandparents babysat, was "Catch Me If You Can" in 2002. I really liked that movie, but the wife got ants in the pants because the film ran longer than expected, and she was worried about the toddler we left behind. It was understandable, because it was the longest she'd been without the boy since his birth.
Last Friday, we decided to go see "Children of Men," one of the first movies in five years that I really wanted to see in the theater.
I remember paying under $4 for movies. On Friday, we paid $7.25 a ticket. At least we didn't pay upward of $10, as movie goers do in some cities.
For about $5, the wife got the large bag of popcorn. I paid about the same for "nachos." I expected a big pile of chips in a boat and covered with piping-hot processed cheese and a fistful of jalapenos that would make me crap fire in the morning.
However, what I got was luke-warm pre-packaged nachos. And nary a jalapeno. This wasn't nachos. It was cheese dip.
Like most movie goers do, I ate the whole thing before the previews started and then started in on the wife's popcorn, which I'd hoped would come in one of those big buckets and free re-fills, like they used to.
The film was fantastic, though. I'd give it four out of five stars, in fact. I won't tell you anything about it. You can just Google that.
For a new release, and one that got fantastic reviews, I was surprised that more people weren't at the theater. We hit the 7:30 p.m. showing, and the theater wasn't half full, from what I could tell. I wonder if going to the movies just isn't that popular anymore.
Maybe they should re-think the elimination of the bottomless popcorn bucket and the nachos with butt-searing jalapenos.
Or maybe just make better movies.
posted by Brian Pearson at 2:10 PM
1 Comments:
Its not worth it for me to go to the movies.. you've got us beat.. we've been 2 times in the last 8 years.. I cant even tell you what we saw the last time we went but it wasnt worth it.. (apparently eh?) The time before that we watched 6 days and 7 nights.. Wasnt bad but for me it wasnt great..LOL.. Movies just arent the same.. You go.. You deal with noise levels you dont like.. nasty bathrooms.. nasty smells in the place.. half ass food extremely over priced drinks.. so much better to just wait till you can watch it at home..
Post a Comment
<< Home