Continued from two days ago.
--Remember your first time... I went to see Phantom of the Opera with my dear friends Holly and Sherri and Lovell. This is relevant because Sherri has only ever loved two men in her entire life: Batman and the Phantom of the Opera. What do these two men have in common? Lots of things, actually, but I'm thinking of: Joel Schumacher. The man who gave the bat-suit nipples, reduced Bane to a grumbling ogre who said things like "MONKEY WORK! GRRRRR!!!!", gave us three thousand bad Mr. Freeze "cold puns," and basically made a mockery of the entire Batman franchise. Sweet, dear Sherri probably didn't sleep much the night before this movie, out of both anticipation and dread. Fortunately, the movie met with a resounding "It was okay, it wasn't too bad, that was actually not bad" from probably it's toughest critic. Sitting by her in the theater was a joy, however. Also memorable: it was $1 day at the zoo, so we all went to the zoo first.
It was December. In Kansas. It was about 30 degrees and windy. We spent the majority of the zoo trip running from indoor exhibit to indoor exhibit. Because we were brilliant.
--Another thing stolen from Hannah's blog: Snakes on a Plane. Somehow, over the course of the summer of 2006, SOAP went from "That's a stupid and horrible idea" to "That sounds awful, but in a 'so-bad-it's-funny' sort of way, maybe we'll rent it" to "Definitely a dollar theater feature" to "SAMUEL JACKSON CALLED MY PHONE! WE ARE GOING TO THE MIDNIGHT SHOW!" Dave, Jason, and I all decided we'd go ahead and go for it, and we made our own T-shirts. In a really courageous move, Hannah caught wind of the plan and decided to join us, despite only having been in the company for about a week and a half and not really knowing any of us at all. (We had an extra shirt and a marker)
I think it's going to go down as the most unique experience I've ever had in a movie theater. The energy was electric. Spastic, but electric. I've never seen a crowd, even a midnight crowd, cheer so loudly through a movie. The guys dressed up like snakes chasing the guys dressed up like planes really just sorta characterized the whole mess.
Bad movie, by the way. Don't see it. Really, don't.
--The only movie of my adult years that could possibly match the hype I felt going into Ninja Turtles or Jurassic Park. Miracle. The story of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team. I didn't care that it was a Disney movie. From the first time I saw the poster hanging in the lobby of the Warren, I knew I was going to be there opening night. Everything I read about the movie prior to its opening was actually really encouraging. It looked like they were taking this fantastic sports story and doing it right. I spent the entire week before the movie opened counting down the days. (And the hours, as the week drew to a close)
Kim went with me to our usual "Date Mall" in OKC for the showing. Kim graciously agreed to go along, even though she didn't then (and doesn't now) give two flying flips about any sports. I figured that, as a hockey movie, the film wasn't going to sell out in north Oklahoma City. We planned for an eight-something showing so we could get home before 11:00 or so. Kim has never been a night owl. I sometimes joke that, before she married me, she'd never seen 10:30 p.m. in her life. (It's an exaggeration; she actually had once or twice) Got to the theater and my heart sank. "SOLD OUT" the little red lights flashed. The only open show started well after ten. Since the movie was about two hours, that would put us getting home incredibly late. I'm sure the disappointment was evident on my face.
Then, my sweet, thoughtful girlfriend absolutely shocked me. "We can stay for the later showing." My jaw dropped. "Are you sure?" I asked. "Well, we came out here to see this movie, and you want to..." she trailed off.
We stayed. And it was awesome. I saw the movie twice more in theaters, once the next day with a group of buddies and once at the dollar theaters. Both times, somebody I was sitting with temporarily forgot it was just a movie and stood to cheer.
But the first time was my favorite. :-)
