The movies

I don't get out to the movies very often. Over the summer months, my husband and I will go moreso than during the school year. Since our schedule frees up more in the summer, we're able to do a little more. So far this summer vacation, I've made it to three movies and I've noticed something that I am a little miffed about.

When I was a kid, you'd go to the movies and spend about $5.00 for admission and snacks. (I know you're trying to calculate my age in your head right now. Don't bother. I'm OLD!) Then you'd walk into the theater, find your seat and hunker down for the flick. Next would come the previews. Three, maybe four, previews for upcoming movies would flash onto the screen and you'd sit and munch your popcorn while enjoying snippets of what's to come in the future. Then, of course, the obligatory reminder, in the form of a short commercial, about keeping the theater clean and throwing away your garbage. No worries about turning off your cell phone...we didn't have them then. (See, I told you I was OLD!) Finally, the theater would darken and the film you'd been waiting for would begin. That's it. A movie that was to start at 2:15 actually started at 2:15. Not anymore.

Now when you go to the 2:15 showing of a movie, it doesn't start until 2:45. First you have the television commercials. They are now advertising television programs for you to stay home and watch on your TV. Ok, does anybody else see a contradiction here? Are they telling me to stay home and watch TV and NOT come to the movies? Monday nights be sure to watch this show. Tuesdays this fall be sure to see this show. How crazy is this? I'm at a movie for crying out loud! I don't need to know what's on my TV. That's why I'm here. There wasn't anything on my TV that I wanted to watch. Whose idea was it to advertise TV shows at the movie theater?

After about 15 minutes of TV commercials, then they start in with the "keep our theater clean" ads and the "turn off your cell phone" ads. That takes up another 5 minutes or so. Next come previews. Now previews should be previews of movies to come, right? That makes sense. But as I'm watching these previews, I'm seeing movies that are currently playing in other viewing rooms within the theater as well as some of the movies that are "coming soon". Well, if I wanted to see that other movie currently playing, I would have gone to it. I don't want to see a preview for a movie that I could just walk down the hall and see. But I digress.

So after about 10 minutes of what's to come in the future or what I'm missing that's playing now down the hall, I see one more "keep our theater clean" and "turn off your cell phone" commercial and the lights in the theater finally begin to dim. At last the moment I've been waiting for...the movie I've been dying to see. Uh, what was it that I came to see again? I can't remember anymore since I have all these stupid TV commercials going through my head now. Plus, after waiting a half hour for it all to begin, my popcorn is gone. And that super large Coke I bought doesn't seem to be as great an idea now as it was 30 minutes ago. Now I gotta pee! How can I enjoy a movie if I have no popcorn and I have to pee?

Maybe I should have stayed home and watched TV.