Crazy Carly's Weekly Rant...

Hello everyone! I hope you are having a better day than we are here in Upstate New York! I spent the first 20 minutes of my day trying to pry The Editors car door open with no success. After the warm, but rainy day yesterday, of course Mother Nature feels the need to squash any feelings about nice weather we might have but dumping like, an inch of ice and 3 inches of snow on us. YUCK. I've decided that once The Editor and I need to upgrade house size, we are sooooo moving this show to California. Sure, they may have a crap economy just like New York, but at least they have nice weather there, so it doesn't make you feel quite as bad about it. And I know, you're like "But Caaaaarly, they have EARTHQUAKES in California!". To that I say, at least I don't have to own a snow brush.

As you can see, I'm on quite the ranting roll already this morning. The past two days I've just woken up crabby as all heck, and it hasn't gotten better. I blame it on cabin fever and progesterone. Today, we're going to talk about the movies, and why I prefer staying at home to going out to a movie 100 to 1.

Saturday night The Editor, Cara M., Evan T. and myself went to see a movie. We're kind-of nerds, so we thought we'd start watching all of the Oscar nominated films of the past year, starting with the winner: The Kings Speech. My review of the movie is as such: It was wonderful. I love British things, I LOVE Helena Bonham Carter and Colin Firth, and they has Corgis in it. Corgis are the best dog ever, so I was happy. The movie centers around King George IV and overcoming his speech impediment before he becomes king. It's a fantastic movie, that in my opinion deserved the Oscars it won. If you're a history geek like me, you'll like it even more.

There were a few things I didn't like. Not about the movie, but about the movie going experience. There are reasons that the "old way" of Hollywood trying to make money is failing, and I would like to touch on those reasons just a little.

1) Limited Seating- Okay, so , we show up at the movie about 20 minutes in advance for the 6:10 show. I think that is a perfectly reasonable time to show up for a movie that has been out for give-or-take 2 months now. Anyhoo, we show up, and of course, there is like, no seating. We quietly take our seats in the lower section closer to the screen, and get ready to be King's-speeched. Well, riiiiiight about the time the movie starts, an usher announces that they've sold out the show, so we're all going to have to squish together. Yeah, $12.50 for a ticket where I have to sit right next to a dude who not only picks his face, and bites his nails through the movie, but also feels a need to crack his knuckles and take up all of the arm room too. I. Hate. Awful. People.

2) Commercials- Ugh. I don't have to deal with these at home, why the 'ef do I have to deal with them at the movies? I don't even pay for cable, yet, I pay to watch commercials before a movie. Remember the good ol' days when they just ran trailers for like, 45 minutes before the show started? That was awesome.

3) Movie Placement- Please, for the love of God, don't ever put an action movie next to a drama. The Adjustment Bureau was playing in the theatre next to us, and it was suuuuper hard to concentrate on a dialogue based movie when you could hear the explosions happening in the theater next to you.

4) Children in Inappropriate Aged Group Movies- You run into this ALL the time. The worst offender I can remember is when a man trotted his toddlers into The Dark Knight and they proceeded to scream and cry the whole time. For real? You couldn't get a babysitter? You couldn't just wait the two months for the Bluray? As cute as you think your kids are, there is a time and a place for kids. If they're under 10, that place is at a PG movie. No exceptions. I don't care if you think your kids can be "intellectually challenged" by this movie, the rest of us just put up half a tanks worth of gas to see this movie, and your child should not have to be tolerated. Furthermore, The Kings Speech received an R rating?! WTF?! There was no nudity, no violence, and the only cussing was done in a way that was part of his therapy. I love our puritanical society...

Don't get me wrong, I love going to the movies for the most part. To me, it's less about the commercials, and the ticket prices, and more about the people around me that can totally ruin the experience. I love being able to get out of the house with my friends, and seeing something on the big screen and all of that. However, with ticket prices through the roof, and the fact that I have an 55 inch LCD TV in my living room, I've decided that my house is a much more desirable location to watch a movie. No screaming kids, no commercials, and no gross strangers sitting next to me. Just me, some reasonably priced snacks and the people I love. Oh, and I can pause the movie if I need to pee.