2 Movies in 2 Days

We used to go to 3 or 4 movies a week. We'd walk to The Biograph and see Bringing Up Baby or Sea Hawk or drive downtown to the big theatres or, our favorite, ride up to The Granada, as much for the theatre itself as for the movie.

But the movies were usually worth watching.

Last night, G'ma and I paid $3 extra for the special projection system and, with our fancy shmancy 3-D glasses watched Up. I cried. I admit it. There wasn't much dialogue in the first 20 minutes or so, but the storytelling was delicate, personal, thoughtful and sweet. And I cried. The "little mailman" is one of my new favorite celluloid characters, and his efforts "to assist the elderly" gave both G'ma and me the giggles. The bad guy was just nuanced enough to be interesting, the maguffin was beautiful, and the floating house is steered by the same mechanism with which Daddoooooo equipped the Testarossa he made for the Big Cuter in 1988. There was mayhem and a moral and it was a lovely way to while away the evening.

Even if it did cost us $28 just to walk in the door. Before $9 worth of popcorn and a big bottle of water.

This afternoon, TBG and I drove back to that theatre and saw Star Trek. The Big Cuter had told us it was worth watching. Hmmmmm....... not so much. The back stories to the narrative that propelled the tv show were interesting enough. The music was loud and the photography was crisp but the story was MIA. Playing footloose and fancy free with the space/time continuum makes my head ache, and there was some of that, too. The Enterprise never looked lovelier, and the bridge had components which didn't remind you of packing crates and shirt-cardboard, but I could never muster up any enthusiasm for what little plot there was. Watching Sylar play Spock was disorienting, and if someone can tell me why Leonard Nimoy doesn't get himself a set of dentures which fit I'd love to hear about it.

We shoud've waited til $5 Thursdays.