Monday, May 26, 2008

Into the Cinema

In December, Fred and I committed to seeing a movie in the theater every two weeks. I don't think we saw but three movies at the theater last year. It just didn't work out. And then whatever it was we wanted to watch turned up on DVD.

We've also decided to score the movies. Thumbs up - thumbs down is a problem for me for a lot of reasons. And I hate the neutral option. So we've gone with two down (↓↓), one down (↓), one up (↑) , two up (↑↑). It works for us.

Here's what we've seen - and the scores - so far:

1. Eastern Promises - F↑↑ A ↑
2. Gone Baby Gone - F ↑ A↑
3. The Assassination of Jesse James... - F↑ A↑
4. Juno - F↑↑ A↑↑
5. Sweeney Todd - F↑ A↑↑
6. Before the Devil Knows Your Dead - F↑↑ A↑↑
7. There Will Be Blood - F↑ A↓
8. The Fall - F↑ A↑
9. Be Kind Rewind - F↓ A↓
10. Into the Wild - F↑↑ A↑

(Forgive the formatting. I've tried three times.)

We agree on most movies. And we like most movies. I thought There Will Be Blood was a little long and dreary. And Into the Wild was a nice movie, but knowing the guy dies at the end sort of put me on edge throughout the movie. Still, it was beautiful. I really wanted to like Be Kind Rewind. But it was just too much of those two doing the thing that they do.

Movies here are a strange thing. American movies don't all make it here - thank God. And there's a lot more international influence than in a lot of places in the states. The thing is that if some fabulous Japanese movie comes here, it's subtitled in Dutch and that's a lot of work. There's reading subtitles and there's reading subtitles in Dutch and the latter takes a lot more of my brain energy. And there aren't so many Dutch movies.

And as far as cost, it varies. We've spent as little as €6,50 and as much as €10,00 at the same theater. Our favorite right now seems to be Kritereon. But I like the atmosphere at The Movies. Cinecenter is totally reliable, and the Tuschinski is always a pleasure, except for the other people attending the movie. (I'm trying to formulate a rant so that it makes sense and I don't sound like an absolute nut case.)

I'm glad we're doing this. It gets us out of the house on a Saturday night. I'd be knitting with a DVD in the machine every Saturday if I weren't forced out of the house by Fred. And last Saturday we even stopped and had a beer before heading home. It was a wild night.

2 comments:

Mel said...

David & I generally do the stay home and watch videos option, mostly because it's a hell of a lot cheaper.

I think I'm about the only person in the world who didn't like Into the Wild. I just found it hard to feel much sympathy for a mopey, economically-privileged white kid who died through his own stupidity and impulsiveness.

Anonymous said...

Julie insisted we watch There Will Be Blood this weekend. She loved it, and was convinced we would, too. I wasn't too turned on, but I have to give Daniel Day his props- he can play one impressive crazy guy. Tomorrow is Sex and the City...!