The Oscar's

I had a fun little adventure tonight seeing the Oscars. This is not normally something I would watch from start to finish, because I usually loose interest very quickly. But, it is hard for me to pass up a social event as well as a good deal.

Earlier this week I received an email from Goodrich Theatre's advertising that they were going to be showing the live Oscar telecast in the movie theatre. The best part was that the showing was free. This seemed like a fun thing to do so I passed it on to a few friends to see if it would spark any interest. N and her husband were looking for some Oscar fun so they decided to attend.

I thought it was intriguing that the theatre would offer this for free. I had never seen this type of thing before. Last year I attended a live telecast of a Glenn Beck stage show but never something that was playing on regular TV.

When I arrived at the theatre and got my free tickets they informed me that because I was one of the first thirty to arrive I was entitled to a coupon for a free admission to a future show. I got three of them and gave the other two to N and her husband. It was like they were paying us to watch TV. I also came armed with a coupon for a large soda and popcorn for $3.75, this is practically free for a movie theatre. They also offer free refills at conveniently located drink stations. At the Castleton AMC theatre it costs almost $5 for just a large soda. I really like their business model and it makes me want to spend more of my movie dollars there. Before the broadcast started the employees brought in a box of individually wrapped cookies from Paradise bakery for the guests. I felt like we were getting Noblesville's version of the royal treatment.

Now my thoughts on the Oscars!

The logo that had the 81 indicating it was the 81st Oscars cracked me up, because it reminded me of the logo from the Eminem movie, 8 Mile. Every time I saw it through the telecast I chuckled to myself. I enjoyed the creative opening number and the interaction with the audience and Hugh Jackman. I was happy that Kate Winslet won for the Reader because she did have a very compelling performance and I really enjoyed the film. I was also delighted to see that Slumdog Millionaire won 8 Oscars including best picture. The movie was so very different than ordinary Hollywood films as well as being very captivating. I enjoyed Beyonce's musical performance. She really looked good in the red outfit. BTW...N had to point out to me who she was.

We were in the movie theatre for a total of five hours. We arrived at 7pm and the telecast finished at midnight. I don't think that I have ever been in one movie theatre for such a long period of time. The seats began to get a bit uncomfortable after hour three! I don't think that they were designed for a five hour viewing.

I am very happy that I went and had this new experience. I hope that they will continue to have new and interesting events such as this one in the future.

Back to the Future

I am a girl who loves classic 1980's movies. These are the movies of which I am the most familiar as I watched them incessantly in my childhood. I am very excited that the UA Galaxy Theatre in Fishers has decided to play a series of them in February, March and April. The first movie played this week, Back to the Future, and it is a particular favorite of mine. The experience was very similar to my childhood, it consisted of smuggled in Pop and Goobers from the gas station and and a wallet friendly $5 admission price.

The theatre is making these weekly movies a big deal by having a local radio station sponsor the events and having give-a-ways for answering trivia questions. It is all a bit cheesy but fun. The movie kept my rapt attention throughout it's two hour playtime and it was a fun and cheap outing with my friends. I was excited to see the theatre was about 75% full of excited patrons.

The theatre will be playing seven more movies in the upcoming weeks. The following is a list and I think I will be going to most of them. So if any of you are interested in having fun one evening let me know!

02/25/09 The Breakfast Club
03/04/09 Flashdance
03/11/09 Sixteen Candles
03/18/09 Gremlins
03/25/09 Ghostbusters (I probably will not see this as I saw it at the IMA this summer)
04/01/09 The Lost Boys
04/08/09 Grease

The Reader

No...I don't mean my Amazon Kindle. I went to see this movie on Tuesday night and I LOVED it. It was great and it kept my rapt attention.

Last week I put out an APB to my friends to see if they wanted to go for beers and a movie on Monday or Tuesday night, only one of them accepted the challenge (isn't that sad ;). (BTW...as I am composing this blog I am listing to my new Jason Mraz album for the twenty time since I have downloaded it on Sunday...I think that it is great) I met her at one of my favorite restaurants, PF Chang's, for an overindulgent meal and great conversation.

With fifteen minutes to spare we headed over to the theatre to catch the movie. We had decided to see Rachel Getting Married, and as we are in line to pay I realized that the movie isn't playing the time we were there. I had checked the movie times on Monday and it listed it as 6:45 and I had assumed that it would be the same for Tuesday night. Really is it ever different? The answer is Yes...it is. The theatre was showing a special preview of a new Showtime series (check out moorewrites blog for a description of this event) and this preempted the showing of Rachel Getting Married at 6:45.

We had to make a quick decision on what to see. I had researched my two movie choices and now I didn't know what to see, and my friend is a voracious movie goer and she had already seen most of the available movies so the actual choices were very small. We chose The Reader basically because neither of us had seen it, and I wasn't familiar with the plot or even the actors. Sometimes that makes the move extra good because you don't know what to expect.

The movie was split into two separate sections. The first part dealt with the 15 year old male character having a relationship with an older women in her 30's. We were about fifteen minutes into the movie when I leaned over and asked my companion if the lead actress famous. She gave me a "are you dumb look" and said it was Kate Winslet. I was shocked because she looked so old and haggard. After I thought about it I decided that this was done on purpose to represent the hard life of the character. I thought I had a handle on where the movie was going...an illicit affair with an older women that ends badly. I was right but then sooooo wrong.

The affair does end and badly but goes in a direction I certainly didn't expect. Eight years later while the boy is now in law school he attends a Nazi trial and there is his old girlfriend on trial for war atrocities. During the last hour of the movie I was glued to my chair. I was so enthralled with the story. This was unusual for me because I have a rather small attention span and I am easily distracted.

I really liked how this story was told and how the director put the movie together. The lead actors did an exceptional job and I was impressed. I urge you to see it, even if you are not a person who would normally frequent the art theatre. Enjoy!

Inappropriate Movie

I have been spending my time in the last few months in pursuits other than watching TV. I have enjoyed reading and spending time with friends and it is becoming a secondary thought to me. Last night I realized that it had been a week since I had watched any TV and I had a movie from Netflix sitting on my dresser waiting for me to view. I decided I wanted to watch it and I asked Gwen and the children if they wanted to watch it with me. The movie was Good Luck Chuck and I thought it was a simple romantic comedy. How could I be so wrong?

Gwen told me that she had seen it before but she would watch it again. I asked her if the movie was appropriate for the children and she commented that it wasn’t too bad but maybe Melvin (the 13 year old) shouldn’t watch it. So we got Melvin set up in the other room with the Disney channel and I proceeded to watch the movie with Gwen, Heather (17), and Ronnie (15). Did I mention that the version of the movie I had was unrated. I think that this should have given me warning that perhaps this was a movie to watch by myself. It was very funny but very inappropriate. There were several graphic sex scenes that included nudity as well as sexual humor throughout the film.

Buy the end I was feeling very uncomfortable. Have I mentioned how conservative and religious Gwen is? She is a very devout Lutheran and I find her children to be very sheltered and innocent. I am not sure why she OK’ed this movie for us to watch. I could tell she was uncomfortable throughout the movie as well as when it was over. I had no idea that it was so graphic. I am also not used to having to censor what I watch, read or listen to. It is hard to have to think about those things for the length of their visit.

3 Beers and Slumdog Millionaire

I got invited to see a free movie last night at the Art Theatre in the Fashion mall. As most of my friends know, I LOVE free stuff, so I accepted the invitation without much notice to the movie or what it was about. I arrived at the mall at 6:15 last night and found some of my friends in the bar next to the movie theatre. When I joined them I thought to myself, “What the heck…why not order a real drink…the movie is free”. So I asked the bartender if they had a Smirnoff, he said no, so I then asked if he had any “girly” drinks. He suggested this special holiday beer and he said, “It tastes nothing like regular beer, it is kind of sweet”. I said sure, why not, even though I don’t ordinarily like beer. When it arrived it tasted SOOOOOOOOOOOO good. I drank the first glass in about 10 to 15 minutes and I am fairly certain that I got a bit tipsy. I hadn’t had anything to eat since lunch so it went straight to my head. I ordered a second glass and I took it into the movies with me.

We had to arrive super early because someone was handing out a large quantity of free tickets to this movie and there was expected to be a large turnout. Se we sat around talking for about 45 minutes while I drank the second beer and ate a small bag of popcorn. The theatre got completely filled up in this time and people were even sitting on the floor and stairs to watch the movie. I think that takes dedication to be willing to sit on the floor. Just before the movie was to start I got up for a bathroom break and to get one of my friends a bag of popcorn. Somehow on my way back I ended up with a third beer in my hand. I am not sure how that happened.

I have to tell you that I am paying for the indulgence today. My head has been very thick and a little achy. I guess I have a small hangover. Maybe I need to increase my tolerance a bit. A friend told me a while ago that since she graduate with her MBA in August she was working on increasing her tolerance to alcohol and bars. I guess she wants to get good at it. I don’t think that it the move I want to take. I just should have stopped at two. O Well…I still had fun. Perhaps I was a bit overly chatty last night. Maybe my companions will have an opinion on that?

BTW...the total cost of the free movie was $18.50

So about the movie, I did like it. I don’t think that I would have ever saw it if it weren’t for the free ticket and invite, but I am glad that I spent the time watching it. It was interesting to see India and Mumbai from this perspective. There were some violent torture scenes in the beginning of the movie that I didn’t like watching. I don’t usually like movies showing people hurting each other, I find it upsetting. There was also a scene where the character as a boy jumped into the bottom of the outhouse and got completely covered in excrement and when running through the village to get an autograph of a famous actor. It was very disgusting. I might have nightmares about that for a while.

I did like the way the story was told in the film. The story was told in a flashback format about how the character knew all of the answers to be on the India version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire”. I liked the actors and they did a very good job making the scenes believable. The movie was filmed in India and it was kind of fun to point out to my friends that I was there.

I would recommend this film to my friends and especially to my friends who went to India.

This is the info on the film.



The story of Jamal Malik, an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, who is about to experience the biggest day of his life. With the whole nation watching, he is just one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India's "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" But when the show breaks for the night, police arrest him on suspicion of cheating; how could a street kid know so much? Desperate to prove his innocence, Jamal tells the story of his life in the slum where he and his brother grew up, of their adventures together on the road, of vicious encounters with local gangs, and of Latika, the girl he loved and lost. Each chapter of his story reveals the key to the answer to one of the game show's questions. Intrigued by Jamal's story, the jaded Police Inspector begins to wonder what a young man with no apparent desire for riches is really doing on this game show? When the new day dawns and Jamal returns to answer the final question, the Inspector and sixty million viewers are about to find out...

Production Status:
Released


Logline:
An illiterate kid looks to become a contestant on the Hindi version of Who Wants to be A Millionaire in order to re-establish contact with the girl he loves, who is an ardent fan of the show.


Genres:
Art/Foreign, Comedy, Drama, Adaptation and Teen


Running Time:
2 hrs.


Release Date:
November 12th, 2008 (limited)


MPAA Rating:
R for some violence, disturbing images and language.


Distributors:
Warner Independent Pictures, Fox Searchlight Pictures


Production Co.:
Celador Films, Film4


U.S. Box Office:
$3,544,374


Filming Locations:
Mumbai, India


Produced in:
United Kingdom

Twilight

I went to see the new Twilight movie on Saturday afternoon and I was anticipating really loving the movie because of my great love of the books. I am sad to report that the movie just didn't have the same appeal for me as the book. I liked the actors that were picked for the movie. I feel that they represented what I had in my imagination for what the characters should look like...especially Bella. But the movie had a fair amount of cheese as well as a soap opera feel.

The thing that I liked best about the book was the romance between Edward and Bella...the movie just didn't capture this for me. I don't think that I ever saw the actress smile in the movie and she always looked so sad. My favorite scene in the book was when Edward took Bella to an open field to show her how her how his skin sparkles and just generally falling in love. This wasn't really in the movie. Then all of these things were punctuated by the fact that there were several young girls in the audience who were laughing, clapping and making comments in a boisterous manner in the theatre. It was very distracting.

Another thing that I didn't like was the visual aspects of the film. Much of it was in a very close up perspective to the actors. I wanted them to pull back a bit. Most of the time you could only see the actors faces on the screen...I just wanted to see more of the scene.

I feel like I would want to see the move again by myself at home, but it didn't capture the magic of the book in the way that the Harry Potter series has been so successful.

I am sad that I didn't like it more.

I pre bought the tickets online because I had herd lots of hype that there were extremely long lines for this film. I felt a bit ripped off because there was never a line and the theatre was only about half full. Then I overpaid for the tickets....it is $10.50 to buy them online. Shouldn't I have paid an afternoon rate for the movie??? It was at 4:10 in the afternoon.

Goonies

Do you remember the old 1985 movie Goonies? Well I do and I went to see it last night. The movie theatre on 96th Street and I-69 recently had a series of eight classic 1980’s movies on Wednesday nights at 8pm for the barging price of $5.00. I was trying to think back to when I went to the movies when I was in Junior High and High School and I cannot remember how much I paid. Was it comparable to the $5.00. The only memory I have is my mom giving me $10 on Friday nights and dropping me off at the mall with my friends. It seamed to be enough to eat, play some video games (because that is where the boys would hang out) and watch a movie. I remember it was even relatively easy to sneak into the rated R movies.

I enjoyed seeing Goonies again last night. I know that I saw it several times when I was a teenager but I don’t remember the last time I watched it on TV. It was funny. I laughed out loud through most of the movie and little Sean Austin was so cute. I don’t think Corey Feldman was very attractive, he had a pale and pasty face, although, his redeeming quality was wearing a Prince Purple Rain T-Shirt the entire show. The sad part was he was also wearing a jeans jacket that obscured most of the shirt front.

I was surprised when we entered the theatre that it was so full of people. I would guess that they had about a 75% occupancy. That is pretty good for a 20+ year old movie. When I commented to my friend who joined me about the large attendance she said, “Candy don’t you know that there are a lot of nerds in Indianapolis”. I guess she is right and it also puts me in that category.

Last week they played the original Indiana Jones Movie. I had the opportunity to see that as well. Even though the picture quality might be better at home on my HDTV, there is still something special about being in the movie theatre. Before the movie started the announced that they were going do a series of 80’s movies again in February. Please remember that I am a nerd when I ask you to go.