Thursday, March 19, 2009

The Watchmen

I come to you today as a civilian, no longer employed by the theater industry - whew, what a relief! I thank God that I wasn't working when Madea Goes to Jail came to my theater.

My daughter and I went to see The Watchmen the other night. She spent half of the movie covering my eyes so I wouldn't have to look at the naked blue guy's penis. Some things are better left to the imagination. She liked Dr. Manhattan; I liked the Commedian; we both liked Rorschach. Again, I could have done without the sex scenes, but it was a pretty good movie.

I noticed some improvements in the theater since my departure. First, the bathrooms no longer smelled like urine. The floors were actually clean; it looked like the custodial service had been changed and the new guys actually know how to clean tile floors. There were also paper towels in the bathrooms to supplement the blow dryers.

A new guy, about my age but with a much larger gut, was pushing a cart of popcorn, trying to drum up concession sales before the movies started. There were no takers as far as I could determine. Patrons suspect pre-bagged popcorn as being older than the stuff in the machine; and they'd have to go back out to the lobby to add butter and purchase seasoned salt if they wanted it. Not such a wise move on management's part. The guy should have been hawking candy bars...but I'm not the manager.

The display posters that used to sit down the hallways between auditoriums are now stacked on the upper display racks in the lobby. Good use of space - and again, I'm glad I'm not working because I hate heights.

The employees were all polite and efficient, even if the concession lines were slow. That's the nature of concessions. It was expensive, although I did get a military discount for myself and the student discount for my daughter. I used my Regal Crown Club card and had enough points to get a small popcorn, which I upgraded to a medium for 50 cents. Not bad - I saved $4.50 by using my card and $4.00 off ticket prices. Can't do it every movie, but $8.50 comes in good in this economy.

It was nice leaving the theater at the end of our movie rather than after midnight. My feet didn't hurt from standing all night and the movie was pretty good. I'm looking forward to The Watchmen coming out on DVD. Don't know if there needs to be a sequel. Some movies, like Rambo, are better told once.

I don't get to go to as many movies as I used to now that I have to pay for them. I've learned to be satisfied sitting home watching 24, American Idol, Hell's Kitchen, Friday Night Lights, and Glenn Beck.

Therefore, I guess it's time to put this blog to rest. Thank you for listening to my whining; and please, please remember the Ten Commandments of Theater Attendance - found on the opening page.

Dirty Movie Critic - out!

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