Movies

When my children ask me what made me want to become a writer I point to books, pictures, movies and music. I talk to them about the joy of storytelling and the passion I have for making words do more than work.

The power, persuasion and personality that are generated when my words sing my song is so very sweet.  These trailers touch upon it all from different angles but the smile they bring is the same.

and

I love going to the movies. I always have, the Drive-in, the theater, whatever. They are all good. Give me a big screen, padded seats and a great sound system and I am pretty happy. I almost never walked out on a movie. A bad movie is like a train wreck, it is hard to look away.

It used to be that the biggest challenge was trying to sneak in some food. I certainly didn’t want to pay through the nose for popcorn and candy, especially if I hit the bargain matinee. Those were usually somewhere between $3.50 and $5. What was the point of paying more for the food than the movie.

Back in college my girlfriend and I found a place that charged a buck a movie. For poor college students it was an outstanding find. We loved it and spent many happy hours there.

Alas I haven’t found anything close to that place in years. For a while the weekends provided the standard $5 fair, but that seems to have disappeared. More and more chains have raised their rates into the $7 to $12 range and shortened the time frame that they were available. Instead of having until six P.M. many theaters seem to offer the bargain for the first couple of shows only.

So what you have is a movie date that is just slightly less than it would be if you went to the standard evening show. Roughly this works out to be between $20-$25 for a pair of tickets and then another $10 in cheap snacks. Add dinner, parking and a couple of odds and ends and you have spent a couple of bucks.

I don’t mind spending money on entertainment but the cost of seeing a movie has made it more important to me to be certain that I want to see it. It is irritating to spend a chunk of change on a bad movie.

Time Magazine has a list of what one columnist consider to be the 25 Best Movie Soundtracks. A link to the full list can be found here. Some thoughts about the list:

I can’t stand the Sound of Music. The hills would be better if they were quiet.

Grease– Part of my childhood so I have to give it a thumbs up. Hand Jive baby.
Mary Poppins– Same story.
Saturday Night Fever– I remember when this came out.
Easy Rider– Watched this before a couple of cross country road trips.
Sixteen Candles– John Hughes will be missed.
Singles– I had my own apartment and was enjoying the bachelor life when this came out.

So maybe this really isn’t focused on what should or should not be on the list- but it is my blog and I will write if I want to. 😉

Typically I am ambivalent about watching horror movies. I don’t find them all that exciting or interesting.

Oftentimes the acting is poor and many rely upon blood, guts and gore to make them fly. I can take them or leave them.

Truth be told the only time I really remember paying attention to them was during my single years. I found them to be a useful tool as they did a good job of encouraging handholding and the like. There, that is my big confession of the evening.

Here is one more. Silence of the Lambs did wonders for my dating life, I’ll save the full story for a different night. And now on to the meat of the post.

If you are the kind of person who watches horror movies from between the fingers you use to cover your eyes you might want to consider turning off the sound. Ok, turning off the sound would make it awfully dull, but it would work. There is something else that can be done. Get rid of the soundtrack. Strip it from the movie and leave the dialogue.


Ok, I don’t know how you would or could do this, but without the scary soundtrack the movie loses some of its edge. The monsters aren’t quite so scary and the anticipation is dramatically reduced. 

Think about it.