Taking in a movie
Once in a great while, Ross and I will head to the movie theater and watch one of the latest films. We don’t always have similar tastes in flicks. In fact, there have been times where I’ll just go along with him to one so we could spend some time together. And there have been times where I actually enjoy the movie. Case in point, “Dunkirk.” Now I wasn’t all that jazzed about seeing this particular movie. According to IMDB (Internet Movie Dataase), it’s about “Allied soldiers from Belgium, the British Empire and France are surrounded by the German Army, and evacuated during a fierce battle in World War II.” Not necessarily up my alley. It also was a little slow-going for me in the beginning. Thankfully, it picked up, and I found myself invested in a couple of the characters. The movie was nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award a couple of years ago, and did pick up three for Best Achievement in Film Editing, Best Achievement in Sound Editing and Best Achievement in Sound Mixing. And it didn’t hurt that Hans Zimmer did the score for the movie.
This past couple of months, I’ve hit the theater only three times so far. Several months ago, I kept seeing promotions for the movie “Last Christmas” starring the woman who played Daenerys from “Game of Thrones” and apparently this guy who was in the movie “Crazy Rich Asians.” C’mon, who doesn’t want to see a movie featuring Wham songs as its soundtrack? Yeah, it’s a bit of a chick flick. But as we sometimes have different tastes in movies, I went to see this one on my own. Ross took himself to see “Ford v. Ferrari” when I was working on Sunday.
But I knew I wanted to see the last of the latest “Star Wars” trilogy with “The Rise of Skywalker.” There’s just something about seeing these blockbuster type movies on the big screen. I may not understand what’s all going on with the story and how certain characters relate to each other in the entire “Star Wars” series, but it does make for great entertainment. I remember seeing “Return of the Jedi” in the theater back in the early ’80s. It was my first “Star Wars” movie. I didn’t see “A New Hope” and “The Empire Strikes Back” until I was in college. I’m not heavily invested in the movies, but I learned to appreciate them. I think I saw “The Phantom Menace,” but unfortunately it didn’t leave an impression on me. I still have to see “Attack of the Clones,” “Revenge of the Sith” and a couple of other side flicks to get the full experience.
Since it’s been kinda cold to go hiking outside, and I’ve been a little concerned about my heart rhythm lately, we found ourselves at the theater again for “Jumanji: The Next Level” this past Saturday. Quite a few people had the same idea on a chilly afternoon. We were told it was packed in there and we may not be sitting together. Luckily we were able to find seats next to each other. I haven’t seen the original “Jumanji” with Robin Williams, but I’ve found these two starring Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart and Karen Gillan a whole lot of fun. You don’t have to really think too much when watching the movie, and I enjoy the banter between the characters. I also liked the addition of Danny Glover, Danny DeVito and Awkwafina to this latest incarnation. It was fun to sit sit back and laugh with the rest of the movie audience.