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Pirates of the Caribbean

Posted: Jul 17th 2003, 12:58 pm
by Nothingman
I saw Pirates of the Caribbean last night and I had a blast. It was the most fun I’ve had at the movies in a long time. Johnny Depp was spectacular; he carried the movie on his back. Orlando Bloom did well but was bland and dwarfed in Depp’s shadow. The plot is not mind blowing, but it wasn’t boring at all. There were plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing. The special effects were done very well, and they complemented the story without overpowering it. Most of all I enjoyed watching Johnny play Captain Jack Sparrow. I’d recommend this movie to anyone it was a great way to spend $5 on a summer evening. :go:

Posted: Jul 17th 2003, 1:37 pm
by Natasha (candygirl)
Thanks for the review!

Heh, the only problem is that there is not a single theater around here playing first run movies for $5 in the evenings.

:wink:

Everyone I know who has seen this movie has been very enthusiastic about it - I can't wait to see it!

Posted: Jul 17th 2003, 3:07 pm
by Nothingman
I figured $5 was low for most areas. It's normally $7.50 here, but with a student ID it's $5. I'm no longer a student but I still have an ID. :twisted:

Posted: Jul 17th 2003, 3:10 pm
by Natasha (candygirl)
I still have mine too, but AMC won't accept student IDs unless you sign up with their stupid movie watchers club. I don't want to be in the grid!

:wink:

Posted: Jul 17th 2003, 3:45 pm
by Megs
It's $8.75 here, so it is insane to go to the movies with my husband. We spend so much money.

Although, we did see The Hulk for free, so I guess I can't complain.

And I want to see POTC, haven't yet. I think T3 is the next movie on our list.

Posted: Jul 17th 2003, 4:36 pm
by fnordboy
Yeah here it is about $8.75 - $9+ to go to the movies, which is one of the main reasons why I don't go to them anymore.

I am curious about this movie, I think Depp is one of the best actors of this generation and generally he does not pick bad movies. The only thing that puts me off is that isn't it directed by the same guy who did The Ring? That was complete s**t IMO so that deadens my interest some.

Posted: Jul 19th 2003, 4:07 pm
by Natasha (candygirl)
Megs wrote:It's $8.75 here, so it is insane to go to the movies with my husband. We spend so much money.
fnordboy wrote:Yeah here it is about $8.75 - $9+ to go to the movies, which is one of the main reasons why I don't go to them anymore.
Me too, me too! I kid you not, I think the last time I went to the movie theater was late December/early January when I saw the second Harry Potter movie and Catch Me If You Can within a week of each other.

Movies are so ridiculously expensive now, and the parking is hellacious here (some places you have to find a metered space on the streets - if you CAN find a space, that's luck enough but all the meters have two hour time limits so you chance getting a ticket just to watch an overpriced movie OR some places have parking garages with typical prices of $2-3/hr on top of the movie price - no validation), hence the reason why we now watch most movies via netflix. I figure I can wait a few months and watch in the comfort of my own home with my own popcorn and soda without spending an extra hour driving around looking for a parking space.

And did I mention the annoying people at the theater? I have this "annoying person" magnet. Whenever we went to clubs in college, I always ended up being right behind the Humping Couple Who Need a Room, which meant my drink and I spent the evening being knocked about by a drunken horny idiot with no rhythm whatsoever. Actually, that makes it sound like I stood right in front of them on purpose. No, I would pick my place and happily dance and then inevitably I would get the introductory ass bump/flailing arm/body check from someone who decided to dance right behind me. I hear the suggestion "just move" but whenever I tried that, somehow I ended either subconsciously suggesting to Drunken Dumbass #1 to follow me or using my magnetic powers to get DD#2 right behind me. I know - in a bar, there is no shortage of them, but it was always me, never any of my friends, who ended up with the Guy Who Doesn't Understand the Concept of Personal Space bumping his ass into mine with the rhythm of a retarded rabbit all night.

Theaters, same thing, whether it's the ballet, the opera, a Broadway musical, or a movie. At the nicer non-movie functions, I always end up with either:

(1) the little kid who is too young to sit still, stay quiet, and actually appreciate what is happening on stage which means we get lots of loud talking/crying, mom rustling with the plastic bags full of treats she smuggled in her purse to keep the kid's mouth full, cute patent leather shoes tapping on the floor incessantly, or unending questions of "What happened? Who's that? Why did he do that? What did he say?"

(2) the big fat tall middle-aged married man who has no concept of personal space (I theorize that this is a DD all grown up with a job) which means he sits with his legs as far apart as they will go and his mutton chop of an elbow on the armrest. Now I know there are many debates about sharing space in public, but my general rule is that the armrest is the border of our neighboring countries. Don't cross it. When his legs are spread that far apart (because apparently his testicles need air), his knee is well into my territory and his foot is invading. I understand the armrest is usually not shared and that one person takes possession. I'm fine with that because I don't need it, but again, the arm rest is the border and therefore the arm should not cross the arm rest. What I get is the forearm on the armrest and the elbow sticking across to my side.

So how does this translate to movie theaters? On a good day, it's just a really tall person who sits in front of me (I always choose seats with no one sitting in front of me because I'm short and I like to see the entire screen, not just the upper third). When I saw Harry Potter, an entire gaggle of high school girls took up residence in the seats next to me. We're talking about ten of them. Now I'm totally fine with talking before the lights go down. As soon as the previews started, two of them realized they really had to go to the bathroom. Must be some sort of Pavlovian response stemming back to childhood ("Good night, sleep tight, mommy loves you" "Wait, I have to pee!"). It was just the previews so I was not completely annoyed (although I do like watchin the previews). They kept talking the entire time through all of the previews. Once the movie started, they quieted down a little bit. False alarm. Apparently only half of them had read any of the HP books, so the rest of them kept asking questions throughout the movie. The girl sitting next to me realized about two minutes into the movie that she HAD to call her mom right then and there, so she had to ask to borrow someone's cell phone (pass the message down style) and then call her mom in the movie.

Last night the girl sitting next to me didn't slide into her seat until well into the previews. About five minutes into the movie, she asked if I had a pen she could borrow. I said no because I really didn't have a pen with me, but if I had, I don't think I would want to rummage around in the dark trying to find a pen for a perfect stranger. She seemed really put off by the fact that I didn't have a pen, despite the fact that I wasn't the one who desperately needed to write something down during a movie. About half an hour into the movie, she got up for some reason so everyone in our row had to let her out. Then she came back. Another half hour later, she and her boyfriend both got up. Thankfully they didn't come back.

Hey, I forgot to mention the on-topic part - I saw Pirates of the Caribbean last night!

:oops:

Sorry, the ranting just wouldn't stop pouring out of my fingertips. Anyway, I liked the movie - I agree with Nothingman's review. Johnny Depp was great, Orlando Bloom did what he could with his role, the special effects were cool but not distracting, the plot kept me interested. All in all, an entertaining movie. Then again, you see how long it's been since I went to a theater that my standards might be out of whack :wink:

Posted: Jul 19th 2003, 5:17 pm
by andrewgd
The worse part is that you can't ask them to be quiet, because, 85% of the time, they'll get offended, and keep it up. Or worse yet, get louder and aim some of it directly at you!

So whats the choice? I guess we, who actually appreciate watching what we've paid for, just end up taking it, huh? Is it better to forgive and forget? But how will these people learn if nobody tells them what they're doing is wrong?

From what I've seen, it has become a no-win situation where you just have to learn to have these jack@$$es ruining our well earned entertainment.

Posted: Jul 22nd 2003, 10:10 am
by starbug
Hehe... that rant really did make me laugh, because I suffer from the same thing.

And it REALLY gets to me when people talk/move about/use phones/rattle their sweets really loudly during a vital part of the film/smell/invade space etc etc. The smell is the worst for me... it's like, you know you're going to be in a room with hundreds of people. For god's sake, wash, use deodorant and make sure your feet aren't steaming.

This is why I have stopped going to the big multiplex cinemas in favour of my local independent cinema (which happens to be a mere 4 mins walk from my house - hooray!). I went there once, and was hooked. They are £6 a ticket but you get a membership which makes it cheaper. It's so civilised... the cinema was opened in like 1910 or something and retains many of its original features... the clientel don't yell or throw popcorn, and I've yet to see a kid in there in the evening. They will give you coffee, tea, cakes...the staff are REALLY knowledgeable about films in general, plus it's never crowded enough to have a space problem. For the blockbuster films they won't show, I'm happy to wait. I have seen some fabulous films in my humble cinema that just wouldn't get a look in at the multiplexes and I am forever grateful.

My particular skill is to always join the queue that isn't going anywhere. If there are two or more queueing options, without fail, I will pick the one that moves slower than every other one. Seriously... I went to Madrid this weekend with friends and it's like some kind of phenomenon. In the end they gave up and when they saw me head for a queue would go in the other one. It winds me up, because I'm SO bad at queueing (being british, this is unusual. It must be my American genetics or something). I can cope if we're moving, but if it suddenly stops dead for no discernible reason, I've got about 2 minutes before my blood pressure increases ten fold.

Anyway. That was SO OT. I haven't seen the film but I will, if it's on at my local.

Posted: Jul 22nd 2003, 11:25 am
by mglenn
When I saw Saving Private Ryan in the theater I think I sat beside the most annoying person in the world. This guy would laugh through all the battles and then when the actions slowed he would push and pull the straw in his drink back and forth through the plastic lid of his drink. I could have strangled him.

But my favorite time was back when I worked at a local theater and had taken a girl to see a movie... these kids were being really loud and annoying to everyone and were sitting right in front of me. I leaned forward twice to tell them to be quite. The second time one of them stood up and started tellin me off. I smiled at him got up walked back through the service entrance into the projector room and shutdown the film. Got two of my coworkers who were in the next projector room and we walked back out and escourted them from the theater... The looks on their faces was priceless. When I walked back into start the film again everyone in the theater started clapping. It was great!

Posted: Jul 22nd 2003, 1:27 pm
by Natasha (candygirl)
That is awesome! Wish I could have seen their faces :twisted:

Posted: Jul 23rd 2003, 5:37 am
by starbug
mglenn wrote: I smiled at him got up walked back through the service entrance into the projector room and shutdown the film. Got two of my coworkers who were in the next projector room and we walked back out and escourted them from the theater... The looks on their faces was priceless. When I walked back into start the film again everyone in the theater started clapping. It was great!
How cool is that? Well done!

The coolest thing I saw was when I was in the car being driven up the motorway and some guy was driving like an arse for ages, cutting everybody up, being dangerous and overtaking on the left (that's illegal here). So a coach driver pulled out into the lane he was in and slowed right down. Then a couple of lorry drivers pulled up next to him and another car pulled up behind him. They had him totally boxed in for about 10 miles (for all I knew he missed his exit) and were clearly enjoying it. The guy's face was purple and he was yelling... :D

Posted: Jul 23rd 2003, 10:06 am
by fnordboy
starbug wrote: They had him totally boxed in for about 10 miles (for all I knew he missed his exit) and were clearly enjoying it. The guy's face was purple and he was yelling... :D
That is great! :lol:

I don't notice this as often anywhere else I go but in my area there is this habit of people honking their horn a millisecond before the light turns green. Just so you know you better move when it turns green! :roll: Whenever I have one of these assholes behind me (too often) and they do that I just stop my car and sit for a bit then I start to move a little but really slowly. Gets them good and pissed.

I'm gonna get shot one day :shock:

Posted: Jul 23rd 2003, 11:54 am
by mglenn
fnordboy wrote:I'm gonna get shot one day :shock:
Which is why I recommend the sticker I have in my window which says:

"Keep Honking, I'm Reloading!" :twisted:

Posted: Jul 23rd 2003, 12:05 pm
by starbug
mglenn wrote:
fnordboy wrote:I'm gonna get shot one day :shock:
Which is why I recommend the sticker I have in my window which says:

"Keep Honking, I'm Reloading!" :twisted:
Hehehe :D

We joke about my uncle being shot for his dreadful driving all the time... god forbid it should ever happen, but seriously, with the way he drives it's a possibility.