Movie Time

I like going to the movies with the girls. We swing by the local Neighborhood Grocery that sells boxes of movie candy for a dollar apiece: Ju Ju fruits, Milk Duds, Raisinets, Good & Plenty, Sour Patch and Reese’s. Then we head off for the dollar theater, loaded for bear. We have a pretty good dollar theater near by. I know dollar theaters can feel a little dilapidated, but ours isn’t bad, and the girls don’t seem to mind.

I took G. to Kung Fu Panda on Monday. Well we tried to go Sunday but it was sold out, so I wised up and bought Monday's tickets online. Actually, I went to the movie theater 3 times last weekend; I also took in a double feature with D., Hulk on Friday, and Iron Man on Saturday afternoon. Talk about vastly different movie going experiences.

For example: At one point in Kung Fu Panda the Turtle Oogway dies, vanishing into a cloud of peach blossoms on the winds and joining the universe, a la a Jedi Knight becoming one with the living force as he dies.

G. asked “Where did he go Daddy?”

“He joined the Universe Baby.”

“How did he do that?”

“I don’t know. But I promise you, you will be the first to know when I figure it out.”

Satisfied, she turned back to the movie.

In contrast, D. offers up a nonstop running commentary of the movie, her observations are typically pithy. Still the movies were good, even if they are merely different versions of the same movie. Each was an unfolding of the hero’s biography finalized by a battle between the hero and an evil villain with a nearly identical set of super powers.

My favorite line? “Hulk Smash!” Driving home from the theater I must have said it about twenty times in a dozen different voices. D. got into the spirit of the thing, and even coughed out a few “Hulk Smash” of her own. We both agreed that we liked Hulk better than Iron Man. (not that Iron Man wasn’t great, we just had a better time.)