Took the day off today, and went on a long walk with Anne.
She pointed out that November is her favorite month, and it was easy to see why, with the sun warming our shoulders, as we walked beneath the bluest blue sky I’ve seen over Pasadena in years.
As we walked down Colorado Boulevard, in and out of the cool shadows cast by stores and the occasional tree, we hit upon a wonderful, awful, Grinchy idea: We’d walk quickly to a movie theatre, buy tickets for the next showing of Harry Potter, and we’d race ourselves home, manufacture a reason to snatch the boys from school, and take them to the movies.
It was brilliant. We hit the theatre at 11, bought tickets for the 12:30 show, and had time to grab a bagel before we made it back home. We took the kids out of school for “personal reasons” and settled into our seats with time to spare.
Now, I don’t go to the movies too often. It just strikes me as stupid to pay money to listen to other people talk on their phones and smack gaping mouthfuls of popcorn while slurping the last drops of Coke out of their super-sized drink cups.
I don’t know why people can’t stay quiet, and respectful of their fellow audience members for a few short hours. I suppose they feel that their ticket entitles them to behave however they’d like, so I usually stay home, and spare myself the aggravation.
Well, if you were in the 12:30 show today, I’d just like to say, as a member of the audience: WOULD. YOU. PLEASE. SHUT. THE. FUCK. UP! Talk in your home, talk in your car. Talk anywhere, really, but shut the fuck up when you’re in the theatre.
Sorry. A teeny bit of pent-up aggression there. =]
The movie was entertaining, though I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first one, which I watched in silence in my own house. I haven’t read the books, but Ryan has, and he told us that the film was a more-or-less faithful adaptation. I think it could have been about 30 minutes shorter, but I also think the theater could have been about 30 times quieter.
It was worth it, though, because the kids had an amazing time. We ensured that they wouldn’t be missing anything vital in school, and I think we helped create a fond memory today.
Thought for today:
“Not all those who wander are lost.”
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Wow! First post! That’s exactly where we’re headed, after we watch the First-Born do Shakespeare–and I helped with make-up! 😀
Movies get even better when people TRANSLATE the fscking movie to someone else. Thats one of the many reasons I LEAVE LA AREA to go see a movie.. It’s well worth the 30 minute drive to see a movie in a theatre in complete silence. I’ve seen 2 movies in the last month, all out of LA.. previous to that.. The last movie I saw in theatres was feb I think.. I feel your pain Wil..
That is a very cool parently thing to do. I think all parents should try to do spontaneous, joyful activities with their kids like that, whenever they get the chance. It’s like a random act of kindness. School is great, but it isn’t sacred. 🙂
Yeah, I know how you feel, Wil. It’s sooo rediculous how much people talk.
Anyway, glad you got a break in, and glad you’re having fun! I’m sure your kids yet again think of you as their hero.
Pull your kids out of school to go see a movie? Fantastic! I like your style, Wil.
Even worse than chattering people, I think, are the screaming infants whose parents don’t see fit to remove from the screen room. Grr. But the talkers are just as annoying, really, just in a different way. Bleh.
Luckily, when the BF and I went to see Chamber of Secrets on the 8th, the audience was blessedly quiet except for laughter. ^.^
Wil! the answer is ARCLIGHT!!! Have you been there yet? Sure the tickets are $11 rather than $9 but it’s a MILLION times better than anything. No talking, no walking in later, super comfy seats, all over it’s an AMAZING way to see a movie, I try not to go anyplace else now, I’m spoiled.
Kudos Wil on pulling your kids out of school to spend some spontaneous family time with them. This will be a memory you will all talk about when they are much older.
School = intellectual death, anyway.
Cheers!
Thought for the day.. hmm. Sounds like my kind of thought. 😛
Oh and Wil, make sure your kids have a good excuse to tell their teachers Monday about being pulled out of school. “Our friend Harry was in trouble” would be a bit suspicious.
Look. Number 11. Highest for me ever. That was cool to take you kids out of school for a movie. Wish that would happen to me, oh well.
I haven’t seen that yet. I was a little afraid too though because I didn’t know the whole soap opera that went along with it.
I went to see HP right after school today, and I must say, that seeing a movie here in the midwest must be a totally different experience than CA. There was no talking in the theatre, there never is here. See, you just live in the wrong area of the country for manners. LOL (oh boy am I going to get email on that one.)
I personally thought the new movie was better than the first one. I loved it
I assume you will be doing the same thing with “Two Towers”.
I’m not picky about many things, and I don’t have many pet peeves, but nothing irks me more than people who talk in the movie theater. Especially if they’re my friends and the person they’re talking to is me.
Someone said:
“Kudos Wil on pulling your kids out of school to spend some spontaneous family time with them. This will be a memory you will all talk about when they are much older.”
Right… like when they’re 17 and they’re skipping school habitually because they got this idea from somewhere that it was OK to lie your way out of commitments just to have a good time. Personally I don’t see why surprising your kids on the weekend with something like this wouldn’t be similarly memorable, but without the deviousness. I do see the fun factor involved here… but if you have to go to this extreme to surprise your kids or make something memorable… what will you have to do next time?
It’s time to bring back ushers. Ushers in each screening room of the multiplex, empowered to ask people to leave with their screaming babies, to ask people to take their calls outside, to confiscate phones…
Well, I happen to be a teacher in Pasadena, and I have no problem with your little surprise for your kids today. Truthfully, not that much gets accomplished on Friday afternoons anyway. And the students I have that have close relationships with their parents are easier to deal with than the others anyway.
Wil, I assume you know you are using Tolkien’s works.
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.
Nice thought though.
Silly wadetemp… I guess it’s been a long week for you. I’m sure the poor kids’ characters won’t be irreparably damaged all this.
It’s not only in the theaters that this happens. I’m in med school and sometimes part of the material we are provided as learning resources are movies. Yesterday we had the chance to watch the Linda Peeno story about Managed care in the US. It was a preview for her being a guest lecturer next week in our class. The exact same thing, but worse, happened with my classmates. They would start screaming and making stupid comments when something interesting happened. I saw your post and it was like “Bam!”, you were talking about the behavior of my “collegues” and not California movie goers.
That’s my 2 cents.
mmm Hope their teachers don’t read your blog 😉
I hate it when parents bring babies to movies. Is it so hard to get a babysitter? Fantasia 2000 would have been so much better if somebody hadn’t BROUGHT THEIR BABY!!! I was also very annoyed that in Black Hawk Down some parent brought their kids! Those kids must have had nightmares.
You must have had the same people sitting near you who sat behind us at Santa Claus 2. The woman would NOT shut up… (and yeah, I bitched about it in my blog, too…)
How very odd, my fiance and I did the same thing today. Our older daughter was sick yesterday, and I’d decided to keep her home today. Since she was feeling better and I’d be home anyway, we kept my younger daughter home, too.
My fiance has been having back problems, and is also feelign a bit frustrated at his job, so he decided to play hookey.
So, we all decided to go see Harry Potter. Really terrific film. Great costumes and sets (just a thing I notice) and the actor who plays Harry is truly amazing. Terrific presense.
It was a bit overlong, and couldn’t hold my 3-year-old’s attention, so I did spend about a quarter of the movie in the lobby… ah, well, will get to see the whole thing, without distraction, on video.
Lara
I’m surprised by the lack of respect in U.S. Cinemas, over here in the UK you can always hear the bleep of the audience turning off they’re phones before the film starts, the only sound you hear after that is the munching of popcorn and slurping of drinks and even then they do that really quietly. But you do have to try and tolerate the kids when going to see Harry Potter as they get up every ten minutes to go to the toilet (HP and Star Wars at night viewings for me unfortunately).
I wonder how movies make that much money over there, if i had to endure that sort of idiocy i would never go to the cinema.
Hey Wil:
Sorry to hear your movie-viewing experience on-a-whim with the family didn’t go as well as you would have liked, what with the noise and such, what a bummer, dude.
On the other hand, you could have my experience at the theater, sans sound/narration/special effects — try it sometime, just pack cotton in your ears and THEN try to figure out what’s being said, or done or whatever, and maybe, just maybe, you’ll see that every moment DOES have two sides and those of us who are deaf and otherwise oblivous to the noise conducted amidst the audience seats will be oblivious to the noise spoken on the screen, as well.
Near as I can figure, no one really wins (except for the schmuck you mentioned who insisted on talking out loud in the theater during the movie, seemingly??).
Peace, out.
I, for one, actually have to disagree.
Although I don’t like the idea of taking the kids out of school, if it’s going to be done, than do SOMETHING with them.
Sure, they’ll remember you took them to a movie, but wouldn’t it be cooler to take them to do something interpersonal?
What do I know
Will,
I don’t know if you actually read these, but here is a suggestion: Get the family together and read to them the 4 Harry Potter books, a few chapters at a time. I did that with my wife and 2 daughters and had a ball. They enjoyed sitting there listening to me read them the stories and I really enjoyed spending the time with them reading. We can’t wait for the next book to come out!
Dodge
kicking/putting feet on the back of my chair drives me absolutely mad. how rude.
anyway Wil, it’s one of those live life, have fun situations. It’s not like you neglect your children and let them stay home every single day. You have to enjoy the little things like Harry Potter as a family. Too bad some bad eggs had to ruin it.
I just got back from seeing Harry Potter.
It was an adventure to say the least.
I’m a lowly college student with one class on Friday, so I was sent to get tickets for one of my best friends, and myself (the other friends had their tickets a week in advance). So at 12.30pm I find myself in a huge line. Where I spent the next 20 minutes. When I got to the front, in tiny print, read: 7:00 Sold Out, so I think about crying, instead, I tell the guy to write it on the sign outdoors. I decide to buy 2 for the 7:30 show. Well, he plays with his computer for a while and finds me 2 tickets for the 7pm show! Yay!!
We were there by 5.45, and were first in line, and first in the theater.
Truly, the film would have been even better without the little girl behind me who talked in a normal voice every once in a while, and the little boy and his mother who kicked my chair quite a bit.
All in all though, I had a great time, and LOVED the movie.
No no no, you got it all wrong! Those people in the theater weren’t being rude, they were doing an homage to your Nickelodean “True Stories From Famous People” interview where you talked about how obnoxious you are at the movies and always wind up with the popcorn bucket on your head. See? They were FANS!
wadetemp… as a teacher i can tell you that friday afternoons are usually a relax/have fun/play math games kindof of afternoon. and, again as a teacher speaking, i love it when my kids are gone in the afternoon…. even if it’s just a few of them… fewer kids on a friday is the perfect way to ease into the weekend.
so relax with the harshness.
and as a teacher, repeating the word ‘of’ twice will be a lesson to myself to edit! 😉
We did the same thing- we kept our daughter home and went to the 10;15 showing here in TX. and quite frankly we were lucky to enjoy the fact that we chose a downtown theater–less people and less chance for them the be heard if talking—
I enjoyed the movie…. 🙂
November is nice though– ;P
Yup, when I went to see Blade II awhile back some idiot brought what looked to be his 5 and 7 year old kids. They kept asking, “Is that man bad daddy?” and “I’m scared”. Argh…stupid parents.
Wil,
The last time I went to see a movie and was disturbed by yakkers I told the ushers. When that failed I went to the manager…bitched at her and got two free passes for another show. We tried again the next week abd there were a couple more ushers and a lot less talking.
Take care,
Bart
When I was a junior in highschool (or was it a senior? I can’t remember now. Every highschool year was exactly like the previous/next) and Episode 1 came out, two of my friends and I skipped school. We saw it Wednesday at midnight,hung around a bit, slept through the first half of our school-day and then went to see it again during the time that our classmates were having lunch. All of our parents, teachers and prinicpal knew where we were. Some even asked how the movie was. And somehow, even though I skipped school and had fun for one day instead of going to physics (or chemistry; I still don’t remember what year this was), I graduated second in my class and had all As that year as well as being set to having a B.S., M.S., and maybe even a Ph. D. soon.(I use the word “soon” to mean “before the universe suffers its heat death”)
Seriously, wadetemp. Where were you? I ruined my youth by skipping school that day. Everyone knows that our state-run schools know what’s best for us and people like TV’s Wil Wheaton don’t have a clue.
For the record, my friends and I still discuss that as one of the better times we’ve had together. But…what are memories worth compared to truancy laws?
I shouldn’t use Wil Wheaton’s comments to rant…but blind ignorance and telling other people how to parent even though they seem to be doing wonderful jobs without random strangers’ input really pisses me off.
I’m sure Nolan and Ryan didn’t miss much in the last half-day of school, and it’ll prove a great memory for everyone.
I can’t agree with you, Enuma, Tinker, and Thumper, Wil…I absolutely cannot stand those people who go to the movies nowadays and feel as if they’re sitting and watching a video in the privacy of their own home. Being from the “older” generation, I was always brought up to be quiet in a theatre and no talking, unless it was a whisper. And then, not more than a word or two. Unfortunately, our society has become so complacent with manners and that’s brought on a HUGE increase of uncouth behaivor. Only way to get out of it is to do what you did with the first HP movie…stay at home and watch it in beautiful silence.
But…that was a cool thing to do with the boys…just wish y’all could have enjoyed it more!
Take care,
MORE…I can’t agree with all of you MORE…
Hitting self on head for leaving one word out…
: )
You’ll take your kids out of school to see a movie, but you won’t let them eat sugary cereal.
that is just so fucked up.
Eddie,
I understand your point… skipping a day of school never contribued to the downfall of anyone’s education. I know plenty of people who graduated from college with honors who skipped classes regularly from high school though college (including myself.) I assume you were honest about your trip to see the Star Wars movie… as I assume Nolan and Ryan will be about this.
Please understand, I’m not telling anyone here how to parent. You have to figure those things out for yourself. I don’t believe I ever said Wil should change things… it sounds like he has a great family.
I know from experience that kids (especially in their early teens) have a built-in hypocracy sensor that has not been bested by modern science. If you tell a child that something is acceptable (actions, words, or both… even in passing!) when they do something similar, but unacceptable, you no longer stand on ground to explain why what they did is wrong… because you did the very same thing. They won’t forget, and they won’t overlook it. There’s a very powerful role model effect at work at that age, and once you work your way down the slope a few times with this kind of thing, it’s very difficult to get back up.
As I said, I don’t see anything wrong with suprising your kids. Very cool. But… why not on a weekend when there’s no need to drag them out of school by (here’s the hypocracy alert!) making up a false excuse for behavior?
I am a teacher as well and think nothing of students being pulled out to spend time with their family. In fact, I just returned from a week in Colorado with my husband and kids in Colorado. My older daughter is in kindegarten. There are more important things than school sometimes…She can always make up the school work.
Ha, how ironic, I was planning on catching the early show today, and am about to head out to the theater right now to catch it. Had I not been helping a friend, I might have run into you guys, and had said friend not taken me to a bar where I had a couple too many with my late lunch, I wouldn’t be looking for something to read while cramming down a bagel and some caffeine before walking over to the theater.
You a Paseo Colorado fan, or do you hit the “classic” theaters?
My $0.02…
When I was a freshman in high school my parents pulled my brother and I for a month to go on a missions trip to Africa with them. Best. Month. Ever. I learned much more there than I would have in 6 months of school.
Before anyone gets pissy. I’m not saying a movie is the same thing. I am saying that it’s perfectly all right for parents to pull their kids now and then. Missing a day (or two) here and there isn’t a problem.
Next subject…
People who talk in movies. You hit the nail on the head. (please forgive the cliche) I was at an R rated movie a couple years ago. The movie, Hollow Man I think, had been out for a while so there weren’t very many people there which was nice. However, just before the previews started a couple walked in with their two-year-old. The kid proceded to run around the theatre for the ENTIRE movie. Very annoying.
Anyway! 🙂
Glad you guys had a fun family outing. Those are priceless.
I must say that I had a very similiar experience when I was in California a few weeks ago and went to see The Ring on opening night. I am from NC, and for whatever reason, we generally have quiet movie theaters. I expected the same in CA, but, boy was I wrong! That was the loudest theater I’ve ever been to (audience-wise) and every time any event that held any kind of significance happened, it seemed like half of the audience had to comment on it! So, I agree with you…all of the people who talk during movies need to STFU!
OK, Which of you is so important that you have to be in constant contact with the phone world?
Give it a rest already.
Even if you quietly talk to who ever is on the #@$@###)@@##$^^ cell phone while you walk to the lobby… Too late! You have already labled yourself a jerk.
Enough already. I think I am heading over to the board to post this as a topic!
Lets just say…that there are a couple of 13 yr olds I wanted to strangle to death for talking during the 3rd Austin Powers movie. The one 12 or 13 yr old had seen the movie before and was giving a play by play of every FUCKING funny scene before it came on. So it ruined the comedic timing of each scene. And it was hard to watch already sense that movie is totally inappropriate for their age and younger. I and my husband couldn’t feel comfortable at laughing at some of the adult humor while there are children 13 AND YOUNGER in the audiance. ARGH!!! I and my husband had never had such a horrible movie going experience.
oh yeah….there parents were with them or at least the ones mom was with them. There was a single dad with two small 5 or 6 yr olds sitting in front of us. *Groans*