Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 3, 2021

Favorite movie candy: Raisinets. Your results may vary.

Not that we were ever especially frequent movie-goers, but I do miss deciding on a Saturday evening to go out and see a new flick at the local cinema. I think it's one of those things that you only truly appreciate when you can't do it.

Actually, I think a lot of theatres are open these days, so you COULD still do it. But it's obviously not the same sort of experience as it used to be.

One day things will go back to normal, though, and when they do, we will once again be free to pay an exorbitant amount of money for a movie ticket and an even more obscene amount for snacks. When that happens, what's your go-to at the concession counter?

Mine is Raisinets, hands down. Love me some chocolate-covered raisins. Actually, love me some raisins, period. I'm a fan of the little dried grapes.

True story: At Christmas, among other things they would get me, my in-laws used to buy me a four-pound bag of Sunmaid raisins every year.

It was not at all uncommon for that entire bag to be gone by New Year's Day.

I'm not kidding. I could eat a four-pound bag of raisins in less than a week and be none the worse for wear.

Of course, I was in my 20s at the time. Nowadays, this simply could not happen.

We won't get into the details, but if there's such a thing as Exploding Colon, that's what would happen to me if I were to attempt this feat now.

Still, I can stomach a little box of Raisinets, and from time to time I do.

Most people are going with popcorn, Junior Mints, Reese's Cups, or some other movie theatre staple here. Some of you may even opt for the Sno-Caps, which if I may say is a bold and admirable choice.

Or Goobers. I do like Goobers. The only thing keeping them from being #1 on my list is that they're seemingly named after a character on The Andy Griffith Show, and that's not what I'm looking for from my movie candy.

It would be like eating a box of Floyd the Barbers or Barney Fifes. Both entertaining characters, but neither of which I'm looking to snack on while watching Shrek VI.

Monday, December 21, 2015

Things that happen in movies but never in the world where I live


(NOTE: This is our monthly Blog Rerun, where we bring back a post from years gone by. This one originally ran on June 19, 2012. And now it's running on December 21, 2015. So there's that...)

People end phone conversations abruptly without saying goodbye
In the movies, people will be talking on the phone and say something like, "I'll meet you at 8 at the IHOP," and then they'll hang up the phone without another word. Just like that. Does this happen to you? It never happens to me. If I'm talking to someone on the phone and it's clear the conversation is over, one of us will say something like, "OK, talk to you soon." And the other one will say, "Great. Bye!" And then we'll hang up together in a mutually agreeable way. It could be that this is just too boring and mundane for movie dialogue. But if a movie is supposed to reflect reality in some way (at least to the point that I the viewer can relate to it), I'm willing to invest a few extra seconds if it means that phone conversations will end politely.

Everyone sleeps naked
OK, not everyone in the movies takes their clothes off to sleep. Like, if it's a middle-aged suburban couple or something, the husband will wear a full set of pajamas and the wife will have on a boring nightgown. That's to be expected. But other than kids, everyone else in the movies seems to sleep au naturale. Maybe I'm just not in touch with the average person here, but I do not sleep naked. Ever. Do you? Am I just an old fuddy duddy at the age of 42? I wear a t-shirt and shorts to bed. Not boxer shorts, actual athletic shorts. I am perfectly willing to admit I may be in the minority here, but you'll note that the title of this post is things that happen in movies "but never in the world where I live." (NOTE: If it's true that a higher proportion of movie characters sleep in the nude than in real life, I suspect this is because actors, for the most part, have nicer bodies than you or me. And there's a demand to see them unclothed. Understood and acknowledged. All I'm saying is, what's with all the nekkid people in movie beds?)

Doors burst open with the slightest kick
This is an unscientific observation here, insofar as I have never actually attempted to kick down a door. But it seems in the movie world that all doors are made of balsa wood. You don't have to be particularly big or strong to demolish a door in a movie. Are doors really that fragile? Has any blog reader ever actually kicked down a door? I need a ruling on this. If you have, in fact, pulled a Jean Claude Van Damme on a door, please let us know. I would be surprised if it's as easy in real life as it seems to be onscreen.

High schools all look like country clubs
Granted, more often than not, a high school in a movie is set in California, because so many movies are set in California. And growing up in Ohio, one is led to believe that everything in California is nicer than everything in the Midwest. I've been to California several times, though, and I can tell you that while the state has many lovely buildings, not all of them are better than what we have in Ohio. Yet so many high schools in movies look like luxury hotels. And class changes are often done outside, which I get is possible in sunny California versus, say, Cleveland in February. But still, do California kids all attend high-end private high schools? And if so, why didn't my parents move there back in the 80s?

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Things that happen in movies but never in the world where I live

People end phone conversations abruptly without saying goodbye
In the movies, people will be talking on the phone and say something like, "I'll meet you at 8 at the IHOP," and then they'll hang up the phone without another word. Just like that. Does this happen to you? It never happens to me. If I'm talking to someone on the phone and it's clear the conversation is over, one of us will say something like, "OK, talk to you soon." And the other one will say, "Great. Bye!" And then we'll hang up together in a mutually agreeable way. It could be that this is just too boring and mundane for movie dialogue. But if a movie is supposed to reflect reality in some way (at least to the point that I the viewer can relate to it), I'm willing to invest a few extra seconds if it means that phone conversations will end politely.

Everyone sleeps naked
OK, not everyone in the movies takes their clothes off to sleep. Like, if it's a middle-aged suburban couple or something, the husband will wear a full set of pajamas and the wife will have on a boring nightgown. That's to be expected. But other than kids, everyone else in the movies seems to sleep au naturale. Maybe I'm just not in touch with the average person here, but I do not sleep naked. Ever. Do you? Am I just an old fuddy duddy at the age of 42? I wear a t-shirt and shorts to bed. Not boxer shorts, actual athletic shorts. I am perfectly willing to admit I may be in the minority here, but you'll note that the title of this post is things that happen in movies "but never in the world where I live." (NOTE: If it's true that a higher proportion of movie characters sleep in the nude than in real life, I suspect this is because actors, for the most part, have nicer bodies than you or me. And there's a demand to see them unclothed. Understood and acknowledged. All I'm saying is, what's with all the nekkid people in movie beds?)

Doors burst open with the slightest kick
This is an unscientific observation here, insofar as I have never actually attempted to kick down a door. But it seems in the movie world that all door frames are made of balsa wood. You don't have to be particularly big or strong to demolish a door in a movie. Are doors really that fragile? Has any blog reader ever actually kicked down a door? I need a ruling on this. If you have, in fact, pulled a Jean Claude Van Damme on a door, please let us know in the comments below. I would be surprised if it's as easy in real life as it seems to be onscreen.

High schools all look like country clubs
Granted, more often than not, a high school in a movie is set in California, because so many movies are set in California. And growing up in Ohio, one is led to believe that everything in California is nicer than everything in the Midwest. I've been to California several times, though, and I can tell you that while the state has many lovely buildings, not all of them are better than what we have in Ohio. Yet so many high schools in movies look like luxury hotels. And class changes are all done outside, which I get is possible in sunny California versus, say, Cleveland in February. But still, do California kids all attend high-end private high schools? And if so, why didn't my parents move there back in the 80s?