Strange Night at the Movies

Dan, Valerie, and I were all pretty tired from Friday night and had no desire to drink anything again, so we decided to go see a movie on Saturday night. The plan was see a movie for a peaceful night and then call it quits before it was too long. As it turns out we didn't go until 10:15 pm, and thus didn't even get out of the theater until 1 am.

We went to see "Avatar" down in the Microcentro, with Calle Lavalle filled with people on a Saturday night. That alone felt weird to begin with, and deep in the Microcentro is the last place you want to be on a weekend night. We got to the theater, purchased our tickets, and eventually sat down. I would say the theater was somewhere describable between the smallest movie theater ever and the largest personal home entertainment room ever. With a small screen by movie standards, it seemed like some millionaire had put in this room in his house for him and his 80 closest friends.

The humor started before the movie began, when the intro's for the Dolby Sound Effects came on. They were using the same intro that was used back in the 1990's, and what must be well out of date by American standards by now. I even remembered the intro from my childhood, and it made me burst out laughing. What was next? "Let's all go to the lobby?" Before the intro finished it was cut off, and no previews were shown. The movie simply started.

The movie started out and was going all fine until suddenly a crazy lady stood up in the front row and started yelling. It was hard to hear what she was yelling with the loud speakers, and eventually people started yelling back at her to shut up and sit down. Some people left immediately to get security. All I could make out was that she wanted help for something. But she was smiling and half-laughing, and it seemed like she was on drugs. For some reason the second she got up and started yelling it made me think that the theater was about to be robbed, and brought up images of the bus hijacking. The same kind of thought that goes through my head anytime the power gets cut now. I can't help but think that someone has cut the power to shut down security and rob us, rather than there being a simple electricity problem.

In a couple of minutes an usher came in, flashed a light in her face and led her away from the screen. A good 5 minutes of the movie were lost between the incident, and everyone just tried to get back into the movie. At some point halfway through the movie, in the middle of a scene, an intermission came on, blacking out the screen and turning on the lights. We all laughed, never having actually been in a movie with an intermission. It was like the 1930s, and we just used the time to discuss the crazy lady and ask around what the deal with it was.

Avatar was a long movie, but not the longest I've ever seen, and yet it's the first that had an intermission. I think it's all digital now, so they shouldn't even have to change reels or anything like that. But the movie eventually continued without any other hold ups, and finished well. At the end people applauded, as if we were at a play and the actors could appreciate the appreciation. Though the movie was good, I feel like the most entertaining parts of the evening were the unintentional screw ups.