My Top 5 Movie Going Experiences of all time

Hello I am the movie encyclopedia and if no one else will see it, I will.

If you are familiar with Anomalous Materials than you will know that they are doing a 31 Days to Build A Better Blog Marathon. This month long marathon is based of Darren Rowse's book of the same name where he explains how you can up your readership and make your blog better in 31 Days. I love my blog the way it is, but with the 1 year anniversary coming up I do have to say I'm willing to give this whole thing a try.

Day 1 had us writing an elevator pitch about our blog. Day 2 now has us doing a list post. I wanted to think outside of the box so I went with something that is a little out of the norm:

MY TOP 5 MOVIE GOING EXPERIENCES:

5. March 5th, 2010-The saving seats shuffle

Any movie lover can tell you that saving seats is a pain. If you're going into an extremely crowded film where you know all the seats will be taken, sometimes it's a bit stressful saving seats, especially if your group is late. That was the case with Alice in Wonderland's 1st Friday Showing. There had been a midnight showing (I never usually go to those) earlier that day, but this was the first official showing after the original midnight showing. We had bought our tickets a week early and everyone was excited about the film. Things seemed to be going fine, we were first in the line, first to get in and sit down, but then things turned for the worse: the rest of our group was late.

That wouldn't usually be a problem but our group was 16 people. And we were on the bar isle. You know, that isle that's perfect for putting your feet up. So of course people were wanting to go to that isle first. So in an act of desperation, and to save the seats, I took off my coat, my mom's coat, my hat and her purse and laid them on the chairs. 6 down, 10 to go. So next I took off my shoes, placed them on two seats, took my mom shoes, placed them on two seats and then for the other 6 I put up the arm rests and laid spread eagle across 6 seats. Every time someone would come, I'd shoo them off.

Eventually the group came but that was an experience I won't forget.

4. February 13th, 2010- I F****NG HATE THE WOLFMAN!!!

Now I didn't like the Wolfman movie. It was a loud, jump scare filled, piss poor remake of a great series and a waste of good actors. Usually when I don't like a movie, I vent all my anger to my friends or on here. I NEVER get physically angry. The closest I ever came was flipping off various trailers for sucking so bad. But for the most part I am a calm, composed person.

But that's just me. People react differently to things, some more violently than others. A lot of people walked out of our showing of the Wolfman, mostly mothers and their small children who thought this movie would be appropriate. But one particular group of people caught my eye: a group of African-American gangster types who said "F**k this movie" and left. I conveniently (and out of curiosity) had to go to the bathroom. Usually the vocally mad ones who walk out are fun to listen to. Not this one. As I walked to the bathroom, I saw the one of the guys throwing air punches and repeating his exit line over and over. Just as I was about to go in I saw him pick up a metal trash bin and throw it at the glass door nearby, cracking it substantially.

Talk about hating a movie huh?

3. December 10th, 2009-A Pee to Remember

Sometimes being a full time student and up and coming film critic can be hard. Homework, field trips, finals, papers, midterms, it's all a bit much. What's worse is when your professional and educational lives meet. They tend to be giant clustermugs that never end well. In my case it was mixing Sociology with film critiquing.

Our first Sociology paper was breaking social norms and seeing how people react to you breaking the norms. It was a fun experience overall but one norm I broke was fun and dangerous: moving across urinals while peeing. Always a frowned upon no-no, it was a norm that usually never gets broken and I was told to do it. So not risking bombing my first paper, I did urinal hop. There weren't many people in there but could you imagine what it looks like when a fat man runs across a urinal line with his pants down peeing in a different urinal? It's weird to say the least.

I will say it was fun though lol.

2. February 27th, 2010- Altogether now!

People are always going to talk during movies. I have yet to sit in a film where everybody was silent as church mice. It just doesn't happen. There will always be that one loud person or that "HELL NO! DON'T GO IN THERE!" person in a theater. It's inevitable. But what happens when it becomes a fun thing for everybody? It becomes a screening of the Room. Well this was not the Room but the experience was crazy for sure.

It was the last showing of The Crazies (one of my favorites of this year) for their second night. The theater was moderately full but mostly full of people my age or older. Now since it is a horror movie there was a lot of "OH!'s" and "HOLY SHITS!" and "DON'T GO IN THERE's" but the added factor of having this film take place in Pierce County and all of the attendees in the theater living in Pierce County made this a night to remember.

Whenever someone said "Who is the sheriff of Pierce County?" the audience would reply with OUR Pierce County Sheriff. And any other political positions we all collectively named off in unison. And all those aforementioned call outs I said we all said together. And at the hand knife throat shot scene we started a "Holy Shit" chant.

It was like a frat party in there and it couldn't have been more fun.

1. May 19th, 2005-Waiting 6 hours to see Star Wars Episode 3

I love Star Wars. I grew up watching it, I owned all the clothes, toys and games and was even a member of the Luke Skywalker Fan Club. I love Star Wars and will always love it for eternity. I even lost my last tooth during Episode 2 (which was fun to find).

But Episode 3 was a big deal to me. It was the LAST Star Wars movie and I was seeing it on opening day. My grandma was busy running errands so I was on my own at the movie theater for the first time. On top of that I had to wait 6 hours to see the film since all the other showings were sold out ahead of time. So what did I do? Any and everything I ever wanted to do in a movie theater:

I bought food, met all the employees, went up to the projection booth, looked inside every auditorium, did three laps in an empty one, looked at a film canister, bought memorabilia, popped popcorn and many other things. For a 14 year old boy this was a huge deal. It was a memory I will never forget and I will always cherish that moment I had waiting to see Star Wars...too bad the theater closed the next year....

What are some of YOUR favorite experiences? Leave them in the comments below.

Movie Meme Day 3-Favorite Oscar Nominated Film from Last Years Ballot

Hello I am the movie encyclopedia and if no one else will see it, I will.

Day 3 is listed above (it's long to write out). It was an easy decision for me. The Hurt Locker. Great drama, intense tension, masterful writing, perfect acting, even the sound design was brilliant. It deserved every Oscar it got.

Script Review: Paul- "Baby, where we’re going, you won’t need teeth."

For those who doubt here is the title page above

Hello I am the movie encyclopedia and if no one else will see it, I will.

Well Comic-Con has come and gone and we have seen plenty of amazing things from it. The Avengers cast revealed, panels from all sorts of movies and television series, video game premieres and of course movie trailers and posters strewn all about. One of my most anticipated titles from Comic-Con of course had to be Greg Mottola's new film written and starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (of Shaun of the Dead fame). The idea of seeing these two on screen together again was amazing to me. And as more cast members were revealed like Jason Bateman, Jane Lynch and Seth Rogan I was a bit excited.

Well by some sort of strange luck, one of my sources in Hollywood, the same one who got me the Uwe Boll interview, sent me a bunch of screenplays for films coming out. "Cowboys and Aliens," "Jonny Quest," "Piranha 3-D (Which after reading is surprisingly good)" and last but not least "Paul." She says she'll send me more as she gets them seeing as how I'm a critic now but I was pretty stoked with this selection, especially Paul. On a side note though I was pissed off about Jonny Quest since I wrote a shooting script for my own Jonny Quest movie but I guess that's not happening now.

Anywhoo, I figured I have a lot of readers who would love to have me review screenplays and I figure this would be a good way to get new readers interested in the site. If you don't want spoilers than don't read on but I think you might be interested to see how this film is.

The film follows Graham and Clive (Pegg and Frost), two comic geeks to the core who are attending the San Diego Comic Con. After getting an autograph from Michael Biehn (of Alien fame), they set up shop since one of the reasons they are there is to promote a comic they did called "Jelva-Alien Queen of the Varvak." It only sells three copies (mostly due to a "Heroes" panel featuring Zachary Quinto) but they are not discouraged since after Comic Con they plan on traveling to Area 51 to see if there are any aliens.

They pack up in their RV and head to New Mexico. Before reaching Area 51 they stop at a diner to eat. Things seem to go well until two rednecks come in. They book it out of there ASAP, since the rednecks do nothing but stare at them the whole time while talking about hunting, and drive towards Area 51. When they see headlights behind them they speed up and when the car tries to pass they accidentally ram into the car, flipping it.

They get out of the car and check to see if anyone is alive. After only seeing one guy and him appearing in bad shape, they decide to dial 911. Right before they reach an operator a voice tells them to stop. They turn around and see a 3 ft tall alien in cut off shorts and sandals smoking a cigarette. Clive faints as the alien explains that he needs their help and that they need to drive North and as fast as they can. After loading up Clive into the RV, Graham and the alien drive North as the alien commands.

The alien, who reveals his name is Paul, crash landed on Earth sixty years ago and has been in a government facility for years. He's also been a huge part of the media, helping Steven Spielberg create E.T. authentically as well as Close Encounters, "Take me to your dealer," and apparently Roger from American Dad, among many other things. He escapes because he has outlived his usefulness on Earth and one deranged governmental official wants to harvest his brain. Being forewarned about this he makes a break for it and runs into our heroes.

While all this is happening, Secret Service agents, led by an Agent Zoil (Jason Bateman) and his lackeys Haggard and O'Reilly (Bill Hader and Joe Lo Truglio) are after Paul, on direct orders to bring him in. Zoil is smart and assertive while Haggard is over eager and O"Reilly is a bit dim. They find out that Graham and Clive have taken Paul and thus take chase on this cross country adventure.

The guys (well guys and alien) stop at an RV trailer park for the night and meet Ruth and Moses Behe (now renamed Buggs) played by Kristin Wiig and John Carroll Lynch. They are very righteous, God fearing individuals with Ruth being an overly sheltered, blind in one eye, girl who has never left the county. Ruth takes a liking to Graham and Clive but Moses doesn't approve and the two leave the group alone. Later that night though, she sees a third pair of legs.

The next day, as they are about to leave, Ruth happens to come by. She starts talking with the guys and once a discussion about evolution vs religion starts getting heated, Paul comes out. She freaks out and faints at the sight of this and the group decides to take her along since leaving her would risk exposing them. Paul grabs Clive's passport before they peel off but Moses sees Paul, sees her daughter with the "demon creature" and, after a talk with Agent Zoil, takes chase himself.

The group travel around, talking about the universe, life, religion, evolution, science, Paul's past and Paul's reason for going North: the day he crash landed, he killed a little girl's dog and caused the girl to become completely obsessed with him and aliens in general. He blames himself for "ruining her life" and the area is also conveniently located near the place where he will be picked up by his brethren. They conveniently bump into Zoil and his lackeys, as well as the rednecks and Moses a few times before finally reaching the farmhouse where Tara, the girl, lives.

They talk to Tara and Paul apologizes. Shortly after though Zoil and his men lackeys arrive. Fighting and chasing ensues until the crew jump into the RV and peel off towards an oncoming tornado about to touch down. O'Reilly gets himself blown up when his gun goes off next to a gas heater while Haggard, Zoil and Moses take chase. Seeing the tornado though Zoil and Moses hang back but the Haggard goes right into the tornado, which Paul's team just barely misses.

They arrive at the tower where Paul is to be picked up. A mysterious man who has been directing Zoil and his lackeys arrives with two soldiers and is about to take Paul when Zoil, revealed to be an old friend of Paul's, shoots the soldiers and rescues Paul. Zoil, however, gets shot by the man and while tending to his wounds, Ruth gets shot accidentally by Moses, who had just arrived. Paul helps Zoil and revives Ruth, which earns Moses's trust. But the man is not happy and points his gun at the group...right before he is squished by the arriving spaceship.

Paul says his goodbyes and takes Tara with him promising a new life since he ruined he last one. Ruth and Graham end up together, Zoil becomes their personal security, and Graham and Clive end up becoming successful writers with their latest creation entitled "Paul."

THE END

The script is masterful. It has a wonderful pace, great humor, amazing running jokes and you can hear the actors delivering their lines like they were made for them. It's a 119 page script but with the pacing you can breeze through it in twenty minutes. I can not wait for the film to come out next year and if the script is any indication, this film will be near perfect.

MY VERDICT: TOP FILM...err SCRIPT