Movies

I need to step my movie game up. The other day I realized that I have not been to the movies in months nor have I seen a "new release" when it was actually a "new release". I blame the early onset of Alzheimer's Disease. I have a bad memory. Scratch that. I have a bad memory when it comes to little insignificant things. I can remembers names, faces, events, article of clothing, license plate numbers, and directions to a "T" but ask me to go to the store for some milk? Oh I bring back everything but the milk!

I remember in high school, I saw every single movie that came out between 1997-2001. The mall/movie theater was the place to be in high school. Before they tore down the movie theater at Evergreen aka EverBlack Plaza, there was not a time I was not in that theater. It was kinda old school because you walked into a pitch black theater and when I mean pitch black, I mean pitch black. Theater was dark as hell! It was times I went to the movie and did not realize other people were in the same aisle as me until the show ended. It was the black hole of theaters...No light escaped the clutches of the 'Plaza movie theater. No music playing, nothing. Just darkness and silence. Right before they tore it down, they did start playing music but I guess there wasn't enough in the budget to get those lights fixed. Ah the good old days of the Plaza theater. But that was the Freshman/Sophomore year theater. The "safe" mall/movie theater that your parents let you go to by yourself because they didn't have to worry about you getting shot or stabbed in the food court because it was in a so-called "good" neighborhood (In the Chi, that meant white folk still lived in the neighborhood and they were NOT of the ghetto/white trash variety).

Now Junior/Senior year, I upgraded to Ford City and the suburban malls (Chicago Ridge, River Oaks, Woodlawn, etc) and boy was there drama! Ford City was closer to my crib (One bus ride away but it was fun when you had ig'nant ass friends on the bus with you) but you were more likely to get in a fight, shot, or stabbed at F.C. because it was where everyone went because when EverBlack's movie theater closed, the next closest theater was either 87th (a little boring because it was more like a shopping center than mall but you could (and still can) get good bootlegs and ribs on 87th) and Ford City. Don't get me wrong, F.C is a decent mall but it's a mall populated by teens. Being the snob that I am now, I went to F.C. the last time I went home and could not believe I wasted hours of my existence in 1999-2001 at F.C. I was in and out that mall in a heartbeat. I went in Aldo's, bought some shoes, and bounced! But, ah the memories. The time my ex-boyfriend got my best friend and I kicked out the theater because he was stalking me the whole day and decided to show out during "Me, Myself and Irene" and accused me of flirting with "X" amount of boys during the entire day that he was stalking me. Got loud as hell and we were escorted out by security. The fight in the parking lot when some girls tried to jump on my cousin. When some dude got shot on the bus stop and the bus driver just pulled the fuck off without even closing the door good. If you wanted to see some drama go to F.C. during any given weekend and you were sure to get a show.


Since I was a little prude in high school, there was none of that making out/fingering mess going on while at the movies. I'm the type that once I'm in that seat-I'm in that seat. I'm not moving for anything. No bathroom break, no free refills, not even a fire can drag my ass out the seat. And you think you're going to talk me to death throughout the movie? Oh hell to the naw...You will get shushed in a heartbeat (and that's if I'm even half-listening). I get into the movie and your voice is distracting me from the plot. Don't bring a date to the movies and want to learn her/his life story while the movie is on. Sure, I mumble to myself and talk to the characters but I'm not the loud ass ghetto person in the theater screaming "RUN BITCH RUN" (I'm thinking it though) but I will smack my lips and groan when the same dumb bitch fall and is murdered by the killer. Movie producers are so right in "type-casting"...We know damn well Black folk are not going out in the forest to chill. Maybe to smoke a lil weed (at the Forest Preserve) but you think a Black person is going to grass stains on some fresh 1's...Yeah ok!!

I love movies. While I like to think of myself as a movie critic ("Paid In Full" is not a fucking classic!), I admit to having my guilty pleasures in bad movies- usually for purely unintentional comedic moments. I notice every little thing in the movie (thanks to my cinema studies classes at U of I) and I am quick to call out an editing blunder. I've gotten so good I can tell if a movie was shot "on location" or "on set". Of course, I know when a movie is shot in Chicago and I can even tell you where the hell they shot it and when. I remember when they shot "Ali" and the "Barbershop" movies, partly because they shut down the entire 79th street bus line and I froze my ass off for a couple of weeks waiting for just one bus to come.


But the older I got, the less I went to the movies (unless it was Harry Potter, Denzel, any Disney/Pixar movie, or a random action movie I was dragged to by the boyfriend), so slowly my witty knowledge of movies deteriorated. Friends stopped asking me my opinion on a particular movie because I have not seen it. I started quietly bowing out of movie related conversation. I even began ignoring my Blockbusters coupons. I was just pitiful. It's not because 99% of the movies out today are crap (which they are), movies are too damn expensive (which they are...$9 for a ticket? Yeah aiight), my sheer laziness to go the theater (I am) but because I don't have the time! I'm working and strangely that drains a lot of my energy and considering I don't do anything at work, that's strange. In college, I had enough time and not enough money. Now I have enough money and not enough time.

Don't worry...I'm stepping it up slowly. I watch some just to critique and some strictly for enjoyment. "Wedding Crasher", "40 Year Old Virgin"--Instant Classics. Fucking Hilarious! "The Island"--Ehhh. That big ass pimple on his forehead just annoyed me the whole movie and distracted me from the plot. I know that's a pitiful list for now but my memory is bad and I can't remember what has come out that I would like to see! Any suggestions?