Movie madness

Movie prices are going up again. I read that just now in the Wall Street Journal. Apparently there is a surge in movie attendance so they are raising their prices. In certain markets -- that is what I read -- prices are going to increase by something like 25%. And you know that will happen in Buffalo. The Buffalo market never saw a price increase it did not like, that is for sure.

On the other hand who goes to the movies these days?

I guess somebody is but I know I do not.

It is terrible because I love going to movies. I love the popcorn, the smell of the theater, the whole bit. And I love the idea of escapism, especially these days when just looking at the headlines is enough to make me want to kill myself.

Here is another thing, I can even get in free a lot of the time, because of my job at the paper. I do not even have to pay the big prices! Yet I still do not go. Isn't "yet" a wonderful word? It sounds like "nyet." And in this situation it should.

I say nyet to movies!

None of them looks good to me. Just the plots! They always involve hit men and heists or the kind of espionage I would never be able to follow. What happened to dramas that do not involve these things?

Nothing against the NRA but I have declared a moratorium on movies with posters showing a guy holding a gun.

What is left? On the rare occasions when I do go to movies the previews make me cringe. They are all full of four-letter words and bad grammar and violence and embarrassing sex and all kinds of other depressing things.

Last week I had the idea of going to see "Crazy Heart," I think the title is, with Jeff Bridges playing an old country singer. I saw a bit of the trailer, the journalist introducing herself, saying, "I'm from such-and-such a paper, and I would like to ask you a few questions."

And it made me think of my situation with Leonard Pennario. I am not saying it is the exact same situation. I do not even know what happens to the people in that movie. But I like to draw my little parallels and I like watching journalists interview people on the big screen. Ha, ha! It is like a bus driver going to see "Speed."


But none of my friends wants to see "Crazy Heart" with me. The idea of a country singer is too right-wing for them, zut alors. Well, it is rated R, I see that now. In general I say nyet to R-rated movies. Plus, whatever happens to that reporter in "Crazy Heart," it cannot be as dramatic as what happened to me, in real life. Real life is always more entertaining than fiction. So I can see the bright side.

Long and short of it, no movies for me.

What the heck, I have a lot of work to do, anyway.