Looking Back – ’08 Movies

As it’s the end of the year, I’ve been looking back to do a self-review. Part of it is so I can write my goals for next year, but mostly I just want to know how this past year went for me. My goals are almost always the same thing, so it gets boring sometimes and I need to get creative when writing new ones – or I have to be very specific.

But as I was looking back over ’08 I realized that I haven’t been enjoying the movies as much. Well, I knew that but I wanted to think about it more and to find out why.

Here are two things that stuck out at me:

1) I think I only went to the actual movie theater twice this year. That’s it!? Just twice?! I saw No Country for Old Men and Batman: The Dark Knight.

EDIT: I saw No Country in Dec ’07. Uggh, I only went to the theater ONCE in a year? That’s unheard of for a Schwartzman. That can’t be right.

2) Most of the moviesDVDs I watched this year, I kind of whined about. Various little things here and there… plot points, characters, etc. And as this is a blog, I don’t get into why that is, I just whine and move on. But why is that?

For item #1- I know there’s a lot of “stuff” surrounding theater-goers woes: ticket prices, concession prices, cell phone noise, cell phone texters, loud talkers, etc. But that’s not what has kept me away. I think I just don’t schedule my time correctly, or I wuss out and look for excuses not to go if I’m invited. (I get invited to a lot of daytime showings – “long lunches”.) That’s fixable.

For item #2- I think the reason that I’m whining more is that I’ve lost some of my escapability. I’m probably not wording this correctly- but what I mean is that sometimes I just can’t sit back and get lost into the movies like I used to be able to do.

I could with Torque (and enjoyed it) but I couldn’t do it with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (review pending). With Indy, it was because I had wanted to see it and my expectations were high. And even though I was at home and on my couch, I couldn’t get into the film without picking it apart (and thinking “Southpark was right!”).

It wasn’t until later (my 3DMT™) when I heard Kevin talking about it over Pho that I realized it was a fun movie despite it’s flaws and that I should “lighten up, Francis”

So for ’09 I have two movie goals: go to the theater more and just enjoy what I’m watching without picking it apart.