Friday, October 22, 2021

filling in the gaps for weeks 59 and 60

I'm speaking of the A*List gaps, of course.
For these past two weeks, the movies that show up on my AMC dashboard are not all that I saw for the week.
Consider the ones for Week 59.
The picture doesn't tell the whole story.
Sure, "Dear Evan Hansen" was the first, seen on a Friday afternoon at The 11 - and what a delightful musical it turned out to be!
I certainly would have seen it sooner had I known.
But, it served as the first of a double header instead, followed up with my first partaking of the AMC $5 Thrills & Chills Surprise series.
Hey, for just $5, I figured I would just leave if it was one I didn't want, right?
I stayed, though, to watch 'old' Jamie Lee Curtis kick butt again in the 2018 "Halloween".
You notice that one was not reflected in my trio, though.
That's because I went ahead and reserved tickets for the other two movies, so their prices would be absorbed by my A*List membership.
Carolyn thought that terribly clever of me!
(smile!)
So, the second on my A*List was my third AMC movie - and I'm surprised, and grateful, that it wasn't a special screening price film!
"My Country, My Parents", watched with Barbara, was the final installment of a trilogy commissioned in 2019 to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the People's Republic Of China; the first two of the trilogy, to my knowledge, were not screened here.
This one, like the other two, consisted of several short movies - four, to be exact - combined in a theme. Celebrating the country's successful battle for freedom from the Japanese was the first; the second made personal their advancements in rocket science; the third was certainly the most humorous to me, as it celebrated - no, seriously! - the first product advertising on television in the 1960's; and the fourth was a sweet tale with a time-traveling android, set partly in the present and partly in the future (2050).
So, let's take a gander again at the photograph, shall we?
That has "No Time To Die" as the last film, seen on Thursday, October 14.
So it was, too, and seen with Carolyn, who had already watched it but likes to accompany me on movie excursions... and I like that, too.
(smile!)
However, there is a missing movie, one viewed on Wednesday, the 13th: that was another of the AMC $5 T&C Surprises and turned out to be an Oscar winner!
Yes, it was "Get Out" and I stayed, partly because I'd never seen it, partly to see how a movie in the "Horror" category had won that prestigious Academy Award.
Well, for one thing, whoever classified it missed the boat completely - the movie is pure "Science Fiction", and very good scifi, too.
I'm sure hoping Jordan Peele knows the difference.
Anyway, that makes five movies viewed, with only three on my dance card.
Yep, there were definitely two gaps on that one!

The following week had even more gaps, believe it or not, but starts off well.
On the Friday, for the $5 T&C Surprise, I had hoped for "Sweeney Todd"... but had the other Jordan Peele "horror" as an alternate.
And "Us" is what it was, too.
I had thought if I used up an A*List slot for it that the poster for the actual screening would be reflected - but, no.
Ah, ya live and ya learn!
(smile!)
Sunday, I did indeed view "The Last Duel", and with Carolyn, but we had very different takeaways from the movie. The stellar cast (Matt Damon, Adam Driver, and Jodie Comer [whose MolotovGirl Millie was the irresistible love interest of my man, Guy]) was not to blame, but, to my mind, the sloppy film-making, using the same footage - seriously, the same exact fifteen-minute segments of footage - in the guise of presenting the points of view of the three main characters.
Wot the sweet hell,y'all???
Trying to keep up with the other overly long films this year?
STOP MAKING THOSE STUPIDLY LONG MOVIES.
Please - those of us watching in the REAL cinema cannot hit pause for a pee break.
Sheesh.
Okay, rant over, nothing to see here... move along, move along.
(Big breath in... slow breath out.)
So, the next day - that would be Monday - I took myself to a before-5 PM screening of "Free Guy" and Carolyn went for that one, too.
Why the early bird movie?
That was less than $6 out of  my pocket, and I had made my reservation for the other A*List movie before I went, to make sure.
Gotta maximize those savings!
That was my 8th time seeing Blue Shirt Guy in action, and her 5th, and you know what?
We both still get sappy when Guy finds out he isn't real.
I'll say it again: I love this movie.
I especially love that the good guy saves the world and does not get the girl.
That, for me, makes that dream world more real.
Okay, Tuesday found me solo for an evening screening of "Addams Family 2", which was pretty enjoyable (although I admit that Wednesday creeps me out).
Speaking of Wednesday, that was another $5 T&C Surprise, which turned out to be "The Nun", yet another I'd never seen, and a true "horror" film. It did have a bit of levity provided by a self-professed French Canadian, and it also let me see Vera Farmiga's younger sister in her first acting role, so, at least it had that for me and the lone guy also there for it.
Now, that bad movie was not the one I'd originally gone to see that night.
No, I'd shown up to catch the 6 PM special screening of "Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free" with Carolyn, which was not an A*List offering.
No worries to me, as I had $10 in Bonus Rewards to offset the $15 price.
She was there, and I was there, but the movie was lost in transit, but would arrive in time for the scheduled 7:30 viewing.
She went off for dinner (I'd had a late lunch) to await the later movie; I opted to see the cheapie chiller flick.
That meant I was back at the cinema on Thursday for the music biopic (she was there, as well, for the day-early viewing of "Dune").
What a wonderful piecing together of home movies shot almost three decades ago!
I've already written about that, though.
For now, let me summarize what I've done at AMC these past two weeks: I've watched a whopping ELEVEN movies, with six of them for free with my A*List membership.
Pretty neat trick, right?
But now I need to fly!
The mailman is coming and I have ten Halloween cards to send off!
Bwah ha ha!!!
(smile!)

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