Best Picture Showcase

This weekend, the hubs and I attended AMC's Best Picture Showcase. AMC has started the tradition of showing all of the Academy's Best Picture nominees in one fell swoop. This year with the Academy's decision to move to 10 Best Picture nominees, they split the showcase to cover two weekends. This year Dan and I decided to try it out.

I've always had a secret wish to be a movie reviewer. I love this modern incarnation of storytelling, I love the visuals and theme. So, the fact that we'd be watching 5 movies with as much popcorn as you could eat? Awesome. We began with Avatar, then saw Up In The Air (a repeat for me), moved on to Precious and finished up with The Blind Side. We could have stayed for Inglorious Basterds, but it didn't begin until 9:45p and it's not a short movie (hey, a girl has to work in the morning!). Additionally, we had both seen it over New Year's Eve. We were glad we left when we did. They had been giving 30 minute breaks between movies, but this final one had a break so long that we were able to drive home, lock up church and feed the cats before it would have started.

Would we do it again? I don't know, hard to say, except that it depends on the nominees. I thought I would get tired of movies by the end of it. However, these things are nominated for Best Picture for a reason! They are captivating films, they hold your interest and elict an emotional response. What might have felt like fatigue during the breaks was rapt attention during the movies themselves. No complaints here.

Dan and I also had some great conversation on the way home. We even found the link for each movie. Oh, you'd like to know what that was? Thanks for asking:
Avatar and Up In The Air both dealt with the topic of travel (one through via spaceship, one via plane). Up In The Air and The Blind Side both had the song Bust A Move in it. The Blind Side and Precious both dealt with the stories of kids growing up in the projects. I don't really have one for Inglorious Basterds...but we didn't see it.

In conclusion, if we were to repeat, here are some:

Tips...Tricks...Things I Wish We Had Known

1. Split the goods. What I didn't like about leaving the theater before the last movie was the nagging feeling that one of our friends probably would have gone to see Inglorious Basterds in our place. I think that this deal is one that you could totally split up between a few couples. The breaks are long enough that you could go out into the parking lot, switch out your pass and movie stub with a friend and be on your merry way. This year the cost broke down to being $30 a person - that's roughly $5 a movie and $5 for the large popcorn. (And popcorn retails for more than that at the concession stand). A total steal, even if you skip the last movie. But think of what could be if you combined it?

2. Bring a blanket. They keep theaters cold, I wish that I'd had an additional layer. Pragmatically, we began in one theater and ended in a different theater. Most people brought a blanket to "save" their seats in the second theater. In retrospect, I wish we had made that decision. It would also have held our seats during breaks.

3. Come earlier. We got there 45 minutes before the first showing. In retrospect, we probably could have been there 15 minutes earlier. We had fine seats (really, not too bad) but the seats where you can put up your feet? Taken almost immediately, as were the reserved seats in the next theater. Not too big of a deal.

4. No previews, but you will see the Coke ad before every movie. And the pre-show trivia, too. Just sayin'. Did you know that Tim Burton designed an ad campaign as a teenager for local garbage trucks that was chosen and displayed on the side of every truck? And did you know that now he is a famous director?

5. Pace the food. Just...pace yourself. Popcorn still tastes good after 4 movies of it, but we only refilled our bag once. And that's okay.