Saturday night seems to be a regular movie night for the Hubs and me anymore. I love movies. Frankly, I could watch movies every single night and be perfectly happy. After all, I've been a movie fan ever since I can't remember, and truth be told, I could have been a famous actress, rubbing elbows with hot vampires in Hollywoodland...had I so chosen. I could have had it all. The stalkers adoring fans...the red carpet...the fame...the fortune. But who needs that, right?
Well not me! No. I'm perfectly content to be the almost middle class, semi-ordinary, not-quite starving artist/blogger/former art teacher, who lives in the hideously boring flatlands of northwest Ohio with her husband, watching movies on Saturday night. Hollywood, Schmollywood. THIS is living!
But anyhoots...I was flipping through our vast array of On Demand video options for this evening. I saw plenty of flicks that I'd enjoy watching, but the Hubs? Probably not so much. And I saw plenty of flicks that he would enjoy watching. But me? Probably not so much. And that's always the biggest challenge on movie night: finding a movie we'll both enjoy watching.
So he suggests Terminator: Salvation.
And all I can do is roll my eyes and I sigh.
I mean, the only salvation I'll get from a Terminator movie is if I don't have to watch it. The first one rocked. The second one...it was OK. The Third? Yawn. But damn. Let the machines die already.
Then I suggest the rom-com, The Back-Up Plan.
Surely a chick flick about a single woman who gets pregnant with twins via artificial insemination, only to meet the man of her dreams on the very same day, that has to have some redeeming quality in the Hubs' eyes, right? Doesn't Jennifer Lopez's ass count for anything?
Apparently not.
So it was clear fairly quick we weren't going to agree on a movie via On Demand. And I wasn't much in the mood to wade through my library of all my favorite DVD's. But then I remembered that I had recently bought a special edition of the Tom Hanks movie, Big and hadn't yet watched it.
It's been years since we've seen that, but it's a great movie, a classic, and has something for both sexes, to be sure. So I gave him a choice.
"I guess I can either let you pick something on TV (which in reality is just code for him flipping channels for two hours), or we can watch that DVD of Big that I just bought."
His reply? "Isn't that movie kind of...OLD?"
"Um, it's from the late 80's. That's not that old. It's in color and everything," I told him.
And he just rolled his eyes and sighed.
But then he shoots back a counter offer: "I say, you can put Big in, or we can watch that DVD of Close Encounters you bought me for Christmas."
Dammit, man. Where is that crappy memory of yours when I really need it? He can't remember what we had for dinner last night, but he can remember that I got him the collector's edition of Close Encounters for Christmas--two weeks ago?! WTH, dude?! And like I can really say no to letting him watch the movie I'd given him as a gift. Man, he's good.
And so I just rolled my eyes and sighed.
But on the way to the DVD player, I did have to point out one very important bit of cinematic trivia to the Hubs.
"You do realize that this movie is OLD, don'tcha, fella? It's from all the way back in...1977."