> >
> > Lawrence of Arabia, brand new 70mm print, 86x32' screen. It was about a 3.5 hour drive there with traffic and a 2 hour drive back. I would drive twice as long to see it again like that.
>
> That's something I can get behind. A two hour drive to Keene, however, would be a two hour drive to a dumpy box with a dirty screen the size of a contact lens and probably people that only chew popcorn with their mouths open and right up against your ear and a couple on the other side of the theater chatting to themselves through the whole thing.
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> I hate hate hate the so-called "theatrical experience." Cinephiles and Hollywood execs and critics and M. Night Shyamalan can blather on all they want to about how the theater is the only way to see movies and it is not only my duty but a moral imperative to go to the theaters, and all they'll get out of me is a nose-thumbing until theater owners stop whining at me and actually *do* something to *make* the theatrical experience better than firing up a DVD on a tiny screen in the privacy of my home. It can't be that hard. My home theater equipment is awful, and our sofa is uncomfortable. Yet my living room reigns supreme.
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> So why would I spend sixteen times a Netflix rental, plus a full tank of gas, to make a four hour round trip? It would have to be something pretty special. We commuted into Boston (an all-day affair) to see Harry Potter 3 in an IMAX theater when I had never seen an IMAX movie before. That was worth it. Lawrence of Arabia on a new 70mm print would be worth it, too.
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> Wordplay, however, would probably be improperly framed on a screen torn decades ago, with the bass all crackly in one speaker. Ok, I've never been to the theater at Keene and have no idea if this is an accurate picture or not. But it could be, and I doubt Wordplay is the kind of movie you need all-encompassing sound and larger-than-life imagery for anyhow. But Trip, my friend, the bright note in this sad tale is that my willingness to make the 30 minute commute, should it ever appear in Portsmouth, automatically prioritizes Wordplay above some 100+ other films from 2006 I'll eventually see at home.

I set foot in a movie theater about once or twice in an average year. Usually, it's because my grandkids or my wife want to go. I can't seem to swallow popcorn at dollar an ounce.

It's easier for me at home, but I sometimes wonder why we have a stack of DVD's that have never been in the machine.

Movies are somewhat like NASCAR races. I went to the track a few times, but after hearing the noise, and smelling the tire smoke a few times, I am pretty much over that part of the experience. I seldom miss one on TV, where I have my own recliner, my ancient TV, and my own chips and salsa. Live races have no instant replays and no in-car cameras.
Howard