8 Most Memorable Times at the Movies

A friend posted his list on Facebook and it got me thinking a bit.

This is not about the best movies you've ever seen. Describe eight experiences watching a movie that stick in your mind as being particularly memorable - for whatever reason.

Here’s my list, in no particular order:

1. Seeing The Empire Strikes Back for the first time. I was so incredibly excited about the movie from the first trailers I’d seen. I was a huge Star Wars fan and immensely excited to see it. My friend Traylor and I waited outside for more than an hour to get in, I think, at the old Belle Meade theater in Nashville (which was later a BookStar, and I’m not sure what it is now). Still one of my favorite movies.
2. Dina and I were having a romantic weekend at a bed and breakfast in Granbury, and decided to go to the drive-in theater. Unfortunately, the only thing playing was White Chicks. Oh, well.
3. The Sword and the Sorcerer. This was a shlocky fantasy flick, and the first R-rated film I saw at the theater. Somehow or another I’d heard of it or seen a trailer and I begged my Dad to let me see it. He took me and my friend Ted, and it was kind of a coming of age experience for me. I’m sure it doesn’t hold up to the test of time, but I remember being scared and absolutely loving it. An intense (literally oozing) bad guy, a three-bladed sword (where two of the blades fired out of the sword!), a hero who rips his own crucified body down and uses the spikes (still through his hands!) to kill bad guys? Awesome. Also, naked women. Woot.
4. The Running Man. This one is mainly memorable because it’s the only time I can remember going to the movies where I was the only person in the entire theater.
5. A.I. Dina and I went to see this right before Alex was born—kind of our last time to have a night out before becoming parents. What a horrible, horrible movie to celebrate with. I’ve described the experience of seeing the movie as similar to cutting out my own liver with a plastic spoon, but I think that that might be too complimentary.
6. Finding Nemo was the first movie that Alex ever saw at the theater, for his second birthday. We were all mesmerized. (Zack’s first movie at the theater was Happy Feet. We were all bored, disappointed, and somewhat freaked out—I still call this one Crappy Feet.)
7. I vividly remember going to see Rambo with my uncle Doug when I went to Myrtle Beach with my aunt, uncle, and cousins on vacation. It was kind of a bonding thing, and cool for me because my oldest cousin Stacey wasn’t old enough to see it yet. The most memorable part, though, was when we were waiting for the movie to start. My uncle farted very loudly, then turned to me and, with a straight face, said, “Rob! You shouldn’t do that in a crowded theater! You should at least say ‘Excuse me!’” Yeah, that’s Uncle Doug for you.
8. Watching Somewhere in Time by myself when I was on a cruise with my parents. It was cool and weird watching a movie on a moving ship. I went to see it, of course, because of Christopher Reeve. The ending left me indignant.

It seems like I could come up with more of these (like the time I snuck up behind my friends Beth and Leslie when we were watching Watchers at the dollar movies in college, and scared them, or the time the guys and I saw Star Trek: Nemesis for my birthday and I’ve had to apologize every year since for picking such a stinker), but I’ll try to restrain myself.

What are your most memorable movie experiences?

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