You've Got to Be Kidding!

Time to go hit a movie! I thought 'Choke' looked like it might be interesting.So, I find a theater showing it late and off I go. Little did I know that is what the theater would do!

It was a way cool theater. As you can see it has the old movie house design and feel. Inside there was actually a bar and restaurant! Way cool! While I thought that was really fun, I was more interested in discovering the answer to question number one about any movie theater I go to ... "Do they serve Coke or Pepsi?" Well, it was NOT a good answer as they serve Pepsi products. So, at this point I will not ever go back to another Muvico theater - OK, I wouldn't even if they had theaters in OC!

But while that wouldn't sway the normal person (after all who else is so ridiculously adamant about "Coke" not Pepsi!?) the rest of the experience might make you pause. Certainly the movie paused! Literally! The start time was 10:35. I made my way into the theater and was literally the ONLY person in the theater. I had my own private showing! But as I sat there I realized that a lot of time had passed and the movie had not started. It was odd as there was no pre-preview thing - just a slide that kept refreshing every 15 seconds like it was a brand new one and a looping 'soundtrack' that restarted right along with every 'new' slide. I looked at my watch and saw it was 10:45 - 10 minutes past the show time. At 10:48, I thought maybe I'd go check to see if they were actually going to show anything this evening.

As I got to the counter and asked, one of the THREE employees hanging out chatting, suddenly realized what it was he had apparently forgotten. You guessed it, he ran to the back to 'start the movie'! OK, that was weird. Never had that before! Well the trailers started and the lights went down - well most of them did. The movie theater was still pretty light as half the lights were still on! After about 1o minutes of the lights being on it was obvious they were going to stay on for the movie! So, out I go again. "Um, are they going to turn off the lights in the theater? Like all of them?" The manager rolled his eyes that his employee was apparently falling down so magnificently! Got him on the walkie talkie and got the matter resolved.

As I headed back into the theater to see if they might actually be able to get the movie finished without further issue, I saw the ad poster for the theater. And it was definitely a case of truth in advertising! Although I am not sure they intended it the way it came across to me at that moment! "You've got to be kidding" is right!!

Actually, the pre-movie excitement turned out to be the best part! I am still not sure what the hell 'Choke' was about! Oh well. It was yet another crazy night!!