Current location:	Back home
Current mood:	happy

There's No Screen Like A Big Silver Screen
Tonight, I went to the movies to see a frog. No, not the frog that Disney's introducing us to in December - I'm not that well connected! I went to see a revival screening of "The Muppet Movie" at the cheapie movie theater down the road from my house. I wasn't all that cheap in this case - admission was 8 bucks. The theater was worn and a little bit messy. The print was ancient and had a lot of scratches, and the sound wasn't very good. I had a wonderful time.

I'm sure that a few of you reading this are probably saying to yourselves, "Why did you bother? You could have just as easily gone to Blockbuster or signed up for Netflix and rented it for a couple of bucks." True, I could have. But I would have missed out on what I think is cinema at its most magical - seeing a movie on the big screen with an audience.

We've come a long way technologically since I first started watching movies. Nowadays, you can bring a movie home on DVD or Blu-ray (or on VHS if you've still got the equipment) and watch it over and over to your heart's content. You can buy a big screen, high-definition TV to hang on the wall of your living room, and you can add a home theater system with multiple speakers, Dolby, and surround sound. If you've got the cash and the space, you can even create your own screening room in your home, right down to the rows of comfy seats and the popcorn machine. But it's still not the same as going to a movie theater.

It's not about the sound system, the size of the screen, or the plushness of the stadium seats (although none of these things hurt). It's about getting together with a large group of people and sharing an experience. It's about all of you laughing at the same joke, or crying together at the last goodbye. It's about all of you gasping collectively when the hero cheats certain death by inches, or sighing when the hero and the heroine kiss. Sometimes, it's even about the whole lot of you singing along to a song in the film that you've all heard a hundred times before (which happened tonight, by the way - it was so cool to hear about a dozen people, myself included, singing along to "Rainbow Connection").  There are so few times in our lives these days where we can get together with a crowd of people and, for a couple of hours at least, cease being individuals with our own individual issues and become one community.  Unless you invite a room full of people over every time you want to pop in a DVD, or until they create robots to sit with you in your home theater and react with you while you watch, you're never going to duplicate that experience at home.

Now, don't get me wrong. I have a large collection of DVDs and VHS tapes, and I enjoy pulling them out and watching them every once in a while. The cheapskate in me has a minor fit when I fork over ten bucks or more for popcorn and soda, no matter how big they are, and if someone could guarantee me that I'd never have to see another commercial other than the movie trailers when I go to my local cineplex, I'd be ecstatic.  But give me the choice between watching a movie I've seen a dozens of times - or for the first time - in my home or watching it in a darkened theater, it's no contest.

I'll see you at the movies!