The first movie Double L and I saw when we first got together was The Bourne Identity. I recall the day and conversation went something like:
me: hey, do you want to go to the movies?
LL: yeah, what’s playing?
me: I don’t know. Let’s just go see what’s about to start.
LL: okay.
It turned out that The Bourne Identity was the only movie about to start. We happily bought our tickets and tubs of goo and went in to enjoy the show. Flash forward a few years and the truth has revealed itself. Double L doesn’t like going to the movies. She says they’re too crowded, too dark, too loud and generally too simple minded and thus boring. Plus the seats are uncomfortable and the joint smells like feet. She doesn’t like to see people fight, stab, shoot, smack, run around much, or insult each other. It’s all just so rude, crude and full of bad energy. So instead of going to the movies we got a pug and watched lots of Food Network.
A couple of years went by and we met Carter and Jene’. They also have pugs and watch lots of Food Network. But one magical day Carter asked me if I’d seen Grindhouse. At this point I was so out of touch with the movie world I had to admit I hadn’t even heard of it. He said we should go see it. He’d already seen it but wanted to see it again, probably to catch all the subplot stuff. Well, probably not. And so the date and time were set.
Within the first five minutes of Planet Terror I was reminded of why I love going to these kinds of movies. They’re a hoot, Slim.
The best thing about the whole night was that I had a new movie dude to go see dude movies with.
A couple of months ago, Carter and Jene’ invited us to lunch. But it wasn’t really about lunch. They used that Indian buffet to cushion the news of their impending departure from Lexington to Ohio. Double L and I were very sad. Full, but sad.
On the way home it occurred to me that I was losing my new dude movie dude. What kind of movies would I go to, post Carter? My vision became blurred and every sign and poster I saw seemed to say “Hugh Grant Film Festival” next left.
The following titles ran through my head and I broke out in a cold sweat:
Wedding Crashers, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, My Best Friend’s Wedding, The Wedding Singer, American Wedding, The Wedding Planner, The Wedding Date, Monsoon Wedding, Muriel’s Wedding and Walk the Line.
Carter isn’t moving until late June but the swift and certain change has already begun. Tonight Double L and I saw “Then She Found Me.” Yip. The summer blockbuster season has begun.
