I was thinking...

I don't want it thought that because I enjoy watching movies at home so much, I advocate this over going to the cinema. No way. As far as I'm concerned, the kinds of movies I generally want to see have been crafted to be projected onto the big screen. A typical movie theater screen allows for a deeper appreciation of the craft of movie making--the cinematography, the set design, the sheer inventiveness.

There's also something to be said for the social aspects of seeing a film in a public house, sharing the experiences of a film together.* I think about some of the most memorable film-going experiences I've had, most of them as a child taken to the cinema usually by my father but sometimes by mom too. Seriously though, what was my dad thinking taking me to see Taxi Driver when I was 7? Or The Deer Hunter? Or The Decline of Western Civilization in a theater full of punks? Or Kramer vs. Kramer right as my parents were splitting up? Ask any child of divorce from the 1970s and it's almost a sure bet that seeing Kramer vs. Kramer was a trauma and a rite of passage. But these are the experiences I hold most dear, the same experiences that scared me so much also cultivated this love of film.

Fast forward years later to 1992 and an almost empty movie house in San Jose, California where I dragged my friend Stacey to see a movie with the strange title "Reservoir Dogs." There were maybe 5 of us in the entire theater, but we all were blown away. And as much as I love watching movies at home, the experience to me will never compare.

*Obviously, when the person behind you won't shut up or keeps rustling the wax paper on his sandwich or a cell phone goes off, being in the movie house can be a drag. Especially if you've forked over $10 for a ticket, and another $10 for some stale popcorn or Red Vines and soda. Do theaters even have managers anymore? One last thing: I don't care what the economic reasons for it are, a patron who attends a movie in a theater should never, ever have to watch commercials before the previews. I don't care if Ang or Spike Lee directed it, I don't want to watch a BMW ad once I'm in there.