Hippity Hoppity Movie Hopping

I popped my movie hopping cherry this weekend. Who knew? I am a glorified movie-geek and I have never ever done the movie hop. The pay for one movie, watch it and when it’s done, skirt into another movie. A two-fer.

I’m a little embarrassed to admit that my teenage son suggested we movie hop. I’m not embarrassed that I did the movie hop with my kid, only that I didn’t think of it first. Damn kids are too smart for their own good.

Times are tough, the economy is sluggish. I’m all for stretching my entertainment dollar as far as I can.

I suppose I should feel guilt; movie hopping doesn’t reek of leading by parental example but honestly, I don’t feel that bad when movies are $7.50 a piece (and that’s a matinee). I’m pretty sure the fine people at Paramount or Fox Studios of whoever it was that didn’t benefit from our extra $15 in ticket sales will find another way to fleece the movie going public.

Despite my novice standing in movie-hopping, I am an expert in the sneaking in of concessions. When a small diet coke is roughly the same price as a 12-pack at the Pick-N-Save…all’s fair in love and smuggling. It’s all about survival.

I highly recommend stopping at Walgreens for the boxed movie candy. Nine times out of ten they are on sale for $1 a box which is far more reasonable then AMCs take- it-in- the -shorts price of $4.25 for a box of Junior Mints.

Popcorn is a bit trickier, but it can be done. A ziploc freezer bag will hold plenty of popcorn and can typically be shoved in the arm of a jacket. Carry the jacket in over your arm. In the summer months a big purse works well. Empty out everything you don’t need, carry your wallet and stuff in the much needed provisions.

The movie-hop was great fun. We probably had success because it was a Friday afternoon, there weren’t a lot of ushers around and it’s a multi-plex. The multi-plex lends itself to movie hopping potential.

For the record we saw “Crazy, Stupid, Love” which was worth the price of admission and then hopped to “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”.

Kinda glad I didn’t pay for that last one.

Putrid.

Revoking the parent card

I am by all rights a cool mom. At least in my opinion I’m cool. I’m sure other freakishly obsessive controlling parents would color me un-cool, too open and too forthcoming with my 14 year old son. But he still talks to me so I consider my approach, at least so far, successful. He’s starting high school this month so ask me in four years how this approach truly worked.

My son has inherited my affinity for movies. Inherited is probably a strong word. Let’s be honest. I’ve been molding and shaping his exposure to film since I took him to see the re-release of The Wizard of Oz when he was three years old. Oh yes, he’s all about the wieldy action adventure popcorn movie but he is also a closeted rom-com watcher (he’ll never admit it), thinks the Bond movies with Sean Connery are the best ones, can recognize Cary Grant and likes Charlie Chaplin (although I have to reluctantly give a nod to my mother in law for that influence). He loves movies. I’m mama duck proud.

Now that he has hit 14, PG-13 is sooooooo yesterday’s news and he is beginning to push the “R” rated envelope for movie watching. I admit, in some cases an “R” in 1984 is not quite like an “R” in 2010. Parental latitude has been given. So his suggestion for us to watch Revenge of the Nerds on a recent Saturday night, seemed reasonable.

Having seen it a few times, I did the mental rolodex, thumbed through the scenes in my head. Yeah ok – some language, maybe a quick boob shot, some sex references…how bad can it be? I mean 16 Candles has a full on boob shot of Caroline Montfort in the shower and that was PG-13. And the kid goes to public school. He’s been hearing f-bombs on the playground since he was 6 – at least I would be sitting next to him during the movie offering full-on parental support.

Important parenting tip. If it’s been, oh say, 15 years since you’ve seen a movie, it may be a good idea to do a quick refresh of said movie in lieu of relying solely on the mental rolodex . IMDB.com has a nifty little “parental advisory” feature of every film which outlines the f-bombs and other adult situations. It’s a nice little memory jogger. Too bad I didn’t use it in this instance.

Apparently my mental rolodex failed to recall these key classic Revenge of Nerd film moments:

1. The “hair pie” reference. Yeah. I know. It’s a really dated and rarely used slang term to reference the coochie. It’s so dated it prompted the following question: “Mom, what’s a hair pie?” Mental head slap.
    
2. The panty raid scene which includes multiple scantily clad girls running up and down the dorm room screaming, full on boob shots bouncing up and down.
    
3. The cameras in the shower scene which sets up the classic movie utterance by “Booger”….”We’ve got bush, we’ve got bush!” I’m not sure if I should be relieved or worried my son didn’t ask “Mom, what’s a bush”. I think he figured that one out on his own. 

At that point I wouldn’t have been surprised if Social Services broke down my front door with an axe and revoked my parent card with all rights and privileges therein. My son, of course, thought the movie was hilarious and I’m sure I’ve officially locked in my position as the coolest mom on the planet award – at least for one day.

And in an act of spousal transparency I disclosed some of the more mature elements of this classic feature film to my spouse, who responded with a Beavis and Butthead laugh.

“Heh heh, heh-heh-heh – you said bush.”