My Most Memorable Movie-Watching Experiences

In mini story form.

The first time I watched 10 Things I Hate About You was 2 days before Heath Ledger died.

I watched Big and Hairy when I was with NLDC. We stayed in a lodge meant for traveling missionaries and preachers, and they had all sorts of Feature Films For Families type of movies, so we chose the one that looked the stupidest and watched it for fun.

I listened to Bowling For Columbine more than I watched it. I put it on my MP3 player and stuck it on my dashboard as I commuted to and from my student teaching placement. There were a couple scenes I actively watched while waiting in line somewhere, but mostly I just heard it. I figured since it was a documentary - and a talky one - this would work.

My roommate and I watched The Brother From Another Planet together and thought it was hilariously stupid. We were completely weirded out when we found out it was considered a great movie.

I watched The Christmas Shoes at a host home against my will.

(Spoiler.) When my family and I watched City of Angels and Meg Ryan is riding her bike with her eyes closed, someone said, "Well, she's dumb, she's going to get hit by a truck." And then she got hit by a truck, and we all cracked up laughing.

After I watched The Core, I had nightmares about things melting away into molten lava.

A baby-sitter let me watch Dead Poets Society when I was like... six. I didn't remember this until I saw it again, years later, and realized the suicide scene was burned into my mind.

I thought Darth Vader was lying to Luke about being his father in The Empire Strikes Back. It wasn't until Return of the Jedi confirmed it that the twist actually surprised me.

I watched Facing the Giants at a host home against my will. They kept asking me what I thought, and I kept smiling and saying things like, "It's got a good message!" even though I really don't believe that either.

When I was in New York City with my friend Sarah, we discovered Far from Home: The Adventures of Yellow Dog on TV. However, we discovered it was much more fun to make up our own dialogue for what was going on on the screen, especially once we found out that Yellow Dog's name was, er... Yellow Dog.

The first time I saw Finding Nemo, it had been really talked up by my friends, and I just didn't get what all the hype was about. It grew on me.

I saw The Game Plan with a group of friends. I was very snarky that day and kept making fun of the movie. One of them joined in with me, at which point my other friends told me I had to move because we were ruining the movie for them.

I watched Hangman's Curse with someone who has a mad fangirl love for Frank Peretti, so she "squee"d all the way through it.

People kept telling me Hidalgo wasn't a horse movie, so I watched it. People lied.

When I made fun of the end of How To Lose a Guy In 10 Days, my roommate said, "Well, of COURSE you wouldn't like it. You only like sad endings." I'm pretty sure the ending of HTLAGI10D *is* a sad ending, you just don't actually see the sad part happen. That story sure isn't going to end well.

My friend Anna and I rented Idiocracy by accident on her parents' pay-per-view account, so we decided we might as well watch it.

I was convinced Midnight in Paris would be the one Woody Allen movie my mom would probably like, so I told my sisters to make her watch it but not tell her who wrote/directed it. However, when they told my dad what they were watching, he said, "Oh, is that the new Woody Allen movie?" Fortunately, Mom sat through it and DIDN'T hate it, but my plan was almost foiled.

I watched Newsies at like 2 in the morning while waiting at home for my brother Micah to be born.

The girls on my floor my first year at HU had a movie night and watched P.S. I Love You, so I decided to be sociable and watch it with them. It was not a pleasant time.

The day after a text discussion with Jacob about how I should get a job teaching vampires theater because of my preferred sleep schedule, I watched Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead completely by chance, which is about vampires in theater.

I watched Seven Samurai during the tech rehearsal for Guys and Dolls, a show I was barely in. While everybody else was setting light cues, I was sitting in the auditorium watching samurai fight.

When I saw Spider-Man in theaters, the aspect ratio was screwed up, so everybody was smushed and fat. This changed as soon as Peter Parker turned into Spider-Man, making it look like his superpower returned him to looking like a normal human.

I watched Sweeney Todd during my NLDC Christmas break. I felt like a heathen watching such a very R-rated movie now that I was home and wasn't really under drama company rules, but... I didn't feel THAT bad.

The other movie Sarah and I watched on TV in NYC was Top Secret!, which we caught the last half of and *I* thought it was hilarious, so I googled it and watched it for real.

I saw WALL·E in theaters with my NLDC team. It opens with Michael Crawford singing "Put On Your Sunday Clothes." It had been so long since I'd heard a showtune that I hadn't realized how badly I was craving them, and I got WAY overexcited. I tried to explain to my teammate next to me what the big deal was, but I don't think he understood.

Right before I saw War Horse in theaters, I got some pretty unfortunate news. Because of this, I was extremely emotionally vulnerable and cried through the entire movie. I cried through a HORSE MOVIE. I don't do that.