Prior to this past summer, a movie had to be a big “tentpole” picture to warrant the “midnight” movie treatment.  However, this summer saw the rise of midnight movies on Thursday nights almost every week.  So, on the week that everyone was rushing to see G.I. Joe at midnight, I was meeting up with Lisa, David, Daniel, and Heather to see…..

wait for it……

Julie and Julia

I know, you are shocked and amazed; you may even be asking yourself, “But Matt, surely this was sold out in advance if they were doing a midnight show?”  Well, I prefer to think of our outing as an almost exclusive premiere.

We get to the Festival Bay Carmike Cinema and find our theater.  Aside from 4 other people, we were all alone for the showing.  That was fine with me, as it meant that we would not have to deal with rude audience members.  So we settled in and started the movie.

Julie and Julia is the story of a woman who seemed at a loss as to what to do in life while all of her friends were becoming huge successes.  After a night of bemoaning her situation to her boyfriend, she turns a passing interest in cooking into a full-blown experiment of cooking for one year like Julia Child.  What follows is a deftly managed tale of two women trying to find a place in the world and making the most of opportunities.

What truly makes this movie is the casting.  Meryl Streep was wonderful as Mme. Child, with great support from Stanley Tucci as her husband.  Amy Adams allowed me to generate goodwill towards Julie, even though I wanted more of Julia’s story; besides, Julie was a brat in the movie.  While I would not classify this as a comedy, there were a number of comedic moments.

As the more faithful readers know, it is not just the movie I review, but the surrounding experience.  I enjoyed the company I had, which is a good thing considering what happened.  With about 30-45 minutes left, the film broke and came to a stop.  OK, no big deal, the projectionist will see this and fix it.  We waited about 5-10 minutes until we realized that no one was up there.  What followed was a 30-minute quest to find someone who worked in the theater.  After recruiting mall security, an employee was located and the movie was fixed.  As we began watching, I noticed an employee enter and stand off to the side.  I figured he was there to give us passes as we left the theater once the movie was over.

NOPE….

He actually came over to us and handed us passes and TALKED to us during a DIALOG-heavy movie.  But he was gone quickly.  Then the next issue hit.  The A/C was turned off well before the end of the movie, creating a very hot theater.  The next day, I found myself doing something I had not done before with regards to theaters – I sent an email to Carmike Cinemas outlining the issue.  To their credit, I was promptly sent two free passes to any movie.

Good job, Carmike.

My advice: See it if it is still playing – otherwise, definitely catch it on DVD….