Donna in Hollywoodland

Syriana and The Matador

A friend and I did one of our "Movie Marathons."
We met at The Arclight and saw "Syriana" followed by "The Matador" .
And today was the day for weird Arclight Employees.

The Arclight is a very upscale movie theatre. Its pricey, $14 usually. But the theatres are absolutely perfect.
Huge screens. Seats on a perfect upward incline.
Reserved seating, so you pick your seat when you buy your ticket.
And the staff is always wonderfully helpful.

But today was just an "Off" day.

When we bought our tickets, we went up together as we usually do.
We want two tickets to two separate movies.
We want to sit together.
And we want to pay separately.

"I can't guarantee that." said the grumpy Ticket person.
"Huh, what?" We were shocked, because we had never heard an Arclight employee say anything negative before.

"But they've done it other times for us." I insisted.
"Yeah, I can try it. But there is no guarantee. A ticket could sell in between your two transactions."
"Okay, whatever."

The ticket process went smoothly, like it always does.

Except the Ticket Guy didn't validate my parking.
I asked him to check, and he said "I validated it."
I know he didn't because I had watched him.
(And sure enough, when we left I had problems because it wasn't validated.)

We got into our first movie, Syriana, just fine.

Syriana is definitely a political movie. Another friend of mine had told me "In Syriana a whole bunch of stuff happens. And then the movie ends. And you really never understand why all the stuff happened."

Okay, well ... I understood it alot better than that.
But maybe since I knew it was a confusing political movie, I paid closer attention than I normally would have.
So, yes, I did understand the political messages in the movie.
And that was pretty good considering that I consider myself so very unpolitically minded.
So if you go to see "Syriana", just pay close attention and you will understand it.

Then the second movie, "The Matador".

First, my friend had all sorts of problems at the concession stand.
She bought a gourmet chicken pesto sausage. But the Concession stand person forgot to swipe her Arclight membership card before my friend paid.
And to give her the points with out a swipe, would require a Manager.

My friends solution to the problem was to just delete the transaction.
She meant Delete the transaction, give her the money back, and then re-ring it back up.
Start all over from scratch.

Well, the Arclight employee thought she was returning the chicken sausage.
He un-did the transaction in the cash register and gave her the money back.
Then he said "You might as well keep the sausage because I'm just going to have to throw it out."

So she got her Chicken Pesto Sausage with Watermelon BBQ sauce for free.

Then, Problem Number 2. "The Matador" was in the corner theatre, next to the Bar area. And it was a "21 and Over" screening where they were serving alcohol.
We had no intention to buy drinks. But we still had to show our Drivers License to get into the Theatre.

Now, they didn't ask for our Drivers License when we bought the tickets. We had to show it at the door to the theatre.

That took forever. We had to dig around in our purses.
One doesn't expect to have show one's ID to actually get into the movie.
They should have asked us back when we bought our tickets in the first place.
Its a good thing we had our licenses with us.

(I later heard a story from a friend who said he bought his ticket, then once at the door of the "21 and Over Screening" they would not let him in. He had to run out the door, and rush home to get his drivers license in order to join his friends for the movie that he already had a ticket for. Luckily, he lived 10 minutes from the theatre.)

I really loved "The Matador". Pierce Bronson is so hysterical in this movie. He plays the drunk so well.
And Greg Kinnear, is always so sweet, and such a good guy. Hope Davis is also really comical in this.
Its funny watching Greg Kinnear's and Hope Davis' characters get so wrapped up in the glamorous side of Pierce Bronson's hit man. They are just so in awe of it.

As we left my friend and I talked about why we think Pierce Bronson is so sexy.
Well, first his wife looks alittle on the plus-sized side. And if he married a "real" woman like that, then I certainly do admire him.
We started talking about his rough skin. And how men with that kind of rough skin can end up being really sexy.

A funny story about "rough skin" men. I went out once - only once - with a blond Pierce Bronson type.
He had figured that I was definitely over 30. As the dinner went along he mentioned "Oh, I know you are over 30."

I looked at him "Um, I am so over 30, that I'm already over 40."

He looked at me. "You are over 40 ?!?!?"

Turns out I saw his rough "Pierce Bronson" skin type, and I figured him to be around 35.
Turned out he was only 28.

We were both way off in guessing the other persons age.
He guessed me as younger.
I guessed him as older.
Only in Hollywood.

So much for the Blond Pierce Bronson.
No, we never went out again.
I even felt guilty when he paid for the dinner.