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Ask Dr. Babooner

92 Comments

We are ALL Dr. Babooner.

Dear Dr. Babooner,

I’m exhausted from years of having to think about the 2012 elections. Now that it’s over, I’m looking forward to a little entertainment. Problem is, we have only one free night this weekend.

So I invited my husband to go with me to see a big hero movie that’s opening today. The main character is iconic. Larger than life. Admired. Beloved, even. I e-mailed the trailer to him to get him excited about the prospect of spending a couple of hours in the dark with me and this well-known character. My hope is that we’d both feel all action-y afterwards. Take a look and tell me it’s not amazing!

But here’s the thing, Dr. Babooner. My husband wrote back and said he’d LOVE to go see a big hero movie that’s opening this weekend about an iconic character who is beloved and larger than life. He said he was excited at the thought of sitting in the dark with me and this well-known character. I was thrilled, until he said that afterwards we could have a really intense … political discussion.

Then I looked at the video he put in his e-mail.

http://youtu.be/qiSAbAuLhqs

Now I don’t know what to do!

Do I want frenetic spy thrills in a tense and gray modern London, or frenetic political jawboning in a tense and gray 19th century America?

My husband and I want to be together, but I’m afraid this choice is making it very difficult.

Conflictedly,
A House Divided.

I told A.H.D. she should flip a coin and live with the result. Really, it’s hard to go wrong, so why agonize? But that’s just one opinion. What do you think, Dr. Babooner?

92 thoughts on “Ask Dr. Babooner”

  1. The name is Bond . . . Abraham Bond. A solution worthy of Solomon. You see the first half of Lincoln (you know how that ends) and the second half of Sky Thinky/Whatever.

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      1. No I was wrong. I thought USC cheating with their deflated footballs was just too good a topic for BM Barry to pass up. But Dale does ignore sports, wise man that he is.
        I have the perfect Solomonic solution for myself–don’t go to either. I am the only male of my age who has seen only two Bond movies, way back when Connery was young. As a matter of fact there has not been a movie out in a few months that we would want to to go see. I don’t think our tastes are THAT narrow. Well, there were two that did not make it here.

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    3. Stick your feet in a fountain and pinch an Italian butt. It’s a beautiful place enjoy. I must be getting into blog zone. My brain autocorrects without prompting

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  3. I’m puzzled by the apparent decision to watch one of these films. Do you and your husband enjoy films? If you only see three or four a year, these two would be “must-see” films. See both of ’em. But if you cling to the idea of seeing just one, I gather that “Lincoln” is more boldly original.

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  4. Good morning. I don’t see any solution to your problem that I could recommend, AHD. Dales solution of the coin flip might work. You could just decide to go along with you husband’s choice. That would be a nice thing to do for him and it would show you are willing let him make the choice at least this time. However, if you very much want to see the Bond film, you could tell him that and he might be willing to go with your choice. Then there is the solutions that VS and Clyde offered. You have lots of options AHD. There may even be some other options to consider. It’s up to you.

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  5. I am becoming an old fuddy duddy. Both look good both will be enjoyed when I get to see them on video next year. I just couldn’t care less. Love Spielberg, wife is a bond freak but for 50 bucks with popcorn I’ll pass

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    1. My advice is somewhat hypocritical, since I never see first-run films in theaters. Like you, apparently, tim, I let them go to video and then watch them on my home theater setup. My “home theater” is quite modest, but I can control the volume, choose whether to have closed captions, get up to pee whenever I want and enjoy better popcorn than is served in theaters.

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      1. Theater popcorn 101: tell them you want to butter the popcorn in the middle. Go butter it and salt it and give it back to them to finish filling. Difference is night and day.

        Ot sort of
        Bbc for next week is moved to my house. I talked to Jacque and she is with us as a lurker but says we are all so boring she didn’t want to join in. That’s what it was right Jacque?
        So next week same time my place, Clyde and Ben welcome, Renee too for that matter, Donna there isn’t a vacation day the week before thanksgiving I suppose but you are certainly welcome. Dale will never show up at these things it would make him human. Next one won’t be til January so this is the pre holiday season get together.

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      2. Being able to control the volume is BIG. Two hours in a movie theater these days is an assault on my ears that I can’t stand, and Hans feels the same way. Maybe it’s an age thing, but it’s certainly a major reason we hardly ever go to see a movie in a theater anymore.

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      3. Another reason for screening movies at home: crying. I have grown steadily more sentimental over the years until I am embarrassingly emotional. Little sentimental moments that cause others to look sad will have me filling facial tissues with soggy tears. I cried so hard at the end of “Whale Rider” that I dreaded the moment the film would end and the lights come up. I weep just as copiously at home, but nobody else has to be embarrassed for me.

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        1. Teenager and I always go the movies on Christmas morning. Our big celebration is on Solstice, but on CD we do stockings (at our house, if you believe in Santa, he believes in you!) and then the movie. I think it was two years ago that “Marley & Me” was still fairly new in the theatres. By the end of the movie, EVERYONE in the theatre was crying, even the Teenager. We thought the woman behind us might be going into some kind of seizure she was crying so hard. So sometimes you’re in good company when you cry. However, when Toy Story 3 came out, we went to see it at the Riverview and not only did I cry my eyes out, but it was still the middle of the day when the movie let out, so there was no hiding under the cover of darkness!

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        2. Steve, I have one eye that can water profusely at odd times. Usually it’s when I’m outside in the wind, but it can happen other times. So I can look like I’m crying even when I’m not. I feel like a fool sometimes when I’m mopping up tears and I really am not feeling like crying one bit. In the interest of truthfulness, I often cry at movies, too, but I usually don’t let loose and bawl unless I’m watching alone. Same with reading books.

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        3. Here I thouight I was suffering from compassion fatigue (that’s acquired PTSD for therapists from being around too many other people’s traumas), since I can’t tolerate suspense in films any more and cry at the drop of a hat at the first sign of anything sentimental in a film. Maybe we are both just normal, Steve, and this is what happens as we get older.

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  6. i was recalling my youth and being part of the piper film club where i would go and see the movies rather than going to parties or hanging with other friends.that combined with comedy and classics on friday nights at 1030 made me a proclaimed film head. today tcm is all i need. the main criteria for cable is the tcm channel. i like the other movie offerings too but turner oldies is where my heart lies. the simple truth is that they made movies like we make tv shows and the effort not to put crap on the screen was sincere. todays tv is a crap based industry. and when someone identifies a public hunger hang on. dace and sing… survivor… millionaire… crime scene investigators… friends in an apartment… there is a place to plug movies in. where ever quality is desired. these two look wonderful.

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  7. I agree with VS, find a multiplex and see both. Movie theaters seem to have given up on double features, and more’s the pity – I have many many fond memories of seeing 2 or even 3 movies in a row at the old Uptown theater. Lineups like the Who’s “Tommy” with “Hair” or “Yellow Submarine” and “Help,” “Casablanca” and “African Queen”…maybe a string of Eastwood spaghetti westerns…saw “Clockwork Orange” there once, and once was really enough. Go for the movies, stay for the bathroom graffiti…sigh. Anyway – go find a multiplex, sit way up in the back (if they have stadium seating) and see both. And if you follow my Uptown double-feature routine, go get some Haagen-Dazs after the movies.

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    1. You’re right, Anna – saw “Harold and Maude” and “King of Hearts” there as a double, probably followed by the Haagen-Dazs.

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      1. Love both of those films. Maybe it’s time to put King of Hearts back in the Netflix queue, haven’t seen it in years.

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    2. When I was a much younger personage, I used to have film festivals at my place. Once was Katherine Hepburn, once was Tarzan films, once was Cary Grant. People would drop in for a while, stay as long as they could, so the crowd varied throughout the day.

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        1. It’s a powerful movie. It was a very powerful experience to see it with the Philip Glass Ensemble. It changed the way I think about the world we’ve created.

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  8. OT Dale interviewed a person who has made a documentary on the oil boom in N Dakota this morning on KFAI. You can see at least part of this documentary at blackgoldboom.com. I think Renee would find this interesting and others might also like it.

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  9. I have a friend who loves to see films on opening night so she can go home and blog/tweet about them. She’s one of those “early adapter” types. Personally, I prefer waiting until the theaters are less crowded and I’ve had time to evaluate all of the reviews. If I wait until the movie shows up at the Riverview, so much the better–nothing worse than paying 8 or 10 bucks for a movie you hate (the $3 we paid to see “The Dark Knight Rises” at the Riv was still too much IMHO). Maybe AHD and husband should compromise on another film they both want to see (or see again before it leaves the theaters), and save the new films for when they’re both in the mood. Although I do have to say, it’s been a long, stressful campaign season, and when I’m really stressed I gravitate towards either cheap and terrible B movies or huge, dumb, explodey action films. Always puts me in a better mood. The first Michael Bey Transformers movie was very, very dumb, but it had two things going for it: the design for Scorponok, and lots of explosions. That day it was either go see things blow up or murder some teenagers at the library; I’m still not sure if I chose the lesser of the two evils.

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    2. I have mixed emotions about pointing this out . . . but Crow Girl, you are the most amazingly accurate poster on this site. I’ve read your contributions closely for years without ever seeing a single letter or a comma go wrong. But today I venture to guess that “early adapters” are “early adopters.” You are human after all!

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      2. I wish you hadn’t, Steve. Now I’m going to feel paranoid posting knowing that you’re sitting there taking mental notes on all the errors I make

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        1. Hopefully for the rest of us normal, error-prone people, Steve doesn’t keep track of all the errors. Speaking for myself, I think he would lose count after a while (or is that awhile?).

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        2. Oh, god no, PJ! I expect errors in other people and don’t notice them. Hell, I make enough on my own. But after years of enjoying Crow Girl’s posts I began to notice that she isn’t just accurate: she’s perfect.

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    3. I’m with you on waiting until movies get to the Riverview. Very few movies have enough attraction to make me want to pay full price. Plus the Riverview uses real butter on their popcorn and you don’t have to take out a second mortgage to buy a package of Twizzlers.

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    4. I don’t give reviews much merit. Everyone has different views and opinions about what makes a movie good. So just because they didn’t like the movie doesn’t mean we won’t.

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      1. I pay attention to certain critics who I know tend to like the movies I do. A couple we know go to the movies a lot, and are forever recommending movies to see. We have learned over the years that if they love a movie, neither of us will like it; a sort of movie review in reverse.

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    5. The teenager always wants to go opening night as well, since a lot of the other kids do that, but the mean old mom won’t let her do that on a school night (and quite a few movie openings are on school nights). If it’s not a school night then the mean old mom makes her pay for it herself. If she waits two weeks, mean old mom can usually be counted on to cough up a movie pass.

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      1. last summer my teenager worked at the local movie theatre, and she got to see everything for free. Now when she goes her friends who work there still let her in for free.

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  10. Not sure I have much to add here. Like Crow Girl, I tend to wait until the movie plays at the Riverview so I’m not paying so much money – that is, if I feel like I need to see it on the big screen. And like Steve and tim, I often wait for the DVD – and since I usually get it at the library, I can wait a Long Time to see it. If it’s popular, waiting lists at Hennepin County Library can be in the hundreds; I’ve been number 356 before. I guess since I grew up near a town that didn’t have a movie theater and driving 100 miles or so to see a movie wasn’t realistic, I just am not in the mindset that I have to see a movie when it’s new. Not to mention I don’t pay attention to what’s coming out so I don’t even know what I’m missing.

    If you want to see a movie at the theater, then just see one, since you want to feel action-y afterwards. If you see two, you will be too tired to be action-y. Flipping a coin seems like a reasonable way to decide. You can go see the other movie in a couple weeks.

    Or – check the schedule at the Riverview and see something else entirely. Nobody wins, so everybody wins. And it’s cheaper.

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  11. I say you should see one this weekend and one next weekend, thereby getting the opportunity to feel action-y twice. Since it was your idea, you get to choose which is the first…

    We saw an fun, offbeat movie last night at the Riverview – Safety not Guaranteed – with popcorn. Not very action-y till the end, but worth the drive.

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  13. I think you each should go to the movie you’d like to see, and then preserve your togetherness by calling each other on cell phones from the theaters and discussing the action as it unfolds. “Shots fired – people are screaming now – cars crashed! – Judi Dench is frowning furiously.” You may start a new trend in multimedia-ing.

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      1. Don’t let the theater operators catch you taking pictures of the film and put your cell phone on vibrate so that it will ring during the film. You still might get some frowns from people who see you talking on your cell phone during the film.

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        3. Another reason we avoid movie theaters, common courtesy has all but disappeared. We once sat in a movie theater with a mother with a screaming infant. After about five minutes of incessant wailing, Hans and I and about a third of the audience headed for the exit and demanded a refund. On another occasion, a mother with a crying infant changed the baby’s dirty diaper, right there in the seat next to us. Yuk!

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        4. I’m sure you are right regarding the failure of theater operators to monitor the theaters. We have seen some really terrible service in our area where you always have try to find someone to take care problems like the movies not starting and might not find anyone.
          We were at the Lagoon in Up Town and the manager came in before the film to ask us if everything was okay. I’ve never seen that before.

          We decided to see the film which was showing there that we didn’t know much about and it was great. It was a Swedish film, Simon and the Oaks. It has already left town. Maybe AHD should consider going to a good film that isn’t aimed at mass audiences which might be better than the two they have in mind.

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  14. Morning—

    We’re talking about going to a movie this weekend too. But I think ‘Wreck it-Ralph’ is what daughter wants to see.
    As for AHD, yeah, go see both.

    At home, after daughter goes to bed, we’ve been watching the TV series ‘Dead Like Me’ on Netflix. That is one of our favorites.

    I enjoy movie theater popcorn. And I’ll get the large tub, eat some there, get it refilled (do they do that in the cities? Refill for free on the big tub?) and then take it home to let it age for a day and pour into quart bags and freeze. Makes a great snack over the next week or so…

    Taking a rare day off today. (I mean from the ‘day job’). Going to play with daughter now and perhaps some fieldwork this afternoon.

    Later!

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    1. Nice day for it, Ben.

      Never tried asking for popcorn refills! Somehow I don’t think so, but it couldn’t hurt to try, right?

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    2. Greetings! We enjoyed “Dead Like Me” as well. Quirky, fun and provocative — interesting show. I’m having an unplanned day off until my security stuff clears at Xcel. Nothing to do unless you have computer access. We don’t watch TV per se — we watch chosen shows on Hulu or Netflix. SciFi shows like “Warehouse 13” is a current favorite, plus Jim found “Saving Grace”, an outstanding adult show with Holly Hunter. And I mean ADULT. Nudity, a little sex, swearing, some violence (it is a cop drama) but it has a spiritual twist. Holly Hunter’s character has an angel trying to redeem her. Great show!

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      1. We just finished watching Season 5 of Doc Martin on Hulu, Joanne. We just need more comfy seating at the computer…

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  15. Go see them both with dinner and a walk in between. Everyone is saying that it’ll be a typical Spielberg movie with all of his ‘feel good in the face of adversity’ trademarks but Daniel Day Lewis’s performance is probably going to be worth the price of admission. And reviewers are saying that this latest Bond movie is in the running for one of the best ever.

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    1. That’s what I heard too
      This bond is good even though on first look he struck/ strikes me not at all as a bond candidate.
      I am a Spielberg fan he has the heart of a storyteller and we need storytellers today

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  16. I don’t have any good advice on this one, AHD. I haven’t been in a movie theater since the price of admission was $7. I think you should pick a video, stay home and get action-y where you are most comfortable. If you must go out, by all means see both movies!

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    1. No idea. But I’m sure Riverview will have it eventually. However, you might have to wait until summer to see it if you hold out for the Riverview’s showing.

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