The Dearth of Quality Movies: South Carolina Style

For the last six months or so, I have been living a crazy existence down in the city of Columbia, South Carolina. And along with this living situation, I have had a fair share of ups and downs. Mostly downs. Because for those of you who know me know that I have one major passion in life. And that is the Cinema. I capitalized it because it sounds more culturally refined and proper to do so. Plus, it sounds better than "Movies." (P.S. I'm better than you because I call it the Cinema.)

Unfortunately, the choices in Cinema are sorely lacking in comparison to other places where I have lived. And that is rather frustrating.

I bring this up now for one major reason: I want to see Juno. And I have been given no opportunity to see this movie. Normally, I can withstand such withholdings. Because I'm no film snob. I like my mindless action movies as much as I love the subtle dramas. So it follows that I have something to watch on the weekends, even if it is only Alvin and the Chipmunks. But it becomes a serious issue when people who are much less passionate about this pastime than I am are essentially brought to a theater to see Juno. And I'll be honest. I'm rather envious of them and I'd prefer they didn't see it at all.

On Christmas Day, Juno expanded into almost 1000 theaters. And, not one of them was within 70 miles of my current location. The problem is, I do not know what to do to get these movies here. I, and I alone will not be able to bring these movies to this city (or even this state for that matter, but that's a completely different conversation.)


There is one theater, called the Nickelodeon, located downtown, which apparently has one screen and on the weekends will show an artsy movie. And it changes every week. And Juno isn't on its schedule. The Nickelodeon is a recent discovery for me. I have yet to go there, but hearing about it months ago I immediately dismissed it as a place to play Double Dare or Legends of the Hidden Temple. (On second thought, I don't know why I didn't seek it out sooner. Nothing I'd love more to have a deep conversation with Olmec about Cleopatra or Davy Crockett.) But when I realized what it actually was, I became intrigued. Alas, the fact that there is only one theater and the selections are limited makes it a place where I probably will not end up frequenting too often.

The fact is, this place essentially sucks. Between the lack of movie choices and the lack of pizza choices, I sometimes wonder how these people even get by at all. Sure, Michigan often times wasn't anything to write home about, but I promise that you would not want to trade me. Especially if you were me.

I could probably complain more. Much more actually. But I will refrain. Because the only thing that's affecting me dearly is the lack of ability to go see Juno. And now that I'm thinking about it, the lack of an IMAX theater. There used to be one about an hour and a half away from my current location, on the beach in Charleston to be exact. But the week Transformers was to open up there, it shut down inexplicably. It's almost as if there's a higher power that is trying to wreck my movie-going enjoyment. (Crap. I called them the movies. Well, I'm still better than you anyway.) This has also forced me to forgo the 6-minute Dark Knight IMAX preview before I Am Legend. It's like everywhere I turn, there is more evil lurking its way into my life. An evil that I must turn around. But...how?

I welcome any suggestions that are deeper than "move away" or "get a new job". Simple in theory, but much more difficult in practice.

The First in a Long Line of Blog Posts

Throughout my life, I've spent a good portion on the internet writing about things that are important to me. Mainly those things have consisted of movies, video games, and television shows. The world of entertainment is an incredibly important influence of my life. I love all aspects of it and will certainly continue to feel this way in the foreseeable future.

The problem laid in the fact that until now, I never had a proper outlet for something like this. LiveJournal and MySpace are two very limited forums in which there is great difficulty creating an effective blog. So I've decided to port myself over in this direction, one more suited to my overall style. That is not to say that I will quit posting on MySpace. On the contrary, I am sure that I will continue to post carbon copies of whatever I post here there as well. But I feel that this is going to be my primary outlet.

So what are you going to see here? Well, that really depends. I would say that primarily it will be movie reviews. I see at least one or two movies every week and I often enjoy writing about them. And my first order of business will probably be to write a review of Live Free or Die Hard which I am sure I will inevitably see on Wednesday. If I get the opportunity to see an advance copy of a movie, then I will definitely write reviews up about those.

Also, within the blog there will hopefully be some video game reviews as well. I do not play video games as often as I would like. But the ones that I do play, I will write about. Also, I'll include any relevant gaming or movie news that I feel needs to be shared.

I am also a HUGE fan of certain television programs. My favorite programs at the moment are Lost, Heroes, Dexter, 24 (provided they change things up in season 7), Smallville (I honestly think it sucks now but continue watching out of habit), The Office, and Prison Break. Lost being my favorite, I will hopefully be writing about that as often as possible.

At any rate, I am sure there will also be some random ramblings from time to time about the state of the world or my personal grievances or other rants of that nature. I am looking to both entertain and inform and bring the world together in perfect harmony, through a blog.

So sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.


SeannyD

P.S. I hate the word blog. But what other word for this sort of thing is there anyway?