Movie For One?

I randomly thought about this story today and I thought I'd share it with everyone.

Back in high school, I went to see Ocean's 11 with a friend. We bought our tickets and were getting ready to go into the theater when we noticed an older gentleman behind us getting his ticket. He politely asked the cashier, "Can I get one for Ocean's Two?"

So clearly he couldn't tell that the two lines after "Ocean's" were for "eleven" -- not "two." Now that story by itself is kind of funny, but when I thought about it again today, I realized something: that man had absolutely no clue what movie he was about to watch. There's several things to consider here...

First, by saying "Ocean's Two" it implies that there was an "Ocean's One" which, as far as I know, does not exist. So the man certainly never saw the non-existent "Ocean's One."

Second, he obviously had not seen the previews for Ocean's 11, which further means that he had probably zero idea what the movie was going to even remotely be about. He probably thought it actually was about an ocean...but the second ocean movie...but somehow the ocean is possessive of the two... Well, whatever he was thinking, he was probably very disappointed when he watched the movie and realized that there were no oceans or the number two.

Finally, judging by the age of the man, he was probably old enough to have been around when the ORIGINAL Ocean's 11 with Sinatra was released. So apparently he missed the boat both times on this movie.

In spite of all this, I give the man credit for one thing: he went to see the movie by himself. In my opinion, the art of going to the movie theater by yourself is one that gets a bad rap. The implication of doing so is that you are a loser with no friends. But let's think about this for a minute: Let's say you go to a movie with five or six people. When you sit down in the theater, at best you have one person on either side of you. You can pretty much only talk to those two people comfortably for probably 10 maybe 15 minutes. And once the movie starts, you don't talk to them at all. Also, let's say you go with a group of people and there's some individuals there that you're not that close with or, worse yet, you straight up don't like. There's a chance you might end up sitting next to them and for those 10-15 minutes before the movie, you either have to force nice talk with them or leave the awkward silence. Your call, man.

And in the big picture, when you go to a movie with a friend, you're essentially paying to watch TV with someone. Look, I'm not hating on going to a movie with other people. We all do it and when we get in those situations where we're pretty desperate for something to do (which happens quite often...), it makes sense to go the movies with friends. Plus, it's kind of an intimidating thought to watch a movie solo. But the reality is that doing so isn't really that crazy of an idea. In the end, you're still doing the most important part: you're watching the movie. And the payoff is just as great because you can make your friends who haven't seen it feel bad about not seeing it, and when they ask you if you want to, you can deny them and make them feel like a loser. YES.

Now with all that being said, I admit that I've never gone to a movie by myself. However, I'm seriously considering doing so. The picture in question is Up, and my reasoning for wanting to do so is 1) everyone says it's awesome, and 2) everyone has already seen it. Of course, I could be wrong about this whole "it's okay to go to the movies by yourself thing" and I might just be trying to convince myself that it's okay that I'm a loser with no friends. Anyway, if I do end up going by myself, I'll be sure to write about it here and let everyone know how it goes. But, uh, if you DO want to watch it, let me know....