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Thursday night was date night at the Leebowitz household and the Mrs. and I were unanimous in our excitement about seeing Superbad. Our babysitter arrives at 6:30 on date nights; just in time to talk for a while, change clothes and drive to a local theater for a 7PM movie and then, dinner. We’re spoiled and we watch 9-out-of-10 films at either Mission Valley, the Colony or the Rialto. We have an Ambassador Entertainment season pass that covers all three and they serve beer and wine, which is really nice. But Superbad didn’t show at Mission Valley until 7:40, which doesn’t allow enough time to have dinner before, or after, the film. We chose the 7:00 showing at Carmike Cinemas on Atlantic Springs Road and arrived at 7PM to a 15-plex theater with just 5 cars in the parking lot, accompanied by what appeared to be a dirty diaper in a plastic bag, in the exact spot we saw a dirty diaper in a plastic bag over 8 months ago. We purchased our tickets, walked to the very end of a vast corridor and enter our auditorium at 7:00 sharp.

Who knows how long the commercials had been running at that time but from 7:00 til 7:15, we sat through commercials for Coca-Cola, athletic shoes, video games and The National Guard. Followed by 5 previews for upcoming releases. At 7:20 PM, I was thinking: “Outside-The-Beltline really is different! People wouldn’t stand for this downtown!” and wondering if Carmike Cinemas subjects everyone to this barrage of advertising, or just their theaters that tend to serve minority populations. At 7:30, as the previews ended and we watched a promotion for DLP Digital Projection, I realized we’d spent more than 10 minutes driving to the theater and we could have attended the 7:40 at Mission Valley and actually saved time and enjoyed some micro-brew beer with the film. Really, when you’re paying $7.50 to see a film, shouldn’t you be able to avoid the commercials you’re forced to endure with broadcast television? And if theater chains are struggling for survival in the face of home theaters, DVD rentals and new technologies, shouldn’t they work harder not to embody the worst of the commercial television experience?

I enjoyed the film more than the Mrs.; I thought it was SuperAwesome, but Carmike Cinemas and films that start a full 25 minutes later than the published time are SuperAwful. The whole experience renewed my appreciation for the theaters that treat me well.