I Love Action Movies

I love action movies. I love them so much, that my good friend Richie and I see a new one every Saturday morning at our Hamilton AMC Theatre. Since 2009 when I retired, its become a ritual. A thrilling and exciting ritual. And surprisingly, not that expensive for a number of reasons.

I rarely go see a movie after 12 noon. Even as a senior, the price is $9 -- too expensive for my tastes. Good ones like Lincoln (saw twice), or the King's Speech, I don't mind the cost. But Hangover II? I walked out of that one 20 minutes into it. (At least Hangover III looks better.) There are very few good comedies for men like me. I still remember Rat Race (2001), my favorite, along with The Producers and the Pink Panther flicks with Peter Sellers as inspector Clouseau. All well done and hilarious.

No, action flicks are my bread and butter. I rate them on a scale of 1-5, note the main actors, and a note about the story -- good plot, realistic, predictable etc. My Excel spreadsheet listing them all by date averages 60 movies a year. I love good movies. Examples of my fives are the Lord of the Rings trilogy, all the Harry Potters, the Jason Bourne series with Matt Damon (perfectly cast and acted), and all the Marvel movies (X-Men, Transformers), for example. Lately its also been the G.I. Joe movies. But my real favorites are sci fi movies like Tron Legacy with Olivia Wilde, my honey, I Am Legend with Will Smith (haven't seen a movie with him yet that I didn't like), all the Bond movies since Dr. No, now with Daniel Craig -- perfectly cast and always a nail biter (I stopped that in the eighties thank goodness).

The best part for me is two things: one, before noon the movie only costs six bucks, and two, for about the last year, they've offered coffee at the concession stands! Smithfield or something, not to bad. Not Dunkin, my favorite, but not to bad. I petitioned AMC many times the year before to offer coffee -- and to their credit, they have. Other moviegoers must have done likewise. Yeah, AMC!

My average annual per movie cost has ranged from $3.68 in 2012, to $7.50 in 2005. It's been averaging $6.20-$6.80 most of the time. And I'm including all the ones I see with Janet at $9.00. There's a couple other reasons why its so cheap. First, I get Gift Cards for my birthday and for Ayyam-i-Ha, our Baha'i and family gift giving days equivalent (toned down), to Christmas. So those movies cost me nothing. And I get many gift cards (I don't ask for much). Second, the AMC Rewards Club. For every ten bucks spent at AMC, I get a buck (cash) in rewards, applied when it reaches $100 in spending. And that includes concession costs as well. So, that's why my real cost can be less than six bucks at times, and some actually free.

Going to the movies for me is watching pure fantasy, but always with kernels of truth -- or a future truth. Meditating about why I like them so much has revealed a simple truth about me. They remind me of the 1950's westerns I'd watch on black & white TV. The Lone Ranger, Cisco Kid, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Have Gun Will Travel with Paladin, Maverick, Rifleman and more. Simply put: you clearly know who the bad guy is, and they get their due in the end from the good guy. Simple, clean, good against bad and good always triumphs.

Yeah, I like action flicks (especially the starlets), and AMC coffee. A perfect excursion for a few hours.