“Lincoln” and “Les Miserables” (or Time For Some Movie Reviews)

In the past two days, I’ve seen two movies. They were both amazing, and I wanted to share my movie going experiences with you all.

Please note: this blog post contains spoilers for “Les Miserables” if you’ve never seen the musical or aren’t familiar with the story. There are really any spoilers for “Lincoln” (if you don’t know that slavery was abolished or that Lincoln was assassinated you should be reading a history book and not my blog). If you aren’t familiar at all with “Les Miserables” and don’t want to know about the plot, stop reading right now! This is your final spoiler warning!

On Christmas, I went with my friend Robert to a screening of “Lincoln” at the DGA (or Director’s Guild of America for those of you not in the entertainment industry). It would normally take me between 30 minutes and an hour to get to the DGA from my house, but I didn’t account for the lack of traffic on Christmas, so I was pretty much the first one there. The lobby was empty!

As you can see, nobody was lined up for the screening. Robert and I got some pretty nice seats in the center of the little theater. Everyone in the theater was super respectful and watched all the credits to see everyone who participated in it (my 4th cousin wrote the screenplay).

It was so nice to be in a theater where nobody was talking, texting, eating loudly, or doing any other rude theater behaviors.

I had a different experience when I went to see “Les Miserables”. I went to the Landmark Theater near my house because they have reserved seating. I like to sit in the row behind the handicap seating because there is a rail that you can rest your feet on.

I went alone, and was seating between two groups. And they were weird theater goers. Not rude necessarily, but weird.

The guy on my left came prepared to cry, and boy did he cry! The crying started when the Universal Pictures logo came up and never ended! He even brought a box of tissues in the theater with him! The only annoying thing was that he kept having to blow his nose, but that’s not bad.

The woman on my right must have never seen “Les Miserables” or knew anything about it. Every death shocked her. When Fantine died, she whispered (loudly) to her friend “Anne Hathaway can’t die!”. When Gavroche was shot, she said something about not believing that they decided to kill an innocent kid in the movie.

Between the crying man on my left, the shocked woman on my right, and hearing people eating popcorn and snacks throughout the movie, I almost missed the calmness at the DGA.

But I have to say that both movies should be seen by everyone! “Lincoln” isn’t the sort of movie I’d normally go to, but it’s amazing. All the actors are wonderful and even though it’s a historical story we all know, you get to experience it in a new way. And “Les Miserables” was just wonderful. I thought that I’d cry more, but there were only two moments where I cried. One was Anne Hathaway singing “I Dreamed A Dream”. That was a showstopper in the theater. There were people who did a standing ovation after that number. I also cried at the end because it was just so beautiful.

Now it’s back to my 6 days a week work schedule. I do have New Year’s Day off, but I’m working New Year’s Eve. But I’m glad I got to have a couple of days off to enjoy life a bit more than I normally get to!

You Might Also Like

Awards Season (or I Have No Idea How I Can Watch All The Movies) Les Miserables (or Another Classic 19 Years Later) Dinner And A Movie Night (or Another TIU Outing) “A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood” (or Doing A Rare Movie Review) My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (or A Movie With A Fun Friend) “The Theory Of Everything” (or The Fanciest Movie Theater I’ve Ever Been To)