Wouldn’t you go to the movies if…

She was the ticket taker? No.. we don’t have too much time on our hands. What are you talking about? We needed a ticket taker! You don’t want to be greeted on your way in? Of course you do. We got some nice looks out of it.

But of course, she doesn’t quite match the look. You can’t have someone coming in to work wearing that! She’s gotta look more professional. More movie theatre professional that is. Hmm.. how are we gonna do this? It was kinda tough, but we managed to do it. Before I get to that though….

Thanks to Adsense Tracker for the boost in traffic I got yesterday. I guess Stumbleupon is a pretty good source of traffic. I wonder if it is better than Digg. I don’t know. Regardless I just had to take one look and bam, my hits were way up once I got stumbled. Maybe I will help stumble some people too! Has anyone used it before? If you like something you see here, Stumble It! I’ve even made it easy with tags near the bottom of my post! Right near the comments! Cmon!

Anway, back to what we were doing. We had to make her fit the image that we’re trying to give here at the theatre. What do you think? That uniform looks great on her! I actually had a few people who thought she was real.. lol.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to watch any of the movies last night. I heard that Halloween is pretty F’d up, and from what I saw of Death Sentence, it looks really good. It was really loud when I was in there. I really wish I had a chance to see them, but its a long weekend so I’ll be sure to post updates as I see them.

Well, that’s it for now, more after work tonight! See you at the movies!

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Let’s Make Someone Famous: Skittle!

Well, time for a new thing I’m gonna try to start doing here.. making someone else famous, and maybe hanging on to their heels as they rocket their way to stardom. This week, I feature Skittle!

Now who is Skittle? And how did I come to meet her in the blogosphere? Actually, I believe it was Skittle that found me! This actually makes me pretty interested in how she came about finding me. Maybe we can include that in an edit to this post, or Skittle can let me know herself! On to who she is…

Skittle, like me, is a blog addict. She says so herself! And like me, she’s trying to make a little dinero off blogging. C’mon, its no risk to try, so why not right? She’s also been looking for a house recently too, which is again, a lot like me! My family just bought a new home! Basically, if you’re looking for a blog about a woman out there in the real world, workin in business, and bloggin in her spare time so we can share in her world, go check out Skittle! She really succeeds in keepin it real.

Alright everybody, let’s give it up to the first blog that I’m making famous! If I’ve interested you in becoming famous, let me know and you can be my next feature. Movies are the only form of entertainment out there, blogs can be famous too! Now get out there and go support our inagural famous blog in becoming famous! Feel free to support me while you’re at it! (You know how ;-P)

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How Much is Your Blog Worth! (Volume 4)

Woohoo! I did it again! I exceeded my goal for increase in worth! Well, I guess that it wasn’t really that much more, but I’ll take it. If only this money were real! Question for those of you who publish with adsense… have you been having much success? How about anything else you have tried.. has any of it worked? Matt, are you feelin the heat from this competition??

For those of you who have noticed, Intermission at Work has found a new home, at www.intermissionatwork.com. I decided to scrap the plan for hosting since its nearly impossible to move blogspot blogs through ftp, and even then I would lose all of my formatting, which I like. Hopefully all of you have found your way over here, don’t forget to bring your friends!!!

Just found out we’re screening both Death Sentence and Halloween tomorrow. I’ll let you know if either one is spectacular or spectacularly crappy. Nothing on TV for me tonight so there’s lots of blog reading to be done.. wish I could be watchin the Red Sox v. the Yankees. GO SOX!!!

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Movies this Weekend!

Hey everyone, and welcome to another edition of Movies this Weekend! I’m your host, Joe. Just kidding, but hey it seemed like a good way to start out a post. I’ve been experimenting with trying to get my website hosted, and I actually got some (I paid for it) but it seems like its difficult to do with blogspot blogs. Does anybody have any experience or opinions on this? I guess it would make more sense to host my own blog, but this makes it so easy I don’t know if I’d want to try….. Well I’ll at least look into it and will probably eventually do it, but not right now, unless one of you have an amazing tip for me! On to the movies!

Death Sentence - Starring Kevin Bacon. From the director of Saw, this is a psychological thriller in which a man witnesses something so powerful it changes him forever. Bacon’s character realizes that there are great lengths that one will go to in order to protect his family, and that there is nothing he wouldn’t do to protect his own.

How I think it will do: I’ve heard a lot of hype surrounding this movie, and you know coming from the director of Saw that this will probably be pretty gruesome. I expect that its going to be a great action/thriller movie, with a decent showing this weekend. Definitely not for the faint of heart. If you’re looking for something that will keep you on the edge of your seat.. this may not be the one for you, but it will definitely mess with your mind.

Balls of Fury - A comedy starring Christopher Walken. There’s a lot going on in the world of underground ping pong, and its up to professional ping-ponger Randy Daytona to help FBI Agent Rodriguez (George Lopez) flush out one of the FBI’s most wanted while reclaiming his former glory!

How I think it will do: Gonna be the replacement for Superbad this weekend. Definitely the one to see for those looking for a quick laugh. However, it hasn’t received the greatest reviews. Don’t expect to laugh as much as you think. It’s PG-13 rating will allow for more people to go, but definitely will not leave you as satisfied as Superbad did.

Halloween - Rob Zombie’s take on a classic horror movie. While following the theme of the previous Halloween movies, this one steps back and takes a look at what could have possibly happened to shape one of Hollywood’s most famous psychopaths, Mike Myers.

How I think it will do: I think this movie shows a lot of promise, but it is being released at a notoriously bad time. Who really wants to watch a movie about Halloween in August? Also, studios tend to drop a lot of films that they don’t think will do as well in August. It’s R rating promises a devilishly good time, but will this match up to Zombie’s previous offerings, The Devil’s Rejects and House of 1000 Corpses? I don’t think so, but I am still interested in seeing it.

My pick of the week would have to Death Sentence. It looks awesome to me. Balls of Fury is a close second for me, and I’m not sure Halloween will live up to what I think it will be. A better offering than last weekend, it still may not be strong enough to draw people out of their homes. Hey, if you can’t think of anything to do, grab a few friends and go see one of these films! Balls of fury will be a great group movie!

Off to read blogs and try to figure out this whole hosting thing. Feel free to leave a tip or comment if you know something about it. I’ll see you at the movies!

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Placeholder… I mean Weekly Update: At the Movies!

Don’t worry, I didn’t forget about this, I am actually busy at work! I will be updating this later on tonight, I know you’re all waiting in anticipation. It has been almost 3 days! Thanks for being loyal and reading though, expect visits from me tonight!

Ok, here we go! Now that I’m home I can actually write something of substance! As you guys can tell from the little info box I have on the right, it wasn’t a great week for movies. Superbad took the top spot once again. I did hear some interesting things this weekend at work though, as well as something I’d like to find out some more info about if you guys might know.

First off, a little interesting thing I heard about Mr. Bean’s Holiday. I asked a guest coming out of the movie what they thought of it. Her response: “It was great! America is so not ready for this…”. She repeated the second part as she walked out. Weird huh? Also weirdly enough is that the movie did pretty well overseas taking in almost 200 million up to this point. It should be noted that it opened roughly 5 months ago in the UK, where it was almost as big as Spiderman!

Now onto the second weird thing that happened. It was closing time yesterday, and I was upstairs closing up shop. The staff closing the stand calls me down, and there is someone who wants to buy something. I inform him that we are closed and I have already secured all of the cash for the day. He says he needs something for his diabetic girlfriend, she needs some sugar. Well, I know that can get pretty serious, so I try to compromise. I offer him a free soda instead. That’s LOADED with sugar, should be enough right?

Of course not.

“She needs something sour. Like sour patch kids. She says that sour things have more sugar” (Is this true?) Well, I really can’t sell him anything, and I keep trying to sell him on the free drink. C’mon, spend $3.50 on a candy or get a free soda?? Well after a few minutes of insisting that it must be sour, he walks away. I honestly hope nothing happened to his girlfriend, but I did offer the sugar she needed right? What do you guys think?

Other than that, it was a HOT weekend, so not much business.

I’ve also been thinking, would anyone like to have their articles featured here? If you do, send me a link and I’ll link it up. My small amount of readers may like what you have to write and we can both rise to fame! Well, that’s all for now, time to catch up on reading your blogs!

Oh! I forgot to mention this is my 50th post! I didn’t think I’d make it this far, go me! jk, lol. Just another random useless fact from me.

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We Have a Serious Problem Here.

This one’s for you Karen. I love it when people come up to me and this is the first thing they say. I realize that going to the movies, a pleasant experience is expected. Trust me, people who work at the movies know this. So when something goes wrong, you as a guest definitely has a right to complain. We will do our best to make sure your problem is solved.

So let’s set the scene. It’s roughly 8pm. We’ve switched back to fall hours, so it’s getting close to closing time. I’m at the customer service counter when an older woman approaches me and says “We have a serious problem here.” Now, I took this literally and thought something was really wrong.

What did she say though?

“You’re playing Underdog where you’re supposed to be playing Hairspray.”

“OH CRAP” I thought. But wait, let me check her ticket! Sure enough, what had happened was she went into the wrong theatre. It was my first suspicion since we change posters on Thursday to prepare for our Friday openings. (We use posters at the auditorium entrance, as well as a mylar on top of the auditorium to indicate which movie is currently playing.) We did change them a bit early since we were not busy, making sure to tell every guest twice where they REALLY needed to go. Once when they bought their ticket, and again when their tickets were torn. Of course it’s not always obvious to check your ticket, so…..

I could tell she was pretty upset about this though, so I offered her a refund. I was even going to say that she could go in and watch the remainder of Hairspray or whatever movie she wanted. But I got cut off first. “This is infuriating” she fumed at me. I understand its frustrating, but I’m trying to help her out here. Turns out she went to the theatre she was told to go to, saw a different poster, and went to go find the right poster, and thus, the right theatre to go into. She didn’t check her ticket or ask anyone. OK, I can still understand where she would be mad though.

At this point, there’s nothing I can do. I had already given her her money back for the inconvenience, and gave her a tip to look at her ticket or ask if she was unsure, and we would be glad to direct her in the right direction. Of course, this is not good enough. She wants to escalate it. She wants to talk to my boss. I try to convince her that it’s not his fault, and that we do this every Thursday, but she has none of that. She continues to yell at me instead. It’s really frustrating when you try to be nice and you get screamed at. I just had to take it. My staff is staring over at me, watching me take this. Not the most pleasant experience. They’ve often asked me how I can continue to take the verbal abuse some people like to dish. The answer is, its not easy.

Now, her husband or boyfriend or whatever, was extremely nice. I find that often one half of the group will be nice to you. Usually because they’re embarrassed. Another group who had the same thing happen and had come out with this lady actually admitted it was their fault and that they had been told where to go, but assumed that we were wrong. They got their money back as well and went on their merry way. Like I said, we try, but sometimes no matter what you do, you’re gonna end up with the jerk who decides they need to scream at you. Yes I understand you’re angry, but if you scream at me, it’s not going to help.

Can’t we all just get along?

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Review: War!

Looks like my last few posts haven’t been the greatest hits! What can I do to bring you all back? PLEASE COME BACK! Hope I can provide something worth reading this time! On to the review…

Man, Jason Statham is pretty amazing. So is Jet Li. And the two of them combined made for one of the best action movies I have seen so far this year. I have yet to see the Bourne Ultimatum I know, I know that is next on the list. Pre-screened War tonight, and I was very impressed with the movie.

From the second I stepped into this movie, it was pretty much non stop action. Being R-rated, I knew I would be in for some pretty good violence, and this film did not disappoint. The action scenes are incredible, and they use some pretty awesome cars in there too. Now I’ve heard that Bourne had a pretty good car chase too, but I haven’t seen that yet, so I can’t say anything for it.

A little background for those who didn’t read my previous post.. this movie is about my boy Jason Statham’s character, an FBI agent, who gets himself between two rival gangs as he tries to go after the killer of his partner and his partner’s family. Well, a lot of those gang members who get in his way end up dead, though he doesn’t do it all alone. Jet Li’s character, Rogue, takes care of his fair share of gang members also. It is Rogue that Statham’s character is after though, and they inevitably meet in a pretty decent showdown. For some reason I always picture these two to be on the same side…. Li is pretty versatile, I like how he can do both the good guy and the bad guy.

Anyway, I’m not going to ruin it for anyone who plans to see it, but I highly recommend it. It’s the action movie for people feeling low after having nothing to see after Bourne. If you’re looking for great action, with a pretty decent story, check out this film. If you do check it out, let me know what you think!!!

Recommendation: Go See It!!

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Movie Trailer Effectiveness

First off, I’d like to throw a shout out to Chaseblogger and thanks for the plug I got on his blog!

Movie trailers.. either you love em or you hate em. I personally love em. I love seeing what new movies are going to come out and get an idea of what I’m in for, or what to avoid. A website that always has great movie trailers is Apple. Now I know a lot of people actually plan what time they go to the movies by when the trailers will end. I never understood this! Trailers are an important part of seeing a movie! There is the other end of the spectrum also. Anybody remember Wing Commander? Nope, but some people remember that there was a trailer for Star Wars: Episode 1 before it! Now I wasn’t working at the movies then, but I heard that some theatres actually had to make sure people weren’t buying tickets just for that purpose. Funny huh?

Now what made me think about this topic?

Well recently a co-worker and I were discussing trailers, and the difference between Red Band and Green Band trailers. What is the difference, you might ask? Well, here’s what Wikipedia’s article has to say about it:

A green band is an all-green graphic at the beginning of the trailer, usually reading “The following PREVIEW has been approved for ALL AUDIENCES by the Motion Picture Association of America,” and sometimes including the movie’s MPAA rating. This signifies that the trailer adheres to the standards for motion picture advertising outlined by the MPAA, which includes limitations on foul language and violent, sexual, or otherwise objectionable imagery. Trailers that do not adhere to these guidelines may be issued a red band, (which used to be blood red) which reads “The following PREVIEW has been approved for RESTRICTED AUDIENCES ONLY by the Motion Picture Association of America,” and may only be shown before an R-rated, NC-17-rated, or unrated movie. (The Amityville Horror (1979 film)). A yellow band is a yellow graphic that reads “The following PREVIEW has been approved ONLY for AGE-APPROPRIATE internet users by the Motion Picture Association of America” (for example, the trailer for Halloween). The MPAA also mandates that trailers not exceed two minutes and thirty seconds in length, and each major studio is given one exception to this rule per year.

Does this make a huge difference in the film’s appeal? Well I’m going to take a recent example where I think it did, with Resident Evil 3: Extinction. First, here is the green band trailer:

Makes the movie look pretty tame. I mean, you can tell that there are some action sequences and it gives you an idea what the movie will be like, but wait. Here is the red band trailer: Keep in mind that it may not be appropriate for all audiences.. you have been warned.

For those of you who watched it, there is quite a difference in the two huh? I had already planned on seeing the movie before, but after seeing the red band trailer, I knew I would see it, because it seemed so much more exciting. Weird how different those two trailers are huh? Most theatres won’t be caught dead playing red band trailers, since there are green band trailers out there which already cause complaints with parents and others. However, I feel that when used in the right setting, red band trailers can be extremely effective!

What do you guys think? If you watched them both, which do you think would be better for the movie’s promotion? Sorry I don’t have an example of a yellow band trailer to show…

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How Much is Your Blog Worth (Volume 3)!

I have achieved my goal for this week! I actually exceeded it. How is everyone else doing with this? Matt, the challenge is on. First one to $1,000,000 wins. This has been a neat little tool that has helped keep me engaged with this blog. Every time I check it and it goes up it feels like an accomplishment! Anyone having trouble keeping up with their blog? Maybe this will help! Brr… I’m cold. Off to get a sweatshirt before I research my next entry!

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A Milestone!

My Sitemeter now reads 1000 hits! Thanks everyone for all your support. I couldn’t have done it without you guys… cuz I blocked my computer from registering.

I’ve been thinking about buying a domain. How does www.intermissionatwork.com sound to you? Maybe www.intermissionmovies.com? Have any of you thought of buying your own domains?

Well, thanks again! I’ll put up another post when it reads 5000. Any predictions on how long that’ll take? I guess 2.5 months.

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