Saturday Night Movie

There should be no big difference in going to the movies wherever in the world you are.  Yet, I still enjoy the feeling of going to the cinema every now and then, no matter where I am.  On Saturday night, I visited Carib Cinemas, one of the theatres in Kingston (not sure how many there are, but I know there's at least two).  The plan was to catch an 8:30 showing of Unknown, starring Liam Neeson.  Seeing as how I enjoyed the last Liam Neeson movie I saw, Taken, and since the movie poster looked pretty much identical for the two movies, I figured Unkown would be a fun flick to watch.  I know, it's not a Jamaican movie.  But at least I'd understand it.

I don't usually take the bus or go to the Crossroads area at night (though I go everyday to and from work), so the trip alone could have been called an adventure.  The city still takes on a different vibe and feel at night compared to how it is during the day.  Whenever I pass by Carib, which is right at Crossroads, I hardly see anyone there, so I always thought going to the movies was pretty unpopular here.  But bwoy was that ever further from the truth.  Now it seems to me like Saturday night is movie night, and that everyone goes to the movies.  Maybe, I thought, it's one of the few things to do between dinner and the club.  For whatever the reason, we had to sit in the second row.  Very unexpected, but it wasn't so bad - mainly because I could see the people in the first row.

So we sat down and started watching the movie.  It started slow, but was getting good, and then at about 60% of the way through the movie, the scene cuts and the screen goes black. My first reaction was that we lost the movie and our money - frustration.  Then I wondered if they would give us a refund or a free pass to watch another movie.  In a little while, the answer came, the letters surfaced on the screen - "INTERMISSION".  As it turns out, you get a washroom / snack break and after about 5 minutes, you come back to watch the movie where it left off.  And just before the movie restarts, a couple of commercials run for good measure to make sure you don't miss any of the action.  Surely enough, probably half the theatre stepped out and made use of the little timeout.  In my opinion, it broke the tension and atmosphere of the movie, so I could have done without the break.  But then again, I have taken a 14 hour flight without going to the washroom.  Nevertheless, after the 5 minute intermission, everyone filtered back into their seats and the movie finished running without a hitch.  I wondered though, where the idea of a movie intermission came from.  Are there other places that do this too?

For the movie: 7/10.  The experience: 8/10.