There and Back Again

We've been to the movie theater a few times since arriving in Thailand.  The first time we wanted to see "Interstellar," but discovered that the time listed was for the "First Class" theater.  If I understand it correctly, you arrive one hour before the movie, and you get complimentary drinks and snacks.  The chairs are like la-z-boys and they give you pillows and blankets.  (I cannot confirm this, as we didn't go in).  So we went to see "Gone Girl" in the regular theater instead.

Our second visit was to see "Interstellar" (which I talked about in an earlier blog).  Last week, we went to see the last "Hobbit" movie - "The Battle of the Five Armies."  The movie listing had a "P" after it, and I had no idea what that meant.  They often have an "E" to indicate an English movie, or a "T" to indicate a movie in Thai.  It might also say "T/E sub," indicating Thai with English subtitles.  And the "F," we came to learn, meant the movie was showing in the First Class theater.  But a "P?"  We hadn't a clue.

Well, we soon learned that the "P" stands for "porch."  Huh?  After further investigation, we discovered that one of the theaters is actually outside on a "porch!"  This was too intriguing to pass up, so we bought our tickets, ordered our complimentary beverages and snacks, and waited to be called in.  (Honestly, we weren't sure what we were going to get.)  The theater has maybe five levels, each with four to eight double-wide lounge chairs or round beds (!) on each level.  It really is outside, up on the seventh level of the big Central Festival mall.  We entered and the usher showed us to our lounge chair, where our food and drinks were already waiting for us.  It was quite bright inside, and we wondered how well we would be able to see the screen.

  But after everyone was shown in (maybe a dozen people in total), a big, heavy curtain was drawn and the theater was dark.  The lounge chair was really quite comfortable (if you don't think about who was on it before you), and we had settled in nicely, when the tribute to the King came on, and we all had to stand up again.

I really enjoyed the movie, but it was a bit of a struggle not to fall asleep, since we were basically lying down.  (Those of you who know me well will not be surprised by my struggle.)  The familiarity of the characters made the experience feel a bit like being home.  I thought the casting of Martin Freeman, Benedict Cumberbatch and Evangeline Lilly was perfect.  The guy who played Alfrid was perfectly scummy, but the younger Legolas was kind of weird for me.  Azog under the ice was a really cool effect.  I even actually enjoyed the battle scenes (Mark, aren't you proud of me?)  Long, drawn-out battles usually bore me (I have fallen asleep during the Battle at Helm's Deep).  It is sad to see the franchise ending with Peter Jackson at the helm.

Wouldn't mind taking in another movie on "The Porch" sometime!