Ticket buying online, or, life with the Stryker Family

www.movietickets.com
www.thebigt.com/slap.htm
www.cinemark.com


By Dave Davis

As I write this, I'm as excited as a geek on the eve of the opening of a new "Star Wars" movie. You see, it is the eve of the opening of a new "Star Wars" movie. You can fill in the rest of the analogy on your own time.

As a kid, this day ranked right up there with Christmas and birthdays. As an adult, it's actually better than both. I don't get depressed like Christmas, and I don't get that feeling of mortality and impending doom that birthdays now bring.

So, I am indirectly responsible for the further adventures of the Stryker Family. I would like to take this chance to publicly apologize to the film-going community. My bad.

(Brief side note: I was in Target the other day, and as I passed the toy aisle with the "Star Wars" toys, I overheard a mother say to her child: "I don't recognize these toys. Is there another movie coming out or something?" From her tone, she wasn't teasing or being sarcastic. She honestly didn't know. I'm not sure how she missed the commercials, news stories, magazine covers, toy displays and whatnot, especially with a child in the house. She was "The Woman Who Marketing Forgot," and it was awe-inspiring.)

With "Star Wars," there's none of the debris of adulthood connected with the experience. The sound of an igniting light saber is tucked deeply and safely away in my psyche, far away from any of the badness of time. It's an E-ticket back to childhood, and I'm ready for the ride.

And, fortunately, I'm not taking the ride alone. My two best friends are of like minds, so we're going to brave the crowd at the midnight showing and be the first on our respective blocks to see "Attack of the Clones" (but, man, I wish they would have named it something else). We did the same thing when "The Phantom Menace" came out, so now I guess it's a tradition.

It's a tradition that almost didn't happen, though. Things have changed in the three years since our first escapade. At that time, we were able to get tickets the day before and made it in plenty of time before it was sold out.

This year, however, the Internet changed that drill a little. The evening news did a story the day before on how people were buying tickets online, and theaters were selling out for the midnight show. That was enough to shake my complacency and get me onto the computer.

This was the first time I'd ever bought tickets online. I immediately thought of the Stryker Family, the paramilitary nut-job family who are in the trailer commercials for www.movietickets.com, which play before every freakin' movie I've seen over the last year. And then I decided not to go there, because I hate that commercial.

(And I'm not the only one. At People Tim Would Like to Slap, located at www.thebigt.com/slap.htm, the author says, "Anyone who has been to a movie at a National Amusements Theater must feel my pain. The ads for movietickets.com starring these awful people cause patrons to run out of the theater screaming. Just the thought of that woman yelling 'Abort. Abort!' makes me want to stick a needle in my eye." I agree wholeheartedly.)

I decided to go straight to the source, the owners of the local movie houses. Since our first theater of choice was Showcase Cinemas Stonybrook, I went to www.nationalamusements.com. I saw that one of the shows wasn't sold out, so I put in my debit card information, waited a moment and then was told that the show was, in fact, sold out. I was not a happy camper.

Tinseltown was the next stop, so off I went to www.cinemark.com. They were sold out, too. I then remembered Showcase Cinemas on Bardstown Road, went back to the National Amusements site and got the tickets. It was quite exciting.

I then got my order confirmation. Turns out that National Amusements either owns or works with movietickets.com, because my receipt said I ordered it there. So, I am indirectly responsible for the further adventures of the Stryker Family. I would like to take this chance to publicly apologize to the film-going community. My bad.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a movie to go to. And I'm told it's almost completely Jar-Jar free.