Movies and books… two things I wish I had more time for.

I don’t know what kind of movies move you but I get as much from who I watch a movie with as I do from the movie itself. Where I enjoy the movie also has an impact and home schooling gives our family some freedoms that most people wouldn’t even understand.

Take the other night for example. Three of my boys and I went to the 10:30 showing of Monster Trucks. Most kids between 7 and 13 are long asleep while my kids are walking into a theater… but therein lies the benefit. We had the theater all to ourselves. Four boys sitting in the midst of 150 empty chairs.

It was an awesome movie. I have told many people to go see it. The action was enthralling, the graphics were more than simply convincing and the story line was totally not what I was expecting.

Do I have a trigger?

The question now is, did I enjoy the movie more because we were all alone in the theater?

The last time that we watched a movie all alone we also had my 5 year-old daughter at Disney’s “A Good Dinosaur“. It was an emotional roller coaster for that little princess. It wasn’t that the movie made her cry much, but she did shed some tears. I might have pushed her over the edge a couple times by saying things like…

“Is it sad that he is going to die?”

She would spin to me, “Is he going to die?”

I would calmly respond, without emotion, “Sure looks like that bird is going to eat him.”

She would cuddle me and sob for a minute and then the Disney miracle happened and we would both celebrate the food’s survival.

Is is possible to be a good father and a horrible father at the same time.  I nail that quite often.

It is not only environment

It is not only an empty theater or a susceptible kidlet that can get tears in a theater because I sound like a 5 year old girl who just had her pigtails pulled by her brother, more often than my little Cydnee… especially if you don’t count the times her father made her cry.

I have to add here, because we were laughing… I mean talking about it just the other night… I actually made Cydnee cry watching Home. Most people that have watched that movie are wondering how and where in the movie I could have got her to cry. That is just how good I am.

I myself have a habit of tearing up easily watching a movie or reading a book because I consider it amazing luck to find a story that just rips into me. Those are the stories I so badly want to enjoy again and again… but I rarely do.

Million Dollar Baby (IMDB)

I have been meaning to watch this movie again for a long time but all I remember is crying my ass off and the movie wouldn’t end… tugging at the old heart strings is something Clint Eastwood rocks at.

Pursuit of Happyness (IMDB)

There was also that damn Will Smith movie that ripped at me heart… I remember sobbing for like 40 minutes or something. I almost left the theater when he was holding that bathroom door closed with his foot.

There is a new movie coming out this spring that I fully anticipate bringing a box of tissues to… the book was one of the very few that I had to stop reading because I was so emotional. I don’t care if you are an atheist, christian, muslim, white, black, asian, fat, skinny, tall, short, single, married, parent… I just don’t care who you are, I can tell you that you will thoroughly enjoy the story that made William P Young so famous.

The Shack (IMDB)

The movie comes out March 3rd and I will be seeing this movie on opening night if possible. I have thought about it and I honestly don’t know whether you should read the book or watch the movie first. Now I don’t even know if the movie will be any good but with actors like Octavia Spencer (The Help) and Sam Worthington (Avatar) and a screenplay from a writer like John Fusco (Young Guns, Hidalgo, Crossroads), I simply can’t see how it could go wrong.

The movie will never be as good as the book. That is a given.  You simply can’t fit the story of any good book into a 2 hour movie. Your imagination goes places that the actors simply can’t. But if you haven’t read the book, and you want to watch a movie that might just change your life, please be my guest.

What other movies or books have touched you personally, got you emotional or made you cry your ass off…?

I mean there are so many out there. I remember watching The Notebook and my kid was laying between my wife and I and he thought that there was something wrong with my because tears were streaming down my cheek. I was not broken, he simply wasn’t old enough to get the movie… or to understand that his father is in touch with his emotions. Knock it off.

If you are a father with a daughter and you watch The Shack without shedding a tear, you have the ability to turn off emotions like I have never known was possible. Or maybe you are a psychopath. Either way, kudos to you for being able to restrain yourself.

I myself, will be sitting in the theater, not even trying to hold back. Restraint is not one of my strong suits.