Two thumbs up

The fam headed down to Southpoint Cinemas to see the new American Girl movie, Kit Kittredge: An American Girl. The enthusiastic audience members pictured above (along with Kit) gave it high marks. "It was really, really, really good," said one, with the other chiming in "I loved it!" Seriously, even the adults along for the ride had a great time. The movie takes place during the Great Depression and while it's no documentary it does do a nice job of showing the hardships that families endured. It was sobering to see foreclosure signs on lawns and people's property being carted off - not difficult to make the connection to modern times. It's a movie that all kids would enjoy, I'd think, with happy endings all around. Good reviews over at Rotten Tomatoes as well, currently with a 79% rating.

This is the second movie I've seen in a Durham theater in the past month -- I also saw "Sex and the City" at Northgate's Phoenix theaters a few weeks back. I'm no regular moviegoer (he only two movies I've seen on the big screen since "Knocked Up") so the contrast between the two theaters was significant. At Southpoint it was everything I expected -- cushy seats, comfortable, fancy pre-previews (that almost had me lusting for a new V phone), etc. But Northgate was a mess. The theater felt shoebox-sized with the seats at a sharp angle. When we walked in twenty minutes before starting time all of the lights were off except for one spotlight, aimed at the middle left of the seats. As the commercials played during the preview time there was audio only, leaving us to wonder whether we would have video for the movie (we did). The tackiest part was the signs posted out front -- torn out sheets of notebook paper with something like "no loitering" handwritten on them -- and taped to the entry doors. Not welcoming at all. Anyone else had a better experience at the Phoenix?