i don't go to the theater that often, since most of the films i like i can't interest friends to watch them with me. which means often i must go alone. but being the hermit that i am, along with being the father of a 2 1/2 year old who has the energy of a fully loaded nuclear reactor, i usually stay at home and watch flicks on disc. suits me temperamentally, even tho i enjoy the movie experience more fully in a darkened theater sitting amongst a bunch of strangers.

a couple of weeks ago anna and i attempted to see at the theater the movie knocked up. after sitting thru the rigmarole of commercials for cars and army recruits and a few dozen trailers, we are into about 10 minutes of feature presentation screen time when the mobile rings. it was grandma. nicholas got sick and was crying for mommy. so we left.

what the hell. there are just a few films i want to see on the big screen anyway. every now and then a movie announces itself and i can't wait to see it. it's an emotion hard to explain or quantify, if however we all know that feeling.

lately, that movie is director danny boyle's latest effort sunshine. a sci-fi thriller premised on the fate of a group of astronauts on a suicide mission to re-ignite the dying sun. i've seen the trailers and a few clips at youtube.com. i'm a big fan of boyle ever since watching his mid-90s black comedy shallow grave. not all his films are successes but even in failure they are a 100 times more watchable than the usual pablum found at the multiplex or even art-house cinema. i think the movie opens in the u.s. after several months of delays at the end of july.

another movie i'm looking forward to, in spite of my misgivings about remakes of classic movies, is rob zombie's revisionist halloween. zombie is a fan's fan of exploitation and horror, and his last effort the devil's rejects is a masterpiece of breakneck cinema. ah they don't make 'em like they used to, is given the lie cuz zombie has carved out a piece of territory that the old masters, such as craven, carpenter and hooper, can explore.

that doesn't mean that i think remaking carpenter's brilliant horror movie is a good idea. as long as it's zombie, then i'll give it a sit-thru. i've not been paying attention to what is being said about zombie's halloween in the horror community. really i don't care. i personally do not like remakes, find them a waste of time and several millions of dollars. if a studio is gonna spend that kind of money than waste it on a new talent with an original idea. why zombie agreed to do this film, i haven't a clue. perhaps a butt-load of moolah. but perhaps also a love of the genre. whatever. i'll be sitting in the audience not holding my breath for a good interpretation of a classic. but i'll be sitting there just the same.