I just returned a bit ago from watching the movie The Blind Side for the fifth time in the last six weeks. If you haven't seen it at least once by now then we need to all chip in for gas money to get you to the theater.
The movie had its debut six weeks ago yesterday. I saw it the first time six weeks ago tonight. I saw it to a packed house - there wasn't an empty seat in the theater. Next I saw it the day before Thanksgiving at a 1:30 p.m. showing - again there wasn't an empty seat. Then I saw it on Saturday after Thanksgiving at 4:00 p.m. and then on Monday after Thanksgiving at 4:00 p.m. At no time could you squeeze in an extra person.
Tonight was no different. Six weeks after its release there wasn't a single empty seat in the same theater where I saw it the first time.
When The Blind Side came out six weeks ago it was second in box office receipts after some movie called New Moon that I've never heard of. Same story the second weekend. However on the third weekend after release The Blind Side was the number 1 box office draw in the country. No movie has ever accomplished that feat in all the years records have been kept. You can read a bit more about the extraordinary ascendancy of the movie at this link.
There has been so much written about this movie and so much about Sandra Bullock's performance in it that I won't say another word here other than to encourage you to get out to see it. The one thing I will say - again - is that if she is not nominated for an Oscar for her performance then there is something woefully out of place with the nomination system. This is the best freaking movie you are going to see in a very long time. I might go back and watch it again this week just for the hell of it.
My record for the most times seeing a movie is 68 times for Back to the Future Part 1 followed closely by 64 times watching Cool Runnings and 63 times watching 2001 A Space Odyssey (I am STILL trying to figure out the light show at the end of 2001). Gordy Lewis who put himself through the University of Wisconsin - River Falls selilng LSD said on the night that 2001 debuted "There aren't enough drugs on earth to help you understand the light show." More than 40 years later I am still convinced that Gordy was correct.
Something tells me that as soon as the DVD for The Blind Side comes out, my record of 68 times watching Back to the Future Part 1 is going to fall! For Christmas 1998 my oldest daughter Jennifer gave me a sweatshirt that had written on the front "Does Anal Retentive Have a Hyphen?" This movie fanaticism is one reason why I got the shirt - and yes, anal-retentive HAS a hyphen.
Go see this movie. I won't stop bugging you until you do.
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