Here’s the play by play:
Upon arrival to the theater, we took our printed out event tickets to the box office for redemption. They gave us our tickets and the seats were assigned which made it nice, I assumed. No pushing or fighting for a seat because we knew ours was a specific one. Next, check in TO the event on the yelp app. After you’ve checked in, you look for the Yelp person (usually carrying some Yelp swag or in a Yelp shirt) to show your phone to in order to get your FREE swag. I got a koozie for the husband. I really wanted to tote bag because we need those things for grocery shopping. But, since he was my guest and a non-Eliter, I let him have it. I did however, point out that as a guest, you get diddly at these events. The Yelp Elite DO. That’s our reward for being real and writing real reviews. LOL.
Then we wait. No entry until 30 mins prior to movie start which was 7 pm. There were quite a few people waiting to get in but not the massive hoards of people that I was expecting. That was nice. No pushing or shoving to deal with. As soon as we were granted entry, he went straight to the theater to take our seats and I headed straight to the concession to get our snacks. I knew the lines would be long with a stampede of people entering at the same time.
Here’s where the cost surprised me. We all know that movies are expensive as hell. It sure makes it difficult for a young man to take a girl out on a date knowing they’ll need to shell out at least $40 just to see a movie. The combos they had didn’t seem as expensive as the theater closer to my house. 1 large (refillable) popcorn and 1 large drink was $12.75. I had my movie rewards card and it was Tuesday. They had $1 hot dogs today. So, I got a pair of them. I requested my refill on the spot so I didn’t have to go back out during the movie.
There I was carrying a box full of buttery popcorn, 2 wieners, and a big ass drink. I go into the theater and I recall seeing A10 on my ticket. You guessed it. Our seats are in the front fricken row. WHO sits there?! I mean, seriously? At that point, I wanted to know how the seats are assigned and why everyone else was sitting in the general area in the top section and there were of us lonely people down in the neck strain area. Was there an unspoken rule we didn’t know about? Was this a Yelp Elite noob thing? Even Romel was like, what kind of shittiness is this?
The couple next to us won their tickets on the radio. They were contemplating moving. They ended up doing so. We tried to do the right thing. Ask an usher if we could move despite the seat assignment. He said no, they expect a full house. REALLY?! There were 2 entire rows behind us in the neck breaking seats that were fricken empty! You cannot tell me that EVERYONE else actually sat in their assigned seats, did they? Cause we looked stupid sitting way up front.
The only benefit we got by sitting in front was the view we had of the game contestants. There was someone from the radio emceeing the pre-event prize giveaways and I REALLY wish I had gotten it all on video to share with you guys. This guys commentary had me laughing LOUDLY in the front row. I couldn’t contain myself. He had the first trio do their best touchdown victory dance. The winner did a great dance that including falling on the floor and rolling around to get back up.
The next was a trio of men who had to do their best SHAKE WEIGHT workout. I DIED. Seriously died. As they busted a move with their imaginary shake weights in their hand, the emcee commentating just had me bursting at the seams. Even Romel looked at me like, omg shush!! What???? It was HILARIOUS! He even laughed! Sheeeesh!
The theater was quiet. I was getting bored. It really took off in the last half hour of the movie. When we walked out, we both said that movie did not live up to the hype. We were expecting more screams, more gasps, and more “ohhhh shit…ahhhhhh……hell no’s”.
We went to have dinner at Buca downstairs and upon entry our host asked us what we saw (I was carrying the bags of extra popcorn). I told him what movie and asked how it was. We both immediately go, JUNK! No watch em. It was slow. We didn’t scream and it was boring. He thanked us for our input and said he’d wait for it and save his money.
At dinner we talked about the movie. Tried to remember the scenes. What scared us and what didn’t. I said a lot could have been omitted to help move the story along. As we discussed what “could” be removed, we realized, it was necessary to set up the entire story line. LOL! Basically, we were chopping off the boring parts and by discussing it saw why it was needed.
We then talked about what parts were scary. He seemed to have forgotten those parts, except one. I said, NO, had plenty. I rattled off the stomach twisting scenes and then realized, I had my EYES closed and my hand over my mouth through most of them. LMAO! NO WONDER IT WASN’T SCARY! I DIDN’T SEE IT! Hahahaha!!!
The sound, the big screen, the big cold theater adds to the creepiness of the movie. The evil characters creep you the hell out and the angles they use in the movie has you either gripped to the screen or makes you want to bury your face in your jacket. Bottom line, Anabelle is an ugly creepy ass looking doll that is any childs (or adults for that matter) worst nightmare. I DID scream, in my hand cupped over my mouth multiple times. I had my eyes closed shut for most of the sickeningly suspenseful parts which probably added even more wrinkles to my face. I sew. So the whole friggen sewing machine thing in this movie made my stomach turn. As we wrapped up dinner, we both changed our song and said, YUP the movie wasn’t that bad. It was creepy and I was indeed scared. However, NOT leave all the lights on-what is that noise-don’t look under the bed-running out of every room scared. But it had its moments. I must point out that this movie does NOT come close to its predecessor. The Conjuring blows this one out of the water. I couldn’t even watch that movie with the sound ON. (I missed it in theaters, thank GOD) |
As we exited the restaurant, I looked for our host. I told him, I recant. The movie was scary. I was trying to be brave and after discussing it, I was faking the funk. It wasn’t scary to me because I had my eyes shut and my hand over my mouth for at least ¼ of the movie. LOL!! As we walked out he yelled, “Thank you! Don’t let Anabelle get you!!” Thank you, Travis. LOL!!
For the new Yelpers attending an event:
To check into an event, you need to do a search of that event title. In this case, I was searching “Anabelle” per the yelp leaders instructions. It wasn’t coming up. A fellow yelper said to look it up by the actual title of the event which was Yelp night at the movies (or something similar). It came up. Then from the actual event, you can check in to get your swag. Your guest can also score swag by checking into the event from their phones too!