A New Favourite: action movies on opening night

It's been a long week. A long and frustrating week. So when my best friend called me at 5:45pm and I was still at the office fielding phone calls from Vancouver (nearly an hour after our office closes) and she said she needed to "DO something," my response was:

"I need beer."

A few high fat meal items and a pint of beer later we (along with another female friend who joined us at dinner) decided to enjoy a Friday night movie...called Fast & Furious. Wait-- you say knowingly-- didn't they already make that movie? Oh no my friend, they made THE Fast and THE Furious. You see the difference is apparently in the definite article.

I'm sure I don't need to explain the premise or the basic storyline since "it's an action movie about cars" can be gleaned from the poster. What can't be found in the image (although Jordana Brewster may be hinting at it) is quite how hilarious the movie actually is...when viewed in the correct environment. I have on occasion attended pre-screenings of films for which friends have provided tickets but I'm essentially a second or third week viewer. Clearly I've been going about this all wrong.

Obviously my friends and I are not the core audience for this film, which is unabashedly aimed at guys 18-45 who are heterosexual and like fast cars. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of the action genre (embarrassingly my DVD collection consists of award winners, chick flicks and action movies) and I love stunt driving but I'm well aware of how ridiculous these movies can get. Much of the audience tonight WASN'T...and it was amazing!

In the trailer Vin is asked by a young woman if he's "one of those guys who prefers cars to women" and when he responded in the movie tonight that he appreciates "a nice body whatever the make" the crowd went wild for his smooth lines. I'm not ashamed to say, so did I because seeing the movie with the people for whom it was intended put the ridiculousness into even sharper relief. They were rowdy, commented openly and reacted at all the right parts. I haven't laughed quite that hard in a long time.

So my new favourite passtime (for now) is action movies on opening night.