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Posted

What in the ever living fuck are you guys talking about in this thread? 

Also I remember seeing Titanic in a movie theatre on campus when in came out with my then girlfriend. I got really high and fell asleep and missed the ending which caused a huge fight and we eventually broke up over the fucking Titanic move. Of all of the ways I found to have a girl dislike me I think that is by far the most ridiculous one. 

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Posted
54 minutes ago, Fud said:

Blair Witch is objectively great horror, this coming from a horror snob 

I didn’t think it was that great, but I’m conflicted.
 

The ending was elite. It’s a “The Sting” level ending. Maybe that is enough to make it great. 

Posted
1 hour ago, J.Peterman said:

I was projectionist at Dobie Theater when this first came out.  I put the movie together and then had to stay by myself to watch it to make sure I didn't fuck something up and put a reel on upside down or something stupid.  I had no idea what the movie was even about.  I was probably 20 at the time, but that scared the shit out of me.  I remember getting home about 3am and googling it and they had that whole backstory internet campaign going online trying to make people think it was real.

On the other side of the spectrum was watching Something About Mary with no idea of the greatness I was about to witness.  Good times.  Best jobs I ever had were working at movie theaters.  

I liked the concept of the Blair Witch Project.  But the execution of that concept almost gave me seizures.

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Posted
10 minutes ago, Newy25 said:

Also I remember seeing Titanic in a movie theatre on campus when in came out with my then girlfriend. I got really high and fell asleep and missed the ending.....

You missed the ending of Titanic?   Are you kidding me....everybody knew how that movie ended before they ever bought the ticket!  Gzzzzzzzz.

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Posted
29 minutes ago, Butch Had Not said:

Did they hand out bard bags at the theater? I wonder if that was just part of the mythos surrounding it. 

I went to see it about 3 weeks after it was out. The Internet was useful, but a lot of people were still not using it ubiquitously the way everyone does today. Accordingly, a lot of folks were still confused as to whether it was real, or based on a true story, or just great marketing. Using common sense and the Internet, me and my buddies understood that it was good marketing and just wanted to see the phenomenon and what it was all about for everyone. We weren’t really expecting to be actually scared. Whoops.

The theater was still packed to the gills. “Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai” trailer happened and I exploded into laughter, and that got contagious. Once the movie started, the mood changed really, really quickly. At various points people were running down the stairs to the exits. I don’t remember anyone puking though. 

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Posted
On 7/28/2025 at 10:11 AM, Duane Moore said:

Interesting. I clearly did not know that, and misused it in this context. I had always thought it was a synonym for higher birth status and so assumed it was spelled the other way. You have taught me something today. 

You're not wrong, whatever its origins, it has acquired that spelling and meaning.  https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/to-the-manner-born.html

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Posted
1 hour ago, Bevo said:

Where was the on campus movie theater and what was it called? I never went there sober but I vaguely remember watching Eraserhead and Basket Case there.  

Hogg Auditorium showed a lot of flicks.

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Posted
46 minutes ago, Newy25 said:

What in the ever living fuck are you guys talking about in this thread? 

Also I remember seeing Titanic in a movie theatre on campus when in came out with my then girlfriend. I got really high and fell asleep and missed the ending which caused a huge fight and we eventually broke up over the fucking Titanic move. Of all of the ways I found to have a girl dislike me I think that is by far the most ridiculous one. 

I don’t blame her. 

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Posted
3 minutes ago, mwaadeeb said:

I don’t blame her. 

 

He obviously had not learned to say, "you are right" and/or gained selective hearing. Eventually he either learned or is unmarried or divorced. 

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Posted

I was 11 when Blair Witch came out. My 15 year old brother gave me the VHS (unmarked) and told me it was real footage being passed around secretly at the high school. I think watching that tape may have been the end of my adolescent spirit. 

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Posted

The only movie I saw at the union movie theater was Akira.  Freaking fantastic.  I was familiar with children's anime, like the Force Five Anime shows, but this was my first adult anime.  Crazy good movie theater experience.

This scene freaked me out as a kid: 

 

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Posted
1 hour ago, Fud said:

This movie rules, btw fwiw 

My first Jarmusch movie and I’ve loved him ever since. His movies aren’t always great but I always enjoy them. 

3 minutes ago, Reynolds Woodcock said:

I was 11 when Blair Witch came out. My 15 year old brother gave me the VHS (unmarked) and told me it was real footage being passed around secretly at the high school. I think watching that tape may have been the end of my adolescent spirit. 

I was sophomore at Austin High but a lot my friends had graduated and were freshmen at Texas. We all went to see it at the Dobie one night and as the “little kid” in the group, they all convinced me it was real. In my head I knew they were full of shit, but when the movie started I got completely immersed. I was just old enough to enjoy it but young enough to still be sucked in. 

CTJ is right though, people who didn’t see it in the theater won’t understand the effect it had on people. In fact, with the ubiquity of found footage and prevalence of spoilers on the internet, I don’t think any movie will be able to catch people the way the BWP did ever again. 

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Posted
3 hours ago, SL Xpress said:

Dobie Theater in the 80s was pure greatness.

I was a 90’s attendee and I remember when the Dobie advertised on their marquee “Hands on a Hard Body” for over a year. Not being very hip to the film scene, I just presumed the Dobie theater was where you watched gay porn. 

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Posted
2 minutes ago, LCHorn said:

I was a 90’s attendee and I remember when the Dobie advertised on their marquee “Hands on a Hard Body” for over a year. Not being very hip to the film scene, I just presumed the Dobie theater was where you watched gay porn. 

I feel obligated to post this clip any time someone mentions this gem of a documentary.

 

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Posted (edited)

Blair Witch Project is a lot like Sleepaway Camp or The Last Broadcast. Either the ending recovers the entire movie for you, or it’s bad. Having seen it in theaters, I’m in the former camp.

Edited by BigBenBamboozle
Posted
17 minutes ago, IDIOTsavant said:

I feel obligated to post this clip any time someone mentions this gem of a documentary.

 

Quentin Tarantino's favorite doc by one of Longview's finest: SR Bindler

Posted
26 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Dobie theater ran this after boogie nights came out

l_141186_755303f4.jpg

My roommate, myself and 2 lady friends went freshman year. The girls agreed to go if he called Dobie and asked “what level of porn is this? Will there be money shots?” He called and off we walked toward the theater 

Posted
2 hours ago, Fud said:

This movie rules, btw fwiw 

I can’t tell you how many movie snobs have told me this over the years. With the memory of that trailer, in that moment, I can’t fathom it and refuse to soil the memory finding out otherwise. 

58 minutes ago, Park Gothic said:

My first Jarmusch movie and I’ve loved him ever since. His movies aren’t always great but I always enjoy them. 

I was sophomore at Austin High but a lot my friends had graduated and were freshmen at Texas. We all went to see it at the Dobie one night and as the “little kid” in the group, they all convinced me it was real. In my head I knew they were full of shit, but when the movie started I got completely immersed. I was just old enough to enjoy it but young enough to still be sucked in. 

CTJ is right though, people who didn’t see it in the theater won’t understand the effect it had on people. In fact, with the ubiquity of found footage and prevalence of spoilers on the internet, I don’t think any movie will be able to catch people the way the BWP did ever again. 

Dude, I was in my early 20’s, knew it was just a movie, and still was plenty scared. People who weren’t there at the time will never understand it. 

21 minutes ago, BigBenBamboozle said:

Blair Witch Project is a lot like Sleepaway Camp or The Last Broadcast. Either the ending recovers the entire movie for you, or it’s bad. Having seen it in theaters, I’m in the former camp.

That period of film had some amazing endings. BWP, Seven, The Usual Suspects, The Sixth Sense. That’s a few of them, with more for sure.  Come on. 

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Posted
17 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

That period of film had some amazing endings. BWP, Seven, The Usual Suspects, The Sixth Sense. That’s a few of them, with more for sure.  Come on. 

If we’re going ‘90s bangers with excellent endings, we was eatin’. Fallen, Primal Fear, What Lies Beneath, and my personal fave Arlington Road.

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Posted

Looking back, Blair Witch is...not good. Like, at all. It was a niche film that spawned (or at least brought to the forefront the FF crap. Some good, some so shitty they're unwatchable). 

But I'm also the person who really likes As Above, So Below. 🤷‍♂️

Posted
5 minutes ago, William Bludworth said:

RZA is undefeated is being a bad ass in everything. Forest Whitaker is awesome, too. The whole damn movie is great. 

Shimmy Shimmy Ya came on my Spotify last night. That beat goes so fucking hard. 

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Posted (edited)
4 minutes ago, tokamak said:

Shimmy Shimmy Ya came on my Spotify last night. That beat goes so fucking hard. 

Bro, his entire production on Liquid Swords for GZA is untouched, imo. He's the best producer in the industry. Plus the man has some serious acting chops. 

Have you seen the movie Clean with Adrian Brody? Brutal, but he goes hard. And let's not forget him in Nobody. 

I wish the Gravediggaz were still around. Man, he really made those first two records into classics. 

Edit: And yeah, his production on Return to the 36 Chambers is almost a perfect record. 

Edited by William Bludworth
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Posted
5 hours ago, J.Peterman said:

I was projectionist at Dobie Theater when this first came out.  I put the movie together and then had to stay by myself to watch it to make sure I didn't fuck something up and put a reel on upside down or something stupid.  I had no idea what the movie was even about.  I was probably 20 at the time, but that scared the shit out of me.  I remember getting home about 3am and googling it and they had that whole backstory internet campaign going online trying to make people think it was real.

On the other side of the spectrum was watching Something About Mary with no idea of the greatness I was about to witness.  Good times.  Best jobs I ever had were working at movie theaters.  

Saw both Blair Witch and Hands in a Hardbody at the Dobie. Among many…thank you for your service.

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Posted
6 minutes ago, Daichee Bell said:

Saw both Blair Witch and Hands in a Hardbody at the Dobie. Among many…thank you for your service.

Hands on a Hardbody was crazy.  Rumor was we had like 1 of only 10 copies of the film in existence or something silly.  Tom Arnold and I wanna say either Ted Koppel or Tom Brokaw (can't recall which) flew in specifically to see it.  It had kind of run its course after 10 months and they ran the tagline "Last week" in the newspaper and all of a sudden it sold out again for like 6 weeks straight and we had to keep it longer. 
There were some really weird movies that ran through there.  Orgazmo was another interesting one I remember.  Usually we had 2 mainstream films, 1 artsy fartsy, and one borderline porno at all times.     

The owner when I was there was some Gay Canadian guy (nttiawwt).  He had to fire some neighbor kid he had hired because he was cleaning the theatres and reusing the large popcorn buckets and reselling them and then later voiding out the sale and pocketing the money.  That way when inventory was done, nobody noticed because the # of containers weren't off from the number of sales.  That was when I truly learned the difference between book smart and street smart.  Still not sure how he caught him.  That seemed like a pretty good racket.

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Posted

American werewolf in London gave me nightmares as a child. To the point that even though I have it on my media sever for several years I still haven’t watched it…

An American Werewolf In London GIF

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Posted
3 minutes ago, Laxtonto said:

American werewolf in London gave me nightmares as a child. To the point that even though I have it on my media sever for several years I still haven’t watched it…

An American Werewolf In London GIF

You should watch it for the awesome Jenny Agutter shower scene as well as the hilarious porn theater scene, and just hide your eyes during the horror parts.

Posted
4 minutes ago, Laxtonto said:

American werewolf in London gave me nightmares as a child. To the point that even though I have it on my media sever for several years I still haven’t watched it…

An American Werewolf In London GIF

Great movie. If you haven't seen it, check out Dog Soldiers. 

Posted
51 minutes ago, J.Peterman said:


There were some really weird movies that ran through there.  Orgazmo was another interesting one I remember.  Usually we had 2 mainstream films, 1 artsy fartsy, and one borderline porno at all times…

That tracks. The movies I remember seeing there are Hands on a Hardbody, BWP, Wad (a John Holmes documentary featuring Ron Jeremy as the voice of reason) and Lost in Translation. 

Posted
On 7/28/2025 at 4:17 PM, JesusSweatDuck said:

Similar story but different angle.  My dad is a very conservative christian bible beater (think Footloose level crazy).  He took us to from From Dusk Til Dawn  (Rodriguez and Tarantino) thinking it was a simple vampire flick.  He didn't pay attention to the rating for some reason.  The opening scene is shot in a strip club where all the strippers turn into vampires.  I'm still to this day shocked he didn't drag me and my brother out of the theater right there.  I don't know what was more entertaining, the boobs or seeing my dad be as uncomfortable as he was.  I'll never forget the look on his face.

I think he knew exactly what he was doing. He knew he wanted to see the goings on in the Titty Twister, he knew your conservative mom would never stand for it, and being insano Christian he thought going to the movies alone made you gay. So he dragged you two goobers along to get his thrill. 

Posted
5 hours ago, Bevo said:

 

He obviously had not learned to say, "you are right" and/or gained selective hearing. Eventually he either learned or is unmarried or divorced. 


You mean, “Who the fuck gives a flying fuck what happened in this stupid fucking movie?” was not the right answer? 

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Posted
2 hours ago, BigBenBamboozle said:

If we’re going ‘90s bangers with excellent endings, we was eatin’. Fallen, Primal Fear, What Lies Beneath, and my personal fave Arlington Road.

A Boy and his Dog had a surprise ending but that was way earlier. 

Posted
18 hours ago, Park Gothic said:

A man of culture, I see. Has she seen Color Out of Space with Nick Cage?

She has not. She's more into slasher type stuff these days. Just for the record, she's excellent and extremely caring and gentle with all of our many pets - but I still don't like to turn my back on her for too long

Posted
5 hours ago, squeegeedegg said:

Don't you fucking tell me Cloverfield isn't real

I've only actually ever seen a small part of one Cloverfield movie and the entirety of my thoughts on it are as follows: Mary Elizabeth Winstead is SERIOUSLY underappreciated

Mary_Elizabeth_Winstead_by_Gage_Skidmore

harley_1.jpg

 

mary-elizabeth-winstead-2.jpg

mew-vvv-magazine-fall-2016_4.jpg

mew-vvv-magazine-fall-2016_5.jpg

thumb_1459877562.png?crop=1xw:1xh;center

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Posted
2 hours ago, J.Peterman said:

He had to fire some neighbor kid he had hired because he was cleaning the theatres and reusing the large popcorn buckets and reselling them and then later voiding out the sale and pocketing the money.  That way when inventory was done, nobody noticed because the # of containers weren't off from the number of sales.  That was when I truly learned the difference between book smart and street smart.  Still not sure how he caught him.  That seemed like a pretty good racket.

Because if you're monitoring the numbers - and any good manager/owner monitors the concession numbers, because that's your lifeblood revenue source - at some point you can see the sales and ratios of sales/tickets sold are down. Doesn't matter by how much. There's a laser focus on those numbers. So then you suspect something. That's assuming the machines couldn't keep track of the voids, and most of them could. 

Every now and then at the theater I worked at they'd have some kind of hot dog sale. Buy some kind of combo and you got the hot dog for a cheap price. Anyone who got the item or items necessary - I don't remember if it was a large drink or large popcorn or a combination. Doesn't matter. But if anyone got the items necessary to qualify for a cheap hot dog but didn't get the hot dog, I'd simply not ring up the sale, then I'd tell everyone after that they could get a hot dog for the sale price if they wanted one, and ring up the whole sale at that time. We had multiple concession stands because it was a pretty big theater for its time, and inevitably the concession sales where I was working would blow the roof off of any other theater in the city. The general manager knew exactly what I was doing. He couldn't encourage me, but he sure was willing to turn a blind eye to it. What was critical is that the register balanced at the end of the night, but it always did. 

To be honest whatever concession stand I was working always had huge sales compared to everyone else because I was constantly hustling people to upsize or suggesting they add to their order. Shit works. Wasn't really incentivized to do it. I just enjoyed the process.

On another note, one of my biggest frustrations at the time was the stupid way the concession stands worked. You'd have multiple employees there working almost an assembly line. One person would grab popcorn. One person would handle the drinks. One of them would handle special orders like hot dogs or nachos. One person would be on the register. But invariably the register took way longer than anything else, so it ended up being a bottle neck for the transaction process. I'd complain that we needed more registers and just have everyone use one and then get their own customers' popcorn/drinks, or at the very least just have one person doing all of that for multiple registers. It's not like the general manager was unsympathetic, but it was simply the way the corporation did it. Everyone did it the same way back then. Even when I'd attend old theaters, like the old River Oaks Theater before it was torn apart and remodeled into a dining theater, they did it that way. 

It was such a validation when theaters finally started going to the model with multiple registers. It's the only way that makes sense.  

Since I'm on the topic, one of the changes that happened about 20 years ago is that employees stopped going to movies. That was a huge perk when I worked in a theater in the 80s. You could see any movie for free pretty much at any theater. Even if the theater was another chain they had reciprocal agreements. I just told my manager I wanted to see a movie at another theater and they'd call ahead and get me passes at the ticket office. Any time I went to the theater - and this is into the 90s and 2000s - I'd ask the employees if the movie I was going to see was any good, or I'd ask what was their favorite movie the theater was showing. I don't know exactly when it was, but it felt like overnight suddenly the answer became, "I don't know. I haven't seen any." Not just that they hadn't seen any of the movies showing at that time. They really didn't see all that many movies in general. There's a big part of me that always wondered why would you work in a movie theater for low wages, no tips, poor hours, open every holiday, if you didn't like movies in the first place? Also, whenever I worked the ticket office, which was with some frequency, I'd regularly steer people away from the really bad movies and offer an alternative. There's no question I could have gotten in trouble for that, but I never got turned in for it. 

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Posted

Scariest movie I saw in high school was Midnight Express. Gave me nightmares for months. After I saw it, my parents never had to worry about me ending up in prison or visiting Turkey, I can sure tell you that. 

 

Posted
6 hours ago, Red Five said:

Man I can’t believe Dia Bell, Tyler Atkinson, and Richard Wesley all decommitted today. Scary.

Yeah. They heard a bunch of texas fans liked Blair Witch. And they couldn't see themselves associating with a university that produce people with such horrible tastes on movies. 

Who knew the kids were ciniphiles?

 

 

Please note:  I've never seen this movie. 

Posted
3 hours ago, SL Xpress said:

Because if you're monitoring the numbers - and any good manager/owner monitors the concession numbers, because that's your lifeblood revenue source - at some point you can see the sales and ratios of sales/tickets sold are down. Doesn't matter by how much. There's a laser focus on those numbers. So then you suspect something. That's assuming the machines couldn't keep track of the voids, and most of them could. 

 

Yeah, I guess.  I'm trying to remember, but pretty sure there were free refills on popcorn (worked at a couple different ones) and that only costs like 3 cents for a big bucket so not really money leaking out the door there or an easy way to track that like number of containers sold.  Guess it must have been the number of voids going up although the guys was only doing it like 4/5 times a day to get lunch and beer money.  I think at the time we were maybe just highlighting them yellow and writing "void" on it LOL.  Not very sophisticated POS systems at the time either.  Ok.  Enough reminiscing.  Let's money whip Benjamin.  Speaking of which, hadn't posted in a long time and noticed my Burnt Ends banner fell off so I guess I need to renew it.  

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