Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Movie Hopper No More

So, for years, I enjoyed moviehopping. For those of you that have no idea what this is, moviehopping is the practice of buying tickets for one movie and then staying to see a few. In fact, in my heyday, with my good friend Danny M, I saw as many as 8, 9, even 10 movies in one day. It was a lot of fun, if exhausting, and really passed the time well, especially for a Jew on Christmas.

But it was unethical, and probably illegal as well. Sure, I justified the practice by saying if the theater wasn't sold out, they were not losing any revenue, and I was spending more on food staying there all day, and lots of people movie hop, and the employees don't care, and blah blah blah, but the bottom line is, it was wrong.

Now I'm 31 years old and running for City Council, so it was time to finally retire from moviehopping. My first challenge came Saturday night, when I went to the movie Charlie Wilson's War in Douglaston with my wife. It was a good movie...but we wanted more. We had a babysitter for the night, and we were trying to get a head start in our annual quest to see all of the Oscar contenders. We decided to see Sweeney Todd, and then the big question arose....to pay or not to pay? It would be so easy- we were already in the theater, Sweeney Todd was about to start, we were seconds away from the hop...but right was right.

I gulped, left the theater, purchased 2 tickets for Sweeney Todd, and proudly reentered the theater, a legal, legitimate movie hopper for the first time ever. Doing the right thing felt damn good- and as I waited in line for popcorn refills, bragging to my wife about how great it felt to pay $55 for a night at the movies, I looked up only to see David Weprin, the current City Council member whose seat I'm running for.

"What movie are you here to see?," he asked me. "Well, I saw Charlie Wilson's war," I replied, "but now I'm going to see Sweeney Todd." Weprin had no idea what I was doing next, but I held up those Sweeney Todd tickets high in the air, proudly showing him the beginning of a new era.

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