Movie Bathrooms

Summertime, and the living is…well, it’s hot. I suppose when the weather first starts warming up, we all get pretty excited to play outside. But after the first couple of weeks it gets really old…and the temperature just gets higher and higher.

At some point we all need to find an indoor escape, but after the long, cooped-up winter season we look for ways to get out of the house. I assume this is the reason why so many good movies come out in the summer. It’s a great way to get out of the heat without having to sit at home watching sit-com reruns.

Everyone has their own movie theater habits. I know a lot of people grab boxes of candy and tubs of popcorn. All I need is the largest cup of my favorite carbonated beverage. There is one major problem with that, and I usually remember it about ¾ of the way through the flick. I have a relatively large bladder. That is to say, I can usually hold liquid longer than most of my friends. Unfortunately, even I can’t withstand a two-hour film and a jumbo Mountain Dew.

Having a healthy (or overactive) bladder wouldn’t be a problem under most circumstances. It’s a great excuse to miss a few minutes of class, or to duck out of a meeting early. When it comes to movie theaters, however, having to pee during the show can ruin the experience, especially when the best action sequences happen near the end, when the urge to pee is strongest.

To combat this problem, movie theaters should have a restroom in the theater itself, so audience members won’t have to go to the lobby. The bathroom would have all the privacy of a typical bathroom. My idea is that the restroom would be completely enclosed, while allowing people to see the movie from inside. I think this could happen in one of two ways. There could be monitors in the bathroom playing the movie along with the big screen in the main theater. This would be kind of like how many sports bars have small monitors in the restrooms to watch sports. The other way restroom users could see the movie is by using some sort of privacy screen. The screen would allow viewers to see out without letting others to see in, possibly similar to tinting on car windows if the light in the restroom is kept dim.

Does anyone know of a theater where this exists? What movies are you looking forward to this summer?

What Happened to Lelaina Pierce?

This is an idea I have loved since I first thought of it. It came up while I was discussing movies with a good friend on a road trip. We were specifically discussing one of my personal favorite movies: Reality Bites.



For those of you who don’t know anything about the movie (or who just need to be reminded), the film deals with a group of young people who have just graduated from college. They are job-seeking, relationship-building young gen-Xers. The audience gets to look into their personalities and the dynamics of their friendships. The movie stars Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawk, Steve Zahn, Janeane Garofalo, and Ben Stiller; it is Ben Stiller’s directorial debut.

After seeing Reality Bites so many times, I have grown pretty attached to the characters and I would like to know where they are now. Did Lelaina ever find success as a documentary filmmaker? How long did her relationship with Troy last? Did Sammy’s parents ever let him back in the house? Is Vickie still working at the Gap? Did any of them find happiness? Are any of them still friends?

I’m sure if you didn’t love this movie as much as I did, you probably have another movie where you are dying to know where the characters are now. If it helps, you can pretend like this entire entry is about that movie.

I love ‘Where Are They Now’ segments on TV, but they only address where certain actors or celebrities are now. I want a special feature on DVDs where we can see where the characters are now. Imagine how much fun it would be to get the cast together (in character) to say what they are doing now. Sometimes a sequel just isn’t an option, and we all know that sequels are often inferior to the original anyway. This idea works very well in place of a full sequel.

Has anyone seen this as a special feature before? Are there any other movies where you would like to know whatever happened to the characters? Does anyone know if Ben Stiller would go for something like this?