Boy's Night Out

Last night was my first "Boy's Night Out" in a while and I am happy to report that from all published accounts, the evening was an unqualified success. One of my co-workers at the General approached me on Monday and asked if I would be interested in seeing the movie Watchmen on Friday night, He felt that we could grab a bite of dinner and perhaps a few cold, adult beverages before the movie. I quickly said yes. A fellow co-worker needed a little effort to "work the issue" with his better half, but at the end of the discussion, the three of us left work at 1630 and headed to an IMAX theater to see the movie.



We went to the theater, first, to purchase tickets for the 1830 show, then we hoofed it about 150 feet to the nearby Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner. I enjoyed a serving of Caribbean Jerk and Hot wings, along with some celery and blue cheese dressing. I washed it down with some Budweiser American Ale, which I must say is might tasty. Jon and Larry (my co-workers) and I engaged in some great conversation and laughed a lot about life, the universe and everything.

We settled out bill with our waitress and headed to the IMAX theater. A movie in IMAX is pretty impressive. While each IMAX screen is custom fit to the theater, the screen at Celebration Cinema is 70 feet wide and 55 feet high, so the images from the movie are literally in your face. Now matter where you sit in the theater, you have a great view of the screen.

We settled into our seats and a few minutes later we say trailers for some upcoming movies. After 10 minutes of trailers, the movie began. Watchmen was originally a serial comic book, written in 12 installments from September, 1986 - October 1987. At that time, I was serving aboard USS NIAGARA FALLS (AFS 3). The only communication I received was via snail mail. Yes, for the younger readers of this blog, there was a time before the Internet, e-mail and instant messaging. Anyhow, one of my roommates from college started sending me the comic book each month as it was published. Over the course of 12 months, I read the story of the Watchmen. It was a great read to fill some of my extremely limited spare time when I was deployed. I never imagined that the comic book would be made into a movie because of its complexity, but technology has a wonderful way of making things happen.

Watchmen is definitely not a movie for children nor is it a "feel good movie." It has action, drama, suspense, a lot of violence, some skin (male and female), a few moral tales and in this reviewer's opinion, Watchmen is an excellent movie. My co-workers liked the movie too, and we are all hoping to have another "Boy's Night Out" combining a dinner, beers and a movie in the near future.