Over the past few weeks I don't see much of Carol anymore. Well, at least it seems that way. She's putting in an awful lot of hours at work, but it's seasonal and this isn't the first time we've had to go through this. That forced us to go to the movies on a Saturday. We went to the AMC South Barrington 30 to catch a late afternoon showing (4:45pm) of The Incredibles.

We typically don't go to the movies on a Saturday, especially as it turns toward evening. Today, we found out why that's a good thing.

We got to the theaters about half an hour before the scheduled showtime. We were in Theater 29 (out of 30), so we were in one of the smaller theaters, and already there were people camped out in the "good seats". (Everyone has "good seats" when they go to the movies - it's that place where you always want to sit because it gives you the correct angle to the screen, not too close where you can't see the whole sctreen, but not too far away where the screen appears too small for your liking and the audio is now at a lower level than what you like). During the next 20 minutes, there was a steady flow of people coming into the theater, eventually filling up every seat 10 minutes before showtime. The group is mixed between adults, teens and parents with kids of all ages. It was so bad, coples were plitting up so they could sit in individual seats across the theater.

Then the wait seemed to be getting longer. Sure enough, it's 5 minutes after trhe scheduled start and a quick look into the projection booth shows... the projector opened-up and somebody working inside. Another 5 minutes pass and I look around the auditorium and see kids starting to run around and popcorn everywhere. This could get messy.

The lights come down and the audio of the trailers starts up. The audio is familiar and when the bulb in the projectror turns on, everyone realizes it's the trailer for Star Wars III. But - the framing is off and the top half of the film is on the bottom of the screen and vice-versa. The crowd is screaming for someone to fix it as the trailer plods on... eventually someone hears our pleas. Damn. It was the only trailer I really wanted to see. We see the SpongeBob SquarePants trailer and then anothertrailer startes for some animated story I didn't know when the film comes off the sprokets, and out of the gate and shuts down. Now management is involved trying to calm the crowd. Because the delay is so long, we are given free small drink and free small popcorn vouchers. The trailers start again, this time it starts in the middle of Pixar's next picture - Cars - due in November of next year. A Pixar short starts - and abruptly stops. Management is back - we're getting free passes for a movie as compensation for our trouble. The theater all this time is pandemonium of kids being restless, people going to and from the concessions, people just leaving from having to endure these delays, and people still coming into the theater looking for non-existant seats.

50 minutes after the scheduled start, The Incredibles is finally on the screen.

Thre wasn't a hitch during the show, which was a relief. The movie itself was absolutely great! It explores ideas never brought before on the screen - such as what happens to superheroes when society turns litigious? How do superhero families cope with their powers... or just cope to fit-in with society? The animation is great, the voice acting again is great. This is well worth seeing! It will be another Pixar hit - guaranteed!