Alright. First things first. Let's just call this post....
DEATH BY MOVIES
Yesterday, I took the day off work and watched ALL THREE of the Lord of the Rings movies at the Uptown Theater in D.C. Fellowship started at 1, Two Towers started at 5:30, Return of the King started at 10:30. The experience kicked my ass up and down the street-- in more ways than one.
First of all, Frank and I got to the theater at 8:40 AM. We were maybe forty people back. We drank coffee, read, stayed warm, made friends with the people around us, etc. It was pretty fun. A bunch of people in line were dressed up-- and when I say dressed up, I mean dressed UP. Highlights: guy dressed as Gandalf doing magic tricks with the ring; girl dressed as a hobbit walking around barefoot with hair stuck to her feet (and it was damn cold yesterday morning); girl dressed like Galadrial who actually ended up looking like a man in drag; lady dressed like an elf-ears, cape, brooch and all- smoking a cigarette on the curb; teenage girl dressed like GOLLUM- she was wearing a white unitard, and a gollum wig that was flesh colored and just had strands of hair coming out. Also saw the kids who sold us the tickets cause we were "Asian" and took a picture with them.

Now this is what kicked my ass, in the "oh my gosh I feel like somebody put me in a bag and beat the crap out of me I think my head is going to explode I feel like death" kind of way. Watching the first two movies was painful. I mean, I really enjoyed them, still cheered at all the right parts, etc. But the extended scenes, as cool as they are, really do slow down the pacing of the movies. I did a lot of fidgeting, snacking, napping. And that's like 7 hours of movie right there, on a huge screen, loud sound, etc. Great, wonderful movies-- that gave me a huge headache.

On to.... RETURN OF THE KIIIIIING! Which kicked my ass in the "holy crap that was awesome it kicks ass all ass including my ass" kind of way. Brilliant movie. I think it's my favorite, because it has the awesome action of the second movie with the good characterizations of the second, and I feel like they paced it really well. The acting in this movie was sooo good. Aragorn-- so manly, so kingly, such strength. Viggo is brilliant. And Sean Astin-oh man, his Samwise Gamgee kicked my ass. He brought so much heart and emotion. Also, props to the dudes who played Faramir and Denthor-- Denthor was freaky freaky, and Faramir was very noble. Everyone else was great great great too. Honestly, I think the weakest actor is Orlando Bloom-- very very hot, but he seems to only have two facial expressions-- smug look and furrowed brow/concerned look. But he still rocks. Honestly- I have a big of a crush on pretty much every guy in this movie. Except Denethor. and Gollum.

The visuals in this movie were also great. Battle scenes were INTENSE. Shelob was DAMN SCARY. Minas Tirith was BEAUTIFUL. Big elephant dudes- DAMN. The way they took all the crazy creatures/places/people from the books and realized them so beautifully--I can't say enough about how great this movie looked. So I'll stop now, and make you go watch it.

I highly recommend this movie. I was very pleased by the way it stayed fairly true to the books, and it was a beautiful ending to a beautiful trilogy. It paced the big action scenes and the journey of the ring together really well.

The movie ended around 2 AM. I hailed a cab, got home, and crashed. I felt beat up and broken. But happy too, cause I had just watched a great, entertaining movie. That had hot guys fighting, girls kicking ass, funny looking animnals. Good times.

So here's a big HOLLLA to Return of the King. It was great watching it with all the crazies, hooting and hollering at all the fun parts. But I will NEVER again watch three movies in the theater in one day, not even if it's the Life Story of HannahYu Vol. 1-3 or The Greatest Movie Ever Made Pts 1-3. And yes Phil-- I now have a leather ass.

Side note-- I was interviewed by nbc 4 news, and apparantly they aired a bit of me! A couple of my co workers saw me on TV! Crazy! I wish I could have seen it. Then I would know what it feel like to Christine or Ankur. Kind of.

I'll update about my super fabulous New York trip soon. As soon as my eyes stop burning and my head stops aching.