Vamos a al cine!

Yaaaay. Movies. I frickin love movies. I probably inherited this love from my dad, who majored in telecommunications, worked in a movie theatre for quite a few years, taught TV production and film studies, and just generally loves movies. Over time, as I’ve become old enough to truly appreciate and understand great movie, he’s given me a movie education and made sure that I’ve seen many of the classics. Of course, with Cambridge, band, and trips away from Gainesville during our vacations, it’s hard to have enough time to see all the movies I need to. Especially when new movies are constantly coming out! But I’m getting there.

Anyways. We went to the movies for the first time on Sept 29th. And from the beginning, I was noticing the differences.

First of all, there’s any app for the movies called “Cartelera” And considering one of los chicos was like “ahhh!” when they saw I had it on my phone, I think it’s the standard movie app to have to see where what movies are playing and where. It’s in Spanish, obviously, but it’s pretty basic and easy to figure out. Except for one thing. It only seems to tell you the times for the current day…

…which brings us to our first difference! Movie times seem to be very “subject to change” and I don’t know how entirely reliable it is that the times will be the same as when first announced. No idea. But I have a feeling it’s less reliable than in the US, and that the possibly just announce the times day by day rather than letting you see the whole week ahead. Slightly annoying, but I can deal with it. If, however, this is completely untrue, then I want to hear about it immediately. But hey, setting the bar low eliminates disappointment. 

As for actually choosing your movie, you got some decisions. Dubbed. Subtitled. Or a movie that’s originally in Spanish. That last one I saw the least of. I saw posters and trailers, but as for the bulletin at Albrook on that day, I think almost everything was originally in English. Which is interesting to think about. What I’d consider as my industry (Hollywood, etc), is also the main movie industry for what’s in theaters here. It’s not like it doesn’t exist, though. It’s just like, 1/7 maybe. But don’t quote me on that.

Once you know what you’re seeing (and if it’s an English movie, whether you’re seeing it dubbed or subtitled), you go up, pay for your ticket, and pick your seats. Wait, what? Yeah, I was confused as to what the heck I was looking at and doing the first time we went, but that’s how they do it, at least at Cine Albrook. They have a picture of the theater, it shows what seats are taken, and you can pick from the ones that aren’t. As if you were doing to a concert. But you’re seeing a movie. I think it’s kinda cool because then, you don’t have to pick your seat once in the theater, and you don’t have to save your seat for any reason, and you don’t need to arrive early to get a good seat- you just buy your ticket early and you’re good. They don’t ever seem to check if you’re in the right seat, and there aren’t ushers ushering you to your seat, but people seem to buy into it, so it works. Maybe we should try this in the US?….

We have actually been to the movies twice now. The first time was as I said. The second time was on a Wednesday. Regularly, the movies are $3.50. On Wednesdays, the tickets are $2.50. Compared to the US, this is amazing. I know, because of how much people make and economies and all that, it all kinda evens out, but for what I’m used to, this is crazy. The only time I can get cheap is when I go to a 2nd run theater, like Gator Cinemas currently. The lines are crazy long on Wednesday evenings (no surprise there), so we may not make it a habit to try for Wednesday evenings. Also, getting popcorn/whatever movie food is cheaper than in US, but I don’t think that’ll surprise anyone. It’s a little under $8 to get a soda, a medium popcorn, and a hot dog bundle thing. I do believe the serving sizes are also smaller than in the US, but there again, anybody surprised? No.

Though, we went a third time on a Monday evening (rather than Monday afternoon) and it cost $4.50. Basically, I haven’t quite figured out the prices completely, but still, it’s cheaper than US prices.

In terms of screen/movie quality, I hate trying to judge that. I’m not good at it, and my only experience in this category is what comments my dad has made about it all. We saw The Maze Runner with subtitles and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles dubbed. The dubbed TMNT was totally unintentional, but it was our best choice when we went during the crazy Wednesday evening. Our third was mostly (originally) in Spanish. That was Cantinflas. It switched between being in Mexico (in its original Spanish) and Los Angeles (English with subtitled).

The Maze Runner: Correr o Morir [subtitles]

This was originally a book. I tried to read this book, only got maybe 20-50 pages in, and gave up. One of my librarian best friends had read it totally and wasn’t impressed. Considering our similar tastes, I didn’t bother to read it all. But, we both agreed that the movie looked good, so I was glad to be able to see it. It was fun. Much drama and suspense. I was glad to have it in English to be able to truly understand and follow everything, because of my special interest in it. Having the subtitles there made it even more fun! I would naturally try to read the subtitles too, and would be comparing the translations to what I was hearing in English. Our slang often didn’t translate. Things would be a lot more formal in the subtitles. And they skipped over the cuss words. It’s not like this movie was really bad, but they would have a “bastard” or “asshole” occasionally, and the subtitled COMPLETELY ignored them. They weren’t included at all. It was a little more tiring to listen, read, and then translate the reading back to what I was listening to while also, ya know, watching a movie with a storyline and action going on, but it wasn’t terribly exhausting. I quite enjoyed it. I wish I could watch more movies like that.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tortugas Ninja??? [dubbing]

I assume you know TMNT. I personally never did anything related to them at all when I was a child, but I know that many people did. Obviously. And I knew the basic storyline in that there were 4 turtles that grew up in the sewer and somehow mutated and then became ninjas and fought crime. And wore masks of different colors. And had Italian-sounding names. That was about it. So, we saw it dubbed in Spanish, with no subtitles of any language. That made it harder. But c’mon, this is a kids superhero movie filled with ninja action. It cannot be hard to figure out. And generally, it wasn’t. Sure, I didn’t understand most of the jokes (except the elevator one. That was funny. But if you’ve seen it, then it should be obvious how that was the one I could understand.) Also, I feel like I have a fair amount of movie/storyline knowledge. I can predict the love affairs and the winners of the battles for the most part. And to be honest, you probably can too. We try to ignore it when actually watching a movie, but we know some of the outcomes because of how many times we’ve seen it before. Even so, we enjoy it anyways. It was a great deal of work to pay attention to the movie enough to try to follow the dialogue totally, and I most definitely missed a lot, but I also understood a lot (context clues help). It made my head hurt, but it was a good brain work-out. And considering it was in the theater, the dubbing work seemed to be of good quality. So, I want to do more of this too. But, if possible, it’d be nice to have spanish subtitles.

Cantinflas [Original Spanish & English with subtitles]

This was fun. I can safely say that all the verbal jokes were lost on me, but it was still funny! Well, it’s kinda depressing sometimes when everyone understands and laughs at a joke..except you. Because you don’t know what they said. Awkward. This happens in real life. *sigh* But, but, but, I liked the movie! It was very visually pleasing and a joy to watch because A. There were a lot of colors. and B. The main character was acting as a comedic actor. SHORT explanation of the movie since I doubt it’d be advertised much in the US: Mario Moreno was a youth man in Mexico when he got his start in a small circus act. People loved him, he got nicknamed Cantinflas, does his best work in comedic improvisation, eventually became famous and beloved in Latin America, filmed a lot of movies, helped fight for better rights for actors in Mexico, starred in Around the World in 80 Days, and in 1956 won a Golden Globe over Marlon Brando. Maybe I just gave you some spoilers, but considering he’s a real person to which this happened, his story is already out there. This is just it, put in film version. Annnyywaaays. He had a very interesting life, and I would like to read a little more about him at some point. There was also good music in this movie. That helped. Made it more exciting/interesting. The English parts were great because we could understand it all, but once again, it was fun/work to try to understand everything that was going on (dialogue!). But okay, maybe not all the verbal jokes were lost on me. Just, like 98%. I put the trailer down below for you (Oh look! subtitles!). Check it out.

So overall, I’ve had a really good experience at the movies in Panama so far, and I would like to continue to go as much as possible, watching multiple genres and mixing up our choice between subtitles/dubbing/Latin. For movies I really care about, I’ll stick to subtitles, but for everything else, I’m game for anything. I like movies. Do you want to see a movie? Let’s go!

See ya!