Friday July 18th, 2008 - Cary, IL

Normally I won’t jump on the pop culture bandwagon but tonight I made an exception. The new Batman movie is one of the biggest in years and I went to the midnight showing with Jerry Agar and his two sons and one of their friends. I’m glad I did. It was fantastic.

The last movie event I can remember that was this big was the Lord Of The Rings piece of flaming poo that I had to sit through and waste three hours of my life I’ll never recover. I didn’t find anything redeemable about that one at all and when it was over I leaned over to tell the person next to me how horrible I thought it was and the crowd started clapping.

This was a whole different story. I felt the buzz beforehand and it was a fun experience even though there was a delay in the actual start time. It was supposed to start at 12:01am but for whatever reason it was delayed. They showed the previews and then it appeared as if something broke and we all sat there looking at a blank dark screen for several minutes.

I can usually crack off some good lines in these situations and get laughs from the seats surrounding me but nobody was laughing tonight. They were concerned they wouldn’t get to see the movie. We sat there a few minutes longer and then they showed more previews.

I noticed when we walked in the theatre that is was theatre #13. Plus there was a big old full moon in the sky as we drove to the theatre from Jerry’s house and I couldn’t stop my laughter as I thought of how only Mr. Lucky could go to a premiere and miss the movie.

Finally the movie started about 12:30 and it was really worth the wait. I like Batman but I’m not a fanatic about it even though I did paint several cars I owned like the Batmobile I used to see on the TV series. I never really read the comic books more than casually but it was still a great movie and I had fun being part of the event. People came in full costume.

This was based on the Dark Knight comics which my cousin Jef Parker tried to coax me to read when he owned his comic book shops before he died in 2001. One of the precious things buried along with him in his coffin was the Dark Knight series. He loved it that much. He always talked about how he wanted there to be a movie made and this was it.

He would have loved this movie. I sure did. It was filmed in Chicago and I could spot a whole lot of familiar locations throughout. I thought it moved along really well and Heath Ledger was outstanding as the Joker. What a great role and he’s sure to win that Oscar.

I talked to my friend Joey Callahan in Philadelphia today who’s not only a huge Batman fan but one of the nicest humans I’ve ever met and a funny comic too. He has been telling me for a long time how high the expectations for this were and he thought they nailed it.

What fun it must be to be part of a huge project like this. This is beyond a movie and it’s now pop culture. Everyone was buzzing about it on the way out and I’m sure it will make a ton of cash for a ton of people. I’m glad I went early. Now nobody can spoil it for me.