Di Xem Phim II

I did not think I would have much else to say about our second movie outing. I have to say I enjoy doing regular things, like going to see a movie, in a foreign country and finding little differences; I look at them as novelties. However, some differences can just be annoying!

The Boyfriend and I selected to see Jumper. By the way, Jumper came out on February 14 in North America so we’re about 3 months behind. By the way #2, many of the Detroit scenes were shot in Peterborough. We learnt our lesson last time and decided on an evening movie to ensure there would be popcorn available. When we bought our tickets, we were given assigned seats; this did not happen last time.

We were early and noticed a store so went to check it out. They sold books, crayons and DVD’s. To our great amusement and bewilderment, the DVD’s included burned copies of Jumper, the movie we were about to see!! We could have just bought it and watched it at home! They also had 10,000 BC, the movie The Boyfriend had wanted to see, but its run had just ended.

Excited to buy our popcorn, we went to check our options. Even though the signs had sizes small and large, it seemed there was only one size. We each got one popcorn and Pepsi for 27,000 dong each. (1 USD =16,000 dong and our tickets were 60,000 dong each.)


Sizes seem to be normal here, for now anyway, unlike our crazy SUPER-sizes!

The popcorn seemed to glisten more than usual and I just assumed it was very buttery. We tried to get into the theatre but it was still too early so we sat down to enjoy our popcorn. We were quite surprised to taste SWEET popcorn! Do people only eat SWEET popcorn in Vietnam? As I went to complain, The Boyfriend was still unhappily munching away.


Can you notice the extra glistening from the syrup? The popcorn wasn’t overly sweet, but it was still disconcerting to eat sweet popcorn at the movies. If I want sweet popcorn, I'll get caramel popcorn! This actually wasn't sweet enough for caramel popcorn.

When I asked the girl behind the counter whether they had salty popcorn, she said yes. When I asked if I could exchange mine, she looked at my bag and gave me a hard time because it wasn’t full anymore. I had eaten like 5 pieces!!! Are you serious? She did exchange it begrudgingly. When I got back to The Boyfriend, he had already eaten a significant portion that I didn’t think I could exchange.

We finally got in to our assigned seating. We then decided we needed a third bag of popcorn to replace the sweet one. After waiting in line with a lady trying to push her little girl in front of me (I would not give them an inch!), I specifically ordered a salty popcorn. I looked at my glistening popcorn and asked if this was salty. After mumbling something, the boy behind the counter gave me the right one.

When I got back in the theatre, there were about 6 people in our row, all sitting next to each other. They had not scattered assigned seating, so there were empty seats all around us and clumps of people randomly spread.

Previews started with my favourite rap about etiquette at the movies!!

The pictures are terribly blurry because we were in the dark and I was worried I'd get kicked out for taking pictures. I just couldn't resist because I find this so funny. I think the second panel says "Be smart when you're watching a movie", but I'm not sure.

People kept coming in late during the first 20 minutes of the movie. Typical Vietnamese! This was even more annoying because they had to sit at their assigned seats. We were sitting in the aisle, so people had to go past us to get to their seats. The ushers then realized that the couple next to us was in the wrong seats so they had to leave and another couple sat there. Sigh!

It was funny, the audience reacted loudly whenever there was an “exciting” part in the movie (for example, when the hero would suddenly teleport to a crazy location like the Grand Canyon). It would sort of be like a loud gasp and laugh with some chatter.

The people behind and in front of us were also whispering throughout. In the middle of the movie, we actually heard “you have a message” from a telephone. And someone's son kept talking out loud. Why won’t anyone respect the rap song?

The theatre wasn’t very well sound proofed either since we could hear the movie next door.

I want to see Iron Man next week and I’m determined to get it right on our third time!!