The IMAX Experience

"The IMAX Experience" that familiar little phrase that brought on a whole new meaning to me this weekend.

We decided to go see The Grand Canyon in 3D this weekend. The IMAX here is much different than what I'm used to. I think the last IMAX movie I went to was the Tour de France movie. It was great. Moving on...

So to start out with, the IMAX is located inside one of the museums here so it was absolutely packed in there. We got our giantly over-sized glasses at the door and proceeded down the stairs to the IMAX. We got in there and the theater was packed, just like everything else here. So we found a nice spot towards the end of one of the rows and got ourselves situated. The screen comes on and starts playing. In the first scenes there are water droplets that come out of the screen at you and it seems as though they are going to splash onto you. A little boy two seats down from us was jumping up and down, ohhing and ahhhing, clapping his hands, very much enjoying the water droplets (and making a lot of noise), but thankfully the sound in the IMAX is generally so loud that you can ignore the slight annoyances of being around other people. About 7 minutes after the water droplets I looked down the isle to see how the little boy was enjoying the movie and he was passed out on the seat next to his super-sized father. By super-sized, I mean large. When I say large I'm not trying to poke fun, I'm just trying to get an accurate picture into your head. Really, I'm trying to foreshadow here. Also when I say large, I mean southern large. I've seen large people in the NW before, but there is a different degree in the south.

So a few minutes later, I hear someone talking. I at first thought it was on the movie, but then realized that it wasn't. I started looking around to see where it was coming from and the overly-sized man sitting next to us we on his cell phone talking in a regular voice, not trying a bit to be quiet. So his son is sleeping and he's on the phone. Why did he bother staying in the movie? I don't know. Finally, after his long-winded conversation with his long-lost grandmother-in-law was over, there was finally silence. Whew.

Then.....the sound of a bear. Are there bears in the Grand Canyon? No. Is it the sound of a mountain lion angry at it's prey? The roar of a waterfall rushing over a 500 foot cliff? Wait! I found it! It's the overly-sized man with sleep apnea at the end of the row next to us! Yes, he's snoring about as loud as you can snore since I could hear it over the IMAX speakers. I started laughing so hard that I think I was shaking the while entire row. It's one of those things that you can't believe is really happening. That people are really this rude in public. He slept through the entire movie along with his son and only stirred awake when we were all getting up to leave.

I just don't get it. Why pay that much money to see a movie if you are just going to sleep and talk on your phone? I'm not sure. Whatever the reason is, he sure made my IMAX experience something that I will never forget.