I love going to the movies, but I’ve been settling for watching them mostly on the small screen since my son was born 2 and a half years ago. So, when my wife and son were away for the weekend, I headed to the local megaplex for a full day at the movies. And I mean it when I say it was a full day. I watched 4 full movies back to back which is a new personal record.

I started with the 11:10 showing of The Incredible Hulk which opened the day before. It’s an entertaining summer blockbuster which is an improvement over Ang Lee’s 2003 version, but that bar was not raised very high. When the credits started to roll, I was in the mood for another flick, and I was interested in the new M. Night Shyamalan movie, The Happening, so I sent an SMS message to Google to get the showtimes. Unfortunately, it wasn’t starting for an hour and a half, so I walked out ready to head to the car.

That’s when I passed by Kung Fu Panda which started at 1:00 according to the scrolling sign above the doorway. I glanced at my phone which said 1:18, which couldn’t have been more perfect. I slipped into the showing about 5 minutes into the movie knowing that it would end just as the one I wanted to see would be seating. The animated panda kung fu movie was actually pretty good, too. I’ve always been a fan of Jack Black, and even his animated likeness was funny.

I headed to the bathroom and then blended into the small crowd that was headed to see The Happening at 2:50. I had been looking forward to the show, but I was very disappointed. The violence was realistic and disturbing, but sometimes gratuitous. The story was interesting at first, but it got lost in the overacting and unnecessarily strange minor characters. Ultimately, the unsatisfying ending left me wanting more.

I had to walk down the long hallway to get to the lobby and out to my car, and I noticed that Iron Man started at 4:35. My phone said 4:52, which meant that after 15 minutes of previews, the feature just started 2 minutes before. I slipped in, found a chair, and immediately got sucked into my fourth movie in a row. I was happy I did, too, because Iron Man turned out to be the best movie I saw that day. It’s a popcorn movie with a good story, good acting, and good action. It deserves the hype it’s been getting, and I headed out to my car happy after a very long but very fun day at the theater.