An Anniversary and Some Movie Moments With Jack Black

May 2nd, 2009.  Marriage day.  It was time for me to put on my big boy pants and tie my own shoes.  Everything was set and ready to go, except for a frustrating experience at Enterprise when they told me that they didn't have the car I had booked.  It was less than an hour before I needed to be dressed and ready, and it reminded me of the segment from Seinfeld about car reservations.  In the end, all worked out and I made it to my own wedding in time.

Years prior, me and my future wife were standing outside of a movie theatre trying to decide what would be the first movie we would see as a couple.  She wanted to see The Devil Wears Prada and I had a hankering for Jack Black in Nacho Libre.  When neither of us could formulate a convincing argument for our respective choices, the coin was brought in to settle the dispute.  I will shout from the mountain tops that I won, and Nacho Libre was the ultimate victor.

It wasn't a critical hit, but I got some laughs from the wrestling obsessed character, Nacho.  It was bright and fun, good for a viewing, but I don't think has aged very well for me.  I can say for sure that my wife didn't enjoy it and would have much rather seen Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep.  There was also a breakout performance by Emily Blunt, but we wouldn't see this movie until years later.  I did end up enjoying The Devil Wears Prada a lot, and we have it on DVD.  Actually, we have Nacho Libre on DVD as well, meaning that at any time we can recreate that first date experience.

Over the years we have exposed each other to our individual tastes as far as films go.  I have seen the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice as well as Twilight.  On the flip side, Rachel has had to endure Die Hard (which she somehow fell asleep during) and Mad Max: Fury Road.  In the early days I had to see Eat, Pray, Love in theatre as payback for Rachel sitting through Clash of the Titans with me.  Trust me, there were no winners at Clash of the Titans.

There have been some wonderful films that we have watched together in theatres, like the fun Into the Woods.  We also saw films that lead to interesting discussion, such as Denis Villeneuve's Arrival.  There have been some duds that we saw, as we both were bored to the gills while watching Disney's The Lone Ranger.  Thankfully there have been more good movie experiences than bad ones.

While today is our anniversary, I wonder over what was the greatest theatre experience we have shared.  It wasn't Nacho Libre, that's for sure.  I would possibly vote for The LEGO Movie, but Rachel may say The Fault in our Stars.  Regardless, the nice thing is that after nine years we both still have our individual preferences and are able to share those with the other.  Hopefully the next year will bring us some wonderful times.  Lately we have been watching a lot of cooking shows together, so not too many new movies.  That doesn't mean we can't, or shouldn't, pop Fury Road on again.  We should probably do that at least four or five times a year.

UPDATE:  Since writing this, I have been told by my wife that she loves Mad Max: Fury Road, she just didn't like it on first viewing.  In fact, after she read this she suggested that we watch it again.