Sometimes, being a projectionist has its perks, although by the end of this story you might wonder how much of a "perk" it really turned out to be. One night, while I was working for a local multiplex, a few friends thought it might be fun to stick around after the theatre closed and watch one of the fourteen films playing*, and much to my surprise the assistant managers in charge that night gave it their blessing.
"Lock the doors when you leave," they said, and then took off. Maybe I got the pass because two of the people stick around were also employees, and another was a former employee, but I was genuinely not expecting this endorsement after the "Summer of Sam" incident**.
The only non-employee who came by (and who had a habit of simply wandering into the projection area when I was at work) wanted to see God's Army, an all-Mormon film playing at our theatre. For some reason, we were the only theatre playing the film in the Southeast, so busloads of Mormons would arrive to see the film, and it played for quite a while considering its status as a low budget independent film released late in the summer of 2000.
Now, I didn't really want to stick around and watch God's Army, so I struck a bargain with out interloping visitor: we'd watch a double feature instead. Here's where the question of how much of a "perk" staying after hours is, because despite the fact that we had access to a number of presumably better films, the double feature everybody settled on was The Nutty Professor 2: The Klumps, and The Replacements.
Why? I can't honestly say I remember; for the life of me, I can't figure out how three die-hard horror fans couldn't find anything better playing at that theatre than those two films. Some cursory searching into the films released on July and August of 2000 indicates that while our choices weren't, *ahem*, "good", we could have done slightly better than what we picked. Admittedly, I think we'd already slogged through Hollow Man, Bless the Child, What Lies Beneath, Loser and The In Crowd***, but considering that Scary Movie was still playing and that John Waters' Cecil B. Demented was probably playing there, I cannot fathom why we'd pick such a milquetoast pair of features.
The proof is in the pudding: during The Nutty Professor 2: The Klumps (a really boring, not-very-funny sequel to a movie that wasn't great in the first place), the only thing I can remember comes not from the film but from the enjoyment two employees took in being able to smoke in the auditorium. While I remember a little more about the Keanu Reeves / Gene Hackman / Rhys Ifans starring The Replacements, a film I imagine most people don't recall in any fashion (it involved a rag-tag team of football substitutes and, um, well, that's what I can remember; that, and it was "harmless"), what stands out is again what happened surrounding the film. Of the five people hanging around to watch the film, two of them wandered off, one fell asleep, and two of us were left to watch the movie.
It wasn't the last time we'd come in and watch a lousy movie in 2000: I can recall seeing Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, Highlander: Endgame, Urban Legends: Final Cut, Bedazzled, and Little Nicky, to name a few. It was, I believe, this period of time, from 1998 to 2004**** or so, that the Cap'n earned the reputation of "will watch anything," a reputation I am unable to live down to this day. What we never did again was stick around "after hours" to watch any more bland, generic Hollywood comedies, or anything else for that matter.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, I never did see God's Army. I don't regret this oversight in my cinematic quest for knowledge.
* There are sixteen screens, but I'm leaning in the direction of having two screens for one or two marquee titles.
** The employees gathered together for a pre-screening of Spike Lee's Summer of Sam, only to make it 2/3rds into the film when the manager cut the projector off and told us he wanted to go home.
*** Looking back at what came out, the summer of 2000 may have been the weakest time to ever have unfettered access to a multiplex.
**** For the record, I think that ended during a group outing to see the wretched Alien vs. Predator.
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