The Judge

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Robert Duvall is a great actor.

Robert Downey Jr. might be better than him.

We finally got to the theater to see the movie The Judge. We'd been wanting to see it since they first ran the previews. We waited long enough to see it in a theater that only cost $3 bucks to get in. I almost felt bad handing over so little money to the guy.

He got me back on the small popcorn.

That was $6.

The movie was all about family.

Love.

Loss.

Being pissed off.

It was nearly two and a half hours long and didn't include a car chase, long drawn out sex scenes or even rough language that was even memorable.

Kathy never left her seat once and commented later that it was just so intense all the way through. I looked at her at one point and she had tears in her eyes.

"What the hell are you crying about?"

But it was that sort of movie, and when the actors really get it right...you can sort of watch them all day.

I'd believe Robert Downey Jr. as Porky Pig.

And it's sort of funny being on a date with your wife. When we were kids going to a movie as a date was a big deal. I recalled who I saw the Rocky movies, E.T. and a whole bunch of other movies with:

Jeff Renaldo.

We also had dates with us, but they were sort of interchangeable and we dropped them off before we went to eat.

"You wanna' hold hands?" Kathy asked.

"Sure," I said.

Four seconds later I said:

"I don't wanna' hold hands."

"Good," she answered.

And like I said, it was a small crowd - there weren't more than ten people in the place. During the previews Sam sent me an update on a ballgame.

I glanced at my phone.

"Excuse me!" Some guy yelled. "Can you turn your phone off?"

The guy was three rows back and off to the side. He was at least 450 pounds. He certainly wanted to fight me on it. In fact I'd go so far as to say that he was searching the crowd waiting to pounce on someone for the cell phone offense.

I laughed.

And put the phone away.

Throughout the movie I thought of turning to him when he rustled through the popcorn bag or talked loudly.

I let it go.

Some people just wanna' be a judge.

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