Tis the season of heat, humidity, and escaping the aforementioned in the air-conditioned comfort and splendor of your local movie theater. Even better, in the Seacoast we've gotten sort of a Movie Theater 2.0 with the new Regal here in Newington, complete with stadium seating -- which from a branding perspective, maybe shouldn't really be called stadium-style, lest someone think of cold aluminum bench-style bleachers. (In fact, the seats themselves are more like captains chairs with their rocking recline, high backs, and individual cupholders.) Anyway, I was stunned to see the marquee in Newington the other day... There's all kinds of movies I'd actually want to see playing right now, from Shrek to Spider-man (well, maybe not Spider-man per-se, but Kirstin Dunst, oh yes) to Pirates to Ratatouile (Brad Bird does it again!) to Evan Almighty. Heck I'd even watch Ocean's 13 or Transformers or Nancy Drew under the right circumstances. Check out the plethora of options!

But the one movie I really want to see isn't there... Or anywhere near here, it seems. I'm talking about Sicko, the new Michael Moore vehicle. Have I ever called a movie theater wondering if and when they would be getting in a particular movie? Not until Moore's scathing documentary about the American health care crisis. That's pretty damn good advance buzz, my friends.

After poking around online for a while, and wondering if I could justify driving 45 minutes to Massachusetts to see a movie, I found this. Could it be a conspiracy to minimize the impact of his message? Normally I'm not much for conspiracy theory, but with Michael Moore, I wouldn't be a bit surprised.

What makes this even more ironic (or suspicious?) is that Moore purposefully picked NH last week to premiere the movie in the first place: "We are in New Hampshire today because we hope this film will have an impact in the coming election," Moore said during a press conference. Hmm....

In any event, I have a friend who attended the premiere and she said she "cried the whole way through." Not exactly the stuff of a prototypical summertime blockbuster, is it?