(June 16, 2001) One day a friend of mine, Matt Foster, and I went to go see an early morning showing of Tomb Raider. I got up early that day (6AM) to get in an 18-mile run as part of my training for the SF Marathon in 3 weeks. I finished the run in 2 hours 50 minutes. Really good for me. So afterwards, I get home really tired and call Foster up to ask him if he wants to go see a matinee of Tomb Raider at the AMC 1000. I fully expected him to not even be awake, since he's been out of work for four months. But he was up early since he just got a job and he's starting the following Monday. Not only was he awake, but he was fully showered and ready to go. So he shows up at my place around 10:35 just in time to catch the 11:00AM showing. We get to the theater and Matt drops me off to buy the tickets while he parks the car. I get in line and I see a kind of tall skinny guy by himself wearing a black sports coat with a major case of bedhead in front of me. And I'm all like what kind of nut wears a sports coat on a hot day like today. When he turned around after buying his ticket, I immediately recognized him as Keanu Reeves.
And all of a sudden, I'm all freaking out. I'm actually more freaked out that nobody else is freaking out from the fact that the guy who starred in the Matrix is in the same building! "Like why is nobody freaking out that Keanu Reeves is here?" I think to myself. It must not be him. But it *could* be since I knew they were shooting the Matrix 2 here right about now. After I buy our tickets, I meet Foster at the parking garage elevators and tell him that I saw a guy who looked exactly like Keanu Reeves. The guy taking tickets at the escalator of the theater overhears me and confirms that I did in fact see the star of Point Break. "Whoah!" I think to myself, doing a mental impression of the man who was in such movies as Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure and My Own Private Idaho. I wasn't sure what movie he was there to see though.
After we find our theater (AMC 1000 has 16 screens), Foster leaves to use the restroom while I buy popcorn. While I'm waiting, I turn around and see the star of Speed behind me, talking to another movie patron. The patron asks him if he's shooting the Matrix sequels over in Alameda. The Rivers Edge star confirms this. I order my large popcorn meanwhile. As I'm waiting for my popcorn, the concession worker opens up another register and the patron talking to Keanu leaves him to place his order at the newly opened register. So I seize the opportunity and continue the other patron's converstation with Keanu, all the while hoping for Foster to hurry up and get out of the restroom so he can see me talking to the guy who was in Feeling Minnesota.
So, when are you guys going to finish shooting?
Around August 12th or 13th.
Cool. When's it coming out?
Sometime in like 2003.
Wow, that's like a long time from now.
Yeah.
My popcorn is finally ready at that point and I pay for it and get my change and I'm still hoping Foster would hurry up and come out and see that the guy who was in Bram Stoker's Dracula was behind me in line to buy popcorn. I walk slow enough away from the line to hear Keanu order a medium popcorn. Finally, Foster comes out and I'm like totally motioning for him to look behind me to see Keanu without making it look obvious that I'm freaking out over the fact that the guy who was in the Devil's Advocate is going to be seeing Tomb Raider with us. Matt sees him and is like, "yup, that's him." And I'm like, "Duh, dude. I just talked to him about the Matrix 2!"
Anyways, Tomb Raider sucked. And Keanu left early.