—This new spot from European cinema brand Vue has Craig Redmond thinking about going back to the theatre—and taking his dad with him—

I’ll never forget the time my dad took me and my Uncle Jim to the movie theatre. Dad, of course, would immediately correct my grammar if he ever heard me using a particular sentence construct quite like that.

“Me and the King and the best man first!” he would chirp teasingly, cajoling us into learning how to speak proper, like.

Language was always important to my dad. He devoured books as a child, giving him the escape he craved, but also the language skills he knew he needed to help him succeed in life.

You see, growing up in a family of miners from a small Scottish coal town, prospects were bleak. Undeterred, he became the first Redmond boy not to “go down the pit,” instead putting himself through college to get a degree in chemistry.

He used that degree as his ticket out of the old country, giving his young family a brilliant future in a faraway place called Canada. That’s where he would use his gift for language to parlay his way out of working in the labs to becoming a successful salesman on the road, and then into management—scaling the highest executive ranks of one of the world’s most renowned industrial corporations.

He retired after nearly 35 years with that same company, following his final tour of duty: Leading its pivotal expansion in the Asia-Pacific market.

Needless to say, dad never lost his love for language. To this day he goes through more books than most people change underwear in a week. And for that, I will be forever in his debt, because he instilled the same passion for the written and spoken word in me. So, forgive me Pops. Let me start again.

I’ll never forget the time my dad took my Uncle Jim and I to the movie theatre.

It was the famous old University Cinema at Bay and Bloor, Canada’s equivalent to Mann’s Chinese Theatre. With its grand auditorium, plush red velour seats and sprawling panoramic screen, the University was where any premiere of any import would debut.

And this was the biggest of all. Dad was taking us to see Star Wars.

My Uncle Jim, whom I could barely understand because of his thick Scottish brogue was, for once, dumbfounded and at a loss for words. My dad, who loved films as much as he did literature, looked like an uncontainable kid in an eye-candy store. And there in the middle was tween-age me, slumped between them and utterly heedless to the fact I was about to experience the most remarkable cinematic phenomenon anyone in that audience could have ever imagined.

Then the lights dimmed…

It’s now been over two years since I’ve felt comfortable with idea of venturing to a movie theatre.

The plague obviously has had much to do with that. But complacency has also nestled in, sedating our soft pants’ swaddling bums into the streaming comfort of the couch, sparing us from the hassle of actually getting dressed and hauling ass to a multiplex to sit in the dark with a bunch of germ-germinating strangers.

But seeing this rebooted spot for European cineplex brand Vue, cleverly repurposed to promote the new Jurassic flick, has me reminiscing once again about those unforgettable moments spent in the mythical magic of that blackness, bathed in the glow of the screen.

Like that immeasurable moment dad gave my uncle and me a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

So, this one’s for you Al Redmond. Enjoy.

And maybe in a few weeks’ time when I stop in to visit during my road-trip adventure back to Toronto, we can go to the theatre to watch Jurassic World Dominion and, together, escape for a couple of wonderful hours.

See you soon.