'RunPee' The Ideal App For Lovers Of Movies And Large Drinks

It's the mobile app for both lovers of film and large soft drinks. RunPee tells users the best times to make a run to the bathroom during a movie without missing any important plot points or scenes.



Now to an app review that may please both lovers of film and lovers of large soft drinks. The app is called RunPee. It began as a website several years ago, and listeners may remember we talked about it then. Now, you can take it with you into the theater. It lets you know when, during any given movie, you can run to the bathroom without missing an important plot point or a key scene. Take, for example, the blockbuster hit "Titanic."


BLOCK: The app tells you to run around this time in the movie...


KATHY BATES: (as Molly Brown) You shine up like a new penny. (Laughter)

BLOCK: Instead of, let's say, this time...


SCOTT G. ANDERSON: (as Frederick Fleet) Is there anyone there?

EDWARD FLETCHER: (as 6th Officer Moody) Yes, what do you see?

ANDERSON: (as Frederick Fleet) Iceberg, right ahead.

FLETCHER: (as 6th Officer Moody) Thank you.

BLOCK: Well, we asked The A.V. Club's Nathan Rabin to do a trial run of RunPee.

NATHAN RABIN: And I like to think that I was chosen both because I've been a film critic for about 15 years and I have a bladder of a small girl.

BLOCK: He sent us this review.

RABIN: So what this application does, and it leans very heavily towards recently released films, is it basically gives you two different pee times when you won't miss anything that they consider essential to the film. They have a brief nuts-and-bolts description of what happens during the times in which they tell you to go and pee, which is useful so you don't think you missed anything. They also have a feature where they describe what happened in the first three minutes of the movie...


RABIN: ...and it also has a timer so that you can start the timer at the very beginning of the film, and it will go off. I tested out the app by watching the Robert Zemeckis-Denzel Washington movie "Flight."


RABIN: And there are things in it that are absolutely crucial. For example, it's a film about plane crash. So, obviously, you wanted to be in the theater when the plane crash happens.


DENZEL WASHINGTON: (as Whip) We are in a dive.

RABIN: But what RunPee did was they kind of set two different times when the plot wasn't being forward, nothing terribly exciting was happening. There were kind of these nice little character moments. So one thing that is kind of interesting about RunPee is it's very subjective what is and what is not important. It's very charming. It's very useful, and it's also very much kind of a work in progress, like it's growing, it's evolving, the graphics are very low-fi, but it's very good at telling you what you absolutely can't miss, what you need to see and what is kind of inessential to the movie-going experience.


BLOCK: That's Nathan Rabin of the entertainment newspaper and website The A.V. Club. He was reviewing the app called RunPee. It tells you the best times to make a run to the bathroom during a movie without missing any important scenes.


BLOCK: And as we close this hour, Audie, we're giving you an official welcome to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.


Melissa, this is an official thank you...


CORNISH: ...very, very excited.

BLOCK: Well, we're welcoming you, but, of course, listeners have been hearing you hosting this program for a year now. That was on an interim basis. Now, it's official. You're in that seat for the long haul, joining me and Robert Siegel, and it's great to have you with us.

CORNISH: I'm happy to join the team.

BLOCK: Our longtime co-host Michele Norris has a new assignment with NPR. We look forward to hearing her reports on all NPR programs, including here on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.


BLOCK: You're listening to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News.






Support comes from: