Your favorite movie venue...

[nat whilk II]

I'm old enough to remember drive-ins. There were two incarnations of them:

 

1. way way back when you went with your parents, they let you run up to buy junk to eat, and you watched something like a John Wayne movie in SuperUperHyperTechnoRealExpanda-Screen format. Of course the sound was beyond crappy coming through the little radio-box thingy you hung on the window.

 

2. high school weekend late night stone-fests watching grade B and lower grade monster flicks or just sitting on the hoods and carrying on.

 

More recently, my favorite movie venue is on San Juan Island in the little town of Friday Harbor. The little downtown theatre is a real throw-back. Holds, I don't know - maybe 60 people? In the tourist off season you can practically have the place to yourself. One screen only, of course. You have about two yards of leg room in these really old chairs and there are curtains still hung up around. Curtains! My son and I saw The Lady in the Water there when it was out - we were the only people in the theatre. Maybe that was partially due to the movie, but still....

 

nat whilk ii

[Richard King]

My favorite theater:

[wwwjd]

I STILL try to visit drive ins for that nostalgia. And still attend Movies at the theater to support the cause and enjoy the whole experience. MOST of the time I watch reruns of faves at home on my big screen... usually looks as good as the theater, but you miss that Theater Movie charm. I'll always go at off times to avoid the crowds and get good seats, and usually leave my house at the POSTED MOVIE START time to avoid the 20-25 minutes of Ads [and occasional preview] that start at the posted start time. Works like a charm

[blue2blue]

I like big screens and (good) film presentation, for sure. But I don't like distracting audiences -- even if I'm watching an entertainment movie. (OK, I'm down with folks laughing at comedies. But they never seem to laugh in the right places. I hate watching an intelligent comedy and being the only one laughing. Dumb and Dumberer is in the next mini-theater over, ace.)

 

But as much as I like the big screen, after a nasty motorcycle wreck left me with a reconstructed him socket, I found my ability to sit for more than an hour or so in one place to be greatly reduced, even in a good sea. (Thank goodness for the good seats I have for the symphony. In the old days when I was in the balcony, the sound was good but the seat and leg room was agony. Even as it is, I almost always get up and walk around at intermission, and they typically come halfway through a two or two and a half hour concert.)

 

 

I guess, sad as it is to say, my favorite venue, in practical reality (beautiful old, refurbed theatres notwithstanding), my living room -- and my good ol' richly colored 27" CRT TV. (Although I'm starting to warm up to good quality vid on my computer. The colors seem better than a lot of LCD pictures I see on the big flat screens of my free-spending friends. (Now if HULU only had about 20 times as much content. )

 

 

Back in my theatre-crawling days, I guess my faves were the oldies houses that would show classic movies -- or classic trash -- for a couple bucks. But at the same time, me and my pals also put in more than a little time at the local $1.75 a carload drive-in. The movies tended to run toard stuff like "Mad Doctor of Blood Island" and the screen was almost unwatchably dim, not to mentione noticeably patched, but it was a great way to see a bad movie for pocket change. And, you know, I wouldn't be surprised to hear someone had snuck a few beers in there, every once in a while.

[flemtone]

In the early 60's, near where we lived in Ohio, there was the Radio City Movie Theater where, on a Saturday afternoon, for $.25, every kid from miles around would congregate for an afternoon of horror movies and cartoons. Two features (The Blob and House on Haunted Hill were two repeating classics), a bunch of shorts and Bugs Bunny cartoons...

 

Kids loved it for the obvious reasons - parents loved it for the peace and quiet it afforded them.

 

They ran a Halloween show every year with monsters in the audience, flashing lights, rubber spiders falling from the ceiling (thrown by the ushers and usherettes, actually), dead hands clamping on shoulders, skeletons floating around on wires...it was fantastic.

 

There are times that I bless the era that I grew up in, and I feel sorry for those who are too young to have experienced some things that will never be repeated.

[Super 8]

 

Sure do miss the good ol days when $2.49 really got you something.

[slight-return]

Guess it depends on the flick

 

Drive ins were fun (I remember throwing a sofa in the back of the C-10)

 

I do like the places that'll serve piza and beer with a half-theatre/half bar atmosphere - provided they get the balance right (when it's good...it's GOOD)

 

for some, a trad theatre

 

one of the brew restaurants in Seattle plays flicks on a wall during summer

 

that's fun

[Ara Ajizian]

Sure do miss the good ol days when $2.49 really got you something.

 

Damn you beat me to it!

 

I used to love the drive-in when I was living in Vegas. Especially after they upgraded them so you could listen to the movie audio through your car stereo. Unfortunately there aren't any drive-ins where I'm at now. I'm really curious to see a movie in Imax...I've been to the "Omnimax" theaters like they have at OMSI in Portland, but I don't think the Imax theaters for movies are the same. I really wanted to see the U23D but it was already gone by the time I made a trip up to Portland:(

 

For now I'm really digging my home theater, especially with the addition of the PS3 for Blu-Ray movies.

[bbach]

I never did care for drive ins too much. I do love the big modern big screen theaters. For the most part I'll wait for a dvd release and we will watch at home, but certain movies just need the whole movie going experience.

[Raymar]

That reminds me, I need to get a Netflix account!

[UstadKhanAli]

When I was growing up in Illinois, the local theatre, where we saw most of our films, had elegant carvings, banisters, ceilings, etc. A really cool-looking old theatre with a thick red velvet curtain that they pulled back before each show. I just assumed that this is how all movie theatres looked.

 

When we moved to California and went to a movie, I was shocked at how the theatre looked. The building looked like a box, and when I got inside, the interior also looked like a box!! Where were the carvings, the statues, the curtains, the fancy ceiling?

 

I don't really have a favorite out here now. Sometimes I'll go to the Vista in Los Feliz (Los Angeles).

[spokenward]

 

When I was growing up in Illinois, the local theatre, where we saw most of our films, had elegant carvings, banisters, ceilings, etc. A really cool-looking old theatre with a thick red velvet curtain that they pulled back before each show. I just assumed that this is how all movie theatres looked. When we moved to California and went to a movie, I was shocked at how the theatre looked. The building looked like a box, and when I got inside, the interior also looked like a box!! Where were the carvings, the statues, the curtains, the fancy ceiling? I don't really have a favorite out here now. Sometimes I'll go to the Vista in Los Feliz (Los Angeles).

 

 

well, in a company town you really want to see a movie in the screening rooms on the lot. Plain places where, when the door closes, there is no place so ...quiet.

 

But for the LA theater past:

http://www.losangelestheatres.googlepages.com/home

 

Hey, I forgot - movie houses from all over -

http://cinematreasures.org/

[Raymar]

When I was growing up in Illinois, the local theatre, where we saw most of our films, had elegant carvings, banisters, ceilings, etc. A really cool-looking old theatre with a thick red velvet curtain that they pulled back before each show. I just assumed that this is how all movie theatres looked. When we moved to California and went to a movie, I was shocked at how the theatre looked. The building looked like a box, and when I got inside, the interior also looked like a box!! Where were the carvings, the statues, the curtains, the fancy ceiling? I don't really have a favorite out here now. Sometimes I'll go to the Vista in Los Feliz (Los Angeles).

 

Movie theaters used to be real theaters for plays, live music and vaudeville. Going out to that kind of entertainment meant dressing up too. There's an old Fox theater like that here in Fullerton that is attempting to be restored. It was made by the same people that did the Grauman's Chinese theater in Hollywood which is the more ornate style theater you're interested in. There are a few more old theaters in downtown L.A. getting restored as well.

 

Movie theaters started getting plain and boxy looking back in the 50's as movies drew in the masses and weren't for other entertainment, people dressed casual and became cattle.

 

Steve

[Lee Knight]

The La Paloma Theater in Encinitas, CA. I live 500 yards away. It's located on gorgeous Coast Highway 101. When I was in high school I worked there and got to practice with my band on the big stage. It's an awesome Hollywood / Egyptian style movie house. In the 70's there was a string of concerts that would make your head spin. The Tubes, Ramones, Gary Burton, Jean Luc Ponty, Billy Cobham, Rick Danko, Roy Buccanan, Doc Watson, Robert Palmer, Jimmy Cliff, Riders of the Purple Sage. I saw them all as an usher. Today it runs mostly art house flicks. Good movies basically. It seems since the early 70's, even as it's changed hands, I've know the proprietor. Currently one my best friends little brother runs it. Click on the attachment to see a really cool old photo.

 

The blurb...

 

On February 11, 1928 La Paloma Theatre opened with the film "The Cohen's And Kelly's in Paris." The gala event was attended by Hollywood starlet and soon to be Academy Award winner Mary Pickford. It has been rumored that she rode her bicycle all the way to La Paloma from Fairbanks Ranch for the event.

 

La Paloma (The Dove) was one of the first theatres to show "Talkies." Talking pictures premiered in 1927 with the Warner Bros. film "The Jazz Singer" starring Al Jolson. Making the transition from silent pictures to "talkies" didn't happen over night, so La Paloma was also equipped with a beautiful pipe organ, a standard piece of theatre equipment during the Silent era. Films in the early days of motion pictures were usually preceded by a vaudeville stage act, and La Paloma was well suited for that.

 

Over the years many performers have graced the stage of La Paloma. Musical artists as diverse as Loreena McKennitt, Nickel Creek, Ralph Stanley, Jerry Garcia and Eddie Vedder.

[nat whilk II]

Watching at home is great fun. But there's something to going to the movies with a crowd at a cool theatre venue that's not quite there at home.

 

Like when you see one of the great emotional flicks and the crowd leaves the theatre in almost complete reverential silence. Or a real mind-blower and the crowd leaves talking their heads off about what they've just seen.

 

But now, with home theatres so advanced, a lot of movie theatre venues look positively old-tech with blurry screens, poor sound, and whatever they call the little flashing glitches in the film that pepper the screen. And the host of other well-known downsides of public theatres.

 

I watch more movies than ever with Netflix, but it's almost like a Christmas present every day - the spark has faded a bit due to surplus of access.

 

Maybe the solution is to make a party out of movies at home, get people over and create a DIY movie crowd.

 

nat whilk ii

[Will Chen]

I enjoy the Studio Movie Grill around Dallas. They have office style cushion seats and they serve a full menu as well as alcohol right to your seat. Haven't been to the one near me in a while since my kid was born, but one of the theaters was the bar/lobby with lounge seating and they showed old movies on the screen. Super sweet. Every once in a while, theyll have a concert as well.