But I’m not complaining.  I want to see the shots of the abandoned turnpike in all their glory, and Regal does have the best picture quality in the area (which is disappointing, because their service is abysmal and a small popcorn & drink will cost you $35). 

If you haven’t read the book, you owe it to yourself to do so.  I’m not one to jump on the “the movie sucked compared to the book” bandwagon, but the nature of the book (see: no dialogue) means it will be impossible to do a direct translation to a movie.  And from watching the trailers, I see they’ve already bent the movie a little more towards an action flick and less towards the post-apocalyptic non-survival story of the book.

I’m going to go see it.  I’m going to see it today.  And I’m going to chow down three Quarter Pounders topped with 12 pats of butter.  I’ll let you know.

Although the “official” premiere is May 8th, a handful of theaters — AMC, Cinema Center, Great Escape, and Regal — are all opening the  movie on Thursday.  I’m thinking the 7pm Thursday (5/7) showing at Great Escape would be ideal.  As much as I prefer Cinema Center, their sound & optics just aren’t up to the task for action movies.  The only catch is that given the obliterating hype surrounding this movie, there’s likely to be a long line and tickets are pretty much guaranteed to sell out.  Anyone coming along should buy their tickets as early as possible, and should plan on a long line getting into the theater.

So what do y’all think?  Meet at Fuddruckers at 5:30 for the 7pm showing at GE?

Yeah, I think Sex And The City looks really awful.

There.  I am now sexist.

Regal only ever gets my business because they’re nearby. They’re about five minutes from my house and right up the street from my office. While the picture and sound quality are always good, it’s the service that always turns me off. And I’m not the only one who’s noticed. Still, once you get past the high ticket prices and the impossibly slow service, it’s a decent theater.

Cinema Center in Camp Hill is my preferred theater for a variety of reasons. Mostly, they’re a lot less expensive. I’m not talking a fortune, but it’s enough of a difference to justify the gas used to drive over there. I also like the classy (in my mind, anyway) industrial/art-deco-like design of the lobby and theaters. The sound and projection systems have always been good, the seats are more comfortable, and the butter-your-own popcorn tastes much better. Plus, there’s something to be said for supporting a local business (Cinema Center is a relatively small regional chain).

Friday and Saturday brought me to Regal. Sunday and Monday brought viewings at Cinema Center. I hate to say it, but the experience at Regal was much better than those at Cinema Center.

See, I like my action movies loud. Raw SPLs aren’t really a factor for Juno or Lars And The Real Girl, but when it comes to explosions, I want to feel my blood vibrate. So I was really disappointed when Cinema Center’s sound system was overpowered by my phone’s vibrate alert (during the previews, of course; I always silence my phone for the movie). The explosions, the chase scenes, the crashes … everything just seemed weak at Cinema Center. Worse, it sounded as if they weren’t even running a surround sound rig; everything seemed to come from the front. On the other hand, the volume at Regal was almost too loud (almost). A whole lotta floor-shakin’ goin’ on during the first 15 minutes of the film, and the car chase dished out some of the most beautiful sub-sonic bass I’ve ever felt. Distortion-free, no less (though honestly, at that volume and frequency, I don’t think distortion is even possible). And all of the bone-crunching in-your-face dBs were in full-on glorious surround.

Adding insult to injury was picture quality. During both screenings at Cinema Center, the top-left 25% of the screen was noticably out of focus. I long ago gave up complaining to theaters about their focus, because the end result is always some 18-year-old Assistant Manager with an authority complex angrily asserting that there are “NO REFUNDS AFTER THE MOVIE STARTS, YOU’LL HAVE TO TRY FOR A FREE SHOW SOMEWHERE ELSE”.

I’ll keep going back to Cinema Center from time to time. After all, they wind up running a lot of movies that don’t even make it to Regal (Lars and Jesse James come to mind; didn’t Regal also pass on Juno and Be Kind Rewind?). I just hope this isn’t a sign of changed management or things to come.

Despite Sara’s advice to the contrary, I went to see it at Regal.  As is par for the course there, only one concession stand was open.  I don’t recall having seen the other stand (the one on the left) open in years.  I can only guess that perhaps the twenty minutes of ads they roll before the previews just doesn’t bring in the $189 necessary to add three extra employees for a day.  It doesn’t help that while our line of 15-ish people was struggling to hand over $8 for a medium popcorn, four extra Regal employees were hanging out around the ticket counter doing … nothing.  Generally I avoid Regal entirely, preferring Cinema Center in either Camp Hill or Palmyra.  But since Be Kind Rewind is only playing locally at Regal, there wasn’t much I could do.

Concession and general theater disarray aside, the movie itself is fun.  Almost mindless.  It was not unlike watching a feature-length version of Lucas With The Lid Off.