Western Film is UWO's on-campus Movie Theatre, owned and operated by the University Student's Council.
This blog is dedicated to discussions about movies, movie theatres and the film business in general.
Your host for the evening will be James Waite, the Western Film Co-ordinator and lifelong movie buff.
I saw this post on Cinematical today and couldn't resist linking to it. I've done the same thing as the author. There are films I've refused to watch until I could see them on the big screen. I'd never seen Wizard of Oz in it's entirety until they re-released it a few years ago. I had never seen Lawrence of Arabia until the old New Yorker theatre played it. I still haven't seen the Sound of Music to the disbelief of everyone I know.
This is one of the reasons I'm looking forward to the switch to digital projection. These old films will probably be converted to whatever format the new projectors use and we can finally see them as they should be seen. The few 35mm prints of most of these films left in Canada are pretty much unwatchable. It's too expensive for the studios to make new 35mm prints but digital copies are a lot cheaper.
Some films I've seen but would love to see on the big screen again.
Grease 2
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Star Wars ( Lucas would probably nix this one)
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Moulin Rouge
The Lost Boys
The Goonies
Fifth Element
The Abyss- the original version is the only one available on film here. I'd travel far to see the Directors Cut on the big screen. It's way better than the original version.
Anyone else have movies they want to see on the big screen?
I thought the first Steve Martin Pink Panther was okay but obviously nowhere near as good as the Peter Sellers series. A lot of people around here wonder why a sequel is being made when it didn't do great here. The reason is it did big business in the rest of the world. According to boxofficemojo.com it did 82 million in North America, not bad but not great. However it did 76 million overseas. A large amount compared to the domestic gross. Hence we get a sequel.
This is the first teaser for the film. I can't quite tell if it's part of the film or footage shot just for the teaser. I'm inclined to believe the latter. It's self-contained and takes place in a movie theatre. The end part seems a little long to be inside a movie and there's something at the very end that's obviously not in the film.
P.S. I love the Marquee on the theatre. I wish theatres still had those fancy Marquees.
This was the first trip I had taken outside North America. I've visited the States a few times and overall it's similar to Canada, although I did get some funny looks when I asked for vinegar for my french fries in the US.
There's some interesting differences in England, some good, some bad. I was in enough different cinemas that I think it's safe to say these are probably common to the entire country.
They are called cinemas only, whereas we often use cinema and theatre interchangeably. If I said theatre over there they assumed I was talking a live show. This makes sense to me, I often calls for people looking for the live event theatre on campus.
No cinema I was in had a pre-show, they all had curtains which stayed closed until the film started. I can't decide about that. I kind of like an interesting pre-show and since Western Film has one I'm in a bit of a conflict of interest. On the other hand it was kind of nice being able to relax and just wait for the show to begin.
They play way more commercials and fewer trailers. One show I checked and there was half an hour of commercials and trailers. The proportion was different. Here you usually get about 5 minutes of commercials and 15 minutes of trailers. There it was about half and half. It wasn't all bad though, most of the commercials were quite entertaining, even multiple times. I did wish they played more trailers though as I really like trailers.
As an example, around here we get those boring Telus ads with the fish etc. asking us to turn off our mobile phones. In England they have this.
In some cinemas they have assigned seating. Some of the bigger prestige cinemas, most notably the big Odeon in Leicester Square have assigned seating. It also has different levels with different prices. I'll do a post on it later. The cinema closest to my sister's place had an interesting arrangement. Most of the cinema was general seating but there were a few rows in the middle that had assigned seating and were bigger chairs. They cost extra but it was nice to be able to book tickets for Indiana Jones online and know I would get a good seat.
There's a lot more digital presentation in England, I'll be doing a post on this later.
This one was my sore point. Every cinema had stale popcorn!? I never saw an actual popper as we do here. They seemed to get it in from somewhere in big plastic bags. It was dumped into a bin under the counter and served from there. It was interesting they had a choice of salted or sweetened popcorn. They didn't have butter or similar products. They also didn't have the seasonings we have, white cheddar, dill pickle etc. If I wasn't such a popcorn addict I wouldn't have bought it, especially when it was outrageously expensive once the money exchange was factored in.
A commenter recently said going to the movies alone was a depressing thing to do. That makes me really depressed then as I almost always go alone. I don't know anyone who goes to as many movies as I do so it would be hard to find people to go with me to every movie.
With my work schedule I work most of the evenings people usually go to movies.
I don't mind going alone, although it is nice to have someone to discuss the film with afterward, especially if it's a interesting film.
A while ago someone gave me a two for one pass for Cineplex that expired about 6 months later. I never got a chance to use it. Although in my defense that was largely because when movies first come out they usually put on the 'no passes' restriction.
I have noticed a lot of people come to Western Film alone, and they don't all look depressed, just some of them.
