Any time you walk into a cinema, there’s the possibility of something happening; sometimes you see a great movie, but other times you simply have a memorable experience. I’m willing to bet that every hardcore film buff has a mental list of their most magical or unforgettable trips to the theater. I certainly have mine. These are not ordinary memories I’m about to share. These are the ones that, for one reason or another, were excessively out of the ordinary. As a film critic who’s been hitting up cinemas for over two decades, I’ve collected some stories. I write about my most memorable one, seeing Star Wars for the first time, in my upcoming book. Here are four others I will never forget.
Theater: Allen Theater – Annville, Pennsylvania
Year: 1995
Movie: Grease
To make a long story short, a run-down movie theater in the town where I went to college was purchased and beautifully renovated. For the grand opening, they scheduled a big screen showing of Grease, with director Randal Kleiser in attendance. I was asked to be the official videographer for the evening, capturing the event on camera. I’d seen Grease theatrically as a kid and loved it. When the picture hit cable, I made a point of watching it every single time it was on that first month; if it ran in the middle of the night, I set my alarm clock and woke up to watch it again. All told, I’d seen it about 15 times prior to that night. Over the years, I have met my fair share of famous people, but the only time I ever turned into a gushing idiot was upon meeting Kleiser. I spent several minutes babbling to him about his film and what it had meant to me. But the real treat of the evening was seeing Grease in its original format again. The director shot it in widescreen format, but whenever it ran on cable, it was in the dreaded “pan and scan” format, meaning that almost half the image was cut off at any given time. Watching the movie projected on a giant screen in its intended aspect ratio was like seeing it again for the first time. It made me realize just how much a film’s impact can be lessened when you view it improperly. On TV, it seemed like John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John were dancing up quite a storm; on the silver screen, it was obvious that they were surrounded by dozens of other people also dancing up a storm! I literally rediscovered the magic of Grease that night. On a side note, I was lucky enough to be asked to accompany Mr. Kleiser to the airport the morning after the screening. He was an incredibly gracious gentleman, and I most certainly took the opportunity to grill him about working with Pee-Wee Herman on Big Top Pee-Wee.
Theater: Charles Theater – Baltimore, Maryland
Year: 2000
Movie: AJ’s Dogumentary
By far the strangest experience I’ve ever had was at a film festival. You probably don’t know the movie AJ’s Dogumentary, because it never got picked up for release, which is too bad; it was a terrific little picture. Anyway, it was a documentary that looked at eccentric dog owners and the various ways they pamper their pets. To help build interest, the festival staff somehow convinced Baltimore’s Charles Theater to host a screening to which people could bring their dogs. And so it was that I watched a movie with about 150 people and two dozen pooches. Amazingly, many of the animals actually seemed to be paying attention to the screen, probably because they were seeing other dogs up there. Even more amazingly, barking was kept to a bare minimum, and as far as I know there was no peeing or pooping on the floor or seats. In fact, the dogs were better behaved than some all-human audiences I’ve seen movies with. Those Milk Bones handed out at the concession stand probably helped.
Theater: Charles Theater – Baltimore, Maryland
Year: 2000
Movie: The Girl Next Door
Here’s part two of that story. While covering this particular film festival, two colleagues and I befriended another festival-goer, who happened to be the mother of a well-known young actor from a long-running “must-see” network medical drama. (Yes, the one you’re thinking of.) We sat through AJ’s Dogumentary with this very nice woman and her equally nice husband. When it was over, her husband – who was associated with a different film playing the fest – had to be at another location, so we told her she was welcome to stay with us to watch the next film screening in the same auditorium. That film was The Girl Next Door, a documentary about Stacy Valentine, a small-town housewife who entered and won a Hustler magazine contest at the prodding of her husband. Despite the slightly naughty subject matter, The Girl Next Door was presented in the festival guide as being a probing look into how this woman went from a June Cleaver-esque existence to something completely opposite. What we didn’t know until the movie started was that Stacy Valentine also went into very hardcore porn – a fact the filmmakers were quite willing to convey in incredibly graphic behind-the-scenes detail. One of my colleagues grew embarrassed and quietly snuck out within the first hour. About 15 minutes later, so did the other one. Not wanting to be rude, I forced myself to stay put, as it seemed rude to completely abandon this woman after inviting her to sit with us. Awkward! I’m pretty sure I breathed a sigh of relief once the end credits began to roll. Nor surprisingly, this woman and I talked about everything except the movie we’d just seen. I’ve long joked that if the actor in question ever wanted to see a dirty movie with my mom, I’d have to let him.
Theater: Muvico Egyptian 24 – Hanover, MD
Year: 2007
Movie: Shrek the Third
Movie theaters come in all shapes and sizes. Big cities, of course, have the biggest theaters, often called “mega-plexes.” It is not uncommon for such venues to have twenty or more auditoriums. I’d been in monster palaces of this variety before, but an outing in May of 2007 kicked it to a whole other level. The Arundel Mills Mall in Hanover, MD is home to a rare spin-off of the mega-plex – the themed mega-plex. Owned at the time by Muvico (and since taken over by Cinemark), the Egyptian is a 24-screen theater designed to resemble an ancient Egyptian temple. Walking into the place was like walking onto a massive movie set. Everything appears to have been carved out of sand and stone. The gargantuan lobby contains multiple columns emblazoned with Egyptian art. Statues of pharaohs are carved into the walls high above the concession stand. The corridors – as well as the auditorium interiors – have elaborate murals made to look like hieroglyphics. There is a glass mosaic Nile River running across the floor. If the Egyptians had built a state-of-the-art movie theater inside the Sphinx, this is what it would look like. My visit to the Egyptian 24 was significant on two counts. First, and most obviously, it was ridiculously fun. It was like the mothership calling me home. Secondly, it served as a reminder of how important showmanship is in the movie exhibition business. I grew up in the 70s and 80s, when most movie theaters were generic shoebox-looking places, often with no real personality. Seeing a place like the Egyptian made me realize how the magic of movies starts when you first walk through the door. Whether it’s themed or not, and regardless of how many screens it contains, a theater with some pizazz makes going to the movies a fun experience that you want to repeat again and again.
The lobby of the Egyptian 24 multiplex.
Since I see hundreds of movies a year, I have other memorable experiences, but these are the ones that stick out most. I bet you have a few too. If you have any you want to share, tell your tales in the comments section below. I’d love to hear them!
