Theater Owners Tagged Articles at Cinematical
The Exhibitionist: Journey to the Cinema for an Astonishing 3-D Experience
Filed under: Action », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », New Releases », New Line », Tech Stuff », Exhibition », Family Films », Columns »
I don't know the last time I felt like a kid at the movies, but while watching Journey to the Center of the Earth 3-D this past week, I honestly reverted to my 8-year-old self. That isn't to say the movie is necessarily as good as the movies that astonished me as a kid -- because of the subject matter, I'd think about comparing it to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Goonies, both of which came out when I was around that age, and neither to which this film holds up in terms of originality or storytelling craft. But as far as holding onto my sense of wonder, Journey is up there.
Of course, it's necessary to point out that Journey would be nothing without the digital 3-D factor. It's actually the first live-action narrative feature to be shot and released in the new format (the non-fiction concert films, U2 3D and Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour were technically the first live-action 3-D features), and while it's far from perfect, it is a terrific pioneer. I shall continue favoring the look of animated 3-D films, especially those directed as well as Monster House, and I anticipate that James Cameron's Avatar will blow away all live-action 3-D films released prior to its arrival. For now, though, I'm telling you, with the utmost cinemaphilic urgency: you need to see this ASAP.
Portland Incident Leaves Critic Pie-Faced
Filed under: Critical Thought »
Whenever the word "parasite" gets used as a slur in the screening room, I try to modify it with
"symbiotic". The critic taketh away, but he giveth, too. But stung by a review that he considered too much,
Seth Sonstein, owner of the Clinton Street Theater in Portland, Oregon movie theater decided to take vengeance into his own hands. According to the blog Oregon Media
Insiders, Sonstein stalked Willamette Week critic Becky Ohlsen, restrained
her, and then pied her in the face while a buddy filmed the incident. Then the video was posted on YouTube. "Take it like a man," Sonstein ordered.
"How could you write that s..t?" Oddly, the tone of Ohlson's review was more burbling than angry (the lead reads "Amazing!") and the Longbaugh Film Festival put Ohlsen's review on the front of their web page. This didn't stop the pie from coming ... Was this pie-facing payback because of Ohlsen's blind item deep at the end of her piece suggesting someone "someone who owned the Clinton Street Theater" (Sonstein?) mooned a camera during the self-same festival? Truly, it's slander to imply that a man who posts videos of himself on line has exhibitionist qualities. Ohlsen hasn't printed her side of the story yet, and the word "ambigious" would be a generous way of describing her correspondence to the Oregon Media Insiders. ("I can take a joke -- unlike some people, apparently. And I maintain that as an act of vengeance for something written in the paper, it's reprehensible.") Later posts by Sonstein insisted that this all was a prank spun out of proportion, and that local bloggers were witchhunting him.
This teapot-tempest in Stumptown is perhaps most interesting as a springboard for the question: You critics out there, have you ever been threatened by some theater owner?
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