Remember the old Saturday matinee at the neighborhood movie house, where we and our schoolmates viewed the latest news, cartoons, previews, serial and double features, plus popcorn, a drink and candy for 50 cents?
Today, after you buy your surprisingly reasonable matinee or senior ticket and arrive at the refreshment counter, your mouth will drop open, and not from a salivatory overload: hot dogs $10, tiny bags of chips $3, a popcorn and drink “combo-regular” fetches $15, a slightly larger “combo-jumbo” $20 and candy bars $3-5.
Walking quickly past all this we enter one of the complex’s 15 theaters for an adventure. And an adventure it is if you have shelled out extra bucks for the “options” which are now increasingly available. They include: eardrum shattering “surround-sound” to confuse your sense of direction and equilibrium, 3-D effects to make you jump and spill your combo and chairs that will shake, vibrate and tilt as you look about nervously for a sickness bag. Great fun.
Plot, character, acting, etc. are often secondary to these visual and auditory experiences and, of course, the merchandising potential of the characters and their props.
All that aside, the realism of the car chases, plane crashes and huge explosions where the stars miraculously outrun the blast and flames of the detonation is stunning and many patrons find the extra money well spent.
If you have stayed at home and ignored the recent films, you missed the grandeur and beauty of the 3-D effects in Avatar and The Life of Pi and the stunning wide-screen vistas of Lord of the Rings and Brokeback Mountain.
For an amazing experience, go to a real movie theater and splurge on an option or two. Seeing the current features as they are meant to be seen cannot be compared to the pathetic limitations of a TV viewing.
Don’t forget your ear-plugs.
Airport disappointment
I take machine in lap to relate my disappointment in the reportedly fabulous new airport addition.
Last Sunday my partner returned to Japan after staying with me for several weeks. He was as excited about the new non-stop flight to Tokyo as I was about getting a chance to check out the new wing in the international section. The write-up and photos in the local paper had me looking forward to the fine new shops and restaurants.
We arrived two hours early so we could shop and stroll around the arcade area and then have lunch at one of the highly touted restaurants before he checked in. This may be an idea you were thinking about. Forget it!
All the places mentioned in the article are only for the passengers and only after they have passed through the security area; therefore, all are unavailable to friends and family who have come to see someone off or pick them up.
We tried to find something, anything, in Terminal 2 East, the international departure area. We came up with one lone Starbucks counter with about five tiny tables with ten chairs. Outside of that, there was no place where the hundreds of potential customers could eat, sit, relax or chat before saying goodbye.
From the outside the new addition looks very nice and the separation of the departure and arrival ramps is a good idea. Not having been allowed inside, however, I have no idea whether the hoopla about the interior is justified or not. I hope I am wrong, but if the architect was as unconcerned for the passengers as he/she was for their friends and family, I fear the worst.
