This will be as much a review of a movie theatre as it is of a movie. We watched Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Saturday night. The theatre was packed with children, whose parents had paid just $6.50 to get in.
That's right: $6.50. For less than half of the cost of Silver City Cinemas, we sat through a three hour movie in slightly shabbier seats and slightly stickier floors, and we loved every minute of it.
Frederick Twin Cinemas is the only independently owned and operated movie theatre left in Kitchener, and I am its biggest fan. I am sick of being lifted off of my feet and shaken for the change out of my pockets each time I go to the movies. You can shove your stadium seating, and you can choke on your food courts, movies have become way too expensive. You can not have the good family experience that the movies used to be when each experience puts you that much closer to bankruptcy. And I can't say that I'm all that alone. Frederick Twin Cinemas has been packed these past two weeks that Harry Potter has been playing. Frederick Twin Cinemas seems to be making a profit out of (gasp!) respecting its clientele and not gouging them.
More people should step forward and say that they won't take this highway robbery anymore. Perhaps if the big chain theatres begin to wonder where all of their attendees went, they'll clue in and bring in a line of budget (read: reasonably priced) cinemas to try and win back our hearts.
Oh, and note to the big cinemas: because I only paid $13 for Erin and I to go to Harry Potter, I didn't bat an eyelash at paying $14 for a large bag of popcorn, M&Ms and two large Sprites. If I don't boycott your ticket prices in the near future, I will smuggle in bulk food in my pockets. And let me tell you that I have deep pockets. You just try and search me, I dare you!
Oh, how was the movie? Quite good. Harry was done gawping and actually did some neat things. Seriously, Daniel Radcliffe did some excellent acting this time around and though Ron Weasley's voice broke, Rupert Grint was as Ron-ish as ever. All of the actors were really good, especially Alan Rickman who is singlehandedly humanizing Snape. The direction was workmanlike and faithful to the book and there are some reasonable frights as well. The confrontation with Aragog was especially well played (a rare occasion where the direction stepped up to meet the acting).
A good waste of three hours? Yes. Worth paying $6.50 for? You betcha!