Whoa, that's a big screen!
Ah the historic Uptown theater, a rare cinemascope screen living nearby in the Cleveland Park neighborhood. A screen bred for only one purpose: to show Lawrence of Arabia. Sadly, a theater cannot make ends meet on one classic so they are forced to fill the other 362 nights of the year with more popular fare, and I'm not talking about The Bridge on the River Kwai and 2001: A Space Odyssey.
If you haven't been to this theater or one like it I can describe it's effect only by saying that it had the power to overcome the sheer crappiness of X-Men 2 and prevented me from killing myself before the horrible horrible end. Road to Perdition was grand on this screen and Seabiscuit less cold and inhuman (though that soundless and quick death scene right at the beginning really screws with the mood of the whole film, I mean the guy loses his kid....).
Back to the point of this entry (yes I do know how to stick to a point and not get lost on asides). Yes that was an aside to declare my ability to avoid asides. There is a comment button for situations like this.
With the release of the third and final film in the Lord of The Rings trilogy coming this Wednesday, DC has been fortunate to have this historic theater showing the extended versions of the first two films on the big screen. Beginning Friday the 5th we had the privilege of seeing the bigger-longer-and-uncut version of The Fellowship of the Ring only as it could previously be seen on DVD. The Two Towers with additional scenes is now being screened until Tuesday the 16th when the Uptown will have two exclusive long since sold out shows of all three films in the trilogy back to back. That is a nine and a half hour Lord of the Rings extravaganza.
Can you imagine it?
Seriously: Imagine it.
Sadly the "sold out" part of these showings combined with my weekly obligations to my employer prevent me from joining in this experience and thus prevent me from sharing it with you. Because of other sold out shows I probably won't be seeing the Return of the King until Sunday. The important piece here is that if you are a fan of these films, or are even just considering seeing Return of the King, go rent the DVD of Fellowship of the Ring and watch the extended version. Go to the Uptown and see the Two Towers and then reserve tickets for the Return of the King. This is truly a rare cinematic event for DC so don't pass it up!
The only question remaining is will the extended version of Return of the King coss the four hour mark? The theater release is, after all, a full 3 hours and 40 minutes.
2 Comments
Leave a comment
Who is this guy?
Hey, let's take it easy on the X2 bashing, please. It is #250 in the IMDb top 250. Sure, I wasn't a big X-Men comic fan, or any comic for that matter, when I was young (except for Archie comics, man, that Jughead sure was funny!). I quite thoroughly enjoyed the film, though. However, I was a bit distracted in my original viewing as a theater co-patron was apparently on a 30-year old ventilator, creaking and groaning through the picture. I took in in stride, being quite thankful that I didn't have to live on mechanical equipment. The worst part was when somebody from behind yelled "Turn that damn thing off." How insensitive.
Anyway, man, that Rogue is HOT!
Like Jeremy, I have to agree that you've been too tough on X2. "Sheer crappiness"? C'mon, it wasn't that bad.
Nightcrawler was great, they gave Halle Barry some real dialogue (as opposed to X1), and I liked the whole Pyro's-torn-between-good-and-bad story line.
It's no Spiderman, but on the whole, I'd give it a B+.