Thursday, June 18, 2009

Date Night at the Academy Theater

Jean recently introduced me to the local discount movie theater. The Academy Cinemas in Pasadena have a great offer on Wednesday nights. You get two admissions, two popcorns and two sodas for $10! Make no mistake, this isn't the Arclight. The seats do have handy-dandy cup holders, but that's about where the frills end. Most times we've gone to this theater, we have purchased our tickets at the snack bar. It seems to be a two person operation (one projectionist and one popcorn/soda/ticket seller). Nevertheless, we can literally see five movies at this theater for the price of one movie at the local megaplex. These aren't first run movies, but we have seen some pretty good flix. Which brings us to MONSTERS VS ALIENS.

Most people saw this movie in 3-D, but the Academy Theater did not show this feature in 3-D. That being said, I doubt we missed much by seeing it in 2-D. Most 3-D movies have the inevitable sight gags of something coming out of the screen, and this did too. They were so obvious, that you knew where they were even in 2-D. In this animated action-comedy, Reese Witherspoon voices Susan Murphy, a bride-to-be that is hit by a radioactive meteorite. This makes her turn into the 49-foot-11-inch Ginormica. The government (headed by General Monger - Keifer Sutherland) holds her and other monsters in a detention facility. Here she finds The Missing Link (Will Arnett), Dr. Cockroach (Hugh Laurie in his non-American accent) and B.O.B. (Seth Rogen).

Apparently the meteorite that hit Susan is worth a lot to Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson). He sends an alien fleet to Earth to take back that which he desires. General Monger unleashes his monsters against the aliens to start the battle that the title suggests. There are some funny moments and good animated action. It was particuarly humorous to hear Mr. Laurie's accent, and Seth was doing his usual pot laugh. All-in-all, I would recommend for home viewing if you don't have a discount theatre near you. MONSTERS VS ALIENS earns 3 Popes.



However, Date Night at the Academy Theaters gets 4 out of 5 Popes.

2 comments:

  1. If you're an OC resident we have the Cinema City Stadium Theater in Anaheim Hills: http://cinemacitytheaters.com

    Movies before Noon are $4, Noon-6pm is $5, and general admission is $8.

    They have really comfy seats :)

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  2. I love the Academy theater! I heard about the Date Night at the Academy when I went last Friday, and am thinking about going with my friend this thursday, it surely is a great deal :) I go to the Academy a lot and hadn't noticed the offer before until the day I went alone. You truely do notice a lot more in solidarity. haha The downside is, that the films have been played a lot, therefore the film is pretty damaged most of the time, I'm not complaining, it's better than paying $12 at the Pacific Theater down the street.

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