The Coronet: one of London’s oldest movie theaters

Last week we saw Oceans 13 at the Coronet Theater in Notting Hill. It’s a gorgeous theater. Built in 1898 as a regular playhouse, it found that it couldn’t compete with the nearby West End theater district and converted to a full-time movie theater in 1923. It’s now owned by a church and being refurbished, but they still operate it with both new releases and revivals.

The seating is odd for a movie theater — it has the ground orchestra level plus two balconies, though I don’t think the top balcony gets a very good view.

I didn’t like Oceans 13 very much. I thought the plot was too thin and obvious, and the characters had lost a lot of their original cool. I didn’t care if they succeeded or not. I thought Oceans 12 was much better, and Oceans 11 best of all. But it was better than Spiderman 3!

Next, I want to see a movie at the Electric Cinema — London’s oldest true movie theater, 1910, purpose-built for showing movies, and also in Notting Hill. They’ve got armchairs and leather easy chairs with built in drink holders, and even a few sofas. That’s what I call a movie theater!

Mitch’s Reviews — Equus, Spiderman 3, and 28 Days Later

Equus, at the Gielgud Theater. Starring Harry Potter, er, I mean Daniel Radcliffe. Equus is a powerful drama, a psychological play that captures all the best elements of the genre: a gruesome crime (six horses are blinded with a 6-inch spike), a reluctant criminal who doesn’t want to explain what happened (Daniel Radcliffe, a young stable-boy obsessed with horses), and the psychologist who finds a way to get through to him (Richard Griffiths, also from the Harry Potter movies).

Daniel was very good, but I couldn’t shake the idea of him using his ‘angry Harry Potter’ face the whole time. I don’t think he’s got much range as an actor. Still, the play was very intense and enjoyable. And yes, Daniel is completely naked for the last 10 minutes of the play. I won’t stoop to cheap jokes like ‘I got to see Harry Potter’s wand…’ oops, too late! Acting-wise, I thought the best part was the stable-owner’s daughter. Not a very big part, but she was the most believable of all.

I heard that the show might travel to a Broadway theater in New York City in the fall. If you get the chance, I recommend it.

Mitch’s Rating: 2 magic wands up!
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(This is the agony you’ll feel while watching this movie.)

Spiderman 3. I still can’t believe how many critics gave this good reviews. It was terrible! I took my coworkers to see it, and we couldn’t help laughing at how bad it was. The only good part was when the projector broke for 15 minutes, because they gave us refund tickets and we didn’t waste money on this piece of junk.

I don’t mind when movies steal scenes from other movies, but at least they should steal good ones. This had the worst elements of Superman 3, Batman & Robin, and The Mask all rolled it into one 3-hour steaming pile of crap. I seriously think they were tired of the franchise and wanted to make a movie so bad that they’d never be asked to do another. Unfortunately, they’ve already hired the same writer to do Spiderman 4.

Mitch’s Rating: 2 spider-legs down.
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28 Days Later. Now this is how to do a sequel right. The concept of ‘fast zombies’ is given a human touch, thanks to Robert Carlyle who has one of the best horror scenes ever — it’s touching, frightening, and genuinely scary because you don’t want to believe that it’s really happening… and it’s bloody and evil as hell. There’s a pair of annoying kids in it, but thankfully they don’t slow down the action or make it sappy. And the helicopter scene… brilliant! Most of the movie took place in the Docklands area of London; I can’t wait to go see what it looks like for real.

Mitch’s Rating: 2 zombie-thumbs up!

Monty Python in Trafalgar Square

I don’t know who St. George is, but they had a few celebrations for him in London this weekend. It was topped off tonight with a free screening of Monty Python and the Holy Grail right in the middle of Trafalgar Square. It was so much fun. Just before we arrived, the cast of Spamalot handed out coconut halves to the crowd and led them in a chorus of ‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life’ — they were going for the world record of largest coconut symphony. (I think they got it, beating last year’s record in New York City.) Then they showed the movie. The screen was large, the sound was perfect, and everyone continued to clop-clop their coconuts when King Arthur and his men rode on imaginary-horseback. Cheers, St. George! Thanks for another great night out in London.

I hate Michael Bay, but I love this video

This video had me laughing all night. It’s an homage to Michael Bay. The song/lyrics are perfect — sounds just like Journey.

I love movies. I got my Bachelor’s degree in filmmaking, that’s how much I love ‘em. And of all the A-list directors, I hate Michael Bay the most. Despise. Detest. Pthoooie. For 3-minute music videos and 60-second commercials, he’s great. But for 120-minute feature films, he’s absolute crap.

On the other hand… his car chases in Bad Boys II and The Island were so outrageous and over the top, I actually enjoyed them. And explosions. No-one blows things up better. His fight scenes are crap, you can barely tell what’s going on. But give him a fast car and some C4… maybe the Transformers won’t be so bad after all. (Yeah right, it’ll suck big time, but still make $100-million.)

Two nights at the BFI (British Film Institute)

This week we went out to see two movies sponsored by the British Film Institute.

Tuesday night, “To Have and Have Not” at the National Film Theater (in the heart of Waterloo). One of my all-time favorites. It’s the first film that Bogart and Bacall made together, and I think they have the best on-screen romantic chemistry of all time. I’d never seen it on the big screen before, and it was terrific. I had already seen The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, and Casablanca on the big screen, and this was the last of my “favorite 4″ Bogie films to see in theater.

Friday night, “Casino Royale” at the BFI IMAX theater, also in Waterloo. Wow. The fight scenes, the car crashes… everything was huge on the big, beautiful IMAX screen. It wasn’t the best Bond film overall, but it had definitely had some of the best action scenes in a Bond film. I missed Pierce Brosnan — this is the kind of Bond film he wanted to make, where Bond gets cut and bruised and isn’t always so suave.