The Colonial

Theaters

The Colonial is the movie theater I grew up with in dear old Phoenixville. It was the movie theater in The Blob, and is now an art house. No more Valley of the Gwangi!

The Charles is an art house in Baltimore. If you're are lucky, when you go, you will see John Waters' No Smoking announcement.

The Senator is a beautiful old theater in Baltimore. If you are lucky the first run movie you've been waiting for will open at the Senator; it's a great place to see a movie.

What's Playing

Pittsburgh is a city of movie theaters--well, compared to Binghamton, everywhere else is a city of movie theaters. If you're coming, here's what's playing.

Movies

Well, after seeing several movies this summer, capped off by The Haunting, it occurs to me that every few years I just stop going to the movies. Why? Because most movies are a wretched waste of time. You give away 2 hours--more or less--to a collective and fractured vision that leaves you with questions like: How many writers? How much money? and What have I done?

So it's back to sqaure one and some old fashioned new movies that actually deliver on their meager promise.

Playing now

Deep Blue Sea is a big piece of cheese with teeth. Any movie that can dispatch its biggest star as this one does, knows what it's about, and knows that stars--in "B" movies--don't matter. Feed Lucas to the sharks!

The Sixth Sense reminded me of Jacob's Ladder. Which is a good thing. It's a ghost story and like all good ghost stories, it remembers that being afraid can be a small, powerful emotion. Sure Fay Wray screamed, but not all the time.

Rent them

Mimic is a simple old-fashioned monster movie dripping with style. Think of those nuclear accident "B" movies, but with good actors and a cool director.

After watching Out of Sight I could only wonder why George Clooney wasn't a bigger star. As the gray kicks in, he'll be ready for all the old aging Cary Grant parts. But wait, that's right. No one is making slick, smart thrillers like North by Northwest, To Catch a Thief or Charade anymore. Too bad, Mr. Clooney, you could've been a big, really big.

Little Companies

And let's don't forget Fine Line Features, another venerable organ.

Miramax Films is responsible for several good--ok, "better"--movies. And, no surprise, they have a web site. M-I-C....

Big Companies

You know a 20th Century Fox movie the moment it starts--that distinctive drumroll. Nowadays Fox is into everything, so this site includes television promotions as well. All I can say is, Doh!

Remember the lion? Remember Pickfair? Well, once there was Metro Goldwyn Mayer, the biggest of the big Holywood studios. And then a few stars got fed up and created their own studio called United Artists. Now there's MGM/UA. Go figure.

Paramount does more than make Star Trek movies.

Since when did Sony mean something other than TVs? Welcome to the go-go nineties.

Who knows what Universal makes these days, but when I was younger my dad shared his love of horror movies with my brothers and me. The best ones came from Universal.

Jack Warner and his brothers never imagined that Warner Brothers would become something called The WB.

Sources

Film.com is a fair source of reviews and news about current movies.

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