Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Happily N'Ever After (2007)

This is topic Happily N'Ever After (2007) in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 01-20-2007, 08:39 PM:

CINEMA: Cinemarkury 20 at Jordan Creek, West Des Moines, IA
AUDITORIUM: 3
PRESENTATION: 35mm/Dolby Digital/THX
PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: Shaky picture slightly out of focus
RATING: One and one half stars (out of four)

At the Costco tire counter:

(Random Customer): "I need tires for my truck."
(Costco Employee): "What kind of truck?"
(Random Customer): "Avalanche."
(Costco Employee): "Who makes that?"
(Random Customer): "Chevy."
(Costco Employee): "Oh yeah. Those goofy looking things."
(Random Customer): "..."
(Costco Employee): "They look like Tonka trucks, right?"
(Random Customer): "..."
(Costco Employee): "They're like Tonkas, right?"
(Random Customer): "Whatever."
(Me): "Is it yellow?"
(Costco Employee): "HA HA HA HA HA HA!"
(Random Customer): "..."

Random Customer is advised they'll need to special order the tires. He leaves clearly looking hurt, and I place my tire order. The last thing Costco Employee says is "It will be significantly in excess of two hours". So I walk over to the theatres while daydreaming about yellow Chevy Avalanches with all the plastic parts painted red.

I chose "Happily N'Ever After" because...

-I've never heard of it.
-It's starting before the matinee prices end for the day
-The time window should fit for me to pick up my car
-Nothing playing looks terribly appealing.

The movie is an attempt at a witty twist on Cinderella and public domain fairy tales in general. In this version, Cinderella's evil stepmother gains power over fairy tale world and wants to change things so that the bad guys get to win.

It looks cheap, feels cheap, and plays like a straight-to-video production. It runs 75 minutes but feels more like 150.

This is my first time at Century 20 since the sale to Cinemark was completed. Differences in operation were minimal:

-They now sell Red Baron pizza instead of Connie's.
-They play audio for Movie Tunes instead of Century Radio
-There's no THX trailer

That's all I noticed. No rolling stock, no digital pre-show (actually, they didn't even have advertising slides), the sound was just as good as it's always been, and the projection was just as crappy as it's always been. There wasn't a Cinemark logo to be found anywhere.

Oh yeah...A trailer played for a new "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles". SERIOUSLY. Who decided to revive THAT franchise?!?