Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Suggested cinemas to visit in Colorado?

This is topic Suggested cinemas to visit in Colorado? in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 08-20-2003, 06:50 PM:

I'm going on vacation in a couple days to visit my parents in Colorado Springs. I'll be spending much of my time just relaxing, but I hope to take in a decent movie or two in Colorado Springs and possibly the Denver area as well.

Anything changed up there since 2002?

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 08-21-2003, 02:08 AM:

Nothing has changed. We still suck. No mentionable theaters that are anything you haven't seen before. The Continental is kind of cool with the big (though deeply curved) screen. If you see a scope movie it is plenty bright and doesn't sound too shabby, except they play their trailers too loud since they don't have the CA21 automation. They also have it cranked a bit much on the high end of the EQ. Bowles Crossing 12 (formerly Mann, then Colorado something or other very generic, and now I'm not sure who owns it... a used car dealer I think) is pretty good. We were there last time you were out but decided not to see a movie there, remember? It's right across the street from Columbine High School. Bowles was going to add 2 more large giant screens, but forum member Jeff Skallan requested a raise, so now they can't afford it. [Smile]

UA converted to a 100% true IMAX in their Colorado Center theater. If IMAX is your bag then you might want to try it out. Denver Pavilions has a DLP on their "large screen". Sound and image is good but not special at this place. The Denver Pavilions complex is kind of a pain just to be in. It's downtown. And Denver's downtown sucks ass. You will want to murder who ever designed the traffic system down there. But it's where pseudo intellectuals and all the people who think they are "hip", "trendy", and "with it" hang out, so it can be fun to laugh at them mockingly and feel a false sense of superiority. Actually the sense of superiority isn't all that false. [Big Grin]

Oh wait! There are new things here. UA built a new 16 plex right across from their mega-old 12 plex (7 years old.. ready for the wrecking ball!) at a new mall called... hell I dunno. But I now where it is because I bought my new car from a dealer that is close to there. Plus I helped open the Denver West 12 and this new one is right across the street. I imagine it is typical UA/Regal. We've got a Century 16 plex opening in May in Lakewood at the Villa Italia mall. Rumor has it they will be able to project 16 movies simultaneously!

I'm up for Country Buffet again if you feel like it.

Posted by William T. Parr (Member # 677) on 08-21-2003, 07:54 AM:

Hey Joe,

Do any of the old Nice Mann theatres still use curtain calls before the features? And wasn't Bowles Crossing the only one that had the waterfall curtains?

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 08-21-2003, 02:55 PM:

Bowels Crossing 12, Colonial 12 (should have been a 13 plex so they could call it the "13 Colonies"), and Chinese 16 all have curtains. Both Bowels and Colonial have waterfall. Chinese has the side to side (which I much prefer as the curtain opens when the image hits... looks much cooler). None of them are Mann theaters anymore.

Posted by Ken McFall (Member # 845) on 08-21-2003, 04:27 PM:

Excuse my ignorance and this may seem a silly question.... what's a 'waterfall'.... it a festoon curtain or 'something completley different'?

I know we share a common language but.....

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 08-21-2003, 04:41 PM:

"Waterfall" indicates that the curtains move up to open and down to close, instead of off to the side.

Posted by Ken McFall (Member # 845) on 08-21-2003, 04:45 PM:

Cheers for that Joe...

we call them festoon.... don't ask me why..... no really don't ask me why!

I agree that Swish curtains, side to side, are much better for presentation. In Scotland we never ran the Film Certificate logo.... I loved the old red Warner logo that came out of the middle of the screen. If you timed it right the curtains would 'break' and the logo would come out of the opening curtains... looked good... but only if you were into that sort of thing!

Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 08-22-2003, 01:45 AM:

You can have a curtain that moves up which is not the kind of curtain Ken calls a festoon. In most stage houses, the grand travels (side to side) & guillotines (goes straight up).

Joe means it's a curtain which is picked equally at about 6 or more points. It's also known as an Austrian swag.

If you don't pick it equally, you get a sort of modified Wagner curtain. A Brail curtain does it all, except travel, but you can put it on a traveler & it will do that, too.

http://www.gi-info.com/styles.html

If you've ever wondered why pictures of old-timey shows like in small houses & traveling shows almost always had a Wagner curtain, the diagrams on those reveal the answer: The Wagner curtain opens widest taking up the least stage area when open. The others eat flyspace or space at the sides within the proscenium opening or behind. You could just sew a Wagner rig & hang it in almost any room, when you pulled it, it was up out of the way & sort of formed a pseudo proscenium.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 08-22-2003, 02:52 AM:

Great link there, William. Yes, that is what I mean by waterfall. To be honest I've never seen curtains that move up and down in a different style.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 08-22-2003, 05:06 PM:

I have been curious about visiting the Colorado Center IMAX theater. I wonder if it is any better than the Cinemark IMAX 3D theater down in Colorado Springs. Visiting it may depend on what is showing there and dealing with that construction on I-25.

I visited Denver Pavillions once back in 1999 and don't have much desire to go back. Downtown Denver is indeed a real pain in the ass to negotiate. There doesn't seem to be much ryhme or reason to all the one way streets and finding a place to park can be a real bitch. Maybe that's why there is so much commercial growth happening out in the suburbs.