A good way to improve cinemas

I complained about the Odeon’s ‘Gallery’ a while ago. The Gallery is supposed to be ‘enhanced’ cinema, designed to improve the movie-going experience. It used to be good when it was UCI Filmworks’ Gallery, but ever since the Odeon took over, it’s been rubbish.

Over in the US, though, Regal Entertainment is trialling a new feature in its theaters, something all the cinemas here would do well to emulate to improve our trips to the cinema: ‘The Regal Guest Response System (RGRS)’.

Currently testing in 13 of Regal’s theaters across the country, the RGRS is a special pager with four buttons, one for each of the following problems: Sound, picture, disturbance and, of course, piracy. The pager is not located on the armrest or attached to any part of the seat, but is instead something given to some patrons to bring into the theater.

So they give you four magic buttons and if someone’s making a noise or the sound or picture is rubbish, you can page someone and they’ll turn up and fix the problem. Nice.

Of course, if the Odeon ever implemented it, they’d actually have to staff their cinemas, but that’s a problem for another day.

US TV

Preview: Friday Night Lights

Friday Night Lights

In the US: NBC, Tuesdays, 8/7c. Starts October 3rd.

In the UK: Not acquired (and probably won’t be cos it’s about American football)

Ah, the TV series of the film of the book. Always a heady combination. And it’s all about sport: (American) football, to be exact. Who can resist?

Okay. I’m being sarcastic. Plus ça change, and all that. But actually, despite being a notorious (any) football hater, I really kind of enjoyed Friday Night Lights. It wasn’t totally captivating, but it had ‘qualities’.

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Film reviews

Review: Superman Returns (IMAX 3D version)

Superman Returns

I don’t review movies much these days. That’s mainly because it normally takes me a couple of weeks to see anything that’s in the cinema (it’s not like I get to go to the premiere parties or anything), by which point the review’s kind of pointless. Plus I don’t see as many films as I used to, either.

But, I did see Superman Returns on Monday, down at the London IMAX, so I thought I’d let you know my thoughts, both about the movie and the IMAX 3D aspects of it.

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