Palace 17 and Odyssey Theater

This theatre is most certainly not open 24 hours a day. Also, the giant Odyssey screen has not been used in years.

THIS INFO ALL WRONG......

Here is the website for this theater. I think Dave misread their schedule. It reads "Open 7 days a week, 365 days a year!". I don't see anything about it being open 24 hours a day.

Ooops. Sorry about that!

The odyssey screen theater is still used, only for "enhanced 35mm" movies. Best theater in CT hands down. Way better than Loews in Plainvlle. This theater has the sound and even the small auditoriums are great.

Best theater in CT?? Crown Palace is okay but I still contend the best theater in CT is down the street, Real Art Ways (good movies, projection, and the place is kept very clean). Crown Palace has obnoxious people who talk on their cell phones even during movies like The Passion of the Christ. That to me was kind of amazing. Although you can't beat Crown Movie Madness - 4 bucks for a student ticket, you can't even rent a video for that. What incentive do you have not to go to the movies.

Buckland Cinema De Lux/Showcase was better but at more than double the price. Still my rule was this: Crown during the week when it was empty, Buckland on weeekends - they had a nicer crowd there in Manchester anyway...and when the movie was sold out at Buckland - East Hartford, but that option is no longer there.

if you're into mainstream movies and stuff like me, the palace is the place to go weekdays or weekends.($5 on a saturday night for me thanks to my student ID) I'm sure RAW is good but they don't show movies that would bring me there, so i can't judge. Buckland is good and all cause they show movies past midnight on the weekends....but are way too expensive. I think it's the best theatre cause of the sound. The sound here kicks the bejezzez out of Plainville and Buckland. I like my theatre shaking like an earthquake during explosions.

if you're into mainstream movies and stuff like me, the palace is the place to go weekdays or weekends.($5 on a saturday night for me thanks to my student ID) I'm sure RAW is good but they don't show movies that would bring me there, so i can't judge. Buckland is good and all cause they show movies past midnight on the weekends....but are way too expensive. I think it's the best theatre cause of the sound. The sound here kicks the bejezzez out of Plainville and Buckland. I like my theatre shaking like an earthquake during explosions.

Bow Tie Cinemas assumed operation of this theater on 11/17/06.

Since the bowtie people took over this theater, they raised the price of films in their theater with the giant screen. It is NOT an Imax. It is NOT even a digital cinema. Film in the theater looks like a Roy Lichtenstein painting. The image grain is huge! At the Palace 17, poor presentation does mean higher prices.

This is the most dangerous place to see a movie in Hartford. I feel much safer at Real Art Ways. I at least used to see security and police, now it's each man for themselves. Someone in the box office said that they have found guns left in the theater more than once. This cashier seemed to be proud of this fact.

The best thing I can say about this theater is that the cell phone reception must be fantastic. I think people come here just to use their cell phones.

Do yourself a favor and go to the loews in Plainville or to the Showcase Deluxe in Manchester, there you have a sporting chance to find your car still there in one piece after the show.

I guess Bow Tie is trying to more upscale movie goers to the Criterion. R.A.W. is a great venue, always sharp picture, well run, great concession stand and just overall a great scene. The Showcase/Cinema De Lux Buckland is nice too, even before the construction that was my top choice, I went to the Crown Palace back in the day during "movie madness" where on weekdays students could see movies for $4 - with prices that low there was no reason to stay on campus and rent DVDs. (I also had a RAW membership and saw films for $4.50). I'm shocked they removed security from the Palace, often they were good to report distractions to (sometimes they were the distraction, the Hartford PD was standing in a theater with their radio on during a showing of A History of Violence, I complained to the manager who took care of it - the lack of common sense by hired security astounds me sometimes).

I'm guessing they keep the Criterion in top shape with security in the complex. But even before the security pulled out I remember being warned when I first moved to Hartford that "the Palace was ghetto, its no uncommon to witness a fight or a distraction or whatever" - this complex was part of Crown Theaters' strategy a few years ago and the 7PM block on Saturday nights seems to be popular (often they have 17 screens starting within an hour of each other, a fact I pointed out when a box office line in January stretched out the door to the manager who instead of understanding my point was proud they had 17 films all starting within an hour including Saw on three screens, 20 minutes apart). This was always a strange multiplex and for the record, I always avoided the digital projection and the Odessy (big screen) theater - the film takes up half the screen and even in the last row you had to crane your neck. I understand they now charge more for that experience, what a shame, maybe Bow Tie will get one of those new digital I-Max systems to compete with the tiny I-Max and Real D system at Buckland.

Bow Tie Cinemas truly endeavors to provide an excellent movie going experience at all of our theaters, including the Palace. We acquired it a year ago, and were well aware of its reputation at that time. 99% of the problems stemmed from the bargain pricing that the former operator put in place. Yes, we've raised the admission prices at the theater to match others in the market. We're still lower priced than our direct competitors, and our pricing structure has had a positive effect on the removing the ill-behaved guests that used to frequent the theater. We've also spent much time replacing the poorly trained staff there. We've spent a lot of money on upgrades, and are also currently adding two birthday party rooms for families to hold their events.
We also employ off-duty Hartford Police Officers as our security force, which replaced the former guard service. Bow Tie Cinemas also has a zero tolerance policy for audience behavior issues that we do our best to enforce. The claims in the comments above, if true, occurred prior to our purchase of the theater. We've had no such issues.
With regards to presentation, several of the auditoriums are THX certified and all have large screens and digital sound. The Odyssey Theater has an 18,000 watt sound system and shows films on a 60x80 screen. We mask the screen properly for flat and scope presentations, and we are currently examining our digital options for a hopeful 2008 rollout. The presentations fill the entire screen.
I hope this clarifies our operating policy at the Palace. I assure you, it is a perfectly safe and enjoyable theater to attend. If you have any comments, positive or otherwise, please write to me directly at jmasher@bowtiecinemas.com

First lets get some facts straight. According to THX.com, The only THX screen close to hartford is the Destinta theater in Middletown: screen 1. I'll have to go with THX.com on this one. If the Bowtie Corporation thought THX was important, they would have made the new theater in West Hartford THX. It's not.

It is true this Bowtie theater is lower priced than it's most direct competitor, which is the Bowtie Criterion, also in West Hartford. The Criterion is the most expensive movie theater in Connecticut, when you add in the cost of parking. The Showcase in berlin and the Hoyt's in Simsbury are both nice theaters, they are a little cheaper. The nearby Loews is the same price. The Showcase deluxe is .25 to .50 more for most movies, but usually worth it. So this theater is NOT lower priced than it's competitors, really it's same price give or take .25, I'll have to go with movietickets.com and Fandango on this one.

If more than doubling the price of a midweek movie has helped with "ill behaved guests" , maybe the price should be doubled again, cause the thugs are still there. They're just mad they have to pay more. While I try to avoid this theater, I do have tickets to a advance show of "Juno" which prompted me write this rant. I am not sure if I should even go? or just wait for the DVD. If I do go, how many hartford Policemen do you think I will see? one? two? more? I am betting on none.

back to the Odyssey theater. Maybe it has a great sound system, maybe not, most movies are too loud anyways. but 35mm film was never meant to be shown on a screen that size. The screen image is acceptable to poor. The Imax at the showcase deluxe is small, but it IS an Imax. And the image IS great. Why not put an Imax in the Odyssey theater?. wouldn't that make sense? Why have an Imax size screen, but not an Imax? Did you know AMC/loews is adding 100 Imax projectors. It would not bother me to pay more for a superior image I don't like to pay more for an inferior picture on the screen.

tom

Got a nice surprise, when I found out matinee now pricing ends at 4pm, used to be 6pm. Not a big deal, just had to bypass the snack counter, not like there's any profit in popcorn! This theater used to have "twilight prices". That was a good deal. These kinds of prices are meant to keep the bad element away, meaning anyone on a budget.

Whoa now. Let's not say what that last comment really means. This cinema doesn't engage in racial bias ticketing.

The Related Websites link above should be changed to this one.

shoestring 14 - It was stated above by an employee of this company, "99% of the problems stemmed from the bargain pricing that the former operator put in place." I don't agree. He also stated that the "pricing structure has had a positive effect on the removing the ill-behaved guests that used to frequent the theater." I also don't agree with that. The theater is in a tough neighborhood and it is what it is. More than doubling the week day price of a movie and eliminating discounts has not has any effect on reducing problems, it's just tougher for the average joe to see a movie.

Not only the average Joe but the average film student at UHa, I doubt that was they were the problem. If anything you'll have to start selling drugs on the side to afford the $11 Odyssey admission price and snacks. So I guess according to Joe they've added proper masking in the Odyssey, which like the I-Max at Buckland used to project things on the very large screen and it would be like watching a letter box movie on your TV. It the proper ratio but it only fills up part of the screen. Now if they were to convert it to a full I-Max (they used to show "enhanced 35MM prints" with more detail for the larger screen) they could compete with Buckland since I'm sure their screen is larger than the mini-I-Max there (I even argued to National Amusements that I bet the screens 7 and 8 at the Showcase West Springfield were larger than Buckland's I-Max).

I knew the theater was on the verge of being sold when the operations improved and the prices was lowered, in its final months as Crown the place was spotless (I really haven't been there much since the Bow Tie take over but things there seem to be the same and I'm glad to hear they have plans to improve Cinema City which I don't think has ever been improved since it opened 40 years ago). But now with East Hartford out of the picture (also old, but very well run) and Bloomfield, it does make sense to me that they can play films day and date with Criterion and still keep Cinema City open, all without veering into Real Art Ways' type of film.

I used to love this theater when it was Crown. The student discount was great. I even loved the lowered prices, but when BowTie took over they really jacked up the prices and killed the student discount. Please bring back the student discount so I can come back. Other than that it's a great place to see a movie.

Well this movie theater had yet another robbery attempt. This time it was almost humorous. The robber asked for money, the cashier gave it to him. When the robber went to pick up the money, he put his gun down; well the cashier picked it up and the robber went fleeing. This time it ends happily. I’m glad nobody got hurt but, this is how it could have gone.

The robber put his gun down to pick up the money. The cashier reaches for the gun; the robber sees his error and reaches for the gun. A struggle ensues and then the gun is fired. An innocent child is shot.

Recently a bank teller in Seattle was fired for stopping a robbery. He put his life and the lives of others at risk for some money that was insured. I hope this Bowtie cinema explains to this casher how stupid he was. Nobody needs a dead hero.

Now if only Bowtie cinema would just put some security on the premises. If only they would employ a Hartford policeman or two, maybe the people of West Hartford wouldn’t be afraid to come here, especially after dark.

tom