Instead of directing your anger at some trivial post, you should direct it at the fact that the Arclight doesn’t advertise what’s specifically playing in the Dome ! That would make much more sense, oh and at that silly assigned seating business!
who said that? it wasn’t me, what post are you referring to?
Btw, just about all the screens have excellent sound and good picture, and as a sound designer/mixer i can tell you the best equipped screens at this theatre have the best sound i’ve heard anywhere, at least since the old days at the Plitt in Century City with their Klipsch speaker system
One question I’d really like to know is…why doesn’t the Arclight advertise what’s playing specifically in the dome opposed to bunching all the show-times together? Now, as far as multiplexes go I like the arclight, and I can live with the fact the the old beloved cineramadome (with it’s more attractive marquee and sign display in the old days when the entrance was in the front, like the Chinese,..which naturally made more sense) became the pricey Arclight, that’s life. But the two things that really bother me are; the assigned seating, which just doesn’t work far as i’m concerned, they should have eliminated that long ago, and bunching the showtimes together with no idea what’s playing in what theater.
David Decoteau director of Puppet Master III and countless others? what the heck are you doing posting on the Vine Theater boards? Heh, yea i’ve thought of using this theatre as a location in one of my films as well
They opened Pirates of the Carribbean at the Regent so it wouldn’t even surprise me anymore.
i just can’t believe the Vine Theater is still open, i walked by there last week and they had posters & signs up, it’s like the last of the sleazy low-grade single house theaters. You can just imagine all the homeless who must sleep in there day & night, dropping bottles & rattling paper. But then i can’t believe the Academy in Pasadena is still open, they average maybe 2 people per showing, if that. How can they pay rent?
well look at it this way, might be the 1st time in 20 years there’s actually a line outside the Avco, what a strange nostalgic sight. Not that I ever go by there anymore so i wouldn’t know.
In fact the only time I go into westwood these days (on a rare blue moon) is for a Falafel at Falafel King
alot of great memories at the Avco, and many hours spent waiting by the exit doors to sneak into Return of the Jedi for the 80th time (in 70mm) in the summer of ‘83. I was so obsessed with filmmaking and so full of enthusiasm in those days, every waking moment was spent sitting in a dark theater in the evening hours studying films and the latest SFX techniques. Occasionally that evil german manager would drive past the area and shout something out “hey get avay from there!”
Some of the fondest memories at this theater; the Star Wars trilogy re-release in 1985, waiting overnight with friends and a charged up crowd, and the Back to the Future trilogy showing in 1990.
I can remember the projectionist switching over from a 35mm print of the first film, to 70mm prints of part 2 & 3, the energetic audience immediately recognized the shift in presentation and howled in appreciation!
Those were the final days..the end of an era.
It’s over now, all we have are the memories, of more interesting times
yea wierd there’s a cross in that one shot—(a piece of hanging metal) like a last brief message from the otherworld, this was the theater where demons were exorcised, and people were fainting left and right. It is a SIGN..a final departing message from Father Merrin
i worked at the Regent for most of 1985, Breakfast Club, St Elmos Fire, Wierd Science, Pee Wee’s Adventure. Birdy, etc. It was total madness, chaos, constantly selling out, this was the peek of the hip Brat Pack era, and Westwood was at the center of it. Every girl was in love with Rob Lowe and Andrew McCarthey (and drove a VW Cabriolet), flat top haircuts, hair gel and trench coats were the ‘in’ thing. I was an outcast of the era, a rejected “film nerd” who only wanted to talk about Spielberg dolly shots and SFX techniques, so i missed out on all the club going fun.
i think it would be appropriate if some police station depot or govt office is erected in it’s place, be a suitable sign of the times,, replace freedom and creativity with punishment and fear!
soon they will erase our memories that these places ever existed, or that the 70’s itself ever existed. Soon all films from the 70’s will be destroyed banned and outlawed,..it will be a black hole in time, a ‘dead zone’ in memory
ahh the picwood, i remember seeing Dune, Lifeforce and Amadeus there in 70mm. For anyone who’s ever seen the DVD cover art for “Reflections of Evil” (2002) it shows as playing at the Picwood in 70mm (sometime in the early 70’s) as well.
Zodiac was the last film i saw there, i was always bothered by the fact that Fincher tried to pass that off as some theater in San Francisco, which anyone who knows SF knows is silly. He should’ve just had a scene where Jake Gyllenhaal is visiting L.A. (for some reason) and goes to see The Exorcist at the National, people are fainting in the isles, and maybe some woman vomits on Gyllenhaal at the same time Linda Blair is vomiting onscreen.
I wonder, was anyone at the very last show of the last film that ran there? (Feast of Love) I don’t think anyone knew
My friend Chad wanted me to post this for him, Chad worked at the National in ‘88-89 during Rick Pulsipher’s stay.
The Sad Demise of Westwood Village is a glaring example of WHAT EXACTLY HAS HAPPENED TO THIS COUNTRY SINCE THE LATE 1980’s. There is a vacant apathy and unchecked greed to contend with. People simply do not congregate for fun anymore. Isolated interests, locked in cars with windows up, talking on cellphones, passing by one or more indentikit corporate eatery for a quick bite, no time, no interest, things look too old there in Westwood.
Westwood has become a poorly envisioned and managed hodgepodge of stores and shops that have virtually NO CHARACTER and this is WHAT IS HAPPENING EVERYWHERE.
What is the point of going to a GRAND CINEMA in order to see a BLAND MOVIE?
Why not wait? Why not Rent? Why not NetFlix? Why not OWN IT TODAY ON DISNEY DVD?
Westwood used to be RollerSkating Playboy Bunnies, Warren Beatty’s Heaven Can Wait Billboard up on high for a year; Bookstores, Good Restaurants, Cheap and Easy Parking, Good Films, Good Music Shops stocked with NEW RELEASES THAT MATTERED and people could care about.
NO FEAR, NO PARANOIA, NO PARKING ENFORCEMENT DRONES, NO CELLPHONES.
The National and the Plaza and the Regent and the FourPlex and the Village and the Bruin.
All within WALKING DISTANCE….
Lets go way back to the early 80’s, does anyone remember Westwood had one of the very first video stores to open called “Video 2001”, nothing but Beta rentals.
Ah, and does anyone remember Jim Litta’s little store right next to the Village called “A Touch of Hollywood” with collectables & movie posters (circa 1984/85) And of course there was a time when the “Westworld” arcade was a thriving place with cool games..the Defender machines all dominated by my high scores (999.975) in permanent memory. And when the game Marble Madness came out, Spielberg (a known Marble Madness maniac, had a game of his own at his office in Amblin) had dominated the high scores with his initials “SAS”. Well that was the rumor anyway, hehe
I frequent this theatre quite regularly, to me it’s amazing it’s still open and lasted this long, granted i’m glad it has..but these places are the last of their kind, I just hope they can pull in enough business to keep the doors open. It seems very few even know of the existance of this theater now-days and in some ways thats what i like about it. I have an attraction to old, forgotten, inexpensive, lonely and empty places, but there are so few left. The sheep can flock to their Groves and AMC’s and Arclight’s where yuppies cuddle their girlfriends and you get stuck in parking structures for 40min, not me.
I’m curious as to when it was converted into a 6-plex, what year was it? Guessing the 80’s sometime, it’s really interesting the changes and remodeling this theater has undergone over the years, going from a classic movie palace (in the 30’s) Then remodeled in (the 50’s? again) ultimately to a strange archaic multiplex design, as the first poster mentioned “divided up haphazardly, projection varying screen to screen” In some ways it gives the theater an odd characteristic, with it’s long hallways seemingly leading to secret chambers, quiet atmosphere and age-old atmosphere. I can see how it would attract the homeless to live in these forgotten spaces, a place to bury and hide themselves away from the harsh streets. It’s a fascinating place, and i hope it can somehow stick around, until the end of the world.
yea pretty soon cobwebs and tumbleweeds will be blowing thru westwood, i’d love to do a sequel to Omega Man and set it in Westwood, the Charlton Heston character sets up his secret living space inside the National
Instead of directing your anger at some trivial post, you should direct it at the fact that the Arclight doesn’t advertise what’s specifically playing in the Dome ! That would make much more sense, oh and at that silly assigned seating business!
who said that? it wasn’t me, what post are you referring to?
Btw, just about all the screens have excellent sound and good picture, and as a sound designer/mixer i can tell you the best equipped screens at this theatre have the best sound i’ve heard anywhere, at least since the old days at the Plitt in Century City with their Klipsch speaker system
One question I’d really like to know is…why doesn’t the Arclight advertise what’s playing specifically in the dome opposed to bunching all the show-times together? Now, as far as multiplexes go I like the arclight, and I can live with the fact the the old beloved cineramadome (with it’s more attractive marquee and sign display in the old days when the entrance was in the front, like the Chinese,..which naturally made more sense) became the pricey Arclight, that’s life. But the two things that really bother me are; the assigned seating, which just doesn’t work far as i’m concerned, they should have eliminated that long ago, and bunching the showtimes together with no idea what’s playing in what theater.
David Decoteau director of Puppet Master III and countless others? what the heck are you doing posting on the Vine Theater boards? Heh, yea i’ve thought of using this theatre as a location in one of my films as well
They opened Pirates of the Carribbean at the Regent so it wouldn’t even surprise me anymore.
i just can’t believe the Vine Theater is still open, i walked by there last week and they had posters & signs up, it’s like the last of the sleazy low-grade single house theaters. You can just imagine all the homeless who must sleep in there day & night, dropping bottles & rattling paper. But then i can’t believe the Academy in Pasadena is still open, they average maybe 2 people per showing, if that. How can they pay rent?
they just announced Indiana Jones is opening at the Regent in westwood and Vine theater on Hollywood blvd
ok ok, well 9 years then, i’ll give you that
well look at it this way, might be the 1st time in 20 years there’s actually a line outside the Avco, what a strange nostalgic sight. Not that I ever go by there anymore so i wouldn’t know.
In fact the only time I go into westwood these days (on a rare blue moon) is for a Falafel at Falafel King
it’s a bit off topic for recent posts but i just wanted to mention i think the new Indiana Jones film looks LOUSY
just think thats what that corner looked like in 1969 and before, minus a few modern surrounding bldgs and cars
alot of great memories at the Avco, and many hours spent waiting by the exit doors to sneak into Return of the Jedi for the 80th time (in 70mm) in the summer of ‘83. I was so obsessed with filmmaking and so full of enthusiasm in those days, every waking moment was spent sitting in a dark theater in the evening hours studying films and the latest SFX techniques. Occasionally that evil german manager would drive past the area and shout something out “hey get avay from there!”
Some of the fondest memories at this theater; the Star Wars trilogy re-release in 1985, waiting overnight with friends and a charged up crowd, and the Back to the Future trilogy showing in 1990.
I can remember the projectionist switching over from a 35mm print of the first film, to 70mm prints of part 2 & 3, the energetic audience immediately recognized the shift in presentation and howled in appreciation!
Those were the final days..the end of an era.
It’s over now, all we have are the memories, of more interesting times
yea wierd there’s a cross in that one shot—(a piece of hanging metal) like a last brief message from the otherworld, this was the theater where demons were exorcised, and people were fainting left and right. It is a SIGN..a final departing message from Father Merrin
i worked at the Regent for most of 1985, Breakfast Club, St Elmos Fire, Wierd Science, Pee Wee’s Adventure. Birdy, etc. It was total madness, chaos, constantly selling out, this was the peek of the hip Brat Pack era, and Westwood was at the center of it. Every girl was in love with Rob Lowe and Andrew McCarthey (and drove a VW Cabriolet), flat top haircuts, hair gel and trench coats were the ‘in’ thing. I was an outcast of the era, a rejected “film nerd” who only wanted to talk about Spielberg dolly shots and SFX techniques, so i missed out on all the club going fun.
i think it would be appropriate if some police station depot or govt office is erected in it’s place, be a suitable sign of the times,, replace freedom and creativity with punishment and fear!
soon they will erase our memories that these places ever existed, or that the 70’s itself ever existed. Soon all films from the 70’s will be destroyed banned and outlawed,..it will be a black hole in time, a ‘dead zone’ in memory
does anyone remember when a young manager named Mac Carter was manager of the National in ‘84? i often wonder what became of him.
strange all these pictures of the National never show the workers, it’s as if Gremlins were taking apart the place in the middle of the night
ahh the picwood, i remember seeing Dune, Lifeforce and Amadeus there in 70mm. For anyone who’s ever seen the DVD cover art for “Reflections of Evil” (2002) it shows as playing at the Picwood in 70mm (sometime in the early 70’s) as well.
Zodiac was the last film i saw there, i was always bothered by the fact that Fincher tried to pass that off as some theater in San Francisco, which anyone who knows SF knows is silly. He should’ve just had a scene where Jake Gyllenhaal is visiting L.A. (for some reason) and goes to see The Exorcist at the National, people are fainting in the isles, and maybe some woman vomits on Gyllenhaal at the same time Linda Blair is vomiting onscreen.
I wonder, was anyone at the very last show of the last film that ran there? (Feast of Love) I don’t think anyone knew
wonder what’s gonna happen to the big sign? Someone have a big truck and studio to claim it?
My friend Chad wanted me to post this for him, Chad worked at the National in ‘88-89 during Rick Pulsipher’s stay.
The Sad Demise of Westwood Village is a glaring example of WHAT EXACTLY HAS HAPPENED TO THIS COUNTRY SINCE THE LATE 1980’s. There is a vacant apathy and unchecked greed to contend with. People simply do not congregate for fun anymore. Isolated interests, locked in cars with windows up, talking on cellphones, passing by one or more indentikit corporate eatery for a quick bite, no time, no interest, things look too old there in Westwood.
Westwood has become a poorly envisioned and managed hodgepodge of stores and shops that have virtually NO CHARACTER and this is WHAT IS HAPPENING EVERYWHERE.
What is the point of going to a GRAND CINEMA in order to see a BLAND MOVIE?
Why not wait? Why not Rent? Why not NetFlix? Why not OWN IT TODAY ON DISNEY DVD?
Westwood used to be RollerSkating Playboy Bunnies, Warren Beatty’s Heaven Can Wait Billboard up on high for a year; Bookstores, Good Restaurants, Cheap and Easy Parking, Good Films, Good Music Shops stocked with NEW RELEASES THAT MATTERED and people could care about.
NO FEAR, NO PARANOIA, NO PARKING ENFORCEMENT DRONES, NO CELLPHONES.
The National and the Plaza and the Regent and the FourPlex and the Village and the Bruin.
All within WALKING DISTANCE….
so, the big question on everyone’s mind is…whats going up in it’s place?
Lets go way back to the early 80’s, does anyone remember Westwood had one of the very first video stores to open called “Video 2001”, nothing but Beta rentals.
Ah, and does anyone remember Jim Litta’s little store right next to the Village called “A Touch of Hollywood” with collectables & movie posters (circa 1984/85) And of course there was a time when the “Westworld” arcade was a thriving place with cool games..the Defender machines all dominated by my high scores (999.975) in permanent memory. And when the game Marble Madness came out, Spielberg (a known Marble Madness maniac, had a game of his own at his office in Amblin) had dominated the high scores with his initials “SAS”. Well that was the rumor anyway, hehe
I frequent this theatre quite regularly, to me it’s amazing it’s still open and lasted this long, granted i’m glad it has..but these places are the last of their kind, I just hope they can pull in enough business to keep the doors open. It seems very few even know of the existance of this theater now-days and in some ways thats what i like about it. I have an attraction to old, forgotten, inexpensive, lonely and empty places, but there are so few left. The sheep can flock to their Groves and AMC’s and Arclight’s where yuppies cuddle their girlfriends and you get stuck in parking structures for 40min, not me.
I’m curious as to when it was converted into a 6-plex, what year was it? Guessing the 80’s sometime, it’s really interesting the changes and remodeling this theater has undergone over the years, going from a classic movie palace (in the 30’s) Then remodeled in (the 50’s? again) ultimately to a strange archaic multiplex design, as the first poster mentioned “divided up haphazardly, projection varying screen to screen” In some ways it gives the theater an odd characteristic, with it’s long hallways seemingly leading to secret chambers, quiet atmosphere and age-old atmosphere. I can see how it would attract the homeless to live in these forgotten spaces, a place to bury and hide themselves away from the harsh streets. It’s a fascinating place, and i hope it can somehow stick around, until the end of the world.
yea pretty soon cobwebs and tumbleweeds will be blowing thru westwood, i’d love to do a sequel to Omega Man and set it in Westwood, the Charlton Heston character sets up his secret living space inside the National