Showcase Cinemas Dedham

danpetitpas on September 7, 2009 at 11:25 pm

I went to the new Showcase Cinema de Lux at Legacy Place this weekend and I was very disappointed. After avoiding the Dedham Showcase ever since the Randolph Showcase opened up 11 years ago, I thought I would finally have a state-of-the-art theater a little more than a mile away from where I live.

I went to see Inglorious Basterds in Auditorium 6, and since this was the first film of the day, theaters 1-7 on the left side of the lobby were all empty and wide open. So I took a look.

Auditoriums 1-6 are small viewing rooms, having between 98 and 180 seats. Only auditorium 7 is on the large size with 420 seats.

The layouts are basically the same. The theaters have between 3 and 7 rows of seats on the flat (not sloping) floor in front of the screens. Auditorium seating starts about halfway back of the room. The rooms are narrow, so the screens are small, and like the old Dedham Showcase, there is a short black curtain that lowers from the top of the screen for Panavision films. So widescreen movies actually take up less space on the screen than non-widescreen movies. From the second row of auditorium seating in a 180-seat theater, I saw more of the theater than the movie image.

The cheap seats (non-Lux Level) are narrow and have the shortest armrests I’ve ever seen in a new theater. My forearms rested on the cup holder, and I actually had red circles pressed into my arms when I left.

I thought it was interesting that the video ads shown before the movie had the top and bottom of their images cut off by the screen masking as the picture was blown up to fill the screen from side-to-side, rather than shrinking the image to fit the widescreen ratio from top-to-bottom. I suspect the ads would have looked really small if they were projected properly.

The sound was OK, but nothing special.

The Cinema de Lux concept is set up to sell food and drink rather than show movies, and that’s evident. There’s a lounge right off the lobby, and the Lux Level is upstairs and away from the riff-raff.

Another interesting detail is the names of the movies are nowhere to be seen anywhere near the auditoriums, and the number of the theater is not displayed at the ticket booth, so you don’t know which movie is playing in which theater until you buy a ticket. I guess they’re trying to keep you from seeing another movie for free.

So all in all, I was extremely disappointed. The theater reminded me more of a fancier Copley Place with its viewing rooms squeezed into retail space, rather than the flagship cinema of National Amusements. I want big screens and big sound with auditorium seating, not small rooms with small screens. Unless the other side of the theater is different, I’m afraid I’m going to have to continue trekking out to Randolph.

rsalters (Ron Salters) on September 8, 2009 at 10:49 am

My vote is for a new seperate Page, because it is a new building and is probably not on the exact footprint of the demolished cinema. And the new name is slightly different. Otherwise, there will be a situation like that of the Beacon Theater in downtown Boston where one Cinema Treasures page covers 2 different theaters, both with the same name, and both on the same approximate site.

danpetitpas on September 8, 2009 at 7:12 pm

I’ll come up with the page. I’m doing research on it now.

Ron Newman on September 11, 2009 at 9:53 am

The Cinema de Lux Legacy Place page is now up. Dan, would you like to repeat your long ‘review’ comment over there?

50sSNIPES on September 17, 2024 at 2:13 pm

Opened on November 23, 1973 as the Showcase Cinemas 1-2-3. A fourth screen was added in 1977, followed by a fifth screen in 1978, and three more in 1979 bringing a total to eight. Two more were added in 1984 bringing a total to ten, and the final two screens were added in 1991 bringing the grand total to twelve screens.