movies suck, so theater closes

HOOPESTON, Ill. -- The "closed" sign went up a few weeks ago on the flashy neon marquee outside the Lorraine Theatre, but the 84-year-old movie palace on Main Street hasn't played its last picture show. Business isn't bad. It's the movies that are wretched.

"Both theaters in Hoopeston are closed ... because of such poor film choices available," explains a recording on the Lorraine's customer hot line. "Go to Danville to see `Jackass 2.'"

Car dealers wouldn't tell buyers to take a hike until better models came out. No chef worth his ladle would shoo paying diners off to the competition because his kitchen is in a slump. Yet that's essentially what Lorraine owner Greg Boardman did this month.

He put his two screens here on hiatus rather than sell tickets to the gross-out and freak-out fare he said Hollywood distributors have made available in recent weeks. Boardman said he'd rather show nothing than such recent offerings as "Beerfest," "The Covenant" or the "Jackass" sequel

[...]

The protest ends Friday when the Lorraine resumes operation with the new animated kids movie "Open Season" as well as Disney's recently released football movie, "Invincible." Boardman has several first-run features lined up in coming weeks, but he intends to shut down again if the quality of available films goes soft.

This isn't some crusade launched by a G-rated prude. The Lorraine has featured its share of "R" fare, from "Brokeback Mountain" to "Miami Vice."

[link|http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0609290165sep29,1,7749314.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true|source]

Well, it's pretty hard to argue with the owner...

Post #268,940 by lincoln 9/29/06 2:58:26 PM Reply	movies suck, so theater closes HOOPESTON, Ill. -- The "closed" sign went up a few weeks ago on the flashy neon marquee outside the Lorraine Theatre, but the 84-year-old movie palace on Main Street hasn't played its last picture show. Business isn't bad. It's the movies that are wretched. "Both theaters in Hoopeston are closed ... because of such poor film choices available," explains a recording on the Lorraine's customer hot line. "Go to Danville to see `Jackass 2.'" Car dealers wouldn't tell buyers to take a hike until better models came out. No chef worth his ladle would shoo paying diners off to the competition because his kitchen is in a slump. Yet that's essentially what Lorraine owner Greg Boardman did this month. He put his two screens here on hiatus rather than sell tickets to the gross-out and freak-out fare he said Hollywood distributors have made available in recent weeks. Boardman said he'd rather show nothing than such recent offerings as "Beerfest," "The Covenant" or the "Jackass" sequel [...] The protest ends Friday when the Lorraine resumes operation with the new animated kids movie "Open Season" as well as Disney's recently released football movie, "Invincible." Boardman has several first-run features lined up in coming weeks, but he intends to shut down again if the quality of available films goes soft. This isn't some crusade launched by a G-rated prude. The Lorraine has featured its share of "R" fare, from "Brokeback Mountain" to "Miami Vice." [link\|http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0609290165sep29,1,7749314.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true\|source] Well, it's pretty hard to argue with the owner... lincoln "Chicago to my mind was the only place to be. ... I above all liked the city because it was filled with people all a-bustle, and the clatter of hooves and carriages, and with delivery wagons and drays and peddlers and the boom and clank of freight trains. And when those black clouds came sailing in from the west, pouring thunderstorms upon us so that you couldn't hear the cries or curses of humankind, I liked that best of all. Chicago could stand up to the worst God had to offer. I understood why it was built--a place for trade, of course, with railroads and ships and so on, but mostly to give all of us a magnitude of defiance that is not provided by one house on the plains. And the plains is where those storms come from." -- E.L. Doctorow Never apply a Star Trek solution to a Babylon 5 problem. I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a *Citizen* of the United States. [link\|mailto:bconnors@ev1.net\|contact me]
Post #268,944 by Ashton 9/29/06 3:17:31 PM Reply	Integrity.. endangered but not quite extinct. Maybe by '09?
Post #268,949 by inthane-chan 9/29/06 4:41:38 PM Reply	From the reviews, Open Season should close him again.
Post #268,951 by tuberculosis 9/29/06 5:11:59 PM Reply	There's plenty of good stuff to show The [link\|http://www.lynwoodtheatre.com/\|Lynwood Theatre] in our area provides a steady diet of smaller indy films as well as monthly screenings of classics. When the Aviator was out, they showed a restored cut of Hell's Angels. Check out the recent [link\|http://www.lynwoodtheatre.com/past.html\|past films]. Bonus: The manager personally introduces each film with interesting stories around the making of it. [link\|http://www.blackbagops.net\|Black Bag Operations Log] [link\|http://www.objectiveclips.com\|Artificial Intelligence] [link\|http://www.badpage.info/seaside/html\|Scrutinizer]

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