Feeding the Addiction

Oh no! I was hanging out at West Edmonton Mall today, and I made the shocking discovery that they closed the loonie theatre!

I don't know why I keep calling it the loonie theatre...they haven't charged $1 to get in in at least 10 years...maybe more. Hell, I even remember when it wasn't the dollar theatre, but a regular theater! I saw many classic films there...Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Back to the Future Part III, Batman Forever, Kill Bill vol. 1, Hulk, Independence Day...so many great films! And it's gone now.

West Edmonton Mall used to boast three movie theatres...now it's down to just one.

When the first one closed down, I often dreamed of turning it into an art house theatre. Would an art house work in a mall? Would the same crowds taking a break from Christmas shopping to catch the latest winter blockbuster also take a chance on the latest foreign films and indie fare? I don't know.

However, the main purpose of today's trip to the city was to get THE GREATEST MOVIE OF THE SUMMER ON DVD: Speed Racer. I cannot rave about this film enough. It's a whole lot of fun and really really...just amazing. Check it out.

That was all I wanted to buy, but then I went by HMV and I couldn't help but go poking around in the discount bins.

There are some DVDs, when you stumble across them, you can't help but pick them up for their obscurity. That happened today when I bought the DVD for Fires of Kuwait. You might remember the tale: at the end of of Operation: Desert Storm, the retreating Iraqis blew up a bunch of Kuwaiti oil wells, leading to a series of massive and devastating oil well fires. This led to a massive multinational effort of firefighters to put out the flames. Fires of Kuwait is an Oscar-nominated IMAX documentary about that multinational effort.

You might be going, "Wha? An IMAX documentary on DVD?" Yup. They released a bunch of them to DVD in the late 90s/early 00s to help get the new DVD format. So, when I saw Fires of Kuwait in the discount bin for $10, I said, "Why not?"

And then, also in the discount bin, for just $6, was The Mask. Still probably my favourite Jim Carrey film. It was just his second film, he was still hungry with something to prove. Plus, there are three magic words in the opening credits: "Introducing Cameron Diaz." Yup, it's officially her first film. As the legend goes, she was a model looking to break into acting, she auditioned for a minor supporting role, but the director was so blown away by her talent he offered her the female lead. But it's a cool movie, and i"ll be watching it real soon.

I'm trying to cut down on my DVD purchasing because I'm still trying to work my way through Star Trek: The Next Generation -- Season 7. That, and, I'm trying to get outside and play more before the snow comes.

And speaking of the snow coming, let me leave you with this frightening scene: Zeller's is already selling Christmas trees.