Change Your Image
Immy
This is a collection of the stats, stories and memories of my visits to the movie theaters of Las Vegas lo these past 30+ years. First up - Me!
I'm pretty much a solitary moviegoer and I like it that way just fine. My decisions to go are usually made at the last minute so it's tough keeping up with me. I go to matinees mostly but do take in an evening show now and then. And since I clock the running time, I always stay thru the end credits. I'll go see just about anything, no genre is off-limits. Only a film seen in a theater qualifies as part of my vote history.
ALL-TIME, IN-THEATER STATS
Films: 1,122 (thru Apr 14th 2023)
Most in one year: 65 (1992)
First film ever: The Phantom Tollbooth (1970)
First in Las Vegas: RoboCop (7/24/87)
Most repeat viewings: Rain Man (12 times)
Longest (re-release): Gone with the Wind (1939) 234 mins.
Longest (orig release): Malcolm X (1992) 202 mins.
Shortest: The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) 76 mins.
Oldest: Dracula (1931) (10/25/15)
All years 1950-2023 represented except: '51, '66 & '69
The best and worst I've seen from 1987-2023, in alphabetical order:
10/10
Australia (2008)
Avatar (2009)
Beauty & the Beast (1991)
Braveheart (1995)
Charlie Wilson's War (2007)
Charlie's Angels (2000)
Cold Mountain (2003)
Crash (2004)
Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007)
Evita (1996)
Finding Neverland (2004)
A Fish Called Wanda (1988)
Gangs of New York (2002)
Green Book (2018)
Groundhog Day (1993)
Hairspray (2007)
The Joy Luck Club (1993)
Love Actually (2003)
Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991)
My Best Friend's Wedding (1997)
Only the Lonely (1991)
Parasite (2019)
Pretty Woman (1990)
Pride & Prejudice (2005)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
The Queen (2006)
Rain Man (1988)
Rogue One (2016)
Run Lola Run (1998)
Schindler's List (1993)
Shakespeare in Love (1998)
Sister Act (1992)
The Sixth Sense (1999)
Skyfall (2012)
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002)
The Terminal (2004)
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
Titanic (1997)
When Harry Met Sally... (1989)
1/10
3000 Miles to Graceland (2001)
Battlefield Earth (2000)
Dr. Giggles (1992)
The Flintstones (1994)
Hardware (1990)
Men in Black (1997)
Point Break (1991)
Purgatory (1988)
RoboCop 2 (1990)
Sliver (1993)
Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997)
IT'S HOW MUCH NOW??
A sad fact of moviegoing is rising prices. Here's a retrospective on roughly when prices crossed new thresholds for an evening show in Vegas (not counting the extra fees for 3D films):
$6.00 - 6/8/89 (Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade)
$7.00 - 11/29/97 (Alien: Resurrection)
$8.00 - 5/5/00 (Gladiator)
$9.00 - 8/6/04 (Collateral)
$10.00 - 12/1/07 (No Country for Old Men)
$11.00 - 7/23/11 (Friends with Benefits)
BEST PICTURES
Of the 95, I've seen 51 on the big screen. Here's my rating for each (seen in original year of release unless otherwise noted):
1934 - It Happened One Night 10/10 (8/23/17)
1939 - Gone With the Wind 10/10 (10/1/14)
1942 - Casablanca 10/10 (4/3/13)
1950 - All About Eve 10/10 (1/21/15)
1953 - From Here to Eternity 7/10 (12/14/16)
1954 - On the Waterfront 9/10 (2/23/14)
1958 - Gigi 6/10 (3/29/15)
1959 - Ben-Hur 10/10 (5/4/14)
1961 - West Side Story 7/10 (3/13/13)
1962 - Lawrence of Arabia 9/10 (3/20/13)
1964 - My Fair Lady 8/10 (11/1/15)
1965 - The Sound of Music 10/10 (Spring 1985 and 4/19/15)
1967 - In the Heat of the Night 8/10 (10/16/22)
1970 - Patton 9/10 (11/11/18)
1971 - The French Connection 7/10 (9/1/13)
1972 - The Godfather 10/10 (4/10/13)
1973 - The Sting 10/10 (11/14/12)
1974 - The Godfather Part II 9/10 (6/22/14)
1975 - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest 10/10 (11/9/14)
1976 - Rocky 7/10 (1/9/13)
1984 - Amadeus 9/10 (3/26/85, pre-Vegas)
1988 - Rain Man 10/10
1990 - Dances With Wolves 9/10
1991 - The Silence of the Lambs 8/10
1992 - Unforgiven 5/10
1993 - Schindler's List 10/10 (6/26/13)
1994 - Forrest Gump 9/10 (2/24/19)
1995 - Braveheart 10/10
1997 - Titanic 10/10
1998 - Shakespeare in Love 10/10
1999 - American Beauty 9/10
2000 - Gladiator 5/10
2001 - A Beautiful Mind 6/10
2002 - Chicago 8/10
2003 - LOTR: TROTK 6/10
2004 - Million Dollar Baby 7/10
2005 - Crash 10/10
2006 - The Departed 5/10
2007 - No Country for Old Men 8/10
2008 - Slumdog Millionaire 9/10
2012 - Argo 9/10
2013 - 12 Years a Slave 9/10
2014 - Birdman 4/10
2015 - Spotlight 9/10
2016 - Moonlight 6/10
2017 - The Shape of Water 7/10
2018 - Green Book 10/10
2019 - Parasite 10/10
2020 - Nomadland 7/10
2021 - CODA 9/10
2022 - Everything Everywhere All at Once 7/10
STANLEY KUBRICK
1960 - Spartacus (5/18/14)
1964 - Dr. Strangelove (9/21/14, 9/18/16)
1968 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1/2/13, 4/3/16)
1971 - A Clockwork Orange (10/11/91, 3/11/09)
1980 - The Shining (10/27/13, 10/23/16 [op cred only])
1987 - Full Metal Jacket (5/24/15)
1999 - Eyes Wide Shut (7/16/99)
ALFRED HITCHCOCK
1954 - Rear Window (3/2/14)
1955 - To Catch a Thief (2/10/16)
1960 - Psycho (4/29/09, 9/20/15)
1963 - The Birds (9/19/12)
GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
A few Vegas theaters no longer exist. Here's the last film I saw in each:
The Parkway (On Maryland Pkwy. near the Boulevard Mall) (The Piano, 12/28/93)
Redrock 11 (On Charleston just west of Decatur) (Crimson Tide, 5/18/95)
Century Desert (On Lamb, the site of the old Desert Drive-In) (Black and White, 4/11/00)
Gold Coast (In the Gold Coast Casino, the first Vegas theater inside a casino) (The Straight Story, 12/18/00)
Neonopolis (Fremont Street, the only theater in the downtown area) (Knowing, 3/24/09)
MEMORABLE MOMENTS
- Going to see Adventureland on 4/4/09 was a milestone accomplishment in theater visits. I have now been to the movies on every date of the year, January 1st thru December 31st. Whew!
- Seeing myself for the first time ever on the big screen in Casino (1995) in a bit part as a police detective.
- Attending a sneak preview of Terminator 2 (1991) that turned into a six-hour ordeal because the print hadn't arrived. When it finally did, it kept breaking down. It was still worth it.
- Going to Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) and finding the theater hired security to deal with rowdy crowds. During the show, a guy got up and yelled "Think for yourself, people!" and walked out, just before someone hurled a drink in his direction.
- Seeing The Passion of the Christ (2005), the last time my Dad and I went to a movie together. RIP Dad.
- Seeing Casablanca (1942) in 2013, the last time my Mom and I went to a movie together. RIP Mom.
- Seeing Bono among the crowd coming out of a screening of Dracula (1992).
- Laughing so much at one scene in There's Something About Mary (1998) that I missed around five minutes of subsequent dialogue.
- Crying so much at the end of The Joy Luck Club (1993) that I couldn't read the subtitles.
- In 1999, after 12 long years, finally seeing my first Stanley Kubrick premiere, Eyes Wide Shut.
- In 1999, after 16 long years, finally seeing a new Star Wars movie. I went to a 1:30AM show, the only one that wasn't sold out!
- At An American Carol (2008) I was, for the very first time, the only person in the theater, a feat I wouldn't repeat until The Disappointments Room in 2016.
- Waiting for a movie to start and noticing a woman in the audience breast-feeding her baby. Is that considered bringing in outside food?
- On 9/29/12 I went to see Looper, a time travel drama where the main character meets his younger self. For the first time ever, the person who sold me the ticket gave me the senior discount (for people 60 and older) and didn't ask my age. I was 47 at the time.
- Moonlight (on 1/16/17) becomes the 1,000th film I've seen in a theater.
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
3000 Miles to Graceland (2001)
What a vile, nasty film!
Where to begin... "3KMTG" is without a doubt one of the most disturbingly awful exercises in recent memory. Not crafted badly, or filmed poorly (there is some distinct promise in director Damien Lichtenstein's visuals) but it contains not a single (not ONE!) likeable character; it is obcenely and unnecessarily profane; it is cringingly ultra-violent; it's the most misogynistic film in recent years; and the capper -- most of this takes place in front of a child! It boggles my mind when I think that talented people invested their time in this! What drew them to this material?! It's also sad that Elvis's image has to be associated with this dreck.
When various factions call Hollywood to task regarding violence, negative family portrayal, tobacco use (Costner is constantly puffing, even during a car chase), and inappropriate use of children in film, they need look no further. This will become the standard.
The Sixth Sense (1999)
The Buzz Flick of 1999
Every year there's a movie that comes out of nowhere and wows the film community (in 1998 it was "There's Something About Mary"). The refreshing thing about this year's sleeper smash "The Sixth Sense" is that all the
praise is for THE STORY. This more than anything proves that an intelligent, thought-provoking screenplay can pack 'em in just as well as car crashes, spaceships and semen jokes. I haven't been this blindsided by a plot twist since "The Crying Game." A second viewing creates an almost entirely different film. Superb!
La Bohème (1926)
An emotional powerhouse
It's difficult to imagine what going to the movies was like during the Silent Era. With no soundtracks, and a person in the theater simply accompanying the on-screen action on piano, dramas of the day must have suffered somewhat. But not 'La Boheme'.
As this wonderfully engaging tale of struggling actors and writers in France unfolds, it has a quality to its story telling that would have diminished had it been a talkie. Once you see the frail and beautiful (and quite haunting) Lillian Gish in her key scenes, you will never forget her.
Grab a few hankies and enjoy this singular silent screen treat!
Point Break (1991)
Two words:
Headache-inducing!
Wild at Heart (1990)
David Lynch's last hurrah?
Ah, I remember fondly the days when searching for the quirky and bizarre in film meant looking no further than the latest David Lynch offering. 'Wild at Heart' represents the last time he got it right.
Brimming with offbeat characters and attitude to spare, come along on Nick Cage and Laura Dern's redneck odyssey on the lam. Could this have been some of the inspiration for Oliver Stone's 'Natural Born Killers'?
What Dreams May Come (1998)
A feast for the eyes, a let down for the ears
Anyone who frequents the little dark rooms we call the cinema in the last 20 or so years has seen a Renaissance in special effects, and 'WDMC' is the latest to "show us something we haven't seen before". The frustrating aspect of this trend (are you listening Dean Devlin?) is a tendency to concentrate too much on the visuals.
This is an ambitious film. Much is said regarding many abstract topics (love, tragedy, loss, the afterlife, etc.) and a great effort was made to effectively bring these images to realization. Make no mistake, this movie looks great!
The only area I felt lacked substance was the script. When a film puts forth such daring eye-candy, I want something to wash it down with. What I got was touchy- feely, new age platitudes like "Close your eyes and make it happen" (wasn't that from "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory"?)
A great attempt to bring visualization to honest emotions falls short of its goal.
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989)
Don't watch this during dinner!
It's hard to imagine people could behave as the characters do in this film. It's also hard to believe that the grim and tasteless images depicted throughout it could be anything but sickening and off-putting.
Well, surprise!
Only Peter Greenaway could combine such extreme visions and come away with an art-house hit that has no equal, even among his previous and subsequent efforts.
Be warned, there are some harsh elements to digest, but if you're game and can hang on till the end, it's quite a ride! I dare you to watch it just once!
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
A surreal journey into a nightmarish future
Undoubtedly one of the best films of the 70's. Set in the closer-than-you-think future "Clockwork" tells the brooding and sometimes brutal story of Alex (a tour- de-force by Malcolm McDowell) the ring leader of a group of thugs who think nothing of wreaking havoc for the sheer heck of it. The story takes a drastic turn when Alex is set up by his cohorts to take the rap for what would have been their biggest haul. Once incarcerated, he submits to an experimental form of rehabilitation that changes his behavior to that of a model citizen--or does it? Transcending conventional sci-fi, "ACO" comes off more as a commentary on the slow decay of "civilized" society (the moral subtexts are too numerous to mention), with many unforgettable images. To fully appreciate the film's message, you should watch it more than once, if only to comprehend the futuristic lingo of Alex and hs "droogs." Add a wonderful score featuring the likes of Beethoven and and you get a classic film in more ways than one.
Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
A & C at their best
Perhaps the best attempt to combine horror and comedy, A & C are at their peak batt- ling the likes of Dracula, The Werewolf and the Frankenstein monster. Once again our boys are toiling at a menial job (a baggage claim in the Florida Keys) when two rather large boxes arrive from London, the contents of which prove to be anything but normal cargo.
Lou is convinced he's seeing monsters (egged on by Lon Chaney Jr., dead-on once again playing perhaps his signature role) Bud of course thinks they're crazy. Bela Lugosi is simply wonderful mostly because the story allows him to tweak his legendary character while never losing any chill.
The ending is classic, if only for its unique and deftly constructed blend of scares and laughs. A must see.
My Best Friend's Wedding (1997)
Julia's back, and in fine form
Anyone harboring notions that Julia Roberts is treading familiar ground with "MBFW" will be pleasantly surprised. Unlike past projects that had her as the centerpiece of semi-engrossing plots involving vaguely-sketched characters, this time we are afforded a smart, well defined story (helped along by award winning screenwriter Ronald Bass, who also worked on the Julia pic "Sleeping With The Enemy") and three-dimensional supporting players. One wonders how many times the Romantic Comedy format can be explored successfully. This film proves that with enough diverting plot elements, and a few laughs and songs thrown in for good measure, sometimes formula can be anything but formulaic.