End of an Era

Listening to: Wild One-The Best of Thin Lizzy.
Drinking: A slightly open too long chardonnay. "Chardon?" "Eh?". Old joke.

First some housekeeping. No computero over the weekendo. Henco, no bloggo. Like I'm the worlds most prolific blogger or something. I will try to make it less than a week before my next post.

The Hoyts Cinema at the South end of High street has finally called it a day. The Judge has more than adequately and very eloquently covered the subject here (linky), but I feel I can't let the passing of a Hutt institution pass without comment, so here we are.

I hate to see a cinema close. It seems strange to refer to it as an institution. It is certainly nothing to look at, inside or out. Generic urban mall architecture, bland and dated to the late 80's when it was designed, and an interior that could pass for any multiplex in the country.
With a place like this, it is the associated memories that make character, not the place itself.
The Hoyts 5 complex with five screens opened in 1992, replacing the single screen Odeon cinema that previously occupied the site. The old Odeon was pretty cool, but getting way past its prime (ironically if it was still extant I expect it would doing great business in the Lighthouse/Empire mould). The entrance to the cinema was in the middle, meaning that the best seats were right above the door, so you had no-one in front of you, could put your feet up, and drop jaffas down the staircase into the foyer. I don't remember the first movie I saw at the Odeon, but I remember the last was The Commitments in 1991.

The first movie I can definitely recall seeing in the new complex was Unforgiven in 1992. In the ensuing 15 or so years, I have probably sat down in one of its cinema seats at least 150 times (or more). Its heyday in the mid to late nineties coincided with my late teens and my own movie renaissance (is that the right word?). In those days I would see at least one movie a week, often two. Good or bad, I was prolific.

Any night of the week would do. Thursdays for the new releases, Fridays and Saturdays for the night out, Sunday nights after church with the youth group cohorts.

No visit would be complete without hitting the attached video arcade beforehand. I got very, very good at Daytona and Sega Rally. Slushy coke and popcorn were also mandatory accessories.

Occasionally Mcdonalds would be smuggled in (avoiding the 'No Hot Food' dictum by being neither hot nor food we reasoned). I remember a hip flask of Khalua being passed up and down the row during a screening of The Three Musketeers, and booking out a couple of rows for the opening night of Independence Day. Going to countless free movies with D3vo, due to his obtaining some super duper pass from somewhere. Saw lots of good stuff for free, saw a lot of rubbish too. Example: Walking out of Timecop, agreeing with each other that it sucked, we checked the board and walked right back in to a late session of Dragon:The Bruce Lee story, which didn't. Going to see The Crow twice in the space of a week, the first time on the night my first girlfriend and I broke up, and the second to exorcise the first so I could get on with enjoying the film. Having a ticket to The Nutty Professor bought for me after I flatly refused to pay to see such tripe. Many good memories.

I remember well the session of Starship Troopers Judge mentions. We were the only ones laughing, and got lots of strange looks from the audience. I also remember going to Last Action Hero with D3vo and also being the only ones laughing.

I miss the late sessions. You could avoid the crowd, and it gave you a really good late night option if whatever else you had planned didn't work out. Plus it was cool having the security guard open the front door for you on the way out.

By the turn of the century though (wow does it feel weird writing that), the good times were slowing, and by halfway through the new decade, they were gone. The shops in the surrounding arcade, never bustling, got even quieter. I always got the feeling the complex was under invested. The decor was alright for 1993, but wasn't updated. Everything got run down, and dare I say it, a little shabby.

When the Skycity complex opened in the refurbished Queensgate Mall in 2006, the axe was being sharpened, if not actually swinging. At the risk of pretension, I'll admit that as soon as I heard about the new mall complex, I said something like "That'll kill Hoyts stone dead".

And so it has come to pass. Rundown and neglected, in feel if not in fact, Hoyts 5 never stood a chance once the shiny newcomer opened up.

And so, while you were ugly and utilitarian, and never cool like hipsters The Paramount, Rialto and Embassy, and unmemorable and uninspiring in your decor and ambience, you were reliable, predictable, and always there if necessary, and because of this I salute you.

The last movies on the marquee: Jumper, Walk Hard, I am Legend, Cloverfield, P.S. I love you, 27 Dresses, Rogue Assassin.