The Ryerson classrooms AMC at Yonge/Dundas finally opened this week, after being under construction for what seems like 10 years. It’s been a long wait, further inconvenienced by the fact that the alternatives to movie theatres “downtown” are a walk to the ones up at Bloor, or the Paramount Scotiabank Theatre. So while it’s a convenient (and profitable) idea to open a new theatre in the heart of Toronto downtown, it’s too bad that 1) I don’t frequent movie theatres anymore, and 2) AMC prices are a hella ripoff ($13).
The new theatre (and the Toronto Life Square in general) is built like other malls in the centre of Metropolitan areas, i.e., unlike Eaton Centre, it goes straight up. I think we went up 6 flights of escalators to reach our theatre, which is very annoying and slow. Aside from that, it’s nothing special — looks like your average AMC (and by that I mean Kennedy Commons). They do have digital projectors, and the image does look better, although it could be because I haven’t seen a movie in so long. The only other bonus is that there’s free small popcorn this week!
We went to see 21, a movie based on the story of a card counting group from MIT. There was a book written about them, which I had wanted to read eventually, so I was fairly interested in the concept. The problem with this movie is that because I am so used to blockbuster Las Vegas movies (Ocean’s series), that the lack of over-the-top glamour makes the movie seem improbable (although I understand it’s telling the story of the MIT students, rather than selling the virtues of Las Vegas). The second problem I had was that as the movie went progressed, it became fairly obvious that the story is “based on” since the scenarios couldn’t have existed without a huge exposé of arrests (i.e., Cole Williams).
Aside from that, it was a reasonable good movie. Kevin Spacey excels at playing the role of the evil emotionless criminal mastermind, and it was amusing to see actors act out a person who is acting another role. I’d give the movie three out of 5 stars, but read the book instead if you can.
Hi! and welcome to the eclectic personal blog of Kevin Quan. Come in, stay awhile, peek into the nooks & crannies, and learn a bit about me and my interests.