We finally got to watch Constantine last night. Being a big comics fan, Gabriel almost always watches movies adapted from comics. He has dragged me to Spiderman, X-men, Daredevil and recently, Elecktra. Elecktra was a big disappointment with heaps of plot holes and not too much good acting so I was expecting more of the same with Constantine.
Fortunately, although Constantine is not really an innovative movie, it is at least entertaining. The story wasn’t overly complex nor innovative at least it’s not shot full of holes. The acting is acceptable (although Keanu Reeves has this mostly wooden expression all throughout the movie) with Rachel Weisz and Tilda Swanson (as Gabriel) giving good performances.
Now, we normally watch movies during weekends. It’s convenient for us since we normally hang out at the mall till about closing time (5pm) and then take in a movie afterwards. Then it’s off to dinner and grocery-shopping before going home. Unfortunately, movie ticket prices at full price costs about $14-$16 apiece except on Tuesdays. On Tuesdays, ticket prices for any movie at any show time are discounted. The prices on Tuesday showings used to be $9.50, discounted but not at all cheap. Recently though, movie theatres announced that Tuesday tickets would be sold at $5. Now that’s cheap! Which was why we rushed to the Jam Factory‘s Village cinema last night to watch Constantine.
People from all walks of life queuing to take advantage of $5 movie tickets
Going to the cinema straight after work reminded me of the times when we were still in the Philippines. We’d usually go to Glorietta to take in a movie after work, having dinner beforehand or munching on a burger while watching movie. Dubbed the cheapest form of entertainment (aside from television I suppose), movie watching has been and still is a national past-time there. I remember when I was still attending university, my friends and I would usually find our way to a movie house between classes. There was this one time when we did a (sort of) movie marathon, watching Father of the Bride and Silence of the Lambs with only 10 minutes between showings.
I’ve also been to a lot of good movies I won’t normally watch or was not even aware of simply because I’ve already seen all the other ones being shown at that time. Bini-binggo kumbaga. Failing that, we could also shell out money to watch a movie for the 2nd, 3rd or for others, even a 4th time if the movie is particularly good or because they’d be watching the same movie with different sets of friends. Or if you don’t have anything better to do, you could just stay in the cinema after one session in order to watch the next one. Unlike the way theatres are run abroad, cinemas in the Philippines are only cleaned at the end of the day, not after every show. Which is why, there won’t be anybody hassling you out of the cinema after a session – there would only be an intermission where music is played and the lights are up and if you don’t mind the wait, you could stay in your seat to wait for the next show. Heck, you could even get into the theatre in the middle of the show, watch it till the end and watch the other half in the next session!
Not that that system is a particularly good one. Aside for the fact that ticket prices are cheaper there, I think I prefer the way it’s done here with clean theatres and minimal interruptions during the show. Hooray for $5 Tuesday flicks!
