Mamaroneck Playhouse 4

Mamaroneck Playhouse 4
Originally uploaded by badblueboy.

I made a stop by my old neighborhood over the weekend. One of my stops during that time was to the old Mamaroneck Playhouse 4, over on Mamaroneck ave. This place has a lot of memories as it was the place of my first job, that was not family owned. I remember I was only 16 at the time, and I wasn't sure if they'd hire me being so young. I worked there until I graduated highschool and went off to college.

The place has a lot of history of it's own, even before I made it there. Before it was a movie theater, it was a literal playhouse, with stages and dressing rooms and no big silver screen. Once it was converted the rooms in the back went mostly unused and my friends and I used to wander around there, scaring the crap out of each other. It would be a great place for a scray movie. Now the managers at the time were pretty fucked up individuals themselves, but we sure had a lot of fun.

On hot summer days, we'd get a keg and go hang out in the back rooms getting drunk and throwing on boxing gloves then beating the shit out each other. One night a whole bunch of us got drunk and threw on boxing gloves, then a big fat mexican guy and me beat the crap out of each other. At the tender age of 16 I learned 2 things.
1.Mexicans love the sport of boxing only second to their love of soccer.
2.I fight much better when I'm not drunk.

These are 2 lessons that have served me well throughout the rest of my life.

Now that was litereally half a lifetime ago, and what brought me back to the theater was it's bargain prices. A regular movie at night is $7 a ticket! That's like 1990 prices! So 2 tickets here is only a little more expensive then 1 in Manhattan. A matinee, which they define as a showing before 6pm (no one does that anymore, at best, it's the first showing of the day) costs a rock-bottom price of $4.50.

As I walk in, I see the theater has barely changed, other then the staff and some new posters, it's nearly the same as it was 15 years ago. My buddy, who's known me since elementary school chuckles, then reminds me of the time I had to dress up like a cowboy during the "Back to the Future III" promotion. Somehow, my subconcious has blocked that painfull memory from me. I do however remember sneaking in friends to see Batman, Home Alone, Total Recall, among other movies back then.

The movie that we decided to see? "The Transporter 2". What a piece of crap you say? Ok, well, lets call a spade a spade. This movie isn't going to win any Oscars anytime soon, but you know what, if you go into thinking you are ready for some mindless, hookey, really ridiculous action, then you're going to love it. Now let me warn you, there is some pretty fucking really retarded stuff in this movie and a real lack of T&A, unless you count that skanky ematiated stripper/assassin. It seems as if Jakie Chans choreagrapher has lent his expertise here, but one main differance is that Chan and even Jet Li really go out of there way to show you their moves, so you can pratically feel it. In Jason Strathams fight scenes, it's so fast and so chopped up, you really don't see anything. It's reminiscient of Matt Damon's fight scenes in his "Jason Bourne" movies, but not as good. One other complaint, they go through great lengths to display the fighting prowess of the badguy. I mean he has the classic rich guy beats up on the gang of hired henchman who wait patiently in a circle while he preforms martial arts moves on one after the other (also used by bad guys in "The Karate Kid", "Rapid Fire", "The Octagon", "Enter the Dragon" among others). After showing what a badass he is, you can't wait until the final show down, which in this movie was a bit of a disappointment... Anyway, good car scenes (great car), decent fighting and a really lame-o story line. It's still a good time, just keep saying to yourself "it's only a movie, it's only a movie!"