The Cheap Seats

I know I've written before about the Logan Theater, the last remaining second-run movie house in Chicago. (That is, unless you count the Brew & View at the Vic Theater, which shows second-run and revival movies part of the week, but it's usually used as a music venue these days--I saw Ladytron there with Melissa in June--so the Logan is still the only second-run theater in Chicago that shows only movies.) It opened in 1915, and like so many other older cinemas was split into four smaller screens back in the 1980s.

Unlike most of those other older cinemas, though, the Logan survives.

It doesn't have much in the way of modern amenities. It doesn't have stadium seating. There are no flavored toppings to sprinkle on your popcorn. The snack selection is limited. The men's bathroom has urinals that run all the way to the floor, the doors on the stalls don't close quite right and the ventilation fan is loud. The lobby and screen rooms are not exactly opulent. The huge neon sign pictured above (and, for that matter, below) hasn't been lit in years, and the seats have the magical ability to make my ass fall asleep within the first half hour, no matter what position I contort my body into.

However, the Logan has its pluses as well. It's clean--the lobby, screen rooms and bathroom all seem well maintained. The staff is friendly and polite. It's easy to get to by public transportation--the Blue Line subway has a stop half a block from the Logan, two bus lines run right by it and two more are a short walk away. And admission? Only three bucks. You could buy a medium popcorn and a bottle of Cherry Coke and still pay less than the ticket price alone at any of the downtown multiplexes.

Yesterday, I was in the mood for a long walk, so I started south from La Casa del Terror and made it to the Logan just before showtime--no previews here, kids, so your soon-to-be-aching ass better be in that seat as soon as the projector starts spinning. As it happened, the movie I was there to see, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (don't look at me like that--I liked the first one and hoped this would be an improvement over the second), was playing on the fourth screen, which isn't at an odd angle at all (unlike the third screen, where I saw 3:10 to Yuma last year, which tilts to the left) and is actually a nice little room to see a movie in. Add a clean print of the film (sometimes movies that have been out only a few weeks look scratched, torn and generally worn) and a reasonably decent crowd for a sunny Sunday afternoon, and I wound up with an enjoyable moviegoing experience.

The Mummy sequel wasn't bad, either. Not great, maybe--well paced, good special effects and Brendan Fraser's big-luggish charm go a long way toward covering up a poorly used Jet Li (appearing only fleetingly after the prologue), a miscast Maria Bello (taking over for Rachel Weitz, who has an actual English accent, as opposed to Bello's, which is pretty obviously fake), and the fact that Fraser's character has a son who looks nearly as old as Fraser is--but does every movie have to be great to be enjoyed? I don't think so. And when the pleasant, affordable cinematic surroundings put you at ease, even a mediocre sequel no one really asked for can seem more than passable.