The Last Legs of Sunset 5

It's always sad when one of your favorite movie theaters is going under, even if you haven't been there in years. You remember films you loved and hated there, the friends and old beaus you saw and argued about the films with, etc.

I had time to kill last week while my car was being repaired so I ventured over to Sunset 5. Hardly anything is left! Virgin Megastore is an empty shell, no more Buzz coffee, no more CPK - pretty much nothing but Sunset 5 and Crunch gym (where they first offered pole dancing classes).

Once Arclight and Landmark hit the scene they robbed from Sunset 5's indie fare, getting the most popular titles in that market. Leaving only the runts of the litter at Sunset 5. I had only heard of one title there and chose the French film - A CHRISTMAS TALE - because of Catherine Deneauve and I also hoped I'd be transported to beautiful Paris via an engaging tale that afternoon.

Not so much. Catherine played a distant mother and grandmother who smoked cigarettes and showed off her stunning legs whenever possible. Her despised (even by her since birth) son becomes the only one who can donate bone marrow to save her life and is invited to Christmas for the first time in years by his suicidal teen-age nephew.

Ominous music and titles introduce each day that week which consist of wife swapping, fist fights, booze and more cigarettes, crying jags mixed with intellectual ponderings, and talk of the new girlfriend having an ass like Angela Bassett. Unfortunately, none of this was ever engaging. I never cared.

It made me long for "Home for the Holidays" or even an afternoon escape with "Four Christmases".

Oh well, found a good mechanic and that was worth the price of admission!