Che-Che-Che-Check Yo Self!

Maybe Portland is the most miserable city in the country because film distribution to here sucks. Case in point: Che is finally coming to town. It'll be at Cinema 21 starting March 13th. The middle of freakin March! It was shown around as early as October 2008 at festivals. Okay, fine. Then it was limited release in December. Now I get that we should be lucky to just see it at all. And to see it as meant to be seen. In one part instead of two separate films. But still. Movies seem to come here last. And it sucks. That means YOU people need to get out more and support more independent film. So it becomes desirable to bring movies here faster. I saw Tell No One in New York in July. When I came back to Portland, it was just starting to play here in October! And then it played for almost two months! The whole limited release pattern drives me nuts and I'm sure I'll write more about that in the future. 

And really it makes no sense to not bring Che here earlier. This town was made for Che. They should have brought it here first. They'd rack up great business and people would take notice. I'd be 85% of all the houses and apartments on the east side have a Che poster or T-shirt somewhere in them. At least 85%. 

Now what's really cool is that on Friday the 13th and Saturday the 14th Steven Soderbergh will be in attendance. Very cool. You can buy tickets HERE. Normally I'd be all over this there's just one little problem. The film is 263 minutes long. Which normally would be no problem. I'm a die hard film goer. I can take it. But I can't take it at Cinema 21. 

Why? 

Because their seats are the most ungodly horrors I've ever encountered in my long film going career. After about 20 minutes my ass starts to hurt and from then on there is no amount of shifting that can save you. Then you'll spend the rest of the film shifting around, thinking about your ass and not focused on the film. It's why I don't go there. It ruins the experience. Maybe if it was a shorter movie I'd take the punishment, but not for this. Usually things that play at Cinema 21 end up later on at Fox Tower or the Hollywood Theater. And the seats are Hollywood aren't no picnic either, but I can make due with those. Now I'm pretty sure that Che won't end up at Fox Tower. And if it ends up at Hollywood I don't know if I could take those either for 263 minutes. This is one film I'm definitely going to wait for Blu-Ray for. And as cool as seeing Soderbergh would be, I have to think of my ass. 

This is what happens when you get older. 

*sigh*

You think about your ass.