Redbox. Video on Demand. Amazon Prime. Netflix streaming. Netflix delivery. With more ways than ever to watch films from the comfort of your couch, why would any movie-lover worth their low-salt microwave popcorn ever set foot in a movie theater? Particularly when said foot would have to be wearing shoes. (At the very least, flip-flops.)
Why? Because San Diego just got another upscale movie palace, where the craft beer is on tap, the sound is in astounding Dolby 7.1, and there are enough recliners for everybody. Not one of them covered in cat hair.
At the new Angelika Film Center& Cafe at Carmel Mountain Plaza (former home of a Reading multiplex, which has been remodeled), you can watch your film from the comfort of a reserved reclining chair. While eating a freshly made burger. And sipping a Ballast Point Sculpin IPA, craft cocktail or cappuccino.
Home might be where the heart is, but like the equally fancy Cinepolis chain and the ArcLight Cinemas in UTC, Angelika thinks movie-lovers deserve something better than the couch and a can of Pringles. Or, God forbid, a night at an ordinary multiplex with the texting masses.
“I don’t mind paying extra,” said Molly Boarman of Scripps Ranch, who came to Angelika when it opened last weekend and was back this week for a matinee showing of “Breathe” and a soft pretzel. “The seats are comfortable, the food is better, the sound quality is better and the parking is easier. It’s worth it.”
Will it be worth it for you? Here is look at my Angelika experience. Pull up a (vastly inferior) chair and see for yourself.
Tickets, please
Admission is $8.50 before noon. General admission is $14 (Monday through Thursday) and $16 (Friday through Sunday and holidays), which is comparable to ArcLight and cheaper than Cinepolis. Seniors and active-duty military are $13 to $15 and children ages 3 to 11 get in for $12. Add an extra $1.50 per ticket convenience fee if you buy your tickets online. The Fandango site will want you to become a member, but you don’t have to join to make your purchase.
There are also admission specials, including Student Tuesday ($11.50 all day with a valid student I.D.), Salute to the Troops Wednesday ($11.50 all day for active service members), and Baby Boomer Thursday ($11.50 all day if you’re over 55). Your admission also includes free popcorn.
At Angelika, you can reserve a specific seat ahead of time, both online and on site. Which means that neither traffic jams nor snack-bar delays will stand between you and your recliner of choice. The theaters are not huge, so if you are not crazy about the full-immersion experience, go for Row D and beyond. The first few rows are quite close to the screen.
Your movie is served
Like Angelika’s 26-year-old New York City flagship theater (and the Angelikas that have since sprung up in Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Texas), the Carmel Mountain multiplex is all about the sophisticated cinematic experience. From the chandeliers in the lobby and upstairs lounge to the sophisticated chillwave-type soundtrack burbling in the background, everything about the new complex is grown-up, civilized and precisely what the Angelika audience demographic ordered.
“When we were operating the Reading theater there, we felt like Carmel Mountain was the perfect demographic (for Angelika),” said Terri Moore, vice president of operations for the Angelika Film Center & Cafe, which is under the Reading International umbrella. “When we played the opera broadcasts or a higher-end film, they were very popular. It’s a great neighborhood, and we thought people would appreciate the brand.”
My first visit was not the spa-like experience the chain seems to be going for. A technical problem with the cafe cash registers led to a long line and much agitation on both sides of the counter. The staff was harried and the kitchen seemed swamped, so instead of something fancy like baked mac and cheese or green bean fries, I opted for the Hula Crunch artisan popcorn and a soda
Even so, it took almost 10 minutes for my $8.50 snack to arrive. The mix of popcorn, toasted sesame and rice crackers was novel and tasty, but it was also heavy on the oils. However, it did leave me too full to contemplate visiting the Baked Bear ice-cream sandwich shop next door. I consider that a win.
I had better luck on my return visit. The glitch-free cafe was humming along, and my deconstructed baked potato fries ($9.50) were a scary-good pile of plump potato spirals, cheese sauce, sour-cream drizzle and big chunks of bacon. The kale grilled cheese sandwich ($11) was too light on the cheese and too heavy on the house-made tomato jam, but hey, there was kale! At the movies! That has to count for something.
Best seats in the house
Gourmet candy from San Diego’s Eclipse and Chuao chocolate companies is dandy, and who doesn’t love a $13 glass of Layer Cake Cabernet Sauvignon with their $7 single-origin ice-cream flight? (Speaking of cabernet, alcohol is allowed in all 12 of the multiplex’s theaters.) But all of the BLT hot dogs in the world wouldn’t mean much if Angelika’s movie-watching experience didn’t cut the mustard. Fortunately, it totally cuts the mustard.
You’ll have to fiddle with the temperamental recliner controls to get your perfect recline-to-tilt ratio. You should do this during the trailers, because once your film starts, you will not want to do anything but watch. The digital projection picture is pretty stunning, as if you have spent all of your previous movie-going years wearing smudged glasses. The sound is crisp and totally enveloping. It might even be magical enough to make “Pan” worth a shot.
There is a festival honoring Japan’s pioneering Studio Ghibli running through Dec. 3, a Flashback Family Film series on the first Saturday of every month, and a live screening of the National Theatre version of “Hamlet” starring Benedict Cumberbatch on Oct. 21.
We’ll drink a Lost Abbey Lost & Found Belgian Ale to all of that. Just don’t make us leave our recliner yet. Or ever.
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