Movie love affair (Kings Cinema)

Movie love affair (King's Cinema) 

I have loved movies my whole life. I remember when I was a kid aged about 8, I used to go to Kings Cinema located on 2nd Avenue, at Alexandra Township every week! Kings was the greatest place in the world and I am not even exaggerating, it was better than heaven, it was bliss! I don't think I'd like heaven all that much, the thought of church all day, singing and worshipping for all eternity doesn't appeal to me. Look thank you for saving me God, I appreciate it but could I checkout the service once in a while? I mean it's heaven, give me a break. While heaven doesn't appeal to me all that much, I wouldn't mind being locked in King's Cinema for all eternity! They played great stuff! For just R5 for kids and R7, later R10 for adults you got to watch TWO movies! One Kung Fu and the other one a Hollywood movie. The Kung Fu movies were the best! We were always so entertained, the crowd loved them! I am talking about Jet Li, Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and all those other Chinese guys who kicked ass. It was always an experience, the movies were funny, they were always about revenge and honor, that's when I fell in love with Cinema, I credit Kung Fu movies. I think that's why I loved Kill Bill so much, it felt familiar like nostalgia, I even dreamed about it, I could not get the bride out of my psyche and she stayed with me until my late teenage years. I still can't get over Kill Bill, it's a masterpiece. I remember watching Shaolin Soccer and cracking up real good, the audience loved it. Shaolin Soccer was a King's special, the posters inside the cinema were never removed, I remember it had a frame. All the other posters were changed and removed every week to advertise what was showing next week or in the foreseeable future except the Shaolin Soccer poster. It had that aesthetic, that feel, it described what King's Cinema was all about. There was a program and when you purchased your ticket you basically agreed to spend your whole day at the Cinema. The box office opened at 12:30 pm and would sell tickets until 13:00 - 13:30 pm. After 13:30, the gates are closed and no one comes in the theatre. Once seated the first movie comes on, usually a Kung Fu movie that plays for 2 hours or so and then there is a recess, a little intermission so you can buy your Popcorn and snacks for the second movie - the main movie, what you came to the cinema to see, the big box office movies like Mission Impossible, Spiderman and Rambo. Hardly no one bought popcorn and snacks for the first movie but the stand was still open nonetheless. The Kung Fu movies were like preparation for the second movie but we loved them anyways, to tell you the truth, sometimes they were better than the big  Hollywood movies. The second movie would play until like 17:30 to 18:00. So you would be in the cinema from 13:00 to 18:00 but it didn't feel that way because time flew!

I loved how economic King's was. For the day I needed just R12. That would be enough for the entrance, popcorn, juice and sweets (smarties). I would go there Saturday and Sunday and R24 would suffice, sometimes R20 for two days would do. But when I went with a grown-up I would get everything! I'd get Popcorn, Coca-Cola not Juice, a hot pie and sweets! Every time I had a hot pie and Coke was a great day! I remember the days like it was yesterday, the first time I went with my cousin and we watched Spiderman. The next time was with my mother and we watched X-men 2. Pie was expensive, it cost R7 and Coke was R5! My mother would give me the R12 to get me off her hair, she never complained. I loved the cinema, I'd go with my friends most Saturday's, and on Sunday when they went to church, I'd go again on my own. I remember watching "Gladiator", oh my lord, it was so epic! Like "Are you not entertained? Isn't this what you came for? Spaniard! Spaniard! Spaniard!". The audience in the cinema went crazy! Spaniard was our hero, when he died at the end, we felt an injustice like something was amiss, we hated the fact that Spaniard died but we understood, everything was stacked up against him and at least he killed the villian and restored order in the kingdom, it was a bittersweet ending. We loved movies with action, fighting and violence! The whistles would reverberate in the theatre and we actively cheered for the hero! Love scenes in the cinema were also cool but sometimes awkward and uncomfortable, most of the time you'd hear wooing. When the hero kissed the girl there was always an applause and whistles, we loved it! I also remember watching Troy, ah! It was such an awesome movie and the audience loved it. To tell you the truth, I've only watched the movie once, I forgot the plot but I remember the name of the movie and Brad Pitt was awesome! I watched a couple of Harry Potter movies at Kings but not "The Goblet of fire", that installment I watched in the cinema at Sandton. When we watched "Passion of the Christ" everybody was emotional, the mood was tense and serious. You could hear sobs everywhere in the cinema. Even my friends didn't talk to me, their gaze was fixed on the screen and they totally ignored my attempts to disturb them. It was strange and uncomfortable, even my friends cried for Jesus. I didn't like "Passion of the Christ", it had a lot of subtitles and I got bored following through the story, I didn't understand what it was about. Still I remember that day vividly because everyone in the cinema was crying for Jesus and I felt guilty because I didn't cry. I finished the day thinking I was going to hell, thank you for the feelings of guilt and shame Mel Gibson, fucken asshole. Mission Impossible 3 was awesome, that's your definitive King's movie in terms of engagement with the crowd, it had the audience going crazy in a lot of scenes! Tom Cruise didn't disappoint, he did the impossible. I have two movies that could rival Mission Impossible 3, that's "Cradle to the grave" and "Romeo Must Die", reason being Jet Li, the hood loved Jet Li! His movies always filled up the cinema, Friday, Saturday and Sunday! Jet Li was the ultimate hero and he would beat the bad guys clean, everyone in the cinema cheered and whistled him on. He had a strong crowd. Kings was an experience, for me it was a place where I went to be myself. I relaxed, I laughed, I cheered, I rested my feet on seats, I interacted with the stories, I fell in love with cinema, it is my whole childhood. I spent a lot of my life in that cinema and I watched a lot of movies. Thank you King's for everything!