This should have been a King Kong review.

So there I was, fully planning to add a hot-off-the-press review of King Kong to the Narnia review I wrote less than a week ago. I had purchased a ticket for the Midnight premiere at Wellington's famous Embassy theatre, the first day they went on sale - this meant sacrificing my much-needed lunchbreak, since I've been working two jobs for the past few months. My ticket said "Wednesday 12.00 am". Of course, I thought, it would be Wednesday night - movies usually start their run on Thursdays, so yeah Wednesday night it would be. Little did I register those traffic signs all over Courtenay place that said the place would be blocked for the Red Carpet event on Wednesday afternoon - and the Embassy was offering, bizzarrely enough, a couple of screenings BEFORE the official premiere of the movie. I had noticed that.

So on Wednesday morning at tea break I'm sitting in the staff room of the school I work at, full of expectations for the night, and am lazily perusing the newspaper - which goes on and on about the Wellington King Kong premiere THIS AFTERNOON... ---- ..!!! so I go, oops, better check my movie ticket ... which said... as it would... Wednesday, 12.00 am.

Needless to say, I rushed down to the Embassy right away, in the hope that some kind and understanding person would perhaps exchange my ticket - only to find that the box office was closed already and the place locked off for the big celebrity show. I went again just in time for the next midnight showing - I was a little tempted to try my luck with the ushers and see if they'd notice the wrong date, but in the end decided for honesty. I went up to the box office and explained the situation, and that I'd bought my ticket the first day they went on sale, and how disappointed I was, and could they perhaps change my ticket? I'd be happy with a show some days later and at some unpopular time, if need be. They however told me that the best they could do was offer me to buy a reduced-price ticket. At the time, I had about 25 dollar in my pocket to last me til payday a week ahead, so forking out another nine dollar on top of the fifteen I had already paid (and wondered if I could afford!) - was simply not an option.

Now it is the case that the Embassy has so far been my favorite cinema, which I've frequently frequented, and made a point to see my movies there whenever I could - even though that sometimes meant putting up with inconvenient session times. I have also volunteered for the Film Festival two years in a row, making available my time for the good of New Zealand cinema, and ultimately for the Embassy, where many of the film festivel movies were screened. And last but not least, I've been offering to play my harp, free of charge, in the intervals of the Lord of the Rings movie marathon preceding the public premiere of Return of the King, two years ago (and was never offered a free ticket even for that).

So the bottom line is, I'm really peeved off with that place's stingyness, where an additional nine dollars in the box office seem more important than ongoing customer satisfaction of a so-far fervent fan of the place. So I will wait for cheap movie Tuesday the week after payday, and see the movie at the Reading cinema - where I will, in future, see all my other movies too, I'm afraid.

Well done, Embassy box office!

Anyhow, I did manage to get down to the Red Carpet event on Wednesday (making it three trips to Courtenay Place that day!) and got a chance to try out my brandnew photo camera. Bless the 12 times zoom lens.... :D - which enabled me to shoot things going on at the other end of Courtenay place, such as most of the movie's main actors (Jack Black didn't make it to Wellington though - otherwise I'm sure I'd have shot him too.) ;-)

I'm in a yellow press moo-ooo-ood.... - but I do hope you enjoy the photos, which aren't all so paparazzi-like really.

written by Asni - contact me

last updated: 31 December, 2005