London Ninja

Movies in London at least at a typical theatre like the Odeon Whiteleys down the street from me costs you a lovely 9.25 gbp. Yes, folks, £9.25 bloody quid (British slang for pound). Translated to USD, we’re talking about paying like 20 bucks(rounded up). Now, I think $10 is steep for a movie already …. but $20 USD for a bloody movie!?!! That’s totally crazy…and I mean Gnarls Barkley style. I wouldn’t pay $20 if Bruce Willis and that black limo driver came to the theatre and reenacted Die Hard 1 for me. Hell, I wouldn’t pay $20 if Jessica Biel and Scarlett Johansson showed up for a live mud-wrestling match…ok maybe I would, but only if you throw Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan in there too….and maybe some Bradgelina.

All this, of course, was until Transformers hit the scene. A lot of people have been praising this movie as a throwback to the old T2 and Total Recall Days. Back when you can count on a big action flick every summer that you HAVE TO SEE on the big screen. The kind of movies where big screen and big sound matter.

So how do you watch a movie in London without giving up your 2nd iPod? There are just three ways that I have found:

1. Orange, the UK mobile company, has a deal for its customers to get two-for-one tickets on Wednesdays called Orange Wednesdays. That’s pretty cool. Will blog more about phones in the UK later.

2. Cineworld has a deal where you pay 11 quid for all-you-can-watch tickets. So you can watch Hostel 2 as many times as you want when it comes out. There are only a few locations in London and it requires a 1-year commitment, so not good unless you watch a few movies a month.

3. Download your movies. Totally legal movies only, of course. I would never suggest that you download whole Hollywood movies, burn them on to a DVD+RW and play them on your DVD player. Alternatively you could stream them to your TV if you have a receiver that can connect via wifi. If you have a laptop, many of them have s-video that can plug directly into your TV. I would most definitely never suggest downloading any movies that come out around Oscar season that say “For your Academy Consideration Only”. That would just be wrong.

I’ll let you know when I try one of these methods, which will probably be the Orange Wednesdays, as I am getting sick of watching re-runs of Dark Angel, which always seems to be on the tube here(Jessica Alba’s overrated) along with that Rihanna video. Man, I miss Tivo. Optimus Prime awaits.