Hastings’ UMAX offers five stories of visual nirvana
By Gerry Beltz
Movie Critic
It’s about 90 miles to Hastings. I’ve
got a full tank of gas, no cigarettes, it’s
kinda dark but I’m not wearing sun
glasses.
Hit it.
My Friday afternoon journey to
- visit Nebraska’s
- only IMAX The
ater, located in the
Hastings Muse
um, was unevent
fill (except for al
most falling asleep
at the wheel, but
k we won’t go into
\ that).
■ However, the
" end result was def
initely worth the two-hour trip.
I arrived with only minutes to spare,
not even enough time to stop at the
Pump N’ Pantry for a candy bar to
Leisurely dining, drama lure crowds
By Paula Laviane and enjoy the buffet—cooked by the
Senior Reporter
A one stop shot.
Only two months into its opera
tion, sold-out crowds have taken ad
vantage of the Downtown Dinner
Theatre’s unique offering.
Owner Bob Rook said it was the
only place in Lincoln where theater
patrons didn’t have to “worry about
having their meal rushed down their
throat.”
Rook said his dinner theater at 13 th
and Q streets filled a void in Lincoln
and satisfied the “laziness of Lincoln
audiences.”
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smuggle in.
I bought my ticket* and although I
had left my AAA card in my dad’s car,
they gave me the discount.
Walking into this theater, one can
not be kept from expressing some
amount of awe.
This screen is incredibly huge —
five stories high and 70 feet wide,
according to the pre-movie slide show'
— and makes any other movie screen
look like a portable TV by compari
son.
The auditorium itself was on a steep
incline, about 45 degrees (or pi over 5
four radians, I can never get those ;
straight), thus insuring a clear, unob- ;
structed view of the screen.
I chose the fourth row—the middle
— for my first IMAX experience. Too
close and my neck would be very
upset, and too far wouldn’t fully im
merse me in this cinematic pool of 1
technical wonder.
‘ They can park their car
someplace once, and
they’re there for the
whole evening. ”
BOB ROOK
Owner of the Downtown Dinner
Theatre
“They either want to go to a show
3r dinner in one stop,” he said.
For $ 18, patrons can see the show
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$2.00 off with student ID at the Lied Center Box Office (11-5:30 M-F)
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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21
As I sat there, letting the final min
utes tick by, I tried to decide on the one
mainstream movie that I would like to
see on a screen five stories high.
“Die Hard?” “The Adventures of
Buckaroo Banzai?” “Pink Floyd, The
Wall?”
Then, the obvious hit me like a bolt
of lightning.
“Star Wars.” (Imagine that final
battle, with YOU zipping through the
Death Star trench to save the rebel
lion!)
That was one other good point about
the theater; comfy seats. They didn’t
recline, but they were well-padded
and had high backs to relax on.
The first film was “Sharks,” and it
was about (you guessed it) sharks. The
moviegoer is taken underwater with a
guy in a transparent pop can to observe
die feeding habits of sharks, and you’re
even treated to watching a shark grab
bing a munchie!
dinner theater chef, not catered — or
forsake the buffet for an $8 cocktail
seat.
“They can park their car some
place once, and they’re there for the
whole evening,” Rook said.
The theater kicked off its first sea
son with “Clueless,” which coinci
dentally opened at the same time as
the movie starring Alicia Silverstone.
Lincoln’s “Clueless” was loosely
based on the board game “Clue,” Rook
said, and enjoyed sold-out success.
Their second production met with
similar coincidence.
See DINNER on 7
The six-channel stereo system made
everything crisp and clear, and the
envelopment on the screen really puts
the moviegoer into the action.
The film was only about 40 minutes
long, so I had an hour of free time
before the next flick.
An hour to kill in Hastings, Nebras
ka. Yee-haw.
(Seriously, if you do head out to see
the IM AX, try the hot beef sandwich at
the O.K. Cafe about two blocks north
of the Hastings Museum. Delicious!)
I came back and bought my ticket
for “Fires of Kuwait,” but this time
they wouldn’t give me the AAA dis
count (miserable, flesh-eating bas
tards), so I had to shell out an extra
buck.
This film was a bit more compel
ling, showing what the oil firefighters
had to deal with when the oil wells of
Kuwait were set afire by orders of
Saddam Hussein during Operation
i
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Desert Storm.
This was just damn incredible. The
sweeping panoramic shots of a land set
afire mixed with some very in-your
face shots of the fires themselves made
for a very potent and compelling doc
umentary.
The drive home seemed to go faster
than the drive to Hastings did, but this
was possibly because my mind was
filled with the imagery of sharks com
ing to eat my face, or an oil well fire
shooting flame hundreds of feet into
the sky.
Or maybe it was because I was
going 80 mph to get back in time to see
“Assassins.”
Ticket prices are $5.50, $4.50 with
AAA or Hastings Museum member
ship. For more information call 1-800
508-IMAX.
Beltz is a senior secondary education
major and a Daily Nebraskan Senior Arts „
and Entertainment Reporter.