kirite Posted December 24, 2012 Share Posted December 24, 2012 We had lunch here today. This is a cool place. My Asian chicken breast sandwich was much better than popcorn, and my spouse's blueberry muffin was even better than buttered popcorn. After lunch we saw the new German film "Barbara" followed by a Q&A with the US distributor. This place bills itself as a "film center" and it is very different from a multiplex. Culture comes to Merrifield! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lion Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 We finally ate some dinner at the Angelika before seeing a film last night. I had the chicken breast sandwich which was pretty damn good and my wife had the ham sandwich which she liked equally. We were impressed with the sandwiches and deviled egg appetizer. it's really enjoyable how the entire film center runs there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrXmus Posted February 1, 2013 Share Posted February 1, 2013 Regarding the food, I can only comment on the basic popcorn, which was very good. Regarding non-food issues, I had a hard time swallowing paying $22 for two tickets for a 2:25PM movie. I see no reason to pay that price for those seats when I can pay less at Tysons Corner. I like the idea of a "small" business compared to a behemoth company, but maybe not that much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkstar965 Posted February 1, 2013 Share Posted February 1, 2013 Regarding the food, I can only comment on the basic popcorn, which was very good. Regarding non-food issues, I had a hard time swallowing paying $22 for two tickets for a 2:25PM movie. I see no reason to pay that price for those seats when I can pay less at Tysons Corner. I like the idea of a "small" business compared to a behemoth company, but maybe not that much. Maybe not material but Angelika isn't so much a "behemoth" as it is the result of some interesting history. Angelika's current owner is an Austrailan company called Reading International (RDI on AMEX) which has ties back to the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad in the 1800s. Globally, Reading International is about a $250mm business with theaters in Oz, NZ and here. They acquired the original Angelika Cinema (NYC) in the mid 90s. Today, Angelika in the US is actually a small fry relative to the big operators like Regal, Carmike and AMC. Reading/Angelika don't even crack the top 10 in the US and are smaller than their main competitor for the still undersized foreign and independent film market, Landmark. Like restaurants, theater exhibition is a very challenging business. FWIW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lion Posted February 1, 2013 Share Posted February 1, 2013 Regarding the food, I can only comment on the basic popcorn, which was very good. Regarding non-food issues, I had a hard time swallowing paying $22 for two tickets for a 2:25PM movie. I see no reason to pay that price for those seats when I can pay less at Tysons Corner. I like the idea of a "small" business compared to a behemoth company, but maybe not that much. Honestly, I liked how Angelika caters to adults compared to others places especially Tysons. We got our dinner with alcohol when upstairs to the lounge and sat down and had a nice time before the movie started. Since the seats are pre-selected we went before the movie began. There were no screaming kids or teenagers using cellphones throughout the movie. That's worth a couple of bucks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMatt Posted February 1, 2013 Share Posted February 1, 2013 Regarding the food, I can only comment on the basic popcorn, which was very good. Regarding non-food issues, I had a hard time swallowing paying $22 for two tickets for a 2:25PM movie. I see no reason to pay that price for those seats when I can pay less at Tysons Corner. I like the idea of a "small" business compared to a behemoth company, but maybe not that much. As near as I can tell, to get two adult tickets at Tysons Corner at around 2:25 PM costs $20 (hover over, say, the 2:20 PM time for "Stand Up Guys"). Frankly, I don't mind paying an extra $1 per ticket for reserved seats plus the ability to avoid Tysons Corner Center. Same for "late" shows (after 4 PM) where the difference is $12 v $13. Now on the weekends, the matinees are better at Tysons Corner since they do $6 pricing everyday compared to Angelika which does it only on Mon-Thurs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weezy Posted February 1, 2013 Share Posted February 1, 2013 For the 55+ crowd, every Thursday every show & time is $7 at the Angelika. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkstar965 Posted February 1, 2013 Share Posted February 1, 2013 For me, Angelika and Landmark are the two coolest theater operators in America (of course not including many very small--1 or 2 screen--independents). It's exceedingly hard to build a business exhibiting films. Even tougher for the foreign, independent and generally more interesting (at least to me) movies upon which these two focus. While they are not mom & pop operations, they're also not Regal or F1000 companies. They do a good job on total movie-going experience and generally exhibit life-enriching stuff (thought to be riskier commercially) instead of the more vapid mass market fare on 20000 screens nationwide. This is all imho obviously as different strokes applies bigtime with movies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MsDiPesto Posted February 1, 2013 Share Posted February 1, 2013 Honestly, I liked how Angelika caters to adults compared to others places especially Tysons. We got our dinner with alcohol when upstairs to the lounge and sat down and had a nice time before the movie started. Since the seats are pre-selected we went before the movie began. There were no screaming kids or teenagers using cellphones throughout the movie. That's worth a couple of bucks. And that alone is well worth the price of admission, IMHO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkstar965 Posted July 13, 2013 Share Posted July 13, 2013 It's definitely a fair and generally irreconcilable debate as to which is the DC area's best Vietnamese restaurant. That said, I so appreciated the consistency and honest of the food at Four Sisters (long ago pre Mosaic and now finding itself catty corner from Angelika). We had dinner there last night, noted the film "on the green" event playing with the huge, built-in HD screen on the theater's facade and then took in a movie. If you're at all into the great 60s, 70s and 80s American musicians, I'd really recommend you go see "Twenty Feet from Stardom" which is playing there now. It's as if a great documentary was done about all the unsung, back-of-house heros in the restaurant biz (cooks, dishwashers, bussers, etc.) but this movie does that about background singers. They, of course, were everywhere and the harmonies of so many songs we know, hum, whistle and sing had key and extensive parts performed by people whose names are unknown. This is their story. Really amazing with on-screen appearances by most of the big ones (Darlene Love, Merry Clayton, the Waters family) and their benefactors who cooperated with the filmmaker (Mick Jagger, Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Bette Midler). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now