Memorable cinema visits - Shooter

May 2007. I'm in London to meet my brother who was living there at the time. I'm sitting in Leicester square waiting to meet him and the realisation comes over me that we are meeting at dinnertime and not lunchtime. Bollix. What will I do with myself for the next few hours. Will I go and have a few pints? No, that's a terrible idea as I'll be a shambling wreck by the time we meet up.

Wait a minute. I'm in Leicester Square, a place flanked by cinemas. 

Score.

The Odeon is to my right. The place where all the English film premieres take place. It's a fancy looking place. I'm not a fancy looking person but fuck it, why not, I'm on holidays. What's on? 

Shooter. A violent Mark Wahlberg film. Right up my street.

"One for Shooter please."

"Ok sir, that will be £14 please."

"What?"

"£14 pounds or you can have a seat in the royal circle for £18"

".................. Where the royal family sits?"

"Yes."

"............................" 

*My conscience*

".........................."

"What ticket would you like?"

"Royal circle please."

I'm inside. Climbing a stairs covered in red velvet carpet. If anyone from home saw me I'd never live it down. There's a bar here. A bar in a cinema. This is wicked. If cinemas in Ireland had bars there would be chaos.

"Boddingtons please."

Then I'm sitting in the middle of the royal circle, a paddy with a pint, deep behind enemy lines, at the edge of a balcony overlooking 100's of seats below. Velvet curtains cover the screen. You can smell the posh in the air. I've a serious dose of imposter syndrome but fuck it. I think I'm in Liz's chair and you know i'm going to fart into it before the film is over. There's no one near me. I'm the only one thick enough to spend 18 quid on a cinema ticket but ....oh shush the film is starting.

Shooter is great craic. Bob Lee Swagger popping caps in faces from 500 yards. How could you go wrong. But the film was just background noise to the splendor of the place. Elegant is a word I rarely use but it's the only way to describe the old school cool. Multiplex cinemas are sterile boxes designed for maximum profit but this was how films were meant to be seen. A real shrine to cinema. It's been modernised since and lost an awful lot of it's charm but someday I'm going back there again.