Fox Village Theater is cheap entertainment

It's another Saturday night, and if you return all the pop bottles lined up in the window sill, you'll have two bucks to rub together. Perhaps you're dying to see Uma Thurman in a black latex number, but were too damn ashamed of yourself to shell out $8 this summer. What's your other option?

Fox Village Theater, a mere jump, skip and 10-minute drive from Central Campus, guarantees second- run movies at incredibly cheap prices: $1.50 for each show, except for Friday and Saturday after 6 p.m., when the cost is $2. To get there, take Huron west to Jackson, then turn right on Maple. The theater is located at 375 South Maple Ave. in the Maple Village Shopping Center, across the parking lot from K-mart. (Suspiciously, W. Stadium also seems to verge northerly into Maple.)

Not surprisingly, a majority of people attending movies at the Fox selected the theater because of its cutthroat pricing.

When asked why he was at the theater, Fred McCreary, an employee at the Gypsy Cafe, simply replied, "'Because it costs two bucks."

Likewise, "'Cuz we're broke" was the consensus of many local high schoolers. Although the ticket takers seemed stoic about the dirt-cheap glitz and glamour of the movies, the guests were enthusiastic about their opinions of the movies: "Cheap. Good and cheap." "We love it," answered one couple.

And although many people admitted that they could have seen, for example, "Lethal Weapon 4" on opening night at the Fox Village Theater, not one expressed regrets about waiting. The Fox shows a variety of films and holds them until popularity wanes, or something better comes along. It usually takes two months for a first-run film to become a second-run; for example, "Small Soldiers," out earlier this summer, is soon coming to the Fox.

Films such as Disney's "Mulan" are shown in the early evening and tend to draw a larger audience of families. Films like "Disturbing Behavior," starring young actresses who recently have appeared on teen magazine covers, usually have a larger turnout of high school students (known as "hecklers" in Shakespeare's time).

The great thing is that at Fox Village Theater, you can see all kinds of people. Families, loners, misers and loud high school and college age folk all converge to sit together and be mesmerized by the screen.

All in all, a visit to the Fox is an experience to be tried at least once.

10-01-98