On December 16 in exactly 99 theatres around the world, extended editions of the first two films will be shown along with the premiere of the final film - nearly nine butt-numbing hours of cinema. Trilogy tickets sold out within 24 hours in most venues and are being offered on eBay for hundreds of dollars.

However, while Toronto has the trilogy showing in as many as six theatres, Montreal only rated two, and one of these is the "version française."

"It's a big slap in the face to Lord of the Rings fans. It's deplorable," said Michael Regina, who, under the nom de guerre "Xoanon," helps run TheOneRing.net, probably the world's largest Rings-oriented website. He and 330 local OneRingers unsuccessfully tried to secure a date with the trilogy for their "line party" at the Cinema Mega-Plex Spheretech 14 in Saint-Laurent.

"If we have the movie, we will sell them the tickets," said James Bambreville, marketing director for Cinema Guzzo, but the fans urged an e-mail campaign be started against Alliance-Atlantis bigwigs, who in their opinion are being stingy with the ringly goodness.

Still, the line party will go ahead on December 17 at 8 p.m., with fans doing their usual meet in an adjacent bar before taking in the premiere of the latest film. More reasonably, considering Montreal's climate, the biggest lineup will probably be the one at the buffet.

Jack Ruttan

 
 

		Write your comment on this article!

Unleashing THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy     Oh, please. First off, over 300 fans (read: hopeless geeks) bitching because there weren't enough screens made available so that they could sit through the *entire* LOTR trilogy is just an indication that we have much hopeless loers than I thought we did. Look, I'm a sci-fi/fantasy/horror nut myself but even I can't deny that Peter Jackson's trilogy is more than a little flawed compared to the Tolkien volumes. It's good, maybe even great but to sit through nearly 10 bloody hours of anything is darn near nuts. I enjoyed the trilogy but this much? I don't think so. I'd much rather re-read the books.
Pedro Eggers	{1 vote}	December 23rd, 2004
Finally Getting to See the Ring     This Wednesday I finally decided to see Lord of the Rings-The Return of the King at the Paramount Theatre at a quarter past noon. Two months after its theatrical release, I counted roughly 20 moviegoers in the audience who were all spread out. The movie trailers started a little early to give way for the movie which lasted an amazing 3 hours and 10 minutes. With no intermission there were surely some sore bottoms! Very quickly the mischievous creature Gollum caused to rift to develop Frodo and Sam who had always been good friends. Eventually Sam rescued Frodo from the giant spider who had spun a web around his inanimate body. Frodo was again saved by Sam from the clutches of his kidnappers who were ready to feast on him. You knew they would survive any ordeal! But this made it predictable to some degree! The battle scenes were outstanding with the catapults showering decapitated heads and fiery boulders on the outnumbered defenders. The battering ram was almost a work of art and also very effective. The flying reptiles picked up soldiers and tossed them to their deaths while the giant elephants with their spiked feet and trunks trampled on the opposing forces. The army of phantom dead soldiers routing the enemy in no time flat spoiled the suspense and was hard to digest because they were so imaginary. On the other hand, the grotesque creatures of the enemy with their contorted faces looked very real and menacing! In the end when Gollum and the Ring fell into the lava, it was sad to see that Frodo lost part of his index finger. This spoiled the otherwise happy conclusion where Sam gets married, has children and lives happily ever after. And Aragorn as the new king got crowned and went out of his way to acknowledge the contribution of the hobbits. I shed a few tears at the very end where Frodo left with Gandalf and the others on a boat seeming never to return. A great movie well worth the $10.50 admission but luckily I had a guest pass.
Stephen Talko	{1 vote}	February 25th, 2004
LOTR overload!     Have to agree. There loving a movie and then there's losing your mind. I wouldn't sit through the original Star Wars trilogy and I love that one. 9 hours plus? Wow, that's either read admiration for the Tolkien trilogy or asign that you need to get a life. At least on DVD I can put it on pause for a bathroom break. Forget that here.
Eric Bertrand		December 24th, 2004

Write your comment! please follow these guidelines

Information requested in blue will remain confidential   [privacy policy] Please indicate your real first and last names.

First name :

Last name :

Your email :

Confirm your email :

Title of your comment (max. 150 characters)   Your comment (max. 2000 characters)  characters remaining       LIMIT PER PERSON : one comment per article per member. Thank you. Your comment will be read by our approval team and, if it is approved, will be posted on the website within 24 hours. It could also be published, along with your name, in the printed version of Hour magazine and on any of our partner websites. In order to present the highest quality of comments, Hour reserves the right to refuse certain submissions. Any plagiarism will entail the entire removal of the member’s profile. Hour is not responsible for the opinions expressed by the members.