Comments from jackbedient

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jackbedient
jackbedient commented about Sierra Cinema on Sep 6, 2020 at 3:19 am

I have a lot of fond memories of this theater from my childhood. I grew up for a time across 23rd in the Highland Manor apartments, from 4th grade until high school. I haunted the bank of video games they used to have at Sam’s Bowling Alley and this theater like a little ghost back in the early 80’s. I searched for the name of this theater for years, and even joined this site only to find this tidbit of info, but to no avail, even on this site’s very own search engine – I must have been doing something wrong on all my searches as some of these comments here in this section were left before my searches. Oh well, I’ve finally found it! During another desperate 2am sweep and search!

I was born in 1971 and lived near this theater from about ‘79 to '84, so as a young boy I was privileged to see a lot of the great genre flicks that were being released during that seminal time on this theater’s screen. All of the viewings down here were viewed all by my lonesome. Though I was mainly accompanied with friends or family to places such as the Showcase Cinemas or the Parkway Theater, the Sierra Cinemas was the one place that I went to all by myself as a kid, for whatever reason – I don’t think too many kids were as crazy about movies as I was back then. This is the place that solidified my love of cinema. It was my temple.

“For Your Eyes Only” was probably the one movie I saw the most here. Though it’s not considered the best Bond movie, and I can see why, it will always hold a place in my eyes as one of the top Bond flicks. The nostalgia I have for this movie brings it forward quite a few notches in my book. Back in the day I would save up my pennies and dimes and quarters and whatever little money I could cajole out of my mom, and any time I had enough for the price of admission, I’d run across the street to see this movie again and again. I loved the Bill Conti score. And though I was just a kid I loved the exotic locales and the exciting action sequences, especially the snow sequences. I also saw “Battle Beyond the Stars” here, and “The Dark Crystal,” a Pink Panther movie or two – you name it, if it played here, I probably saw it, whether it was rated R or not, as the employees here were pretty cool in granting me admission to movies that weren’t too crazy for a kid. I do remember being denied once, but can’t recall the movie, and in hindsight, maybe it was for the best.

Speaking of the staff – I do remember them as being really cool and friendly. I’ve recently moved back to the QC and was sad to see it is now a gym. I took a photo regardless.

Anybody have a list of films shown here? I’m writing a kind of cinematic memoir of sorts and would love to have a list of movies shown here to spark any dormant memories…