7-Cent Movies And Treats At New Meridian Cinemas

Cineplex Odeon's brand-new downtown 16-plex, the Meridian Cinemas, 622 Pike St., will open its doors for matinees Wednesday with a collection of movies at bargain prices.

"Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," "Mission: Impossible," "Apollo 13," "Babe," "The Nutty Professor," "She's the One," "The Rock," "Il Postino," "Multiplicity" and "Sense and Sensibility" will be screened all day Wednesday and Thursday.

Admission is 16 cents for each film, 16 cents for popcorn and 16 cents for drinks. All the money collected will go to the Salvation Army Toy Drive.

Next Friday, the theater has its "official" grand opening as a first-run house with two new movies, "Daylight" and "Mad Dog Time," plus "The English Patient," "Lone Star," "Emma," "Big Night," "Trainspotting," "Secrets & Lies," "Fly Away Home," "2 Days in the Valley," "Bound" and "Michael Collins." Leonard Maltin will be here Dec. 12 to kick off a weeklong National Film Registry series at the Meridian.

The theater is being picketed by the local chapter of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and Moving Picture Machine Operators, which is protesting Cineplex's decision not to use union projectionists at the Meridian. Cineplex is training its own projectionists to handle the automated projectors. Union projectionists are employed in 12 other Cineplex Odeon theaters in the Northwest.

Meanwhile, Troy Glennon is continuing his campaign to persuade Cineplex Odeon to remove commercials from its presentations. Last week, he sent a petition with more than 1,000 local signatures to the chain's president and CEO, Allen Karp.

Around town

Arch Oboler's rarely shown 1951 nuclear-holocaust drama, "Five," will be screened at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Seattle Art Museum. Often called the world's first post-nuke apocalypse film, it's the story of five survivors who meet on the Southern California coast after most of mankind has been vaporized. "On the Beach," "The World, the Flesh and the Devil," "Testament" and "The Omega Man" are a few of the later, more famous movies that borrowed from it. Admission is free. . . . The Seattle International Film Festival's script read-through series continues at 7:30 p.m. Monday with Sarah Conradt-Kroehler's "The Moon & Other Things" at the Alibi Room in the Pike Place Market. Admission is $3 for the public, $2 for SIFF members. . . . The new Rainier Valley Cultural Center, 3515 S. Alaska St., continues its Friday-night series at 7:30 tonight with Robert Redford's 1988 film of John Nichols' novel, "The Milagro Beanfield War." Next Friday: Greta Garbo in "Ninotchka." Suggested donations are $3-$5, with children under 12 admitted free. . . . Ford Thaxton's Soundtrack Cinema will feature Jerry Goldsmith's music from "Star Trek: First Contact" at 9 p.m. tomorrow on KING-FM, 98.1. . . . Local filmmakers Jurgen Vsych and Chris DeBoer will present their work at "Short Night," at 8 p.m. next Friday at 911 Media Arts Center, 117 Yale Ave. N. . . . Next Friday, the Varsity gets back to revivals with a one-night double bill of "Sex, Drugs and Democracy" and "Road Scholar." . . . "Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media" gets another screening at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Velvet Elvis Arts Lounge in Pioneer Square. Tickets are $3. . . . Alpha Cine Labs has completed processing five Seattle films - Ted Sod's "Crocodile Tears," Adam Berman's "Biker Dreams," Shelp Salusky's "Expert Witness," Curtiss Clayton's "The Man Who Counted" and Gregg Lachow's "The Wright Brothers" - that have been submitted for the 1997 Sundance Film Festival, to be held Jan. 16-26 in Park City, Utah. Those selected for showing in the festival will be notified Sunday.

Out of town

If you missed it during its brief Seattle run, you can catch up with Lisa Krueger's much-praised road movie, "Manny & Lo," at 6:30 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday at the Capitol Theater in Olympia. It's double-billed with "Hype!" Tickets are $3 for society members, $5 for others. . . . The Gypsy musical "Latcho Drom" returns this weekend to the Lincoln Theater in Mount Vernon. It plays at 8 p.m. today through Sunday; there's also a 3 p.m. Sunday matinee. Tickets are $6 for adults, $5 for senior citizens and students, and $3 for children under 13. . . . Thirty-nine movies have been submitted to the Motion Picture Academy for consideration for this year's Oscar for best foreign-language film. Last year there were 41; each country is allowed to submit only one film. Five will be singled out to compete for the award when nominations are announced Feb. 11. Among higher-profile films in the running: Jan Troell's "Hamsun" (Denmark), Juan Carlos Desanzo's "Eva Peron" (Argentina), Jaco Van Dormael's "The Eighth Day" (Belgium), Pierre Gang's "Not Me!" (Canada), Aki Kaurismaki's "Drifting Clouds" (Finland), Fridrik Thor Fridrikkson's "Devil's Island" (Iceland), Krzysztof Zanussi's "In Full Gallop" (Poland), Bille August's "Jerusalem" (Sweden) and Clara Law's "Floating Life" (Australia).