Thursday, March 3, 2016

College Night at Aksarben Cinema




You’ve crammed for that Biology exam, obsessively written that English paper, and feel totally prepared for your speech in Public Speaking. Don’t you think you deserve a break? We certainly do.

At Aksarben Cinema every Thursday is College Night. That means discounts and great movies for you, while you take a brief break from the hectic college student lifestyle.

You might wonder what could they possibly offer me to make it worth the break. How about $2 small pops or sodas (if you’re from the South), $2 popcorn with all the butter you could ask for, and $2 hot dogs, and $3 Bud Light draws with a Premiere ticket purchase using your student ID.

Just so you know, a Premiere ticket is a ticket for any movie that is opening this weekend. Luckily for you, we’ve got some great movies coming your way including London Has Fallen, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, and Zootopia.



If you loved Olympus Has Fallen then we’re certain that you’ll enjoy the sequel London Has Fallen, which continues the thrilling adventure of Gerard Butler’s character, Mike Banning, as he is tasked with protecting the president, Aaron Eckhart, and more world leaders. This is the movie that critics are calling “pumped up,” “extreme,” and “brutal.”



However, if you’re looking for something a little lighter then we suggest you see Tina Fey’s latest film, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. In it Fey plays a journalist who comically recounts her wartime coverage in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and along for the ride are other Hollywood heavyweights including Margot Robbie, Martin Freeman, Alfred Molina, and Billy Bob Thornton. The reviews are already out and critics are calling Fey’s follow-up to Sisters, “enjoyable,” “a triumph,” and “smart.”



Finally, who doesn’t love a delightful animated movie to take the weight off your shoulders for an engaging hour and forty-eight minute runtime. That’s the perfect amount of time to have some laughs with Disney Animation’s Zootopia, which tells the story of a fugitive con-artist fox and a rookie bunny cop who must work together to solve an important case. The critics are raving about this one. Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times had this to say, “Zootopia is one of my favorite animated movies. Not one of my favorite animated movies of the last year or two, or of the last decade, or in recent memory. It's one of my favorite animated movies, period.”


So make tonight College Night with all these great new movies and discount prices! See you at the movies!

Thursday, February 25, 2016

ACX at Aksarben Cinema




On March 25th of this year, Batman and Superman will face-off in Batman v. Superman:
Dawn of Justice, and you will want to be there. I guarantee it. For an epic showdown like this though you’ll want the best sound and video quality available at Aksarben Cinema. Allow me to introduce you to our state-of-the-art entertainment system we fondly refer to as ACX or the Aksarben Cinema Experience.

Daily we get calls about those three letters that appear next to our featured movies. Some wonder if it has to do with 3D viewing or some other special screening, but it’s actually quite simple. The Aksarben Cinema Experience is featured in Theater 4, which is our largest theater. The theater contains an oversized, wall-to-wall screen, custom immersive sound system, MDI bright screen technology, and is simply Omaha’s premiere viewing experience.

If you’re not tech savvy and all that sounds like a bunch of nonsense, don’t worry. All of these important elements ensure that our patrons receive the best quality cinematic experience. So next time you want to see a film on the biggest screen possible at our cinema, then you need to ask if it’s playing in number 4 or look for those three big letters: ACX, the Aksarben Cinema Experience.


The following films will be played in the ACX format later this year: 
10 Cloverfield Lane (March 11), The Jungle Book (April 15), Captain America: Civil War (May 6), X-Men: Apocalypse (May 27), Finding Dory (June 17), Ghostbusters (July 15), Star Trek Beyond (July 22), Suicide Squad (August 5). 

Friday, February 19, 2016

Free Family Flicks Winter Series



How many times has this happened to you? You see a trailer for a movie that you know your kids would love, and you make a mental note to take them. Then birthday parties, family gatherings, and games come up. Obviously, no one can fault you for allowing those things to take precedence over a trip to the movies, but it’s time to remedy that decision. 

Aksarben Cinema will be hosting a free, that’s right, FREE, Family Flicks event on February 20th (Minions) and February 27th (Hotel Transylvania 2) at 12:30 p.m. Admissions is free and open to the public.


This Saturday, February 20th at 12:30 p.m, we’ll be showing Minions for the first time since the summer months. Join us for the movie that critic, Randy Myers, called “a fun, cheerful time that's filled with many random zingers that will leave you snickering afterward” and Tom Huddleston said was a “berserk slice of slapstick silliness.”



A week later, Aksarben Cinema will show Hotel Transylvania 2 which stars comedian Adam Sandler. The film will screen on Saturday of next week, February 27th at 12:30 p.m. Admission is again free to all. If you didn’t get enough fun the week before with Minions then Hotel Transylvania 2 is a great follow up for adults and kids alike. Critics called it “clever,” “enjoyable,” and “hilarious.”


Whether you missed these movies last year or you want to see them each one more time on the big screen for the low price of...FREE then join us on the next two Saturdays of this month. It would be a great alternative to staying at home and watching the same cartoon re-runs with your kids. Join us at Aksarben Cinema, and we promise you a joyful experience. See you at the movies!

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Race to Aksarben Cinema


Watching Jesse Owens run in the 1936 Olympics might make you question if you accidentally hit the fast-forward button on your TV. As legs moves up and down like pistons in an engine, Jesse Owens looks almost inhuman. He was one of the greatest athletes of all time and represented something so much larger than athletics. He represented a hope for change.

The year was 1936 in Berlin, Germany, and the Summer Olympics were just getting underway, and Owens was an American star who had international appeal. Amongst the female population of Berlin, he was especially well liked. According to reports, women came in droves to see Owens and even brought scissors in hopes of cutting off some of Owen’s clothing as a souvenir. On the other hand, Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party was not so thrilled with the arrival of Owens, because Hitler intended for his Aryan athletes to dominate the Olympic games.

As Owens entered Olympic games he was surrounded by flags and banners featuring Nazi propaganda that touted “Aryan racial superiority” and also depicted Africans such as Owen as inferior. Owen was far from inferior though. He was an all star who went on to win four gold medals.



The first that Owens won was for the 100m sprint; he earned a time of 10.3 seconds and beat his friend and teammate Ralph Metcalfe by a tenth of a second. Owens then went on to win the long jump with a leap of 26 feet, 5 inches. Interestingly enough, Owens credited his success in the long jump to a German competitor, Luz Long. Long suggested that Owens moved his mark back, so that he would complete a safe and legal jump. This advice from Long lead to Owen’s victory and Long was the first to shake Owens’ hand.

The last two events that Owens received gold medals in were the 200m sprint and the 4x100 sprint relay. Owens defeated Mack Robinson (Jackie Robinson’s older brother) in the 200m sprint with a time of 20.7s, and his relay team set a world record by completing the race in 39.8s. This record would stand until Carl Lewis and his team broke it in 1984 at the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.



Why am I recounting all of these amazing triumphs by Owens? I’ll tell you why. This Thursday Aksarben Cinema will premiere Race a film directed by Stephen Hopkins. In the film, Jesse Owens rises from college superstar (Owens graduated from Ohio State University) to Olympic gold medalist. The film stars an impressive ensemble including relative newcomer Stephan James as Jesse Owens, Jason Sudeikis as Larry Snyder, Owens’ track coach in college, Jeremy Irons, William Hurt, and more. The film is an exceptional drama that will encourage people today to reflect on the past and think about how far we’ve come, while still knowing there’s so much further we must go.