Tucked under the shadow of the Ondine building is one of PSU’s best-kept-secrets—the Fifth Avenue Cinema. When not acting as a classroom during the day, the university’s own cinema showcases some of the most entertaining film selections this side of the South Park Blocks.
The cinema is entirely student-run by the PSU Film Committee—students who personally pick the films you will be viewing at the theater and if the past has proven anything, they choose rather well.
The best part is that if you are a PSU student, admission is free. Other students pay only $2 to get in, while the overall general admission is a mere $3. And if the impressive yet humble cost of the theater doesn’t move you, how about a free bag of popcorn at every show? Does that do it for you? Because it should—you are a poor suffering college student, after all. That could be your dinner.
This year, Fifth Avenue Cinema is kicking things off with a bang as it presents Coming to America, a classic in the vein of comedies that they just don’t make any more.
Eddie Murphy stars as Prince Akeem—among a variety of other unique and humorous characters—who tires of the royal day-to-day life he has grown up with. He avoids getting hitched and hits the road to experience life and perhaps find a queen who will love him for who he is and not his crown. Naturally, he heads to Queens, NY.
Traveling with Prince Akeem is his servant Semmi, played by Arsenio Hall, who also takes on a list of other roles in the film. Together they take on New York City, or at least the glamorous corner of the city that is Queens.
If you haven’t already seen the sheer awesomeness that is this movie, then your life sucks. I don’t know your personal situation or history, but I know that without seeing this movie your life is incomplete and, frankly, is a sad excuse for an existence. When September rolls around, get your butt in a seat at the Fifth Avenue Cinema.
Also, during the fall quarter the Fifth Avenue Cinema has planned presentations of the 1950 British noir Night and City as well as the Korean murder mystery Mother—though dates are not yet set for these films. The film committee also plans to host a number of speakers.