Quote Originally Posted by topspeed
The Mann Village is a great theater! Isn't that the one with the big, plush chairs? There are three great theaters all within a few blocks right there and sometimes I'll get them mixed up (Village, Bruin, and one other). The Cineramadome is a terrific theater as well. I wouldn't mind watching the movie at either to be honest.
The Mann Village is the big one with the balcony. They remodeled the theater a while back and switched out those old velvety chairs for newer ones (though now the armrests have cupholders and the rows have a little more legroom). Still an awesome theater, and probably my favorite one overall. After that theater got renovated to THX standards (this was back when the THX label actually meant something), the management used to put this lighted sign out in the lobby that listed all of the equipment that they installed in that sound system. That was some serious hardware and they were understandably proud of the monster that they'd created! The bass in particular at that theater is deep and powerful, but doesn't feel overly pushed or strained like it can at a lot of megaplexes.

The Bruin is right across the street, and the National is the big brown modernist looking theater down the street. Another personal favorite is the Crest Theatre on the other side of Wilshire Blvd. Great sound system and projection, but they also have these fluorescent murals with old Hollywood scenes on the walls. When the lights go down, those murals glow like neon signs. And the ceiling has this shooting star effect that's also really cool.

The Cinerama Dome's got that big deeply curved screen, and they redid the sound system a couple of years ago and fixed the acoustics. Wonderful theater, and the lobby now has bar service! I saw Jedi at the old Cinedome in Orange, which also had a curved Cinerama screen. If you can get a seat in the middle of the theater, watching action scenes and chases in particular on a Cinerama screen can give you a sensation of motion. Definitely worth checking out next time you're down in L.A.