Mann Grauman’s Chinese Paul Thursday, 5/5/11, 8:00 pm

Price: $11.75 Concessions: None Audience: In an auditorium that seats about 1,500, I counted eight of us. Trailers/advertising: A ton. Ads for The L. A. Times, Movietickets.com, Mountain Dew, Orville Redenbacher, Caesar’s Palace, a Pirates of the Caribbean app, Ford, Rihanna’s perfume, an Allstate ad with Liz Lemon’s boyfriend Dennis, a Truth candy cigarette PSA, and more. Then some outdated theater promos — a Despicable Me bit for the projection, a Bee Movie tie-in for Dolby — and two previews: X-Men First Class and Bridesmaids, perfectly capturing the nerd/Wiig crowd there for the main feature. Projection Digital, looked very good

And so it begins… Even thought this is my fourth time around, I still feel like I’m not even close to running out of theaters. Aimee and Grace are back East again, and I’ve planned out another week of movie-going. I’ll be hitting some theaters I’ve been to before and some I haven’t, and will be trying to catch as many movies I actually want to see as possible, which isn’t always easy.

I’m starting out not too far from the office, but a world away. Grauman’s Chinese, the lavish, opulent center of Hollywood for over 75 years, is a landmark. It’s home to the famed footprints in its forecourt, but it’s also home to people dressed up like Michael Jackson, evil Batman, Mario and Luigi, and any other vaguely recognizable pop culture figure you can think of, each one surrounded by a dozen tourists snapping photos. It can be counted on to be a madhouse.

Considering how well known the Chinese is, I don’t have much experience actually seeing films there. I’ve only been here three times before: twice a year ago during the first TCM Classic Film Festival, and again last week for the festival’s second iteration. So I’ve now seen North by Northwest, Breathless, Citizen Kane, and… Paul. I was doing so well there. Just contemplating that deepest circle of Hollywood tourist hell is enough to sap anyone’s desire to see a movie at this theater, when there are so many other options. It’s too bad, because it’s a great place to see a film, from the sumptuous interior to the excellent sound and (digital, tonight) projection.

The movie was fun, not as good as either Adventureland or Shaun of the Dead but an enjoyable time.