Best Movie Theater

READERS' PICK: Like Adam West (and then Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer and George Clooney), Century El Con 20 has persevered using strength, technology and the almighty dollar. Eight-dollar tickets! Zap! Pow! Bam! Worth every penny, El Con supplies the most courteous staff, cleanest floors and air conditioning cold enough for Mr. Freeze himself. Twenty viewing screens! Wap! Sock! Pow! El Con provides the movies everyone wants to see, the times they wish to see them and a huge selection of chairs from which to view the films. But beware; 20 screens provide space for a Van Damme flop. Video arcade! Ching! Cling! Ping! El Con sports an arcade capable of pleasing your children, nieces, nephews, boyfriends and husbands. Snack bar! Kablam! Kapow! Kablooie! Refreshing, great tasting, and it better be. A large Coke costs $3.75, large popcorn $5, and as for the Century Dog, with a name like that do you really want to know the price? Theater seats! Poof! Fluff! Puff! Yes, indeed, these reclining seats accommodate the large, small, short, tall, handicapped, hemorrhoid sufferering and anyone else you can think of. Hands down, the best theater seats in Tucson. Screen and sound system! Boom! Blum! Bing! El Con's state-of-the-art viewing screens are crystal clear and the THX Dolby digital sound blows holes in your pockets the snack bar couldn't and other theaters can't.

OF MYTHIC PROPORTIONS: Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway Blvd. What makes the Loft so legendary? We think it's the dual nature of the place. Downstairs is heaven: a big airy theater with room to put your feet up and plenty of space between you and the next moviegoer, a vast screen, elegant red carpets. Upstairs is hell: a tiny funky-smelling box crammed with chatty folks making loud pithy comments like "Oh look, she's chopping onions" and "Is that a real dwarf?" And no matter where you sit, the subtitles will be obscured by the head of the person in front of you. But no matter. The Loft shows us the best of independent and foreign film, and we'd still rather be up there in hell watching something interesting than anywhere else in town watching the usual product-placement vehicles.