‘Forrest Gump’ runs again: Sunday and Tuesday

I can remember seeing "Forrest Gump" when it first came out in July 1994. My wife and I drove to what was then the Newport Highway Cinemas, a moviegoing necessity that many older Spokane movie fans remember.

Today's movie fans go now to one of the main theater complexes, owned either by AMC, Regal, Village Centre Cinemas (either at Airway Heights or Wandermere), or the independent theaters Garland or Magic Lantern. In those days, though, the Spokane area used to boast several smaller movie venues.

The Newport Highway Cinemas, then owned by Luxury Theatres, was built on the site of the former Starlite Drive-In. It was purchased by Act III Theatres in 1989 and then Regal Cinemas in 1998. The once proud, and supposedly state-of-the-art, theater closed for good in 2004.

Bye-bye to poor sight lines, straight-backed seats and sound that leaked from one house to the next (far worse than what we experience today).

Our screening of "Forrest Gump" took place in one of the complex's smaller houses. And it was, as happened often in those days, full.

A full house might occur when the 25th-anniversary screening of Robert Zemeckis' adaptation of Winston Groom's novel plays, at 3 p.m. Sunday and at 7 p.m. Tuesday at two area Regal Cinemas locations: Northtown Mall and Coeur d'Alene's Riverstone Stadium.

But at least the seats should be more comfortable. And make sure to buy some chocolates. Maybe even a boxful.