REVISITING UA WARNER CENTER 6

About seven years ago, in a special Times section evaluating neighborhood first-run theaters, the then-new UA Warner Center 6 in Woodland Hills was evaluated as a building with an “attractive angular wood and glass structure” but one in which the floors were “already dirty.”

As part of this column’s regular reviews of theaters, we paid the UA Warner Center 6 another visit. Well, the floors have probably been cleaned since then, but they are still dirty enough to host a fly convention and the architecture--if we can elevate the drawing of matchboxes to a profession--has not turned the complex into the area’s proudest landmark.

Nevertheless, the UA Warner Center 6 is hot. Date night, U.S.A. Forget the VCR. This is the place where kids who live in the west end of the Valley go when they reach puberty. When Film Clips dropped in Friday night, we weren’t sure if we were watching “Club Paradise” or were in it.

If you listen, you can almost hear the boys’ voices changing.

For sure, you will hear voices. At the Warner 6, the term talkies refers to the audience. The ushers, most of whom looked too young to drive themselves to work, were in the lobby, a safe distance from the fray.

There are two good theaters in the Warner 6, and four that would be a bad deal at half the $5.50 ticket price. The two large rooms, each appearing to have about 500 seats, have good sight lines, large screens and on this occasion good sound.

According to the newspaper ad, one of the big rooms is equipped with THX (the George Lucas-designed sound system) and 70-millimeter projection. What that theater didn’t have Friday night was air conditioning. The standing-room-only audience, there for the opening of “Aliens,” took as much heat as the creatures being charbroiled by Sigourney Weaver’s flame thrower up on the screen.

The faulty air-conditioning unit, which an usher said had just gone out that night, did not affect the other five theaters. During the few minutes we spent in the heat, both the projection and sound for “Aliens” were fine.

The other large room, which is showing “About Last Night. . . ,” seemed to have even better presentation, with 35-millimeter projection and Dolby stereo. But maybe the heat elsewhere had colored our judgment.

As for the four small theaters, better you wait for the cassette. The rooms, which are narrow enough to begin with, are bisected by single aisles that cut swaths through the best viewing zones. It’s like throwing out artichoke hearts and keeping the leaves.

We did a quick check of all four small theaters (the ushers ignored us as we popped like a pinball from one to another) and found the projection bad in only one. “Club Paradise,” on this night, was being shown out of focus.

Concession prices are high-end, with popcorn (freshly popped) selling for $1.25 to $3.25, beverages and candy from $1 to $2 and hot dogs for $2.25. Parking, which spills over into the acreage of a closed furniture warehouse next door, is free.

On a scale of 1 to 4 popcorn boxes, the UA Warner Center 6 rates a 2 . . . without butter.

TWO PLUS TWO: Fans of the Plitt Theaters in Century City may be happy to know that the planned addition of two theaters there will not affect the size of the presentation of either of the current rooms.

Garth Drabinsky, president of Cineplex Odeon, said the new rooms will be built in the area that is now the upper level of seats in the main auditorium. The smaller of the two theaters will remain as is.

Drabinsky said that when work is completed next year, there will be two large theaters of about 800 seats each, and two small ones seating from 200 to 300.

“We’re not going to tamper with the integrity of either of those theaters,” Drabinsky said.