Only adults are allowed in the audience, given the sometimes profane nature of the commentary (and the beer), but from the academy's standpoint, that is a good thing. In a tight economic climate, museums nationwide are scheduling nighttime events to expand their clientele beyond the usual busloads of chattering schoolkids.
With the bad-movie night, the academy seems to draw a particularly avid breed of twentysomethings, who spread the word through social media and websites such as Geekadelphia.com.
But seriously, a 400-person sellout on a Thursday night in February?
This month's celluloid victim was The Lost World: Jurassic Park, the second of three movies about bringing dinosaurs to life in the modern world.
Action!
Critics with credentials
Introducing Jason Poole, manager of the fossil lab and coordinator of dinosaur hall at the museum on Logan Square. Accomplished scientific illustrator and veteran of fossil digs in Egypt, Patagonia and Montana.
But put a microphone in his hand . . .
On the screen, as a hungry Tyrannosaurus rex seized one of the movie characters in its jaws and reared high in the air, Poole muttered:
"That's one way to get a leg up in the world."
The audience groaned appreciatively.
Sitting off to one side in an armchair, Poole wore an expedition-style vest and a wide-brimmed leather hat.
Alongside him was Paul Callomon, who manages the museum's malacology collection (i.e., the mollusks, which include snails, clams, and octopuses).
Finally, for reasons not immediately apparent, the academy's movie critics included the Norse god Thor, complete with helmet and plastic hammer.
Actually it was Daniel Corti, the academy's director of visitor services. He explained afterward that because of his long, blond hair, he can't escape the Thor label.
"So I've embraced it," he said.
