Let's Go See Mark Wahlberg in Renton!

Photo: Michael Gibson/Twentieth Century Fox

The offer of free popcorn and soda with Max Payne (another vidgame adaptation not screened for the press) is almost enough incentive to drive south to Renton today, where The Landing Stadium 14 is having its official opening.

The new multiplex is sited in the Landing, a new 46-acre mixed-use complex nestled off 405 near Lake Washington, and Boeing's Renton facility. (In fact, the land was purchased from Boeing.) It's stuffed full of big-box retailers like Target, Fry's Electronics, and Lowe's Hardware, and filled with 900 new apartments, an example of high-density development on rezoned land. (Paul Allen is building pricier condos and townhouses at a nearby lakeshore site where the polluted old sawmill used to be.) One problem with the $300 million Landing project, however, is that it doesn't have a Metro Park & Ride lot (despite all those acres of parking). It also sits right on the essentially unused Eastside railroad freight line that King County Executive Ron Sims wants to convert to a bike trail. (Some are still fighting for commuter rail on the line, perhaps alongside the bikers.) What's the acronym--TOD, Transit Oriented Development? Without even so much as a grocery store, though there's plenty of take-out food, the Landing is a poor example of progressive residential development.

Operating the new multiplex is Regal Entertainment Group, the largest theater owner in the U.S., which operates 232 screens and 22 cinemas in the Puget Sound area (presumably now counting The Landing). Regal is one of the survivors of a brutal economic shakeout that saw most exhibitors go into bankruptcy in the late '90s and early '00s. It specializes in suburban locations, meaning free parking for 675 vehicles at the Landing, although it did recently buy the downtown Meridian 16 from Loews when that latter company went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

For showtimes, see Fandango.com. By phone, Regal has always made it difficult to access showtimes easily and directly; for now, try dialing 800-FAN-DANG and enter 4009. (We'll also likely add the showtimes to our online movie listings.)

And we'll review Max Payne online, sometime later today.