Many of you probably pass it on your way to class each day, although you probably don’t think twice about it or even glance at it. Nestled across the street from Jack in the Box on Northeast 50th Street and the Ave, the Grand Illusion is a rather interesting theater that certainly doesn’t get enough credit.

As I entered, this place seemed less like a theater and more like a really cool house with a couple of private screening rooms. I introduced myself to the first two people I saw, Brian Walton and Matt Puljung, volunteers at the Grand Illusion and self-proclaimed “cinephiles.” As Walton began to explain to me, “It’s a breed … there’s normal people who want to watch movies, and then there’s movie people … cinephiles.”

The Grand Illusion shows restored films of all sorts, from masterpieces like It’s A Wonderful Life to lesser-known action flicks, such as the obscure 1987 Bill Maher horror film, House II. Rotating films on a routine basis, there is always something new to see (at least new to most UW students) at the Grand Illusion, and none of the same hassle as the mainstream, gargantuan megaplexes that dominate cinema in the modern era.

The Grand Illusion organization seems to take pride in the eclectic mix of films that come through the theater on such a regular basis. This coming week, the Grand Illusion will be presenting The Warriors, the 1979 cult hit directed by Walter Hill, following a Coney Island gang falsely accused of murdering a rival leader during a New York gang meeting. Hill, whose films include 48 Hrs. and Brewster’s Millions, has been featured at the Grand Illusion over the past several weeks, with his earlier and much grittier work being the focus.

Tonight, UW students can catch the final showings of Hard Times and The Driver. Hard Times is a 1975 action drama starring the badass Charles Bronson, a tough loner who teams up with a hustler in New Orleans to score some extra cash. The Driver, which I had the good fortune of catching, is a 1978 … well … driving film, starring Bruce Dern as an obsessed detective and Ryan O’Neil as a slick getaway driver who attempts to outwit the crazed Dern character. Both of these films are cinematic gems worth checking out, and both will undoubtedly please the acute tastes of any true movie buff.

“The Walter Hill festival is something we all wanted to see, but unfortunately no one in the area seemed to really care. … Perhaps it’s the cold weather,” Brian said. Whatever it was, on the Monday evening I saw The Driver, the audience consisted of Brian, Matt, my girlfriend, and myself. “Everybody knows us when Christmas comes around and we show It’s A Wonderful Life. … We survive off of that money for a long time because it seems that after Christmas, people forget we’re actually open 52 weeks a year.”

Theater-goers interested in the occasional movie may spurn this place, but for those interested in the truly ambiguous and bizarre depths of cinema, the Grand Illusion will be welcoming the Portland Grindhouse Film Festival Jan. 26th. Hosting a double feature of two completely wacky kung-fu films, the Grand Illusion will be showing director Yuen Woo-Ping’s 1978 Jackie Chan film, Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow and the nearly unknown Devil Woman, a peculiar horror/kung-fu combo straight out of the Philippines. The former film is considered a kung-fu masterpiece, centering on a unique hero played by Chan, who is familiar in the ways of the snake fist style of kung-fu.

It’s events like this that really attract hard-core movie buffs. Puljung decided to volunteer at the Grand Illusion for this very reason. “I started because I came last Halloween to see a Vincent Price double feature. … It was great finding a place that still shows that kind of stuff and I decided to volunteer to do my part. It’s not a hard job. And I get to watch the show.”

These guys truly love their cinema. As Walton, the projectionist for the evening, began to set up the reel, Puljung shouted from the concession stand, “If you wait for two minutes while I take out the garbage, I would really like to watch this one.”