The Cinema De Lux Island 16 is located in Holtsville, NY, near exit 62 of the Long Island Expressway, though it is shielded from the expressway's service road, which typically will house all manner of businesses. The Long Island Expressway itself has 73 exits, with the numbers getting higher as one goes east, and it runs from Manhattan's Midtown Tunnel and terminates suddenly in Riverhead, some five miles from where the eastern end of Long Island forks. So Holtsville is quite nearly halfway between Manhattan and Montauk. And this Cinema De Lux is located near nothing, except for a Residence Inn, and the small roads that get you to it are potholed, and as abandoned as the old industrial buildings nearby.

The small Cinema De Lux chain is owned by National Amusements, the company founded by Sumner Redstone's father. There are just 13 outposts in the U.S. and 3 in the U.K. A year ago, when a new Cinema De Lux was to open in Leicester, England, with 12 screens, 6000 people applied for 200 jobs. 2500 interviews were conducted.

Nearly everything about the theater recounts the spaceships aboard which all of humanity was tended in the movie Wall-E. Last year, Newsday reviewed the Island 16: "You'll find gourmet-style offerings such as coconut shrimp appetizers, roast beef panini and chicken Florentine. Pay an additional $2.50 (or $3 on weekends) to sit in a Director's Hall theater and the staff will deliver your order to your seat."

There is also a bar.

It is true that they will deliver food to your seat in their Director's Hall theaters. While advertisements are showing before the movie, and also between previews, an usher-cum-waiter will yell out that if any person would like to order food, he should raise his hand. The tickets issued at the box office come in a small envelope, which also includes a menu. The usher-waiters carry change in Ziploc™ bags for when you purchase your food.

The movie emporium is already built around a central food court, so there is no shortage of food. It contains a Ben & Jerry's kiosk, where a slow, pierced boy delivers shakes and ice cream. A single size cone, when topped with ice cream, is as tall as a human head. At other kiosks, which carry traditional movie theater food including nachos and hot dogs, the popcorn is stale. The ticket-takers, who sit at the two wings of theaters that branch of this food court, are given chairs so that they may sit while they take movie tickets.

There are ordinary theaters and these aforementioned Director's Halls, which are a special theater. These tickets cost more. The Director's Halls advertise themselves as having leather seats, and they did appear to be leather. The people attending the movie appear to be mildly heavy but not at all obese. The screens are not particularly large but the seating is sharply raked and there is more legroom than you would get on a modern airplane. When you purchase your ticket, you choose your own seats. In an uncrowded show, most people purchase tickets in pairs, because there are two of them, and these pairs tend to leave an empty seat between them. An usher insists to help with finding your seat. The walls have paper murals of dune fencing with a beach in the distance, and speakers boxes mounted every few feet atop that wallpapering.

There are other amenities, such as air-conditioning, and handicap-parking outside. The staff is very nice, if extremely leisurely, and also slightly distracted, as if they were all listening to music that you cannot hear. Also outside there are some tables and chairs, by the parking lot, blasted with sunshine in the summer, with no trees to be seen.