A film projector should be fine if it's a good 35mm (let alone 70mm) copy of the movie and the projector is up to throwing the image onto a big screen. There can be no doubt that film is a lot better than DVD, just like a half-decent 35mm film camera will produce much more detailed images than a 0.3 to 0.4 megapixel digital camera ever could.
It must be the way the cinemas up your way are run and copies of the films are produced. I watched The Good, the Bad and the Ugly at the Astor here in Melbourne. I also have the recent anamorphic wide screen release DVD which I watched many times on my smaller big screen (100 inch diag). The DVD is very good. But the cinema film version was awesome! A lot more detailed that the DVD. And so it should be. That's why I pay good money to see it at the cinema.
It is a shame you are getting such bad service from the theatres. But at least you have a good display for watching movies at home. I'd you never go back to a regular CRT TV after seeing how DVD looks on a HD display.
