Best Experiences In a Theater - Page 2

A lot of great experiences. Independence Day is a great one. The Wednesday 10 PM Matrix Reloaded was awesome. Obviously thinking about it afterwards wasn't...

But it all comes down to Return of the King for me. The most emotionally powerful experience ever.

Tarkovsky, are you in Tucson? That's where I'm at (student at the U of A). I've been to the Fox theater many a times. I went to it's grand re-opening to see The Wizard of Oz, and it was great. But, when it comes to the selection of films, the Loft independent theater is a million times better and is just a few big events and regular famous visitors away from being a strong competitor to the famous Alamo Drafthouse. If you're ever in town, give me a PM and I'd be down to catch a movie together or something.

Hwaauggh! That's a tall order, sir.

Do they serve beer and food while you watch?

I was just about to type about seeing the trailer for this for the first time in a packed theater. That was an experience. As soon as it started and people realized what it was, there were cheers followed by people shushing each other. When that trailer ended, some dude in the back let out a "HELL YEAH!" and the theater erupted in applause. I've never seen a trailer get such a loud, overwhelmingly positive reaction like that.

Damn, I was hoping nobody would catch my mix of hyperbole, wishful thinking and trolling.
Well...they serve beer.

Similar to other posts on here, seeing Borat, Jackass and the South Park Movie on opening night in a sold out theater was just an amazing experience. Each time I was crying with laughter along with 300 other people and my face actually hurt afterwards from laughing so much.

I remember bunking off college one afternoon to see Matrix Reloaded, It was the 4pm showing on opening day but it was still sold out, mostly uni/college students. I could actually feel the excitement in the air before it started. Don't think I'd ever been so hyped for a movie.
When Neo grabs the Keymaker and Larry from the exploding truck the entire theater let out a communal, 'holy fucking shit' sort of gasp and then burst into applause. I've never once heard applause in an English cinema either before or since...

I'll have to third or fourth Return of the King. By the end, I had never heard a more quiet theater. And then the applause happened. And happened. And happened. And even my girlfriend at the time, who hates applauding for movies, started cheering. Absolutely wonderful.

But nothing beats The Count of Monte Cristo, a movie I enjoy on its own, but is made even better because what's better than making out with one girl in a theater? Making out with two! And two who don't mind shedding a little clothing in the process.

Ha, people were pumped up, but when they saw those Autobots falling from the sky and that beautiful music started up, the place went nuts. Say what you will about the movie as a whole, but that section is pretty much perfect. Save for the fat kid.

You dirty boy-hooker you! And you seem so sweet and unassuming!

Yup, I've just recently found out that I'm a wildcat until I graduate instead of until the end of the year, so I'll be here until the end of the school year until I'm moving up to Phoenix. I've been to the loft, too. Saw the Seventh Seal and Jules et Jim there, great environment. What year are you?

Empire Strikes Back
My dad took me to see this in the local flea pit in Liverpool. I'd been bugging them for months to take me to see it when it came out. The one day when I was 6, I came home from school and he said he'd 'found' some tickets to the new Star Wars movie and who should he take with him?

"OOH OHH OHH ME ME ME ME ME ME!!"

So we go and we watch the short film before Empire (The King Arthur-looking film was called Black Angel - see here - I'd love to see this again, can't find it anywhere)... And then Empire started...

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

I remember something about snow and then fell asleep.

Jurassic Park
When the T-rex starts attacking the car every single girl in the theatre screamed and screamed and screamed - i remember thinking this must have been what it was like when Jaws came out.

The film was only slightly ruined by a pair of cocks sitting infront of me who talked through the whole movie - they saved the best till last - where you see the pelicans flying over the water:

(In thick scouse accent)

"Dats dem dinosaur birds"

"nah - der dem flamencos (flamingos)"

Schindlers List
The only film I've ever sat in where the whole audience were still in their seats after the credits and the lights came up. I think alot of people felt leaving early would do a discredit to the people who were involved in the film on every level - from being part of the actual events to being involved in the production of the film. And there were people who, like myself and best friend were sitting there thinking "Bloody Hell!"

Two Towers
The part where Gollum is talking to himself while Sam and Frodo are sleep - where he tells himself to "Go Away" - I sat with a big shit-eating grin on my face thinking THIS is how you put soul and character into a CGI creation.

Return of the King
From Theoden's rally cry to the ride of the Rohirrim every hair on my body (and there are lots) was on end - absolutly elecrtrifying...

Grindhouse, opening day, 11 AM showing. My friends and I were completely flipping out. I had a Planet Terror shirt on over a Death Proof shirt. I nearly lost it on one of my friends for going to the bathroom right before the Thanksgiving trailer.

Sin City, opening day. COMPLETELY blown away by this one.

Fahrenheit 9/11, opening day. Not only was I enthralled by every second in spite of its in-your-face politics, as soon as the credits roll the audience (and myself) went apeshit.

V for Vendetta. Senior year of high school, first movie I ever saw the night before or for a midnight show.

The same night I saw Daredevil was my first intro to P.T. Anderson, seeing Boogie Nights for the first time.

When I was 10 I saw There's Something About Mary during the Thursday following its release (came out on Wednesday). I saw it on the second day, so not only was I ahead of the curve but I reveled in every last bit of its raunchy heart. This, of course, was the pre-Apatow era, though I saw The 40 Year Old Virgin opening night and knew that these guys were going to be huge. Were they.

A couple of weeks ago, saw LAWRENCE OF ARABIA on the big screen at the Robert Osbourne Festival in Athens. Beautiful 70mm print. It was one of my holy grails. Not ashamed to say I shed a few tears during opening credits.
(I'm rugged I swear!)

Seeing PULP FICTION on opening weekend with my semi-conservative parents was a life-changing event. It opened my eyes to independent films as well as realizing my Dad does not like needles.

Seeing a sneak preview of NAPOLEON DYNAMITE with an audience of 90% teenagers. The vibe recalled the infamous ANIMAL HOUSE screening.

Another memorable sneak preview was ANCHORMAN when the audience was mostly senior citizens and couldn't understand any of the jokes. Thanks for knowing your demographic, radio promotion fucks.

I've had memorable experiences at matinees during my college years (easy joke, I know). Seeing THE MATRIX, BLAIR WITCH and FIGHT CLUB without random douchebags ruining the experience is nice. The best, however, was seeing OLDBOY. Other than it's accolades it got in Cannes, I knew nothing about the film and was just devastated by it.

Just came out dissapointed after watching Jackie Chan's The Forbidden Kingdom when I decided to catch a sneak preview of Doomsday.

Best decision I made that year.

Got hooked the minute the John Carpenter type Title fonts came up. The FYC scene and Rhona Mitra was hotter than hell. Best car chase I'd seen for some time as well.

Halloween 1986 double-feature of Aliens and The Fly. Second time seeing Aliens, first time with The Fly, and they blew the goddamn roof off the place.

Despite how I've soured on the film, the midnight showing of Attack of the Clones was absolutely electric. I think people were so buoyed by the final fifteen minutes or so -- the Yoda/Dooku fight, the Imperial March at the end, the Empire-style ending -- that it got a racous standing ovation. More I think because we all thought "Damn, Episode III is going to ROCK" more than actually liking Clones. Oh well.

Fellowship of the Ring. Absolute magic. A couple of hundred people sitting in pure rapturous delight that Jackson had pulled it off.

Times Theater, Milwaukee, October, Mid-90s

Silent movie night, live accompaniment on piano

First Short
Melies - The Pillar of Fire

(o.k. off to a good start. Nice to see early use of tinting.)

Second Short
Edison - Frankenstein

Yes, Edison's motherfucking Frankenstein. I suspect that actually seeing it is akin to what would happen if London After Midnight was actually discovered, the reputation far exceeds the actual quality of the film, but I'm pleased to have seen it.

Feature
Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror

First showing of a brand new restoration. Cleaned up. Intertitles retranslated and reshot. Film stock dyed for color effects. The pianist and audience really being into it. Fantastic.

Raiders of the Lost Ark opening weekend with my parents and grandparents. My grandfather really had a great time with that movie...though we almost lost my grandmother after the 'Adios Satipo' shot.

Best ever experiences in a theater

Terminator 2; Judgement Day.

We were under age my best friend had his brothers driving licence. T1000 walks out of the fire in the exploding truck. Awesome

The Crow

After seeing the ads on the TV I had to see this film but I was underage. I went on my own to chance getting in as it was an 18 (R). I got in!! The film was exactly the film I had to see at 16, bloody marvellous.

Jurassic Park

Saw it two months before it came out in the UK whilst on holiday in Florida and will never forget how scared I was when the T-rex attacks the jeep. Went back two more times later that summer.

The Exorcist

During its 1998 re-release went to see what all the fuss was about. Thirty minutes later I was a trembling wreck clutching my girlfriends arm. Didnt sleep for a week after.

Fight Club

Went with my brother one Saturday afternoon in late 99. Had no idea what to expect just knew that Edward Norton was making some interesting films around that time. Walked out into the daylight, dazed, bewildered and with a renewed love of cinema.

Jurassic Park - It's pretty crazy how vividly I remember the entire experience. The day before I dragged my Mom to take me to see Dennis the Menace and while we were there begged her to buy Jurassic Park tickets for the next day which she did. I remember when they get off the helicopter and they walk up to the Bracceosaurus and my jaw just smacking the floor in the theater, such an amazing moment and probably the one that got me into movies in the first place.

Jackass: The Movie - It was my Freshman year of College on a Monday night and all my roommates and I decided to go see it. We walk outside to see the majority of our building figuring out the car situation. We had like 20 people going to the movie together.

The Matrix - The theater in Hartford was doing a special Monday night screening of it right before Reloaded came out and since most of us missed it in it's initial run we couldn't pass up going. So cool to finally see it in a proper theater.

The Return of the King - Midnight screening, so many people showed up they were playing it on four seprate screens in the theater. The house was packed and you could just feel the electricity in the air. To that point that when the add for the Coca-Cola races came up and the winner crossed the line everyone in the theater started hollering because in all their own little groups everyone had picked who they thought would win. Needless to say the crowd kept it up the whole time, so much fun.

The Incredibles - I was bored one afternoon and didn't have class so I just deicided to go. There was one other person in the theater and I just sat there the entire time going nuts. I went back like 10 years as the movie went on.

when I was 4 my dad took me to see ghostbusters 2. I started freaking out when the bathtub was filling with ooze stuff and my dad had to take me out of the theater. He says I was scared, I like to think I was having a breakdown over a sub-par sequel.


I loved seeing eternal sunshine in an empty theater with my girlfriend. And we go to movies to watch not, molest each other. Being alone for eternal sunshine was nice though, we just sat in silence and both really got hit hard by that one.

The most recent experience I ve had is " Drag Me To Hell" ..had a community enviorment in the theater. Everyone was jumping and swearing at the screen (granted, the audiience was comprised by 15 strangers...)

BEVERLY HILLS COP 2
Spent the last 20 minutes of the movie tongue kissing a girl on the first date.

Wait..I saw Reign of Fire in the theater..during it..the fire alarms went off, and the theater evacuated.

Or during Travolta's Phenomenon-all the theater light suddenly came in to wit I said "Gee..I feel smarter!"

The absolute top and the most definitive movie experience I've had was an Empire/Jedi double bill when I was 3. That pretty much kickstarted my movie addiction. My next double-bill experience was the first two Karate Kid movies when I was 5. That was somewhat less profound.

And it wasn't a great movie but the most recent example has to be My Bloody Valentine 3D. The two girls sat beside me screamed and flailed around throughout the entire film, people all around me were shielding their face and try to dodge the things coming out of the screen. They all bought into the gimmick wholeheartedly and it managed to sweep me up along the way.

Drag Me To Hell was a great movie to watch and get caught up in, but the experience was marred by a gang of chavs in the back of the theater who fancied themselves comedians and made terrible commentary every ten minutes before being shouted at by a random stranger. I think the cream of the crop would be, "Uhuhuh, that goat's gonna lick her tits."

After Attack of the Clones, the drunken estranged husband of one of the moviegoers showed up in the lobby and started a fight with her date for the evening. It was telling that during the mandatory post-movie pub discussion we talked less about the movie and more about who would have won the fight had the staff not pulled them apart. I would've given it to the husband, personally.

Saving Private Ryan - This isn't very nice but it stayed with me. Opening weekend, packed house full of very old people. Once the Omaha beach landing started the old dears around me started weeping and crying "no", real streched out "noooo"'s, uncontrollable anguish just being released. It's a real visceral experience when you witness it for the first time but that outburst just hit home the sacrifice that these men made. It felt all too real.

Anchorman - I'm sure i've written about this before. Very simple. Only four people in the theatre, me and my mate and two ladies easily in their sixties sitting a couple of rows behind and throughout the film they were giggling like two little girls. I had a permanent smile all the way through, just brilliant.

Baz Lurhmans Romeo and Juliet. Handjob.

"Traffic." As soon as the movie started, a dozen obnoxious high school kids came in and sat in the row right in front of me, chatting up a storm. A couple minutes later, an usher came in and booted their worthless asses out of the auditorium. It was glorious.

"SWAT." With about 10 minutes left in the movie, Colin Farrell is about to blow up an obstruction that's trapped the heroes in the sewer. He has some tough guy line like, "Remember when I said I was a SEAL...?" And the film melted right there. I thought for a second that he'd exploded the movie itself. The audience freaked the fuck out, but we all got free passes. I personally prefer that ending over the version everyone else saw.

"Rocky IV." It was the third film in the Dolph Lundgren Film Festival at the New Bev. The flick brought the house down in a way I'd never seen before. I've been to movies that play like rock concerts, but this was something else.

"Superman: The Movie." The ArcLight did a screening of the 2001 Director's Cut a couple years ago. From the opening credits to the final shot of Supes breaking the fourth wall, it's still the greatest superhero flick ever.

This was my experience with Flags of Our Fathers. I went with my grandfather(Who died just recently) and he had a very emotional reaction to it because he was there and saw too many of his friends die.

The Hangover:

Before this movie came out, my dad had gone to rehab and had started AA. I took my mom to see it and my dad was worried that it would get to him. Now, while he was drinking, he wasn't always nice(No abuse, just not nice), and didn't laugh much. Not only was it one of the funniest movies I saw in a long time, but out of my row, my dad's laughter was the loudest. It was nice.

Some Ewan McGregor movie
made out the entire time (got over my fear of PDA)

Ninja Turtles
I was a kid, huge fan, and had nooooo idea that would be live action, let alone when Leo jumped out AND WAS REAL! It was a damn shame they got replaced with puppets in part III.

The Matrix
The entire film really opened my mind to philosophy, kung fu and the world not being what it was. I was a preteen.

I've had more negative experiences at the cineplex rather than really memorable ones but I'll mention the two that stand out:

1. I ended up seeing Grindhouse twice. The first time was in a theatre on the Monday night after it had come out and the crowd wasn't really into it like I had hoped; plus, some dumbshit parents brought along very young kids, and I was horrified and enraged. At least they left after Planet Terror. There wasn't even a real reaction to the ending of Death Proof.

However, a week later I went to Tampa to see it at a drive-thru there. Yes, I couldn't have asked for a more perfect place to see that kind of flick. There weren't too many other people there, but we all watched it and nothing was too out of the ordinary... until the ending of Death Proof. One carload of people clearly hadn't seen the movie before this night, as when you had that crowd-pleasing moment, well, they were VERY pleased. They were marking out and all yelling, "Fuck yeah!" "Awesome!", and whatnot. That brought a smile to my face.

2. This past February, seeing the midnight debut of the new Friday the 13th. A bunch of college-aged types and I sat near the front as that screening was pretty crowded. That was by far the best experience I had in the theatre as the crowd was really into the film and they made it much better than if I had seen it at a later date. Everyone screamed and yelled at the jump scares and in particular the strangers that sat around me consisted of some girls behind me who just about soiled their pants during all the jump scares and they were on the edge of their seats the rest of the time, and in front of me were some cheery chaps who also had a ball with it BUT weren't the type that yapped their mouths either, although they did laugh at the fact that Chewie looked a lot like one of the members of their entourage. There was even applause, twice. Besides the end credits there was also people marking out for the title card, due to when in the movie you saw it.

One of the trailers for the movie was Obsessed and a member of the group had the perfect short description for that flick; he described the movie as "Crazy White Bitch". I wish I could see another movie with that kind of audience.

But back to Friday... I'll probably rent the DVD soon but I'm sure I'll end up disappointed as I enjoyed seeing it on the big screen but I realized much of it was due to the crowd, and watching it alone on TV it'll come off much worse.

I'm a bit new here, so what better way to share a little bit about myself than to describe a couple of my favorite theater experiences!


Fellowship of the Ring: I saw FotR on opening night in a big theater with about 500 people in it. It wasn't like the typical stadium seating multiplexes that are everywhere, it was more like a modern movie palace with only a few screens, but it was a pretty big theater with a really big screen and a steep slope to the floor so that pretty much everybody had a good view. The sound was cranked so high that the nazgul screams almost instantly gave me a headache, but I didn't really care. When the movie was finally done, I sat mesmerized for a little while after the credits had finished, letting it all sink in. My favorite book had made it to the big screen, and it was actually good.


Return of the King (trilogy screening): The first time I saw RotK was during the all day trilogy screening event that showed in a few places around the country when it premiered. I got to the theater at six in the morning and waited in the bitter cold with a bunch of other folks. A few people were dressed up in costumes, but most people were just in as many layers of coats and blankets that they could keep on. One group brought a horn that they played at intervals, counting down to the start of the first screening that I believe was at 1pm.

They finally let us inside the theater late in the morning, and everyone was chattering excitedly before the extended version of Fellowship started up. After the extended version of Two Towers finished (which had just recently been released on DVD, so a lot of the audience hadn't seen it yet), it was time to start Return of the King. I don't think I've ever been in a theater more excited and energetic that that night. Unfortunately for us, the projector had had too much fun during the day, and it burned through the film right in the middle of the Shelob sequence. They had to replace the projector and start the movie back up from the next reel. Subsequent viewings revealed that we only missed about a minute of the film, but that night we had no idea how much we had missed.

As soon as the spiffy end credits came up, there were a tons of cheers, and the individual cards for each cast member got a ton of applause (even Sean Bean got a lot of praise). Even though it was a *long* day at the theater, I'll never forget it. I've still got the keepsake they gave us at the end of the night.


The Matrix Reloaded (midnight): I went with a couple of my college buddies to the midnight showing of Matrix Reloaded, and it was a blast. There was a radio station there giving out prizes, and everyone was really pumped. The movie may not be the best thing in the world, but the experience that night was a lot of fun.


Scooby Doo: There's nothing like seeing Scooby Doo in a theater packed to the gills entirely with college students. I probably like the movie more than I should to this day, just because I saw it in the theater this way.

I got a blowjob during Hollow man.

Pretty sure I've mentioned both of these before, but it was ages ago.

The Empire Strikes Back. Without mentioning her plan to me, my Mom wakes me up to get ready for school like normal. After I'm ready, we hop in the car and instead of taking me to school she takes me to the only single screen old fashioned theater in Phoenix (the sadly now defunct Cine Capri). It's opening day, she has brought lawn chairs and a bag full of snacks and we wait for 5 hours for them to sell tickets to the first show of the day. My Mom claimed then (and still sticks by it) that she called me in sick to school to take me to opening day because she didn't want me bugging her all the time about seeing it, but it's still my fondest childhood memory. She was obviously pretty proud of herself, too.

On a side note, that summer we took a family vacation and were driving across the country. I remember that through poor planning we had ended up unable to find a hotel room one night and being forced to keep driving to the next town hoping for vacancies. We'd all gone from being grumpy to being so tired that we were just punchy, and we had no idea how far we'd have to drive to find a bed. As we drove past a movie theater that literally had a line wrapped all the way around it with people waiting to see Empire, my father rolled down the window and screamed "DARTH VADER IS LUKE SKYWALKER'S FATHER!". Looking back, it was such a jackass thing to do. At the time, it made me laugh like a maniac.

My other great movie experience was The Hudsucker Proxy. It was at the exact same movie theater which happened to be the only theater in the state of Arizona playing it. I was (and am) a gigantic Coen Brothers fan. I was living a few hours north and trying to figure out when I would make a trip down to Phoenix to see the movie. As luck would have it, my best friend planned his wedding for the opening weekend. I took my girlfriend with me to the wedding, did my best man duties, and as soon as the wedding was over we rushed over to catch the last showing of the night at the theater. I was still dressed in my tux from the wedding, got hit on by 3 separate women at the theater (I still find it odd that a tux at a Coen Brothers movie would get that kind of reaction, but I wasn't complaining), and enjoyed the hell out of a movie that I was worried I wouldn't get a chance to see.

Probably seeing There Will Be Blood, in a theater with people who knew to shut up when the movie started and NOT BRING BABIES. It was beautiful. And I'd credit it for beginning my gradual shift from seeing only blockbusters in theaters to seeing a mix of blockbusters and limited releases. Eventually, I will be seeing all blockbusters only at the 2-dollar theater.

Every 3-D film of the last year on opening night. Something about a room full of kids ooing and awing just makes the films even better.

Backdraft because it was rated R and I was too young to be in the theater and it was this killer theater that had survived being completely submerged in water during a flood and was covered in water stains almost fifty years later. I ate Junior Mints and felt like I was a kid of the 60s.

And Metropolis at BNAT this last year. Yes it was the 80s colorized remix but I was sitting next to a friend who hadn't seen a single version of the film. I might have held back tears throughout the film because I was FINALLY seeing Metropolis on a big screen. I'm a huge Metropolis fangirl.

And a sneak preview of Free Willy. I don't know why but I remembered LOVING that experience.

Ultraviolet: About halfway through the entire audience just gave up and started laughing and shouting out at the screen. It was entirely communal, and for the most part VERY funny and not just numbnuts yelling random things at the screen. It turned from one of the worst movies I have ever seen to the worst movie I've ever seen but with the best theatre experience. Personal favorite: People yelling out "bleh!" after everything David Fichtner said while wearing his vampire fangs.

The General: I saw it at the capitol theatre in Salt Lake, the local old vaudeville chain theatre. It had a live organist playing the original score. I was sitting in a box and the entire theatre was filled with cineastes. It was an absolute blast.

Yeah, the midnight show for that one kicked ass for me too. I was all hyper and excited throughout the first 15 minutes, then Jason shows up and I was thinking fuck yeah and shit. Then the title comes on screen and the whole crowd just DEVOURS it.