Your Best and Worst Cinema Experiences

Best:

- Independence Day. 13-year old Carlos was very excited to see this in 1996. A film made for the big screen.

- The Sixth Sense. Me and a friend* went to watch it the thursday before the film reviews all came out in the Friday papers. Nobody knew what to expect and I figured out the twist about 5 minutes before the rest of the cinema collectively gasps as the wedding ring hits the floor. Fantastic experience.

*My friend was much richer than me and always had an extra quid spare to pick the ferrari during our ritualistic pre-film races on Konami's GTi Club Rally Arcade Cabinet. Beat me every time.

- Avengers: Endgame. I don't like it as much as Infinity War but I secretly watched it on my own during an afternoon of work so I could watch it in peace before going with the family. I had to keep all my excitement in for 3 whole days before taking the wife and kids but it was worth it so I could let the missus enjoy it whilst I took the youngest to the toilet every half an hour. There was a collective cheer when Falcon buzzes in on Cap's comms too.

- Teen Titans Go to the Movies. Might not be everyone's cup of tea but I took my boys and we laughed ourselves silly through the whole thing. The rest of the cinema was full of bemused parents wondering wtf was going on

Worst:

- Matrix Reloaded. I didn't mind the film but my mates at Uni went without me so I had to watch it on my own. It was the first film I saw by myself aged 19 and I felt like a right lemon. I was also the *only* person in the cinema who waited until the end of the credits to see the trailer for Revolutions. My mates had no idea it was on there

- Dreamcatcher. I only went to see this because it had the Animatrix 'Last Flight of the Osiris' by Square Pictures showing beforehand. The film itself was absolute garbage.

- The Force Awakens. Great film but I couldn't sit with my friends so I had to sit next to a guy who spent the whole film with his head in his t-shirt playing with his phone. FFS if you don't like the film just leave or see something else

- The Bourne *Suffix*. I really only remember watching one of them but I had had a long day at work and an early 6am shift and the shakey camera work (which I really hate in films) made my eyes so tired I ended up falling asleep and missing the whole film.

- King Arthur. The Clive Owen version which isn't a bad sunday afternoon film but the film kept going out of focus. I had to walk up to the projection booth to get the guy to sort it out properly.

- Blade: Trinity. I was so hyped for this it was unreal and I've never been so let down by a movie (apart from maybe Ready Player One, a film my friends all tell me I'm supposed to like) For 2 days afterwards I wouldn't talk about it to the missus. In hindsight its a terrible-to-ok early Ryan Reynolds movie but a terrible Blade fil.

Best

Those handful of times I've had the whole cinema to myself

Watching Back to the Future trilogy back to back as an anniversary re-release. Yes I've seen them loads of times but there was something great about watching them on the big screen

Watching the original Star Wars trilogy when they were re-released back in the 90s. See above. They were the George Lucas special editions but I don't mind that so much, it was still amazing seeing them at the cinema.

Watching City Slickers at the old cinema in town. Not necessarily for the film (though that was enjoyable) but because it was the last film in the huge old cinema before it got closed down and turned into a crappy nightclub. We then had 5 years where we had to go to the nearest city to go to the cinema


Worst

Going to the midnight showing see The Last Jedi. I didn't enjoy the film, wasted annual leave to sleep in the next day and the experience just put me in a bad mood

Any time I've caved and gone to watch a film with friends that I had no interest in and know I wouldn't enjoy. I just end up resenting the film, my friends and get annoyed with myself for caving in. Fortunately it doesn't happen too often

Going to see the LotR trilogy. This kind of falls under the above but not quite. I went to see them with my brother. None of his friends were bothered, he asked and, while I wasn't fussed, we hadn't really done stuff together for a while (used to all the time) and felt we were drifting apart a bit. I went to the first one because I wanted to keep doing stuff together, the other two out of habit and because it seemed like a nice thing to do for him. He got a lot out of it and went on a two month trip around New Zealand.

Best
The Matrix - I went in completely blind and it blew me away right from the opening scene.

Worst
The Mummy Returns - Closest I've ever got to falling asleep in the cinema. Huge let down after the surprisingly good original film.

Best

The collective silence at the end of Infinity War while I was like because I knew the comics

Worst

Spider-Man: Homecoming - made the mistake of going to a 6pm screening which meant there would be kids there. Was sat in the same row with someone whose young kid needed to get up and go outside 6 times during the film. Luckily the cinema wasn't too busy so me and my mate just eventually moved to another row because we were strawberry floating sick of having to stand up and let them out.

Infinity War - sat next to some dickhead who bought the most cinema food I'd ever seen. Just constantly crunching and slurping for the majority of the movie.

Rise of Skywalker - aside from the obvious (film was really bad) there were banana splits behind us who had brought their niece and nephew and were just constantly talking through the entire film, not even at a low volume or whispering but just talking as normal.

more heat than light wrote:On my Return Of The King viewing the film actually cut out just as Frodo was about to throw the ring in the fire. We had to file out of the cinema while they fixed it. When we got back in the film had moved on ten minutes. Eventually they sorted it out and moved it to the right place, but it kinda killed the movie.

I had a similar experience with Two Towers. There was a fire alarm halfway through and we had to go outside for about half an hour. It was great actually as it was a perfect time to go to the toilet.

I've never had a terrible experience at the cinema, the worst was probably The Truman Show, great movie but was spoiled slightly by a mate walking out halfway through, he hated it and went and sat outside by himself while the rest of us watched it.

Best? All three LoTR movies as I strawberry floating loved them.

Ooh, I thought of another good experience! Pacific Rim!

The cinema is the only way to watch that film. The massive screen and booming sound system are absolutely crucial to conveying the experience of the film- I was absolutely giddy every time a fight scene broke out.

Rewatching it on a TV makes you realise it's a little bit crap, actually.

Best

- The Terminator outdoors was a good one. Thoroughly enjoyed that, sitting on some repurposed couch behind a library in the West End with a few folks.

- Star Wars Ep. VII. The film itself wasn't brilliant but I saw it with a mate who is also a huge Star Wars fan and his excitement/enthusiasm kind of caught on with me. Absolutely brilliant.

- Star Trek Beyond/Suicide Squad double feature. Neither film is anything to write home about but it was one of the first dates I went on with my now wife and we still laugh about how strawberry floating terrible Suicide Squad is. Was a fun day.

- A few midnight showings of Marvel movies. All of the post-Avengers Assemble Avengers movies, and Captain America: Civil Avengers. Lots of fun, and at each one I got to hear Banjo's terrible takes on why they were average films.

- Drive/Bullitt double showing. First film I saw at the Grosvenor in Glasgow, I was totally in awe of the fact that you can book half a couch and sit with a beer to watch the film.

Worst

- An awful Jennifer Aniston/Jason Bateman comedy where Jason Bateman swaps donor sperm for his own after a hilarious accident. Speaks for itself really.

- Any film where the sound mixing has been shite. And there have been many.

- Olympus Has Fallen. Die Hard in the White House. Die Hard in the shite house more like, am I right?

- I'm sure there are more than this.

Best

- Independence Day - My 14 year old self was absolutely amazed by the then awesome destructive effects and awesome Will Smith wisecracks.

- Terminator 3 - Not the best in the franchise sure, but watching the big car chase set piece on Exeter Odeon's Screen 1 with their amazing sound system was something very special.

- The Bourne Ultimatum - The first year in which i started going to the cinema without my brother, saw it at Salisbury Odeon, and to this day, it is still one of the best movies i ever saw at the cinema.

Worst

- The Matrix - Let's go see The Matrix my brother said, in Lyme Regis cinema he said, what could possibly go wrong? Well, the few who remember that small but likable little cinema at Lyme Regis (burned down a few years ago sadly) will know that it was quite an old building which didn't have any air con. Therefore, when the temperature outside was touching 30c, inside things had a tendency to get a bit toasty. I made it as far as when Morpheus was captured, before i was overcome by the heat and passed out, when i came round my brother then gave me a bollocking for having spoiled the movie for him. Such fun.

- Die Another Day - Not only is it one of the worst Bond movies, but the Exeter Odeon (screen 2) also made a mistake with the sound, which meant it was SO DAMN LOUD IT ACTUALLY HURT YOUR EARS!

- Bruno - Sacha Baron Cohen's Bruno movie was, well, y'know, but i would have seen more of it had Salisbury Odeon not messed up so that only half the projection was actually on the screen for the last 30 minutes.

Best

Endgame - Great film, which had so many moments that called back to previous films. I saw it in a Vue with reclining chairs, which took up loads of space so it wasn't too busy. Everyone in there was quiet and were obviously really into it due to the general atmosphere at big moments.

Coraline - While 3D in general is a big gimmick, this was my first instance of it, and it felt well done and was an exciting novelty. Good film too, which helps.

1917 - It was just a great experience watching this in a cinema, tense but greatly paced and the one-shot thing added to the film rather than be a gimmick.

Interstella - Didn't quite live up to my hype, but the experience of watching this in imax was pretty incredible.

Worst

Avatar - Saw it in the imax 3D in Bradford, and we were almost the last people in. You didn't get reserved seats, and we were right at the front to the side, so the 3D effect didn't work. I have to watch through 1 eye most of the time just so it wasn't blury.

Infinity War - This was my own fault, I went for a few beers before watching this. I think I ended going to piss about 5 times.

Tokyo Gore Police - I was meant to be watching an all night horror film marathon with some friends and this was the 2nd film. I had a bit a weak stomach for that kind of thing when I was younger, but was pretty much ok by my late teens (I think I was about 20 here) - but I'd never seen anything on the big screen in this kind of genre. It's a bit different when it's a TV in the corner of the room, than a cinema that fills your vision. I almost threw up, and gave up on the rest of the films.

Cars - Before Uni I lived in a hotel for a few months making a bit of money for myself, and despised every moment. When I had time off I would often go to Slough to the cinema, but this was the summer of '06 and there wasn't many options at this small screen. I ended watching Cars at least twice (I don't even like the film), with one of the times the sound was so bad you couldn't understand mater at all (he sounded like one of the adults from a Charlie Brown cartoon), so I left to get my money back.

Prometheus - My gf at the time and I ended up watching all the Alien films together because I couldn't remember much about them, and she'd never seen them. A year later Prometheus came out, and we decided to go for my Birthday to carry on our streak. Put me in a foul mood with how bad it was, I was really disappointed.

Best

LOTR - Return of the King

I was in NZ working for a year which overlapped ROTK coming out. On a few months off touring the country I was reading the books for the first time, while visiting various filming locations (which was brilliant), and when ROTK came out, Wellington was decked out with life sized ring wraiths on the rooftops, and the premier building was screening the film, so I went and watched it in the place it premiered about a week or so after it came out. All the seats had brass plaques with the celebrities names on, I forget who's seat i sat in, but it was such a great experience.

Pics:




Independence day

A friend had already seen it and was raving about it, so we all got on the bus and went to Wells Cinema (ask Moggy) to watch it. It was like stranger things, with our little gang going off to watch it, really excited. Had such a great time, I think we all went back multiple times to watch it)

Worst

A live action thomas the tank engine film with Alec Baldwin in it

My first girlfriend had a young daughter, and we went to watch the live action thomas the tank engine film. I think I fell asleep within half an hour, it was strawberry floating dire. Apparently I snored through the whole thing and people were throwing me dirty looks all the way through

Signs

Two of us went to watch it, and the woman behind quietly but loud enough for you to hear it all, kept repeating what people were saying and doing on screen. ALL THE WAY THROUGH. "Oh look, crops!" "Oh it's Mel Gibson!". I say all the way through, because about half way through the fire alarm went off and we had to evacuate. When we went back in we sat far away, but could still hear her.

Absolute worst

The Rise of Skywalker

Never before have I been so dissapointed in a film as this. I went in with high expectations - JJ back at the helm, he did TFA and I loved that, what can go wrong?! The old footage before the film, the intrviews, they building music. Oh wow, this is going to be so special! I start getting a bit chocked up, here comes the crawl!

Oh. Oh no.

I physically facepalmed at points, rolled my eyes, shook my head and laughed out loud at supposedly serious bits. Crushingly dissapointing and has killed what little love of star wars I had after TLJ (which for all its faults, was at least a coherant film).

Victor Mildew wrote:Best

LOTR - Return of the King

I was in NZ working for a year which overlapped ROTK coming out. On a few months off touring the country I was reading the books for the first time, while visiting various filming locations (which was brilliant), and when ROTK came out, Wellington was decked out with life sized ring wraiths on the rooftops, and the premier building was screening the film, so I went and watched it in the place it premiered about a week or so after it came out. All the seats had brass plaques with the celebrities names on, I forget who's seat i sat in, but it was such a great experience.

Pics:

I'm so jealous that I'm actually angry.

Oh a just remembered when I saw Star Trek: Into Darkness and there was a power cut in the middle of it, lasted about 5 mins before it came back on. After the showing there was a member of staff outside that gave us all a free ticket to any showing of our choice which was pretty generous for Odeon given their prices.

Victor Mildew wrote:

The state of those jeans.

Godzilla wrote:Since lockdown has taken cinema away form most of us, I thought we could share our best/worst cinema experiences.

Best

Willow - the first film I ever picked myself. Based off the movie poster. An epic film and those bloody trolls and pigs. Still unsettling.

Predators - a cinema full of men of a certain age all geeking out over the return of the Predator.

Mad Max Fury Road - after the first big chase the entire audience let out a collective breath. Such a good film.

The last jedi - epic moment on screen, two ships collide, we all hold our breath and one bloke goes "woahhh" in the silence that follows and everyone starts laughing.

Worst

Skyfall - a dad took his son who asked questions every few seconds. (He was 28 years old etc)

The Wicker Man (remake) a woman sat and talked to her sleeping husband all the way through it. She was told to be quiet and was for a few minutes before starting again.

Jurassic World - Sunderland Empire - the couple sat next to us dropped something on the ground. I try to focus on the film but they are on the floor two lighters swaying above their heads like they are at a Genesis gig.

The rise of Skywalker - gooseberry fool film but made shitter as the screen was green for the first 15 minutes. Everything had a strong green tinge. Eventually they turned if off, then made us wait 30 minutes. Then we had to sit through the film again. The green was probably the soul of Yoda trying to escape the terrible movie.

Sounds like somebody popped the 3D filter up..

Best
Toy story 3 - We went to see this for Ella's 3rd birthday and she was enthralled as it was her first time in the cinema. She was silent during the entire film, except at one small part.There's a moment where Lotso shuts a lid down and the screen goes black, Ella shouted out "No! Bring the movie back!"

Zombieland 2 - This was my first time sitting in reclining seats in a cinema. There was barely anyone in there and I just found the experience a lot more enjoyable than a usual visit.

Worst
The matrix reloaded - I hadn't seen the original film at the time and got dragged to this one. I fell asleep!

Victor Mildew wrote:Worst

A live action thomas the tank engine film with Alec Baldwin in it

My first girlfriend had a young daughter, and we went to watch the live action thomas the tank engine film. I think I fell asleep within half an hour, it was strawberry floating dire. Apparently I snored through the whole thing and people were throwing me dirty looks all the way through

It's pretty telling of the quality of that film that I've seen it the whole way through, and I genuinely do not remember there being real actors in it.

Another worst

The Island - the film itself is one of Michael Bay's better efforts, but when i went to see this at Bristol Cribbs Causeway Vue in 2005, i wished i hadn't bothered. The reason being that for no reason whatsoever, it started an hour late! The Vue used to show a looped ads reel when you first entered the screen, but we waited for so long, the screen was just black and turned off after a while, there were no staff around, and the place was deserted, i was convinced everyone had packed up and gone home. When by some miracle it did actually start, i was past caring.

Best - Probably one of the Fast And Furious films (4?). Me and a few of my mates went and we had a few beers before hand so we were all in good spirits, then one of my mates realised they now sold food and beer in the cinema, so he had a massive bucket (for want of a better word) of nachos, which he then proceeded to knock over almost straight away, swearing loudly which then turned in to a monstrous burp.

By this point we were all giggling, and then there is a ludicrous scene in the film where Vin Diesel (real name Dom), is in court and he inexplicably has to stand and sit back down about 4 times in quick succession. Me and the mate i was sitting next to both found this beyond hilarious and no one else knew what it was we were even laughing at. We still send a text to each other if we see that the film is on.

Worst - more or less every other cinema experience. Cant stand the places. Mostly because of people like i have just described above.

Best.

Two of mine were within a few weeks of each other.

Was around May 2000 when I first met an ex-girlfriend so we were going to the cinema quite often. (first thing we saw was Scream 4).

During these initial trips, and probably from trips with friends around the same time, I saw the trailer for Gladiator and thought it looked really good. Made a point of going to see it and thought it was epic.

The second was kind of the opposite situation. Went to see something that turned out wasn't actually on at the time we got there so had to pick something else. Decided to see Snatch which I really didnt fancy. Id never seen Lock Stock at this point so thought it would be some cringey Cockney gangster film with Frank from Eastenders in.

It wasn't! Ritchie early films always had great soundtracks and the scene that really made me think "this is strawberry floating great" was where they burn the caravan down. Seeing the fire on the big screen with Angel from Massive Attack playing gave me goose pimples.

Last one was Dark Knight. Mesmerised from the very first minute. Particularly when the Joker was in the screen and they had the rumbling/vibrating sound effect playing.

Never really had that bad an experience with other people. Have always tried to go at times when it's likely to be quiet - after the film has been on for a while / the first showing of the day.

Worse film I think I've seen was 40 days and night. Something about Josh Hartnett deciding not to have sex.

Best:
Star Wars: The Force Awakens - Not the best Star Wars movie by a long way but I was so happy to have more Star Wars that was prequel shittiness and I got to see the Millenium Falcon land in the the county I grew up in. Yes it was CGI but I dont care, just knowing part of it was shot there just made me really happy for some reason. I also saw it 3 times in as many days.

Onward - Not that Onward is amazing, its fine but it was the first movie we went to see post lockdown. It was also my sons first proper cinema expreience, my wife had taken him before when hes was really young but he slept while my daughter watched the movie. This time he watched the whole thing, ate his popcorn and loved it all. We also got popcorn delivered to our seats and had an almost empty theatre to ourselves. Good times.

MCU - Obviously Endgame was the highlight but theres so many good memories of MCU movies for me, Iron Man setting the stage for everyone, Captain America being so different, GOTG going in an all new direction, Ant Man being a comedy in the middle of it all, Black Panther being utterly amazing from start to finish. So many amazing moments, cameos, surprises, the whole thing was an amazing ride.

The Dark Knight - I was in Chicago when this was being filmed, hearing about the mad gooseberry fool they were doing downtown got the hype train started, hearing how good Ledgers performance was fuelled it even more, then the shock of his death tempering things before it being talked about as one of the best comic book movies ever before release. I had huge expectations going in and then it easily surpassed all of the, when I actually got to see it. Still ranks as one of my favourite movies ever.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy - This whole thing was an event, you just felt like you were experiencing something amazing when you watched it all. One of those moments where you knew this was going to be looked back on for decades as a huge deal. Everything about the movies was epic, the battles, the visuals, the production stories, it all fed into delivering amazing examples of cinema,

Worst:
Transformers - The first movie I saw in an American cinema (or theatre if you prefer) and it was a steaming pile of gooseberry fool. Got shitty seats, front row on the far left, front row meaning right in front of the screen, far left meanign waaaaay over to the left, I dont think I coudl actually see the right side of the screen. I had absolutely no idea what was happening in any of the fights, I could barely make out actors on screen or follow what was happening. I thought it was the shitty seats so went a second time and nope, its was just a terrible movie. Also, Americans losing it at the "comedy" parts, strawberry floating hell.

The Simspons Movie - Released around the same time as Transformers, and the movie I saw in between my Transformers viewings what a shitty summer that was for movies. Not only was this a terrible movie but I got to see first hand how gooseberry fool Americans are at going to movies. A family in front of us thought they were at a restaurant, had foil packets of what smelled like fried chicken, crinkling away as they chowed down, nattered away and laughed like loons. At what I have no idea cos there wasnt any jokes in that movie from what I could tell. Im pretty sure we didnt go see any more movies that summer.

The Jungle Book - The live action remake, its not a terrible movie, it has some enjoyable parts but one woman in front of us talked the entire time, kept asking her firend who people were and what was happening. "I know the voice of that bear, is it that guy from the Vacation movies?". She wasnt outright talking, she was whispering kinda but she was right in front of us and it was constant, asked her to hush a few times and that bought us 5-10 minutes of silence before she kicked off again. That movie also has a drawn out ending, so you know its over but theres more to watch before credits roll. Up she got at the start of that sequence to put her coat on and raise the volume, just shouted at her at that stage to sit down. worst person Ive ever seen in a movie.

Avatar - I had zero interest in this as I dont care about 3D movies and none of the trailers I had seen looked interesting, but my friend got super into the hype so we were dragged along to it. Did manage to find a 2D showing at least so I wasnt stuck with glasses for no reason. strawberry float me thats a bad movie. She chalked it up to seeing it in 2D and went to a 3D showing a few days later, she eventulaly relented and admitted that it was bad. The worst thing about it was everyone needing to release 3D movies for years after, it ruined Dredd because it was only released in 3D and lots of people like me dont want to see 3D movies so it was torpedoed by Avatar. strawberry float you Cameron.

Captain America - Bear with me, this isnt here because of the movie, I love the movie, nor is it here because of an unruly patron, we had a nice empty theatre for it. Its here because I watched it in the shittiest cinema experience I had in a long time, it was the first last and only movie I saw with my ex in her hometown. First they didnt tell us it was a 3D showing, no mention of it on the marquee, in listings, nowhere, just said "Captain America". But we bought tickets and were asked if we needed glasses or did we bring our own, after much confusion he explained it was a 3D showing, see above for my disdain for 3D showings so not off to a great start. Movie was great, thoroughly enjoyed it, despite the 3D bullshit. Settled in for the traditional MCU post credits scene. Suddenly lights came on, confused I thought maybe it was a safety thing here or whatever, the few people there besides us filtered out until we were on our own there and as the credits were still rolling the cleanign crew came in, looked shocked to see people there and kinda froze. Then the movie stopped, no post credits scene for me, I had to look it up after I got home. I still think about how shitty a cinema experience that was.

Thats all I can think of for now, nothing too terrible and the good definitly outweighs the bad.