Most memorable experience in a movie theater - Page 3

I remember that time too Henry [sniff] I miss that wondrous feature. But since this old thread is only about a couple pages long its not so bad. I see I've already told my 'swarming with rats' story. My 'martian baby' story too.

The first time I saw people stand up and clap at a film was when I saw Jaws back in the 70's. There was a deafening cheer when the shark blew up and as soon as the credits appeared people stood, started clapping, first time I experienced that and you can't help joining in when thats happening.

Another first was when I saw The Empire Strikes Back at a West End cinema, every time Darth Vader appeared I could hear a hissing noise, where was it coming from? When it happened again I looked around, it was the audience, they were hissing at Vader. Sounded like steam escaping.

One more, the laughing man story, Young Frankenstein was re-issued with some other film in the late 70's and this old guy sitting by himself not far from where I was couldn't stop laughing all thru the film, it's a comedy but even the bits that were only mildly funny were making this guy laugh like a hyena. At the start his laughter was making us laugh too but it eventually became annoying. Whenever I watch that film I remember that old guy.

I thought I posted in this thread a couple of years ago, but it must have been something similar. 

One of my most memorable experiences was seeing The Grudge for the first time.  The theater was packed and my girl and I were sitting in the second to last row.  Unfortunately, a bunch of noisy teenage kids sat behind us.  At first I gave them the benefit of the doubt when they were talking before the previews started, but my girl had an annoyed look on her face already.  When the previews started, their talking went down to an annoying whisper, still I was trying to convince my girl to relax and they'll probably stop when the movie starts.  When the movie finally started, their whispering really didn't die down too much and my girl turned around and SHHHHHH'd them which worked for about 10 minutes.  The whispering started up again and the people around us were getting visibly annoyed, along with myself and just when I was about to SHHHHHHHHHHH them myself, my girl stands up, turns around, and yells at the kid behind her, "QUIT KICKING MY GOD**** CHAIR!!!"   She was pissed.  The entire theater turned around to see what was going on, meanwhile, the kid slipped back in his chair with a look of terror on his face.  I tried so hard not to laugh because I completely did not expect her to do something like that, I wasn't alone, the people around us had smiles too.  The kids no longer made any noise and a few minutes later, they all left. 

 

I was 8 when I saw Star Wars, I am not certain if it was in fact the very first movie I saw in a cinema, but it's certainly the first I remember.  My father took the whole family, as well as my best friend and his older brother (by 3 yrs), who had already seen it but tagged along anyway, and sat next to me.  After Uncle Owen had bought C-3PO and R5-D4, he whispered to me "His head's about to blow off".  Which it promptly did.  (No, he didn't spoil anything else the rest of the movie.)

In and of itself, Star Wars would probably rank in many of our minds as a memorable experience, and for some reason the little story above ('spoiling' R5D4's malfunction) has always stuck with me, for no particular reason, but the story has since acquired some poignancy, in that my friend's brother tragically died some years ago due to lymphoma (non-Hodgkins, I think).

On a lighter -- and more stupid -- note, when I saw Return of the Jedi, I placed my bag on the floor at my feet during the movie.  Big mistake -- it was soaked in piss!!    From then on, I never placed a bag on a "public" floor again, whether in a cinema, bus or anywhere I couldn't get a good look at the floor first.

Another movie I remember was The Iron Monkey, not for any particular merit of the theater or the movie, but simply because it was the last movie I ever saw with my late father. 

TITANIC

Nothing else will ever come close to that experience again.

To be sitting in a packed theater and have every person en-mass be moved beyond words is something that truly comes along once in a lifetime.

When I turned 13, Dad started taking me to select R-rated movies. That happened to be the year of BLAME IT ON RIO, POLICE ACADEMY, UP THE CREEK, WHERE THE BOYS ARE '84, HARDBODIES, BACHELOR PARTY, REVENGE OF THE NERDS and MISCHIEF. I couldn't go to the horror movies, though. He wanted to raise a sex fiend, not a mass murderer.

Thanks for opening my eyes, Dad.

I have 3.

1)  In 1984, my dad took me to see The Terminator.  When it was over, we went back to the box office and my dad bought 2 tickets for 2010 which started a few minutes later.  It was my first double feature.  I was 11.

2)  I was in a packed midnight showing for ROTS and before it began, someone kept yelling "THE FIRST TRANSPORT IS AWAY!"  to which the entire crowd roared "YAY!" and raised one arm. (similar to a previous blogger's experience at ESB: SE) 

3)  I saw T2 in a sneak preview and on the way out, I was interviewed by a local radio station.  My comments became a soundbite and all my friends heard me on the radio for weeks.  Kinda cool.
Edited by Brett_M - 8/5/2009 at 03:36 am GMT

I did a triple-feature once. Can't really remember what shows were involved, though; I have some vague recollection that two of them may have been Raising Cain and Alien3.  This was back in 1992 when there was literally only one multi-screen multiplex in the country -- it had 10 screens -- whilst the rest were all retrofitted large cinemas that had split off their circle seats as a smaller theater, making for two screens at each location.

One incident I remember involving the same multiplex: my boss and I had been involved in arguing an important case (for the clients, anyway), and had been preparing for it for a while, working on weekends etc.  It was fixed for 3 days' arguments, of which the parties used two and the judge told us to stay on standby on the third day and if he needed anything his staff would call our offices by noon.  Noon came and went, so my boss told me to take the rest of the day off.  By then, Unforgiven had been on release for a few weeks and I hadn't been able to catch it (due to work), and it was down to one show per day at 1.20pm and only at the multiplex which was on the other side of the country (which sounds far but in our context just means the other side of town...  ) so I scooted off, hopped onto the subway, and got there just in time to catch Eastwood's masterpiece.  Of course, nowadays with DVDs/BDs being released just months after the theatrical run, I wouldn't bother to do something like that anymore -- I'd just wait for the disc.

Probably watching Cannibal Holocaust at a packed midnight screening. Weird but memorable experience.

I saw "Saving Private Ryan" when it first came out with my girlfriend and another couple. At the end of the movie the audience didn't make a sound. People just very slowly started getting up and filing out in a very orderly line. It made the impact of the movie hit 10 times harder.

When Star Trek The Motion Picture opened 30 years ago (whoa that long ago?) I just couldn't wait to see it, being a Trekkie. I remember the buzz of excitement at the Empire cinema in Londons West End waiting for the most expensive sci-fi film of all time to start, when each name came up in the credits there were cheers and whistles and when the actors appeared more cheers and whistles, it hit home how beloved these 60's tv characters had become, even in dear old England. And when the film finished we all got up and walked out slowly and quietly not daring to look at each other... "er good film", "nice effects", "episodes were better"  But over the years that first 'motionless' picture has been my favourite of the 11 Trek films, and it probably always will be.

My memory is being taken to see Raiders of the Lost Ark by my stepfather, I was 11 and knew nothing of the movie except for what I had read in Mad magazine.

It was actually many years before i saw the ending proper though because my eyes were always closed when Indy told me to.

I had the fortune of attending the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.  On the second night I made it to the Premiere of THE MATADOR with Pirece Brosnan & Greg Kinnear (outstanding flick).  The auditorium I was in consisted of over 1000 seats and every one of them were filled.  The audience was all there for the same purpose to see and enjoy the movie.  No cell phones, no crying babies, no chatty cathys.  It was a unified experience and I had a blast.

I know what you mean, everyone is watching the emotional scene near the end of the movie involving Leo when a teenage girl in the audience suddely bursts into tears and runs out of the theater. The moment was rather ruined by the fact that everyone started laughing.

My first experience with subwoofers was when I went to see "Earthquake" (1974) in a cinema equipped with Sensurround.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake_(movie)

Even though I never had the fortune of experiencing SenseSurround.  I vividly remember the first movie that I heard in DTS.  The theater I regularly attended in the mid-90's installed it one weekend without any publicity from the owners (not that that was a bad thing on their part, it just made for a very unexpected surprise). The movie was STAR TREK: GENERATIONS. 
I could instantly tell the difference in sound quality without being told there was a new sound system. The part in the opening credits where the champange bottle strikes the new Enterprise and the music swells gave me a sensation I had never felt before ("Quality sound that would make George Lucas creme in his pants."). From that point on, I became hooked on seeing movies in Digital Surround auditoriums.

 

1979, Alien, head full of acid.  Oh, and squirt guns.


To this day, that movie makes me laugh.