The X-Entertainment Blog!

07/21/2008: X-E’s ‘08 Summer Megaparty: Movie Madness.

In 1989, my mother chaperoned a trip for my friends and I go to see No Holds Barred. No Holds Barred starred Hulk Hogan, who essentially played himself, fighting for freedom against the twin terrors of corporate soullessness and a giant, dark-skinned monster named “Zeus.” It was all very Shakespearean.

I’m very conscious of the fact that No Holds Barred is one of the worst movies ever made, featuring everything from shady Cadillac drivers shitting themselves to Rob Lowe’s sidekick from Wayne’s World somehow managing to electrocute himself in protest of a wrestling match’s outcome. Still, No Holds Barred was spirited if nothing else, and as a ten-year-old with a bucket of popcorn and a bunch of fellow wrestling nuts, I had a great time.

Only thing is, I made my mother sit like ten rows behind us, by herself. My crew wanted to maintain the illusion that we went to the theater on our own. I guess the cool kids were doing it.

That must rank among the top ten cruelest things I’ve ever done. It’s bad enough that I roped my mother into seeing No Holds Barred, but to force her to pretend that she went to see it by herself? Beyond cruel. I probably extended my purgatory sentence by a good seven years on that afternoon alone.

This is your random survey of the night: Discuss some of your weirdest movie theater experiences. I have plenty of them, and will post a few in the comments once I zzz zzz zzz myself back to full health.

Probably seeing Garbage Pail Kids The Movie with my friend and his mother when i was 6. I don’t think i need a sotry to go with this one.

I saw both The Street Fighter & Mortal Kombat movies in the theater, that’s something.

Seeing the Simpsons Movie last year at it’s midnight show goes down as probably my favorite movie going experience ever. First, it was in a large theater filled to the brim with simpsons fans. People (including myself) wearing Simpsons shirts, and a girl shouting to a guy in the front who was a dead ringer for Comic Book Guy that they were wearing the same shirt.

Then there was the Transformers movie last year where someone showed up in an Optimus Prime costume made from cardboard. He sat through the entire movie in it, which showed some dedication.

When we went to see Wall E a VERY large woman kept laughing obnoxiously loudly whenever the fat humans came into frame. She was totally disregarding the social message, not to mention the irony of her laughing at the movie in the first place…

Going to a midnight showing of Jaws with a group of people dressed in character, even as the shark.

Heckling The Ninth Gate in the theatre on opening weekend. Having the whole audience laugh along with us- We were all roped into seeing a terrible movie,might as well amuse ourseves at its expense.

Worst movie experiance? Envy staring Jack Black and that no talent hack Ben Stiller…yes I am still bitter and yes, I want Ben to personally refund my $1o.

Best movie experiance, funny as it sounds, Titanic…didn’t want the movie though. Won’t kiss and tell here.

Seeing Empire Strikes Back at a drive-in when I was about 3. I cried for the remainder of the day as visions of Yoda kept dancing in my head. One of my earliest memories… and yet I am a true Star Wars geek today.

I farted about halfway through Night at the Roxbury during a quiet part. The theater erupted in laughter and just as it started to quiet down i said “excuse me” and everyone started up again. I got more laughs than the movie.

Pretty much any Pixar/CGI movie I’ve seen in the theater. ALWAYS seem to have a crowd full of young kids who laugh at inappropriate times and can be annoying with all their chit-chat. This year alone I’ve had that experience with Horton Hears a Who, Kung Fu Panda, and Wall-E. Oh yeah, Bee Movie wasn’t much better and even a couple years ago when I saw Robots, another annoying young crowd. I think I need to stop seeing CGI animated movies in the theaters.

Oh yeah, two more bad experiences: War of the Worlds, FULL theater, lot of talking, laughing at lines that weren’t even half funny, and cheering towards the end when I was hoping the aliens would blow the whole planet to smithereens. Then I can’t forget Star Wars Episode II in the scene where Yoda kicks ass at the end. That scene to me wasn’t even believeable but everyone’s cheering yelling, “Yeah, Yoda’s kicking ass!” Whatever. Actually, the more I write this, the more incidents I can think that annoy me in the theaters. I better stop.

Some guy was caught with a video camera filming the movie. I don’t remember what it was. When he was caught they shut off the movie, turned on the lights and the manager gave us a lecture on the evils of movie downloading/bootlegging. Then they turned the movie back on. The weird thing is they didn’t kick the guy out, but he did put the camera away.

Another time the film broke about halfway through one of the Harry Potter films. They offered everyone either a refund or to see the movie later for free. We chose the latter.

I remember going to see Pinocchio when it was re-released when I was about 3 or 4 and I got stuck in the seat. The theater had the normal stadium-style seats that folded up and apparently I was such a small kid that my weight didn’t keep the seat down. I couldn’t get out and we had to get help when the movie was over. I was traumatized.

When I went to see “Hook”, my little sister (who was about 4) got really upset by Hook. There’s a scene when Hook has Peter’s kids in some kind of trouble, and my sister screamed out
“Fly Pan! Fly!” ….the whole audience cracked up..it was actually pretty cute.

I still have lots o’ love for “No Holds Barred”! I saw it the moment it came out on video at my house with several fellow wrestling fans of mine!! Good stuff! Definitely enjoyed Zeus GOING THROUGH THE RING!!!!

Oh yeah, just remmebered the time I went to see Batman Begins and the power went out in the theater. We weren’t able to see the rest of the film but they offered to let us get into another show whenever the power went back on. I was so upset, I just walked out. Never saw the ending until four months later when it came out on DVD.

Me, the Colonel, and another friend of ours went to see Batman Forever. It was in a mostly empty theatre. We sat in the front row and our parents and siblings sat in the back. We didn’t tell them to do that, though. We acted pretty stupid, and had a ton of food. Might have had some of those glow things like you have at Halloween parties and raves, too.

March madness is the time when high school and college basketball tournaments take place all around the country. Planting

I saw a late-night show of The Incredibles one time and I was the ONLY one in the theater! CAn’t tell you how many times I wish I had an experience like that again!

Anybody remember that movie Bushwhacked? With Daniel Stern? No? Nobody? From around 1995 or so? We were walking past the screen room it was playing in (they had the doors open for some unknown reason), and there was one guy in there. And he was snoring. Classic. I’ve seen completely empty screen rooms with the film rolling, but this was somehow infinitely better.

Spilled my popcorn watching Jurassic Park. Dad got mad at me. Went on to do palaeontology in grad school.
Great movie.

Went to see E.T., I started crying when E.T. was sick at the end and then couldn’t stop crying, even though there was a happy ending. I must’ve looked pretty cool on my exit, bawling my eyes out with my mom and sister going “It’s OK!! He didn’t die!”

When my parents took me to Mortal Kombat in theaters, they said I could sit on my own, I didn’t have to sit with them. This was the first time I could really do that. So I went down and found an empty seat, very excited to see the movie. Then I look over down the row and there was a group of 17 year old girls sitting on the other end and they all looked at me and started laughing all at once. I quietly sat back up and went back to sit with my parents.

In truth, I had much more of a right to sit in the front rows than probably any one else in that theater. At that young age, I was the source many older kids came to get move and fatality commands.

I think my worst was The Fifth Element…
1. Well, it was The Fifth Element and
2.I think I actually laid down and tried to sleep through it

when i went to swee dark knight, there was an elderly couple sitting next to me that kept making INCREDIBLY lewd remarks. it was almost an entertaining as the actual movie.

Justin, yes, I saw that in the theater! It was my “birthday gift” to my mom that year. Damn, I hardly remember anything about that movie.

My now-Ex gf & I were the only ones in a showing of Blades of Glory last year. Total blast. Makin out, yellin at the screen and everything.

Oh so you were THAT kid huh Doho? Well on behalf of those of us who used to hit you up for info I say thank you.

Watching the ‘98 Godzilla movie in a packed theater in intense heat. This spawned my hatred for crowded movie theaters, and on top of that, the movie in which I anticipated so much blew.

Watched a movie in this REALLY piece of shit theater… I want to say it was called “Baby” about some dinosaur or something. Anyway, my friend got sick of the flick about halfway through and chucked his half-eaten pickle at the screen. It hit DEAD center and left this mark about three feet across. The manager of the shithole came out and pulled Charlie (that was his name) out of his seat and threw him out of the place. I (laughing) followed. Flash forward about a month. I go back to the same crappy establishment (It was a Dollar Theater and when that’s all you got that’s all you get and ten year olds don’t get much choice sometimes) Yes to see GYMKATA… and there in the middle of the screen was Charlie’s pickle smear.
Classic.

My dad took me to midnight showing of “Wizards” in ‘80 or ‘81. The theater was totally full of bikers, hippies, college kids, and other assorted freaks. Everyone except me and my dad (maybe) was high and/or drunk. The crowd was rowdy all the way through the movie, but it was in a fun way, although totally chaotic.

I remember the first time I went to theatre and not a drive-in was for Return of the Jedi when I was eight. My younger brother cried a bit because he was scared of the Max Rebo band, lol. I really don’t remember seeing specific movies at a drive-in, but I’m sure we did see A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back that way. I just have vague recollections of being cozy under afghan blankets in the back seat.

Oh, here’s a good one. In 1985 a bratty kid in my class who was a neighbour asked if I wanted to go see Back to the Future. I said sure, even though of course the trade-off was that the next day at school he told everyone it was a date (we were ten). I recall being given the choice of seeing BTTF or Princess Bride (which I only finally saw a few months ago this year). But I must have a false memory of that part, because the Princess Bride came out in 1987, two years later.

My mom and I went to see Roxanne and the film broke and we had to wait for them to repair it.

I remember Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade as being the first movie I ever fully anticipated going to see. Same when it came on VHS.

I remember babysitting a neighbourhood boy, and my mom and I took him to see The Wizard. I love the fact that I saw that at the theatre.

I saw Star Trek First Contact by myself on opening night, which was cool because it was easy to find a seat. I’ve now seen a handful of movies by myself, and I find it kind of fun.

Of course waiting in line to prebuy tickets for Phantom Menace was fun, because it was the first time I felt like it was all part of an experience, and not just seeing a movie.

First time posting, but great site.
Funny story I have about No Holds Barred. I am from Kansas, and for one of the filler bits right at the start of the movie the producers rented the Topeka Expocenter, kind of a medium sized venue. Radio ticket giveaways got the place full. I must have been 9 or 10, and I just remember they kept us cheering our brains out for like 12 hours that day, and fed use hot dogs. Cheering the same thing, Hulk Hogan walking to the ring, and people behind the camera sprayed him with plant misters, so he always had the wet look. I remember when I finally got to see the movie, 10 hours of sitting, for about 8 seconds in the opening montage of the movie.
Worst movie for me is still, and always will be Freddy Got Fingered. Holy crap. I mean holy crap.
I also don’t understand Lions Gate Films, I mean do they even read the scripts before the option the movies they have out under their names.
Best movie would probably be 28 Days Later, huge zombie fan. Its my choice for the end of the world, zombies just want to be friends, with teeth.

Oh, have to add this one. How could I have forgotten… My GRANDPARENTS inviting me to go see There’s Something About Mary. I think Grandpa might have fallen asleep, and Grandma wasn’t an uptight sort of person, so she enjoyed it, but I just love the idea that they were the ones who took me to a dirty comedy.

When I went to see Finding Nemo back in 2002 (shit is was that long ago?!) an old guy in the front row had a heart attack. We had to all leave the theatre. It was intense.

When I saw ‘The Strangers’ not long ago, the theater was filled with teenagers. Four a few rows down from me kept opening a cellphone, and the light on one of those things is unbelievably bright in a theater. They did this every couple of minutes, distracting me and breaking the tension the movie was trying to build. So I quietly walked up behind them and asked them to stop opening the phone. They jumped out of their skin. It was great.

Seeing The Eye with two really obnoxious people sitting a row in front of us and the fat annoying dude kept saying “5 dolla sucky sucky” during the asian restaurant part.. Which wasn’t funny to begin with, so stfu.

Oh, and crying because someone tried to take my dad’s seat when he went to get my cousin and I popcorn the opening night of TMNT 3. I was like.. 8.

(And Matt, did you know when we were cleaning out our VHS stock at Hollywood Video, we found our copy of No Holds Barred had been STOLEN?! Someone stole the damn thing and we didn’t know about it! The box itself had a huge layer of dust on it haha.)

Being 16 on a date watching Jurrassic Park, I was eating butterfinger nuggets when I felt somthing pop in my mouth, it was my back molar and the teeth shards were indistinguishable from the candy, It tripped me out because it was right at the same momment the T-Rex was roaring.

By far, one of the most exciting theatre experiences I’ve had was last month at “The Happening”. I went thinking maybe it’d be a nice thrilling way to spend a friday evening, but was not expecting the Comedy Event of the Season. The entire (sold out!) theatre was laughing quite hard during the entire movie. There was even a group of teenagers next to me slapping fives and cheering throughout the whole thing. Best/worst movie I have ever seen in a theatre.

OH Damn! I totally forgot about Weird date moments at the movies! Like who got the armrest? Who held the popcorn? Should I get the good candy with the messiness?

Oooh - I saw “Baby” in the theater as well and remember vividly when some middle-aged man jumped out of his seat and started cheering on Baby during a climactic chase scene (”YEAH BABY! GET THAT GUY! GO! GO! GO BABY!). My sister and I where pretty young at the time but we were smart enough to know that the movie was crap and shared a look of amusement and bewilderment at this guy’s actions.

But my favorite movie memory was seeing “Sleepwalkers” on its opening night in a movie theater on the wrong side of the tracks. Comedians get a lot of mileage out of making fun of a certain dark-skinned (as Matt would say) racial group’s behavior in movie theaters and this night certainly didn’t help that dispel that stereotype. Nevertheless, the movie was pretty much crap and the real entertainment was the audience. I cannot even begin to explain how the place erupted when that cop got stabbed in the back with an ear of corn…

My parents forcing me to see Brokeback mountain and the person next to me snorting crack during it

Waterworld, I was one of only two people in the 100 seat cinema, and the other person got up and left part way through.

Best moment was the zipper scene in Something About Mary, opening night, full house. In unison, at that scene, there was collective noise from every male as the zip came up. Then we all broke out laughing at ourselves.

Weirdest movie moment for me… my bf forced me to see the Bleach movie a month ago… the one theater it was showing in was packed and filled to the brim with smelly anime geeks. I don’t watch Bleach so I was clueless (movie sucked btw) but all the weirdos kept laughing at things that weren’t funny (I mean LAUGHING like “Look at me, that was so funny! I got the joke, you probably don’t get the complexity of such a joke it went straight over your head! HAAHAHAHAHAHAH!” kind of laughing.) and cheering when their favorite character appeared on screen. I was miserable. End of story. I clapped at the end, not because I liked the movie, but rather, that it was finally over…

I walked out of signs but left my date there.
Yes I know, I’m a terrible person, I’m sorry.

I went and saw Snakes on a Plane on opening night. The theater was packed with people with cardboard airplane wings on their arms and snakes wrapped around themselves. Once the movie began people started randomly throwing rubber snakes around the theater. To top it all off, whenever Samuel L. Jackson finshed saying a line someone in the crowd would yell out “BITCH”. That had to be the most fun I have ever had going to see a movie.

Saw “In the Land of Women” with my girlfriend at the time. Had to watch a lot of crying, and about three of her dumbass friends were sitting behind us, talking.

At one point one of the ass-hats pointed up at the screen and shouted, “grrrrrl, look at that raccoon!!!” It was a possum. A fucking possum. What a bitch.

- Seeing The Devil’s Rejects in an otherwise empty theater one week after it was released and at 8:45 at night.

- The standing ovation people gave *that* scene in Disney’s Miracle. They were otherwise silent throughout the rest of the movie.

- Watching a four member family pile into the theater with four TUBS of popcorn, four giant drinks and several boxes of candy… only to leave half way through the movie to refill on everything. Insane.

The strangest movie going experience was in my youth. We were trying to sneak in to see the theatrical release of ‘Jason Takes Manhattan’, (which should have been called ‘Jason jacks up a bunch of nobody’s on a boat and spends enough time in New York to smoke a Newport and take a piss.” But I digress. Anyway, it was no dice. A seven year old just wasn’t getting in until some old man, whom I expected was some sort of pedophile at first, was there with his twelve grandchildren, and we snuck in with the herd. From the box office revenue of the film, you can imagine were were about the only one’s in the theater, but we never paid, free popcorn and candy.
Then we filed out after one awful movie, (Awful? Yes. Seen it more than a hundred times? Bet your ass.)
Then the guy tried to get us to go to his “grandkid’s” birthday party right after the movie. As appreciative as I was for the free movie and goodies, the whole pedophilia-possible-cornholing, just wasn’t worth a bad movie and some popcorn.

Back in 1990 I was watching Gremlins 2: The New Batch when the film began messing up as if there was some problem in the projection room. The film sputtered and stopped and obviously we (the patrons of the theater) were pretty frustrated. We became even more agitated when it became clear that the delay in the film wasn’t due to any mechanical error, but instead a few pesky gremlins had decided to have some film-shredding fun at our expense. Thankfully a rather large man, sporting an awesome blond fu-manchu mustache, yelled a few choice words at the creatures messing with the projector, and apparently intimidated by his words, they resumed playing the film.

I once went to a dollar theater that I’ll swear was hosting some sort of goth convention. The strange part was that almost everyone in the theater would throw things during certain parts of the movie. Not popcorn or soda cups, but things like playing cards, toilet paper, and even slices of bread. It all seemed very pre-planned. To this day I get creeped out thinking about it, and I don’t even remember the name of the movie.

Sam O. - I actually saw a wrestling event in the Expocenter. Jake the Snake was supposed to be in the main event but could not be there. George the Animal Steele took his place - I was able to get a chunk of one of the turnbuckles that he tore up.

Movie wise, probably being first in line when they re-released A New Hope. We waited forever and then right before the move started they switched lines (two had formed). We wound up being halfway back when they started letting people in. We bitched to some random attendant and when they opened up the gates to let people in he opened the ropes for us and we (15 of us) bolted for the theater. Got the best seats in the house and a lot of dirty looks from the people ahead of us. It was a THX certified theater (tough to find in those days) and it…was…AWESOME.

I went to see One-Hundred-and-One Dalmatians when I was little, and this kid behind me (couldn’t have been more than a year younger than I was, but I was pretty young) kept yelling “Cat! Cat! Dog! Dog!” anytime either animal was on-screen. It was horrible.

The second time I went to see Lilo and Stitch (with my cousin), this little girl behind us was talking to her mom (grandma?) in a not-so-quiet voice for most of the movie. At one point, she just about yelled out “I found my family, too! When I was born!” Would have been cute had she been quiet the rest of the time.

I haven’t really been to the movies terribly often, otherwise I’d probably have a story about something other than annoying children. But there was that one time when I was the annoying child. Went to the drive-in to see something (ET, I think?), and I kept throwing my blanket out the car window so my mom had to keep getting out to get it for me. Jerk move now, but I thought it was hilarious when I was doing it. Sorry, ma.

1. When I was a little guy, they re-released Bambi into theatres around here for some random reason and my mom took me to see it. During the tragic scene where Bambi’s mom gets shot I climbed and stood up in my seat and in a theatre full of mothers and children I proceeded to shout “YEAH! HE GOT HER!!”

2. When my friends and I saw Superman Returns a couple years ago, during the part where Superman takes a bullet to the eye, right as the bullet is literally millimeters from his eye, the screen froze for like 10 seconds and then cut out. Everyone screamed and raised hell and we were offered refunds.

One of the best movie theater experiences I’ve ever had was when I saw “The Santa Clause” with my mom back in 1994. For some reason, we saw it a few days AFTER Christmas, and we were the only ones there. The movie wasn’t as good as I hoped, and my mom didn’t care about it either, so I spent pretty much the whole time running around and making jokes about what was going onscreen.

No Holds Barred with the mighty Zeus was one of the greatest movies of my childhood, I must of hired it out over 20 times.

My three wierdest movie experiances all come from sleeping through them. I was taken to see Phantom by one of my mates parents whn I was about 11, and never saw a moment of it, from the title screen to the credits I slept.

Next, on Christmas eve my folks picked me up from my work christmas party to go see a late night session of the “Polar Express” with my family. I was incredibly drunk and slept through it, but the problem was my snoring, mumbling and sleep talking was so loud my family left me to sit by my self, unconsious, and several other movie goers just got up and left (and complained to the cinema staff on the way out, bastards).

Also on a date the young lady and I fell asleep leaning against each other when seeing ‘traffic’. Very awkward.

My friends and I saw Changing Lanes, and right in the middle, a cell phone rang across the theater. No biggie, they’ll shut it off, right? Nope. She picks it up and practically shouts into it “HELLO? OH HI! How are you? No, I’m just watching a movie…” and so on. Obviously, she had no intention of quieting down or hanging up, and the other patrons (the theater was pretty packed) were getting squirmy and muttering under their breath.

Then, suddenly, I see my friend Ben stand up out of the corner of my eye, and he cups his hands to his mouth and shouts at the top of his lungs…

The lady turns and looks at us, gets up and walks out, still yakkin’ away on her phone. Ben got a rousing round of applause from the rest of the audience, and we resumed the film as normal.

Muthafuckin’ Snakes, Muthafuckin’ Plane. Opening day. Cue lots of random cheering, clapping and hooting from our very spirited group of about forty people(it was a mid day show so not as many showed up)

Attending Lord of the Rings costumed as an elf and arriving several hours early due to when my mom could drop me off. Sitting in the lobby of the movies eating chicken fingers while trying to make sure my ear tips were firmly glued into place as people stared at me… I cringe to think about that now. Attending Pirates in costume was not nearly as embarassing somehow…

Also good were the random day camp trips to the movies that took the place of our field trips or swimming on insanely rainy days. We’d all get trouped into the movies as random other customers were horrified.

I saw Dark Knight, and pretty much only liked Heath and when they said “Commisioner Gordon.”

Also, my sister took me to see Star Wars Episode II and some guy dressed as Spiderman was running about the theater.

My parents would take my sister and I to the drive all the time. It was not to watch kid movies, they took us to see movies that they wanted to watch. I remember seeing the head come out of the hole in the boat in Jaws that scared the crap out of me. My sister was just a baby.

One movie that I will never forget is The Amityville Horror. I was maybe 5 or 6 at the time. I knew it was a scary movie, but, had no idea how scary for a kid. We had a station wagon and we would fold the backseat down and lay on blankets. I remember the start of the movie with the music and seeing the windows light up with the gun shots. I had no idea what was going on. I heard the kinda cheerfull music and thought to myself, this aint that bad. I can deal with this. Then the part came up with the priest blessing the house. That vioce saying “GET OUT”, I will never forget that vioce. That scared the crap out of me. I freaked. Needless to say. Throughout the rest of the movie. I layed on the blankets in back and stared up at the stars in the sky. I did not watch the rest, LOL. I feel asleep.

BJ It sounds like you need to learn the art of finding movies online when they are still in the theaters my friend :) Also one time when I was in grade school we had a black out and it was creepy and cool at the same time. A female teacher with a flashlight led us to the bathrooms because a lot of us had to go.

Cat the Vampire Slayer I yelled at a guy at the local Hollywood video because I got the dvd case behind the display case and he told me that I was supposed to get the display case instead of one behind it. I was pretending to be mad even though I was so into it I walked out saying that I was right and he was wrong. He said that a shipment of the cases that go behind the display case (I don’t know exactly what it is called) didn’t come in so the dvd went into the display case. I said but there are both of the cases right there, and that is how the system works and I thought the customer was always right blah blah. My best friend stayed in the store and paid for the dvd’s rentals and when he went out to the car he said I was right and the guy had to go back and get the right case for the dvd’s lol. And right after that he took a break. I was just having fun really. I am not an asshole. I am so glad I was right though because I would of looked so bad if I was wrong.

Mortalwind OUCH!! Did your family have insurance? I bit down on a hard piece of sausage about 3 months ago and it went into a crack between my wisdom tooth and my molar and then fell out while I was swallowing and I thought my filling fell out. I was so freaked out I can’t even tell you. I even had my best friend that was sitting across the room watching tv check to see if everything was ok in my mouth. I reluctantly ate the rest of my dinner. I haven’t had that happen so that is why I didn’t know the difference. And they are called Butterfinger BB’s.

cree Sleepwalkers with the species of half cats half humans? I like that movie but I can see people not liking it. The creepiest part of it is when the mom and son have sex. They are the last of their kind so that is the reasoning behind it. The theme song they play in the background throughout the movie is great and very creepy. (cool it’s on youtube! I would like a copy of it though)

Lauren Wow! Did they make any noises? Did they survive? An old neighbor lady got taken to the hospital a little over a month ago in an ambulance they had moving trucks at their house I don’t think she made it even though she was alive when they took her.

My worst movie I have ever seen in the theater was Nepolitan Dynamite. Yeah yeah I know people think that is funny I didn’t like it at all. I told my best friend I wanted to see that movie rather then the one he wanted to go to (he likes manly action movies) and so we went. He still to this day says I owe him one for dragging him to that movie. A group of kids in their early 20’s laughed the whole movie at stupid things. I still to this day wonder if they were stoned. At the end we were leaving and they said no wait! There is a part at the end of the credits that is really funny!! so for their sakes we watched the wedding scene after the credits. I don’t get it.

During the Butterfly effect a woman left the theater no more then a minute into the child molestation scene. Me having my moments of being naive I thought she just had to go to the bathroom. She never came back though. The theater was crowded though and no one else left during the whole movie. I have a copy of that movie I bought it the day it came out I love that movie.

I went to see Men in black in the theater with my Mom. My Mom didn’t raise me so those outings were nice growing up. There was a guy behind us that was obviously on a date because he went out of his way to impress the girl he was with and he was putting his arm around her etc. but he seemed nice. During the scene where they are slowly zooming showing the nasty creepy looking guy at the booth that is really pale the guy behind us said “crack kills” I about dyed laughing. I always think of that when I am watching that movie on tv. I looked at that guy and smiled to show appreciation.

My best friend (his name is Harry) said when he was a teenager he would go with his friends and sneak them into the drive in. When the guy would walk around and check tickets he would take out a handful of tickets that he stuffed behind the visor from past visits to show he had the tickets for everybody. He rigged his 1968 ford falcon so driving in it looked like he was going by himself. This was LONG before I knew him. This was when he was a teenager.

I honestly didn’t go to the movies that often as a kid, my Grandma thought it was a waste of money because you could just buy a copy of it on vhs a few months later for a little over that price and watch the vhs over and over again. But when I was about 16 I went with my Mom alot for a little over a year.

When I went to see Steven King’s The Mist in cinemas, the entire audience was so into the movie that people were yelling at the audience. I forget exactly what now but it was in the overly-religious character Mrs. Carmody’s big climax. She’s proclaiming that it’s the end of times and God is punishing them, suspense is building and as she is monologuing on and on, suddenly someone right behind me yells out “JUST KILL HER ALREADY” really loudly. The audience cracked up at this. Sure enough, a few minutes and a gunshot to the head later, the entire audience was cheering, getting up out of their seats and applauding.

For me, it has always been a tie. When I went to see “He-Man and She-Ra in the Secret of the Sword” at the opening weekend matinee , the movie was continually interrupted by the loud bangs and slams of the exit doors in the front of the theater opening and closing. The staff was trying to surprise the kids by having He-Man and She-Ra ACTUALLY SHOW UP! We got out and there they were, in front of a limo, waiting for the throngs of kids. They looked pretty close to the cartoon, but didn’t say much. I got a autograph and was so excited, I called one of my best friends to tell him. Him, his brother and his mom all laughed at me saying, “They’re not real!”
That tied with going to see “Congo” in the theater and inciting the whole audience of 5 people to riff on it with me.

Best movie experience is probably going to see Aqua Teen Hunger Force The Movie. I was probably the only one who saw that movie the weekend it was there. The projectionist asked me if it wasn’t cold there because obviously they set the AC for a full theatre, since it was 120 F outside i didn’t care if i was bit chilly, and I loved that movie.

Probably the worst movie experience was going to see that Sandra Bullock/Nicole Kidman witches chick flick comed solely for riffing purposes but getting berated by my female friends who actually wanted to see a movie so cliched that it actually has a scene where the women dance around to an old 60’s rock song (much like that Ben stiller sketch), it was either that expierence or the one time I was like 12 and went with my gay cousin to see Blind Date in the movie theatre and started smelling smoke at the beggining of the show, we had to leave the theatre and on the way out was severely bummed out by all the little kids who were watching some animated flick (I think it was 101 dalmatians but im not sure)

Before I saw ‘Elf’ in the theaters my friend had told me about the part where he gets hit by a taxi, well while I watching the movie and he started to cross the street I was thinking ‘fuck yes here it comes!’ and it didn’t. So the second I thought ‘Oh I guess its not this scene?’ he got hit by a taxi right after that. It was such a surprise that i burst out laughing so hard, that my girlfriend at the time punched me in the side and told me to stop laughing, apparently I litterly ‘blacked-out’ laughing so hard that I had been laughing like a madman for ten minutes and everbody turned around and was looking at me.

Cree’s Baby story wins. Or at least it would if this were a contest with me as the sole judge.

A retarded woman sat behind my mother during Cool World. All throughout the film she moaned and yelled gibberish and kicked my mother’s seat. When she spilled soda all over my mom she was finally taken out of the theater by the people she came with. She ruined Cool World for all of us! How dare she.

When my family and I saw Gremlins 2, a gaggle of old ladies sat in front of us. They had overdone it on the perfume, as elderly women are wont to do. I suppose they need something to mask the rot as they’re nearing the grave. Being engulfed in a cloud of that sickly sweet mist made it quite difficult to breathe. And it tainted our popcorn! I hope no one here ever has to experience the vile taste combination of movie theater butter and 70-year-old woman. Luckily, the living dead exited about 15 minutes in. One of them exclaimed “I think we’re in the wrong theater!” They managed to drum up enough energy to pull themselves out of their seats and then shambled on out. Their stench followed along shortly after.

Went to see The Big Hit after a few drinks. Luckily it was a small empty theatre because we couldn’t stop laughing at everything.

And I saw Pinocchio with my parents when I was like 5. I remember my dad leaving to sneak into a better movie. I don’t blame him. It was freaking Pinocchio!

Going to see Cheaper by the Dozen at the dollar theater. The film was adjusted wrong so that the boom mike played a larger role than Steve Martin, and there was either a huge sentient bit of fluff on the lens or an overactive spider. It was all a bit surreal.

When I was 7 I remember going to see one of the Care Bear movies with my dad and some friends. Toward the end of the movie we all went to the next theater over to watch Monster Squad (a PG13 movie when you are 7 is a HUGE deal).

I’m pretty sure if we went with my mom instead of my dad this wouldn’t have happened.

Honey I Blew Up the Kid at a dollar theater! I remember having a discussion with my friend on the way home about how it was “pretty good”. What the blazes?

Oh, yeah, and I got stuck watching Getting Even With Dad in some rinky dink theatre. I was a camp counselor and it was one of the trips we took the kids on. It was horrible!

1. In a crowded theater watching The Big Lebowski, the old man in front of me “had an accident” in his pants and spent the entire movie shifting around on his depends.

2. Late night showing of Shaft (yeah.) a mom brought her four small children and sat them right in front of me. Four small kids at the midnight Shaft show. Good Parenting 101.

Carity I actually somewhat enjoyed that movie since I have seen the show. But I have to agree with you that a lot of weird people go see those type of films. I mean when I went there was a lot of giggling fan girls and a couple of very obese people. I thought one of them was a kid but my brother told me it was a full grown man.

I am 7 years old, and for some reason no one thought it would be a bad idea to bring me to this movie. Mental scars? Yeah, I’ve got ‘em.

So, for whatever reason, due to scheduling conflicts, I saw “Titanic” first with my Mom and then when Mom said how great it was, I went back to see it again. I swore how much I liked the movie after it hit the iceberg; didn’t care much at all for any of the romance.
So then my uncle wanted to see it and we go AGAIN. We get to the part that I’m actually looking forward to, and there’s this scene when they tell the captain the ship is definitely going to sink because X number of hulls have been breached AND the picture on the screen froze on his reaction shot and melted. After 15 minutes of wrangling, the theatre decided to give all of us free movie passes to come back. I never did and to this day I’ve only seen “Titanic” 2 1/2 times. Probably 2 1/2 times too many.

Also, my friend used to be way bored in movies since there was a spell when we’d go weekly. Once he took a leatherman and handed me a seat cushion that he had cut out of the chair next to him. Okay, maybe we were just thugs.

Goob: Not sure I understood what you meant by that, “the art of finding movies online while they are still in the theaters.” Also, thanks for noticing me. Was beginning to feel like a ghost on this site.

When I went to go see Star Wars Episode 2, when Yoda’s shadow first appeared on the screen a few people started cheering and clapping, and by the time he started kicking ass, the entire theater was on their feet going crazy.

I also got to see Fantasia 2000 in an empty theater with my dad, which is an awesome experience for anyone that it hasn’t happened too yet.

On at least two occasions (I think they were Small Soldiers and the remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre), some people brought their babies to the show. During the former, the baby cried all the way through the movie. I wonder if that kid suffered hearing damage.

Another time for some kiddie movie (it might have been Sesame Street’s Follow That Bird) the film broke.

I don’t actually have cinema (read: movie theatre - I’m a Brit) experiences. I usually used to wait for them to come out on video cassette. No, I lie, I used to wait for them to come on TV; My family was cheapskate like that.

About the only thing I can think of is when ‘E.T.’ came out, circa 1982. I was 4, and my parents took me to see it. For 99% of the film, I wasn’t bothered with what was happening on screen, but was more interested in the little star-like lights on the ceiling of the theatre. Hey, I was 4!

I didn’t see the film ‘properly’ until it came on TV years later. I guess I was fated to see movies on TV and nowhere else.

When we went to see Matrix Reloaded, the film was not centered or something (memory is a little hazy on the first part). No big deal…they fixed it after about showing the first 10 minutes and started it over. Then during the whole rave scene, a fight broke out in the aisle. Yeah it was a stupid scene, but no need to fight to leave the theater

when i was like 5, i had a HUGE crush on Michael J. Fox. my mom took me to see back to the future and when marty hit his head on the door of the delorian after crashing into the barn, everyone laughed. i yelled “that’s not funny!” and everyone cracked up. i cried.

When trying to go to the bathroom, I went out the fire exit by instead during Saw! (one)

The Mom part of your No Holds Barred thing reminds me of how often when I was a kid I dragged my Mom to movies she had absolutely zero interest in.

When I was 10, (one month away from eleven) in late October 1988 we were standing across the street from the movie theatre waiting in line for some lame ass Kiwanis Haunted House. My Mom knew I was big into Halloween and horror movies and I think this was her attempt at doing something she thought I would like. Except while my brother and sister were up for it I had no interest in some weak ass Haunted House.

Across the street in the theatre though was A Nightmare on Elm St 4: The Dream Master. I was definitely a huge fan of Freddy at this point. I was a more mature kid and could handle those movies and wasn’t immature about the nudity in either film. My Mom HATED horror movies. Not in the censorship type of way but in the, “this is not my thing, I really don’t like seeing gore” type of way.

But I somehow convinced her to take me to NOES 4 in the theatres at 10. I now have a 10 year old myself and I am pretty certain that I would be a super hypocrite and not take my son to that movie even though I begged my Mom to go.

Of course my son is into different things… Pokemon, GI Joe, Transformers (of course he would like retro cartoons after all would I come to this site if I didn’t relish my childhood a little too much?

) aren’t anything like watching someone get sliced up and stabbed to death.

Plus unlike his pops he’s not into the scary at all. I tried to get him to watch Poltergeist once, figuring it to be scary for kids but lacking nudity or language that would be offensive to allow kids to watch. He didn’t make it through the ghosts coming through the TV and punching into the bedroom wall while the parents were asleep.

Thinking about it now, I am pretty certain him watching that tree try to eat Robbie or even the clown scene would have f’d him up for a long time.

BJ No problem! I read all of the comments before I post mine. I know how it feels when you post and post and post and no one replies.

What I meant was if you know your way around the internet you can find movies that are still in the theater. Joox.net is a good start. Some are bad cam quality but if you wait about 3 weeks to a little over a month you can get a dvd rip of the movie. That is handy for people that loathe going to the theater. I just thought I would mention it.

Alison I saw total recall in science class in high school. The class was about planets. Gotta love alternative school. I brought the VHS tape actually because a guy mentioned it and asked the teacher if it was appropriate to watch it and explained why it was related to what we were learning. The teacher sat in the back doing paperwork.

All the guys cheered when the three breasted lady flashed and looked back at the teacher. The teacher just looked up and smirked. We saw a lot of inappropriate movies in alternative school. Like the Matrix, there is something about mary, baseketball, halloween h20 etc.

Because there was a day we would get our grades, go over our credits and then decide what class to take next. The rest of that day we would go into one of two rooms. There was always two movie choices, one was different then the other one.

But my regular health teacher made us watch 16 candles for our final cracking up the whole movie. That made me love that movie. I never seen it before that.

Easy- My mom took my brothers and I to see Ferngully cause we kept saying we wanted to see it (the animated rainforest movie…it looked cute at the time) She was confused what the movie was called though and accidentally took us to see Where the Red Fern Grows (where the dogs die at the end!) and she had to deal with what started as 3 confused children wondering where the cartoons were and by the end had 3 screaming crying kids horrified that these dogs died…

She has not voluntarily taken us to the movies since and were all in our 20s now…

I saw the movie Remote in the summer of 1993. Even then I thought it was pretty bad. We got in trouble for tossing Skittles at people from the back row.

Back to The Beach was pretty bad as well. I think it was in the late 80’s and I remember not being interested in it at all. I played the ROTJ game in the lobby the whole time.

I saw Cats and Dogs while in Kosovo at a makeshift theater. It was a combat base so I had to wear all my “battle-rattle” with a M249. I seriously considered shooting up the screen about half way through.

I lit a fart with a Bic lighter while watching FLATLINERS. It was a sparse crowd in the theater, but the quick flash of bright, blue flame (and the accompanying sound) was noticed by all. I made sure I did it during one of the quieter moments in the film as well. My friends and I were laughing so hard that I couldn’t even remember what had happened during the remainder of the film. To this day, I never have seen that movie again and have no idea how it ended, but it is one of my fonder movie-viewing experiences. I can’t believe that none of the other theater patrons complained. And oh yes, I *did* singe some hair down there. I suffered for my art back then.

I saw Jason X in the theaters. And when I saw Mr. & Mrs. Smith, some dude in the row behind me was receiving a sloppy BJ. Worst experience ever.

Anyway, my theater story comes at a drive-in. I don’t remember what we were seeing, but I was like 11 or 12, so I was with the parents. I wanted to run to the snack bar, and at this time in my life I literally RAN everywhere. Well, after getting a large tub of popcorn I went running back. You know how Drive-ins have those little humps to get your car into the best viewing angle? Well, my parents waiting in the car saw me in the rear view mirror, running fast, and then I went down, tossing up the popcorn. What they described to me as seeing in the mirror was just too funny, me just dropping with all the little popcorns flying up, but I was mad at them for laughing. I was scraped up pretty bad, but I was tough. I was more upset about spilling all that popcorn.

1981. 11 years old and my dad takes me to see Dragonslayer at the local drive-in. The movie starts and it’s Stripes (rated R). The credits start rolling and my dad turns to me and said, “you probably shouldn’t tell your mom about this”.

When I worked for a movie theater, we had a patron run out of a theater to complain that somebody had thrown a condom full of cole slaw at their head.

Ah! Forgot my worst experience… When my wife and I went to see NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, it was a late Saturday night showing and the theater was nearly sold to capacity. I wind up having a very large black woman in the seat to my right. During the opening scene of the film, she whips out a Subway sandwich (complete with extra onions) and a bag of potato chips and proceeded to munch away. I wanted to scream.

“And when I saw Mr. & Mrs. Smith, some dude in the row behind me was receiving a sloppy BJ. Worst experience ever. ”

Probably not for him, Ryan. His comment will probably fall under the “Best Movie Experiences Ever” section. But I commend your use of the adjective “sloppy” and for waiting until after 10:00 to post it, when such discussions become socially acceptable.

Me and my cousin went to see Hook down in Lynchburg in 90 or 91 when ever it came out . While we were watching the person behind us kept yelling BOAT , BOAT ,BOAT . we turned around and it was a very large mentally retarded man having the time of his life yelling boat through the whole movie. Being the assholes that we are we joined in on the boat chant , and the guy behind us was in nirvana. To this day we greet each other with either a Bill and Ted quote or we just shout BOAT!

My parents recently went with me to see “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and sat uncomfortably stone-faced throughout the entire movie. My mom even left 3/4 of the way through and sat in the lobby. They’re not prudes, as they loved “40-Year-Old Virgin.” I frankly kinda agree that Forgetting just sucked and is overrated.

I think I remember the movie where the manager lectured us being “Bridget Jones 2″

And I’ve also been to a few movies where some idiotic parent brought their child/baby to a film that they shouldn’t have (like a horror film) and should have gotten a babysitter or stayed home.

Oh man…Matt, your “No Holds Barred” experience with your mom reminds me of when I was going through my alternate “prime-time cartoon” and hip-hop phases. The best of both worlds culminated with a little animated film called “Bebe’s Kids.” I roped my mom into going to see it with me…now, keep in mind, mom is not racist, but she umm, grew up in a different era. We were the only white people in the theater. I think I’ve repented for that by taking her to see a good number of predictable romantic comedies since then.

But I spent a good many summers in my childhood (when I was about 9 - 12) seeing some of the worst films ever released at my local dollar cinema. I have the dubious distinction of having seen “Kazaam” in its first run…it was quite traumatizing. And somehow, I ended up seeing “Gone Fishin” more than once in its theatrical run. I also remember the disillusioning experience of seeing “TMNT III” when it was released.

I went to go see the first X-Files movie and about half way into the movie, the film made a weird noise, flipped upside-down and started playing backwards.
It was a conspiracy, I tell you!

I too cried so loudly and for so long during E.T. that it majorly embarrassed my sister.

During the closing part of American History X, the first John Conner Guy says that his brother said to end the paper with a quote, so here it goes. And then the film broke. I still have no clue what life changing quote was told.

Pierced myself in an intimate place before seeing Monsters Inc and drinking the super large drink. Not a great idea on my part.

The best part of “No Holds Barred” was the actual fallout. The WWF and later WCW would bring in Zeus to actually feud with Hogan. I think they even main-evented the 89 Summerslam.

I got stuck watching Ducktales when I was younger, since I was too young to get into Die Hard. So I sat in the back row, and during the previews, stood up and waved a middle finger in front of the projector. Covered the center of the screen. I was stealthy enough to sit back down and look around before anyone noticed it was me, but that was worth the price of admission.

As for these days, seeing the Dark Knight was a pretty horrible experience. The majority of the rear portion of the theater was filled with knuckleheads on cellphones being astonished that they’re speaking to friends in the same theatre, waving to each other across the aisles. Coupled with children taking 25 minutes to open cellophane candy bags, and the smell of diapers and B.O. And then there were the 6′5 meatheads who decided to stand up and leave very slowly with 2 minutes left in the movie, blocking a good number of people’s view of the ending.

My mom and I went to go see Because I Said So in a theatre packed with obnoxious teenagers.
Majorly awkward. It’s not something we talk about.

Okay, I’ve read a couple posts on here about people crying when E.T. was dying, and yeah, it’s a real tearjerker. But who actually screamed bloody murder when Elliott first discovers him in the backyard and they scare each other? I raise my hand on that one. Each time my family tried taking me to the theater for that one, I screamed at that part each time, never made it through. I think I finally saw it all the way through when it came out on VHS in ‘88.

Ooo, and possibly the best movie summer for me (if it was even summer) was when the first “TMNT” movie came out in ‘90. Still stands as the most times I’ve seen a single movie in its theatrical run…basically, nothing better to do on a weekend, I’d get my mom to take me to see it again. No problem, ’cause she actually loved it, believe it or not.

Phil The “John Connor Guy” is Edward Furlong. He does a lot of independent movies nowadays. I have seen a lot of them because I am a huge fan of Terminator 1 and 2. I have seen American History X before on FX just a few months ago.

I very rarely go to the movies. The movies I like don’t really need the big screen experience, so there’s no reason to pay through the nose for the privilege of being stuck in that tiny seat surrounded by inconsiderate jerks. Of course, for me to feel that way, I have a few stories.

I remember seeing The Royal Tennenbaums when my husband and I were dating, and having some guy with a serious sinus infection or something right behind me. He just kept working that mucus in his head the whole movie. It was really disgusting.

I went to see White Squall (I had a huge crush on Jason Marsden. It’s OK if you don’t know who he is) and I had some mother and her little girl behind me. The mother felt the need to explain the whole movie in real time, which really took away from some of the more dramatic moments.

Also, in general, there’s the first time you go to the movies with someone and realize that she’s that obnoxious person you always complain about at the movies.

I guess an awkward movie experience was when my husband (then boyfriend) and I went to Signs and he screamed like a little girl at a random part of the movie…

When I went to see the first Pirates of the Carribean, I sat next to this 300 pound guy in his 30s that clapped like a little kid whenever Johnny Depp came on the screen. Literally, like, the elbows straight-out “oh boy! I’m getting a popsicle!”, three-year-old kid, uncoordinated clap. When you were a kid, what made you clap like that? Bonus: What makes you clap like that, now?

Whilst not technically a movie theater, when I went to Sydney, Austrailia, my wife and I got tickets to the Sydney Opera House. We ended up running late to our show and literally had to run from the subway to the Opera House through the Austrailian summer heat to get there. We made it just in time, but my wife had sweated profusely and was completely embarrassed by her “odor”. Honestly, she was pretty rank. Halfway through the show, I suddenly realized it was, in fact, me and my shirt that had been sitting in the bottom of my luggage for 2 weeks that was the source of the noxious odor. This only caused me to sweat more as I attempted to remain completely and absolutely still, as every single twitch of my body caused more emanations to spring forth. After intermission, the couple that were sitting next to me never returned…

The worst movie going experience was probably when I was 7 or 8 and went to go see Dudley Do-Right. The theater was sold out, so I guess Runaway Bride was our safety. Well I was bored out of my f-ing mind and the reel broke and we sat in the dark for like 20 minutes. I got a free ticket for another movie but the theater closed down not too long after.

When I was 8, my younger brother and I and our best friends (also brothers) went to see the live-action “Masters of the Universe” flick. Now, you can understand how psyched we all were to see this. But for some reason, it took FOREVER for even the previews to start. Like, they were a half-hour behind schedule. At least that’s how long it seemed looking back. But my friend and I dared his younger brother (then 6) to stand up in his seat and yell at the top of his lungs, “Start the damn movie!” Pretty risky stuff. But he totally did it, and the audience cracked up, even though it was primarily filled with parents and their kids. Even my mom cracked up.
When I was 12, I tried to convince a friend to sneak into “Wayne’s World” after we had just purchased “Fern Gully” tickets. He totally wussed out; like, he was about to start crying ‘cuz I was pressuring him so much. So we saw friggin’ “Fern Gully” … and were the only dudes there, except for a dad or two.
At the tail end of “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” when Jennifer Love Hewitt gets out of the shower and sees the writing on her mirror (I think), my best friend yelled out in a pirate voice, “I know what you did TWO summers ago!” Another instance of the entire audience losing their shit from laughing so hard. Good times.

I used to work at the movie theater, so I’ve got lots of stories. One of the most exciting things that happened was when one of the huge plastic trash bins in the hallway behind the theater caught on fire and every single theater got filled with smoke. I was in the box office, so people were coming up to me asking for refunds as smoke billowed out behind them. I was like “Are you seriously asking me for a refund while this building is on fire? I’m not staying back here”.

Also, after work one day I went into that movie about The Rock being a sheriff to hang out with my friend who was a manager there. Halfway through the movie, the screen just went blank and stopped playing. My friend took off towards the projection room to find out what happened, and a minute later the movie started again. Turns out the projector broke and he spent the rest of the movie spinning it by hand.

Seeing Fantasia when I was 12 with my stepmom, sister and 2 of our friends…omg…we had giant twizzlers we bit the ends off of…and tried using em as straws in the soda, and flicked water at peoples heads…and sang the Velveeta Vs. Cheddar song during the dancing Hippos scene. We kept trying to sneak out and watch ducktales

Oh yeah…my dad had rented a movie theater for my sisters b day. it was about 20 kids from her class and me and my brother, and we saw Blank Check. The one little girl in the back who was like 8 screamed out loud to this other boy “Alex Pepper you are an asshole!” right in a quiet part of the film…and got cupcake icing on the sleeves of my leather jacket after wards.

Although I was *fortunately* not around for this, my idiot brother decided it was a good idea to take my prude mother to see Borat in the theater… she was pretty angry by the end of it.

Seeing the re-release of Return of the Jedi behind about 20 kids who would NOT settle down, and kept insisting that it was “okay” if Lando was eaten by the sarlacc, since he was just a black guy anyway.

My best friend wanted to see Smart People, so we went to a midnight show. But anticipating what kind of movie it might be, I bought some play dough to smuggle in and we spent half the movie playing with it. We were 2 of 3 patrons in the showing.

At Superman Returns, some old guy in front of us went to sleep about 5 minutes in. He was snoring, too. When something loud would happen, he’d kind of wake up a little, then go right back to sleep. 5 minutes before the end of the movie, he woke up and left.

I keep coming up with more…okay, experiences with someone who ruined the movie for you…probably every movie with my ex. Went with her and her half-sister (who is one of my closest friends) to see “The Punisher” and “Van Helsing,” and my ex wouldn’t shut up through either. Hugh Jackman would come on…”Ooo, that’s my man!” Moment of peril: “Watch out, ya goober!” at the top of her lungs. Word to the wise: it’s never good when you make out with your significant other just to quiet them down. Didn’t get to see “The Punisher” in peace and quiet until I saw it on FX. Didn’t care too much for “Van Helsing.”

When I was however old I was when Home Alone came out, my parents didn’t take my sister and I until the summer AFTER it came out. I think about that now and can’t even believe it was still in theaters that long. Well the film itself was shot and ten minutes in it started to pop and drool. After some grumbling, they turned on the lights, announced that they were going to change the reels and start over. Well the second reel was just as bad as the first, and the crowd in the theater was not happy. Some teenager actually launched a large soda through the projectionist window, and large movie sodas are the size of small buckets. Then all hell broke loose with M&M’s and skittles flying all over the place. I remembered running out of the theater ducked down like I was in the trenches of warfare. We got our money back and went to the arcade.
The best movie experience was Jason X though. I was uber excited to go see it (it was the first F13 movie I was old enough to see at the movies)and it was originally gonna just be my horror movie loving buddy and I, and then about 3 more came along. We walked into the smallest room in the theatre, and there were six other guys as stoned as we were, and with in 15 minutes it became an episode of MST3000. Best $5 I ever spent (student discount), my face hurt the next morning from laughing so hard.

I haven’t had that many bad cinema experiences really but a group of chavs on the front row during ‘I Am Legend’ annoyed the crap out of me, obvously they weren’t there to see the film and one of them was talking on his mobile phone for a good twenty minutes at one point!

It was a good reminder to myself as to why I see a lot of films early in the day.

While seeing Gremlins 2 at a theater on Long Beach Island, NJ - the whole place got invaded by these little frogs (or toads?). The place was a shithole and behind it was all marsh/wetlands. Apparently the rain storms we had must have flooded the bay and the little bastards came into the theater for dryground and some ju-ju-bees.

1: Back ages and ages ago, I think it was ‘89, not sure, my mom said she was going to take us out to a movie. She didn’t tell us what it was, and my sister and I had no clue what the heck she was taking us to see.

Turns out she was taking us to see the Ninja Turtles, which we’d never expressed interest in before, but afterwards, holy crap. My sister and I became Turtles fans after that.

2: I got IDed when my sister and I went to see Mulan. MULAN. A G rated Disney movie. I was 16 and my sister was 13. What the hell?

Oh! And one more. It’s not so much weird as it was freakin’ awesome! When my friends and I went to the geek showing of Star Wars Episode 2, after the Yoda lightsaber scene, the entire theater got up as one and gave Yoda a standing ovation as he whipped out his walking stick and hobbled away. XD

Thought of another one. I went with a friend of mine and her brother to see Freddy’s Dead The Final Nightmare in the theatre for the 3D effect (I think it was 91′ or 92′). After the movie her brother told us the movie sucked because it looked weird until the end. We couldn’t stop laughing at him because he didn’t pay attention and hadn’t realized he didn’t need to wear the glasses until the end. I really liked the 3D effect.

I stood up and danced in my seat in the middle of the “Everybody Wants to Be A Cat” number during a mid-80s re-release of “The Aristocats.” My mother was mortified.

I went to see the “Star Wars: New Hope” re-release on my own and “Return of the Jedi” with my family, but I saw “Empire Strikes Back” with two girlfriends who were just as Force-crazy as me. I think we were a little too excited. We tried to whisper, but by the time Darth Vader was scaring Luke to death with his big announcement, we had people telling us to shush.

My youngest sister and I saw “Batman and Robin” when it first came out in the theaters. Talk about your big mistakes. We sat numbly through the whole damn weird film, then turned to each other and said in unison, “What in the HELL did we just see?”

I’ve had more pleasant experiences with my brother. We had the entire theater to ourselves for “Atlantis: The Lost Empire.” We yelled at the screen, put our feet on the seats, and generally had a whale of a time. Likewise “Lilo and Stitch,” only this time, the movie was as fun as the experience…and my brother is still a fan of “Stitchie” (as he used to call Stitch) to this day.

Oh wow Beth, you just reminded me of that! The theater went absolutely insane when Yoda went into his moves in “Attack of the Clones!” The whole crowd as one just gasped and squealed and got up and cheered. I had my brother AND my boyfriend with me that time, and we all went right along with the rest. Fun times.

A post talking about No Holds Barred and no mention that Tom Lister (aka Zeus) was in The Dark Knight as the lead criminal on the ferry? For shame…

American Beauty, when i was probably 14, judging by when it came out, sitting between my parents. Awkward!

My induction into womanhood coincided with the release of “Point Break” in 1991. I got my first period during a sneak preview of the action flick and attribute my subsequent obsession with Patrick Swayze to the surge in hormones.

I was interviewed by the local news after seeing Tim Burton’s Batman. It was seriously the highlight of my childhood life. We taped the broadcast and still have it somewhere.

I think the worst thing is going to a comedy and sitting next to someone with the most annoying laugh ever. That has happened to me on a few occassions!

Okay, I don’t want to sound like an asshole but for those who said they saw the first Ninja Turtles movie in 1989 are wrong. I do remember it came out the Spring of 1990 and my mom offered to take me. I was slightly into the Turtles, but not to the point of dying to see the movie. It was my mom who told me that the names of the turtles were from Renaissance artists so yeah, I knew the turtles names before I knew about Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and even Donatello. Never read much about Raphael as I did the other three.

Goob: Hmm, sounds like a site where you download bootleg movies. I’ve had my share of them in Iraq. The local Iraqi shops would sell discs that had movies that just came out in the theaters in the states. You would get sound that was off, out of focus picture quality, and sillouettes of figures popping in and out of the picture. Basically it was someone who took a movie camera into the theater and recorded the movie. Sorry but I’m too honest. I’d either rather do it the old fashioned way, seeing it in the theaters, or patiently wait for the DVD to come out.

Anyway, I wish I could talk more because I’m starting to remember other movie theater moments but I have to get back to the motorpool because lunch is almost over. Seems like this is becoming a popular thread. Matt, I forgive you if you don’t come up with something new for a blog tonight. This thread could go on for several days because we all keep thinking of different stories to tell.

It’s kinda crazy how there are so many great Gremlins 2 stories here; I never actually saw that one in the theater. I feel like I’ve missed out on what probably could have been an amazing experience.

First time I saw TMNT was a pirate video at a friends house, before it was in UK cinema. Boy was I confused a week later when whole chunks were cut out! For example, if Mikeys ‘chuks were shown it was editted out, and that whole apartment fight scene was cut to about a minute.

Oh, and Thursday…I’m treating myself, Dark Night preview screening night, BK Dark Whopper and BK kids club with free Batman toy. Hells to the batty yes.

1. Saw The Flintstones opening night in front of some guy who laughed way too loud at anything that was even remotely humorous.

2. There was a commercial before Beavis and Butt-Head Do America featuring Yoko Ono. When she appeared, I yelled, “You broke up The Beatles, you bitch!” Hilarity ensued.

3. The wife and I saw a sneak preview of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, double featured with The Others. Before The Others, lots of “urban” youths came into the theater, one of which stopped right in front of us at the beginning of the movie, yelling at his friend in the back. I said, “For the love of God, sit down and shut the fuck up!” People applauded me, but I thought that dude was gonna kill me.

4. Saw Bad Santa with the wife and our friends…the youth minister and his wife. AWKWARD.

5. Saw Cars in a theater full of Larry the Cable Guy fans who laughed and applauded at just about anything that hack said.

6. Finally, at Iron Man, there was this kid who shhed my friend when she made one offhand comment during one of the commercials (NOT a trailer!). The kid didn’t shut up through the whole movie but was priceless during the trailer for The Love Guru. When Mike Myers gets a boner and you hear that metal thing go “ding” the kid looked at his dad and says, “What does that mean?”

Hey Matt, not sure if you heard already or not but Estelle Getty passed away today. I know your a fan of the show and just wanted to pass it along.

No Holds Barred, Hulk shoulda got an Oscar for that one.
Oddest movie theater experience: My buddy and I were bored,mid-day on a Wednesday, and headed to the cheapo theater to see whatever was playing when we got there. It was BOUND. Neither of us knew much about it, other than it was a mob/money caper flick. We went in, there were 8 people, including us. Two chicks a few rows up, two chicks a few rows behind us, and two off to our left. Odd for a mid-day mobster