Memorable cinema experiences

[D'wards]

Either good or bad.

Mine is all good. 1984, my uncle Stephen and his pal Bungalow Bill took me and my brother swimming at Elephant and Castle pool, which had some brilliant slides back then, on a Saturday afternoon
We had a McDonalds then headed to the ABC in Broad Green, Croydon.
In those days you had to queue up to go into the pictures. So we got our tickets for Ghostbusters, some Paynes Poppets and a coke and went into the theatre.

It was packed with kids, loads from my junior school were on there too.

Now the song had come out before the film and was a big hit.
The film started with the intro on the library with the scary shushing female ghost.
She chases them out of the library and the theme tune starts up.

Every kid in there was clapping and stomping our feet along and of course there comes "Who you gonna call?"

And as one the whole audience bellowed "GHOSTBUSTERS".

It really was the best time I've ever had in the cinema - we all went mad for that film

 

[D'wards]

Oh no its just brought up an identical thread below and I think I relayed the same story in it about 7 years ago. Sorry about that

 

[Idris2002]

One summer in the early '80s, it seemed like everyone on the estate was going to the pictures. We definitely all saw Return of the Jedi (so it must have been '83) and the now forgotten Condorman, which has never got the credit or cult status it deserves. And I think maybe there was an Indiana Jones in there too, maybe Last Crusade?

Anyway, it was memorable because of the community angle - it was like everyone was going that summer. This would have been just before the VCR revolution rolled into town.

 

[Artaxerxes]

Went as a family to see Addams family. Me mum and brother, spent the time before it shopping.

When we got home it turns out mum remembered something she left at the cinema. A bag full of steak knifes.

 

[Maltin]

One summer in the early '80s, it seemed like everyone on the estate was going to the pictures. We definitely all saw Return of the Jedi (so it must have been '83) and the now forgotten Condorman, which has never got the credit or cult status it deserves. And I think maybe there was an Indiana Jones in there too, maybe Last Crusade?

Anyway, it was memorable because of the community angle - it was like everyone was going that summer. This would have been just before the VCR revolution rolled into town.

Last crusade came out in 1989. Temple of Doom came out in 1884. Condorman was originally released in 1981.

 

[JimW]

One of my first visits here you could still smoke so remember being impressed by the illuminated low lying cloud layer as I struggled to follow the dialogue.

 

[platinumsage]

The Bourne Identity. In a scene where they’re chasing through a building an alarm goes off. It’s a fire alarm, a nearby shop in the shopping centre is on fire. Saw the second half in a special showing the following week.

 

[D'wards]

One of my first visits here you could still smoke so remember being impressed by the illuminated low lying cloud layer as I struggled to follow the dialogue.

In the aforementioned ABC at Broad Green you could only smoke on the right hand side, and of course the smoke had the good grace to stay on that side

 

[surreybrowncap]

As a kid Mum would take myself and two sisters to either ABC or The Odeon at the Elephant & Castle..
Usually on a Sunday - then afterwards on to the ice cream parlour in the London Road.
Strongly recall seeing Planet of The Apes, Dr Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia...
Too young to appreciate them but did enjoy my hot dogs!
It gave me a love for films and the stamina for long movies!!

 

[ruffneck23]

Tiny cinema in Withington watching ' A bug's life' and being able to smoke spliffs in it (around 1999).

Although some mates went the following week and got kicked out for doing the same..

 

[Spandex]

I watched Pulp Fiction with a friend on its opening night (at the mighty Cannon cinema, Sidcup). Obviously no-one knew what to expect or what was going to happen and the small crowd sat in silence completely absorbed, taking in the jumpy timeline and different stories and oh my god did that just happen? moments.

There was so much to take in we went back the next night to watch it again, recognising some of the same faces from the night before. There was a clear divide in the cinema: those of us who'd seen it the previous day were howling with laughter, now recognising the dark comedy, while the rest were watching in the same silence we'd had 24 hours earlier.

 

[paul mckenna]

There Will Be Blood from the very first mineshaft scene with that screechy Jonny Greenwood score. Felt like that was my time watching a "proper" film

 

[Ax^]

Going to watch jumanji in the kingston odena in the summer of 1995 whilst in england for the summer Holiday was in the middle of a heat wave
so me the 2 sisters and me went in, smuggled in our snacks mine being a big olde bag of oversized marshmellows

was going go movie started but then keeped stopping every 20 minutes or so for an unknown length of time before restarting
this went on for about an hour and half as we were still there, people were grumbling and i was consuming more and more of the mashmellows

so got to the stampeed part of the movie when the mashmellow started rebelling in my stomach, suffered for a bit longer before
jumping up and shouting move .. sister looked at me like why?

so the projectiled vomited on the floor and mostly on back of the seats in front , young lasses sitting their where most impressed
struggled out of the ailse and projectiled vomit twice again once in the walk way and a nice liittle trail against the wall lead to the door

snuck out hid in the toilets and left the cinema quitely, not before hearing some girl crying about having sick in her hair

oddly everyone got a refund for the experience and went back a few day later to watch the secret garden

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

Bad......


Being about 3/4 and having to leave the cinema after the swamp of despair from the never-ending story.

I managed to hold it together for the opening of caravan of courage which is kinda bleak (we for tv but the cinima on the mall showed it theatrically)

 

[spitfire]

Peckham. Gangs of New York. Projector failed halfway through. What with that and the dickheads talking and on phones didn’t go back to the cinema for years.

Genesis Mile End. Ticket for one of the last Star Wars films, realised 30 seconds in it was 3D. Fucked that off because 3D is shite.

Imax FTW.

 

[Spandex]

When I was about 10 my older brother took me to the cinema to watch... fuck knows what, probably a shit Star Wars knock off or some fantasy crap like Krull. Whatever, they still showed B-features. And the B-feature they decided to show a cinema full of pre-teens was Elton John Live in Central Park. Nobody was there to watch Elton John. Nobody liked Elton John. Nobody wanted to see Elton fucking John dressed as Donald Duck looking like a fucking prick with his stupid fucking sparkly glasses and his fucking piano. At first people hoped it would just be a song or two, but it just kept going. People got restless. Kids started getting out of their seats and running around. Pop corn was flying everywhere. We shared our popcorn with the kids behind us who were hating Elton John as much as we were. As much as everyone clearly was. And it just kept going, Elton shitting John stretching on for the kind of eternity that only kids can understand. It seemed like some kind of cruel and unusual torture designed to punish us for whatever reason. There was mayhem in that cinema as kids rampaged about trying to find something to focus on to save their sanity. When it finally ended an exhausted yet grateful crowd shuffled back to their seats in relief. I've hated Elton John ever since.

 

[ska invita]

Snake in the Eagles Shadow late 90s Brixton Ritzy - not that long post Wu Tang + kung fu flick mania, cinema was full and surprisingly everyone seemed to know the film backwards and were calling out and riffing with the script, pure pantomime, great fun, like watching a wrestling match

 

[ska invita]

We've done this thread before... Here's what I put ten years ago


Snake in the Eagles Shadow, Brixton Ritzy
back in the 90s at some point, might not have been Snake in the Eagles Shadow, but I think a snake was involved, anyhow Ritzy had a kung-fu flick season and I went to one film. Screen 1, packed house, people standing at the back. The film was obscure to me (dont think it was S.I.T.E.S.), but the audience seemed to know it intimately, shouting out at the screen, riffing with the script, generally making it a lot of fun. Reminded me of that scene in Harder they Come when they go to watch Django - Rowdy!

- Rent, Greenwich cineplex (spoiler included)
Went to go and see something else on a late show and it was sold out, only thing else on was Rent, the film version of the musical about the AIDS epidemic . Reluctantly went in with Ms Invita, about 5 other groups of people in the cinema (which is a nice one it must be said). This film is so bad its hilarious, and pretty soon i got the giggles, and as the film went on everyone in the cinema was cracking up throughout so that by the point the main character dies at the end everyone was creasing up - sounds rude but honestly it was that bad. There were a couple of good moments and musical numbers in there too tbf.

- Schindlers List, cant remember where
Whatever you may think about the film it was the only time ive seen a cinema audience all stay in their seats till the very last credit went off the screen. Powerful with an audience.

- Chaplin Great Dictator cleaned up version, BFI
Incredible to see a black and white film completely restored as if it was shot yesterday - that was good, and then there was a powercut right in the middle of it, which made it feel a bit like war time. Memorable at least.

- Mystery Sciecne Theatre 3000 allnighter - Picadilly circus cinema
5 funny/crap films back to back till 6am, not sure if id do it again but it was fun while it lasted. Literally hysterical by the end

 

[T & P]

Many happy childhood memories during my family’s annual summer holiday in Spain in the 70s and 80s. It was an open air cinema, and they would show a different film every night at 10 pm. Being a small sleepy town, it was the thing to do for everyone. As a bonus, as it was always in August so you were treated to plenty of shooting stars as well, due to the annual Perseid event.

Best one of them all was watching The Fly (as a brand new film too). My dad had been bitten by a mosquito on his ear a few hours prior, and the ear had reddened and swollen up to comical proportions. So much family hilarity during the scene when Jeff Goldblum’s ear fell off

 

[T & P]

The Bourne Identity. In a scene where they’re chasing through a building an alarm goes off. It’s a fire alarm, a nearby shop in the shopping centre is on fire. Saw the second half in a special showing the following week.

In the aforementioned ABC at Broad Green you could only smoke on the right hand side, and of course the smoke had the good grace to stay on that side

Back in the day in Spain well before multiplexes virtually all cinemas were massive, with two levels just as if they were a theatre. So it was non-smoking in the ‘stalls’ and smoking on the upper level, which actually worked fairly well.

 

[T & P]

My worst one is probably the first time I watched a film in Jordan. The locals (and I‘ve since been told it’s a common trait in other countries in the region as well) apparently think nothing of talking throughout the film at normal volume levels, as if you were watching a film you didn’t care that much about with some friends in your living room. You can still hear the film’s dialogue, but wtf.

Worse still, every other fucker would have their smartphone out for large periods, whether to post live updates on social media of what they thought of the film, or to watch the football scores (or even watch the match live!). I was incensed and it ruined the movie. In fact I don’t even remember what we watched.

I’ve subsequently made my peace with it and accepted that if I ever want to watch a film in the cinema in Jordan, it’s always going to be like that and need to treat it as if I was watching a football game in a bar.

 

[hitmouse]

If we're taking a loose definition of "cinema", one of the best ones that comes to mind was seeing a showing of Stop Making Sense in a big car park or something, so there was space for people to get up and dance at the back.

 

[scifisam]

The mad cinema in Poland (in about 1995) that was one of the last that had a live translator - just one translator for every single role in the film. They turned the volume down because nobody else there could understand English, so literally all we got was one bloke translating everything he could as fast as he could in deep and low voices, and if that weren't bad enough, he was very clearly drunk. So it was one drunk man translating every character in a language we couldn't speak.

Apart from that... I also had a memorable memory of seeing Ghostbusters. It was at the State Cinema in Grays, which was a beautiful building, listed for almost all of its interior, and it was the last movie they ever showed (the building still exists). Perfect spooky cinema to see that movie in as a kid, especially since a lot of the interior was falling to bits.

Also taking my daughter and several of her friends to see Bridge to Terabithia when she was 10/11. For my daughter's birthday. I've read loads of young adult books, but had never read this one (it's huge in the US and virtually unknown in the UK), and the ads all made it seem like a sweet fantasy movie.

We spent about three quarters of the movie wondering when the fantasy part was going to happen after the big change in the story happened, and two of the kids cried a lot.

 

[A380]

I was about eight before I could go to the cinema and not cry at the end because of the experience coming to an end. Mary Poppins did for me when she left at the end.

Went to a drive in movie in Harare in a British Army Bedford truck with about 20 other people. I think we gave the bloke on the gate $20 US to get in. We got three of the hook on speaker things and had a few crates of the local larger. Can't remember for sure what the film was, it may have bean Road House which I have never watched again,,,

Saw the last Mission Impossible film in the main auditorium of the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. That was actually pretty cool.

 

[krtek a houby]

Audiences getting into films is great, that's the communal experience. But chatting, phone bollocks, laser pens and the rest shouldn't be part of that.


In 1979, The Black Hole was lessened, to an extent, by the kid beside trying to conversation with yours truly throughout.

 

[ska invita]

The mad cinema in Poland (in about 1995) that was one of the last that had a live translator - just one translator for every single role in the film. They turned the volume down because nobody else there could understand English, so literally all we got was one bloke translating everything he could as fast as he could in deep and low voices, and if that weren't bad enough, he was very clearly drunk. So it was one drunk man translating every character in a language we couldn't speak.

Apart from that... I also had a memorable memory of seeing Ghostbusters. It was at the State Cinema in Grays, which was a beautiful building, listed for almost all of its interior, and it was the last movie they ever showed (the building still exists). Perfect spooky cinema to see that movie in as a kid, especially since a lot of the interior was falling to bits.

Also taking my daughter and several of her friends to see Bridge to Terabithia when she was 10/11. For my daughter's birthday. I've read loads of young adult books, but had never read this one (it's huge in the US and virtually unknown in the UK), and the ads all made it seem like a sweet fantasy movie.

We spent about three quarters of the movie wondering when the fantasy part was going to happen after the big change in the story happened, and two of the kids cried a lot.

reminds me of seeing blues brothers in the early 80s in a tiny "cinema" in the arse end of poland, had fold up wooden seats, fitted about 40 people maybe, reallycold too - absolutely fell in love with blues brothers for life that day - felt like a ray of all that was good in that miserable room

 

[ska invita]

seeing Jurassic Park in a full house cinema, the half term weekend it came out, full of kids, they absolutely loved it - like a 2 hour roller coaster ride

 

[Ax^]

if you never seen jurassic park in the the cinema


you never really seen the movie regardless of how big the telly or how good the sounds is....

 

[AverageJoe]

Hmm. Isn't it? Big dark room, lady with a torch showing you to your seats, the rustle of sweet wrappers, adverts for Westlers Hot Dogs (get one in the foyer), half time break, cornettos from the usherette, peanuts for the older people, sticky floors, hmm, marvellous.

 

[The39thStep]

Tiny cinema in Withington watching ' A bug's life' and being able to smoke spliffs in it (around 1999).

Although some mates went the following week and got kicked out for doing the same..

It closed years ago, unfortunately, used to have 'kissing 'seats in the back row. Remember watching there a late night showing of The Italian Job drinking a bottle of Marguerita with this woman I was seeing .