h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What's the best way to enjoy the cinema experience? There must be endless tips and tricks which we can share. For example, after seeing Life of Pi today, I would now avoid seeing any film which featured so many spell-bindingly quiet sequences unless I was in an almost empty cinema, because all that popcorn munching broke the spell... whereas a comedy can be an enhanced by having a crowd of people laughing along with you.

totally ban the sale of any noisy food or slurpy drinks. the person next to me when I saw Life of Pi munched through a tray of disgusting stinky nachos, with her mouth open...
I wanted to get my slapping hand out.

Where was it?

Your slapping hand I mean.

dipping into my giant pot of popcorn?
no seriously, I was being restrained. (by who didn't want to cause a scene)

Choose carefully when you go to see it. Rowdy Friday night showings are good for action movies as well as comedies. Horror films, too, can benefit from audience "participation".

Some examples:
- rowdy Friday night in Birmingham in 198?, seeing the original Die Hard. Cinema full of people cheer loudly at two points near the end, both involving the shooting of bad guys. Great stuff.
- back-to-back showings of both Alien movies (yes, both - pick a date when that was possible) at the Bradford National Media Museum's IMAX. During the medlab scene, Ripley's fighting off a facehugger, Newt is clutching her doll and screaming, and out of focus and over her shoulder a second facehugger climbs up and over a medical trolley like a spider two feet across. The entire audience gives a MASSIVE audible gasp, it was great.
- "Skyfall" - at the transition between the second and third acts, Bond makes a comment about company cars having trackers, switches on some lights, and the audience in both cinemas where I saw it made an audible sigh. Brilliant.

If you're going to watch something you want to concentrate on and not be distracted by "participation", go on a weekday afternoon when the schools aren't on holiday. Never, ever go on a Wednesday in the UK, because everyone with an Orange phone gets two tickets for the price of one that day.(Is that still true?)

On the other hand, if you are taking children to see a family film, also take bags and beakers. Then buy ONE coke and ONE bag of popcorn, and share it out.

(I told my children years ago that if they didn't have coke and popcorn, we could go to the cinema more often. They said that coke and popcorn was part of the cinema experience, and they would rather only go once a year with, than three times a year without. This was the compromise we arrived at.)

Mol

Everyone should be made to follow the Wittertainment Code of Conduct...and if people do not the other members of the audience should be allowed to taser them.

http://infiniteeltideas.wordpress.com/2012/07/04/wittertainment-code-of-conduct/

Hoo - - "Skyfall" - at the transition between the second and third acts, Bond makes a comment about company cars having trackers, switches on some lights, and the audience in both cinemas where I saw it made an audible sigh. Brilliant.

Yup. It got exactly that reaction when I saw it too

After three decades of not bothering to see any James Bond movies, I finally relented when Daniel Craig took on the Bond role. Second and third acts of "Skyfall?" They didn't label them as such

I just got home after seeing "Les Miserables," which I nominate as the best movie of the year, if not of all time. The theater was crowded, and that made it all the more enjoyable. The emotions were larger than life. There as no way audience noise could drown them out. But despite a packed house, nobody made a sound until the veyr end, when someone shouted "Fantastic!" and numerous people [including myself] applauded.

That Dark 30 movie [or whatever it's called] has unfortunately been named the year's best movie by some critics, which means I may have to see it even though I dread it. It isn't going to have Hugh Jackman and An Hathaway and Amanda Seyfried singing, now is it? It can't possibly be b egter than "Les Miserables." Sascha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham-Carter are also there as comic evil people, and Russell Crowe plays the dutiful but bad guy Javert. The level of singing is routinely excellenyt, better than on the CDs I have, also better than on the concert versions I once saw on TV.

If I so want to see a movie a theatre, I try to go at least a week after the opening on on Sunday morning, first showing of the day. I saw athe Hobbit last Sunday in a comfortable theatre with stadium seating, there were no more than twenty people there. Bliss.

"Second and third acts of "Skyfall?" They didn't label them as such"

What, were you expecting a big card with "Act III" on it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-act_structure

I miss that...

Metropolis has an interlude card in the middle of it.

>>"What's the best way to enjoy the cinema experience?"

Well I go to quite a few free preview showings, a few days before a film goes on general release. They are usually full or at least 60%, but people are generally well behaved, despite not having had to pay for a ticket. It's the collective thrill of seeing something before anyone else, and usually not so many children.

Seeing a film at one of the large cinemas in Leicester Square is an excellent experience, some of the theatres are so large that you could easily have plenty of empty space around you.

Also, being an extra in the film really enhances the viewing, but you forget to follow the plot while seeing if you can spot yourself.

"What, were you expecting a big card with "Act III" on it?" [Hoovooloo]

If it was good enough for Shakespeare, it's good enough for us.

Anyway, touche!

[If the tension gets *too* great for my nerves, I just leave the theater and go home. This usually happens about 2/3 or 3/4 of the way through, which probably coincides with the end of Act 2 or the beginning of Act 3. The highly tense movies that critics love so much are very prevalent just before the Oscar nominations get handed out, so December and January are when they are in the theaters. Since these movies tend to be longer than average, I'm not spending less time in the theater anyway. ]

Agree with Hoo's post on timing. I love to go and see films on weekdays when I dont have work because it is quiet.

But "event" movies really are improved by there being loads of people there. Provided oyu have arrived early enough to get a good seat. I usually take my kindle so I dont mind sitting around for ages before even the adverts come on if I think it might be busy.

FB

Interestingly round my way there is a clique of other people with a similar cinema going behaviour. Rarely exchange words with them but always a knowing glance if ever at the same more busy showing.

Keep meaning to wring out a "Hello to Jason Issacs" to see if any of them are Wittertainment fans!

FB

I usually time my visits to theaters during off-hours. One time, the lady who took my ticket explained that during some weekdays there are only about 300 customers, but on weekends there are 6,000.

I've been to movies where I was the only one there. That seems a little extreme, but I'm a retiree and can go at two or three in the afternoon any day of the week.

For ten months of the year I can choose movies that I think I'll enjoy, knowing that the ones I *don't* see aren't likely to get Oscar nominations anyway. Sometimes I'm wrong, but it's rare. From Thanksgiving through New Year's Day, I have to see anything that's likely to be considered important. It's a foregone conclusion that when the critics produce their "Best movies of the year" in early to mid-December, I will recognize hardly any of the titles on the lists. This is because they haven't arrived in any theaters yet, except maybe two theaters in Los Angeles and one theater in Manhattan under "limited" engagements.

If last year's Oscar nominations are any guide, "Beasts of the Southern Wild" is likely to be nominated for something. I thought it was pretty silly, but that's just me.

Ferrettbadger. <

Keep meaning to wring out a "Hello to Jason Issacs" to see if any of them are Wittertainment fans!>

Wear a badge with 'HTJI' on it - that would get a response too from the people in the know.

I went to a comedy gig in Manchester Opera House (Ross Noble it was) a few years ago and (before the show started) shouted out "Steven!" and was delighted when I got a "Just coming!" back.

Several years ago one cinema chain did a lot of work to try and enhance the cinema experience.

They made all their pop-corn bags wider and shallower, you still got the same amount of popcorn, but it was easier to get your hands in and not rustle. They also stopped selling any sweets in wrappers. As for the drinks, they made sure they were served very cold, and didn't use any ice. This meant that all the food and eating became a lot quieter.

Added to this, they employed stewards to just stand in the theatre while the show was on. Just the presence of two people with torches helping to show late comers in made a lot of people behave a lot better.

However, without this...

If you can, go to an arts cinema. Generally they attract a more focused movie going crowd who are usually a lot quieter during the quiet parts, and really get into the action/comedy parts.