# Grr... I'm trapped in the land of ancient cinemas. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 14, 2003, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grr-im-trapped-in-the-land-of-ancient-cinemas/175272 "2003-05-14T20:13:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Guybud5](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Guybud5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guybud5)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grr-im-trapped-in-the-land-of-ancient-cinemas/175272/1 "2003-05-14T20:13:36Z")
Matrix Reloaded is about to come out, and I’m stuck in the land of ancient theaters. I guess If I’d grown up in a place with nothing but these old theaters, I wouldn’t mind, but after going to an AMC theater for most of the past 5 years, these blow! They don’t have: Stadium seating high backed chairs automated ticket machines to avoid lines flip up armrests adequate legroom (they still have the flipup chairs) and most don’t have digital surround sound. To top it off, I think the largest cineplex here has maybe 9 screens. Thank heavens I’ll be visiting family at the beginning of June… I’ll watch the Matrix Reloaded at Tallahassee FL’s AMC 20 like God intended (same place I watched the first!) ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grr-im-trapped-in-the-land-of-ancient-cinemas/175272/2 "2003-05-14T20:23:57Z")
Personally, I love old theaters. Give me a balcony! Give me some intimacy with my movie! I miss the fancy drapes and the velvet seats. ---
**Author:** ![Doomtrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grr-im-trapped-in-the-land-of-ancient-cinemas/175272/3 "2003-05-14T22:19:48Z")
You know what I hate about new theaters? The damn new theaters that run 20 minutes of commercials before the PREVIEWS even start. I’ve sworn off two of the local theaters just cause of those damn commercials. ---
**Author:** ![Sengkelat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Sengkelat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sengkelat)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grr-im-trapped-in-the-land-of-ancient-cinemas/175272/4 "2003-05-15T00:49:00Z")
I grew up in California, within 5 minutes drive of a good cinema, and within 30 minutes drive of the colossal screens. But _now_, I live on a tiny island. There’s one movie theater in the whole country, and it has one screen. There are only two showings per day of the one movie the theater has that week, and NO showings on sundays. There’s no THX sound, no Dolby sound, I’m not even sure if there’s stereo sound. As far as I know, seating is ONLY avaialble on the crappy no-legroom seats in the tiny balcony. The seats in the lower level are all RIPPED and ROTTING from flooding during the most recent hurricane, and most of them have been torn out and thrown in a pile at the base of the screen, which by the way isn’t TENSIONED correctly so any image projected on it is WAVY. You wouldn’t want to sit in the lower level anyway, because that’s where the RATS and the CENTIPEDES that eat them live. Halfway through the movie, there’s a &%&\*%^ INTERMISSION, all the house lights go up, and everyone gets up and mills around. They’re waiting for the guy in back to CHANGE THE REELS, because they only have ONE WORKING PROJECTOR. So I don’t want to hear any &^%\*& WHINING about _THE LARGEST CINEPLEX IN YOUR AREA HAVING ONLY 9 SCREENS_! Uh, sorry about that. I feel better now. My sympathies for your crappy theater choices, **Guybud5**. ---
**Author:** ![Lyllyan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b2d939/32.png) [@Lyllyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lyllyan)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grr-im-trapped-in-the-land-of-ancient-cinemas/175272/5 "2003-05-15T01:16:13Z")
I thought you meant the old theaters that show only movies like “In Search of Noah’s Ark” and “Bigfoot - The Mystery”. Sorry. My sympathies also on your crappie theatre. It does diminish the ability to suspend disbelief when you are in sub-standard surroundings.