When I was 10, I lived in a rural part of the Netherlands where there wasn't much in the way of cinema, and what there was was too expensive for my parents to take me and all my sisters to. I think I'd only been to the cinema once in my life. But in 1983, before The Return of the Jedi came out, a local cinema did a back-to-back showing of Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back - and I saved and begged and scraped for the money to go. I wasn't disappointed. Even now, I say it was the best day of my life. My wife, bless her patience and understanding, accepts that it probably outranks our wedding day.
Your most "visceral" experience at a movie theater.
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billd91
Not your screen monkey (he/him) 🇺🇦🇵🇸🏳️⚧️
Two college experiences come to mind. Our film committee would schedule 3 films a week (this was the 1980s) - an older, mainstream movie on one night that would show for free, a recent mainstream movie that they charged a dollar for on another night, and a foreign film that they showed for free on a third night. So, lots of opportunities for movies.
Two movies particularly had me on the edge of my seat when I went to see them. Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious and John Frankenheimer's The Manchurian Candidate. I can't recall being as affected by a movie's suspense either before or after either of those movies. But they had me gripped.
Two movies particularly had me on the edge of my seat when I went to see them. Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious and John Frankenheimer's The Manchurian Candidate. I can't recall being as affected by a movie's suspense either before or after either of those movies. But they had me gripped.
G
Guest 85555
Guest
A lot of my movie viewings are blurring together but:
Bram Stoker's Dracula was one of the first movies I remember seeing in a theater where the visuals, and the overall feel, blew me away
Coming to America was the first film I remember obsessively buying multiple repeat tickets to (think I saw it five times when it came out because we thought it was so funny)
I didn't see it in a theater, but Goodfellas was another movie that just instantly spellbound me. I would liken seeing that on a double VHS set to any experience I have had in the theater
Kill Bill II is a theater experience that really stuck in my memory for some reason. I actually prefer the second movie, and I had seen the first one and liked it, but I was so engrossed by the second because it got deeper into character history and it did so in this deeply immersive way
The Fifth Element was another movie that was incredible in the theater. I hadn't seen a film like that before and everything in it just landed perfectly for me. Plus is looked beautiful (and the effects largely still hold up)
Back to the Future. This one is maybe hard to appreciate now if you grew up later, but it was massive when it came out. And I remembered cousins trying to explain the plot to it (usually very clumsily). When I actually saw it. Wow. It was probably my most amazing theater going experience to that point in life. And while it never reached Coming to America repeat viewing levels for me (which were just through the roof), I think my folks did take us to see it again.
Karate Kid. If you are my age, there is a high chance you saw this one in the theater and it is the first movie I remember that had that combination of heart and humor. I'm sure I had seen movies with that blend before but it is the first one that made me aware this could work. Also it was one of a view pieces of media that helped propel an interest in martial arts and martial arts movies (others being Pray for Death, Shogun, and some Bruce-ploitation film I had seen as a child on TV).
Speed. This one might sound a little weak now. I haven't seen it in ages. But I remember being so surprised when I saw it in the theater. I don't think I had yet accepted Keanu Reeves as an action star, and I wasn't expecting such an interesting action film (the premise just really worked). I hadn't seen any of the trailers. So I went in blind.
Kung Fu Hustle: I am pretty sure I had just seen Shaolin Soccer on DVD from blockbuster. And I liked that a lot. But when I saw Kung Fu Hustle, it was just this amazing production and the humor was so sharp. This was maybe the most fun I had at a movie
Million Dollar Baby. I don't think any movie has ever made me as willingly depressed as this one. I was expecting a female rocky, and you did kind of get that for the first portion of the movie, but, the turn towards the end just drags you on a journey you do not want to go on, but you must proceed down. I also quite liked the way the movie was done. It almost had a hang-out movie feel but it didn't feel frivolous
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. I went with my uncle to see this one (I also saw Bram Stokers Dracula with him). I remember seeing the ad in the paper and going and I was very captivated by how everything moved as if underwater in it. I think I just fell in love with the grace of movement in the film.
Saving Private Ryan: Editing this one in when I saw others mention it. This was very impactful. That opening scene was brutal and I think it also opened up the floodgates with my grandparents generation (they had really not talked much about the war in my experience)
Cinderella Man: This is a movie that I can't watch without crying because I took my grandfather to see it. He was a boxer from that era. It is a great movie on its own. I like Ron Howard's directing. But what really made it emotional for me was my grandfather was whispering details to me about the fighters that were coming up in the movie. For example I remember him telling me that Max Baer used to have a Star of David on his shorts. I also remember reading the book it was based on right after seeing the film
I am sure I am leaving out some films. It is hard to remember everything I saw growing up. Goonies would be another one I recall having a big impact when I went to see it in the theater. And of course movies like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade or Independence Day were all very memorable.
Bram Stoker's Dracula was one of the first movies I remember seeing in a theater where the visuals, and the overall feel, blew me away
Coming to America was the first film I remember obsessively buying multiple repeat tickets to (think I saw it five times when it came out because we thought it was so funny)
I didn't see it in a theater, but Goodfellas was another movie that just instantly spellbound me. I would liken seeing that on a double VHS set to any experience I have had in the theater
Kill Bill II is a theater experience that really stuck in my memory for some reason. I actually prefer the second movie, and I had seen the first one and liked it, but I was so engrossed by the second because it got deeper into character history and it did so in this deeply immersive way
The Fifth Element was another movie that was incredible in the theater. I hadn't seen a film like that before and everything in it just landed perfectly for me. Plus is looked beautiful (and the effects largely still hold up)
Back to the Future. This one is maybe hard to appreciate now if you grew up later, but it was massive when it came out. And I remembered cousins trying to explain the plot to it (usually very clumsily). When I actually saw it. Wow. It was probably my most amazing theater going experience to that point in life. And while it never reached Coming to America repeat viewing levels for me (which were just through the roof), I think my folks did take us to see it again.
Karate Kid. If you are my age, there is a high chance you saw this one in the theater and it is the first movie I remember that had that combination of heart and humor. I'm sure I had seen movies with that blend before but it is the first one that made me aware this could work. Also it was one of a view pieces of media that helped propel an interest in martial arts and martial arts movies (others being Pray for Death, Shogun, and some Bruce-ploitation film I had seen as a child on TV).
Speed. This one might sound a little weak now. I haven't seen it in ages. But I remember being so surprised when I saw it in the theater. I don't think I had yet accepted Keanu Reeves as an action star, and I wasn't expecting such an interesting action film (the premise just really worked). I hadn't seen any of the trailers. So I went in blind.
Kung Fu Hustle: I am pretty sure I had just seen Shaolin Soccer on DVD from blockbuster. And I liked that a lot. But when I saw Kung Fu Hustle, it was just this amazing production and the humor was so sharp. This was maybe the most fun I had at a movie
Million Dollar Baby. I don't think any movie has ever made me as willingly depressed as this one. I was expecting a female rocky, and you did kind of get that for the first portion of the movie, but, the turn towards the end just drags you on a journey you do not want to go on, but you must proceed down. I also quite liked the way the movie was done. It almost had a hang-out movie feel but it didn't feel frivolous
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. I went with my uncle to see this one (I also saw Bram Stokers Dracula with him). I remember seeing the ad in the paper and going and I was very captivated by how everything moved as if underwater in it. I think I just fell in love with the grace of movement in the film.
Saving Private Ryan: Editing this one in when I saw others mention it. This was very impactful. That opening scene was brutal and I think it also opened up the floodgates with my grandparents generation (they had really not talked much about the war in my experience)
Cinderella Man: This is a movie that I can't watch without crying because I took my grandfather to see it. He was a boxer from that era. It is a great movie on its own. I like Ron Howard's directing. But what really made it emotional for me was my grandfather was whispering details to me about the fighters that were coming up in the movie. For example I remember him telling me that Max Baer used to have a Star of David on his shorts. I also remember reading the book it was based on right after seeing the film
I am sure I am leaving out some films. It is hard to remember everything I saw growing up. Goonies would be another one I recall having a big impact when I went to see it in the theater. And of course movies like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade or Independence Day were all very memorable.
Scribe
Legend
Here to post the same. That was the last horror movie of that type I saw, left feeling completely not great.
CellarHeroes
Adventurer
The Matrix. I saw it with my dorky college group of friends, and we always went to Perkins after any movie for coffee, pie, cigarettes, and discussion. We began working on the plans to make it happen. Then when the sun came up we were trying to break the laws of the matrix.
American History X. I've never cried in a theater before, and this one had me on the floor bawling.
Gravity. A fear of heights combined with experiencing vertigo at 3D movies made this a truly horrifying experience. I knew I was going to hate it, and I begged my wife just to go see it without me.
American History X. I've never cried in a theater before, and this one had me on the floor bawling.
Gravity. A fear of heights combined with experiencing vertigo at 3D movies made this a truly horrifying experience. I knew I was going to hate it, and I begged my wife just to go see it without me.
Ralif Redhammer
Legend
As kids, my brother and I went to see Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan with our dad. We'd already been exposed to TOS, and seeing Spock's death was an emotional punch we weren't prepared for. Also, those dang Ceti Eels...
Later on, going to see Bram Stoker's Dracula was a theater experience I've never seen duplicated. There were people standing in the theater aisles to watch it. Someone was translating the dialog to a companion into some Eastern European language I couldn't recognize at the time.
And Jurassic Park was the only time I actually saw popcorn flying at the movies.
Later on, going to see Bram Stoker's Dracula was a theater experience I've never seen duplicated. There were people standing in the theater aisles to watch it. Someone was translating the dialog to a companion into some Eastern European language I couldn't recognize at the time.
And Jurassic Park was the only time I actually saw popcorn flying at the movies.
Ruin Explorer
Legend
That was top of my list too, like when I read the thread title. Certainly the only one to really hit that hard in the last say, 20 years. Incredible movie and that night was one of top movie experiences ever.
Before that it'd definitely be HEAT. At 17 that was perhaps the most emotionally engaged I'd ever been with a movie in a theatre (despite not liking it as much as say the previous year's Pulp Fiction). The people I went with were also like, beyond engaged with it, weirdly pumped up by it.
American Pie of all things, a movie I kind of hate, was massively aided by the fact that I saw it with a crowd of American college kids (in Santa Monica), and holy hell the hootin' and hollerin'!
The most excited I've seen a British audience be was with Avengers: Endgame - it wasn't quite on the same level as American Pie but it definitely helped the movie that the audience was really into the reveals and line drops and so on.
Lord of the Rings was pretty amazingly intense, because I didn't really expect it to deliver what it delivered, or the way it did. I thought it would be a lot more half-arsed.
The Last Jedi for some reason hit my wife and I very hard emotionally, in a good way. I know it's a movie that doesn't work for a lot of people, but it sure as hell worked for us, and clearly for the majority of the audience (I think it was the first or second night of showings).
Avatar: The Way of Water isn't up there with any of these, but I do mention it because it was a very long, very strange movie, with a ton of CGI, but I found it pretty entrancing, watching it in 3D IMAX, and was like, sort of jolted out of said trance when the movie ended, which is very rare for me.
For me it was the exact opposite with Signs - I saw it in a theatre in NYC and I was expecting to like it, but I spent basically the whole movie going "Wtf?" in a bad way, and just was totally disengaged by the way it presented itself (I have liked some other M. Night movies).
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