Theater

5 Best And Worst Theatre Experiences!

If you usually visit the theatre, it is almost a sure bet that you have had both a positive and negative experience at one point or another. Personally, I don’t understand why anybody would pay for a cinema ticket only to talk all their way through a film, when they could have easily just gone to a bar to talk each other’s ear off for a couple of hours.

Thankfully, my cinematic adventures in the theatre have been an enjoyable ride for the most part. Whether that was due to a film being so good that it had the ability to totally immerse me in it’s world or seeing a movie with an upbeat crowd of people, well, there are numerous considerations I could have picked from. In this piece I’m going to be talking about five theatre experiences that turned out to be memorable for both worthwhile reasons, as well as ones that detail times that were a source of frustration and regret. I know many of you will relate here, so let’s get right into it!

 

‘The Fugitive’ (1992)

theatre

I admit it. Me and my two other friends, were a bit of an a** on this particular day. After debating whether to see Kevin Kline‘s latest film, Dave, or the then hugely marketed thriller remake of ‘The Fugitive‘, we finally settled on choosing the latter.

I don’t think many of you will appreciate this entry after our behaviour here. Basically, we got bored halfway through and my two pals decided to initiate (I swear it wasn’t me who started it!) a game of hide and seek. We were hopping around the entire room as quietly as possible to find one another. I guess ‘The Fugitive‘ was a little too mature for our twelve-year-old selves since we lost interest.

Selfishly, I enjoyed our little game at the time, but looking back I am glad that nobody told us that we were ruining their movie experience. I would probably be quite annoyed now if a group of twelve year old kids did the same while I was watching a film I was enthusiastic about seeing.

Fortunately, I am still waiting for karma to get me back for this one.

 

‘The Hole’ (2001)

Me and my regular theatre companion, Paul, used to go to see a movie about once a week. More often than not, we would know what to choose to see after doing a little homework, but on this particular occasion we were a little stuck. We had only ever previously blind selected a movie once, which was the remake of ‘Miracle on 34th Street’ back in 1994. Actually, my pal was a little naughty that time! I don’t recall the circumstances why but I was waiting outside the cinema while he went in and came out with two tickets for that movie. What a dull experience that was!

Anyway–seven years later, we both consented to watching the thriller, ‘The Hole‘, with Thora Birch. The poster looked cool but I am the type to always want to check out the reviews and the plot of the film first. We literally had no idea what this one was about! Well, as it turned out we made a great choice that time. The story was absorbing and the performances by a fifteen year old Kiera Knightley and Birch were enthralling. We both loved this film so much we ended up buying the DVD when it was released several months later. Too bad I am still not brave enough to be spontaneous like that because it can definitely pay off!

 

‘Tomb Raider’ (2001)

Theatre

I embarked on a solo trip to see this one. I had never really played the ‘Tomb Raider‘ video games, but as a normal warm blooded male I admit that I could not resist watching Angelina Jolie showing off her femininity in sometimes provocative fashion. Well, the final act was ruined for a lot of us because the projectionist must have fallen asleep. For whatever reason, the picture lost it’s focus for a good ten-fifteen minutes! I kid you not.

You have to give us credit because most of us sat there and put up with this before the image of Daniel Craig and Angelina came back into focus, not that we could make much sense of what was going on because we missed a lot of key moments. Considering that this happened near the conclusion of the movie made it all the more worse. I’m kicking myself for not demanding a refund or making a complaint afterward because all of us deserved one.

 

‘Freddy vs. Jason’ (2003)

Theatre

Me and my aforementioned ally Paul are huge horror movie fans, so it was a major treat to see two of our favourite horror slasher villains duke it out against one another in a movie that was a long time coming.

Now, there is a huge difference in the way British audiences react when watching a film here in comparison to American audiences. I have noticed that a lot of people in the US really like to get themselves emotionally involved by cheering at some of their favourite scenes in a good movie. But generally, we don’t. We are quite subdued. There may be a few chuckles after a funny scene happens, but most of the time we are a pretty quiet bunch.

Well, ‘Freddy vs. Jason‘ was an exception! I have not been in with a crowd who was as vocal as we were ever since or prior to that day. There must have been some really dedicated fans of both the ‘Friday the 13th‘ and ‘A Nightmare On Elm Street‘ franchises with us because everybody was cheering and rallying for either Freddy or Jason to kick each other’s butts. I remember after the end credits started rolling that me and my buddy Paul turned to one another and couldn’t stop saying how cool the movie was. It was a special night that has never sadly been lived through again since.

 

‘Buried’ (2010)

Theatre

For the record, I have never once attempted to film a movie for the purpose of piracy, and neither would I! I will get to why I made that clear in a minute. ‘Back to the Future‘ was announced for a theatrical re-release back in 2010 and this was one film I really was looking forward to seeing. Well, after the theatre admitted that they made a mistake when they advertised that the film was showing on this particular day they wanted to make it up to me by giving me a free movie to watch. I chose the Ryan Reynolds mystery/drama film ‘Buried‘ after reading some encouraging feedback.

The fact that I thought that the film was a disappointment obviously isn’t the major point here. Maybe I was wearing something that made me look conspicuous in some way. I definitely wasn’t behaving in such a manner. At least I don’t think so. So, imagine my surprise when I hear somebody from a few rows above call out to me and ask me if I was filming this movie! I couldn’t really make out this guy’s facial features in the darkness but judging from his tone, he sounded serious and wasn’t fooling around.

Well, it is a good thing that some of the staff were present in the screening room because they told the guy to hush up. They flashed their flashlights on me and could see that I wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary. To add to that, they knew I was a regular patron who would much prefer to see a film in crystal clear clarity in the theatre rather than watch a problematic bootleg copy. The cheek of it!

Why not tell us about your best and worst cinematic circumstances? We would love to hear from you in the comments below!

About Age of the Nerd

Age of the nerd was created for the same reason most entertainment sites were started. A group of disgruntled journalists got together and decided our opinion was more valuable… In a day when it’s easier to get a position as a freelance writer or just create your own job, a small group of us got together and asked the obvious question: why not us? So after a heated discussion on ideas, focus and long-term goals, we decided to just go for it. What’s the worst that can happen?

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