Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Theater Reviews

This is topic Theater Reviews - a work in progress in forum Ground Level at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Scott Jentsch (Member # 1681) on 10-12-2009, 05:14 PM:

After a long time of hand-wringing and over-thinking the entire process, I've released a theater reviews feature on The BigScreen Cinema Guide.

It's a soft launch, as I want to work some of the wrinkles out of it. I guess Google would call it a "beta" and let it sit like that for a few years, but I'd rather get the feature out there and get some feedback before making any big announcements.

That's why I'm talking about it here. There have been threads off and on about the quality of presentations at various theaters over time, and I thought that the members here would be able to provide some examples of what worthwhile reviews should look like and provide me with some valuable feedback on making improvements to make the feature more useful.

My goal is to make it a useful tool for getting an impression of what a movie-going experience is like at each theater. I'm hoping that our readers will post both the good and the bad, even though I know that human nature is not to say anything unless it's a complaint about something. If a theater is really making a mess of things, people should know. Likewise, if a theater is "doing film right" that needs to be said as well.

Here's my first two attempts at writing theater reviews:

IPic Theatres at Bayshore Town Center - Glendale, WI
http://www.bigscreen.com/Marquee.php?theater=10641&view=comments

Village Roadshow Gold Class Cinemas - South Barrington, IL
http://www.bigscreen.com/Marquee.php?theater=12644&view=comments

Currently, this is only a free form posting format. As time goes on, I'd like to add things like:

* How did the movie look?
* How did the movie sound?
* Staff Friendliness/Knowledge/Helpfulness
* Condition of theater (seats, bathrooms, lobby, etc.)
* Overall experience

Depending on the feedback here, I might accelerate adding those ratings if people think it has value.

I appreciate any and all help that anyone is willing to provide. We do require registered (free) accounts to post, which should keep down on the cranks and spam, but it's easy to sign up and start posting right away.

Please feel free to find a theater you've attended:

http://www.bigscreen.com/Marquee.php

and post your comments!

Posted by Ken Lackner (Member # 1002) on 10-16-2009, 07:47 AM:

This kinda reminds me, what happened to our buddy Evans Criswell? He used to do theater reviews in Alabama.

Posted by Scott Jentsch (Member # 1681) on 10-16-2009, 07:47 PM:

I have now added ratings buttons for the following:

- Picture Quality
- Sound Quality
- Staff Friendliness/Knowledge/Helpfulness
- Condition of theater (seats, bathrooms, lobby, etc.)
- Overall Experience

The possible ratings are No Answer, Excellent, Good, Poor, and Unacceptable.

Plus, an additional question of "Would you recommend this theater to others?"

All feedback is appreciated, thanks for the input so far!

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 10-18-2009, 03:47 AM:

Hey Scott

I'd be adding, but cinemas close to me are pretty far away from you.

Do you provide for Sydney cinemas?

Posted by Scott Jentsch (Member # 1681) on 10-19-2009, 07:19 AM:

Right now, we don't have any theaters listed in Australia, but we do have them in the US (and its territories), Canada, and the UK.

Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 10-27-2009, 02:25 PM:

I'm still around. I quit doing the reviews back around 2005 because of general lack of interest from anyone else. Nobody really cares that much about the reviews that I did. The movie showtimes links are all that anyone used, except for the email or two that I get per year about the historical stuff.

Just so there's a picture on the screen and the sound is "reasonable", 99 percent of the people will be happy. The main shortcoming of some of our local theatres, having most of the screens 1.85:1 with no adjustable masking and showing scope movies chopped to 1.85:1 in the old Cobb locations, was fixed in 2003. With some of the theatres now being digital, as well as other changes, a lot of my information became outdated and irrelevant.

A general loss of interest in seeing movies at the theatres happened around that time due to a sudden surge of excessive advertising before the trailers. Also, the transition to the practice of having a pre-show program from a digital computer projector chocked full of ads, as well as a glut of movies uninteresting to me with the same old actors and actresses over and over, caused me to find other ways to entertain myself.

I removed the links to the presentation quality reviews a while ago, and need to redesign the site to reflect its focus on historical information.

I'd just rather watch movies with groups of friends at my house on the 57-inch widescreen. We can control the volume, pause the movie if we need to, and so on, and not have to deal with all of the obnoxious moviegoers who have lost all of the previous generations's knowledge of "public manners".

I haven't even done any historical research in years.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 10-27-2009, 03:17 PM:

Maybe that's another aspect that should be added to a theater review: the quality of the crowd -mainly meaning its behavior.

I dump on the Dickinson Theaters' Central Mall 12 here in Lawton for its lacking capability to show movies with good presentation quality. However, the main reason, by far, why I avoid that theater is the kind crowd that goes there: noisy, unruly teenagers and other unaccompanied children.

A good number of teens visit our local Carmike theater too, but it seems like most of them prefer going to the mall theater because after all, it's in the mall.. Certain grown adults have no idea how to properly behave in a movie theater either. I grit my teeth and endure the occasional audience member disruption at the Carmike. The mall theater features nothing but disruption. Some locals around here joke that a movie audience at the Central Mall 12-plex features more lit up phone displays than cigarette lighters burning during a ballad at a Journey concert.

I applaud theater chains like Warren Theaters who have the guts to take a no tolerance approach to things like obsessive cell phone use while a show is in progress. Such theaters automatically deserve a higher grade for that approach.

Posted by Scott Jentsch (Member # 1681) on 10-27-2009, 04:03 PM:

Rating the crowd is an interesting concept -- not one I had considered!

I agree that other patrons have a great effect on the moviegoing experience. A few weeks ago, I had a woman (probably mid-40's) in the row ahead of me decide to start texting during the movie. I almost said something, but she finally put it away.

When I was at an NFL football game last month, they had notices on the digital billboards about texting to report unruly fans. Maybe theaters need to have a way to be texted when there are issues with patrons, picture, sound, etc. Of course, that creates an issue of opening a phone to text about someone texting...

Back to reviewing the crowd; I think that theaters should be called out for not controlling their customers, and applauded for reigning in problems effectively.

Such considerations could be covered by the "Overall Experience" rating and a mention in the comments text about the crowd behavior and what, if anything, the theater did about it.

We actually got a comment about the crowd recently for the Regal Hollywood 16 in Ocala, FL:

http://www.bigscreen.com/Marquee.php?theater=2986&view=comments

The theater comments are coming in slowly, but the ones we've gotten have been pretty good. One about a concession worker eating out of the popper while playing with her hair was especially interesting...

Please consider entering your comments about theaters, as good examples will encourage others to do the same! Here's the comment page for the Central Mall 12 in Lawton:

http://www.bigscreen.com/Marquee.php?theater=7832&view=comments

Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 10-27-2009, 04:17 PM:

Rating the crowd would definitely vary with the time of day. I'm usually at the "old folks" screenings early in the day, and I haven't heard a rowdy crowd in years. I'm sure that it is different at an evening screening of a rowdy comedy or horror film.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 10-27-2009, 08:40 PM:

Certainly, it makes perfect sense to factor the crowd according to the day and time in which the show was playing. For instance, a packed, sold-out crowd on a Saturday night which behaves as it should with minimal to no disruptions (as movie goers did in 1962 perhaps) would receive a strongly positive reaction. Likewise an usher who ejects an cellphone using idiot would also receive a positive notice.

On the topic of phones and movie theaters, why doesn't the iPhone already have a "stealth" movie theater operation mode? It's the perfect phone, isn't it!? You pay way out the ass for the dear privilege of merely using one of those phones, right? Even the first version was perfect, not counting the following versions that were even more perfect! Apple Inc. is the all seeing all knowing entity that ever existed on planet Earth and anything it ever does is only ever perfect. Well, WTF? What is the company's excuse for overlooking this important "feature?" Why can't someone obsessively send text messages in a crowded movie theater like a crack-addicted, ADD afflicted idiot without pissing off other viewers nearby? Honestly, this was an easy one for ANY phone company to get right, never mind the geniuses in residence at Apple. EPIC FAIL, you morons!!! We've been annoyed by damned fucking cellphones in movie theaters, churches and other places where phones shouldn't belong for more than a decade. Why haven't these problems been addressed? Some folks at Apple, AT&T, Research in Motion, Microsoft, Samsung, LG, Sony, etc. need a severe beating for this shit. Fucking assholes. Maybe this is part of their plot on destroying the commercial movie theater industry so we can all just only have plain fucked TV.
[Mad]

You understand I'm teeing off on these "faceless corporations" over this nonsense because we can't do what really should be done: carry the cellphone user out behind the theater and beat him with baseball bats until he's nothing more than a smeary red grease spot.

Posted by Lyle Romer (Member # 1266) on 10-27-2009, 09:13 PM:

quote: Bobby Henderson
Maybe this is part of their plot on destroying the commercial movie theater industry so we can all just only have plain fucked TV

What they want is even worse. They want everybody to watch movies on little 3.5" screens.

Posted by Scott Jentsch (Member # 1681) on 10-28-2009, 09:17 AM:

Bobby,

It sounds like you're looking for a "night mode" similar to what GPS units have so that the map goes from a white to a black background at night so you don't have the mostly-white display glaring at you in the dark.

Since I'm one of the few people that doesn't have an iPhone, I have no idea if such a thing is possible. However, I'd be happy to check it out if someone would be willing to front me the $199 plus $36 activation fee... [Smile]

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-28-2009, 10:48 AM:

If Apple really was the perfect company, they would come out with the "iCourtesy" for movie theatres to install in each auditorium. This handy device would still allow the phone to receive calls, but it would make the phone display a message saying "You have a call from John Smith, but you'll need to go to the lobby to answer it...or press HERE to send the call to voicemail" and from there it wouldn't work until you were in the lobby.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 10-28-2009, 10:12 PM:

quote: Scott Jentsch
It sounds like you're looking for a "night mode" similar to what GPS units have so that the map goes from a white to a black background at night so you don't have the mostly-white display glaring at you in the dark.

Yeah. That's right. I guess the GPS folks figured out that one since using one of those units at night is like to trying to drive at night with someone shining a LED-based flashlight in your face. Maybe the dream team of attorneys told Garmin or whoever they might get sued over the issue.

Obviously the cell phone people, including Apple, Inc., do not get it or they just plain don't give a shit about it, which may be the more likely thing.

As self-loving as Apple, Inc. is these days I imagine they probably expect a movie theater viewer to be overcome with unbridled joy when a cellphone rings or a cellphone's display lights up like a bright flashlight while a movie is playing in a dark theater. And if an Apple® iPhone™ happens to be the device ringing or lighting up, then I guess I'm supposed to explode an immense orgasm into my Joe Boxer shorts. I shouldn't be pissed. I should be extremely happy and asking someone for a cigarette (and some napkins to clean up the Peter North sized mess)!

With the sort of price gouging fashion conscious cellphone users must endure for the privilege of owning an iPhone, I can only figure Apple and AT&T are saving the "movie theater stealth mode" app as a very expensive add on.

"Want to not piss off an entire theater's audience with your phone? There's an app for that. And that will cost you $598, sucker! Plus an extra $5 per month on your phone bill!"

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-29-2009, 12:08 AM:

quote: Bobby Henderson
As self-loving as Apple, Inc. is these days I imagine they probably expect a movie theater viewer to be overcome with unbridled joy when a cellphone rings

Don't tell me you haven't caught on to this basic truth: That's the whole reason cell phones are so popular. It has almost nothing to do with communication and convenience; those are only icing on the cake. What's really attractive to people is, when that phone rings, it tells the world "THIS IS AN IMPORTANT PERSON WHO IS CONNECTED, DAMMIT!"

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 10-29-2009, 01:26 AM:

The problem with reviewing movie theaters is that there could be a great theater except for one auditorium being a poor design...and you could end up in that one! Likewise, a theater could run for 5 years without putting the slightest mark on a print, but in that 5 year time period they slash the hell out of one...and that could be the print you see.

The reverse is also true, particularly when you rate a theater on opening weekend (like the old TAP program foolishly did). As a result a lackluster theater could be getting good reviews simply because the print had only ran one time and you went to the first show of the day (just after the janitorial crew had been there overnight).

Its a nice idea, but difficult to keep it accurate.

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 10-29-2009, 08:25 AM:

Maybe treat theatre reviews like dining reviews: Only review after being at least three times, different screens, different times of day.

Or go guerilla: Sneak into all of the houses on the same ticket [evil]

Posted by Geoff Jones (Member # 3668) on 10-29-2009, 09:36 AM:

Reviews should be per screen, not per cinema.

One screen might be half the size of the next. Or have mark or stain on it. Or Constant width. Or a clipping speaker.

Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 10-29-2009, 01:34 PM:

Brad, one thing I made sure of when doing the reviews is going to each theatre with a certain frequency. That way, I rated presentations in a variety of auditoriums. I'd also be sure to see some movies after the first couple of weeks so I'd see movies in some of the smaller, usually more neglected auditoriums at each location. Any theatre would have occasional problems, but over time, everything would average out. If a theatre were consistently good, but had one horrible presentation, it would be just one sample out of many and would not affect the theatre's computed score much.

One reason I took the reviews down was I'd stopped going enough to maintain the proper amount of "sampling" at each location to have a required "confidence interval" for the stats.

Posted by Scott Jentsch (Member # 1681) on 10-30-2009, 09:33 AM:

The danger in all of this is overthinking it and making it an unsustainable venture. This was the trap I fell into for over three years as I tried to figure out how to make it the best possible feature and avoid all possible pitfalls.

The reality is that there is no perfect system that can be sustained without a paid staff of professionals, a la AAA. I'd love to have a team of people walking into theaters on a scheduled basis with clipboards and light/sound meters in hand, but that's not ever going to happen. This is not practical in the current climate of the Internet (and people's basic unwillingness to pay for anything intangible).

So that means that the shortcomings have to be embraced the recognized, and the value from the comments has to be taken within the context that the comments are being generated by the masses and without proper sampling and trained evaluation skills.

The large samples need to be done as a result of as many people attending a theater and submitting comments as often as possible. The consensus of the masses will tend to diminish the vagaries of the cranks and/or unqualified/inaccurate comments.

That's why I'm trying to encourage high quality comments for theaters from people who know what they're talking about. Leading by example is the best way to lead a crowd of unassociated people. A closed membership can be guided more easily, but the general masses tend to ignore someone trying to tell them what to do.

I appreciate everyone's input and I've already made changes based on feedback, but the most effective way to make the tool useful is for there to be comments for all to see. I look forward to seeing everyone's comments soon! [Wink]