The Final Posts | Favorite Theater Experiences

 

Moving right along with these Final Posts (links if you missed the memo or the first one), an idea I kept coming back to was recounting my favorite theater going experiences. Largely for very identifiable reasons, there are trips to the movie theaters that I distinctly remember, cherish, and look back upon as the reason I fell in love with this hobby in the first place. And what a better time to share those memories than now? 

When I started making a list for this, I quickly realized it was going to be longer than I thought. Generally speaking I like to keep lists to Top 10s, so I employed that same logic here, but I will share my "Honorable Mentions" - in no particular order - and a brief comment on whey they're there. One note is that these are all for films that I saw in a theater during Rath's Reviews run so there are a handful (i.e. Tron Legacy in IMAX 3D) that would be on my list, but are not here.

Honorable Mentions

The Grey - massive surprise from starting expectations. A film that displays death effectively

Captain America: Civil War - wanted to limit my MCU entries; the high stakes and airport scene were crowd pleasers!

Mad Max: Fury Road in IMAX - one that I distinctly remember seeing in IMAX and being wowed by the intensity and breathlessness it created

It: Chapter 1 - I remember being palpably terrified before and during the film. Eerie, effective, scary, and intense...this was a fun "scare" trip to the theaters

Avatar: The Way of Water in IMAX 3D - one that narrowly missed my list, it's outrageously detailed, gorgeous, and immersive. Some of the best use of IMAX 3D technology ever

Now let's get to the main list, shall we? 

10 | Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol in IMAX

I love the Mission: Impossible series and I often cite Ghost Protocol as my favorite. My theater experience, with my dad and friends in tow, is a big reason why. The film is a blast from start to finish, anchored by the movie-est of movie stars, Tom Cruise. Once the film transitions to the Burj Dubai sequence, it's vertigo-inducing. Particularly in IMAX, watching Cruise scale the Burj insanely high above the ground is engrossing, and I vividly recall the part where he misses the window (above ^^) my dad and I both let out an audible gasp. Like many moments on this list, it's pure movie magic. 

9 | Arrival

My seat for Arrival was a terrible one. Back when seats were first come, first serve, my new girlfriend (now wife, and future mother of my child) and I arrived closer to the showing time. I was in the front section of seats on the far right of the screen, sitting at an angle the entire time. Denis Villeneuve's sci-fi masterpiece hardly had me caring. It being a film my future wife and I could discuss days later was exciting (and cool that she was into it!) and it has long stuck on my mind. Given the expert cinematography and sound design, not to mention the story, performances, etc., it plays fantastically well in a big, loud theater. 

8 | Tenet during COVID

This entry is less about the film itself (I love Tenet more than most), but more so the time in which it happened. As we all know, theaters shut down aggressively during COVID for good reason. Tenet was a major film to receive a delay. As its new release date approached, it seemed like it was going to be a downturn in COVID cases, so the now-open-but-sparsely populated theaters were willing to show it. I remember double-masking and attending the screening, exciting because it was a new Nolan film, nervous because it was still a tense time in the pandemic, but relieved to be in a theater again watching a "big" movie. It's that latter feeling I remember most; that for 2+ hours I got to sit back, forget about the world's troubles, enjoy a cool movie, and try to figure out what the hell had just transpired afterwards (it takes multiple viewings IMO). 

7 | Kingsman: The Secret Service press screening

I never really pursued early screenings or press screenings during Rath's Reviews. Mostly because there were only a handful of times they would have worked with my schedule. However, it was exciting to attend a handful of them, none more memorable than Kingsman. It's flat out one of my favorite movies, and was a fantastic memory to see it early with a friend, excited for how the rest of the public would receive it.

6 | Spider-Man: No Way Home on opening night

There's very few films where I can remember a crowd as pumped, lively, and interactive as the one I had with Spider-Man: No Way Home. The excitement was palpable throughout and it felt like a true movie experience in a world transitioning post-COVID. It was cathartic in many ways to sit in a full theater and hear the reactions, gasps, laughter, and tears. Factor in that the movie is one of the MCU's best - and has real emotional stakes - and boy...it's not a trip to the theaters I'll forget anytime soon. 

5 | Denver Film Festival premiere of La La Land

with Emma Stone and Damien Chazelle

I f**king love La La Land. It's one of the best movies from the entire time I've been doing Rath's Reviews, and I cherish the first time I was able to watch it, deeply angled off to the left side, in an uncomfortable chair at the Denver Film Fest premiere. It was coupled by stars Emma Stone (probably the biggest star DFF has ever had) and Damien Chazelle doing a Q&A. Even without all the pomp and circumstance of a special situation, I knew this movie was a true vision and it has stuck with me ever since. 

4 | Top Gun: Maverick in IMAX

The day I saw Top Gun: Maverick in IMAX with my dad was i) not my initial viewing of the Top Gun legacy sequel and ii) was a day of frazzled nerves from a dog emergency that ended up being okay. I was exhausted, but excited to see the film with my dad as I always enjoy to get his reaction to big spectacles like this. Even though I left the theater ever more tired, DAMN...Top Gun Maverick is an absolute trip in IMAX. You find yourself leaning with the jet plane movements, getting vertigo, breathing harder, and gripping your seat's arm rests. It's a tense thrill ride on its own, but then the film goes and becomes one of the best sequels of all time on top of it. It's one I'd love to revisit if/when they eventually re-release it. 

3 | Gravity in IMAX 3D

If you look up "white-knuckle" in the dictionary, it'll provide you an image of Gravity. Toss in IMAX 3D and you have just an absolutely incredible movie-going experience from Alfonso Cuaron's masterpiece. The initial "single-shot" sequence is some of the purest movie magic ever created and this is one where, upon leaving, I stated: "I'm going to remember that for the rest of my life."

2 | Avengers: Infinity War & Avengers: Endgame 

on opening nights

I'm not sure there's ever been a theater experience quite like these Avengers films, and there may never be one like them again. After years and years, and tons of movies to build up, we're given a Shakespearean Part I and Part II of monumentally epic proportions. Watching these on opening nights was not only an iconic theater memory, but a giddy child-like atmosphere. I was so excited. So nervous! After Infinity War, we were crushed. Perplexed. Surprised. How would Endgame handle the fallout? A year later, Endgame showed us, with a crowd pleasing, time heist epic that features perhaps one of the best ending battles in movie history. I remember my heart beating so fast, with emotion welling in my chest and eyes, as those previously lost returned to the fray before Cap yells his iconic line. There's a reason they made nearly $5 billion combined, MCU haters be damned, because people like my wife and I saw Endgame 3x. These two films were the culmination of something special, and they delivered on all fronts.

1 | Barbenheimer on opening day

Barbenheimer was a f**king force of nature. The perfect movie pairing was coming at audiences like a freight train the summer of 2023, demanding that you go see both of these highly anticipated films. On one hand you had Christopher Nolan's new biopic that was getting all-time-classic early reviews. On the other hand, you had the perfectly cast Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling in a must see comedy event. Pink and black (and white). I bought into the hype big time. I was the hype train conductor. I took the day off work and organized a day with my friends who were able to do the same. We attended Oppenheimer in IMAX in the early afternoon, got dinner, and attended Barbie (where my wife joined us) that Friday evening. I scored the films 10 and 9, respectively...scores that I 100% stand by today. If anything, both films have gotten better thanks to repeat viewings. It was a tremendous day for cinema, and my single greatest theater memory from Rath's Reviews. 

At the end of this post, it's easy to reflect on how fun this was to put together. I'm sure I'll create many more theater memories - eventually with my son too! - throughout my life, but it's going to be awesome to have this "time capsule" look-back on some moments of peak enjoyment during the time of Rath's Reviews. 

What are some of your favorite theater memories? Let me know!