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How do?

Suitably inspired by Dakkanaut AndrewGPaul, here’s a new thread. And the title says it all. So I shan’t repeat.

For me? The first I properly remember was ‘Flight of the Navigator’.

It was the school summer holidays many years ago. 1986 to be precise. And I remember this for two reasons.

Reason Number One. They’d reviewed it on Wacaday. Timmy Mallett recommended it.

Reason Number Two. Dear Old Sadly Departed Mumsie Grotsnik, probably at her wits end looking after two snivellin’ lirrul Grots was likely at her wits end trying to entertain us. So when I put down my He-Man figures, and asked if we could go see it, she said yes. Not even a hesitation.

That’s the first time I properly properly remember going to the cinema. I think I went to see The Jungle Book (re-release, natch, I’m not that Old) before, but this was the first time it was my idea.

Cracking film, and yes it’s kinda a poor pretender to ET’s throne - but still a worthy effort.

Right, your turn!

Apparently, the first movie I ever saw at a cinema was Bambi... but I don't remember it. Sadly, I also have no specific memory of seeing Star Wars and ESB at cinemas, other than vaguely recalling that both of those things happened.


The first cinema trip I can actually remember was a double-feature of the Machine Men 'Battle of the Rock Lords' and Transformers: The Movie.

The part of that experience that wasn't 'Battle of the Rock Lords' was freaking amazing.



Flight of the Navigator would have been pretty cool on the big screen - I saw it when it hit rental video, which was how I saw most movies from around that era.

As I said on another thread, mine was - I think - Superman 4. However, being over 30 years ago, I couldn't tell you much about it. I don't recall disliking it, but that's about it.

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, on the other hand (1988), is still worth a watch today, I think.

I think the first movie I ever saw was Benji The Hunted.

When that fething eagle swooped down and grabbed one of those cougar cubs and flew off I lost it in the theater. So I've been told all my life.

ESB.

I can remember that 5 year old me realised that the tale hadn't finished at the end of the film and wanted to know what happened to Han.

My dad told me that we'd find out in the next film. My bum remained in that seat until my dad realised that I was waiting for the next Star Wars film to start playing. It was a long 3 years...

I know that I saw ESB and TWOK in the theaters, but only have memories of memories. I actually recall walking out of Return of the Jedi enthralled by the chicken walkers, no doubt driving my parents nuts with my obsessive babble.

My family went to the theaters a lot, so I saw a surprising number of films in the theater. However, my best ever theater day was when we spent all day theater hopping between T2 and Star Trek 6.

Star Wars: A New Hope was my first movie. It was pretty damn special to my young brain.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
I know that I saw ESB and TWOK in the theaters, but only have memories of memories. I actually recall walking out of Return of the Jedi enthralled by the chicken walkers, no doubt driving my parents nuts with my obsessive babble..

Return of the Jedi is the one Star Wars saga movie that I didn't get to see at the cinema, and had to wait for the video. Maybe I would have liked it more on the big screen...

There are 3 movies that stand out for me: Robocop, Predator 2, and Batman.

The first one that came to mind was Predator 2. I saw it with my dad and my sister, and that was a pretty wild movie when you're 13. I didn't spend a lot of time with my dad, so that was cool, and I had really liked the first Predator (which I didn't see in theaters). I grew up a bit broke when I was a kid. I wouldn't go as far as to say poor - I never went hungry. But I also wore hand me down clothes and we didn't have a lot of toys or go out to do stuff often. Later after things got better, we moved to a place where there wasn't a movie theater close, which is why I probably go to the movies so much now - I didn't have reliable access to a movie theater until I was around 25.

I still absolutely love the experience - being transported away with a bucket of popcorn and a tankard of root beer still remains my favorite leisure thing to do. I'd go once a week if there was a movie good enough to warrant it. It's also why when you guys see me saying i liked so-and-so movie I tend to grade maybe a little high, because even a relatively mediocre movie like Suicide Squad was still a good time for me. It really takes a stinker for me to be unhappy.

Anyway, Predator 2. I still rather like it, although of course it's not the best in the franchise. I remember racing home to go talk to my friend Julio about it, and all his new toys. Gun to my head, that would have been my on the spot answer for the first movie I remember seeing in theaters.

The second one I thought of was Batman, and I remember that being really huge in NYC when it came out, to the point I remember the year offhand: 1989. That was the year when flat-tops haircuts, Black Bart Simpson t-shirts, and Batman medallions reigned supreme. I saw that one with my friends and loved it as well. Google says that Predator 2 came out a year later, so technically, I saw Batman first. I also had the batwing and batmobile model kits.

I kept on thinking and the third one I thought of was Robobop. I know for sure I saw it in theaters, but I don't really remember any impact. I mean, I remember the guy getting shot in the dick, obviously, and I remember the ED-209, but the rest of the movie.. If I hadn't watched it like 15 times in subsequent years I'm not sure I'd remember it well. I would have been 10.

So: In terms of my gut answer, I would have said Predator 2, in terms of an accurate answer, it would have been Robocop, and in terms of the first movie I remember really being huge - it would have been Batman.

Not sure if this was actually the first movie I saw in theater, but my earliest cinema memory was seeing Jurassic Park with my dad. I remember very little about the experience, but recall enough to know I was enthralled. Going to the movies had a powerful effect on me as a kid that honestly never really went away, I still love going and often find myself wishing there was something worthwhile to go see just so I have a reason to actually visit my local cineplex. I feel very fortunate that I love super hero movies, if I didn't there wouldn't be very many blockbusters that I'd be interested in.

Transformer Animated Movie was the first I remember. That movie defined a generation, spawned the first wave of (movie) fan-angst and made americans wonder what was this animation stuff coming from japan.

Best memories was the drive in with my parent's old station wagon. Put the seats down, unpack a couple little ceasers pizzas and it was a luxury evening for the lower income class. You could even watch a different movie by turning around, so long as you didn't care about the dialog - and you often got 2 movies for the ticket!

I don't really remember it at all, but I think one of the first movies I ever saw in theaters was All Dogs Go To Heaven. I couldn't have been more than 5 years old at the time, hence why my memory of it is pretty sketchy.

The first movie I really remember seeing at the theater was probably Mouse Hunt. Other early ones for me were Deep Impact and The Lost World. I especially enjoyed Deep Impact in the theater, because I already had a serious love of all things space. I actually saw that movie twice in the theaters; the first time it was just my dad and me, and the second time we brought my mom and little brother too.

 creeping-deth87 wrote:
Not sure if this was actually the first movie I saw in theater, but my earliest cinema memory was seeing Jurassic Park with my dad. I remember very little about the experience, but recall enough to know I was enthralled. Going to the movies had a powerful effect on me as a kid that honestly never really went away, I still love going and often find myself wishing there was something worthwhile to go see just so I have a reason to actually visit my local cineplex. I feel very fortunate that I love super hero movies, if I didn't there wouldn't be very many blockbusters that I'd be interested in.

A former workmate of mine took her young (just pre-teen, IIRC) boys to see Jurassic Park - she was a bit worried that they might find it a bit full on, but they were mad about dinosaurs and really wanted to see it. She sat them down beforehand and reminded them that it's just a movie, it's not real and nothing can hurt them. Everything was fine until the T-rex scene, which apparently resulted in the younger huddled down under the seat screaming "YOU SAID IT WASN'T REAL!"




Automatically Appended Next Post:

 ChargerIIC wrote:

Best memories was the drive in with my parent's old station wagon. Put the seats down, unpack a couple little ceasers pizzas and it was a luxury evening for the lower income class. You could even watch a different movie by turning around, so long as you didn't care about the dialog - and you often got 2 movies for the ticket!

We spent a few years in a small mining town out west. The local drive-in had a bleacher with a speaker up the back beside the cafe, for those of us too young to have cars... They would usually play a double feature of something relatively newish, and something older alongside it. My brother and I used to go out there on our pushbikes fairly regularly, although I can't for the life of me remember what we saw there, other than the Footrot Flats movie.

I think my first cinema experience was Disney's "The rescuers" when I was about 9 or so. Don't recall much what it was like as an "experience" though. It was a local 2 screen cinema. With the seats that folded up when you got up, wooden floors and a wurlitzer organ that came up from under the floor front of screen during "intermission". It got closed down a while back, seems the proprietor had a thing for kiddy porn.

The first movie I CHOSE to see for myself was "Star Wars" - the re-release prior to ESB, when they added "episode IV, A new Hope" to the crawl. For that, I had to go into town to the local multiplex (8 screens).

 Chillreaper wrote:
ESB.

I can remember that 5 year old me realised that the tale hadn't finished at the end of the film and wanted to know what happened to Han.

My dad told me that we'd find out in the next film. My bum remained in that seat until my dad realised that I was waiting for the next Star Wars film to start playing. It was a long 3 years...

I think mine was also ESB, but it might have been one of the re-issues of New Hope (in 81 or 82), I don't actually remember. Of course it may not have been the original theatrical release of ESB either. Toys and books (young readers versions) started accumulating around that time, so I must've seen something, and it was too early for VCRs. I remember audio tape versions of parts of ESB and Raiders of the Lost Ark (I usually listened to them back to back), and a weird chapter book that has some wacky theories about the Wookies' home planet. Most of which got canonized at some point- they lived exclusively in the upper parts of the giant trees, with monsters down below.


The 'experience' of the cinema isn't a memory I've kept though. Likely washed out by a procession of routine and overly similar cinema experiences- dark, too loud, dirty and either overly packed or (significantly better) nearly empty.

 AndrewGPaul wrote:

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, on the other hand (1988), is still worth a watch today, I think.

I re-saw this about 5-6 years ago. I found it surprisingly depressing and maudlin. Both the story and the film-making (techniques and imagery) feels like an era ended and glory days have passed.

First movie I remember seeing was the Lion King. 3 years old.

I don't really remember anything about what happened when we were at the theater other than the movie itself. One of the few movies I have almost total recall of, despite having not seen it for many years.

Apparently the first movie I ever saw was Return of the Jedi. I was a baby, fast asleep in the back seat at a drive thru in 1983, but hey, still my first movie!

Without asking my parents, the first film I remember seeing was a summer holiday re-release of The Jungle Book, however I think my first “cinema going experience” was going with my Mum (and without my younger sister!) to see Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade; it was the first “adult” (i.e. non-kiddie) film I got to see on release.

 insaniak wrote:

A former workmate of mine took her young (just pre-teen, IIRC) boys to see Jurassic Park - she was a bit worried that they might find it a bit full on, but they were mad about dinosaurs and really wanted to see it. She sat them down beforehand and reminded them that it's just a movie, it's not real and nothing can hurt them. Everything was fine until the T-rex scene, which apparently resulted in the younger huddled down under the seat screaming "YOU SAID IT WASN'T REAL!"

Lmao that's a great story, thanks for sharing. To the movie's credit it's aged very well too, that T-Rex scene is still really powerful.

I don't know for sure what I saw the first time I ever went to the movies but my earliest memory is the original star wars (yep i still refuse to call it a new hope). I had my R2D2 and C3PO action figures already even though I never saw it, just because every kid had to have star wars figures back then. I remember going to see it with my uncle, and being bored. I was only like 5, i think maybe I was too young to appreciate it. Kinda like when I took my nephew to see Transformers and he was bored outta his skull and just wanted to see them start transforming.

First film I can remember was The Last Unicorn at the Warwick Bowl. There was an intermission and I had a Mr. Man lolly from the ice cream lady... I remember it was purple and probably blackcurrent or something. It must have been a kids afternoon showing as it was probably late 80s then and a rerun.

Can't remember much of that film except for a couple of chilling scenes.

Next I can remember going to see Jurassic Park with my older brother at the Odeon. I was terrified and covered my eyes some of the time - would've been 9. Didn't give me nightmares... unlike after I watched Alien on an old black and white portable tv that I played master system on at around the same age. I still have nasty dreams about the alien, but they don't bother me much - just shows how powerful films and that be and get into your mind.

I watched Alien as a little kid myself and was also absolutely terrified. I insisted that the closet doors in my room be closed, it was just too easy to imagine that massive xenomorph head slowly coming out from behind the clothes. I was like 9 or 10 when I saw it, forced by my big brother to see the whole thing. Super glad he did though, older films like that lose a lot of their magic when you get spoiled by modern special effects and stuff. I don't think I would have appreciated it if I saw it for the first time as a teenager or adult. It remains one of my favourite films to this day.

Disney, a lot of Disney as VHS wasn't in the late 70's really a thing so Disney stuff got rotated on the big screen

The first one I distinctly remember is Bedknobs and Broomsticks, its a largely harmless and fun Poppins knock-off till about 30 mins from the end

then the Witch animates a lot of old armour to see off some Nazi's, que wee Turnips meltdown. and having to be taken out and have Mum explain it was just 'special tricks'

[youtube] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0rRPU_cvGg[/youtube]

Hmmm

i'd like to claim it was star wars IV (or proper star wars as I call it now) in 1977 as I remember being really excited queuing to watch it at the ABC cinema, and how fantastic it was on the screen, how big, how loud, and those spaceships Wow

but I've suspicion it might have been a thriller (a dull one) involving speedboats and an oil rig in the north sea that was the unwanted 'extra' film bolted on to the front of an animated movie I'd been taken to but now have no memory of at a local independent cinema because it was too short

(normally the padding would have been a few Tom & Jerry or Road Runner cartoons but this this main feature was obviously too short for that to work)

I also have pretty strong memories of Lord of the Rings (no not the good Peter Jackson one, the 1978 rotoscoped one which was not bad... the rotoscoped live action being cooler than the pure animation for me, and I was very disappointed they never made another to finish the story)

I really can't remember what my first cinema experience was. The first one I can properly remember was A View To A Kill - 1985 apparently, so I would have been about 7, and my brother 4.

I mainly remember it because my dad went to sleep in his seat before the film even started, and I was most offended!

Having kids of my own now, I know exactly where he was coming from...

Crispy78 wrote:
I really can't remember what my first cinema experience was. The first one I can properly remember was A View To A Kill - 1985 apparently, so I would have been about 7, and my brother 4.

I mainly remember it because my dad went to sleep in his seat before the film even started, and I was most offended!

Having kids of my own now, I know exactly where he was coming from...

The flip side, a lot of "kids" movies have built in adult humor and such. Its an excuse to watch these movies. You miss that later...

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Apparently the first movie I ever saw was Return of the Jedi. I was a baby, fast asleep in the back seat at a drive thru in 1983, but hey, still my first movie!

Hmm. You're kinda young to be such a curmudgeon.


Earliest movies I can remember are Bambi and Escape to Witch Mountain. 1975. Yeah, I'm old.

 Frazzled wrote:

Crispy78 wrote:
I really can't remember what my first cinema experience was. The first one I can properly remember was A View To A Kill - 1985 apparently, so I would have been about 7, and my brother 4.

I mainly remember it because my dad went to sleep in his seat before the film even started, and I was most offended!

Having kids of my own now, I know exactly where he was coming from...

The flip side, a lot of "kids" movies have built in adult humor and such. Its an excuse to watch these movies. You miss that later...

Oh yeah, definitely. Think my favourite lately is Lego Batman. Just so many references the boys wouldn't have got...

The 1990 TMNT movie with the cringey rubbery suits was my first ever movie in theaters that I got to see. I saved the stubs, bought the soundtrack on tape, and even clipped some articles and probably still have them somewhere in a trapper keeper in a box in my basement somewhere, lol. I was a big fan of the show at the time, comics, and toys at the time and it was my last childhood fandom. My second film was Robocop 2 that my older cousin got me into which introduced me to rated R gore as a kid at the same time (prior to that I had only watched pg-13 cut down versions on TV years after release).

I can't remember my third but the next movie I still recall seeing years later was my first ever in theaters Star Trek movie, VI: the Undiscovered Country, a year later in 1991. I rode my bmx bike over to a mall that was in what had turned into a sketchy neighborhood and watched it by myself (first time for that) as my few trek loving friends had already seen it. It's not the best movie (Wrath of Khan takes that honor for me and nudges it into second place) but it's my favorite in large part due to nostalgia.

Arachnophobia


Cheesy pseudo-horror movie, and the first time I ever maliciously complied to my parents' words. I asked if I could go, they said "Do what you want, but we're not driving you".

So, 9-year old me left the house, walked 2.5 miles to the theatre, paid with my own money, and returned at 10pm. Never got punished for it.