Regal Gateway — Attraction in Austin

How the mighty have fallen. I remember a time, not so long ago, that this was a nice theater. It wasn't the Alamo Drafthouse, but you could twist my arm and get me to see a movie here without any complaint.

I went to see a movie last night because my favorite theater wasn't showing it late enough. It was obvious from the moment I walked in that management had stopped caring about this theater. Just walking through the lobby and down to the theaters had that distinct feeling of "this used to be really nice, but we're not going to pay to remodel, and we're just going to let things continue to go downhill. We're definitely not going to clean."

Things only got worse when I got to the theater. The back two rows were absolutely filthy. On top of the stained chairs and sticky floor, there was popcorn everywhere and trash in the seats and seemingly all over everything.

OK, whatever, I can find a clean seat. Eventually. But once the movie started, I noticed that someone had left a light on behind the theater screen. This did a great job of coloring dark scenes purple and nicely highlighting the speakers hidden behind the screen. The formatting also wasn't correct, as the picture bled slightly off the top and bottom of the screen and the curtains didn't retract all the way, cutting off about two feet on either side of the movie. Again, it just had the air of "we don't really care."

Ordinarily, I'd complain about the white railings around the stairs, as they shone brightly throughout the movie and were very distracting -- especially the one that was up by the screen and nearly in the way of the movie -- but in this instance, it was just icing on top of the crap cake.

I'm giving it two stars because the sound quality was great (no blown speakers, no odd volume problems) and the picture would have been perfect had not been cropped by a projectionist that couldn't be bothered to care. At least they haven't started cheaping out on...

UPDATE: I have now seen two films in 4DX, one of which was also in 3D, and both times was an absolutely incredible experience, enough to change my review from 3 stars to 4. From the immersive motion seats that turn the film into basically being on a 2 hour rollercoaster ride, to the air and water features, and even "snow" that falls from the ceiling, any action movie deserves to be seen in 4DX and it is the sole reason why I will continue to come to this theater. You can tell the motion is thoughtfully crafted for each specific scene in the film and it's never just random shaking. It's hard to imagine seeing a movie any other way anymore! The 4DX theater itself is also much nicer and cleaner than most of this theater's other auditoriums.

I visited this theater recently when I remembered I had a free ticket on my Crown Club card from the points I had accumulated at my college theater out-of-state pre-pandemic. It had been a while since I'd visited the Gateway location so I thought I'd check it out again. ("Old" was phenomenal by the way, a must see)

The biggest difference you'll note if you haven't been to a Regal theater in a while is that they now only carry Pepsi products. I'm all for that and the drink options that are now available as a result.

However, that's about where the pros of this theater end. This is the only traditional movie theater in the area (not including dine-ins) that don't have reclining seats and the ones they do have are in desperate need of an upgrade and aren't comfortable at all. The place was clean, although pretty dead on a Tuesday night. The employees were very friendly, but I personally see no reason to choose this theater over the neighboring AMC or Cinemarks due to the seating and wider range of concession offerings the other theaters offer. I may still visit this theater in the future to try the 4DX experience, which is also relatively new to this location and the only one of its kind in...

Went to an IMAX showing of Furiosa over the weekend but left halfway through the movie for various reasons. First, the seats are SO CLOSE TOGETHER that your knees almost touch the seats in front of you - I wish I had taken a picture of it because it is surprisingly, STUPID close. I thought I was on an airplane for a second there but then I remembered that you can at least recline an airline seat. I am 5'6", my husband is an even 6' but we were both uncomfortable, as you cannot even cross your legs due to the lack of space. My husband even had an empty seat next to him and was still crammed in there. 3 hours sitting bolt-upright with both feet flat on the floor is EXTREMELY uncomfortable, which is why we left the theater with about an hour left. I needed to use the restroom but having to scramble over 15 people in the dark just to get out meant that once I went, I wasn't going to try to come back so we just left.

Compounding the closeness problem is that you can literally smell the breath of the person behind you. Husband was sitting in front of someone who reeked of alcohol and it made the experience even more frustrating. It also didn't help that he had a linebacker sitting in front of him too - he couldn't see over the guy's head and shoulders. If my husband moved over to the empty seat beside him, he would have been sitting next to a stranger and there is no guarantee that he would have been able to see better.

The movie's volume was also disappointingly low. I mean, you could hear all the dialogue but there was no bass, no movie theatre booms, no surround sound. It sounded like mono treble, which for an action movie is bad.

For the price of the tickets and the sardine-like seating arrangement, I don't foresee us going back any time soon. There are closer theaters with stadium-style, reclining seats. It takes a lot for me to complain so trust me when I tell...