AMC Colonial 18 — Attraction in Lawrenceville

This review has been a long time coming, and after reading others over the past month, I’m relieved to see I’m not the only one with ongoing issues. Like many, we’ve enjoyed being AMC A-List members. However, this particular location is one I actively warn others avoid unless they’re prepared for something to go wrong. Here are just a few of the problems we've encountered over the past couple of years:

On multiple occasions, children or young teens have entered the auditorium mid-movie just to run up and down the steps.

We've shown up to pre-scheduled movies only to be told that half the building had no A/C and that we should come back another day. If you knew why not contact people. You have pre-booking contacts.

Once we gave them the benefit of the doubt and attended a showing of A Complete Unknown, after being told the lights would remain on due to what was portrayed to be a light repair. The movie stopped three times and took several minutes to resume each time. It was another patron, not staff, who let everyone know that the interruptions would continue. (In our house, that film is now jokingly called A Kind of Known.)

Today’s issue was over something I’ve seen repeatedly mentioned in other reviews lately: the new crackdown on water bottles. Yes, I understand that AMC has a “no outside food or drink” policy...but really refillable water bottle? Why not allow empty bottles to be brought in and filled inside? Most of the Freestyle machines are out of syrup anyway, so there’s no risk of policy abuse. To make matters worse, I watched multiple employees tonight help themselves to large and medium drinks, while were given 8oz “water” cups for a 2-hour movie. AMC Colonial 18 management: You don’t need to respond. It’s clear you’re comfortable with teenage employees running the show as they see fit. Every time we visit, the number of staff present is too high to excuse the filthy bathrooms and messy auditoriums. The “self-serve” ordering kiosks are often difficult to work with, and employees at the counter seem disinterested and unhelpful, or are just having a good time with each other. Maybe work with the Sugarloaf AMC team? They could teach yours a thing or two about training and guest service. We used to love this theater, but now every time we book, we joke, “What’s going to go wrong this time?” If it weren’t for the A-List subscription and the location’s convenience, we wouldn’t keep coming back. As it stands, I recommend that anyone considering this theater only come if they’re already A-List members and don’t...

I hate the employees they always act like they don't wanna be there, if ur gonna treated everyone like dew dew then don't apply to work there?? For some background story, I wanted to watch Nezha 2 yesterday (feb 14) because I've been waiting forever for the sequel and because I am an ABC I was giddy when I saw that it was out in theaters so l immediately got two tickets, one for me and the other for my sister. I checked that morning and we were the only ones that had tickets for that time so like woah we're so lucky right. WRONG I got there and the employee immediately had a nasty attitude (prob bc she's sad cus she single on Valentine's Day) but she checked out tickets and were about to let us go when she stopped us and asked for IDs. So I was like what the frick bruh this is a children movie AND a cartoon why would I have to be over 17 or have someone 17 or older is for reference I'm 15 and my sister is 16) | was VERY disappointed bc I booked tickets a week before and was super excited to watch the movie, I asked for a refund and they did give it to me but NOT all of my money, I paid $30 online but only got $26 back, apparently the $4 difference was the convenience fee?? Like wdym convenience im literally doing YOUR job by buying tickets online, convenience fee is like forcing gratuity to a takeout order at a self serve restaurant?? Oh yeah and that's not even the worst part, when I got home I searched up the movie, it's rated NR (not rated) and I searched it up and NR means that anyone can watch it, so not only did I waste my morning, gas, time, excitement, but I also lost out on my $4 og My Valentine's Day was terrible so thanks a lot AMC. Also I left some photos of the poster and you can js tell that it's literally a kids movie like you CANNOT tell me that it's inappropriate (also like the origin of the movie, China, already has a lot of censorship so why would America, the land of the free, have so much censorship for a cartoon bruh like MAKE THAT MAKE SENSE)

Edit: 2/16/25 I went again to watch it and GUESS WHO DIDNT HAVE TO SHOW IDS HUH, ME (all anger aside the movie was awesome 😍 but popcorn...

Absolutely appalled at AMC’s insensitivity and inconsideration for their customers today. My family and I wanted to bring in our water bottles since it is a dangerously hot day (the weather app reads 93 and says it feels like 99). As someone who is on medication that can cause dehydration having access to enough water is crucial to my health. The staff (as politely as they could, they’re not the problem) kept saying it was their policy that no outside containers were allowed in. I offered up our bags and bottles for searching, promising that we had nothing out of line to no avail. It is unsafe in weather conditions such as these to refuse people water. The staff offered us tiny water cups as an alternative. This ridiculous alternative is no where near what is needed to keep their patrons healthy and will cause us to have to miss parts of the movie we paid $20 a piece to see. I can’t imagine what parents with young kids would have to deal with to make sure their kiddos can stay hydrated with such a policy. I hate that I’m writing this now but it is actually ridiculous that AMC would act this way. We have always been able to bring water bottles in the past and plenty of other theaters allow them as well. There is absolutely no way this is policy is in place because of a cleanliness or safety issue- this theater is rarely clean and if they cared about safety they wouldn’t let people walk in with giant book bags carrying God knows what. This is a disgusting attempt to squeeze every last penny out of people who just want a break from a world where we already cannot escape greed. What happened to customers knowing best? What happened to giving people the benefit of the doubt? What happened to human decency? I don’t know who will see this review but I demand this policy change and everyone WILL be hearing about it from me, I’ve already submitted a formal complaint through amc’s website. Next time, I’ll be staying home and paying for a streaming...