AMC CLASSIC Florence 12 — Attraction in Florence

Being a person that once kept up with all the newest theater releases and followed Entertainment Weekly more as a news magazine and less as an entertainment informer, like it was originally intended, I have seen and heard many films from the 80’s and 90’s. Originally, from my perspective, Florence, Alabama, had three theater houses, the 6 screened Hickory Hills Cinema; the Capri Twin (later called the Capri Four); and the lone screen at Martin Theater which closed sometime in the 90’s. When this AMC 12 screen theater house opened (then owed by Carmike Cinema), I was more than excited to experience the new theater. I was impressed with the new stadium seating, the large screening rooms, the friendly and pleasant to make your acquaintance attitude, and most importantly, the audio quality. Up until this new theater house was completed, I had better audio quality out of my laserdisc player, DVD player, and Dolby Digital (AC3) Surround Sound Receiver at my home. Fast forward over a decade, apparently the new of the business has worn off on the employees and customers seem more of an irritant than a pleasure. But all employees/stores have off days; something I always try to remember, but when two of the employees of the establishment approached me, barely into the opening credits to inform me the movie was being watched by an employee and that I was seen recording the movie playing. Firstly, I’d like to know exactly who gave them permission to watch ‘the movie’ AKA myself while I was in the theater? Yes, I recorded myself and family as we settled into our seats because we had not seen a movie in the theater for nearly two years because of COVID-19 and it was also only the second time my wife and I had been to a movie house together. Once the opening trailers ended and as the opening credits had started to roll I sat my phone down for a minute or two at the most, at which time it wasn’t even open to record anything. However, it was then I had someone approach me about recording the movie, wanted me to leave, and even brought up taking legal action upon me, like being arrested, etc. If my family had not been there to enjoy the overpriced movie I would have politely said that they didn’t have to ask me to leave the theater, that I would gladly leave and never return since I was being accused of doing something I have never done or even tried to do; bootlegging a movie with my phone. Now I don’t know if it is common practice to do what was done to me, basically making me look like a thief, and a bad one at that because I’m very aware that people will steal movies from theaters, I also understand what a copyright is as I am an author and have dealt with what goes along with being a copyright holder. However, to think I would hand out or sell disastrous looking copies of a well made movie is completely insulting, not only at the accusations but also that I’d share something of such low quality, making the film look like garbage. I was able to get the employees to understand I wasn’t recording the movie being shown, just my family at the beginning of the film. I’d also like to add an opinion to my lengthy review, since I was told the movie was being watched by someone and that I was recording the movie, I’m curious exactly who owns the night vision goggles to come to this conclusion. I am taking experiences from other country’s theaters where the theater house would actually hack your phone to tell you to turn it off. (Similar to how the Emergency Broadcasting System sends out messages to ALL cellphones.) In those countries, theaters were allowed to access your phone, which to me says, ‘sounds like my local theater house is accessing people’s smartphones while onsite to monitor theft’. I don’t recall reading, being told, or signing anything informing me that this company could access my electronic equipment while onsite. Is this legal? I understand that copyright infringement is illegal but isn’t invasion of privacy also illegal? Either way, I’ll stick to the classic drive-in movies as they still have a bit of charm...

This review pertains to the new acquisition of Carmike Cinemas to AMC Theatres.

Where do I start?

We drove one hour to this theater as it is our favorite theater around. We waste time until 7:30 so we can see Batman legos. We go in and they tell us, oh that does not come on until 9:30. I said well the internet says 7:30, and they said sorry, the times are not right as this is no longer Carmike Cinemas, it is AMC theaters.

Ok no biggie, we wasted two more hours.

We go back in at 9:30 and buu two tickets to legos batman. I believe a G or PG rates movie. Little kids are in you if you know what I mean.

The advertisements were not something you would expect to see for a kids movie. For instance, one called Girls night out and it was talking about sticking things up their booty holes, no joke. I saw some kids and parents up front get offended by thr language. The other movie was about a woman killing her ex husband, and the 3rd included some bay watch movie with the rock and zac efron shoeing profanity.

I thought these were strang advertisements for a legos movie, until.... The show started and there is a black guy walking saying fk this and fk that about 5 times. I knew from there that we were not watching batman even though the ticket and theater were for Batman. I sit for a minute and then I am the first to leave. I knee something was wrong. I go out and following behind me are a mob of angry parents demanding to know why the f word was repeated over and over again for a kids movie.

The guy, a young guy, kept telling us there is nothing he could do because he has to gaurd his post to keep people from coming through. So we wait until a manager shows up and he apologizes and just gives us free tickets for next time...

I understand mistakes happen, but these kids could have been exposed to sex or nudity. Thats really unacceptable for such a large theater. We will use the tickets in the future, but we will think twice before we go here again.

-A Former...

We go here often. We had a problem that our movie went out due to a power outage. It was a rather long movie already. The guy that got that running and even attempted x several to get movie back to as close as it was when it went off. He was informative, very apologetic, and mannered for a problem that couldn't be helped. I was a little set back with the attitude of one of the workers in the food area. We went to the premiere line because we are a member and because she was there. Our app had said we could have it just scanned at ticket area but we were getting food too. She informed us to go to the other line because she was "on break right now." The other girl working that area was the only other one up front and for a brief moment (just while we were in line for food) there was noone at ticket line area either. The girl took our food order and did explain she had to scan the tickets on app and print them anyway although we have had them do it from app before I thought in the ticket line). By the time we got to the ticket line with tickets, an employee was there and another was at food area. Still a good movie location but I would've preferred the employee at the line area perhaps take her break elsewhere since she was unable to assist customers but was in an area workers are that usually do...