AMC Grove City 14 — Attraction in Jackson Township

This is not a bad theater. Could be cleaner. They have a variety of chair types. The theaters themselves only seat about, maybe up to 100ish people. They have an IMAX theater, but our show was not on that screen.

The sound is ok. It's like low end headphones, not good enough bass, not very good highs, muddy mid range. I mean it's loud enough, but does not fulfill that movie theater wow. The surround sound was poor. It had very well appointed front sound, and ok side, but no rear. We were seated in the middle, the lack of rear sound was very evident.

They have the usual suspects for food. A Coke machine, and 6 flavors of frozen drinks. Popcorn, and candies. I really didn't look over the menu but I think hot dogs, pizza, and nachos. They didn't have coffee. I felt let down by that. I didn't ask, but I don't think they have alcohol either.

During our show, I was a victim of the stereotypical... in the back row. She walked in late to the show talking on her phone. I don't mean previews. I mean 10 minutes into the movie. She hangs up, and starts playing with the flashlight on her phone. Keeps talking, keeps playing with her light. After about 10 minutes of that I pulled out my phone, pointed the light at her, and asked her if I needed to get an usher to help her. She snarled like an animal, but it got her to turn her light off. She kept talking throughout the movie, and digging in packages.Her kid started playing phone games. Chomping on what ever the whole movie. I mean it was loud, easily heard over the movie at all times. At some point she dumps a large bag of hard candy that spills through the whole theater. Through the whole show until asked to leave you could hear candy falling off her. Then I think she started kicking them or something.

These things remind me why I just watch movies at home. I get the sound I tuned, exact food I want, and only my family to bother me. With only 4 others in the room, I have to say it was a pretty bad experience. It was a mid day showing of a movie that had been out while. I couldn't imagine how bad a full theater with a few of those types of people would be.

I'm sure a rep will reply about how they are sorry for our poor experience, but it's that, a poor experience. And I'm not the only one. We don't go to the theater often. This reinforces why. I hate that you have to go tell on someone, miss possibly key points to a story, and...

I was at the Grove City AMC to watch Interstellar at the 10th anniversary rerelease in IMAX, but it was super disappointing.

First the movie started at exactly on time, but without previews or the usual “silence your phone” clips, which was strange. People were very much still streaming into the theater, trying to get settled in the dark. After a few minutes of this, the movie abruptly stops and the screen goes blank for a minute or two - and then the previews and stuff start to play, followed by the movie from the beginning. Ok, stuff happens, no big deal.

The real problem was that the picture and sound were, for an IMAX experience, terrible. If all you want is a somewhat big screen and really f-ing loud audio, you’ll be fine. But what I got was low-res picture (enough to see stair-stepping in onscreen text) and low visual dynamic range with dull blacks and blown-out whites. And the soundtrack was so incredibly (distractingly) loud that I ended up using some earplugs I had in my pocket from a concert a few nights before. Before you think that I just have sensitive ears, it was obvious that the sound system wasn’t tuned, or maybe was being overdriven - when there was any dialog during a loud scene, you couldn’t understand anything being said, even with my earplugs removed. Plus it didn’t feel like there was any directionality to the sound, like it was all mixed down to one channel before being distributed to the speakers.

Look, I fully admit that I’m a technical snob and most people aren’t bothered by this stuff the way I am. But the whole point of IMAX, especially for a film by a director like Christopher Nolan who puts so much effort into shooting a film like this, is to have a visually and audibly incredible experience. That doesn’t just mean big and loud, it means paying attention to the details - and that wasn’t happening here.

The food was, of course, crazy expensive, and that’s no surprise. But I appreciate that the staff were super nice and kept lines...

Management will lie to your face at this AMC location. My 18 year old daughter and her 17 year old friend tried to see a rated R movie 2 nights in a row, bought tickets, and were then physically not allowed in the building. Mind you it wasn't even 40 degres. 1st night, 17yo didn't have an ID. An employee told her they could take a pic of her ID if her mother sent it. After her purchase of the ticket a manager approached her and informed her she was not allowed to buy a ticket without an actual ID. So on to the 2nd night. This time, after purchase of tickets, a ticket taker was told by the Manager to check the girls ID. The manger then informed them they could not see the movie and needed to return to the ticket lobby.. Then a security guard blocked them at the doors so they could not return to the main lobby. The Manager checked their IDs 3x, asked if the 17yo if she was indeed 17 and said that the 17yo couldn't see the movie on Friday or Saturday nights without an adult of 21 years or older. He did not inform them of this the 1st night. Apparently this is the policy for this location because according to the Manager, "they have problems with teenagers. While speaking to the Manager he apologized for the inconvenience and did recall some type of issue from the night prior. I bet he did, he is the one who literally kicked an 18yo and a clearly known minor outside in barley 40 degree weather and would not let them wait inside for their ride. Security intimidating 2 girls who did nothing but buy tickets was ridiculous. When I asked security why she felt the need to hold them in the lobby after purchase for management, she informed me she isn't a babysitter for teenagers. Absolutely ridiculous and...