Regal Lakewood — Attraction in Lakewood

I haven't been to the theater in about 6 years. I have problems with people who have no awareness of themselves or what's going on around them. As such, wherever someone pulls out their phone, starts reciting the complete text for the Declaration of Independence, and eats their food so noisily you wonder about their parentage, I leave. I have no time for people who are inconsiderate and unaware/uncaring how their actions affect others.

So I decided to go see Barbie at the pleading of my 16 year old daughter. Brought my tween twin boys with us as well. The process of ordering tickets, purchasing food, and getting to the auditorium is no problem. The auditorium was mostly empty and I was happy to be there.

Then the movie started. 20 minutes into the movie (not the ads , the actual movie), 5 people show up and sit directly behind me. No problem. Then two of them sit down on the walkway steps beside the seats. Okay. Then one of them starts pounding loudly on the floor with their shoes. Hmmm... Then they start arguing. Then they start taking selfies. Then they get up and walk out and back in about 9 times, talking the entire time. I ask for them to please be quiet. They laughed and continued on.

I didn't press it with them because they appeared to be under age and I don't square up with children.

What happened to ushers coming in during the movie and checking on everything? What happened to blocking people from coming into the movie after a certain amount of time? This was standard procedure at any theater I've ever been to.

This was mayhem.

You all need to come in and check on things. Why should I have to get up, with my bad knees and bad back, and miss the movie in order to report this?

It'll be another 6 years or more before I go to the movies again. This...

I love the Regal theaters... just not this one. Surprised to see no one manning the ticket sales outside, and was told by family that you buy them from the self-serve kiosk inside. That was easy enough... though the family in front of me took a long time to figure it out. And at no time did the self-serve checkout system ask me to swipe my Regal card, so now I have to spend more time going online to do it, because the cashier said she could not help me.

I just wanted a bag of popcorn. My movie start time was 3:30pm, and I got in line around that time for the snack, figuring, there is 15 minutes of previews, plenty of time. Nope!

Maybe I just picked the long line, behind the person with the family who didn't seem to make any of their food decisions until they got to the front of the line. They seemed to be done, finally.... after the worker had to go away and check something?

Nope! They had not bought their movie tickets yet. I have NEVER been to ANY theater where the snack counter ALSO sold movie tickets. And these days, you also have to pick your seat, not just say, Four for X movie, and out. No... so they took even more time in discussion about their seats. By the way, they paid $100 for 4 people to see a movie, 2 buckets of popcorn, and 3 sodas. Yikes!

I WAS IN LINE FOR A BAG OF POPCORN AT THE SNACK BAR FOR 30 MINUTES AND MISSED THE BEGINNING OF MY MOVIE!! And I really hate missing any minutes of the movie, but I have to have popcorn for me and my granddaughter...

Ridiculous system. Regal -- Please keep ticket sales and snack bars sales separate, or at the very least, designate FOOD ONLY lines for people who already have...

Went to my first, and likely last, movie here. After being bludgeoned with 25 minutes of big-screen advertising the feature finally started, only to be quickly drowned out by the subwoofer from the adjacent cinema booming though the wall. Was able to tolerate the distraction for about 15 minutes before it became unbearable and I called the afternoon a wash.

Spoke to the management up front, they were nice enough and accommodating, offered to "turn down the sound" in the viewing room next door, which may or may not have happened. Ended up refunding my ticket without any hassle and offered apologies for the excessive sound disruption.

To be fair, I dislike the muliplex experience for this exact reason. With 14 viewing rooms shoe-horned next to each other in an older building there is bound to be some shortcomings in the situation - but still, the theatre sound bleed-through was LOUD, and at $15 per ticket coupled with crazy overpriced concessions I feel entitled to be a bit picky.

Bottom line - if you are sitting down for an evening of explosions and blaring soundtrack music the crossover noise may not be much of an issue, but if you are paying for an immersive movie experience where the atmosphere counts, you'll be better off finding a...