AMC Mesa Grand 14 — Attraction in Mesa

This movie theatre is updated and fantastic, with a flair of modern. Pros: Reclining seats with enough room to stretch out and enjoy a movie in the most relaxing position possible. Every seat has a great view and the seats are easy to find. Reserved seating guarantees you your favorite seat, and can be reserved as early as movie listings are posted. The popcorn is delicious and the soda dispenser, with virtually unlimited choices, is the current 'kid in a candy store' dream. The location and parking make it easy to arrive and depart without traffic back-ups or complications. The bathrooms have plenty of stalls and are always clean and stocked. Cons: The AMC website and app have glitches making it (sometimes) hard to purchase tickets (thank goodness I live close enough to this theatre to run down and purchase tickets in a pinch). The theatre is seriously understaffed. I visited on 7/4/17 and the concession line was 27 people deep, with only 3 employees working the counter. Only one employee was working the ticket desk and the line outside mirrored the one inside (computers were slow that day, I had to go to the customer service desk to resolve my ticket problem of overcharging for a Stubs Premier Member). Large refills are only granted to Premier members after membership is confirmed (so if you leave your movie to get a refill of popcorn, make sure to bring your Stubs Card to the counter). AMC is the only movie theatre company that does not allow refills on purchases of popcorn at anytime. For example: I frequent the movies often (almost weekly, even 4 times in one week) and wasn't able to redeem my large popcorn refill even the next day (or later that evening). All other theatres in the area allow large popcorn refills (limit one, any day or time) with a purchase of a large popcorn. Finally, twice in the last few weeks, I have experienced viewing previews that were rated higher than the movie that was to be viewed. An intense, violent, overly sexualized preview was played (Rated R) in a Pg-13 (The Mummy) and Wonder Woman viewing. Shocking....for the children and those not choosing to view said genre.

Overall, the this movie theatre is worth the visit, it is clean and comfortable, with a main draw of the morning movie viewing price of...

*The theater on a Friday night (7pm): was practically dead. When we walked up to the theater there was no one at the window to sell us tickets. There wasn't even a sign telling us that we needed to come inside. (Honestly it felt like coming in on a Monday around 2pm. No one was around. No lines. It felt like a theater that was going out of buisness.) *After walking in, we realized there were machines there that took the job of someone who could actually be greeting people. Of course the machine wouldn't read our card, so we had to find someone to walk over, they ended up having to manually put in our card. *Ordering: Then we went to order popcorn and a drink. Again no one was at the counter just a machine. We just ran through this... the machine was acting up. Had to find someone and explain what was going on. The girl looked stummed. (Like deer in the headlights, all I do is hand you a popcorn when I get a promt/ I don't know how to work registers look.) She had to find the one other person that was around how to do it; both employees seemed socially awkward and lacked emotion. (As customers it made my husband and I feel like we didn't really want to come back. Due to the lack of customer service. If we were to give that a grade, we give a huge "F") We finally got our order and went to our seats. The seats however were ripped, but comfortable, except for the middle armrest. If I wanted to sit next to my husband without an armrest in-between us, it made it hard because it won't push back flush with the rest of the seat; Popcorn: not the best... seemed to taste like it was made earlier in the day then something freshly popped. Drink Size was very large and self serve. (I did like that very much.) The screens seemed dim. The theater was a comfortable temperature. After our show there were no employees around. None at the door to clean the theater wishing us a good night. Its like a ghost town, I wouldn't recommend and I can't say that I...

I am reducing my rating from three stars down to one because I am fed up with AMC. I have tolerated the assigned seating system for years because I love the Freestyle soda machines. After my last visit to AMC, I will not be back until certain tho he improve:

Crank up the AC! This is AZ, and it's hot even at night. I should absolutely not be sweating while sitting in a leather-type seat. Turn the temperature down for goodness sake! We pay enough for tickets and the snack bar that you can afford to keep us cool. People who say they're cold need to put on a jacket. AC is just a cost of business.

Don't charge people to research seats online. I hate getting to the theatre and being forced to take crappy seats because some e else got there first. I hate assigned seating and paying extra to research a decent seat is unacceptable. I will not put up with you forcing us to pay more or suffer in bad seats.

Fix your snack bar. Prices are insane. It's over $20 for a popcorn and two sodas, which I gave to wait in line at least ten minutes for. Get more workers, hire a line expedited for the indecisive, and make the workers hustle. Oh, and don't give me stale popcorn that's sat in a bucket for goodness knows how long. Not when I paid so much. You don't even provide the shake-on flavors.

**I will take my patronage to Harkins and local theatres. Harkins doesn't use assigned seating, they have the loyalty cup, their popcorn is fresh, and they provide shake-on flavors.

Old post: Expensive theatre, but if you like the fancy seats, go for it. Only one person working the snack bar, but the customers take forever to order and want fancy items. They need more help. I love the Freestyle machines, but sometimes the drink areas are a mess. They need to take it seriously even when it's not busy. They charge enough for everything that they...