Regal Manahawkin — Attraction in Stafford Township

How did I go into a movie theater expecting to watch a movie while escaping from the stresses of the holiday season and leave that theater before the movie even started, upset and lecturing my girlfriend with a diatribe about the socioeconomic conditions handed down from corporations and corrupt local politics that are crippling the American middle class? Now before you second guess yourself, yes, you are reading a review about Regal Cinemas Manahawkin 10, and yes, this has everything to do with politics. When I was a child growing up in Manahawkin in the 90's and early 2000's this was a place the place to be on a Friday night. $20 allowance a week got you in the door (with concessions) and kept you out of trouble for the night. I haven't been to this theater in 10+ years now, and as much as I wanted to think that this would be a nostalgic experience, it was anything but that and it reinforced why I left Manahawkin. When my friends ask me about Colorado the only thing I can tell them is "The quality of life is a lot better." And most respond with a blank stare or they nod tight-lipped. I assume the ones that respond with the blank stare have never considered this concept as the source of their discontent. And the ones who respond with a nod, understand that quality of life is a concept far removed from the American middle class of Manahawkin, New Jersey. When we walked in from outside, no-one greeted us at the door. We proceeded to the ticket checker to have our tickets checked that we purchased on Fandango for $25. There was no-one at the booth so we proceeded forward to auditorium 3. As soon as we entered, we were confronted by the smell of what one might imagine as a combination of smelly socks, stale popcorn and mold. The theaters are just unsanitary, and you can make this assessment by the smell alone. Compounded with the small size of the theater, poor ventilation and smell, I was already getting nauseous as soon as we took our seats. The small size of the theater was the next thing, we sat about half way back from the screen and prepared to tough it out. I looked over at my girlfriend wondering if she was comfortable but before the words could leave my mouth, I noticed that she was straining her neck to look upwards at the screen. Instead, I asked her if she would feel more comfortable ordering a movie off of netflix. She responded with an immediate "Yes." This was the last straw. Every one around here seems to think that they don't have a say about where they decide to spend their money. I will never spend my money at this theater again. As a matter of fact, I don't think I'll be coming to this area for any sort of vacation ever again. What it really comes down to is quality of life. There is one "good" restaurant in this town, one terrible movie theater, one grocery store, about 20 fast food restaurants and about 40 convenience/drug stores. The American middle class has all but given up any expectation of a standard of living or the say-so to influence it. Start lobbying your officials, go to a town hall meeting, maybe try to find an answer to why all the young people are leaving or are addicted to heroin. Seek answers and make your officials work for the ridiculous taxes that you pay them. You're paying an incredible tax rate, you would think you could go watch a movie comfortably and without fear of...

This place needs to be condemned. I truly hope someday very soon AMC comes in and buys this location and gives Manahawkin a first class movie theater that we deserve.

This past weekend we took our daughter to see Wicked and had a HORRENDOUS experience. This place has no idea how to run a movie theater on a slow day, should have seen it when it’s busy.

There is absolutely no system when you arrive. There is no separate person to scan your tickets, you do that at the concession stand while simultaneously trying to order snacks. The reward points system is a total abomination. Somehow the popcorn, candy and drinks were still $50 even though my wife has close to 11,000 points on her account. The popcorn tastes horrible, like eating cardboard flavored birdseed. They only sell a limited amount of Pepsi soft drinks which are flat. The popcorn butter station is covered in spilled kernels and trash. Which leads me to the most egregious point.

THIS PLACE IS DISGUSTINGLY FILTHY! The trash cans are overflowing with garbage, the theater itself is littered with trash. Looks like they only clean this theater once a week. The men’s bathroom has an overwhelming smell of stale urine. The theaters themselves have a dirty odor as well. Coupled with the completely outdated, uncomfortable seats there is NO reason to waste your hard earned money here. Take the extra time to find an AMC Theater where they have all the amenities a movie goer expects in an ultra clean environment.

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This is by far one of the most trashiest movie theaters I’ve ever seen and I will NOT be back! Today I decided to let my children go to the movie theaters and my children were trying to watch a fun movie until one of the employee decided to come in there and eye them down which is very uncomfortable because I’m sure the workers wouldn’t like it if one of us did that to them. Out of everybody in the movie they only were looking at my children. Everybody else was able to go into the movie theater perfectly fine if they had a bag or not, and they were not asked for the bags to be checked, but my children were told that they had to get their badge checked, which I personally feel is not OK, because why do they only ask my children and not all the other people that went into the movie theater? The employees openly came out and said that there’s alcohol in a different movie theater that my children and her friends were not in thankfully but how is there alcohol in the movie theater when they’re supposed to be checking everyone’s bags if they check that person bags and they wouldn’t have been alcohol. Me personally, I feel like this is very unsafe for our children and I would NOT...