My American cinema trip

So while I was away in the States recently I went to a cinema to see a film (obviously to see a film, what else am I going to do in a cinema?). The AMC theatre at the Deerbrook Mall just north of Huston, Texas in the town of Humble boasts an impressive 24 screens and on Friday last week was - along with everyone else in the western world - showing the newly-opened 'Immortals'. A film whose main selling point appears to be its palindromic release date, it was not my choice. But my friends were adamant and I reasoned that experiencing the cinema in America would be something of a cultural eye-opener. Surely there had to be some differences to a UK cinema?

First up was the price. $9.50 for a standard adult ticket, which at current exchange rates is about £6 and certainly cheaper than anything you'd find at a large multiplex in the UK. The current exchange rate is historically (well, for the last 5 - 10 years anyway) unfavourable for British travellers to the States, so in theory it could have been even cheaper.

The film was due to begin at 5:40pm. We got into the theatre at 5:35pm to find that adverts were already playing. At 5:40 the adverts stopped and the trailers began. Again, utterly different from the UK where the listed 'start' time merely warns you of an impending bombardment of adverts into your face. Plus, there were loads more trailers than we ever get in England. So in the end I think there was just as much faff time between the 'start time' and the actual start of the film, but at least over there it's trailers.

The trailed films looked universally rubbish. Loads of stuff that'll hopefully never come out in the UK because we don't jump up and yell "Fuck Yeah!" every time someone squeezes a trigger. This for example.

The US citizens in the cinema certainly did a good job of living up to their national stereotype. Plenty of whoops and yeahs and a round of applause at the end. Pretty entertaining stuff, and while I think that the incessant yelling would get on my tits eventually, as a one-off my experience this was far superior to what we get in British multiplexes.

Oh, and Immortals is shite. A single idea, no plot, ultra violent, token female character, blood splattered bastardisation of Greek mythology. To call it a rehash of '300' is to give it small praise it's hardly worth of.