DJ Kento

Review of Roxy Stadium 14 Cinemas

If 5 stars is the very best that a movie theater c...

If 5 stars is the very best that a movie theater can be then the Roxy 14 is average. Open for about ten years now, the Roxy is more than starting to show it's age. Yes it has high end digital projectors, the ability to show 35mm films and pretty great sound, but over the years the theater has worn down a bit.

Seats are relatively comfortable depending on what screen you're in but in the smaller theaters it can definitely feel cramped if you're around six feet tall. I'm 6'2" and usually don't have a problem stretching out.

You get the basic problems you get from most large theaters run by teenagers; the floors can be sticky (I never wear good shoes to the movies for this reason), audience members can be more than a little obnoxious and the rules about turning off your cell phone are never enforced. When it comes to people talking during your movie it's a real flip of the coin whether or not management will do something about it. I recently had some one talking during a showing of As Above So Below and after politely asking them to be quiet they still didn't stop talking. My friend got the manager who came in, asked them to be quiet and they were for the rest of the film.

This past Monday I went and saw the very last showing of Gone Girl at 9:15pm. A family of 5 came in, none of the children over the age of say 8 or 9... by 30 minutes in the kids were getting restless, kicking seats and talking. I got a manager and they didn't do anything. I'm guessing because it was such a late show and they didn't want the hassle of asking an entire family to stop talking at 10pm.

That's also something I've noticed more and more as I attend Rated R features late at night. It's becoming more and more common for parents to selfishly bring their children to inappropriate films on school nights and then not police their kid's actions. You may say that's not a problem with the theater but the audience and film goers are part of the experience. When you have a certain kind of cliental coming to a business over and over and there's a trend you have to speak up about it. Don't be shocked if you see a horror movie and there's a 9 year old girl crying and their parent not doing anything about it.

Projection is usually standard and sound is pretty good. 3D can sometimes be out of focus. I prefer to go to the theater in Petaluma for 3D films as their theater is newer, cleaner and their projectors are dialed in more accurately.

Snacks are, like most theaters, over priced but the popcorn is fine, and they have junior mints in the fridge which is the best movie snack of all time.