Five Movies that Are a Hundred Times Better in Theaters

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Most of the time it’s better to see a movie in theaters, as the larger screen and surround sound usually make any film better.

But some movies are way, way more worthwhile in theaters, so much so that they’re almost bad when watched on DVD. There are probably many more examples out there, but these five are the ones I’ve experienced firsthand, and I think a lot of you will agree with me.

Check out the best theater movies below, and shout out your own in the comments.

Paranormal Activity

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Alright, so I had a tough time deciding whether or not to put The Blair Witch Project here instead, but really, either film works as all the reasons as to why are the same.

Sure, it’s possible to watch this movie on DVD with a date, and have her be scared enough to want to grab your hand till the bones break, but really, there’s no experience quite like watching either of these films in theaters, and it’s for a rare reason.

The audience. Normally, movies are enjoyed DESPITE a theater audience, with jackasses texting and talking to each other loudly about what’s currently happening, but if you get a GOOD audience for a film like this, the tension is exponentially increased.

An entire room on the edge of their seat, just waiting to be terrified creates a physical presence in the room, something you just can’t get at home. And when something scary does happen, the entire room jumps as one organism, and the intensity of the moment is magnified many times over.

King Kong

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King Kong is perhaps the primary definition of a “theater event.” Everyone was quite excited to see Peter Jackson’s new non-LOTR feature, and the trailer made Kong look suitably epic.

But since then, how many people do you think have EVER watched King Kong on DVD? When have you ever sat around with your friends and said, “You know, I really could go for three hours of a mediocre movie right now.”

Kong worked in theaters because it was a spectacle. The subject matter was larger than life, and so the special effects were pretty intense on the big screen with surround sound. But without the technology of a theater, the movie is rather lackluster, and the larger than life special effects just aren’t the same condensed onto your little TV. This is true of many movies, but I don’t think there’s a larger disparity between theater and DVD enjoyment than with Kong.

Cloverfield

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Cloverfield works much better in theaters for two reasons, first, because it’s an event movie. The hand-held cam works much better on the larger screen, where you actually feel like YOU are running through the streets of New York being chase by a giant monster. The action is intense, and it doesn’t translate nearly as well to a TV.

Secondly, if you HAVE seen it in theaters already, have the fun of the movie is the mystery behind the monster itself. Cloverfield is a movie that is pretty amazing the first time, but is almost impossible to watch again.

This isn’t true with other JJ Abrams-related features. Star Trek works great on DVD for example, but Cloverfield really is best experienced in theater, and if you missed it, I just don’t think you’ll appreciate nearly as much on video.

Speed Racer

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Watching Speed Racer is like going to listening to Lady Gaga while tripping off acid and driving a car around in circles at a hundred miles an hour on Rainbow Road from Mario Kart. I love this movie, though most absolutely hated it. The movie is a barrage to the senses, and assault of color, sound and anime stylings, which some people loathed, but I reveled in.

But the thing is, this only works in theaters, where the lights and colors force their way into every inch of your vision and there’s no escaping from it. Watching Speed Racer on DVD is an entirely different experience, and one that even I don’t really enjoy, despite my love for the original film.

But honestly, I really do think it’s vastly underrated, and I would suggest giving it a try on DVD regardless. I just want to find someone else who appreciates the film as much as me. I think it was way ahead of it’s time, and I think would have actually benefited greatly from the current 3D craze.

Avatar

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Of course Avatar had to make this list. The movie was built brick by brick to be a theater-only experience, inventing new technology that creates a sense of realism never before felt in a movie theater.

So how does that translate to home viewing? Well, even with the best 3D TV on earth, there is nothing that can replicate the experience of watching Avatar in digital 3D on an IMAX screen, nothing. And honestly, the movie is not that good to hold up without all the fancy tech behind it.

Sure, the motion capture and stuff you can still see in 1080p, but the overwhelming magic of the experience just doesn’t translate to your TV, and I’m worried about what’s going to happen when more and more movies are shot like this, and TV’s don’t have the tech to keep up.

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34 Comments

  1. dude, im with you on speed racer. It DOES feel like tripping balls. Way ahead of its time. Nobody quite “got” the jist of the whole thing. i missed it during its theatrical run, but i wanna get it on blu ray with a huge screen and see how it goes…..

  2. Speed Racer is absolutely gorgeous. I have a 52″ screen, and it’s just amazing to watch in an, uh, altered state. I’m so pissed I missed it in the theaters.

  3. Ugh, I saw Paranormal Activity at the State Theater in Ann Arbor…nothing like douchey frat boys and their skanks texting and talking through the entire movie. I am convinced that people who talk during “Scary” movies, do it in order to keep themselves from getting too immersed and thusly, scared.

    As to your ponderence:
    “I’m worried about what’s going to happen when more and more movies are shot like this, and TV’s don’t have the tech to keep up.”

    I think that’s the point, they want to get butts in theaters more so than dvds rented or sold. TV and theater have always been at odds. Panarama vision with films like Dr.Zhivago and Laurence of Arabia presented movie goers with something they couldn’t get from a television set. Same goes for all those cheap 3D attempts a few decades back.

  4. @Brendan

    Dude, I saw it there too! The crowd was horrendous, and I almost murdered this row of freshman girls behind me who would not SHUT UP. It was much better when I saw it in a larger theater eventually.

  5. First time I saw ‘300’ was in a big ol’ theater and I damn near crapped my pants. It was just so much fun to watch, and the dudes killing, and blood and gore, it was great.

    Bought the DVD when it came out (my last DVD purchase, actually), slapped it on the TV, and was shocked at how god-awful terrible it was. I mean, the blood was clearly added in afterwards, the sequences reaked of green screen, it was just awful to watch.

  6. I’m one of the very few of my friends that still LOVES going to the theatre for movies instead of renting/Netflix/downloading…

    I’m so glad you put Paranormal Activity! We were in a packed theatre full of teenagers. The small group of them next to me started out calling eachother ‘pussy’ or ‘chicken’ kinda thing and not too far in they were all just as scared as me….pure hilarity!

    I always enjoy movies like X-Men or Iron Man in the theatres because you get the really big sound and feels like you’re in the movie….then again my tv at home is only 27″ so …yah…

  7. I saw Paranormal Activity in a theatre and Shaq was in the back row. He and his posse were making jokes the whole time. And yes this is a true story.

  8. The biggest example for me was Snakes on a Plane. I saw it on opening night and the theater was packed and you could tell everyone knew it was going to be a bad movie, which made the experience that much better. When Samuel L. Jackson first came on the screen everyone began clapping and when he said his infamous line everyone in the theater recited it with him and then gave him a standing ovation. It was absolutely awesome. I refuse to see it on DVD because I am fully aware of how bad the movie is.

  9. Speed racer was like the Avatar of it’s time, 3 years ago, it was unlike anything anyone had ever seen before. I could have lived without the chimp throwing shit at the bad guys but other than that, great movie. Unfortunately it never got the audience it deserved but I watched it on blu ray on my 42″ TV and it actually held up pretty well.

  10. Really all those movies are great when you’re high as balls. I’ve seen all those on my TV and surround in my apartment and i’m still blown away. Really any movie is better on a 50×50 foot screen with deafening speakers.

    and yes speed racer was soooooo sooooo underrated, probably THE most underrated movie of the decade or even ever.

  11. Speed Racer is so frustrating. I loved it in the theater and saw it twice because I work there. The projectionist I work with also thinks its the MOST underrated movie ever. But what drives me insane is all the people who say its terrible. I ask: “have you seen it?” they say no. How can so many people hate a movie they’ve never seen unless it has j-lo in it?

  12. I actually saw Speed Racer while in the hospital last year, on a twenty-something inch screen in the corner of the room, and still found it fun. Granted, I was pretty doped up at the time. People kept saying, “It’s so damn stupid!” which, yeah, it was, but it was so much like a literal cartoon that I found myself quite liking it. I feel like they accomplished exactly what they were trying to accomplish with that one, so hats off.

  13. You guys are nuts, Speed Racer sucked ass. Yes I’ve seen it. The crazy colour races were interesting but the rest sucked. The main story was something involving the stock market if I recall correctly? Stupid.

  14. I originally saw Speed Racer on DVD. I bought it at blockbuster in a 4 for 20 bucks deal with Death Race, Eagle Eye, and Hancock. Of those 4, the only one which sucked was Hancock, so not bad.
    Speed Racer assaulted my eyeballs with color and hilarity. I adored it. I had friends that were like “that movie is so stupid”. Of Course they hadn’t seen it, so I made them watch it. Now they all love it. My favorite scene is when Pops Racer fights the “non-ja”, and the camera zooms in on his “greco-roman wrestling champion” ring. I have since tried to procure such a ring, with limited succees.

  15. Good list.

    Sometimes the crowd at the theaters makes the movies better as well. (ie. Snakes on A Plane)

    Also,

    Prof Frink:

    You should have said to Shaq, “How about you go practice your free throws and let the rest of us enjoy the movie.”

  16. I can’t understand what people saw or liked about Paranormal Activity. I saw it on the big screen too and thought it was a waste. My friend fell asleep and I was in and out of sleep until the end. I left the theater feeling sorry for every teenage boy who sat through that film. Nothing interesting happened. I was not on the edge of my seat…at all.

  17. The CGI in Iron Man 2 is a thousand times better then any scene in Avatar. I honestly had trouble seeing the seams between real and fiction (Even in obvious parts).

    Avatar sucked; a glorified cartoon that the public should be ashamed of.

  18. I’m freaking happy to see all these people come out and say that they loved Speed Racer. I love tokin up and watching that movie. It’s a visual rollercoaster. I am blessed though, with two huge ass tv’s in my house : a 60″ lcd in the living room and a 42″ lcd in my bedroom right in front of my bed. Either one of those tv’s definitely does justice to Speed Racer and i watch it every time it’s on one of the movie channels.

  19. Agreed with Paranormal Activity. When I went to see it, the highlight of the movie was when a woman screamed, “DONT YOU DARE FUCKING TOUCH ME!!!” during one of the quiet parts of the movie.

  20. I was lucky enough to leave Iraq on mid-tour leave to the States just in time to see 300 in the theater. While the rest of the guys were watching Arabic cam bootleg DVDs of the movie, my dad & I were having our senses drowned in a sea of Awesome Sauce.

    The original Star Wars Trilogy is also a must-see on the big screen, and I don’t mean the bullshit 25th Anniversary releases, I mean the ORIGINAL original Trilogy. I still remember watching A New Hope in the theaters when I was four years old.

    Legendary.

  21. Regarding Speed Racer – I don’t know of anyone who’s actually personally seen the film and hated it! NONE! Let alone people who have seen the original series on TV! In fact me and all my friends LOVED it! Particularly because they really NAILED the cartoon spot on for the big screen! I don’t think any other Hollywood director would have pulled it off successfully or do it better than the Wachowski’s! 😀

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