What were your top "in theater" movie "experiences"?

[Eja117]

So the GOT vs LOTR thing got me thinking. What were your top film experiences in terms of what just blew you away. Took you to a different place? Made you believe something else for a couple hours. Took you right there. Wowed you. Shocked you. Got your money's worth. Thought "Darn. That blew away a lot of other films".   Pushed the envelope.  Was mooooorrrree than just a mere movie. Took the campfire experience and blew it up. For example....lots of great films.....Rain Man. Great film. Not on this list. 

1 Empire Strikes Back
2 ROTS
3 ROTJ
4 Clone Wars
5 Fellowship of the Ring
6 ET
7 Harry Potter 1
8 Return of the King
9 The Hobbit There and Back Again
10 Batman the Dark Knight
11 The Two Towers
12 Phantom Menace
13 Batman the Dark Knight Rises
14 Hobbit The Battle of Five Armies
15 Batman the Dark Knight Rises
16 All the rest of the Harry Potter movies
17 Lawrence of Arabia
18 The Matrixes
19 various movies aimed at tweens and girls like Hunger Games and stuff with vampires
20 Gladiator
21 Godfather 2
22 Last of the Mohicans
23 Godfather 1
24 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
25 Wizard of Oz
26 Amadeus
27 Saving Private Ryan
28 Dances With Wolves
29 The Passion
30 Jurassic Park
31 Glory
31 It's a Wonderful Life
32 Sixth Sense
33 Back to the Future II

Notably absent from my list.....Avatar. I just couldn't get into it. It was ok. Maybe even better than ok. But give me any movie on this list ahead of that one.

[Redz]

Lord that's a tough one. 

The visualization on the Lord of the Rings on the big screen were very memorable and special to me. 

Avatar was cool in 3D.

Best 3D experience so far was Hugo.

When I saw The Big Chill for the first time I was kind of inebriatedd wit some friends and the only seats left in the huge theater were in the front row.

I think the first movie I ever went to by myself was Schindler's List.  The heat broke in the theater.it is like 40 degrees in there.  The management stopped the movie midway through to apologize and offered passes to return.  They said they would continue shedding owing the fun fur those of us who wanted to stay.  Just me and a few others hung around.  I figured it was fitting to suffer a little while watching that particular movie.

Roudiest movie I ever went to was The Doors opening night at the ginormous Loews in Copley.

[Redz]

And of course I'd be remiss if I didn't mention sneaking in with my friends to see Used Cars as a 13 year old.  A pretty humorous movie starring Kurt Russell, but mostly memorable fur betting my first on screen boob viewing! 

[BigAlTheFuture]

Dark Knight is definitely up there for me. Inception was pretty sick too.

[LarBrd33]

Based on your premise... the most recent film I can think of that left me thinking, "Holy crap that was a ride" was "Gravity".  That movie made me feel like I was on a thrill ride.

In a way, "Birdman" had a similar effect on me.  Those two movies had the same cinematographer.   The single-take trick really does make it feel like you're there in the moment.  Watching them in the theater is an experience. 

[jambr380]

Blair Witch Project - it was opening weekend and every seat was filled in the theater. This was when it was thought that the film was actual footage (foolish, I know :0)

Scream - the intensity and the time in my life made this a pretty exciting movie

Saw - totally blown away by the ending.

It's not that these movies were necessarily epic pictures or had top notch acting, but the crowds and being immersed in the experience is what made these stand out.

[Roy H.]

My favorites from when I was a kid were Back To The Future, Return Of The Jedi, Fantasia, and the Last Unicorn.  Aladdin when I was a bit older, but still young.

Does Rocky Horror Picture Show count?  Because that's always awesome.

Dark Knight in Imax was amazing.

Schindler's List...  That's the most powerful one.  It was an experience.

Saving Private Ryan and the first 20 minutes were intense.

Watching Insidious in an old, decrepit movie theater with my pregnant wife was probably the scariest movie experience I've had.

[Fred Roberts]

Avatar, Point Break, Terminator 2 are a few that stand out.

[mgent]

Not gonna make a list, and don't even really go to many movies, but V for Vendetta kinda came to mind looking at your criteria.

Not sure if it was just because I'm so into post-apocalyptic stuff (especially games) but I remember being on the edge of my seat thinking, "This definitely could happen in the future!!" (my super-crush on Natalie Portman ever since Star Wars probably didn't help).

[Eddie20]

Watching Rocky 4 as a 6 year old was an awesome experience. I still remember the crowd, in the theater not just in the film, chanting "USA, USA" at the end. Pretty cool.

More recent...

Gravity
Avatar
LOTR...Return of the King especially
Star Wars Revenge of the Sith
Knocked Up (because my wife was weeks away at the time)

[jpotter33]

Signs, The Fourth Kind, all of the Paranormal Activity movies... lol I was terrified of aliens and paranormal stuff due to an overactive imagination, and those were the cherry on the top.

Another good one was The Watchmen. Absolutely love that movie and was so deep into it, especially given its philosophical and ethical undertones.

Other good ones were 300, any of the Matrix movies, and Prometheus (even though it could have been soooooooo much better).

[Snakehead]

The movies I feel were coolest in the theatres are great comedies.  I think Team America, Anchorman, Old School, Superbad all stand out for me in my head where the theare was really dying laughing all together and it made it feel even more fun.

Some of those particular movies the first time you see them too... they killed me.  I remember laughing til I cried during the Team America theme song.

[Eja117]

300. I get why people liked it (and maybe its sequel) but it just didn't do it for me.

[jpotter33]

Armageddon, too. That was an excellent movie experience.

[Celtics4ever]

First two Star Wars movies in theater were awesome and I was that right age.