AMC University Place 8

I saw a movie in theater #5 recently. One of the speakers was broken, so the sound was thin, tinny, incredibly soft, and mono. Things break — it happens — but the management needs to alert people to something like that BEFORE they buy a ticket, so the guest can decide if they want to put up with it. 5 minutes into the movie, I went out and told the man at the ticket booth that the sound was too low, and he said, «Ok.» He didn’t tell me the speaker was broken. He didn’t say he’d look into it. Nothing. I went back to the theater and had to cup my ears the entire time to hear the movie. It wasn’t until after the movie was over and I was standing in the lobby that I overheard that same ticket seller tell another patron that one of the speakers was broken. He knew, and didn’t tell anyone? That’s deceptive and unacceptable. I spoke to the manager about it, and she said, «Some people notice, and some people don’t.» Lame answer. To her credit, she did refund the cost of our tickets (which is why this review gets two stars instead of one). But I’m temped to put the review back to one star because one of the concession registers was broken, so the line was ridiculously long. The food was overpriced — even for movie theater food. (More expensive than some theaters in Chicago.) And the screen in theater #5 was quite small. Not an experience I plan to repeat.

Tonight I went with a friend to see Olympus has Fallen and had a good experience at this theater. It’s been quite some time since I’ve been to this theater, I think the last time was for the first Paranormal Activity… so, it’s been a while.
The ticket guy was nice, the concession guy was super nice, the theater is updated and comfortable, the prices were reasonable. My only complaint is I thought I was going to go deaf during the movie. It’s an action-​packed and thus loud movie, but I think the volume was a smidge too high. Some of the talking was not understandable because of the humming from the movie being a bit loud during a couple scenes. Overall though, great experience and an exceptional movie.