Camera 12 Cinema

Worst movie theater I’ve ever been to. The tickets are relatively cheap but the experience was not pleasant. The popcorn was stale and the icee we got was half melted when they handed it to us. The place is old and also dirty. The paint on the walls is chipped everywhere and there’s dust and dirt everywhere you look. The place smells strange throughout and the bathrooms are pretty unspeakable. The screens are small and the sound is not great. I will not be coming back and do not recommend.

This place always reminds me of the older, 1990s theaters of my childhood. It’s quiet, usually empty, and very large. I think the concessions are average, and they usually have a smallish selection of movies, but for the price I really can’t complain. They even have a student discount night. It’s walking distance from SJSU and caters to students. Definitely worth it for a cheap movie and popcorn.

I literally came out of the movie theatre now to write this review. Worst, rudest service ever.
3 separate groups of people, including my group, was waiting for parking validation. We asked the older Asian gentlemen who was the only kind person, and he directed us to the concession stand. Then the concession stand sent us to the closed ticket booth saying the manger will be there. We wait about 15 minutes and we see a manager in a grey hoodie hand out validation to one group at the door, another group tried asking for validation but closed the door in their face.
When she came back to help them I tried notifying her we also need validation, so you know she doesn’t have to make multiple trips. Nope no acknowledgement, closed the CLEAR door in our face.
We then proceed inside and the bigger chick behind the concession stand gives us attitude about the validation. Overall it took 25 minutes just to get validation when there were ZERO customers because there were no showings past 10:30.
I don’t mind waiting but, at the VERY least acknowledge your customers when they’re right in your face.

3 story the at theater with lobby’s between them. Tickets are 5:50 before 5pm. You can’t beat that. Seats are nice and coosie.
SuperStarLord gives it a ⁵⁄₅

Came here last night to watch The Martian and was pleasantly surprised by this movie theater. The prices here are excellent, less than six bucks for matinée! Some of the cheapest tickets I’ve seen around the area. The quality of the seating could use some love, as soon as I sat down I could tell that they were older chairs.
The popcorn here is very standard. Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing. The popcorn is the only food that I’ve tried from here, so I can’t comment on the other food/​drinks. Excellent service at both the ticket booth and the food stand, the staff here is really just awesome.
Aside from the limited parking downtown I really like where this theater is located it’s close to where I live so that’s good for me. Not the most high-​tech theater in the world, but it gets the job done and the prices/​service is hard to beat. I’ll definitely come back here to watch some more movies in the future.

If I still had a student discount and lived in San Jose – this would be my theater of choice. Still – reasonable prices at the box office and more affordable snack bar prices than most.
The ‘upkeep” of the theaters is lacking a bit – chairs and screens. I found it a little distracting to have a large gap in between our movie and the top of the screen. For a while I couldn’t tell if it was the projector, screen, film, or just the way it was. I landed on it being just the way it was.

The theatre is a little old and the seats weren’t too comfortable, but it does the job! I enjoyed watching Mission Impossible Rogue Nation and didn’t notice any differences in picture quality or sound. Also there’s a student discount ~ $ 7.

Saw Mission Impossible here over the weekend, excellent movie theatre all around!
This Cinema 12 is a huge theatre with multiple stories, plenty of parking, and a great staff of employees. The movie prices are almost unbeatable if you go to a matinée showing, just over $ 5, where as most other matinée showing are at least $ 7 or $ 8 dollars. It was sort of crowded when we went, but the lines didn’t take too long to start moving and we made into the theatre well before the show started.
I also noticed that this theatre is very clean inside, no sticky messes on the floor or anything, which is surprising considering how big it is and how many rows of seats they have to clean. Bathrooms were also very tidy, with minimal tp on the floor, and plenty of soap in the dispensers. The seats were comfortable enough, they recline slightly as well and of course they have your typical cup holders on the side. No glitches or sound pops at all while watching mission impossible, very crisp picture too.
Definitely one of the best theatres in the San Jose area, highly recommend for you movie junkies out there!

Cheap tickets for shows before 5pm, not really packed and clean. What else do you need for a movie theater.

I don’t like how there are two levels but it is what it is. Prices are really cheap on certain days and for students. Nice 5D (?) chairs to try out

If you no longer offer a deal, REMOVE IT! There’s been a Unilocal check in deal (75c for a large popcorn) for a while now, and the cashier said they don’t offer it bluntly to me after I waited in line. Stop wasting our time!!!
I still enjoy coming here, but I don’t appreciate when a business advertises something they do not offer.

Went to the special Magic Mike showing the week the movie premiered, and my husband and I were incredibly disappointed by the theater, the concessions, and the audience they allowed. They let us in to the theater only minutes before the movie started. It was kicked off by 5 minutes of dancing from the Men of Exotic which was cool but standing in line for an hour before that made no sense and was not worth it. 102.1 FM had a few rows of seats saved since they were hosting the dancing men and a few contest winners who got free tickets and popcorn. (I was one of those winners).
The movie theater allowed the 102.1 people to sit on their phones filming, taking pics, and snap chatting all through the movie. They weren’t the only ones in the audience doing this either. It was horrible to have to watch a movie with women on their phones on either side of us. The audience was also full of loud women (and one really, really abnoxious man) getting over-​excited at the hot film. The popcorn was a small, which I was surprised was so small — do they really sell those things?
Also, the event was incredibly disorganized, so when my husband went to cash in the popcorn voucher downstairs he almost wasn’t allowed back in the upstairs theater by theater staff. We didn’t have actual tickets since we were contest winners, and he tried explaining this, that we already had our seats and I was at them, but they gave him a really hard time.
We were glad when it was over and we could go home. And extra glad we didn’t have to give the theater any of our money. We wouldn’t return here, unless of course, the tickets were free again.
Side note: The movie itself was awesome! Every husband should take their wife to see Magic Mike XXL.

This is one of the theater I always go to whenever I watch any movies in San Jose. It’s located near SJSU, so it’s in a convenient location. The theater is quite big with 3 floors and escalators! :) Hmm they have a concession stand on every floor, but I think they only sell food on the 1^st floor, so make sure to grab your snacks before you head upstairs! If you decide to drive here there’s plenty of parking in the nearby parking structure in downtown, so just get your ticket validated and I believe it’s 3 hour free parking! If you’re a SJSU student go on Wednesdays after 6pm for $ 6 movie tickets :)
P. S. Check in on Unilocal for a large popcorn for only 75 cents! :D

Matinée movies are CHEAP! $ 5.50 in 2015 is pretty amazing. We came here together 2x and I came once by myself. We saw Tomorrowland, Pitch Perfect 2 and I caught Insidious 3. The theatre was warmer than I’m used to, being from Florida. Given that we crank the air down to COLD… but once you were seated, it was comfortable.
Their popcorn used real butter! How’s that? That’s pretty amazing. The theaters themselves look old, a bit worn, but the seats are large and comfortable, even if the arm rests didn’t lift up.
I’m not sure why they call it Camera, unless that’s because of the video cameras that line the escalators? I counted 8 on the down angle alone.
They do put out swag, so if you’re looking for a movie poster, it might be on one of their tables.

This place is an oldie but a goodie. Located in Downtown SJ, this place definitely has outdated theaters, but nonetheless awesome! They have such great prices on their tickets and it is usually never busy. As for the concessions, I love that they have frozen movie theater candies ready to enjoy immediately. Don’t forget if you have a student ID or even San Jose Public Library Card you get a great discount on movie tickets. As for the parking situation, make sure you park in a parking lot that will accept the movie theater validations. With that being said, you just have to take your parking ticket to the box office after your movie to receive validation. Overall, if you’re looking for a bargain movie adventure, then definitely head to Camera 12 Cinema.

Great and cheap place to watch a movie! With movie prices slowly going up everywhere, it’s really nice to have a place that has affordable prices!
General: $ 8.50
Matinée (Before 6pm everyday): $ 5.50!!!
Students: $ 7 or $ 6 on Wednesdays
Seriously, those prices are a bargain compared to $ 10+ for every other place.
The theater itself is very well kept. The bathrooms were really clean. The seats and floors were clean. I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary when I went. I could, however, tell that the place is getting old.
Camera 12 is located right in the middle of downtown SJ, so there’s food and drink options galore for before or after the movies.
Overall, a solid place for movies. I can see this place getting pretty packed and dirty as a result of the crowd, but for the price, it really can’t be beat.

Validated parking and a student discount! This is a dream come true.
Definitely an older theater and it’s kind of a strange vibe but they show good quality films and it’s comfortable.
The screen is smaller than other places I’ve been to so the view you get isn’t as crazy engaging but it still provides the movie going experience.

First the good. This theaters projectors are top notch. They went with the Sony 4Ks and it shows. Movies look better, less pizelatuon, and you can sit closer to the screen. Which is important in the many small theaters that Camera has. The movie we saw was on such a small screen I sat up around row 3 so that the screen seemed bigger. And the 4k projector meant there was no screendoor effect that you get from low rez projectors
The seats are just brutal. They creak and shake. They are sticky and have that old waxy odor you can only get from years of patrons wiping popcorn topping on the upholstery. The padding is basically non existent. I would not want to watch an epic three hour movie here.
Also, the no outside food policy is enforced a bit too stringently. The ticket taker literary stopped us before we got through the door. We were holding two Philz coffees and they would not let us in. Which is funny — Philz is a neighbor to their theater — so not very neighborly. And anyone willing to pay the premium for Philz ain’t gonna buy the crappie sludge that Camera sells. So it’s not like Philz is taking business away from Camera. And in the end the doorman, despite his fancy tophat and cane, was simply rude.
Despite the high quality projection I doubt I’ll be back.

I love that it’s quiet and you don’t have a huge crowd of people coming here. I also LOVE that they have student movie nights for $ 6. $ 6!!! So cheap. However, I do want to point out that this place is getting dirtyyyy! Maybe I haven’t noticed it before, but I just came here the other night and the floors were soooo sticky! The seats were kinda gross too. Stained with chocolate or God knows what.
Overall this place is an okay theater to get your movie on. I think all theaters are dirty and gross, but you just have to notice which one.

I work with college students. So this cinema is primely located and They give discounts to students.
Our theater was fine. I expect comfy chairs, these were. It’s sort of a trippy 3 story theater so our movie was on the second floor. The stairs are steep down but there are escalators so no sweat for the lazy, ahem, me.