Movies

Going to the movies here seems to be about the same as going to the movies in America. There is a movie theater that shows English movies near the big Air Force base at Ramstein, which is about an hour away. There is a little theater on base near us, but it's pretty crappy, and it isn't air conditioned. There is a much nicer, air-conditioned one on base at Ramstein, and we've been there a couple of times, but the problem with military theaters is that they show movies for very limited amounts of time. We missed Toy Story 3 before I even knew it was out. Plus, the one off-base has 3D. We've seen both Alice in Wonderland & Toy Story 3 there. Parts of it seem to have air conditioning, but parts of it don't. The screen room with TS3 was downright chilly, while Alice & Inception were both rather stuffy.

Anyway, there is one big difference. A severe lack of snackage. They do have popcorn (I don't know if all of them do, or if they only have it here because of the Americans), and one kind of chips. They only have like 3 kinds of candy. That's it. And soda, of course, which you do not get in a Big Gulp-sized cup, but in a glass bottle. Though, it still costs as much as a huge soda in an American theater. Many people drink their sodas with a straw. It looks pretty funny to see grown men drinking soda from a bottle with a straw.

The pre-show ads are in German, though the previews are in English. The theater where we go, Broadway Kino, is pretty nice. They have a little shelf that runs along the back of each row of seats for your food & drinks. I like it.

On your ticket is a row and seat number. For the two movies that just had English speakers in them (Alice & TS3, everybody ignored the seat numbers. But there were a lot of Germans in the showing of Inception, and everybody paid strict attention to the assigned seating for that one. I dunno, maybe just because it was more crowded. 

At the end, everybody picks up their trash and disposes of it properly. They have little crates for the soda bottles, and everybody neatly puts their bottle in a hole. It's pretty cool.