Favourite cinema memories

The cinema is my favourite place to go and relax. A warm dark room where you can forget the outside world for a couple of hours and watch a movie. What's not the love. I've a lifetime of memories involving it. Not the just films but the things that happened in the cinema itself. The smells, the sounds, the people, the places. Here's a few of them.

Going to Birr to see Superman 3. The first film I ever saw on the big screen. It's a vague memory as it's around 35 years ago but the combine harvester scene at the start of the film petrified me. Until the Man Of Steel saved the day. We all cheered and shouted. That was it. I was hooked.

Seeing Avatar in a massive cinema in Geneva. The film was in English but were both french and german subtitles on the screen. And soon enough I found myself reading the subtitles I couldn't understand instead of watching the film. Plus it was in 3D and a blazing  headache soon ensued. Haven't felt the urge to ever watch it again unsurprisingly.

Watching Zodiac in a cinema in San Francisco. Wondering did the events on screen happen near where we were sitting watching added a odd frisson of danger to the evening.

Spot the Paddy

Sitting in the royal circle of the Odeon in Leicester Square to watch Shooter. I felt like a traitor to Ireland that day and it cost me £20 for a ticket but it was a damn fine way to watch a film. Plus I could sup a pint of Boddington's in there.

Standing up and roaring my support for John James Braddock when he started his comeback against the bad bastard known as Max Baer in Cinderella Man. It happened before I could stop myself and I spent the rest of the film dying of shame planning my escape as the credits rolled.

My first time in the Irish Film Institute was to watch What Richard Did. A film that would go on to be my favourite Irish film. If I lived in Dublin I'd never leave the place. No sounds of popcorn being munched. No mobile phone screens in your eyeline. No one talking through out the movie. It's just something else, a place of worship for movie fans.

My first 18 cert film in the cinema was Timecop. I was 15 and myself and my father went to see it in the Savoy in Limerick. We were the only people at the screening. Just us and a load of rats. Yes rats, the screen was swamped with them. Avoiding the bites was more fun than the film.

Getting into the Commitments with my parents aged 12. All was well until my teacher came in and sat in front of us. Everytime someone swore my mortified mother sank lower and lower in her chair ensuring she was under the carpet by the end of the film.

Seeing Tim Burton's Batman in Alfie Clarke's cinema in Roscrea. A Sunday matinee showing for a crowd of 300+ in a room designed for 150 max. People were sitting everywhere to see the world's greatest detective. Fire regulations didn't matter in 1989 Tipperary.

Sitting in the front row right under the screen to see Michael Collins the night it came out in 1996. I've never been in such a packed screening since. The atmosphere was electric as we watched Ireland's biggest ever movie play out. I remember leaving the film hoping I wouldn't hear an English accent in the crowd.

Throwing popcorn at the screen out of sheer frustration during yet another insanely boring monologue in Kill Bill 2. The first installment had been so much fun so how could this one be so boring. How did it go so wrong. Of course I felt like a scumbag as soon as I did it.

Walking through the doors of the Prince Charles Cinema in London to watch Alejandro Jodorowsky's El Topo. I knew I'd walked into a very special place. The film was of course a crazed experience and not one I wish to repeat but just knowing places like the PCC exist would make you smile.

Sitting on the grass in the People's park in Limerick on a balmy summer night and watching Duck Soup by the Marx Brothers play out under the stars. What a spectacular way to see a classic film for the first time.

Watching from Dusk Til Dawn in the auditorium in Waterford Institute Of Technology. The film was still banned in 1998 and a smuggled in VHS was about to introduce us all to vampires Tarantino style. It didn't disappoint and a crowd of drunk and bloodthirsty students went wild.

Laughing during the horrifying violence at the start of Saving Private Ryan because a classmate who was in the FCA appeared on screen being triaged by Giovanni Ribisi while bright red blood squirted from his neck. The people around us were rather annoyed.

The elderly couple who sat near us during Jackass The Movie. I sat there half laughing and half terrified for them because I assumed they had walked into the wrong film. All fears were allayed when they proceeded to fall around the place laughing for the next 90 mins. They added to our enjoyment of the film immensely.

Getting to watch A Fistful Of Dollars on the big screen at the Palas Cinema in Galway. A film I'd seen many times made fresh and exciting again by a restored print and the mindblowing sounds of Ennio Morricone blasting through the speakers. The first time I'd ever seen Clint Eastwood in a western in the cinema was an amazing experience. I was too young when Unforgiven came out! 

The father and son who sat in front of us at Star Wars : The Force Awakens. The child was 7 or 8 and I got to see him fall in love with Star Wars just like I had when I was his age. It was a very cool moment.

What are your favourite cinema going memories?