"To Punish and Enslave" Bee-Otch
The first line was painted on Barricade's quarter panel and the second line was on a air freshener inside Bumble Bee in the movie Transformers, but it quite adequately describes the experience of watching a movie at the
Bengies Drive-In. I had high hopes, and was driven by nostalgia when I packed up the family and drove over an hour to get to the Bengies. I wanted to take the kids last year, but things never worked out, so I've been over the website several times. It was a very inconsistent experience.
- There are signs in the snack bar that say that Lemonade and Bottled water are $1.25, but the Lemonade is actually $3.25 and I don't know what the Bottled water ended up costing me. They add a charge if you use a credit card at the snack bar which is against Visa and Mastercard's agreement.
- Instead of regrading the theater, they shove larger vehicles (trucks, minivans, SUVs) to one side of the theater, Meaning we had to watch from a very extreme angle.
- The biggest problem I had though was with the security personnel and the inconsistent nature of the rules. They make a huge deal out of following their house rules, which I can respect. I've read them several times online and I read them again when we got to the theater. It clearly states that liftgates and doors cannot be raised above the level of the roof. I and many other patrons were complying with the rules, however security decided that all of the liftgates had to be closed. They claimed that the proprietor had made an announcement about it earlier, but apparently no one heard. Security was quite rude about the whole affair.
- Woops, I forgot to mention what should have been the worst part, the security cameras in the men's room, Yuck. What's that about? Are they afraid people are going to steal the soap? Maybe the Nazi security guards want to catch people who miss the bowl or maybe the proprietor is just a perv.
ABL and I long ago made it a point to avoid indoor movie theaters except for extreme cases (Star Wars, X-Men, Superman, etc.) because a night at the movies could easily be mondo expensive. For the same price, we could BUY a couple of DVDs and watch them from the comfort of our home. My home sound system is as good as some of the theaters we've been in in the past and we've got a TV large enough to make the experience worthwhile.
I was hoping that Bengies would be a good alternative to an indoor theater or my home theater, but sitting outside the SUV loses sound quality and sitting inside with the back down and looking out the rear window or even the front windshield frames the picture and makes me feel like I'm watching my TV instead of the largest screen in the US. Bottom line: Skip the Bengies, it's not worth the drive or the hassle.
