The new UGC

ixoy · 06-09-2003 6:14pm #1

So anyone else been to the new UGC (now situated in the old IMAX building)? Just there today. The bottom floor is now the ticket office and there are 10 places to get your tickets. Nice plasma screens displaying the list of films on.

You then go upstairs (via an escalator) where they have the new bar. It's quite quite spacious, and seems fairly nice (altho' empty when I went). I'm not sure but I think there's a couple of screens there on Floor 1.

I then went up to Floor 2 where my screen was. Here we have the new sweet shop. It's a combination of the old ones - pick'n'mix is in the same place as the popcorn/hot food. Again very open, not feeling crammed like the last one. And naturally it's all clean and sparkling. A big number of screens are located here - there's a corridor leading to the old UGC premises for a bunch of the screens. A lot of these aren't open yet. Up on Floor 3 there's just one screen so I'm assuming it's a particularly large one.

As to the screen itself (I was in screen 4) they were quite nice. There's more leg room than before but the seats aren't massive, altho' comfortable enough. It's quite clean and the lighting seems better than before. It was a reasonable size, equivalent to maybe the old Screen 4+6. The screen was clean, altho' not overly wide (again roughly the same as previously). The sound system seems quite sharp, altho' I'm sure it varies from movie to movie.

Oh and the toilets actually worked and weren't filthy!

All in all it was like going to a completely different cinema and quite enjoyable. Not sure how long it will stay in its current pristine condition but so far its looking nice.

azezil · 07-09-2003 8:24am

Called in there yesterday, its very nice!

Kodac · 07-09-2003 3:56pm

a new UGC?! But the old one wasn't really that bad! Ok, the seats were crap, the place was filthy, the toilets were a definite hygine 'weapon of mass distruction', but.... wait, new UGC? Yipee!

Borzoi · 08-09-2003 9:04am

Originally posted by Kodac
a new UGC?! But the old one wasn't really that bad! Ok, the seats were crap, the place was filthy, the toilets were a definite hygine 'weapon of mass distruction', but.... wait, new UGC? Yipee!

It's really an extension to the existing one, they've basicly taken over the old IMAX theatre and split it up, to add more screens to the complex. So not more UGC, but bigger/better.

As for the jacks, did they ever work right? Filthy cesspools normally

Retr0gamer · 08-09-2003 12:18pm

Is the problem with the painfully long queues now sorted?

ixoy · 08-09-2003 12:40pm

Originally posted by Retr0gamer
Is the problem with the painfully long queues now sorted?

Should be. There's ten desks now, as opposed to five. However, it'll depend on whether they're manned or not. There's also five ticket stations.

As has been mentioned previously, implementing something whereby UGC Unlimited card holders could use the machines would work wonders....

SteM · 08-09-2003 1:16pm

Yeah, the place looks really good. We were up in Screen 17 on the 4th floor for Intermission. One thing annoyed me about that screen at the start that was even though we were sitting at the very back I felt like we were sitting very close to the screen. I suppose it's to do with how steeply the seats slope up, got used to that after a few minutes.

I reminds me of the UGC in West India Quay in London, done in the exactly same style.

Still scumbags messing about with their phones during the movie though :rolleyes:

anthonymcg · 08-09-2003 1:31pm

Yeah heard about this in the Times. They've closed off the old screens and are renovating them. The renovation will finish in late November and they'll then have 17 screens. At that time the capacity will be 3,320 seats

Stark · 08-09-2003 4:38pm

seems to be lacking stuff like surround sound

ixoy · 08-09-2003 4:57pm

Originally posted by k.oriordan
seems to be lacking stuff like surround sound

Umm? The sound for myself was excellent. And I didn't seem to be imagining it because a friend, who went to a different screen, also commented on the superior sound quality.

SteM · 08-09-2003 5:03pm

Sound was top notch in screen 17 too. Which screen were you in k.oriordan?

weemcd · 08-09-2003 6:01pm

you guys are very lucky, armagh cinema is very crap. ugc sounds brilliant to me old or new. Armagh has 4 crap small screens, crap seats, £5 (its expensive for such a crap cinema), and the shop is a rip off, even though the popcorns crap. they also decide not to get certain films, like spiderman, sw ep 2, and most recently freddy vs Jason!!! so dont complain till you watch a film were i live.

Stark · 09-09-2003 11:12am

Can't remember, we're talking about the cinema on parnell place aren't we? One of the smaller screens. The sound was good, but it seemed to be coming from just two speakers, one at either side of the screen, and it displayed a dolby stereo thingy during the trailers, instead of the usual surround/dts etc. logos.

SteM · 09-09-2003 11:18am

I think that may have been due to the movie you were watching? If a movie is shipped with stereo sound then the cinema can only play it in stereo I guess.

ixoy · 09-09-2003 12:29pm

Indeed. I think Belleville Rendez-Vous, which I saw yesterday, was in stereo. However the cinema screen itself was built with surround sound because you could hear it when the UGC logo appeared.
The sound, despite being stereo, was still fab.

Stark · 09-09-2003 12:40pm

It was the hulk I saw. I'm probably mistaken, will listen more carefully next time I'm there.

SteM · 09-09-2003 1:39pm

Must be a different cinema mate, Hulk finished in the UGC at least a month ago.

Spacedog · 09-09-2003 3:19pm

if it's a room with a screen in it I'll watch it!

The new UGC

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