Movies anywhere but on the couch

We’d probably watch more at home, but, whenever we try, someone always ends up second screening and quickly loses track of what’s going on in the movie.

Subsequently that someone then interrupts everyone else’s viewing pleasure to ask “what just happened” because they’d been too distracted by a phone, an iPad or a dog.

I’m not excluded from these distracted someones I speak of.

Going to the cinema eliminates all of the distractions that are found at home.

With phones and devices banned from use, no dogs allowed, surround sound so loud you can’t hear each other anyway and a room so dark that all you can see is a giant screen, you are set for movie-watching success.

But cinemas aren’t what I call cheap and the prices at their snack bars are borderline criminal, so it’s lovely when movie fan families have other more affordable options.

A few years back, a local organisation (I think it was Word and Mouth) put on a screening of Jaws at Aquamoves, so that viewers could be immersed in both water and the movie simultaneously, for a fun and novel interactive experience.

My kids were too young for the content at that time, so we didn’t go, but I’d love to take them to something like that now.

Another fun place to watch movies is at an outdoor cinema (despite the mozzies).

I took my kids to a pop-up cinema at the lake a few years ago on a warm summer’s night to watch the Lego Batman movie, where we were lucky enough to be upgraded to some empty beanbag beds in the VIP area under some shade tents.

It was atmospheric.

My boys and I relaxed, cuddled up, settled in to watch the movie and got all the warm fuzzy family feels.

There is another pop-up cinema coming to town this week, screening a different movie each night for three nights (tomorrow, Friday and Saturday) at the Shepp lake.

And the best bit?

Adult tickets are only $5 and kids are free.

Unless you want that VIP spot — those ones are five times the amount and include a small popcorn.

Food and drinks are available at the venue, but you are allowed to take your own picnic.

As a single parent (meaning just one single adult ticket is required) this night of family entertainment could potentially cost me only $5 and some food I already paid for in the weekly shop from my pantry and fridge.

Got to love that.

I miss the drive-in at Kialla for similar reasons.

It was cheaper than the cinema and you could take your own food and drinks in.

I used to go with my boyfriend at the time in his old Sandman panel van for maximum movie-watching comfort among the fluffy pillows and cosy doonas.

These days if I laid down to watch a movie, I’d be asleep before the opening credits were through, but when I was 18 and childless I had more life in me.

I wanted my kids to experience a drive-in before they all closed down, so last year we dragged the outdoor beanbags off the roof, chucked them in the back of the ute with the mozzie repellent and drove to Coburg to watch Sing 2 in the open air.

I didn’t pack a picnic for this one because I wanted to give the boys the whole drive-in diner experience, too.

We settled in to watch the movie with our overpriced burgers and hot dogs, shakes and snacks, but it quickly became apparent the environment was not that conducive to watching movies after all, especially for my youngest.

I’m not sure if the hoons performing burnouts in the next court over at the industrial estate, sending billowing black clouds of tyre smoke into the space above the screen, was more or less distracting than the planes and choppers he kept pointing out in the night sky.

Maybe it was losing the $20 he was dangling over the edge of the ute tray (and the search that ensued to find it), or the drink he spilled on himself, or all his food, snacks and fidget toys he kept rearranging, that stole his attention more from the movie that was advancing deeper into its plot as each minute ticked by.

There’s no pause and rewind at the drive-in or a cinema.

If you miss it, you miss it.

The entry fee was reasonable, the diner a highway robbery, the experience worth it, the nostalgia priceless, but the distractions? Off the charts,

More so than dogs and second screens in the lounge room at home.

Bree Harding is a former News reporter and a single mother to three children