These apps will aid your moviegoing experience

There are lots of ways to watch movies now in our digital age: on a computer, smart phones or tablets, whether streaming, digital download or on-demand.

But I still prefer the old-fashioned way: In a dark theater in front of a gargantuan screen with a tall bucket of popcorn glistening with melted butter. (What can I say? I’m a health nut.)

But that’s not to say the digital age can’t help us out. Here are some nifty smartphone apps to aid in your movie-watching theater experience (they can all be downloaded from the iTunes store or other outlets):

▪  Flixster – There are lots of movie showtime apps, but my favorite is Flixster. It lists new movies opening for the week at the top of the home screen and includes older films’ Rotten Tomatoes score (a number based on a consensus of critics’ ratings from 1 to 100 – 100 being the best).

▪  Movietickets.com – You can purchase tickets for area movies with this app. It’s pretty easy to use. You click on the movie and showtime, then either create an account or sign in as a guest with an e-mail address. Then you enter credit card information to purchase (there is a service fee in addition to the ticket price). At the theater, you go to the ticket kiosk, swipe the card that you used for payment (it will not be charged again) and your tickets will pop out of the machine. No waiting in line at the box office.

▪  iTunes movie trailers – This is my favorite movie trailers app because it’s so easy to navigate, and I like seeing all the movie posters lined up next to each other on the screen. It’s basically a functional gallery of movie-poster art.

▪  Runpee – Now I’m not in any way suggesting you fire up your phone during a movie, which can be very distracting to your fellow moviegoers, but this app lets you you know when the best times to go to the potty are, so you don’t miss an important plot twist. Imagine if you went to the restroom when Darth Vader told Luke, “I am your father” in “The Empire Strikes Back.” I shudder to think!

So perhaps check this app before the lights dim in case you can’t hold that jumbo soda until after the movie.

▪  Mediastinger – This is by far my most favorite movie app because it tells if you if there are any additional scenes during or after the movie’s end credits (they are called “stingers”).

For example, on the home screen under “Kong: Skull Island,” the app reads: “Extra scenes during and after the end credits.”

It then breaks it down further, if you want, warning you that there may be spoilers ahead. For instance, the app tells you that there is a stinger after the end credits “that sets up the already announced 2020 sequel.” I wouldn’t have wanted to miss that!

▪  IMDb – Can’t remember who starred in that one movie with Ryan Gosling a couple of years ago? Just call up the app, search for Gosling’s name and all his films and credits pop up. The app also offers many other functions, but I like its quick search functionality.

▪  MoviePass – Think of this as a movie subscription service, where you pay a monthly fee to see movies in theaters. The service gives members the ability to see up to one 2D movie every 24 hours, if they want. (I have not tried it yet.)

A MoviePass member can see movies in pretty much any theater that accepts major credit cards, according to the MoviePass website.

It has a very Netflix-like subscription tier. You choose if you want to see two movies per month ($14.99 monthly), three movies ($21.99) or unlimited ($39.99). So if you go to a lot of movies per month, this could be a really good deal (it has been called an all-you-can-eat movie buffet for film lovers).

Here’s how it works: When you subscribe to MoviePass, you are issued a MoviePass card, which is a reloadable debit card that works with the MoviePass iPhone app. (It’s designed so that a MoviePass membership can’t be shared between two people.)

When you get to the theater, you check in to the MoviePass app and select the movie and showtime. MoviePass then loads the ticket purchase price onto your MoviePass debit card, which you then use to purchase your ticket. Each time you want to see a movie, your card is reloaded.

For more information, go to www.moviepass.com.

This story was originally published March 22, 2017 at 11:27 AM with the headline "These apps will aid your moviegoing experience."