Polson Pier Drive-In

I give it two stars for location because it’s by the water and close to my house. Otherwise, I would consider driving to the burbs for a better experience. If you are not in the know, just buying tickets is weird and inconvenient; you have to drive all the way down to the club house to buy your tickets and then turn around and drive all the way back down the driveway to line up behind the other cars until they actually open the gate for the drive-​in. We were lucky we happened to get there early and were parked sixth in line. The cleanliness of the clubhouse is questionable and I would not buy food there unless it was pre-​packaged. And the piece de resistance was the actual movie, which was hard to see because of the glare of surrounding lights and poor projection quality. We watched a movie mostly set at night or in clubs, with many dark-​skinned characters. We barely saw anything throughout the whole movie! Needless to say we did not stay for the second one. At $ 15 a person, skip the drive in and go to a regular theatre or make the drive to burbs.

Three words: Upgrade, upgrade, upgrade.
This place is in bad need of some serious upgrades.
What needs upgrading? EVERYTHING!
From the staff that work at the front gate and the snack bar, to the snack bar itself, the washrooms, and even the screens. Even better if they could fix the radio sound transmitter for the movies so that it wasn’t badly polluted with any static noise.
And I don’t mean to be asking for too much, but since the whole point is to be able to watch the movie, it would also make sense to turn off the projector lights around that are pointing right at the screen. Just a thought… but I’m sure the Polson Pier Drive-​In folks know better.
Anyways, I got a lot of ideas to turn this place into a killer drive-​in, so if you are a manager/​owner and reading this, send me a message and I’ll be more than happy to help out because this place has the potential to be a lot of fun, especially because of it’s location.

Went to go see Now You See Me last night, which was playing first, then Fast and Furious 6 was playing second. We had NO desire to see F&F6, so we showed up early, parked, and got ready for Now You See Me.
They played Fast and Furious 6 first, even though the billing on the sign and the website said it was playing last.
When me (and 2 other patrons I didn’t know) left our cars to go tell them their mistake, they just shrugged and said «What website? What site said that?»
We said «Uh… YOUR website?»
«Well just wait it’ll be playing later»
«We don’t want to stay that long, we came all this way for the FIRST movie»
«Well come back tomorrow»
UGHH. What a pain in the ass. He eventually snottily offered to refund our money, in the rudest way ever.
So we said whatever, and just watched stupid Fast and Furious, which turned out to be sooooooooo bad (I haven’t seen any of the F&F movies) it was actually hilarious, so we had a good time making fun of it.
The snack bar is gross and over priced, but I kind of want a level of sleeze at my drive-​ins so that’s not a deal breaker.
The quality of picture and sound is, meh, what you’d expect. Don’t go see anything you REALLY wanna see there.

A big shout out to fellow Unilocal bro Dave M for inspiring me to go check out a
drive-​in movie as it’s a great summer must do and is hella entertaining for it’s sheer novelty alone.
The Polson Drive-​in of course is located at the docks near Cherry st and has two lots with two large (ish) screens showcasing double bill films for $ 15/​person. Sundays are the best deal as they offer a carload special for $ 25 per car. I’d say each lot houses about 60 – 70 cars and it’s a good idea to get there about 30 minutes early before the films as it’s first come first served for parking space. Also bring cash as the admission booth does not take plastic.
I was worried it would smell like rank lake Ontario fumes, but surprisingly no rancid smells, not many bugs either which was a plus. The facilities which is located inside the snack shack, were thank goodness pretty clean and even housed some arcade games.
I don’t suggest coming to the drive-​in for special effects/​action movies as our first feature was the Dark Knight Rises and I felt the magnificence of the film was lost in the less than stellar picture quality, but truly we were mostly here for the (cheesy but so good!!) second feature of Magic Mike :)
The ticket booth collector and the car ushers were friendly enough, especially to our car full of giggly girls chanting MAGIC MIKE incessantly, but when you’re gearing-​up to watch a film that features a character named «Big Dick Richie», and Matthew McConaughey is wearing ass-​less chaps, you’re bound to lose all your inhibitions and just get buck wild! if you’re wondering what all the fuss is about, check it out
and
You’re welcome!

In Toronto for the long weekend. I’m no drive in expert, but I’ve been to a few and this one just seemed kind of grimy. Took ages to find, screens were small, bit disconcerting was the «NO NARCOTICS» sign as you enter. Got eaten alive by mosquitos and left early. I’m probably biased but if you want a really great drive in experience, go to the Wellfleet Drive in on Cape Cod.

Awesome to have drive in right in the heart of downtown. Screens were not as big as some, but overall a fun experience!

It may seem hokie but what a fun experience to do at least once or maybe thrice in your life, especially in T-​dot. I’ve been there thrice myself and each time it was fun. The movies are typically outdated but that’s the whole drive-​in «scene». If you missed it in the theatres, this is a fun alternative before you sit on a couch and rent it.
I won’t ramble any further as I don’t want to regurgatate other reviews anymore than I already have LOL…

I’ve got some wicked drive-​in movie memories, and no, none of them are THAT, thank you very much, Mr. and Mrs. Gutter-​mind. I’ve seen many a movie in my childhood in the car, in my jammies, tongue burning from over-​salted popcorn and a speaker dangling from the cracked-​open drivers-​side window where sound, sometimes rain, always mosquitoes were able to find their way in. It’s not much, but it’s a memory.
Now I can relive most of the good parts of that experience with the Poslon Pier Drive-​In. A driving range (
) during the day, you can be rest assured your movie will not be interrupted by the metallic pang of a Titleist denting your car roof. During the summer months at dusk, the golf stops and the movies begin, with a double-​feature of current releases hitting the screen at dusk. The broadcast sound is done through a dedicated FM station that you tune into. Reception is great so no worries there. As well, there’s a decent breeze that comes in off the lake, so mosquitoes making their way into the car will be a very vague memory.
The ads say a 9:00pm start but the sunlight being what it is, they can start later than that. No worries. You can park the car and take in some of the other things the Pier has to offer. Volleyball courts and soccer pitches are available as well as a mini-​golf set-​up.
There’s many a bar in the complex that you can get to if you happen to be thirsty for more than sodas and bottled water. Couple of warnings. They search pretty hard for alcohol being brought in, so I’d not chance it. Suck it up, and buy your booze at the bar. And though I would never advocate contravening the policies of any establishment, this place loses marks on the movie snack bar. The staff seems well beyond disorganized, and when I was feeling freakishly hungry, I waited most-​to-​all of the intermission time for a single hot dog (the order of which had to be confirmed several times with a «Sorry, you’re waiting for a???» «Hot dog.» «Riiiiiight…hot dog.») which finally came warmed on the outside and wickedly cold on the inside.
So, long story short: Go for the movies, not the food, and drive in wearing your jammies.