Loews Boston Common There are movie houses, but this is a movie mansion … on steroids. Loews Boston Common has 15 enormous screens (featuring mostly mainstream releases) and stadium seating with separating “lovebird” armrests, perfect for snuggling with your date. But the coolest thing has to be their self-serve “butter” station for your popcorn — a bonus, even if it doesn’t quite justify a ticket price that is mere cents away from double-digits.
175 Tremont St., Boston. | MBTA: Green Line to Boylston. (800) 326-3264

AMC Fenway It’s difficult to differentiate this 13-screen, candy-colored multiplex from the Loews Boston Common, and soon, it’ll be literally impossible: AMC recently bought Loews, and when the deal is finalized, there will be only one megachain in Boston. This is a shame if you’re anti-Establishment, but a bounty if you’re a movie-goer who loves the stadium seating and sweetheart seats. Fenway features a collegiate crowd — BU and Fenway Park are right next door, so look for fratty dudes and their girlfriends-with-tattoos-on-the-lower-back, chilling next to preppier folks. You’ll also find a Best Buy and Bed, Bath and Beyond nearby, making the AMC the perfect place to do some shopping before a flick — if, that is, you don’t mind giving more money to The Man.
201 Brookline Ave., Boston. | MBTA: Green Line to Fenway. (617) 424-6266

Simons IMAX Theatre Imagine taking your woman to the movies, and just when you’re starting to make out, your clunky, plastic 3D-glasses shatter and 25 three-year-old kids cry simultaneously, frightened by you and a 40-foot-tall shark. This is what it’s like at the Simons IMAX. One heads here for the movies — documentaries, usually seven-stories tall — not the scene. Still, it’s not all family fare. The big action movies — “Batman,” “Star Wars,” “Harry Potter” — screen here in IMAX format, often late at night. Let the suck-face begin.
‘New England Aquarium, Central Wharf, Boston. | MBTA: Blue Line to Aquarium. (617) 973-5200

Loews Fresh Pond 10 Hard to get to (after leaving the T, it’s a hike) and without modern conveniences (no sweetheart seats? Try no stadium seating), the Loews Fresh Pond is a throwback to the multiplexes you remember as a kid. And that’s why we like it. Unpretentious and smelling like a science project (about mold), it’s the perfect place to see a B-grade movie or something pulpy. We caught “Sin City” there and thought Mickey Rourke fit right in.
168 Alewife Brook Parkway, Cambridge. | MBTA: Red Line to Alewife. (800) 326-3264

Coolidge Corner Theatre No wonder the Coolidge Corner Theatre, a fully-restored Art Deco palace, reigns as the city’s premier spot for art house and foreign film. A dramatic 600-seat main theater suggests the luxury, romance and elegance of what once made going to the movies an event. (“Evil Dead” and “Army of Darkness,” just two of the Coolidge’s recent midnight movies, deserve no less). During its 70-year history, the upstairs theater was revamped with stadium seating while a cozy 45 seat Screening Room added an intimate space that often spotlights local filmmakers. There is not a more fitting vehicle for film from miles around.
290 Harvard Street, Brookline. | MBTA: Green Line to Coolidge Corner. (617) 734-2500

Loews Harvard Square This is your typical Loews, but with fewer screens, spread out in a weird maze, and a little bit dirty. Yeah, it ain’t pretty, but you’re paying for new releases (with a few indies) in a convenient location. Every week there’s a midnight showing of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” for those into doing the “Time Warp” again.
10 Church St., Cambridge. | MBTA: Red Line to Harvard. (617) 222-2222

Kendall Square Cinema Although the Kendall Cinema is way more than a stone’s throw away from the Kendall T stop, they screen movies you won’t be able to see anywhere else in town. Read: It’s worth the walk. Basically, if you can casually slip a “I just saw it at the Kendall” into a party conversation, you have just earned your indie movie snob stripes and caught a good flick.
One Kendall Sq., Cambridge | MBTA: Red Line to Kendall. (617) 499-1996

Brattle Theatre It’s a century-old Boston institution but one look at the lineup — from “Bugs Bunny” to “Donnie Darko: The Director’s Cut” to a newly restored 35mm print of “Raging Bull” — and you know the place is cooler than anything with neon lights. Its 250-seat single screen theater operates as a den of cinephile worship for students and beyond.
40 Brattle St., Cambridge. | MBTA: Red Line to Harvard. (617) 876-6837

Harvard Film Archive Here, audiences absorb the peculiar passions and fiery torments of legendary filmmakers whose movies may contain clues to the meaning of life but don’t make the cut at commercial theaters. Go, but wear a monocle. The 210-seat house, founded in 1979, offers an impressive “Directors in Focus” series and frequently hosts visiting filmmakers — all for cheaper than any megaplex or film degree.
24 Quincy St., Cambridge. | MBTA: Red Line to Harvard. (617) 495-4700

Somerville Theatre Seeing a film at the Somerville Theatre is a pleasurable throwback — not just because they show movies that are already available from Netflix, but because the theatre has been open since 1914. The last remaining relic from the days when Somerville was home to 14 movie houses, the ornate main theatre often showcases live bands too big for the Middle East, and not quite big enough for the Orpheum. They also use real butter on their popcorn and the tickets are cheap — plus, Tufts students chill here. All good.
55 Davis Square, Somerville. | MBTA: Red Line to Davis. (617) 625-4088