Nestled between restaurants and shops and tucked behind the parking garage, the Oakbrook AMC 4 Theater is a bit difficult to find. But once you find it, the movie experience is definitely worth the search.

Upon entering the movie theater lobby there are two kiosks that allow you to buy tickets with a credit card to avoid the line at the ticket booth; they also allow you to print tickets that you can purchase online in advance. There is assigned seating in the theater, so I would recommend buying your tickets before the movie starts—especially if you are going to a popular movie on a Friday or Saturday night.

I arrived at the theater about 10 minutes before the movie started on a Friday night and there were only a few seats that were together left to choose from.

After arriving at our assigned seats, we sat in the cushioned, reclinable seats. These seats are magical; they are a soft, leather-like material and my body sunk right into them. With a large armrest in-between each seat, there was no need for the awkward “who gets the armrest” dilemma. These plush seats were definitely the best part of the entire movie-going experience. The chairs made it feel like I was watching a movie at my house, with a gigantic, high-quality screen movie with crisp sound.

My main concern was that after 15 minutes into the movie, the lights in the theater were still on. When I asked an employee if they were going to dim the lights, she informed me that the lights were dimmed as low as they could be. It seemed rather odd that they couldn’t turn off the lights like a normal movie theater, but apparently they don’t. Regardless the seats made up for this inconvenience.

The concession stand had the typical way over-priced movie-theater food. For example a large popcorn and large drink cost $13.49, which I thought was a bit outrageous. However the cheaper movie ticket at only $10.29 made up for the over-priced food, making it less than the AMC Hodgkin’s theater ($10.89), which is not upgraded with reclinable seats. There is also a student discount after 4 p.m. with a student I.D. for $8.79. The atmosphere of the entire theater was very clean and modern.

Bottom line: I was impressed by the modern movie theater and the comfortable seats, but the expensive prices and poorly dimmed lights definitely put a damper on my movie going experience.