Vue Cinema Oxford

Chain cinema showing latest blockbuster. Up 2 escalators from ground floor where there are several restaurants. Staff attentive and polite. Good range of films. Seating in screen 7 was worn out with several chairs out of commission but toilets were clean and had a good experience. Saw Darkest Hour, excellent movie, highly recommended.

Turned up to watch our pre-booked film, just to be told at the cinema that the film could not be set up due to technical issues... No prior notification given whatsoever. Anyway, the manager kindly issued us a full refund and we got to watch another movie of our choice the same evening for free.

I will start from the good points.
Big screens, sound is much better than in the odeon,not very busy.

Negatives.
It is dirty and smells like a gym. The staff is untrained but also lack basic skills. They were out of stock in coca cola! and when we bought a drink for £7 they didnt even think of telling us they're out of coca cola. When i asked yhem they didnt even apologise for not having it , they thought it was normal!

Also the drinks and the popcorn are outrageously expensive. a drink and a popcorn are £14 and the size isnt even big plus the pop corn tastes like cardboard.

Good cinema, comfy seats. Food and drink is expensive but that is the same for every cinema. Luckily I had a half price popcorn voucher which helped also. They were also more than happy to provide free tap water.

The only annoying thing is there is only 1 toilet which is down 1 end of the corridor, so if you need the toilet during the film, you willl miss quite alot as it is quite far down!

The cinema is looking very tired now. We purchased the Coca-Cola Fresstyle drink and atleast 50% of the drinks were UNAVAILABLE. Any other establishment that use the Fresestyle drinks, they are unlimited. Not at the Vue Oxford, for £5.50 you get one 500ml cup - what a rip off! When asking the till assistant and manager about this apparently it’s to do with the sugar tax, which is nonsense! Don’t buy the Freestyle drink, just take your own drinks in with you. There are also not menus open at the food and drink kiosk showing the prices. All very misleading as prices are not clearly shown for food and drink, and not at all in some cases, this breaches the Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 act, which I suggest audit in the Oxford branch, especially as for conviction the maximum penalties are a fine of £5,000 in the Magistrates court or, in the Crown court, an unlimited fine or imprisonment for up to two years, or both.

Blissfully empty on a Tuesday afternoon I think there may have been 8 or 10 of us in Screen 8. The adverts were unbearably loud but once the film was underway all was fine.

Comfy seats and nice atmosphere. Queue for refreshments was very long (about 20 minute wait). Also had to ask for 3D glasses despite having bought them in advance and showing ticket to attendant

Very basic cinema. Tickets are decent prices but I think that's reflected in what you get when you're there. Seating was rather uncomfortable, even the 'VIP' seats looked a bit shabby. The snacks and amenities were overpriced, as most cinemas are, but this was ridiculously overpriced. We were allocated the wrong seats. And the lights didn't turn off until 10 minutes into the film.

Save your money and spend the extra going somewhere else like Curzon or Odeon.