Free films galore! Honest! (firstmovies.com)

Member Name: dawnfrancis

Product:	firstmovies.com
Date:	07/03/02 (1672 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: free free free!, great movies , so easy to use

Disadvantages: I won a ticket to see Moulin Rouge

Last year I made a bit of a sad New Year's resolution, which was to visit as many freebie sites as possible in order to get as much free stuff as I could. I made a note of everything I applied for and ticked it off when I got it (look - I DID tell you I was sad!).

Twelve months down the line and my book is a very tragic sight, pages and pages of offers applied for but a noteable absence of ticks, sigh, all those promised goodies that never arrived. But there is one site that has faithfully delivered time after time and whose emails in my inbox give me a shiver of anticipation, and that is Firstmovies.com.

This site offers free preview tickets across the UK for some top name films. It comes with my heartfelt recommendations for two reasons. Firstly, it's so easy to use. Honestly, it's easier than organizing a p*ss-up in a brewery, and for a lazy s*d like me that is music to my ears. Secondly, with one exception, I have received tickets for every single movie I've applied for. Thirdly they do quite a lot of screenings a year (ok, I know I only said two reasons..!)

OK - so here's your easy guide to getting free entertainment without even lifting your bum off your seat:

1) Go to www.firstmovies.com
2) Click on the members icon and you'll be walked through the steps.
3) You'll get an email with a membership number on
4) Every week you'll get a newsletter. This will handily alert you to any new screenings so you don't have to keep checking back at the site (which is obviously a very time and energy-consuming thing to have to do, if you're anything like me!)

If there are any screenings, you simply click on the link in the newsletter, enter your membership number, tick your preferred cinema and number of tickets (2 max) and bingo! you're in with a chance.

5) Tickets are usually allocated on a first come first served basis, or occasionally through a dra
w. Sometimes they send them through the post, other times you get an email ticket which you simply print out. whether you're lucky or not, they're polite enough to tell you by email. This is a wonderful feature which stops you from wondering 'will I/won't I' for days on end.

Your membership number is handily included in the newsletter so that if you're a disorganized no-hoper like me you don't have to cause world war 3 in your computer room trying to find the damned thing.

I mean, WHAT could be easier!!!

TOP REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD JOIN

1. Firstmovies.com is run by 'some of the top names in the industry' (apparently they will be telling more in the next few weeks - sounds like the Mafia to me). They usually have between 3000 and 5000 tickets available nationwide. In practice this has meant I have gained a ticket for every single film I applied for, with one exception. Now since I live in Birmingham and the cinemas are always packed out I think this is bloomin' marvellous.

However, they only screen in the bigger cities due to poor turn-outs elsewhere. And sometimes some of the screenings are only in London which is a bit annoying for us Brummies.

2. Unlike many other free screenings they dont' just pick out the crap films that no right-minded person would want to see anyway. Some examples of Firstmovies screenings include:

Toy Story 2
Captain Corelli's Mandorin
Hell (this is the one I didn't get to see, boo-hoo!)
Moulin Rouge (which I got tickets for and which I would have gladly stuck my head in a gas oven to avoid)

3. The screenings are all at decent times. I mean, who wants to waste a Sunday marathon lie-in by haring off to the flicks at 9am just to catch a freebie?? Unlike many previews offered by newspapers, Firstmovies.com always screens theirs at 6.30pm, usually on a Wednesday. Which gives you plenty of time to ge
t there from work and it feels more like a 'proper' cinema trip when you go in the evening (just a personal view there!)

4. The weekly newsletter doesn't always have screenings in it but nevertheless I'd say there's at least one opportunity a month available.

5. The site has some other nice features (apart from having the most dull and dark background colours - I do wish they'd change that). You can review the movie after you've seen it should you so wish (though I imagine most people would rather review it on Dooyoo, it's nice for the people-at-the-top of Firstmovies to get feedback).

The newsletter also tells you about other free screenings - for example, those which will be coming up in magazines or newspapers - an extremely handy feature. For example Stella Artois often give away tickets if you go and buy beer at a participating bar. Which, as you can appreciate, is a real hardship to do.

I really can't fault this site - apart from the fact that they don't offer free unlimited popcorn and drinks and a bloke in the back row to snog to make my night perfect, but there you are, you can't have everything in just one site! Hope you join and hope you have as much fun out of this site as I have.

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