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MovieFone (for iPhone)

Michael Muchmore
 & Michael Muchmore Contributor

Our team tests, rates, and reviews more than 1,500 products each year to help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology.

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You can see what's playing near you with the MovieFone iPhone app, but other movie apps offer more help with choosing what to see and smoother purchasing options. - iPhone Apps
3.0 Average

The Bottom Line

You can see what's playing near you with the MovieFone iPhone app, but other movie apps offer more help with choosing what to see and smoother purchasing options.

Pros & Cons

    • Playing Now Near Me button.
    • Movie ticket purchase for some theaters.
    • Info on actors and directors.
    • Trailer and preview viewing.
    • Pleasant interface.
    • No sorting by review ratings or popularity.
    • Not much personalization.
    • No DVD purchasing.
    • Ticket purchase requires redirect to Fandango.

"Hello…and welcome to MovieFone," will no longer be heard in our land. The venerable cinematic info service recently ditched its phone-based interactive voice response system in favor of mobile apps and its website. The free apps are available for iOS—both iPhone and iPad-sized—and Android, but other platforms like Windows Phone and BlackBerry must use the mobile Web version at m.moviefone.com. You can get movie show times and descriptions that way, but the mobile app has advantages like the ability to purchase movie tickets, view trailers, and interact with a more easily navigable interface. So how does MovieFone's iPhone app stack up against competitors like Fandango and Flixster? Not so well, in my testing.

Getting Started with MovieFone for iPhone

On first run, the Quick Tutorial screen overlay shows how to use the app, with three simple pointers about finding movies showing in the next two hours, swiping to view more movies, and "Tap all banners to browse and sort movies." These banners reveal themselves when you dismiss the tutorial:

Final Thoughts

You can see what's playing near you with the MovieFone iPhone app, but other movie apps offer more help with choosing what to see and smoother purchasing options. - iPhone Apps

MovieFone (for iPhone)

3.0 Average

You can see what's playing near you with the MovieFone iPhone app, but other movie apps offer more help with choosing what to see and smoother purchasing options.

About Our Expert

Michael Muchmore

Michael Muchmore

Contributor

My Experience

I've been testing PC and mobile software for more than 20 years, focusing on photo and video editing, operating systems, and web browsers. Prior to my current role, I covered software and apps for ExtremeTech and headed up PCMag’s enterprise software team. I’ve attended trade shows for Microsoft, Google, and Apple and written about all of them and their products.

I still get a kick out of seeing what's new in video and photo editing software, and how operating systems change over time. I was privileged to byline the cover story of the last print issue of PC Magazine, the Windows 7 review, and I’ve witnessed every Microsoft misstep and win, up to the latest Windows 11.

I’m an avid bird photographer and traveler—I’ve been to 40 countries, many with great birds! Because I’m also a classical music fan and former performer, I’ve reviewed streaming services that emphasize classical music.

Technology I Use

For everyday work, I use a good-old Dell tower with 16GB of RAM, a 12th-gen Intel Core i7 processor, and an Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti GPU that runs on Windows 11. I pair it with a 4K Lenovo ThinkVision P27u-10 monitor and a Logitech MX Vertical mouse. For offsite work, I use a 2024 Microsoft Surface Laptop with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor. Camera-wise, I moved to mirrorless from a Canon EOS 80D with a Canon 70-300mm IS USM lens. I now have a Canon EOS R7 with a 100-400mm lens, but I miss my DSLR for several reasons.

In order of usage, the software I turn to most frequently is the Edge web browser, Slack, Adobe Creative Cloud, Microsoft 365, Firefox, Brave, and WhatsApp. I use the Windows Phone link app to see everything on my Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra phone, which has excellent telephoto capability.

For fitness monitoring, I have a Fitbit Charge 6 and use an Anker Smart Scale P1. I’m also a streaming fan, so I subscribe to both Amazon Music Unlimited (especially for its Dolby Atmos content) and Qobuz (for its high-res sound quality and classical catalog). I recently added a Vizio 5.1 Soundbar SE, which sounds surprisingly good given its low price. To holler commands instead of using a remote control, I have the Amazon Fire TV Cube in the living room, which lets me verbally tell the TV what I want to watch. It hooks up to an LG B4 OLED TV. I have a Sonos One speaker in my kitchen that also ties in with Alexa, as does the Echo Dot 2 With Clock in my bedroom. For serious listening, I have B&W 601 speakers plugged into a Conrad-Johnson Sonographe amp and preamp, with a Cambridge Audio AXN10 streamer as source. For reading, I also have a Nook GlowLight 3.

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