cinema rage (1 Viewer)

[Deborah*T]

Apologies if this thread has been done a thousand times before. Did a search but nothing there
Anyhow: the cinemas. Am I just an turning into a grumpy old woman or does NOBODY know how to sit through a film at the cinemas anymore?!
The last movie I went to see at the cinemas was LOTR: The Two Towers. The cinema was pretty busy and to add to my viewing pleasure I had:
At least 10 giggling schoolgirls
A couple behind me that seemed to be explaining various bits of the film to each other
Someone behind me with a really bad cough (if you are THAT ill stay at home!)
Someone's mobile going off (there are TWO announcements to switch off before the film starts)
I was discussing this with a friend of mine, and he said he hardly ever goes to the cinemas (he works in one as well) anymore. Instead he is now quite happy to watch DVDs at home and go to our local independant cinema where people know how to behave through a film.
Why can't people sit through a film? Ok, LOTR is a long movie but I have had similar experiences through every single film I have been to see at the cinemas recently.
Phew. What a rant! I feel better now.
Thoughts? Anyone?
Deb

 

[Matt Stone]

I agree completely (as I'm sure most will)...and as a result I always go to the first showing of the day if possible. It's usually at ~11:00, and generally there are about 2 other people in the theater. I find it a much more enjoyable experience.

 

[ChrisRC]

It is for this reason, that I have not set foot inside a movie theater since.....drum roll please......

Star Wars: Episode One!

I am perfectly content waiting for everything to come out on DVD. These days, its usually not that long of a wait anyway. Now that we have children (recently), I am sure I will get dragged back sooner or later by one of the kids. Then its back to the styrofoam popcorn, and watered down drinks, the sticky floors, gum in the seats, vile bathrooms, along with those people that make us wonder how much inbreeding is going on in the northeast. Nah, I'll stay home.

-ChrisRC

P.S. Oh yeah, I forgot to add that I get the pleasure of waiting on a LINE to experience all of this.

 

[Edwin Pereyra]

Oh, how I like it when certain theaters do not allow kids under 5 for PG-13 rated films and above. I wish more theaters would have that policy. As we all know there are those who use the theaters as a babysitting service.

~Edwin

 

[Patrick Larkin]

For The Two Towers, I took the afternoon off work and went while the kids were still in school. It was great...the theater was only half full and they all behaved!

 

[Jason Seaver]

Geez, has it been two months since the last thread like this already?

(Although at least it moves around: The last one was in Polls, and the one before that in HT Software...)

 

[Ricardo C]

Jason, as long as people insist on behaving like the Clampetts when they go to the theater, there will always be a need for threads like this
The last time I was in a theater, I spent just about as much time shushing people as I did actually enjoying the movie. Movies may be a communal experience, but when I think "communal" I think of the collective gasp we share when Gollum first appears on screen, or the tears spilt when Boromir falls. However, for the average moviegoer, "communal" seems to mean "letting everyone in the theater eavesdrop on my cell phone conversation" and "letting everyone listen in as I say hello to my buddy across the theater"

 

[TerryMott]

I guess I'm lucky in this respect, because I completely zone in on a movie when I'm watching it. Unless someone is being REALLY loud and is close by, I just filter out everything else that's going on around me (this tends to annoy the wife when she's trying to talk to me while the TV is on ).
But, there are others in our circle of movie-going friends that are not as good at filtering. As a result, we've developed the habit of sitting in the top/back row. That eliminates noise coming from behind, and when people are talking in front of us, their voices will normally be projected away from us. It seems to work fairly well.
TM

 

[Matt Stone]

Here is another thing that pisses me off. I went to see About Schmidt on Friday, and there were like 30 people who arrived around an hour into the film. Who the hell are these people?? What the hell are they doing showing up so late??

 

[Dan Rudolph]

When I saw Episode II, the guy sitting next to me kept yelling "Bitchh! Bitch!" during the Yoda fight. Unfortunately, he was a friend who had with me to the movie. So I hit him.

No one destroyed my Two Towers experience. Perhaps because I went to a midnight showing, so the audience was fellow enthusiasts.

 

[Craig S]

... there were like 30 people who arrived around an hour into the film. Who the hell are these people?? What the hell are they doing showing up so late??

This reminds me of a phenomenon I have noticed at one local theater. I call it the "traveling family". What happens is a large family (mom, dad, several kids, sometimes some other adults as well) comes into the theater well into the film. They usually make a lot of noise finding seats. Many times, after sitting there for 10-15 minutes, they'll all pick up & leave, making just as much noise as they did coming in.
The worst thing about this is that I have almost always been watching R-rated films when this happens. These folks are apparently just dragging their kids from screen to screen without any thought as to what may or may not be appropriate for the little ones. Maybe they're trying to find something that interests them, or just trying to stretch their tickets to get as much movie watching on a single admission as possible.
This happened again this weekend. A family walked in on the final 10 minutes of Adaptation. It was pretty damn distracting, and this is a film that you really don't want any distractions during.
The problem is that theater managers don't make the slightest effort to police their houses. I was talking to a friend last week about the subject of behavior in theaters. We both grew up in the 70s, and both of us had the greatest high-school job in the world - usher in a movie theater. He worked in New York, I was in Louisiana. One thing that we both did as part of our jobs was "walking the house" - we would quietly enter each screen several times during the show to make sure there was no unruly behavior, no kids sneaking into R-rated shows, etc. I can't remember the last time I saw a theater employee enter the house during the movie. I guess with all the 20-30 screen megaplexes they just can't afford to hire enough folks to do this. Oh well...

 

[Robin Warren]

Craig S wrote:

I guess with all the 20-30 screen megaplexes they just can't afford to hire enough folks to do this. Oh well...

The average movie is around 100 minutes. And the average movie multiplex holds about 20 screens. I think one guy could do a walkthrough every 40 - 50 minutes of each screen. I bet the movie houses really don't care unless they are getting an earful from some irate customer. The way the prices increase you would think that we would get some better service out of them.

Oh ya, the above averages are strictly taken from my imagination and limited math skills.

 

[Deborah*T]

Geez, has it been two months since the last thread like this already?

I did apologise if it had been done a thousand times before. And I thought I was being original, darn! :b

 

[Jack Briggs]

Not to worry, Deborah. Jason is our resident balloon-burster.

 

[Jason Whyte]

And I'd like to add I love reading a thread like this every now and then in the movies section, so I think it's definately welcome (and I've added my hand into many of the discussions before).

Jason

 

[Eric_E]

I think another problem with theater audiences these days is that they are just too stupid to know what is supposed to be funny and what isn't. The worst example of this I can remember was when I went to see "About Schmidt." Spoiler below.


When Warren comes home and finds his wife dead on the floor,


PEOPLE LAUGHED!!! And not just a couple of dumb teenagers - it was literally dozens of people! HOW IN THE HELL IS THAT FUNNY?!

I honestly fear for the future of this country.

Eric

 

[ThomasC]

About 30 minutes before Star Trek: Nemesis ended, an old couple (probably in their late 40s, early 50s) came and sat down in the row right behind me, with a full bag of popcorn and drinks. I thought it was teenagers at first, but I guess anyone can be an idiot. I wasn't able to get a good look at them until the movie ended. So anyways, I'm pretty sure I heard the wife ask the husband, in basic form (because I don't want to give away anything, and yes, I know I can put it in spoiler tags), "What's going on?" WELL IF YOU HAD COME IN HERE WHEN THE MOVIE STARTED, MAYBE YOU COULD'VE FIGURED IT OUT, YOU FRIGGIN' !@&?#*$%!!!!

 

[Randall Dorr]

For someone who obsesses about movies almost constantly, I rarely find myself at the theater. I didn't see Fellowship of the Ring until March, primarily because I wanted to avoid the crowds(they certainly would have dissipated after a month, but I had classes to worry about, etc.).
When I saw In the Bedroom, I was thrilled to see mostly older people in the theater. (I was probably the only person under thirty.) Everyone was quite well behaved, except for one woman who had to say something at the key moment of the film.
As Marisa Tomei is rushing down the stairs(right before we see Nick Stahl dead), we hear a gunshot. After the shot is heard, but before we see Stahl, this woman says to the man she's with, "Is somebody dead?" I wanted to scream in her face, "I THINK WE'RE GONNA FIND OUT IN TWO SECONDS, SO SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!"

To her credit, the woman was very quiet for the rest of the film, nor had she been very noisy before that. But why did she have to say something RIGHT THEN?
But there is hope occasionally: I went to see The Two Towers on Dec. 31st. (Had a free ticket from the FOTR EE) The theater was about 80% full, but the people were very well behaved. It was a 2pm showing, and there were many kids and teenagers, but not a peep was heard. I had forgotten what it felt like to see a movie with a crowd. There is something to be had from communal excitement.

 

[Deborah*T]

Randall said:

There is something to be had from communal excitement.

Absolutely, that is why I think it is such a shame that most people can't shut the **** up at the right bits. Generally speaking, it is ok to laugh/cry/gasp/oooo and/or aaaah. It is so NOT ok to talk through an entire film or, as I had when I went to see The Patriot, comment on the period costumes and guns and discuss whether they were the correct ones for that era (I nearly went mad with those 2...)

I went to see Shrek in the cinemas and that was a great day out. Went with my 2 neices and my mother and we had a rare time. Full of kids that knew how to watch a film and even though there was some talking, wasn't too bad. I suppose it is different for a kiddies movie though, talking is not so bad.

Anyhow, strayed off the subject...the reason I started this thread is in part because i do think the busy cinema experience is great. Nothing better than seeing a film with a good crowd of strangers. Just such a shame that it ain't what it used to be. :sigh:

 

[Terry St]

I can't remember the last time I saw a theater employee enter the house during the movie. I guess with all the 20-30 screen megaplexes they just can't afford to hire enough folks to do this. Oh well...

I honestly doubt it's a matter of man-power. What's more likely is that cinema management tailors its policies to minimize the number and severity of complaints. When we see someone making a total arse of himself in a theatre we typically assume that 50 other people are going to be just as annoyed as we are and that a couple of them are bound to complain so we don't have to bother. The problem is, everybody could be thinking that way! Even worse yet, most people who actually do complain probably direct their ire at some poor floor-mopper or ticket-taker. I doubt many complaints ever reach the ears of someone who can change cinema policy.

For the sake of argument, say that a cinema actually does start throwing people out for making too much noise during films. This means that some poor pimple-faced wage-slave is going to have to boldy sally forth and actually ask noisy patrons to leave. (This alone will probably double employee turnover rates.) The trouble is that people have gotten used to teenage wage-slaves bending over backwards while muttering the little corporate mantra that they've been taught: "The customer is always right." People have gotten used to thinking of minimum wage workers as peons who are overjoyed at the prospect of picking used chewing gum off of seats. Getting kicked out of the theatre by such a peon would come as a huge shock to the average person. Their reaction would probably range from indignantion to complete non-cooperation. Things could get ugly, and it's a safe bet that management would get some seriously nasty complaints.