I can't stand theaters.... (1 Viewer)

Thank goodness I am building my own theater at home. I have had the worst experiences going to the movies lately. For example, I went to see Day After Tomorrow last week and Harry Potter the other night. Both times people brought young(under 3) children who were not bad, just acting their ages. They were figity, chatting and just being kids. One parent would keep taking their kid out of the theater. And during the other movie. The parent did squat. Then you had the occasional cell phone ringing. Where one lady even started talking to the person. One or two crying babies. It is just getting ridiculous. Having three kids I understand it is not always easy to get or afford a babysitter. But, people have to be a little more considerate of others.


ps-Here is my almost complete home theater. Just need some the rear seats and the front projector.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/attac...chmentid=23368

How original

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H

I hear ya. I went to the theater last weekend for the first time in at least 6 months. With the window to DVD being fairly short these days, I much prefer to just wait until I can own the movie, watch it, rewind to catch the plot points I missed, pause to get popcorn, then finish up with special features. I just don't find it worth the aggravation to spend $15+ to see a movie with a bunch of people I don't know who may or may not extend common courtesy to their fellow patrons.

I was starting to feel the same way at some point, but recently have been chaning my mind.

One of the reasons is that now I live in NYC, which has a great public transportation system, and I don't have to worry about driving and parking.

As for people around you misbehaving, a stern but polite request to stop almost always works. Some of you people make it sound like you're watching a movie in a zoo. If everyone around the country behaves like that and I don't have a problem with the people's consideration in New York, we're going to have to start re-examining some of our favorite stereotypes.

Are you going to theaters in the suburbs?

I find downtown audiences to be more sophisticated than those out in the sticks. I saw Harry Potter on opening night, smack dab in the middle of downtown Seattle. Despite the large number of kids in the audience, there was not one PEEP once the movie started (except for laughs, gasps, and cheers at the appropriate moments).

Mike, I’m glad to read a post about NYC. I was beginning to think that Dallas just have more polite audiences.

My wife and I attend once or twice each week and I just don’t fine the impoliteness that I so often read about in threads such as this one. There is, to be honest an occasional minor disturbance, but I’d agree with the polite request working. I don’t really notice small children all that much, as most of the films I attend won’t appeal to them, nor would parents bring along their children to such films.

I expect that Rob may be correct—that is my experience in downtown theaters.

Thats one of the biggest problems. Parents do bring their kids. The Day After movie was a 9:30pm showing and their were more than a few people with young kids.

I saw nary a one at either Super-Size Me or Coffee and Cigarettes on Saturday and Sunday afternoon.

A 0930 showing of Harry Potter had more kids than adults in attendance—in a sold-out house. But I’d only repeat what Rob wrote—“ laughs, gasps, and cheers at the appropriate moments”.

Adults objecting to that behavior, should not be allowed to watch a movie of this type in any case.

Heck, I saw Harry Potter at the local Megaplex on Saturday, at 1pm, on a rainy day. The place was packed with kids, who were all having a well behaved good time. There was one kid who said "Mommy, tell me when it's not scary" loudly, but hey, the kid was scared, and he sounded awfully young. I've no idea if his mother took him out of the theater or not (they were behind me), but I never heard him again. But I was seeing a kid's movie! I actually enjoy going to see kids movies when there are lots of kids in the audience. Makes it more fun, to me anyway. I look forward to taking my own kids to see the latest pixar blockbuster, whenever I have kids.

I'm happy with my local theaters. They're clean, and not terribly expensive. I'm a member of my local art-house theater, so I get tickets for $4. At the megaplex, I show my University ID (I'm a staff member) and get student pricing for $6 or so. The most recent rude-audience problem that I had was with a guy behind me who wouldn't shut up until I asked him to, during Paycheck.

I love going to see movies in the theater...

...except when the picture is out of focus or jittery or the sound in distorted or there's a crying baby.

I love watching movies at home...

...except when the DVD doesn't come out until many months after the theatrical release or it's an epic like Lord of the Rings that makes me wish I had a bigger screen.

In either case I'd say the potential problems that spoil the experience happen maybe 10% of the time. The most frequent is a jittery picture at the theater, not sure what's up with that. Crying babies are very rare in our experience. The only times there's a lot of kids is when we see a kid's movie and that's kind of part of the fun.

But in general it's 20 bucks for some popcorn and a matinee for two versus 20 bucks for a DVD so we mix it up and do a little of both.

Look, it's $13 for my wife and I (total) to hit the MATINEE here in Dallas. It's $15 to $20 for a DVD (first week of release). Throw in $10+ for a Popcorn and a drink. It's cheaper to buy it when it comes out and enjoy it on your own time.

There's always some schmuck in the theater that ruins it. And yes, the theaters are fu(king zoos now. No matter how late you go (you could go to a midnight movie) to see Shrek 2 or Harry Potter, there will be that little bastard that sits behind you either being A) too loud or B) kicking your chair. A stern "STFU" never seems to work. There was one instance where we asked them to take their child out (this was an "R" rated movie at 9:00PM) because it was crying. So, she brought him down to the stairwell and watched the movie there. Still crying. Went down and asked them politely to take their child out until he stopped crying. After the movie was over, she called my wife a "fu(king bit(h" and that we ruined the movie for them. That was it. Done.

I now limit my theater viewing to horror movies and comedies. The only two genres worth seeing with a crowd in my opinion.

The windows for theater to DVD is getting smaller and smaller. Since I've waited for movies to hit disc, there is a new movie I want to see every single week. These last few weeks were pure greatness. Throw that in with my lovely Whirly Pop popcorn maker (tastes just like the movies and at a fraction of the cost!), the dedicated theater room, comfy chairs and I'm in heaven!

That just about sums up the UK cinema experience. It's only reinforced when the lights go up.

LOL at Mark!

I agree. Theaters are zoos. I mean just look at the box office draws the past few weekends! And it's only going to get worse this Summer! I fear Spider-Man 2 since the first one already landed in the top 10 of all time box office draws and the trailer alone for the sequel looks much better than the first entire movie!!!

I'm glad to see the anti-anti theater comments. I'm also glad there haven't been claims along the lines of "my home theater has better picture quality than any movie theater".

Regardless of the behavior of the audience, people still need to take their dates to the movies. Asking a girl to go to the movies is a hell of a lot easier then asking her to check out the latest technology in 6.1 sound and widescreen TV sets.

Although it could be a good line.
"Yeah, baby, we have to watch it at my place. Um.. the picture's better. Yes, that's it."

Why not? The PQ on my HT is better than the theater that I would normally go to. The sound quality is much better too. Granted, my screen is only 42" but because of that I do not see grain and other film artifacts unless they are really bad.

Where I live there are no premium movie theaters that I know of. They are all mega-plexes or $3 cheapo theaters. The last movie I went to see in a theater, I had to put up with bad spots on the screen where the coating was coming off as well as stains on the screen. Not to mention the sticky floors, the trash and the uncomfortable seats.

I will stay at home and watch my movies, even if it takes a year for it to be released on DVD. I can wait, I am patient because I know I will enjoy it in a clean, comfortable and quiet environment.

Sorry you had such a bad experience Chris. What theater was that?

My wife and I go to the Inwood, Magnolia and Angelica all the time and I can say the the audiences have always been polite. Also a matinee ticket is $5.50, totaling $11.00. The seats are good and comfortablein all but the Inwood, where they are a bit old.

I have had no complaints at the Legacy/Central Expressway complex in Plano, either but we don’t go there very often. The seating is very comfortable.

I find it interesting that every thread I have read that lists reasons not to attend theaters includes the cost of popcorn and pop. But never any mention on how much those lounge chairs cost.

Yup! Ok, one more time for those that have not heard it before - grain is not an artifact, it is not pixelization and it is not something that is inherently bad. Oh, and the matrix is supposed to be green and those flares in SPR are supposed to be there.