Even critics get annoyed with boorish patrons (1 Viewer)

[Dennis Nicholls]

It's not just us here at HTF, it's now the film review critics for the media that are complaining about the boorish behavior of "patrons" at public theater showings. Ready for her private headphones idea?
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/bayarea/e...es/4316003.htm

 

[Jeff Pryor]

My sentiments exactly.

 

[ThomasC]

critics are human too. anyways, there is NO WAY i am going to listen to a movie in a THEATER with headphones unless someone invents 5.1 or better headphones. there needs to be at least one usher in every theater at all times of the movie. if that means higher but still somewhat reasonable prices, i'm all for it. i don't mind the "audience feel", but when people start a conversation about the movie, that's crossing the line for me. save it for when the movie ends. if you can't remember what you wanted to talk about after the end, then it obviously wasn't that important.
as for throwing popcorn at other patrons for no reason but to amuse yourself...time to bring in the national guard (or a couple of ushers, either way ) to literally toss those @$$holes out of the theater. same goes for those other inconsiderate "moviegoers".

 

[Jason_Els]

I just emailed Ms. Pols with the link to our latest thread regarding this sad and evil state of movie-going. I hope she takes a look because she will see a lot of people not tolerating this and voting with their wallets.
Let the megamultigoogleplexes go down the tubes, I don't care. They certainly don't.

 

[Garrett Lundy]

I propose a "Weakest Link" theater. All of the patrons have a number-pad attached to their seat.

If more than four people type the number code for the etiquette offender's chair, a gaggle of cattle-prod wielding cinema-police will escort them to a nearby cell.

The prisoner will then be held without bail until a court-date is held.

After the prisoner is found guilty (likely unless some people cant read and pressed the incorrect buttons), he or she shall have his/her wages automatically deducted until the full-purchase price of tickets , snacks, and berverages is reimbursed for all the surviving members of the audience.

Orwellian? Yes! But you all secretly know you're in favor of it.

 

[Mark Pfeiffer]

Oh, believe me, we complain about it to each other. I essentially agree with the author's statements. There is something to be said for seeing a film with an audience, assuming it's a polite one.

Generally speaking, the audiences I see movies with are behaved, although it only takes one or two morons to ruin everything. The radio station hosts sometimes whip people into too much of a frenzy before a movie, and they don't settle down until a few minutes into the film. All over a lousy t-shirt or promotional junk!

The critics-only screenings are virtually problem-free, although when I saw The Impostors the arthouse apparently invited a group of old ladies to see it too. There were probably ten to fifteen of them. They sat together and talked the entire time. One of the critics tried to shush them, but that didn't do the trick. I know he went over and said something to them, but that only worked for awhile. Unbelievably aggravating. Didn't help that the movie wasn't any good either.

 

[Seth Paxton]

This is the one that bothered me...

Later I learned this woman was the founder of a certain film festival held each fall in San Francisco.

I agree with her on this, if this lady is going to be rude what chance do any of us have anymore.

WTF? Did I slip into a time warp or something and end up on Planet Dickhead? I don't mind mild whispering in the least because it could be just comments about seeing a fav actor or something else you want to note to your friend about something funny, good, bad, whatever that's happening right then. That's the kind of tolerant I am. Other people experiencing the film with you SHOULD be a good thing and it's going to include some reactions like muttering and gasps, as well as the standard laughs and screams.

But when the conversation is so loud that other people can UNDERSTAND what you are saying, and/or you go on for a long time, period...that freaking sucks. Phones, babies...also stupid.

However, consider this. I'm in graduate EE right now and I have a core course going in Probabilty (grad level, not that easy undergrad stuff). The class has already gone from 30 to 15 due to the difficulty. But in this small, intense class we have had a CELL PHONE go off in almost every single session. Once because you forgot, okay. But today the instructor had to say something before class. This is grad school for chrissake and people have to be told to turn off their phones?

I would be scared shitless of the embarrassment, yet people do that same, slow answering thing as they do anywhere else.

Really, I just can't comprehend this at all, it is so foreign to me it's like an alien culture.

 

[Jason Whyte]

I've encountered so many bloody problems with patrons over the years that I've actually been able to block most of them out. I'm just so friggin' USED to unruly audiences these days that it doesn't seem like a big deal to me anymore. And yet I can still enjoy a quiet auditorium like the rest of them.
I still do get angry at some situations, especially for my more anticipated films. A story for you: When I was seeing Punch-Drunk Love last weekend, a loud woman down my row, with father and son (a son at THIS movie? More on that later) was talking throughout all the previews, and then discovered that her rocking seat squeaked a bit. So she wanted to move. And guess where? RIGHT in the seat next to me!
Now, there are other seats in the auditorium. The woman is loud. And she wants to sit next to me. And I came from way from Vancouver to see this film, my most anticipated movie of the year. And I'm NOT letting this happen. "Sorry, seat's taken." I say. "Oh, really?" she retorts. "Yeah, it's taken, plus it kinda squeaks too, so you don't want to sit there." She then rudely gets up and rocks the seat, informing me that the chair is fine. Desperate to the fact she's going to sit on it, and there aren't other good seats in the auditorium, I threw at her: "Oh, but it squeaks bad if you sit on it. The pressure and all." This WORKED, and thank god she sat back down in her seat, away from me. I could still hear her talking throughout the previews, especially through the one for "Maid in Manhattan". "Yeah, you tell 'em J-Lo! Oh that kid is so cute! Look at that little kid with the hair!"
If that's not bad enough, five minutes later, she gets up and takes her kid to see ANOTHER MOVIE! It turns out that she wasn't even seeing this movie, rather a kid's movie down the hall (I think it was Pokemon). Why she wanted to sit in the seat next to me was beyond me, nevertheless, people like that belong down in the front row.
Jason

 

[Kimmo Jaskari]

Time to make sure all movie theaters are cell-phone dead spots, either by active jamming (unfortunately against the law in the US) or passive shielding. Either way, it should be physically impossible to use cell phones in there, if you need to be reachable at all times - don't go to the movies.

The rest of the rudeness remains a problem of course.

 

[Scott Weinberg]

I never thought anything could keep me out of the movie theaters.

But something did.

People.

 

[Julie K]

The problem is that many people seem to parse "good manners" as "going out and not killing anyone." They seem to think that any other sort of behavior is perfectly acceptable.

 

[John Stone]

Excellent article (but I don't like the headphones idea at all).

I would be scared shitless of the embarrassment

Exactly, same here. I always double-check that my pager is on vibrate and my Nextel is off before I enter the theater (which doesn't happen very often anymore, for the exact reasons that are being discussed here). Unfortunately it seems some people are so self-centered that they genuinely don't feel any shame when they disrupt others at the movies. But that's only part of the problem...
Case in point: Not long ago I radioed (Nextel 2-way radio + cell) a woman I work with around 7:30 PM. For those of you who are not familiar with the Nextel, the radio function blasts your conversation thru a speaker to everyone within earshot. It's quite loud.
ME: "BEEP BEEP! Come in, Pam..."
PAM: "Uh, John we're in the movie theater right now, can I call you back?"
ME: "THEN WHY IS YOUR RADIO ON? TURN IT OFF RIGHT NOW AND STOP BEING RUDE TO THE OTHER PEOPLE TRYING TO ENJOY THE MOVIE"
No response.
The next day she told me the audience, who heard the entire conversation, cheered when I said that. She said that she had never been more embarrassed in her life, and almost left the theater. "Good", I said. I asked her why her radio was on and she replied, "in case there was an emergency". I asked her why it was not in vibrate mode and she said it was because she couldn't remember how to set vibrate mode.

 

[Tommy Ceez]

I wont go for the earphone idea simply because theatre earphones might be the slimiest sceeviest idea ive ever heared. Have you seen some of the filthy bastards out there?

Theatre assholes have driven me into Manhattan where most of the crowd is slightly more serious when it comes to moviegoing...and lets face it, this is a city where on a subway car with 200 people no one will utter a sound.

As for the cellphone issue, my phone is on vibrate all the time, you know why? Because I dont need to impress anyone with my cellphone. Most people let thier cellphone ring because they want people to know that thier important. Same with the nextels, you know that the two-way feature can be used like a phone, only you can hear the speech and the only indication that someones calling is an unassuming chirp. Yet I sit in meetings at work where people carry on conversations for the public to hear.

I have a friend that whenever he contacts co-workers or friends on thier Nextel, askes them about thiwer "rash" or "visit to the clinic" just to ensure that they keep the phone on the quieter mode.

Society has shifted to where everyone believes thier time is more important than anyone elses. But like I said here in NY its a bit better because the ever present threat of verbal abuse and violence actually works to keep alot of people in line.

 

[Terry St]

Yes, it does certainly suck when this sort of thing happens. You really should perform a mental check before getting pissed off though. The vast majority of the time there are maybe one or two cell-phone or talking events in a movie. It's a given. If you let them piss you off it *will* spoil the movie. If you just shrug them off and forget about it, no worries.

If, on the other hand, there is a chronic cell-junkie or talker you can either ignore them, take assertive action, or sit there silently and stew. Stewing will ruin the movie for you, guaranteed. Assertive action may stop the problem or it may escalate it. If you're in the mood for trouble go for it. It may be the only way to spice up a dull movie. Don't think about assertive action, do it. Otherwise you're just stewing. Tuning the trouble makers out, if you can do it, is the most reliable solution.

Personally, I am very good at ignoring everything around me when I'm watching a good movie. I could probably ignore oral sex. It's when the movie sucks that I start noticing things, and the crowd isn't the first thing I notice! Usually it's subs bottoming out because the volume is cranked too high. All too often it's sound bleeding through the wall from the next theatre over because again the theatre staff has cranked the volume way past what the walls were designed to muffle. Then I might actually think about what that rough tuberosity on the arm of the chair I'm in could be... YUCK! By this point a bit of cell phone chat is nothing. For me, the movie itself is what makes or breaks the experience.

(Yes, I am Canadian. Enough with the PM's already!)

 

[Joseph Young]

During the opening night showing of Punch-Drunk Love, a couple with a shrieking baby walked into the theater and sat down. This was during the opening scene, which is quiet and then puncuated with a big shock. Well, none of this had any effect on me or anyone else in the theater. We were all glancing at the couple, who were acting as if nothing was wrong, as their baby squealed and shrieked, "ahh!!ahhh!!ahh!! Ahh!! aaaaaah!!!! waaaa!!!!"

If when I said "Could you please be quiet?" the person next to me would chime in with "Yeah, you're really bringing me down here" and the person on the other side would say "Yeah, why don't you save the chitchat for later?" it would go a long way toward shutting up the loudmouths.

The sentiments here are in the right place, and I agree with the concept. Sadly, though, asking a dumb, boorish moron to be quiet in a language they do not understand (politeness and courtesy) gets one nowhere.

~j

 

[Gregory E]

The problem is that many people seem to parse "good manners" as "going out and not killing anyone." They seem to think that any other sort of behavior is perfectly acceptable.

Yeah, I agree with that. Usually when I go to the theater (which is rarely), the main problem seems to be kids 12-16 years old. They seem to think it's funny to spend $9 of mom and dad's money to go to a movie and ruin it for everybody. I'd like to find a theater that's for adult's only (and I don't mean XXX movies).

 

[Brent Bridgeman]

I could probably ignore oral sex. It's when the movie sucks that I start noticing things

Dang, what theater do you go to?!? Headphones, shmedphones, I want them to install this oral sexalator thingy in my local theaters!

 

[David Rogers]

Gave her an email too, linked to the August thread that went 6+ pages where we discussed it. Maybe she'll start a trend of papers across the nation discussing the problem. Maybe enough exposure will shame a lot of folks to STFU!

Oh well, I can dream. In my dreams, not only is life more like the movies, but when we go to the movies, its 100% fun with no downers.

 

[Jack Briggs]

That's the funniest thing I've read all day. Too bad it's true.

 

[Scott Weinberg]

I just got back from a matinee of Below, which was pretty damn good.
Anyhoo, when my friend Josh and I walked in, we were pleased to see a lot of senior-types sitting there - but we shouldn't have been.
There were maybe 8 other people in the theater, but nearly all of them were the sort who offers comments like:
"Ooooh, look behind the curtain!"
"That guy's gonna get it now!"
and
"That's one wet room!"
Sigh.