Liked the movie-- hated going to see it...

[WmRAllen67]

So, this will probably be a familiar rant, but I need to get it off my chest...

I took myself to see King Kong today, at the early show (11:10a) here on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania in West Philadelphia...

Kong was good-- the movie crowd wasn't. Here I thought I would be safe, going to an early show while the students were off on break. Instead I got what looked like a day-care group on an outing (twelve or so ten-to-thirteen year olds who went "Eew!" at the bugs, the kisses &c &c ad nauseam) and a young urban mother who spent half the movie talking to her child (who can't have been more than five) and the other half commenting about the bugs ("Eew!") and warning the actors on the screen when they were about to do something where she could see the plot coming ("Uh-uh, you don't wanna go there!")

I didn't enjoy the experience as much as I think I should or would have...

So what's the deal? Are people just getting more stupid, or am I just getting too old? At the risk of being deemed "insensitive to diversity" or even "a goddamn bigot", is it just an inner-city ethnic thing? Or do you ENWorlders in the 'burbs experience the same thing? Is a lack of class, respect and etiquette endemic in society these days?

And does anyone else think that Kong might have been a poor choice of movie for the pre-teen and under set? My brother and sister-in-law would never take their firstborn (4 1/2 years) to a movie like this...

 

[Greylock]

Went to see Narnia on Xmas day. Family sitting behind me got my attention a few times, but mainly because of the young kids. They, at least, were very caught up in the movie, and enjoying it. Their dad simply failed to remind them they were in a public place. But I didn't mind. They were "in the moment."

Then, towards the end of the movie, their Dad gets a phone call on his cellular. Deems it important enough to discuss mundane crap with someone, and tries to speak over the movie. During the frakin' CLIMATIC, and LOUD battle sequence. For the entire! battle.

Grrrr... Even standing up and staring him down didn't do any good.

 

[WmRAllen67]

Went to see Narnia on Xmas day. Family sitting behind me got my attention a few times, but mainly because of the young kids. They, at least, were very caught up in the movie, and enjoying it. Their dad simply failed to remind them they were in a public place. But I didn't mind. They were "in the moment."

Then, towards the end of the movie, their Dad gets a phone call on his cellular. Deems it important enough to discuss mundane crap with someone, and tries to speak over the movie. During the frakin' CLIMATIC, and LOUD battle sequence. For the entire! battle.

Grrrr... Even standing up and staring him down didn't do any good.

"Ooh!" "Aah!" and even "Eek!" wouldn't have bothered me half as much as the "girls/ boys have cooties" "Eeew!" did during the kissing scenes... which is why I wondered about the propriety of taking pre-teens to this sort of movie...

Damn glad we didn't (surprisingly) have a cell phone incident today... I've actually heard the "Hey dude, whassup?... No, man I'm at the movies... No it sucks" conversation before...

 

[Torm]

People aren't teaching their kids theatre manners anymore, or observing them themselves - why, I'm not sure. I do know that pretty much every time I go to the theatre these days, I can pretty much count on seeing at least one instance of kids behaving in a way I would have been spanked for at their age in a theatre, while their parents look on without doing anything about it. Not to mention the cell phone idiots....

 

[bodhi]

I went to see Narnia opening weekend with my girlfriend. Lotta kids in the theater, family-friendly film and all, and I was a bit concerned about how they'd behave. Turns out all the kids were fine. The one I wanted to kick out was the middle-aged woman sitting nearby with her...husband? boyfriend? day-trip chaperone?

Before the movie started, she was surprised at how crowded the theater was, and wondered if "this is a popular movie or something". Opening weekend for a movie with a lot of promotion based on a hugely popular book.

During the movie, she'd pipe up with insightful tidbits like "He's a lion!"

The great injustice, of course, is that if I had smacked her, they'd have kicked me out.

I don't know if people are any less polite or etiquette-savvy now than they used to be, but I sure do see a lot of rude, self-absorbed twits. And not just in movie theaters.

 

[Torm]

Grrrr... Even standing up and staring him down didn't do any good.

Glad I wasn't in your place - I hate to think what sort of trouble snatching the phone out of his hand and smashing it up against the theatre wall would have gotten me in.

P.S. to WmRAllen67: It isn't an ethnic thing.

 

[Dungannon]

Crowd etiquette is the main reason I rarely go to see movies in the theatre anymore. It has definitely gotten worse over the past twenty years.

 

[Greylock]

Oh heck, while I'm at it... The good guys DID win the battle? Right? Right??

 

[Dog Moon]

Wow, I guess I've just been really lucky. I don't go to see movies much anymore, but the last like 6-7 times I don't think I've had any problems [except for one, and it really wasn't THAT bad; people behind me and to the left made an occasional comment about the movie, but they weren't being terribly loud; I mainly heard them cause I was like three seats from them], and a couple of those times have been pretty packed. I've seen movies in the afternoon, evening, and night at different theatres. Maybe I just miss all the major problems or something.

 

[Wormwood]

Find the most expensive theater in town and watch a 10:00PM showing. You can weed out the crib-lizards and some of the unemployables.

You pay a little extra, but it's worth it.

edit: what is wrong with screaming "shut the up!" at the morons who talk on the cell phone during a film?