Prefer to Watch Movies at Home or the Theatre

[glass]

I don't have any real horror stories about the cimena. Well there were a few kids making a racket, and standing up and gesturing during Batman & Robin, but they were a blessing in disguise as they distracted me from how bad the film was.

Generally though, unless it's an event like RotS, I only see high certificate films at the cimena. You may get idiots of all ages, but crying babies don't tend to be 18!


glass.

 

[takyris]

Star Cinema has a promotion called "Baby Box Office." It's a movie that is played every Tuesday at 10am and is a little softer than normal with the lights in the theater made a little brighter than normal. When I first saw this, I thought it was a great idea; then I saw what movies they played. Here are some examples:

The Bourne Supremacy
Batman Begins
Star Wars: Episode III
Bewitched
Herbie: Fully Loaded
Mr & Mrs Smith
The Perfect Man

It's called "Baby Box Office". If it's a baby and not a six-year-old, it's not really watching the movie. You don't face the baby toward the screen, you rock the baby back and forth or nurse the baby or give the baby a bottle or let the baby sleep in your lap or whatever. You're not holding the baby up to let the vicious evisceration scenes really sink in. The baby is not watching the movie.

Those kinds of programs are specifically offered so that parents can see movies that don't involve trying to figure out which of the shapes the floating unicorn is juggling is a triangle, or how many apples the cow has eaten. To show only G-rated movies would sort of miss the entire point.

I hope this alleviates your confusion.

 

[reveal]

It's called "Baby Box Office". If it's a baby and not a six-year-old, it's not really watching the movie. You don't face the baby toward the screen, you rock the baby back and forth or nurse the baby or give the baby a bottle or let the baby sleep in your lap or whatever. You're not holding the baby up to let the vicious evisceration scenes really sink in. The baby is not watching the movie.

Those kinds of programs are specifically offered so that parents can see movies that don't involve trying to figure out which of the shapes the floating unicorn is juggling is a triangle, or how many apples the cow has eaten. To show only G-rated movies would sort of miss the entire point.

I hope this alleviates your confusion.

Um, ok.

It might be called "Baby Box Office," but a) the description of the program states that kids under 2 get in free so even they acknowledge it's not just for infants and b) I highly doubt that people with babies are going to be the only people going to that movie. If you're going to show movies where small children are present, at the very least do not show R rated movies. Regardless of how "mature" your child is, there is a lot of stuff shown in R rated movies that is confusing and frightening to young ones.

 

[takyris]

Um, ok.

It might be called "Baby Box Office," but a) the description of the program states that kids under 2 get in free so even they acknowledge it's not just for infants and b) I highly doubt that people with babies are going to be the only people going to that movie. If you're going to show movies where small children are present, at the very least do not show R rated movies. Regardless of how "mature" your child is, there is a lot of stuff shown in R rated movies that is confusing and frightening to young ones.

Fine, infants and toddlers. I can see not showing "Saw" to a 2-year-old, but there is a fairly large difference a) between "Saw" and most of the movies up there and b) between a 2-year-old and a 5 or 6-year old. The degree of interaction with the screen is fairly different, and while I'd probably have the 2-year-old in my lap facing me so that he didn't see any scary stuff on the screen, but you can still convince a 2-year-old that a spaceship battle is just a lot of pretty colored lights.

As for you highly doubting that people with babies will be the only ones there... uh, really? You really think that people are going to say, "Hey, I'm free during the day, and while I don't have children myself, I've decided to spend the afternoon in a movie theater at a showing specifically designed to be accessible to babies, complete with nursing mothers and screaming infants and kids spitting up all over the place... yeah, that's a wonderful idea. Let's do that." And if they do, what exactly does it have to do with your point?

I'm guessing that you think that babies shouldn't be at those movies, despite a) the vision limitations of the very young, b) the attention spans and sleep schedules of the slightly older ones who COULD see the screen from that far away, and c) the lack of interaction with the people on the screens, which they don't really identify as living people until they're older.

I await your backing for such a claim, which I'm sure will be much more enlightening than "Well, if a 6-year-old couldn't handle a movie like that, a 6-month-old shouldn't be able to handle it either," and which might very well reference American Baby, Baby Center, or any of the other baby-advice sites, several of which mention not plunking the child down in front of the screen as a substitute for paying attention to them yourself but suspiciously few of which mention not allowing your sleeping, nursing, or burping baby into the theater of a movie whose sound has been lowered to be less disturbing, for fear that they'll suddenly develop an attention span and improved visual faculties and become deeply scarred by watching Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt flirt on the dance floor.

The movies aren't for the kids. The movies are for the parent (usually but not always the mom) who is stuck with the child all day and who might really appreciate the chance to see a grown-up movie in a theater that won't be full of people griping at her because her baby is crying or nursing. It's possible, just possible, that the movie folks did a little research and thought about things beforehand and decided which movies were ones that parents might want to see and that weren't wall-to-wall carnage and violence, such that parents who wanted to ensure that their baby didn't see a lot of violence during the Bourne movie could cover the baby's head with a blanket during the graphic parts.

But I'm sure you've thought about it more than they have, as a theater professional and as a parent.

 

[reveal]

But I'm sure you've thought about it more than they have, as a theater professional and as a parent.

Ok. I think you're taking this way to far. I expressed an opinion and you're berating me for it. I don't think it's a good thing and you do. Let's just leave it at that because, honestly, I couldn't care less what you think on this topic.

 

[takyris]

Ok. I think you're taking this way to far. I expressed an opinion and you're berating me for it. I don't think it's a good thing and you do. Let's just leave it at that because, honestly, I couldn't care less what you think on this topic.

I apologize if it came off as overly emphatic. As somebody who leaves his wife at home every day, I strongly support those baby-cinema deals as a good way for her to get out of the house and maybe even feel like a grown-up for a couple hours. Evidently you feel otherwise, or you believe that they should show different movies, or you just thought that making the confused face was an excellent way to make a point.

That said, while I apologize if I offended you, I do think that when you make a disapproving statement, particularly a statement that is an implicit attack on the parenting skills of the people who attend these baby-cinema shows, you ought to be ready to back it up.

But then, parenting is important to me, and I'm going to get into a very enthusiastic and energetic debate with someone who knocks my parenting skills without putting some facts on the table to support their claims.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

I remember standing outside of the theater after Natural Born Killers was over and seeing families with kids come out. I was thinking, "What the **** is wrong with you people!"

 

[reveal]

I apologize if it came off as overly emphatic. As somebody who leaves his wife at home every day, I strongly support those baby-cinema deals as a good way for her to get out of the house and maybe even feel like a grown-up for a couple hours. Evidently you feel otherwise, or you believe that they should show different movies, or you just thought that making the confused face was an excellent way to make a point.

That said, while I apologize if I offended you, I do think that when you make a disapproving statement, particularly a statement that is an implicit attack on the parenting skills of the people who attend these baby-cinema shows, you ought to be ready to back it up.

But then, parenting is important to me, and I'm going to get into a very enthusiastic and energetic debate with someone who knocks my parenting skills without putting some facts on the table to support their claims.

A) If you expect me to backup my rationalization for my opinion, please do not insult me. I will be happy to do it otherwise.

B) I made no such attack on parenting skills, yours or others. I merely stated that young children are at a disadvantage because they have a hard time distinguishing fact from fiction. For example: My wife and I watch Star Trek:Voyager on DVD. My 3 year old son sometimes watches them with us. When he was 2, he grew fond of the Doctor. He would recognize him in other shows, like Stargate:SG-1. In one episode of Voyager, the Doctor was "possessed" by a computer program and was hurting people. My son cried because he did not understand why the doctor was acting the way he did. Based on this example, you can see why I have my opinion. And that is how I base a lot of my opinions, either by personal experience, research, or both. In this case, it's purely experience because it's not that important of an issue to me (Baby Box Office), so I haven't researched anything.

C) To reiterate, I did not attack parenting skills. I attacked the choices by the theater to show certain movies. My son loves Batman. However, I will not let him see Batman Begins (PG-13) until he is much older. Why? [sblock]Because of the scenes involving Scarecrow. When he uses his poisonous gas, the scenes become very scary, I believe, for young children.[/sblock] And while it is true that parents can turn the childs head or cover them with a blanket, if you haven't seen the movie beforehand, you wouldn't know when to do this, thereby exposing your child to things you may not want them exposed to.

BTW, I'm glad you value parenting so much. It's important to me as well.

 

[reveal]

I remember standing outside of the theater after Natural Born Killers was over and seeing families with kids come out. I was thinking, "What the **** is wrong with you people!"

That was the first movie I took my then-girlfriend/now-wife to.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Well I enjoyed the movie, but seeing a group of kids that had to be ages 5-10 walk out with thier parents was kind of odd.