Horrifying Multiplex Sights and Sounds

[Naminator]

Originally posted by JasonKurtz
When I saw Anaconda the film actually caught fire. I was actually quite ecstatic to be getting my $8.50 back halfway through the movie. Sort of like a gift from god.

What did that look like on the screen?

That would be a cool effect... it should have been in Requiem for a Dream.

[DavidLaman]

If I Owned a Multiplex ...

I'd ensure the comfort and safety of my considerate patrons by implementing 'round-the-clock security in all my theaters. Never mind ushers (remember those?). Ushers cave in and take too much shit. How about bouncers? BIG fearless guys ... yet polite ... with hair-trigger tempers ... and sexy ... for something to admire before the lights dim....

WANTED: BOUNCERS FOR ZERO-TOLERANCE MULTIPLEX THEATER
$20 per hour. Full-time/Part-time. 401k. Medical/Dental.
Daycare on Premises (supervised by RN Nannies).
Free Movies. Free Concession Treats.

REQUIREMENTS: You MUST love movies and get pissed at
flagrant disruptions during performances. You MUST
be polite ... at first ... but lose all regard for
assault and battery laws at the slightest challenge.
You must NOT wince at the thought of shoving beepers and
cell phones up asses, literally knocking teeth down
the throats of noisy troublemakers, or striking
disruptive unchaperoned juveniles who curse
at annoyed adults and then threaten child abuse
charges if they retaliate (just make sure the
brat can't tell what happened either orally or
with sign language ... better yet, try for
a blow to the head only hard enough to trigger
amnesia).

PERKS: Free Body Massages After a Hard, Muscle-Tensing
Day of Kicking Out Movie Marring Scum (Administered in
Owner's Luxurious Yet Masculine Office ... By Owner's Big Hands ...
With All the Therapeutic Pressure His 6'6" Frame Can
Muster). Free Before-Massage Bubble Bath (With Owner
Optional) Upon Request. Free Vodka, Beer and, or, Mood
Music Upon Request (Vast Selection from Showtunes to
Eminem). Free Amusements Upon Request (Hint: Owner's
Desk Folds Out Into a Big Bed).

All Kidding Aside -- My Pitch to Multiplex Owners

Why not install volume-control headphone jacks into your sound systems, in all the seats (patrons bring their own headphones)? Cost? Doesn't it cost more in the long-run when less and less people fill your concession registers (where most of your profits come from)? People just "wait for the DVD" and enjoy the movie in the QUIET of their homes. I believe the headphone idea makes loads of sense: some asshole starved for attention (and these freaks seem VORACIOUS for negative attention) starts in with his shit ... OUT collectively come the headphones ... PLUG goes the jacks ... CONTROL goes the sound levels. The asshole can talk on his cell phone all he wants, or bitch at his stupid date, or make loud, obnoxious remarks. He'll probably leave when he notices his attention-getting tactics ain't workin' here.

SOUND REASONABLE, FOLKS?

DISCUSS.

[Morticia]

Great idea David! I'd buy that for many dollars.

I actually heard about some "luxury" theatres that would be tried out soon, most likely in California.

The ticket prices would be higher ($25-$30) but the seats would be comfy leather, and there would be a full restaurant and wait-service. That means your meals would be delivered to you!

I also imagine there would be fewer seats than the average Multiplex.

The obvious bonus? Keeps the rabble out, and I'm betting the wait staff could shush any high dollar buttmuch that talks on his/her cell.

[theta]

Originally posted by Morticia
Great idea David! I'd buy that for many dollars.

I actually heard about some "luxury" theatres that would be tried out soon, most likely in California.

The ticket prices would be higher ($25-$30) but the seats would be comfy leather, and there would be a full restaurant and wait-service. That means your meals would be delivered to you!

I also imagine there would be fewer seats than the average Multiplex.

The obvious bonus? Keeps the rabble out, and I'm betting the wait staff could shush any high dollar buttmuch that talks on his/her cell.

Sounds like a cinema drafthouse. Fun places, especially the wait staff.

As for cell phones, a new gimrack is coming along to make that question moot. It's from Israel. It's about the size of a hardback. It has two stubby antennas.

It blocks all cellular phone service for a city block.

And, failing that, there's that other great Israeli invention, the Uzi 9mm.

[3DMan]

Yea there's a place like that here called the Studio Movie Grill. Outrageous yuppie prices on food, drinks, Francis Ford Coppolla wine, tables with rolling chairs. Great!

And no matter how bad it gets, I will ALWAYS go to the movies at the theater. There is just something about seeing FILM and not video that's not describable. Unless I could get a 35mm projector at home and some prints.

[scarredgod]

Originally posted by Soggy Bagel's Revenge!
Haha! Just yet another reason the frequent the arthouses... ^_^

People in attendance there ususally tend to respect the cinema a bit more and keep quiet.

now that i have been seeing more films at the "arthouse" i would say its almost the same. the problem being that apparantly a lot of the people in attendence are film students, who are getting extra credit for their classes by showing up at some of these films, films like "uzumaki" and "cure" and the coffin joe films recently, and theyre behaving and heckling like we are watching an ed wood film. maybe they feel these films are beneath them, and they could do better, only time will tell that but the lack of respect for people who have already made films, as opposed to just going to school for it, are getting them off on the wrong foot IMHO.

Originally posted by redshifter
here's my short list of true multiplex stories:

- guy has heart attack and dies in middle of movie

I don't know about the rest of you, but that sounds like a good way to go. (I'll just try to hold on to the credits and then just FADE OUT. That sounds nice and poetic.)

I just remembered something that happened to me and a group of friends the opening night of Mission Impossible 2 .

We had arrived at the theatre early enough for the ten of us to dominate the center of the third row in the stadium seating section. Perfect seats!

Unfortunately, just as Tom Cruise was getting his instructions in the funky sunglasses, there was a fire alarm. (The theatre was only a month old and they had been having some kinks with the fire alarm system going off randomly about once every couple of nights. This wasn't the first time that it happened to me there, but I think it was the last.)

Everyone in the place, and there are 20 screens at theis multiplex, files out into the parking lot to wait the twenty minutes or so for the fire department to say that it's cool to go back inside. Since the movie hadn't really gotten going, we weren't too put out. And the fact that the management gave everyone there (and this is a Friday night) a pass to see another movie for free soothed a lot of people.

When we got back inside, there was some big fat guy sitting right in the middle of our row! Since we had been outside, we all had taken our jackets and the gals had taken their purses, there was no way to "hold" our seats. I just assumed we would all be adults about this and return tothe seats we had.

We asked the guy if he could move but he just looked at us as if we were the rude ones. I wound up volunteering to sit elsewhere and picked the seat right behind the guy and spent the rest of the movie just randonly kicking the back of his seat.

But, for every bad thing that I've had happen to me at the theatres, and the fat guy is probably the most extreme, I've had plenty of good experiences to out weigh them.

[theta]

Originally posted by scarredgod
now that i have been seeing more films at the "arthouse" i would say its almost the same. the problem being that apparantly a lot of the people in attendence are film students, who are getting extra credit for their classes by showing up at some of these films, films like "uzumaki" and "cure" and the coffin joe films recently, and theyre behaving and heckling like we are watching an ed wood film. maybe they feel these films are beneath them, and they could do better, only time will tell that but the lack of respect for people who have already made films, as opposed to just going to school for it, are getting them off on the wrong foot IMHO.

I speak as a film student when I say most film students haven't earned the priviledge of being in film school. Either they want to be Michael Bay or they want to be Mike Figgis, but NONE of them want to think.

[redshifter]

Originally posted by redshifter
here's my short list of true multiplex stories:

- guy has heart attack and dies in middle of movie
Originally posted by frulad
I don't know about the rest of you, but that sounds like a good way to go. (I'll just try to hold on to the credits and then just FADE OUT. That sounds nice and poetic.)

it was during the climactic swordfight at the end of "the princess bride". the paramedics came right into the theater and gave him cpr. they kept the movie running. after we saw him being loaded into the ambulance in the parking lot.

Why not install volume-control headphone jacks into your sound systems, in all the seats (patrons bring their own headphones)? Cost? Doesn't it cost more in the long-run when less and less people fill your concession registers (where most of your profits come from)?

great idea, david. they could use dolby headphone surround decoders to simulate surround. do they still have wireless headphones for the hearing impared in movie theaters? i always wondered if i could buy a reciever and plug my own headphones in at the movies. i often wear musician's earplugs at the movies. the reduce the sound level but do not muffle the sound. they also cut down the annoying sound of people around me so i can concentrate on the movie.

[3DMan]

Kind of defeats the purpose of going to a THX billion-speaker theater to listen to it on headphones.

[Oscar Antonio M]

When i went to see "We Were Soldiers"... (in a Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, one of those MMCINEMAS)
at the Popcorn counter a woman cutted of her forehead and arms with something and though she wasnt bleeding a lot, she did have blood and was crying and almost screaming, when we got in the theater, well it was almost full it was kind of small the movie got started and my friend told me "Im gonna go for the rest of the popcorn and sodas" then this lady comes along and says to me "Hey, could you please let us those seats?" and i told her "If they werent reserved, i would" and then she gave me the finger and went away somewhere.

Anyways up from that point it was a really memorable experience in a theater: Great film, great DD audio, very good image and kick-ass trailers (The Two Towers, HP2 and the Matrix sequels)

[redshifter]

Originally posted by 3DMan
Kind of defeats the purpose of going to a THX billion-speaker theater to listen to it on headphones.

sure, if you WANT ear-shattering, bright and harsh digital sound drilling into your ears for 3 hours. my ears were ringing after fotr, and this was at the cinerama which has the ultimate state of the art sound system.

using earbuds would still allow surround cues from the outside speakers, and you'll still feel/hear the sub no matter what. using dolby headphone can also give you surround sound on heapdhones.

hey, if it's not for you, fine. i'm a headphone geek and would like to try it sometime.

[Cap42086]

Originally posted by frulad
I don't know about the rest of you, but that sounds like a good way to go. (I'll just try to hold on to the credits and then just FADE OUT. That sounds nice and poetic.)

Actually, to me it sounds pretty funny. I mean, just the thought of a guy having a heart attack in the middle of a crowded theater is just hysterical (albeit extremely mean).

And that's nothing compared to the guy who started hyperventilating during his "private time" when I went to go see Monster's Ball. That obnoxous breathing.... Maybe he was exagerating or doing it on purpous, but it was still pretty bad.

[Krypto the Super Dog]

I was in a theater once watching MIB. Several teenagers came and tried to sit together but the theater was packed and they had top sit seperately. Three of them took seats in front of my friends and I. About 15 minutes into the film one of the teenagers cell phones goes off. He mumbles something about "yay that was cool" and hangs up. Five minutes later he dials his cell phone and about fifteen feet behind me a cell phone rings. the guy in front of me says" that was awesome hey" and hangs up. Then it occured to me the split up friends were calling each other to talk about the movie. They did this a few more times and then got the bright idea of just leaving the phone on and talking constantly like some sort of walkie talkies. The guy in front of me, because the movie was so loud, turned up the volume on the cell so loud that I could hear the guy on the line talking. My friend beside me got fed up grabbed the phone and tossed it at the nearest exit. The teens were not very happy about that but as they were out numbered about 4 to 1 they did not do anything about it and as I knew the theater manager they did'nt take any notice of the teen when he complained about what we did.

[disclover]

[QUOTE Of course if you saw the oil that it was popped in you would realize that matter how much salt you avoided putting in the corn, you were still going to die. Hell I probably got high cholesterol just sitting next to it. [/b][/quote]

Of course, if you saw what else had been IN your popcorn before you ate it, you would not have to worry about dying because you wouldn't be eating the corn...

My wife's friends used to work in a movie theatre (too bad they don't anymore...I miss the free passes), and she used to describe the way they stored the popcorn they served there. Let's just say that by the time the patrons got it, it had already been sampled by a few four-legged, furry creatures...

I haven't eaten movie theatre popcorn in probably a dozen years, and I never will again.

I also heard some entertaining stories about what went on in the projection booths...let's just say all the entertainment was not on the screen...

[MARVEL]

Originally posted by disclover
I also heard some entertaining stories about what went on in the projection booths...let's just say all the entertainment was not on the screen...

As a former projectionist I can say that is more than true!
By the way this is one funny assed thread. This is Off topic but for us people that have been here for a while, speaking of funny threads, whatever happened to the Yea thread?

[esc]

MORTAL KOMBAT 1, opening day, one of the first shows, packed theather, i am with about 10 friends and we are psyched as shit to see this movie. friggin 5 year old behind us pointing at the screen every time one of the characters from the game appears saying RAIIIIIIIIDEN! Mommy RAIIIIIIIIIIIDEN! Daaaaady! Look its RAIIIIIDEN. ooo Sub Zero! Moooommy Sub Zero! Johnny Cage ! Johnny Cage! it took about a minute of this before i turned around, looked at the two people on either side of him and asked, loud enough for the whole row to hear, 'Does Anyone Own This Kid? Anyone??!' at which point i whip 3 five dollar bills out of my wallet and shove them towards the kid. 'If you can't get him to be quiet, take him to the next show and have him bother someone else' (ya those were the days huh? $5 canadian for a matinee) The two adults on either side of him just starred at me speechless like i had slapped them around with a dildo and they weren't sure whether to be embarresed or pissed off. i stuffed the money back in my pants and turned around. i heard some whispering from behind me over the next couple minutes and somehow they got the kid to shut up.

[MRSMITH]

Local multiplex horror stories and personal
experience are partly what drove me to
buy a 65-inch widescreeen more than a
year ago - and I havn't been back to one
of those slimepits since. And don't intend
to return anytime soon.

Now, I enjoy a vastly better image and
sound than ever seen at those crappy
multiplexes. True, the hardware has
set me back thousands of dollars, but
I consider it worth every damn dime.

And what of the latest movie releases?
Many appear as a pristine DVD within as
little as 90 days after completing their
theatrical run - a wait well worth the
tradeoff when I can view the film far
better than the multiplex provided.

Now, if I could just somehow squeeze
an IMAX system into my home ...

[3DMan]

Originally posted by redshifter
hey, if it's not for you, fine. i'm a headphone geek and would like to try it sometime.

True, I've never been a headphone dude. Probably because I've never been able to afford a decent pair. I also get awesome sound from my THX UA Galaxy 10 here, so I'm probably lucky(although playing drums probably gave me enough hearing loss to make up for overcranked levels).

[Lannister]

This is an entertaining thread. I'm curious - has anyone ever gotten violent or even more obnoxious when you criticize their noise or rudeness? That's always been my experience. Someone's cell phone goes off, you shush him, so he talks even louder.

I've had a couple of horrible experiences. During Spiderman, this punk got, literally, about 25 phone calls on his cell. (I got the manager to throw him out.) During Attack of the Clones, the moron next to my wife pulled out a cell phone and placed a call. When I asked him to stop talking, he shushed ME and told me people were tying to watch the movie. Closest I've ever come to murder.

Now, we usually go to see movies early on Sunday afternoon. The theatre is usually pretty much empty because the morons are still aslepp.

i once went to the movies, and saw a package of open condoms!

yes, i said condoms!

a sad day indeed!

[TheSeeker]

At a screening of Goodfellas in DC years ago my girlfriend and I sat behind three gangbanger types who lauged hysterically when Ray Liotta beat the holy c$%p out of the guy in his driveway

[Morticia]

Originally posted by MARVEL
...This is Off topic but for us people that have been here for a while, speaking of funny threads, whatever happened to the Yea thread?

Oh, it's still here, just buried in all the software threads.

no one got this link from this post, understand?

http://www.dvdfile.com/interactive/f...threadid=12280



Ahem, gosh, all these posts remind me of why I resist going to see a movie in theatres. Tho resisting "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" and "LOTR: The Two Towers" is gonna be difficult, if not impossible. Oh, and thanks for the tips on timing your visits...I hope it'll work.

[3DMan]

I have never gotten violent, and I am not a violent man, but if ANYONE tried to deny me the pleasure of my first viewing of a movie I would toss his ass to the bottom of the stairs in a heartbeat, no matter the size. I love movies. And as Adam Sandler in Punch-Drunk Love said "My love makes me stronger than you can imagine" or something like that. :rar:

[DavidLaman]

My friends "Joe" and "Kelly" always trusted their 14-year-old daughter "Bonnie" (straight A's in school, outgoing, pleasant, never a foul word about anyone) and her three closest girlfriends (just as "perfect" as Bonnie) unchaperoned at the multiplex ... until last weekend. Bonnie wound up being grounded to her room (with no computer, phone, television, music center ... she's living the Little House on the Prairie life) for 6 months. She comes home from school and has to stay in there accept for dinner. Joe and Kelly don't bend. It sticks. No caving in for them! Her perfect girlfriends fell into the same situation (since Kelly knows all of their parents).

What happened to cause these little bitches their punishments?

Kelly read my DVDFILE MULTIPLEX BOARD and was particularly interested in the unchaperoned teen stuff. She decided to drop off the girls and then sneak into the theater after they got their goodies and into the theater. She slunk in unnoticed by the girls and managed to sit three rows behind the foursome. Kelly said the girls were talking quietly before the lights went down. She said the theater was getting pretty full, and people sat in front of her. When the lights went down, Bonnie and her friends started getting giggly and noisier. When the feature started, they were at full throttle: laughing and talking. Kelly said she hollered down at them in the best phony voice she could muster: "Please settle down, girls. Or I'll get the manager." To Kelly's horror, Bonnie yelled out -- without turning around -- "Shut the fuck up, bitch!" The girls giggled. Kelly said she saw one of the girls trying to see where the voice was coming from in the dark. She turned her head back around and whispered something to Bonnie and the other girls. This girl said just loud enough, in a stage whisper, for her to hear: "We'll just wait outside for the cunt and kick her ass!" More ribald laughter. Kelly said that other people were looking at her, with expressions of embarrassment. Kelly said she was shaking with rage, but she calmed herself down before making a scene with her kid and her friends. Kelly said she managed to get out of the theater without the girls seeing her. She had a PLAN. A juicy PLAN. She got the manager, explained everything. A man came out and started to complain about the girls. Kelly said she explained everything to the man. She put her head together with the manager and the man. The manager would kick the girls out but not tell them about Kelly. Kelly left for home while the man pointed the girls out to the manager.

Kelly got a phone call from the manager. The manager said the girls were kicked out and thanked her and hoped her plan goes well. Kelly expected Bonnie to wait the two hours to call her to come pick them up. She had plenty of time to take everything involving modern technology out of Bonnie's room. And then she called the other girls' mothers and told them what happened and what she's doing. They were horrified and agreed to do the same.

Bonnie got the call from her cheery daughter. The movie was great and yada yada. Kelly picked the girls up, acted like nothing had happened. She dropped off the girls. When she and Bonnie got home, Kelly went about her business. Bonnie screamed in horror, "What happened in here?!"

For the entire 6 month punishment, Kelly took it upon herself to address her daughter the way she and her equally punished friends spoke to her in the theater. "Dinner time, bitch!" or "How was school, cunt?"

Her daughter's a nervous wreck already. Kelly stopped the verbal abuse with the names, but the grounding sticks. No friends, no activities. Home from school, study, dinner, study, bed. No music, no television, no nothing. Bonnie's not complaining, amazingly. She's taking her lumps. She also learned that when the grounding's over, she can only go to the movies, or anywhere else, with her parents ... until she graduates from high school. No exceptions.

[Oscar Antonio M]

Gee-whiz David. Thats a great story, maybe showing them Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me will show them more of what will happen if they keep acting like that.

[DavidLaman]

showing them Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me will show them more of what will happen if they keep acting like that.

Never saw the movie, but it sounds sinister ... what happened?:rar:

[SebastianCole]

Oh David that is just too good.

Not only is it not a good idea to piss off people in general, it's really not a good idea to piss off CLEVER people. Because we'll get our revenge and you'll never see it coming.

[Oscar Antonio M]

Originally posted by DavidLaman

Never saw the movie, but it sounds sinister ... what happened?:rar:

Uh, if you´ve never seen Twin Peaks (the series) i prefer not to tell you.

[rtcpenguin]

just two weeks ago, I went to see "8 Mile" with a group of about 8 friends. five minutes into the movie, a group of five 13-year-old girls came in and sat right behind us. for the first twenty minutes of the movie, they giggled at every single line of dialogue. then my friend, stood up, turned around and yelled "shut the hell up".

and they did...

[DavidLaman]

Originally posted by rtcpenguin
I went to see "8 Mile" ... a group of five 13-year-old girls came in and sat right behind us. [/b]

8 Mile 's an R-rated movie. Those little turds bought tickets for a PG or PG-13 movie and snuck into 8 Mile .

That's another problem. Why the hell don't these multiplexes position bouncers 24/7 at all entrances to theaters showing R-rated movies. They check ticket stubs and ID's.

Am I a Grinch, or what?

[DavidLaman]

Originally posted by DavidLaman
[i]Am I a Grinch, or what?

I'm really spoiling things for all Screen Stealers ...

How about positioning staff 24/7 at the entrances of
all theaters ... no matter the rating of the movie. They check all ticket stubs. This prevents people from buying a ticket for one movie and then spending the day going from theater to theater. The multiplex makes this easier than ever. Those box-office tallies for individual films? Not accurate because of Screen Stealers! If all multiplexes put my policy into practice, the profits for individual films would more than likely rise at least a quarter more than what they come in it at now. Admittedly, I've been tempted to be a Screen Stealer (a few coworkers of mine are experts at this practice ... they buy tickets for the first screening of the day on a Saturday or Sunday, knowing the next starting times of each movie they want to see so it coincides with the ending time of the previous movie ... that way they don't miss a frame of the next movie they want to see ... they spend the entire day hopping from one movie to the next without paying for them ... they're really sneaky and good at what they do ... they never return to the concession all day ... just stay in the halls until the next movie starts ... they've never been caught). But my temptation always goes away when I think, "I will be caught, everyone else and their mother gets away with it, but I will be caught ... even if I do it just one time." That's the kind of luck I have, folks. Plus, I honestly think Screen Stealers make the concession prices rise and rise. The multiplex owners make such a small percentage from each box-office take, it's not funny. They make most of their profits from concessions. The less and less each movie profits because of Screen Stealers, the more and more concession prices escalate over time. They're already ridiculous!

Damn, people. Stop me from bitching like this. Help me. I can't stop! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

[SilentBob]

Well the thing is Theaters can't afford to place a man at each door to check tickets. Usually one or two people will rip tickets on one side for all movies. We have never had a problem with screen jumpers. We are only an Eight Plex (soon to be 12) Lately we do tallies of people in the theater to see how many tickets have been sold. We also keep an eye out for people from the proj. booth. We call down to Box Office and they will let us know if anyone has bought a ticket or how many should be in the theater. If something seems wrong we will check tickets. We are suppose to chech tickets before they enter the movie and if they are getting something from concession. If they don't have their ticket, then they are sent back into the theater to retrieve it. We just love to kick out people. Plus insentives are sometimes given for ticket checks too (write numbers on tickets and if all are written down then you get a Gift Certificate for Future Shop or something) So it veries theater to theater.

[DavidLaman]

It's comforting to know that someone who actually works in a multiplex happens to be one of the family.

Best Wishes to You.

Happy Holidays

[Deez108]

I am reminded of another encounter I had in the theater...

It was when I was in High School and the Star Wars Special Editions were coming out. A few friends and I went to see Empire and these hardcore geeks from school sat in front of us. One was in his Darth Vader helmut and the like. Anyway, I was already in a bad mood cause of some girl problems, so when one of the kids in front of us started making the Chewbacca noises through the entire movie my buddies and I got real pissed.

So we waited for them outside the movie.

I asked if he liked making noises during a movie and asked him to do it again. He did and I made the mature remark about it sounding like his mother. My friend then flicked a cigarette at one of the other kids and then it started. MY friend got this one kid in a headlock while I punched him repeatedly in the kidney area.

It ended when one of their mothers came, I kicked the tire on her car and we ran like hell. Fun at the time, but not something I am proud of anymore.

[Eric]

Originally posted by DavidLaman
My friends "Joe" and "Kelly" always trusted their 14-year-old daughter "Bonnie" (straight A's in school, outgoing, pleasant, never a foul word about anyone) and her three closest girlfriends (just as "perfect" as Bonnie) unchaperoned at the multiplex ... until last weekend. ETC....

Great story. I'm glad to hear it, as it confirms that SOME parents are still doing a decent job of raising their children. But I can tell you (as can anybody else who works in a high school) that not everybody cares enough to take an active part in their kid's upbringing, and the worst kids are usually the ones whose parents do the least about it (someone could probably attribute a causal relationship there...)

My latest multiplex horror story is rather tame compared to the worst ones here, but I'll offer it up anyway. My girlfriend and I went to see Harry Potter II, and I was actually EXPECTING some loud children. With the exception of one crying baby who was quickly quieted (but why would you bring a baby to a theatre in the first place?) the kids were quite well behaved. But some moronic adult answered his cell phone when it rang, the guy behind me had a habit of explaining the plot to his kids, who seemed to have no problem understanding it without his help, and a rather large woman a few seats down to me kept shouting stuff like "Oh no! Don't go in there!" at the screen. Making it worse was the fact that I was with my girlfriend, who gets all pissed off when I'm "rude" to people like that (as if they weren't being rude to me) so I couldn't really say anything to them. Glaring at the guy behind me stopped him, but the fat woman was too self-involved to notice.

One thing I'm really not looking forward to: the girlfriend wants to see 8-Mile. I can't imagine that going to see 8-Mile in Detroit is going to be a situation in which people are going to be particularly respectful of the others in the audience. Maybe the best way to look at it is to think of the floorshow being half the entertainment. The part that I find vaguely humorous is that we'll probably go see it at the theatre at the end of the street. On 8-mile.

[Monterey Jack]

When I saw Solaris last week, it was placed next to (get this) The Santa Clause 2, so I could hear that movie better than any of the dialogue in my theater. Even worse was having some mentally impaired person sitting behind me moaning and making bizzare noises throughout the movie. I don't want to sound insensitive (but I no doubt will), but people with mental disabilities should not be allowed to see movies at the theater unless they can keep respectfully quiet. Just wait for the damn video. That the movie was so quiet you could hear a pin drop was the last straw. Never again will I see such a quiet movie in a theater (same damn thing happened with The Others last summer).

[Eric]

Originally posted by Monterey Jack
I don't want to sound insensitive (but I no doubt will), but people with mental disabilities should not be allowed to see movies at the theater unless they can keep respectfully quiet. Just wait for the damn video.

Who's insensitive: you, or whoever brought the person to the theatre without any consideration for the other people who bought their tickets and wanted to be able to enjoy the movie?

I've never been bothered during a movie by someone who was definitely mentally handicapped (although in some cases I have my suspicions), but it seems to be the same case as crying children. In both cases, someone else was responsible for bringing them there. Screaming babies in theatres I HAVE had to deal with, and it was never the child I was angry at; it was always the idiot parent who thought that their right to save the $20 they'd have to pay a babysitter outweighed the rights of the rest of the people in the theatre to see the movie they'd paid for.

[wynterfire]

i remember when i saw the first Batman movie on opening night. all was fairly decent throughout the first half of the movie (most of the typical stuff like crinkling wrappers and minor talking was going on, but nothing too terrible).
then all of a sudden a man down in the front left of the theater decided he wanted to listen to his own soundtrack...on one of those rather large ghetto boom boxes...REAL LOUD ...and rap music no less!!! (i guess he didn't like the prince soundtrack...and how he got into the theater with a large radio is beyond me).

then some guy (a rather large one at that) stood up and told him that if he "didn't turn of that F*&king music he'd cram the radio up his ass".

well the guy shouted back some foulness and turned the radio UP!!

so the big guy ...along with a few friends decided to make do on his words and proceeded to go down to the radio guy and pummel the shit out of him.

turns out the radio guy had a few friends with him and the whole front left of the theater turned into what can only be described as the most violent mosh pit i have ever seen.

it took 10 cops, the theater ushers, and most of the managers to break up the fight and haul the radio guy and his frinds out of the theater.

funny thing was that the guy and his friends that got up to "kill" the DJ got to go back to their seats and enjoy the rest of the movie.

they never once stopped the movie or brought up the lights (but the cops flashlights were a bit annoying).