Saturday, July 18, 2009

Movie etiquette

It seems like every week I'm complaining about people's behavior in some form or another. Well, this week is no exception.

So, the little woman and I went to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I haven't put up a review on my movie blog, yet, but I will before I go to bed tonight.

Maybe it's just me, but I seem to remember the days when it was just common courtesy to sit down during a movie and be courteous to your fellow movie patrons. Apparently, those days are gone, though.

Today, I think I had to endure some of the rudest people to ever sit in a theater. First they kept crawling over me to go the concession stand or bathroom or something. If they had some kind of medical issue, such as diarrhea or something, then I retract this statement, but otherwise, folks need to learn to take care of their business before they come into the theater.

Once those trailers start, people should be seated. If it was up to me, the doors would be locked and ushers would be guarding the doors, similar to the way they do if you go to a play or musical.

I despise texting. Aside from texting while driving, texting during the movies is about as bad as it can get. As you can guess, aside from getting up and down crawling over people the entire movie, I could swear just about everyone in the place was texting. These people sitting in front of me, and I kid you not on this, were texting each other. They were sitting next to each other and texting! WTF?!? I maintain my stance that if you can't wait the length of a movie to talk to someone, then you have some serious issues. Maybe the overreactive people that run airport security should start inspecting folks at the movies and confiscating cell phones.

No, I take that back. The minute they do that is when an emergency happens and they get sued, but something needs to be done.

Finally, these tween girls that I decided to sit near me would not stop talking throughout the entire movie. It is one thing to make clever quips here and there, but to sit there and talk about useless gossip (yes, i heard the entire conversation) just isn't right. Why pay the outrageous ticket (and food since they bought what appeared to be everything at the concession stand) prices if all you're gonna do is sit there and talk, y'know?

I guess the days of politeness are numbered. *SIGH* Not much that can be done, I guess, except lead by example. Maybe it'll catch on.

6 comments:

G. said...

Movie theaters might as well put one of those cell phone signal blocking thingys, because it is really annoying when people do that in the theater heh. I guess it became a requirement to text the details of a movie to everyone you know instead of actually watching the dang thing.

Unknown said...

You're right. The crowds have changed as far as manners, etiquette and just plain common sense.

Mystery Man said...

G.- if only

Sherry- sad, but true

Descartes said...

Texting has become the new cocaine for the kiddy set. I'm a portrait photographer and take about five to ten minutes to do a setting. Most of the kids have the phone in their hands the second they out of the shot.

I don't think I ever had anything to say that was that bleeding important.

I also had the texting idiots in the theater where I saw Harry Potter. And they wonder why everyone just downloads the films from a torrent site somewhere.

Valerie David said...

This is why we try not to go see films on a Friday night--that's when most of the texting, talking idiots are there.

I have *never* been able to understand why people would text, phone, or have unrelated conversations during a movie. WHY are you there? If you have no interest in the movie, why would you pay $10 to see it?

I wonder if maybe it's a lack of places to go? Out here in the burbs, a lot of stuff closes at 8pm. Kids can't get into bars, so it's pretty much a late night Wendy's or the movie theater. When I was younger, my boyfriend and I used to go to Barnes and Noble because it was open till 11! :P

Mystery Man said...

Descartes- "texting is the new cocaine" lol

Val- sad part is that I went on a SAturday afternoon. I can only imagie what that was place was like on Fridya night or even worse, at the mdnight screening