this is the best article I read all year and best video too!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110607/us_yblog_thelookout/texas-movie-theater-makes-an-example-and-a-psa-of-a-texting-audience-member?bouchon=623,tx
I was at a movie a month ago
these 3 women in front of me were texting on their iphones
I asked them: can you please not do that while the movie is going on, it's distracting
they started talking BEEP to me
so I said: I came to see a movie, not to see the light on your cell phones
they turned around and started putting their iphones in my face
I said: if you are going to be inconsiderate, I am going to find the manager and get you kicked out
so I went and found the manager, told him the situation, he told me to sit back down and let him watch them for a while
I went back to my seat, the 3 women looked at me and laughed
where's the manager? didn't you say you were going to get the manager? we don't see no manager!
yeah, we didn't think you had a case! mmm mmm , that's right!
you ain't got a case!
so they continue on texting.
the manager and another manager and a Police Officer were standing in the back of the theater watching them.
After 5 min, they went up to them and said:
put your cell phones away, if we get another customer's complaint about you texting, you will have to leave
they started arguing with the managers and Police Officer:
we weren't texting, the guy who complained about us is lying, blah blah blah
some of the other patrons started yelling out:
you were texting and you were talking crap to the person <b>(me)</b> who asked you nicely at first to put your cell phones away
so the Police Officer told them to leave or be arrested
they left!!
Comments
Alas I would never risk asking them to stop as in England these days the sort of scum who would do this are more than likely to punch you or get out a knife. There was a story a while back about a woman who asked some scrotes to keep quiet at the cinema and got them thrown out. They waited for her to come out and threw bleach in her face.
Generally its not that much of an issue as I tend not watch mindless dross such as Transformers and anything with Vin Diesel which is where you find most of these people who I woudl have no hesitation in hanging.
I was watching True Grits in January and there was this couple with 2 kids, whose my wife said were about 5 and 7, and those kids spent the entire movie running up and down the auditorium, in and out of the rows and tapping on the back of the empty seats that were up.
It was a Tuesday night and the theater only had 20 people in it.
Someone complained to the manager and the manager told the parents to control their kids and the parents didn't do a damn thing.
When the movie ended as we were leaving, the managers were standing at the exit and they gave all of us, except the couple with the 2 annoying kids, 2 passes with no restrictions good until 12/31/2099 to each person - so my wife and I got 4 free passes.
They are even good for 3D and IMAX shows!
I am a parent myself and I can understand you can't get a baby sitter or can't afford a baby sitter but when you are out in public, control your kids!
When I was a kid in the 70's there would be an "usher" who would come in and walk up an down the aisles once every 20 or 30 minutes to check on the audience. I mean, really, even a multi-plex could hire a single person at minimum wage who could do the same thing, even if there were 20 theatres.
But I think that there are two concerns for this. The first is the modern corporate mindset of "every expense is a bad expense and should be reduced" and "every penny counts". Unless they really believe - and can show on a spreadsheet - a loss of profit based on people using cellphones they won't incur an extra cost to prevent it. And as most cellphone users are in the coveted 16-25 demo they would rather have them come every weekend to the new blockbusters than the 50 year olds who come once every month or two.
The second concern is how to physically remove someone from the theatre. There's such a fear of lawsuits in the US that I can't imagine any theatre chain physically forcing a belligerent person out of the theatre. And if they call the cops, how long would it take them to get there? I would imagine that that situation would be quite low on the priority list for them.
To me, the best solution would be cell phone jamming signals, although there have been murmurings about how that is a violation of civil rights (I think Ebert wrote about that)!
____________________Beanpole___________________
____________Elbow Jabber Me Elbow Jabber________
_____________Hyperactive Seat Kicker_________
My point is that not only did I feel stupid for not having attempted to move or shout at the idiot during the movie but more tellingly not only was the experience ruined by the idiot but fate had decided to further mock and humilate me by exposing a nearly empty theater and therefore telling me that no matter how empty a theater is going to be I'm always going to be the unlucky sucker that's always destined to be stuck behind the idiot!!
This unlucky streak has gone back many years so I bought myself a massive TV and blu-ray player and can enjoy movies, without having to share the experience with foot flicking, seat kicking, oversized heads, cellphones, talking, noisy eating, choking etc.
Rant over!!
But generally if someone is talking or using their mobile (cell) phone, other cinema patrons will tell them to give it a rest. Usually has a 99% success rate.
If the bozos won't leave when told by staff or management, then call police. Cops will get rid of them no problem. Simple. And make sure the disturbers know that police are on the way. This might cause them to leave on their own.
Crowded Friday and Saturday night shows can be a bit of a zoo but I notice staff are good at showing a presence in the early going which dissuades the ignorant people.
and (since i like isle seats) directly across the isle from me was a group of teenagers, about 4 or 5.. but 3 of the girls in the group i swear to christ got up a left about 10 times during the film - walking in and out, in and out, in and out... my buddy and me could not believe it - without a doubt the absolute worst experience i've ever had in a theater... as the group behind me got up and left after the film - i was literally almost about to trip one of them down the steps - i came oh so close lol..
i don't know what it is anymore - maybe it's an age thing that is starting to hit me (as it does everyone - but i am only going to be 27).. it seems people are just getting more and more belligerent - and they are getting this attitude of self importance, that "i paid for my ticket, that means i can whatever i want in this theater." .. and when you try to be polite and ask them to stop, they look at you like your crazy...... it's people like this i just want to smack around, and kick them down the stadium seating steps and watch their heads bounce off the safety rails like a beach ball.... i have zero tolerance for people like that anymore - "what i got going on is so much more important than what your doing." ... nothing an ol' chop to the throat can't solve..
I can say when I was younger, I was guilty of being loud and obnoxious and poorly mannered in public.
I remembered me and 2 of my friends went to see Full Metal Jacket at Midnight, after we been out club hopping and we were all a bit wasted.
We were talking loud and laughing and we were asked to leave by the management.
I was 22 then and now that I think about it, we could had been arrested for public drunkeness but there was no Police Officers doing security at movie theaters back then - unlike now!
Now at 46, not only do I not act like that anymore, I also don't tolerate it!!
I hope you did complain to the management and got yourself some free passes.
Thanks for the 411!
That's good to know!
The first is a rep theatre (over a hundred years old!) in my artsy neighborhood where film buffs go. No matter the age (lots of university students) everyone is the type that understands the need to pay attention to the film and be quiet. Bonus - they show old Bond films every few months.
The second is a "regular" small multiplex but it's in a neighborhood with an older population and many of the people there work in the film industry. So again, quiet and respectful audiences. The only problem I ever had there were two senior citizens who didn't realize they were talking so loudly (one had a hearing problem and couldn't follow what was happening in the film).
There's a more modern theatre complex near me but with the steeply raked seats everyone is out of your line of sight. The only concern would be noise, but it's amazing the way the theatre is constructed. If the person beside you is talking and won't be quiet (which has only happened once), just move a few seats away or a row away - suddenly you can't hear anything. Amazing acoustic design.
The last time that I saw a film in a multiplex in a mall was about ten years ago. Even at that time there were so many people talking on cell phones that there was no way that I could complain to management about them all. Just as bad were all the young "fratboy douchebag" types who had to show everyone how AWESOME! they were by shouting out funny things during the film (well, funny to them). Thank Dog I have options where I live - I can't imagine being in a place where that's the norm.
Blockbuster is almost dead here - they closed so many stores and the ones that are still open are on life support!
:-))
But there's an even more important aspect to me and that's image quality. Blurays and HD TV have 1080 lines of resolution. Projected film in a theatre has an equivalent clarity and sharpness as 4,000 lines of resolution. The best home set up I could get can't currently compete with a movie theatre.
The first old Bond film I saw in a theatre was Goldfinger. In my life I saw it probably a dozen or 15 times on TV and on videotape, and at an impressionable enough age that I could replay the entire movie in my head. When I first saw it on DVD I was blown away. Even at 540 lines of resolution (compared to about 280 for TV and videotape) the difference in image quality was incredible. It was like watching it again for the first time.
Then my local rep theatre showed Goldfinger. When the film started I was a bit disappointed to see that it had a fair bit of scratching and a slight sepia tone to it (it was an old, often used print). But as I watched the film I was blown away by the picture quality. I was seeing details I had never seen before. This wasn't just perception; I had a clear enough memory of the film that I could tell the difference. I suppose it's difficult to convey how truly incredible it looked; I'm sure others here could tell similar stories (even digital cinemas showing a 2K version would look great compared to Bluray.
To give an example of how sharp the image was, during FRWL there was a scene when Connery bends over and you can actually see the netting of his toupee through his hair! I could see individual threads on his jacket, and during his first meeting with Tanya (in the bedroom) you could clearly see the individual hairs on his back! Okay, so maybe there's such a thing as too sharp of an image...
In the old days, you would go to a counter and ask a pretty lady for your popcorn and coke, these days it`s all help yourself, if you dare. Mess of popcorn and sweets all over the damn place where people have helped themselves as instructed, then marched over to a body on a till who isn`t interested in conversing, apart from about the size of your popcorn!
Then bloody mobile phones! OFF PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My wife got up once and told a noisy group to "please shut the fck up"
She got a round of applause!!
I think in time, you'll start to see this shift from standard film reels (which in my opinion is archaic) to digital projection, and eventually to digital HD projection.. it's inevitable...
one thing that George Lucas is heavily pushing towards is the advancement of digital projectors, which i heavily applaud him for - in the sense that, for example.. when you have a summer blockbuster that sells out it's showing times - you have to open up a completely new theater, reset the reel on the projector, and etc - basically eating valuable time.. not only that, but a theater might only get 1 or 2 reels of said film - what if they need 3 theaters?.. or maybe even a 4th?.... what these new digital projectors would allow you to do, is easily load up the film in the projector via a digital file - so if you need that extra showing in a theater, you can do it, without having to swap reels.. you just select the file you want to show... thats the big idea at least....... but studios make so much by charging theaters for those reels - that who knows when they'll make the full transition over...
but i think it's only a matter of time before we start seeing HD theaters spring up... as more and more go digital, HD is soon to follow.... it'll happen... hell, Peter Jackson is already playing with FPS with his new Hobbit movie - which he claims increases picture quality even further... so we'll certainly see.... 'Times they are a'changin' ' :)