When you go to a movie theater, you’ll most likely
see a video or something along that nature reminding you to follow ‘movie
etiquette’ when watching a movie. Some of the theater rules are pretty simple;
no talking during the movie, don’t use your cell phones or any recording
devices, etc. Most of the time, moviegoers do great jobs at following these
rules because they know they don’t want to disturb people who are there to
enjoy the movie. But… sometimes there are people who aren’t like that. They
just go to movies because they don’t have anything better to do and they don’t
really take their fellow audience members into consideration. They’ll just do
whatever they want and that has been quite a problem for the last few months,
especially for someone like me who’s looking to go into a career as a ‘movie
critic’. So, in the wake of fellow film critic Chris Stuckmann’s video about
annoying moviegoers (which I’ll provide the link to; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qDJxdrWD5c),
I’ll be giving my own ‘two cents’ on the matter. In order to explain this, I’m
going to start by talking about two pretty bad experiences I’ve had at the
theater this year.
The first time was when I saw ‘G.I. Joe Retaliation’.
As you probably know, this film is one of those movies that mainly appeals to
kids. So, at the screening I went to, there were a lot of kids there. A few
kids were seated right behind me… and they did not stop talking throughout the
entire movie. Sure, at one point, one of the kids (the one who I believe was
the most talkative of the group) got up and left for a few minutes, but he soon
came back and these kids continued to talk about everything that was going on
in the movie until it ended. Because of this, I don’t believe that I was able
to pay full attention to the movie. I don’t want to make this look like I’m
attacking these kids or anything but as far as I can remember, whoever these
kids’ parents were made absolutely no effort (along with anyone else, for that
matter) to tell the kids to be quiet. That makes the whole situation worse when
no one even tries to do something about it. That same month, I was watching ‘Oz
the Great and Powerful’ for the second time in theaters and a couple of people seated
behind me to my left started to talk during the beginning of the movie.
Thankfully, the couple seated right behind me turned to them and asked them to
stop talking, and they did not say anything else for the rest of the movie.
But the worst theater experience I ever had was when
I saw the film ‘Oblivion’ in April. There were a lot of things that went wrong
during the screening as far as ‘audience etiquette’ was concerned. First off, a
group of teenagers that were seated directly behind me did not shut up
throughout the entire movie. But while the kids at ‘G.I. Joe’ were at least talking
about the movie, I’m pretty sure these teenagers were just talking to each
other about… you know, ‘teenager stuff’. Also, out of the corner of my eye, I
could see that the guy seated right next to me was using his cell phone and I
noticed that some other people had their cell phones out too. I don’t really
know what they thought about the movie but if it was because they were bored,
that doesn’t mean that you should take out your damn cell phone. Do you people
not know that the bright light of your IPhone is distracting to those who are seated
directly next to you? But the worst (and also, in a way, funniest) thing that
happened during this was that someone had brought a baby into the theater. They
brought a baby to a film that was rated ‘PG-13’ for, according to the official
MPAA rating, sci-fi action violence, brief strong language, and some
sensuality/nudity. Yeah, that’s a good movie to take your one-year old to. I
remember seeing a couple of kids at a screening of ‘Ted’. Sure, the movie may
be about a talking teddy bear, but it sure isn’t no ‘Winnie the Pooh’.
Now, I’m not the kind of guy who tries to lean
towards those who are being disruptive and tell them (politely, mind you) to
stop whatever it is they’re doing that’s distracting everyone else, but after
incidents like these, I might just do so in the future because I really can’t
take it anymore. I just don’t understand why there are some people who just go
to the movie theater and think that they own the place and they can do whatever
they want. Movie theaters have made the effort of putting up videos reminding
people to not text or talk during the movie but as we can clearly see, they’re
not that effective. If you ask me, they should run this video that the Alamo
Drafthouse Cinemas (theaters where, for the record, texting and talking during
the movie is banned and if you do so, you’ll probably end up getting kicked out)
run where Michael Madsen warns you not to text or talk during the film because
otherwise you might end up ‘stuck in the middle’ with him. If you don’t know
what I mean, just watch Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Reservoir Dogs’ and you’ll get the
idea.
(Here’s
the link for the Madsen video for your viewing pleasure: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpew-IfW6JQ)
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Thankfully, I have gone to a couple of screenings
where the audience was very respectful. Last year, when I went to go see ‘Les
Miserables’ with my friend Matt, the audience was very respectful. They did not
text or talk throughout the entire film. That’s also great when taking some of
the following points into consideration; the movie was a two and a half hour
long musical and we went to see it in the afternoon, a time where you’re probably
most likely to find some ‘rowdy’ moviegoers. This year, when I went to go see ‘Fast
and the Furious 6’, there was a great example of an audience that was clearly
getting into the movie. There were audible gasps during some of the more ‘logic-defying’
moments in the film, as well as during a key ‘twist’ that happens near the end
of the movie. If you ask me, going to a screening where the audience is like
that is far more enjoyable than going to a screening where no one cares about
their fellow moviegoers.
The bottom line is that if you ever go to the
movies, just please be respectful towards those around you. Don’t text during
the movie; if you absolutely need to, just quietly walk out and deal with the
situation. As for talking, I’m not saying that you should be completely silent,
but just please make an effort to not be so loud that you’ll distract everyone
near you. If you’re bringing a kid to a film, make sure to remind them to be
quiet. I know that kids tend to have a rather short attention span at times (I
can certainly vouch for that, being a kid myself just a few years ago), but if
your kid is at least younger than five, I’d recommend waiting a little bit
before bringing them to a movie. I know that they are some other things you
shouldn’t even be doing in a theater (kicking the seat in front of you, smoking,
etc.) but I believe that ‘texting and talking’ is the worst thing that you can
do when in a movie theater. Feel free to do that when you’re watching a movie
at home, but don’t be like that at the theater.
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