These rants are so funny. Why would you go to see a Hollywood movie - a movie made to attract the lowest common denominator - and then become shocked appaled when you actually encounter the lowest common denominator? You watch shit in public, you’ll meet shitty people. I go to movies all the time, but the only times I encountered any “audience participation” was when watching Scary Movie 2 and Pitch Black. Did I care? No. It was fucking Scary Movie 2 and Pitch Black!
I avoid movies or viewing times that will bring in throngs of teens. Therefore my big gripe is with middle aged people who are a little too vocal even though they are usually alone. For instance, my enjoyment of “Somethings Gotta Give” (hardly appea,ling to the mallrat set) was ruined by a 50 something man, who came in alone, and sat three rows ahead of me. After every remotely funny line or scene, this guy would slap his leg and exclaim “AW SHIT!” followed by five or six deep HAW HAW HAWs. The really good bits had him yelling “OH SHIT YEAH!!”
Oh, I don’t know - because it’s generally accepted and known that one is to be quiet in a movie theatre - hell, they managed it in the 20s and 30s, why can’t we manage it now? It’s simple courtesy. People go to the movies to see the movies, not hear comments from other people in the theatre.
That’s the most ridiculous argument I’ve ever heard. :wally
Ava
I think the problem here is that the managers have a choice. They can shuffle the morons and assholes out, or they can lose the non-idiots who will then watch movies at home. And it’s pretty clear which of the two groups are probably spending more on movies.
Hey this is probably the wrong place to ask this question but…How the fuck did Eric Bana end up in a “Hollywood Blockbuster”? Was he not the "this-is-skit-show-laugh-at-me-cause-I’m-taking-the-piss-out-of-“wogs” guy?
I’m not a huge fan of Hollywood blockbusters, but how can any Aussie (or Kiwi) see him in this film and take him seriously? He’s a fairly good comedic type but how the hell did he end up in a movie with ORLANDO (noooo I don’t think Orlando’s cute at all 
…though I have never seen one of the LOTR’s movies) but how did Mr Bana end up being all "serious’?
Eric Bana has come a long way. I was hesitant about seeing him in this role because I associate him with his mullet-and-flannie-wearing comic character, but damned if he wasn’t the strongest lead in the film. He put in an absolutely stunning nuanced performance in what was essentially a summer blockbuster with brains. I guess he had a lot more talent than he was showing off in his TV roles.
I guess his first serious role was in Chopper, which I will never ever voluntarily see, but I’m tempted to rent the dvds of his other performances now.
We saw Troy yesterday and there were some minor disturbances (and a little inappropriate mirth at points that weren’t intended to be funny. Usually ones featuring Paris, imagine that ) but it wasn’t too bad of an audience. I was surprised, we also rarely go to the cinema because of the calibre of audiences you get.
Often they don’t give two shits what anyone else thinks.
Well I didn’t want to write him off. I always thought he did what he did well. Maybe I will go to see it now.
That’s "we can’t control them and they bring in a ton of money every Friday night".
I don’t know about where you people live but in my town most adults know better than to try to see a movie during prime-time Friday nights. Granted any time its still possible to be stuck in a theater with asshole juveniles, but Friday night is a guarentee that you will do so.
I’m a huge movie buff, but I see very few movies in the theater anymore due to rude asshole audiences. And I live in the American capital of rude assholes, Miami, Florida. The teenagers are the worst, but everyone is pretty bad–screaming toddlers dragged to Kill Bill by clueless parents, cell-phones ringing and people yammering in multiple languages, threatening teens cursing and throwing food throughout the God-awful Matrix sequels, old people who talk in “outside voices” throughout Woody Allen movies, and once, one guy even lit up a cigar and started puffing before people yelled at him to put it out! With movie tickets as expensive as they are (even for me, with my college ID), I’d rather stay home and wait 6-8 months to rent DVDs now. These people suck.
That said, the only movies I’ve seen in the theater all year have been Starsky and Hutch (in a different city), Hellboy, and Kill Bill Vol. 2. The only other “must-see” movies I have are Spider-Man 2 and Sky Captain. I figure I can wait for the rest.
Troy was meant to attract the lowest common denominator?
Oooh, get a better class of people at the movies you like, does one? Don’t be a dickhead. I’ve seen people being arseholes with mobile phones at the bleeding opera, so next time you feel the need to look down your nose at something, find some protozoa. Sheesh.
I find the home audience perspective on Bana fascinating because here in the States we know him only as a dramatic actor, starting with his performance in Chopper. What show was he on in Australia?
Completely off the topic, of all the Aussie TV shows I watched on Star TV when I lived in Hong Kong and Seoul, Fire was my favorite. MMM, Aussie and Kiwi men are the hottest in the world!
Not true. It’s not just teenagers, and it’s not just people being rude during Hollywood Blockbusters. I went to see the Morgan Spurlock documentary *Super Size Me * last Saturday and the adult couple sitting directly in front of us talked the entire movie. They talked loudly, they made comments. It was horrible, I shushed in vain.
I see a good mix of Hollywood blockbusters and independent stuff and the talking and rudeness is rampant in theatres. I blame video, people are so used to sitting on their couch talking to each other during a movie they just can’t break the habit.
Just like in an old SD bullies thread where everybody told stories about being bullied and no one told stories of being the bully, I want to know who is doing all this chatting during movies? Everyone here hates it and is appalled by it, but obviously people ARE doing it.
Fess up, do you talk in movies? If so, why do you feel you have the right to destroy the movie watching happiness of strangers. If you are one of these people, STOP IT. Once the previews are over, talking is FORBIDDEN. Get it?
See, it’s utterly illogical to adults who a.) work for their money and b.) have limited time and other obligations which make a night out at the movies something special.
But for kids? $8 and a couple of hours are pretty trivial, generally speaking. It doesn’t matter, until someone wants to kick them out of a movie theatre for acting like a little punkass, then they paid their money and have every right to watch the movie like everybody else, and they’re only getting hassled because of their age!
Mr. TeaElle and I rarely go to movies, largely because of the punkass factor. The last thing we saw in a theatre was Chicago, and we went to a matinee on a school day. The only other people there were retirees and housewives, and it was an altogether pleasant experience save for the gentleman behind us whose dentures clicked as he ate his chocolate bar, but really, that wasn’t something he could help, and to his credit he ate the candy quickly.
Movie-talkers somehow manage to tap into some deep resevoir of hate and rage I seem to have reserved for them and for people who are late to relieve my shift (whenever I find myself working shifts). They seem to arouse reactions that I usually am too timid to allow.
For example, first time I saw the Matrix, three teenage punks walked in late and stood, talking, in front of me during the opening Trinity-Smith fight. After hissing at them for about 20 invaluble seconds of the scene that revolutionized popcorn movies, I stood up and smacked the middle one accross the back of the neck, and spat (in Hebrew) “siddown and shuddup!”
He did that humiliated little scrunched-shoulders-suprised “Ai!” thing that people do when slapped across the back of the neck - it’s quite distinctive - spun around, and found himself staring right at 95kg of bespectacled fury. Quickly considering his options, or perhaps just out of shock, he sat down and shut up. His friends followed suit (I ignored the muffled "idiot"s) and we all ended up enjoying the movie.
I will admit to having talked in movies. That is very rare for me though, as usually I go by myself so I have no one to talk to.
The last time I talked in a movie was Fellowship, with 2 other friends and the theatre was nearly empty because it was the first showing of the day a month or so after it opened on a school day.
If I do talk, I try to keep it down and if anyone says SHH to me I usually get really embarassed and huddle down in my seat trying to be as small as possible.
I don’t really mind if people talk, as long as they keep it quiet and aren’t interrupting the movie. But too many people don’t even try to keep it down.
Any talking in a movie is rude. Everybody should be considerate of those that are spending their hard earned money and want to hear the movie not the audience!
I don’t think the common “manager” considers the microeconomics when deciding punishment. He or she gets his or her minimum wage regardless of who or how many see a movie. And wearing a red vest doesn’t make one a “movie” manager. Most are attendants…who also sweep the floors after the movies. A pit to the parents of these f***ing teens. They’ve obviously failed at some point in the “raise decent human beings” department…or at life altogether. I’d be depressingly ashamed if my kids acted like this.
Admittedly, I am one of those people always spoiling for a fight–someone is bound to shoot me one of these days.
But five minutes into the movie, I would have stormed out and told everyone from the manager to the popcorn girl that unless those miserable piss-ants were either shut up or or tossed out, I would demand my money back, and I would make a brief but memorable scene in the theater as I left (on my way to complain to the manager’s boss).
But, then, I’m a bitch-fight waiting to happen.