Bravo, sir, bravo. I have violent uncontrollable twitch when someone leans toward me to say something in the theater.
Pet peeve: the name of Ang Lee’s movie is “Hulk”, not “The Hulk”.
The most recent crap experience with a kid was at “Ali”: Who’s that man, dad? What did he mean, dad? And when the assasination is reenacted: Get ready to cover your eyes…OK, cover your eyes now. :rolleyes:
This is the cue for me to tell my Jurassic Park story. I was all of about thirteen (I think?) when it came out and my parents dragged me to see it (They had read the book. I could have cared less). As we were leaving the theater, a guy asked his four-year-old daughter, “Did you like the movie, honey?” She replied in a tiny voice, “The dinosaurs were scary.”
:eek:
Did he? Does that mean? Camenahay? He brought his four-year-old to see Jurassic Park?
Yes. Yes it did.
I hope his daughter’s nightmares woke him up for the next six weeks.
My polisci professor when I was an undergrad once told us that he and his family were driving down to Alabama to visit his family when an advertisement for the original Walking Tall came on the radio. At the end of the commercial, the deejay added, “And remember, it’s rated R for violence, not for sex, so bring the kids!”
Martini, I know it’s a bit late, and the distance might be a problem, but will you be my valentine? 
Regardless of the reason for the noise, loud children are like good intentions: They’re best when carried out. Personally, I prefer to spend a couple of extra bucks to go to a theatre that has really excellent ushers who remind everyone to turn off their electronic devices before the movie. They also have 21 and over showings of movies that might usually attract a younger crowd, so if you REALLY don’t like kids, you can completely avoid them. It’s a beautiful thing.
I don’t understand why people who would rather text or answer their phone or gossip with their friends pay $10 to $14 to sit in a darkened room for two hours. If you want to chat, go to a bar or a restaurant. I’m there to sit slack-jawed and be pandered to. Is it too much to ask for the chatter to be kept to a minimum while I do so?
Hellooooo! It’s supposed to be scary! The outing would have been a failure if the kid didn’t get scared.
I would take my son to see Jurassic Park. He is 6 now and I would have taken him at 5. He would be fine with it. I strongly doubt he would have had any nightmares. My son was 5 when I let him see the Video for the first time and he really enjoyed it. No real fear at all. As I already owned the video, I guess I agree that 4 was probably too young.
Jim
You’re sure we can’t take them away for good and give them to somebody more civilized to raise? Wolves would be better than a lot of those parents.
There’s scared and there’s scared. Being a little bit scared is fun for some people. This kid sound to me like the movie was too scary, and went from being fun to really frightening her. Some kids are more sensitive to things like that than others.
Hey, believe me, I’ve said plenty to confirm myself as an ass before now.
Look, WhatExit? you seem like a reasonable man, and a good parent. You just dont seem to get what I’m saying. You seem to know about films… and about your kids interests and likes and so on. Before taking your kid to the cinema, you would check it out, check that its suitable, make sure your kid would enjoy it, that it would hold his or her interest for ninety minutes or more. If you dropped the ball, however, and brought your kid to a movie that was unsuitable, or that they didnt like, if they became restless you would lean over to them and say, hey junior, other people are trying to enjoy this movie. You cant talk or run around. If you dont like this movie, we can leave. But if you cant be quiet, we’ll have to leave anyway, because I am a considerate individual and I dont want to piss off these nice people who paid money to see this movie, ok? Daddy doesnt want to be the subject of a pit thread about parents that cant control their kids, see?
Now, let me clear something up, I’m just using Hulk as an example, because it was the worst cinema experience of my life. King kong nearly suffered a similar fate… That hour before they reached the island got a lot of kids bored, and no end of monkeyshine would settle them, but the seemed to quieten down when those uncircumcised penis monsters started to eat the crew, and remained that way until the end, when they again grew restless as kong stared into ann’s eyes for about a fuckin hour. I dont particularly like hulk, and I am aware that it was a “kids movie”. So bring your kids. Bring all your kids. Bring your neighbours kids. ADOPT SOME KIDS IF YOU DONT HAVE ANY TO BRING!! But when you have them there, for fuckssake, keep them quiet, out of goddamn common courtesy to the rest of us. Otherwise, Fuck away off.
That was THEAT-RE, this is THEAT-ER… I mean, do we have to go through all this again?
Agreed. But if the kid wasn’t in tears and hanging on her parent’s leg shuddering, I think it was the proper level of scary. If my kid ever had a tearful reaction to a movie, I’d take him out of the theater. If he’s just wide-eyed and slack-jawed and vocalizing (i.e. screaming) that’s the correct response.
Okay…y’all had me wondering if Kid Kalhoun resents me for not putting the brakes on pretty much anything movie-wise. I called him to see if he was tortured by any of the films he saw as a wee keebler. He said *The Shining * scared the living shit out of him, but in a good way. I looked it up on IMDB and it came out in 1980 (when he was four) but he probably didn’t see it for about 3 or so years after that.
One slight movie issue I had with him when he was very little was when I took him to see The Black Stallion. We saw it at the drive-in, and the other screen (which he could see from the rear window of the car…unbeknownst to me) was I Spit On Your Grave. When he asked me “what’s that lady doing to that man?” and I saw what he was looking at, I told him to keep his eyes on the nice horsey. He really had no idea what was going on, since he had no sound to go with the images, but revenge sex murders probably weren’t on my list of Movies The Sprout Must See.
Heh. I saw that when it came out and it sacred the living shit out of me, in a bad way. I slept through the night from birth so that night, when I was 12, was the first night I had to have my Mom come sleep with me. Ever.
Man, I still remember seeing Benji in the theater, with a group of kids, all of us about 9 years old. There’s a scene where the bad man kicks Benji’s friend, a little white dog - I screamed!
The book scared the living shit out of me when Kid Kalhoun was a toddler. But it was in a good way. I read that book during a snowstorm. Holy shit…I still get the willies thinking about it. But then, I’m all about the psychological terror. Good times…
I saw Taps when I was ten or eleven. Took me years to get over the scene where the kids are trying to fix the furnace and one of them catches on fire and burns to death.
Let’s clarify a little. At a Comic Book movie or Kids Movie, I have never had a problem with kids and teens oohing and ah-hing with the movie, even asking questions about the movie. If you are talking about the couple that sat behind me at Ice Age II Saturday with a crying baby for half the movie, then I am on your side. The Op thinks slither is inappropriate for 4 year olds, I agree, I wouldn’t let my 8 year old near that movie or even “War of the Worlds”. (Lucky her)
But you did mention the Hulk in particular and while I didn’t take my kids to go see it, it is not unreasonable for parents to take kids to a Superhero film. Especially one marketed to kids. Especially a matinee.
If you disagree, we will have to agree to disagree at least.
I assume the rest of your rant (you know the sterilization part) was hyperbole and move on.
Your last post mostly makes sense, especially the first paragraph. 
No, the second one was completely reasonable and I have had similar conversations at a Harry Potter Film.
Your third Paragraph is back to where I don’t really agree with you. **Kong ** was advertised like few other movies ever have been. My son really wanted to go see it, many of his friends (ages 5-7) did go to see it. When I saw it there were a lot of kids in the theater. I expected that. I think the movie was borderline but unless you read the parental advisory on a site like Moviephone, you would never know it from the ads. Certain movies you just need to expect kids at. Kong and the Hulk were two examples where maybe little kids shouldn’t be there, but they are going to be there.
Jim
Those are true Words of Wisdom. May I add it to my sig line collection?
So, ill informed parents bring kids to unsuitable movies, kid creates unpleasant cinema experience, parent couldnt care less.
Thats pretty much it in a nutshell. Seems like the point brought across in the OP, later by myself and now you, is agreed upon?
Sorry if I burst into flames earlier… Cinema disruptions really grind my gears.
Basically, unless people inform themselves better about the movies they choose to see, them the other patrons will suffer. I’m not just talking about young kids, either… Your average cellphone addict teenager that goes to the movies because they are too young to go to a bar, couldnt give a fuck what they go to see, just whatevers playing next. Wind up in something like… I dunno… Capote, get bored, spoil the movie for those in their vicinity. Whereas, if they had just informed themselves better, they would know the movie content, know that they arent going to enjoy it, leave well enough alone. Go see transporter 2 or something.
But, people are lazy, uneducated selfish pricks.
And people wonder why box-office business is in decline.
I don’t know if I should clarify, or if I should just let this thread run its course, since everyone is more or less agreeing with me.
Anyway, I’m not pitting movie-theatre-talkers. I would not have minded if it had been a teenager behind me who had a few comments to make. And I still would have minded if the little boy hadn’t made a peep.
I’m not a parent or a psychologist but it totally creeped me out and I thought it was inappropriate for him. And when he asked “is her fat because she ate so much mommy?” I wanted to turn around and tell him, “no honey, the reason her so fat is because, remember when the alien had those two penis things that pierced her stomach and she was convulsing on the couch with her eyes rolled back in her head? Well, he was impregnating her then, and now she is filled with large red slugs that are about to burst out of her in a sea of blood and slime which will cause her a very painful death.”
Didn’t you hear? Box office is in decline because of all the pirating. :dubious:
bubastis, I guess I agree with you, just not your vehemence.
Since going to Star Trek movies or Batman in the 80’s, I knew that noisy kids and noisy teens would be present. I never really minded much. Now Cell phone users should be punished in a horrible way and if your child is upset, you need to give up on the movie and walk out.
Here’s a strange thing, most movie theaters, if it is still early in the movie, go to the Manager and explain the movie is not suitable for kids and you didn’t realize it from the ads, can I please get a refund or free passes. Quite often if asked politely they will do so.
BTW: in the 70’s I was one of those kids that screamed briefly at certain scenes in Jaws.
Jim