I used to be an inveterate movie-goer. I would sometimes go to two movies a week.
Sometime after 2000, the wheels fell off Hollywood completely. Sure, there is the occasional move that is decent, but going to the movies? No.
Now, the last time I went to a movie theater was for “Up!” last June (I think). We have a small local, family-run theater in our town which I can walk to. Admission is $6.50, and snacks are more reasonably priced. I don’t mind giving them my business, and if there is a movie worth seeing, that is likely where I will go.
But I don’t think I will go to another big cinema again for a long time. My wife and I had an awful experience last time we went. It was “Quantum of Solace”, and my wife and I had both enjoyed the first Daniel Craig Bond Movie, “Casino Royale”.
We got to the theater ten minutes before the show, and it was packed, so we had to sit pretty close to the front. There were five young girls (Maybe 12 or 13 yrs old) sitting in front of us, and when the movie started, they kept on talking to each other, grab-assing, phoning, texting and so on. I let it go for about a half hour, figuring that they would settle in and watch the movie, or someone would tell them to pipe down. They didn’t, and nobody did. So I leaned over and politely asked them (seriously...politely...) to keep it down.
They literally “kept it down” for less than one single minute. I am not kidding.
I leaned over again and said “I asked you politely. If I hear one more peep from one of you, or see you texting or calling somone, I am going to get a manager and have you all thrown out of the theater.”
They kept quiet, but it PISSED me off to have to do that. Why the hell should I have to discipline someone else’s kids?
Then, now that they were quiet, there was incessant loud talking and giggling coming from behind me. I guessed I hadn’t heard that because of the kids in front of me, but it wasn’t whispers or suppressed giggles, it as normal conversation. It was a teenage couple, probably 16 year olds. As I looked, I could see a load of other people looking too, so I walked over, put my hands on the backs of the seat in front of them, leaned over them and told them in a comparatively loud voice that people were trying to watch a movie, and if they didn’t keep it down, I would have them tossed out.
In retrospect, it was funny. They were completely shocked, looking at me wide-eyed and open mouthed, which irritated me even more. As I went back to my seat, I thought “What the hell did they think people came to a movie theater for?” Then it occurred to me that they probably didn’t spend $22 of their own money, it was probably given to them, or this was the second or third movie they went into for free after paying for one.
Needless to say, when my wife and I left we both said that was it. We were not going back to one of those theaters again. And we haven’t. And it isn’t just because the price and atmosphere are appalling. Hollywood puts out crap. There is nothing worth seeing that we would pay that price for.
I know some people reading this migh think I am an ogre or a jerk. Naturally, I don’t think that I am. I try to give people a lot of leeway, and mind my own business, but as support I did notice a lot of people in that theater looking my way and nodding their heads in approval, so I know I wasn’t the only one fed up.
Way to go! Many of the same reasons my wife and I stopped going to the theaters as well. Noisy people and cruddy movies.
Today’s kids are not disciplined; they are “guilt parented” by usually divorced parents competing to see who can buy their children’s love. Throw in “adult spousal status” where children are allowed to have adult-like privileges in (usually both) homes without the accompanying adult responsibiilities and you get what you see at that movie theatre. Little dictators who lead their parents and all other adults (which they have been taught NOT to have respect for) by the nose; all the while thinking that they are royalty. Obama is a fine example of a guilt parented child; one of the first to roll off the presses shortly after Dr. Spock and his child rearing ideologies were being espoused.
I blame the lack of the strong father disciplinarian. Unheard of these days because both gold digging, parent alienating mothers AND the government agencies have forced the old fashioned father out of the family. And marginalized him into nothing but a wallet.
As far as movies go, haven’t gone to them in YEARS! They are all terrible, no plot and nothing but special effects or an anti-conservative agenda.
I totally agree with your sentiment. The last few movies we have gone to, there have been preteens that are “coupled” up that parents have just dropped off @ the movies with no supervision.. 11 & 12 yr.olds on “dates” in a dark theater. I teach that age group and they do not need to be in a boy/ girl situation with no adult supervision! Also, we have had to get onto children who were rude and disruptive and you just cannot enjoy the movie. We now either watch at home on our large screen t.v or we go to the drive in nearby. It costs $10 for a car load and the drinks and popcorn we bring from home.
The last time I went to that movie (Bourne III, or whatever it is called - Ultimatum or something), we had to sit for the endless movie trailers.
Not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, not six, not seven, but at least eight of them.
Give me a frickin break.
I don't want to sit for 22 minutes of commercials before a movie starts.
Enjoyed the movie; if not the smell. Haven't been back since...