Movie Theater and Cell Phones...

[marty]

I went to see Zach Galifianakis at the local venue when he came to my college, and some girl in the front row got on her phone and stayed on it for a long enough time for him to notice (funny enough, she was there with some airheaded twit that I went to high school with.)

He took the phone from her, put it on speakerphone, and fucked with her friend for a good ten minutes ("Oh that noise in the background? It's my TV, the volume's broken!") before ending on the note, "Hey, did you know there's a war going on? No one cares about your party, STFU!" He then gave the phone back and said to the girl, "Do you know how rude that is? No one in here paid to hear you yap about some guy in a Cosby sweater who left his liquor at your house."

Everyone applauded, and she was shamed.

And I have to admit, I've kicked many a chair in my time...I have some sort of luck that causes me to sit right behind the person that will talk on their cell phone during a movie...which is why I sat in the front row during the Dark Knight!

[South Texan]

I also do not see what was so wrong about the man opening his phone. Speaking as one who puts his phone on vibrate then holds the phone in his hand during the movie just in case the sitter has to call me, I can attest to the fact that sometimes the phone does vibrate during the movie and there is a need to look at who is calling and/or what message is being sent. (Note that I said look not talk to.)

The guy probably did not connect his seat being kicked with his opening his phone and just thought the person behind him was the type that kicks other people's chairs without thinking about it. Movie theatres are full of those types as well.

[Arm]

seriously. If you are, say, a doctor, police officer, emergency worker, or the like... if you are on call and you have a pager...

do you know what you should do? Sit at the edge of the row, and if that thing goes off, get your happy ass OUT of the theater.

That's what you do. That's the only proper thing to do.

As a caveat, there are some movies I will talk in. If the theater's nearly empty- nobody around to hear me- and I'm there with friends for the express purpose of making fun of the movie. Obviously this isn't something I do on opening weekends.

I did that with Shymalan's latest piece of drek, with my girlfriend. The funniest thing was that I heard someone else in the theater doing the exact same thing (only not as quietly as us)- there were only about six people in the theater, maybe seven, and pretty soon we were all in on it. Poor Shymalan didn't realize he was writing a comedy, I don't think.

[Gruesome]

I was at a movie last year - don't remember the title but it was a mostly-for-kids movie that my wife really wanted to see. Might have been Harry Potter - not sure. There were a lot of kids there.

SO this guy comes in with a kid, maybe 9 years old, and during the film has a nice liong chat oh his cell phone. Actually, several conversations as the phone keeps going off and he answers it every time. He is front and center and everybody in the theater can see the glow from the phone and hear the ring tone, and 90% of us could hear his voice. Some of the other patrons started to get irate and some guy yelled "Get off the phone!" This was followed by some applause and encouragement.

Cell-phone boy stands up and tells the theater in hsi outside voice, "I PAY this mutha f*ckin' bill! I'll do whatever the f*ck I want with it, mutha f*ckah! I PAY this mutha f*ckin bill!" He then sits down and resumes his conversation.

So from this we learn 2 things: he PAYS that mutha f*ckin' bill, and dropping a handful of F-bombs in a theater full of kids will get you forcibly evicted by a cop.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Merely opening a cell phone in a theater I guess is not so bad, but the light is distracting to the folks behind. You will, however, earn being labled "one of those cell phone shitbirds" by your fellow movie goers. They are, reasonably, assuming you are gonna be a problem. And they are probably going to retaliate.

[Knifeman]

seriously. If you are, say, a doctor, police officer, emergency worker, or the like... if you are on call and you have a pager...

do you know what you should do? Sit at the edge of the row, and if that thing goes off, get your happy ass OUT of the theater.

That's what you do. That's the only proper thing to do.

As a caveat, there are some movies I will talk in. If the theater's nearly empty- nobody around to hear me- and I'm there with friends for the express purpose of making fun of the movie. Obviously this isn't something I do on opening weekends.

I did that with Shymalan's latest piece of drek, with my girlfriend. The funniest thing was that I heard someone else in the theater doing the exact same thing (only not as quietly as us)- there were only about six people in the theater, maybe seven, and pretty soon we were all in on it. Poor Shymalan didn't realize he was writing a comedy, I don't think.

It's the TREES!

[Knifeman]

But on a more serious matter, what do you feel is the proper etiquette for a cellphone in a movie theater?

I personally feel, to be lenient, until the lights dim, sure, have you phone out. Make calls, etc, even use your regular talking voice. No one's missing anything other than the Screenvisions guy.

But the cue of them dimming the lights is the cue of "Ok, talking time is over". Either to your neighbor, or your BFF from the 2nd grade that's 3 states away.

IF you are someone whose job nature requires you to be easily reachable(or are a parent trying to enjoy an evening without the kids), then yes, sit at the end of an aisle near an exit. That way you can exit without disrupting your fellow movie goers.

Sure, it's not the seat all the way at the top in the dead center of the theater, but guess what, the responsibility of being reached easily means you SHOULDN'T take such a seat. You CHOSE to be reachable during a movie, so you have to take the seat closest to an exit.

ALL OTHER USES OF A CELLPHONE OR MOBILE DEVICE IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED by the laws of common sense, common courtesy, and the movie theatre acts of not being a douche. I don't care if you're checking the time. You knew how long the movie was before you walked in. I don't care if you love getting emails. I don't care if that actor looked familiar and you want to check google to see who it is. If your screen lights up, you're a fair target.

[Hyndis]

Oh, I can top that, easy!

I was visiting Mom, and we went to see a particular comedy troupe with a permanent venue in town, as is our tradition when I visit. Tickets aren't cheap, but I don't visit that often, either, since it's quite a trip. These guys are good enough they've been putting on productions in the same venue for longer than I've been alive, and even have a touring company. They also tend to do sophisticated, cuttingly satirical, sociopolitical humor.

Right in the middle of the show a 17-ish, yuppie-looking girl's cell went off at the table (drinks and bar-food with the show, woot!) from us. Not only did she answer it, but she proceeded to actually hold a conversation about the show, in the middle of a skit. She said the crew were "terrible" (as in, not hamming it up like Ben Stiller), the humor was "dumb" (more like went over her head), acted indignant about the fact that they were digging at stuff she was "into", and generally proving to everyone within earshot that she was rude, witless, incapable of appreciating comedy that's not spoon-fed with a sitcom laugh track, and exactly the kind of Pop-Culture Zombie they were making fun of.

Her parents had been laughing along with everyone else, and were rightfully mortified by their daughter's behavior at, from what I gathered, her mother's birthday present. When the company tongue-lashed her and threw her out of the House, her parents told her they weren't ruining their evening because she was being rude and she could just go wait in the lobby until the show was over. To top it off, they made her leave her phone with them while she waited.

And no, from the way everyone reacted I'd say it wasn't a setup, but the well deserved repercussion of doing the verbal equivalent of kicking over a Hell's Angels' bike.

I went to the Improv a year ago, and there was also a heckler in the audience. The performers were the guys on Whose Line is it Anyways. The heckler was near the front of the audience, clearly within sight and hearing range of the comedians on stage.

They utterly skewered him.

At the time they were doing a skit with a good cop/bad cop theme. I don't recall the details, but they kept yelling to quiet down in the drunk tank, mocked the bastage, and took it completely in stride to the point where the audience was laughing at the heckler.

Then security escorted him out of the building.


Comedians have a particular talent for dealing with hecklers. Its a beautiful thing to see in action.

[rerant]

IMO so long as the phone isn't making noise and the person isn't talking on it then I hardly see how it makes a difference if it's off or not. The point of shutting it off is so that it doesn't ring and disturb anyone, but that's what vibrate is for.

I'm on the opposite side of this debate. While I always remain as courteous as possible I get more annoyed with people who get annoyed over little things like the light of a cell phone screen, even that of an iPhone, which I am very aware is larger, as my boyfriend has one.
If someone scolded me for flipping open my phone I'd quietly tell them to take a chill pill and leave me alone.
Maybe I don't get annoyed at certain things easily or I just know how to prioritize my annoyances, that being the light of a phone being at the bottom of the list of movie theatre annoyances and people making actual noise being at the top.

[marty]

I saw some guy spit on another for talking on his phone in the theater, like full out back-of-the-throat lugee. At least it wasn't that.

[rerant]

I saw some guy spit on another for talking on his phone in the theater, like full out back-of-the-throat lugee. At least it wasn't that.

Some people should just never be let out of the house.

[MadMike]

That wasn't the worst of it ... some moron with his 10-year old son complains to ME that I was swearing in front of his kid. I was NOT in a good mood and he just stepped on my last barely living nerve ...

Me: "If you didn't want your son to hear fucking swearing, you shouldn't take him to a fucking R-rated movie."

I had an incident like that back in my college days. A bunch of us went to see a late movie, and we were talking among ourselves before the movie started. Some guy got all pissy and yelled at us, telling us we needed to watch the language because "there could be kids here."

I'll admit, we were a bit loud, and a bit careless with our language, but it was an R-rated movie, and we weren't saying anything worse than what was going to be in the movie. And it was after 10 on a weeknight.

Once the movie started, we kept quiet, although one of the more obnoxious members of our group wanted to yell "Oh no! They said 'fuck!'" as when one of the actors said it, just to piss off the other guy.

[Knifeman]

IMO so long as the phone isn't making noise and the person isn't talking on it then I hardly see how it makes a difference if it's off or not. The point of shutting it off is so that it doesn't ring and disturb anyone, but that's what vibrate is for.

I'm on the opposite side of this debate. While I always remain as courteous as possible I get more annoyed with people who get annoyed over little things like the light of a cell phone screen, even that of an iPhone, which I am very aware is larger, as my boyfriend has one.
If someone scolded me for flipping open my phone I'd quietly tell them to take a chill pill and leave me alone.
Maybe I don't get annoyed at certain things easily or I just know how to prioritize my annoyances, that being the light of a phone being at the bottom of the list of movie theatre annoyances and people making actual noise being at the top.

I disagree with most of your points.

Movie theaters, since the beginning, have been trying to teach their guests proper etiquette. The dimming lights, telling guests 'talking time is over'. As I outlined, talking time includes talking on cell phones. And, in a darkened movie theater, a big bright white light in a viewer's field of vision breaks the movie going experience. It's like having someone pop a flashlight on right infront of you. You'd NEVER argue why it's ok for someone to pop a flashlight on sitting infront of you, so why is it ok when said flashlight happens to have text messaging and email capability?

That's why Ushers have those red filtered lights: because they won't DISTRACT FROM THE EXPERIENCE!

We're paying for a THEATER EXPERIENCE. Dark lights, huge screen, theater sound, stadium seating, artificial butter popcorn, ALL OF IT.

[South Texan]

Maybe I don't get annoyed at certain things easily or I just know how to prioritize my annoyances, that being the light of a phone being at the bottom of the list of movie theatre annoyances and people making actual noise being at the top.

I know where you are coming from. I know to expect that there will be the noises of people rustling candy wrappers, coughing, getting up for whatever reasons, laughing loudly, crunching popcorn, moving cups with ice in them, etc. in almost any movie auditorium. There also are people who bump chairs with their feet when crossing or stretching their legs. I have learned not to hear or pay attention to such things.

In fairness, though, there are people who are far more sensitive to any noises or movements.

[RebeccaOTool]

It's not exactly sucky but both times I saw TDK in theaters (as well as many other R-Rated movies), there were five year old kids in the audience.

The two boys at the two seperate TDK showings didn't make a fuss, but still, that movie was completely inappropriate for anyone under double digits. If your 10 year old can handle it, fine, but a preschooler isn't equipped to handle fantasy the same way, especially on 'the big screen'. Wait a few months and show it to them on DVD, when the murderous clown or the *SPOILER VILLIAN* isn't life size, and you can pause the movie whenever you want.