Sunday, July 6, 2008 at 10:22 PM
Edited Sunday, July 6, 2008 at 10:23 PM The children thing really bothers me as well (if you can't afford a sitter, then you can't afford to go to the movies; seems like a no-brainer to me).
This is something that drives me completely insane. Best case scenario, somebody forgot to turn off their ringer, their phone goes off and they act embarrassed and apologetic while they kill it (and they've already brought the whole theater into the moment and out of the film). That one I see more at conferences, classes and other talks. More often in the theater, some douche will not only have their phone ring, but they'll actually pick the fucker up and answer it in the bloody theater. As you said, Yesterdaze, there is no good solution. The only way to deal with their disruption, once it happens, is cause another disruption by having somebody talk to or eject them. One of the pleasant side effects of seeing mainly foreign or arty flicks in the theater is that it attracts a better crowd of people--no one has ever talked on the phone during one of these I don't see art flicks all that often, but when I do, the difference is incredible. People are just quiet and respectful, and the phone thing generally just doesn't happen. One time though, I saw it happen. I was watching 21 Grams in the one major art house with more than one screen on this side of Phoenix. Somebody pulled the "I forgot to turn off my ringer" and although he caught and shut it off before the second ring, he was visibly ashamed even in the dark theater, and just about everyone in the place glared at him for a moment. I like the shame angle. It really seems effective, non-intrusive and somehow it's underutilized most of the time today. To that end, it actually does seem to help at regular theaters when before the movie they show mock trailers where the action gets interrupted by the Nokia tones and the action is disrupted and the whole cast glares. —anobody | 
