Friday, July 25, 2008

$7.00 BUCKS FOR THIS ???


So...The Dark Knight is all the rage right now in America and across the globe really....and for all you poop heads out there I am not referring to Senator(stop acting so damn presidential) Obama's great visit to the Middle East and Europe!! I am talking about the new Batman movie. I am not going to make this a post about TDK but more about going to the movies in general.

I have said it before that I used to love going to the movies....and still do for the most part but maybe its part of my getting older and becoming more like my Dad ..More and more I dont enjoy going !!

I went two weeks ago to see TDK and what follows is a description of my afternoon. IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIE ---STOP READING NOW---

I spend $7.00 bucks to see the movie....get into a fairly crowded theater about 20 minutes before the film starts. Right before the credits begin a large family enters and sits behind us....There is what appears to be a dad,mom,grandmother and four kids. Two of the kids are way too young to be in this movie...one is a toddler maybe 2 years old and the other is a baby.

The movie begins with a bank robbery....lots of guys in creepy clown masks being killed right and left....the toddler behind us starts crying telling everyone in the theater how much he hates clowns. He is very upset about this but settles down after they are off the screen. The baby is making a constant 'ugh,ugh,ugh,ugh' sound....I dont think he ever was quiet..but he is a BABY and hey they do make noise....

The Joker makes his first appearance on the screen and again the toddler goes nuts with crying and screaming that he hates clowns. I never once noticed or heard any adult in his group tell him to be quiet or try to get him to be quiet or God forbid LEAVE the theater with the child.

Add to this all some strange odor coming from the row behind us...By the point I have directed my steely gaze to the row behind us a few times and finally I snap and leave my seat to go complain. Thats right I got up and went to the front concession stand and asked the nice young girl who I needed to speak to about people being loud in the theater. She yells for Cedric...YELLS I say !!! Cedric asks me what the problem is and I tell him and he radios for a manager who looked to be about as old as my nephew but hey at this point any port in a storm will do right ??

He follows me to the door of the theater and stops me to ask where I am sitting ...I tell and he says nevermind he will just watch me and then come up...I tell him he can follow me up if he likes but he says thats not a good idea. Whatever.

I sit and he comes up and tells the folks behind me that there have been complaints about the noise and if they cannot keep the kids quiet they will have to leave....

They all stand and leave.....pushing and bumping us as they go and for good measure some form of liquid fell on my head and right shoulder .....I am saying it was soda or water of some kind and not any type of pee or spit of any kind ...So we will say it was water....just to protect my sanity .

The movie was enjoyed from there on out .....

My question is this ....when did it become acceptable forople to take small children to a movie like that ?????Or any movie like that ??? For that matter when did it become ok to take a BABY to any movie?? Hey Nick and Laura ,Pack up Harper and Lily and go watch the afternoon showing of TDK on Saturday....Brian and Stephanie ,yall should take Asher and Silas to a midnight showing of Hellboy 2!!!

I dont have kids....and I dont see kids in my foreseeable future. I love kids, I really do. I am blessed to have two wonderful nephews in my life and two adorable little girls that I can hold and spoil for the rest of my life.

I hope that that family did not get a refund on their tickets when they left.....Not being a jerk here but they made that bed .....

It frustrates me that people just grab their children of any age and head off to the movie....I think its selfish of them....its not fair to the kids and its sure as hell not fair to the other movie goers.
Am I a jerk ?? Am I asking too much of people to have some kind of respect for those people around them who want to enjoy a show?
I dont talk on my cell phone in a theater, I turn my ringer off like I am asked to do ...Its a shame we have to be asked to do things like that anyway but ok ....I was once told by management not to use my cell phone again that someone had complained!!! I use my cell phone as a time telling device and was checking the time but ok It bothered someone enough...fair enough
Again, I love kids but just wait till Pixar has a great show out to take them to or better yet wait for the DVD.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

i found it funny that they used to ask people just to silence their cell phones. the past couple of movies we've been to, its definitely changed to "Turn Off Your Cell Phones."

i said it before: i am totally, 110% behind your actions at the theater that day. if ya can't get a damned sitter, then wait till ya can. Ledger's performance as the Joker was absolutely chilling and i can't imagine a child faring well when faced with that on a giant screen.

i will say: that family i texted you about was incredibly well behaved. never heard a peep out of either of the children. i was shocked.

Stephanie said...

Can I say that the Joker gives ME the creeps, and that I have no plans on seeing the movie any time soon, mostly for that reason?

Yeah, there are times for sitters. Now if you go to a family friendly place - like Chappy's on a Saturday morning - it's every man for himself. But movies are different.

It always bothers me to see little kids out late at night. They look so tired. I don't think it's fair to them. Babies need sleep.

Stephanie said...

PS My kid is WAY too tender-hearted for a movie like Batman. We watched a cartoon movie the other day (the end of Over the Hedge was on during snack) and every time any character fell down or got hurt (which happens a LOT in cartoon movies) Asher would say, "uh-oh! uh-oh!" over and over, getting more upset, until I assured him that they were okay.

This is not a kid who is ready for the Joker.

The Bean said...

Amen and Amen!

We have taken Baby Bean to two movies.

1. Pride and Prejudice at 11:45am on a weekday morning when she was 2 weeks old. She slept through the entire thing but we sat next to the exit to take her out just in case she woke up which she didn't.

2. Horton Hears a Who. We went to a Saturday matinee and she LOVED it! She was quiet and attentive the whole time and didn't need to get up and potty until 2 minutes before the end of the movie at which time she whispered to me she need to potty. She was 2yrs.

Personally I liked TDK but would not recommend it to children under the age of 12!