Went to see the movie The Hangover today. The movie-going experience was marred by a sold-out theater. The movie's been out for at least a couple of weeks, and we went at 2:30 in the afternoon, and I don't remember every going to a movie that sold out in Lafayette...what the hell? Anyway, there were a couple of particularly annoying audience member. One woman to my left howled and squealed in exaggerated laughter at everything that happened on-screen. I'm glad she was having a good time, but screeching at every phrase and gesture in the movie is a bit much. I think the woman was either drunk or had a chemical imbalance.
The second big annoyance was sitting right in front of me. It was one of those people that feels the need to say everything that happens to be going through her head at the time, which happens to be not a whole lot. Mostly it was just stating what was the on the screen. When the characters in the movie wake up and we see a chicken in their hotel room, the genius in front of me said "It's a chicken." Guess what she said when the tiger was on-screen? This went on pretty much through the whole movie.
Oh yeah, how was the movie? It was all right, but definitely not worth packing the cineplex in the middle of the afternoon. Mostly the humor went for the lowest common denominator and ended up hitting it. We got copious helpings of full-frontal male nudity, and ass, and pedophilia jokes, and vomiting. And you know, there's nothing funnier than a baby getting hit with a car door. That's not to say there weren't a few clever bits, but for the most part the humor was pitched at the level of your average 7th-grader. If you find an old man getting a physical check-up inherently funny, this is the movie for you. Apparently it was also the movie for a lot of other people, because like I said, the theater was packed and the howler monkey to my left wasn't the only one enjoying the show.
That's one thing I really miss about Japan. The audience members in movies were blissfully silent. Here, everyone treats a theater like their living room. I hope if there is a hell, there's a special place in it for the chick sitting in front of me today. And when she gets there, she'll probably be placed front and center so she can contribute to the suffering by saying stuff like "It's hot in here."
Saturday, June 27, 2009
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7 comments:
I hope if there is a hell, there's a special place in it for the chick sitting in front of me today. And when she gets there, she'll probably be placed front and center so she can contribute to the suffering by saying stuff like "It's hot in here."
HA!
Yeah, she was pretty annoying. And you neglected to mention that she was one of those people who like to try to tell the people on the screen what to do: "Turn on your alarm!" Hmmm...wait a minute...maybe I do this too sometimes, but definitely only in the comfort of my own home and then I'm only attempting to point out the stupidity of the writers.
But anyway, at least it wasn't anywhere near as bad as our experience at Wall-E.
Anachronistic that we still gather together to see this spectacle of theater. No live performance is really necessary, given our technology. It's an experience fading from the world, like the drive-in. Only at the drive-in, the point was being with other people, in the semi-dark of the car, or in the exchanges on the grass between them. At the indoor theater, the social experience has largely been eschewed (since they took out the piano / organ anyway). Manners demand that it be an asocial social experience. An aberration of contemporary culture, like reading into the silence of your own head instead of on your lips to another, who shares the story and loves it too.
I have plenty of awesome technology in my home (surround sound, 60" LCD HD TV, etc) and it's still not what you get in the theatre with a WAY bigger screen and more powerful speaker system. I'm not driven to see a drama in a theatre, but an action flick or something epic like Fellowship of the Ring simply cannot compete with the in-theatre experience.
Granted, a technology gap, but one that will close. The big screen isn't all that great at quality image projection -- bigger isn't always better. The bigger the screen, for example, the less bright (vivid, intense) the image.
We are not that far from affordable home theaters that will make moving going relatively obsolete -- especially given the incivility of American theater-going crowds.
Yeah, but the point is that affordable home theaters aren't readily available NOW (at least not to me and most of the people that I know). Hence the need to go to a movie theater to get a richer experience.
Besides if we're going to allow people to "be social" at movie theaters, does that mean it's going to be okay for an audience member to have a 10 minute conversation on their cell phone? Or with the person sitting next to them? Where would we draw the line?
We had the chatty Cathys behind us at Up. I can understand kids trying to clarify things in the movie or learning the social norm of being quiet during movies, but grown adults?
Jeremy's movie rules:
1. Do NOT see a movie opening week, if you really really have to, go Friday at one of the first features of the day.
2. Never see a movie in the evening, if you have to go in the evening Mondays or Tuesdays are the best. The earlier the better, no kids or people with day jobs in the theater equal much smaller crowds.
3. The longer you can wait to see the movie the less people in the theater that could possibly annoy you. You know the ones, talkers (not whispers) and constast phone texters.
4. Actually if you go during the day the admission prices are much cheaper.
Many times Brooke and I are the only ones in the theater or it is us and a handful of others. Following these rules makes for a much enjoyable movie going experience.
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