Movie Theater Experience

I watch a lot of movies in different ways.  Some I watch on television on the various channels I get and some on DVD from my ever growing DVD collection.  I also see many movies in the theater.  I'm lucky that the theater here that I go to still has fairly low prices, though they have been slowly creeping up in the last couple of years.  There is just something about seeing a movie on the big screen that I like despite the drawbacks.

For me, the biggest drawback is having to put up with all the other people in the theater, many of whom are rude idiots who disrupt everyone even remotely near them.  When did it become acceptable for people to talk all through a movie or send a gazillion text messages, disrupting anyone who has the misfortune to be sitting anywhere near them?  I just don't get people who do this and I find them horribly irritating.  Why pay to see a movie if you are going to do nothing but talk or send text messages through the whole thing?  I fail to see the point of that and it seems like a huge waste of money.  Rudeness seems to be accepted anymore and I for one am tired of that.  When I go to the theater, I'm paying to see a movie, not over hear conversations or be blinded by cell phone screens.  People who can't be quiet or can't go a few hours without sending a text need to stay out of movie theaters and stop ruining the movie theater experience for others. 

I am frequently annoyed by people talking in the theater.  I don't mean someone who whispers something to the person they are with a few times.  That doesn't bother me.  I'm talking about people who carry on full conversations in loud voices.  I've had the misfortune to be in a theater with people who are practically yelling to the person next to them to be heard over the movie.  Theaters are not the place to have conversations.  Theaters are not the place to talk loudly on a cell phone about what you want to eat for dinner.  Theaters are not the place to send numerous text messages or go online using a cell phone.  Some people may not agree with me on this, but I also feel that theaters aren't the place for young children who can't sit still and watch a movie without talking constantly or running up and down the aisles.  When I was a child, my mom didn't take me to a movie in the theater until I was 6 or so.  By that time, I had the attention span to watch a movie without disrupting everyone else in the theater and I knew to be quiet.  Children that are allowed to talk constantly through an entire movie in the theater grow up to be adults who refuse to be quiet in the theater.  It is just common courtesy, which is severely lacking in all aspects of life, to be quiet in a theater.

I still love going to see movies and I'm trying not to let the rude idiots ruin things for me.  I'll still be going to the theater and giving my movie theater evil eye to people who won't be quiet.  Unfortunately, that doesn't work that often, but I still do it.

To quote Shepherd Book from the wonderful Firefly, there is a special hell for people who talk in the theater.  People who tend to talk during movies may want to stop and think about that next time..and zip the lip.