Tuesday, September 16, 2008

I've come into this theatre just to talk on the phone

I sometimes write about my theatre going dismay at the behavior of others--okay, it's more often rants involving my anger and annoyance at these idiots I have to suffer. Well, let's add a new wrinkle to the rudeness--theatre as private phone booth.

A friend and I were taking in a late night screening of Transiberian and all was well. The film had about fifteen minutes left when I hear a loud voice talking in the entryway before the talker became visible as two young women came into the room and moved above us. I thought to myself that was strange to enter the movie at this point but thought they might be talking to someone in the theatre telling them where to locate them. I was wrong.

Transiberian was in "final showdown" mode so the noise on screen initially blanketed the voices I could hear every so often behind me. I still heard those voices though and I turned to MB and asked, "Can you hear those people?" She could too. After a few more bursts of talking I stood up and turned to get a good look at the offenders. Lo and behold BOTH of them were on their phones at the same time!

Amid the current trends of texting at every opportunity and the talkers that I've experienced in movie theatres--never had I seen two more blatant talkers who seemed to enter the theatre ONLY to have conversations on their cell phones. These two dimwits didn't take a call during the film, that is expected as normal these days. No, they did something even more discourteous-- they came into the theatre with fifteen minutes left to make calls.

A woman sitting above us went to get theatre staff (instead of confronting the noisemakers) and soon someone was escorting them out. The funny thing was, one of the women did not stop her conversation as she brazenly kept on loudly blathering away down the aisle and out the door. It was an amazing display of uncivilized behavior. The depths of public conduct among our populace is hard to fathom but this is the new low point for me. The sad thing is I'm sure the bar will drop even lower in the future.

2 comments:

Guy Gadbois said...

During "Burn After Reading," someone's phone went off for an extended period twice AND the ringer sounded like an ambulance. Voice mail never picked up. Finally, after somebody shouted, "TURN OFF YOUR CELLPHONE" (using much less profanity than I would have), the nuisance stopped. I'm getting pissed now just thinking about it.

Joshua Blevins Peck said...

Animals!