In this movie review (via Instapundit, who else) of 'United 93' James Pinkerton ponders a world where technology enables terrorism. I'm not taking issue with the movie or review itself, but with something James mentions in the peice. He makes use of the following device throughout the article:
"As for emotive and evocative power, "93" reminds us why seeing a movie, in a theater, "spellbound in darkness," is a richer experience than seeing a movie on a little screen. The viewer travels somewhere, sits in darkness, and enjoys a collective experience with like-minded people; such pilgrimages have been a staple of human existence for thousands of years. "
BULL. Shit. I have been to a movie theater maybe six times in the past year, and each time was worse than the previous. Richer experience? A collective experience with 'like minded people'? Dude, last weekend the wife and I went to go see Silent Hill, and she almost ended up getting into a fist-fight with these three teenagers in front of us. Three girls who may or may not have even been old enough to be in the show, talking on their cellphones, being generally disruptive.
"Shut up!" hisses the wife.
"O no u di'en."
"Shoo, I wi' come up ova dis chair."
"She don even nu-oh." A chorus of braggadocio typical of the age at which people suffer from 'Idiocy'; or as it's commonly known, adolescence.
The movie ends (an agonizing two hours of gore and hamfisted dialogue. Don't go see the movie, but that's another post), and we collect our things and the two friends seated with us. As we exit the theater, these fucking neanderthals are waiting for her in the hall.
"Bye bitch," says one.
Now, my wife is a bartender. She's not a fighter, but she's also not afraid to call a person's bluff; and she's damn good at it too. I've seen her rattle more than a few drunken idiots right out the back door of her bar. So when this rouster drops the b-bomb on her, she retorts without even breaking stride; "Well, maybe you should learn to shut the fuck up in a movie; instead of talking on your damn cellphone for the first fifteen minutes."
Granted, I wasn't exactly happy that my wife chose to, publicly and without restraint, ride herd on a bunch of kids whose parents obviously failed somewhere along the line; but she was right and she wasn't trying to escalate the situation, so I just kept an eye on things.
Not to mention the seats at just about every movie theater are uncomfortable and the food is a ripoff.
At any rate, the whole premise of going to a movie theater to see a film is so contradictory to the age of technology, that I'm suprised Pinkerton made it such a big part of the article; let alone that it was posted at TCSDaily. I mean, these days I can watch digital quality images on a plasmascreen TV with digital surround sound from the comfort of my own living room; and this tech article is saying that movie-going is "a richer experience than seeing a movie on a little screen"?
Tech Central Station my ass.
I have an altercation almost everytime I go the movies. The masses are a slow painful death.
But don't lie, altercations with 13 year olds wearing bandanas trying to sneak into the theatre make you feel better about yourself, your future, your children and their future.
And by you, I mean me. Thanks for that, AMC.
I never have these problems because I make it a point to avoid any movies that might have blacks in the audience.