comment #1

Ray says ...

I don't know why, but the idea of Wells and McCuddy texting each other in a movie theater like a couple of thirteen year old girls makes me smile a bit.

comment #2

Gordie Lachance says ...

Nothing annoys me more than someone texting in a movie theater, but when Jeff related the story yesterday I assumed that the theater was either semi empty or at least open to that type of thing going on.

At the same time, I guessed it would only be minutes before someone on the board called him out on it, through email or a post, the same way that some stick-in-the-butt corrected his poetry spacing yesterday.

God, it must be such a burden to go through life admonishing people and mending every social injustice and faux pas perpetrated by anonymous strangers.

Lighten up people. Do something fun. Make someone laugh. Get away from the computer for chrissakes.

comment #3

MindlessObamaton says ...

Agreed it makes both sound like 13 yr old girls. I do hate it when pepole text or check their phones during movies. That being said, I HATE walking out of a flick, looking at my phone and finding 25 texts I gotta answer.

comment #4

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

"I abhor people who text in movie theatres with others sitting around them. Loathsome behavior. But if two guys are sitting in a den or living room and texting each other about a show they're watching, who cares? That's almost the way it was when..."

Yeah, "almost." Say the theater was entirely empty except for you and me, and the movie playing was "Zodiac." Say I was deathly bored with it (obviously a hypothetical situation as I love that film), and started texting and loudly sighing when something exciting *didn't* happen. For three hours. You *know* you would come right on here after the show and start complaining about that person, wouldn't you? Do you see what I'm getting at here?

It doesn't really matter how many people were in the theater (which has oddly changed from "empty" to "no one in our vicinity"), you really shouldn't get used to the idea of treating a public space as your own personal living room. That's often how this so-called "loathsome" behavior often starts. Next time there will only be 10-15 people, "ehh, what's the harm?" And don't go scolding the messenger. Apparently this is a practice that you "abhor." Principles are principles are principles, and you just broke one of yours.

Big deal? Of course not. But you do lose any relative credibility to ever complain about this again and expect any sympathy from me.

The movie playing doesn't really matter, either. It's more about respecting the *idea* of going to the movies (and respecting other people's desire for entertainment and/or escapism), than the specific movie in question.

Off the soapbox I go.

comment #5

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

"That being said, I HATE walking out of a flick, looking at my phone and finding 25 texts I gotta answer."

In the history of this technological cycle, has there ever been a text message that really HAD to be answered?

comment #6

allstar397 says ...

Makes sense, since you werent actually bothering anybody. When i saw the dark knight there were 2 12ish year old girls sitting near me texting boys and giggling through the whole movie...WHY THE HECK SPEND $10 FOR A MOVIE TO DO THIS??? makes no sense to me.

comment #7

BurmaShave says ...

Duly noted.

comment #8

caslab says ...

texting doesn't sound nearly as distracting as jeff's usual head-in-the-hands-rocking-back-and-forth-while-moaning behavior during a stinker.

texting or not, jeff, you're a better man than i for making it all the way through that thing.

comment #9

Ethan says ...

I'd like to see Ben Lyons defend his texting during screenings.

comment #10

shanes5 says ...

Gordie Lachance -- "God, it must be such a burden to go through life admonishing people and mending every social injustice and faux pas perpetrated by anonymous strangers."

I agree, but isn't that what Jeff does almost every day? Isn't that like the pot calling the kettle black?

Part of the texting issue is that everyone doing it in a theatre is rationalizing it as okay in one way or another, just like Jeff did.

I love reading Jeff's posts and he's turned me on to phenomenal movies I never woujld have known about otherwise--but as insightful as he is, he's also an absolute fundamentalist--"there's a million wrong ways and one right way...and that right way always happens to match the way I think."

comment #11

Deathtongue_Groupie says ...

I can think of several texts the Mrs. sent me of a salacious nature that HAD to be answered...

CitizenKaned gets to the heart of the matter that you don't treat even a screening room as your den and thus crap on your principles.

Also, how hard would it be to imagine the pissing and moaning we would be reading had Jeff been denied entry to this screening, bitching that would have continued even after others would have weighed in that the film was a stinker?

comment #12

Big Black says ...

There are so many assholes who post comments on this web site it boggles the mind. I would be banning your fucking IPs and making you go through proxy sites to post your stupid, inane shit. The two of these guys alone in that screening theater, suffering through the latest insipid Will Smith trash, were not bothering anyone with their fucking text messages and you fucking know it, and yet you are compelled to continue clucking mindlessly about it like mutts who can't stop eating cat-shit. Get some perspective, you boring, despicable nincompoops.

comment #13

Renfield says ...

If two guys are sitting in a den or living room texting one another?

I wouldn't be annoyed. I'd laugh.

comment #14

p.Vice says ...

Wouldn't walking out of the film be a better way to "fight back"?

comment #15

smiley says ...

Big Black, they weren't alone and this scenario reveals Jeff hypocritical nature. If the shoe had been on the other foot there would be 6 blogs about "cell-phone douchebaggery" and you would be posting the exact oppsoite.

comment #16

Devin Faraci says ...

I've been in that screening room. If Jeff was sitting on the comfy chairs in the back, there's no way his screen distracted people in front of him. There's a large gap.

comment #17

deadre says ...

I'm just glad the movie sucks this much......yup, very glad....if anyone else has seen it, any other opinions?

comment #18

LexG says ...

Jeff's antics here seem totally harmless and clearly weren't bothering anyone.

Unlike my experience at the MOVIER LOVERS MECCA THE ARCLIGHT HOLLYWOOD today, where despite their policy of not letting people in late, some tool both snuck in late AND texted for the remainder of the film.

So yeah, a GIANT "fuck you" to the theater-hopping ASSHOLE who decided to sneak into MILK at the *80 minute* mark, plopping down three seats away (from me specifically), and texting on his Blackberry up in the front, in clear view of the entire theater behind him.

When Penn and Diego Luna have their final scene and Penn's reaction, were we supposed to be hearing the click-clack of this fuckwad's numberpad and the shining beacon of his screen? By the time I scolded him (in the douchiest, wishy-washiest, un-Wellsian way possible), the movie was effectively ruined, as I spent the last act more annoyed than if Joe Leydon was chicken-scratching next to me.

I guess I understand theater-hoppers if you're a real cheapskate, and if you can duck in at the beginning, I don't really care. But what the FUCK can possibly be gained by catching the last 30 minutes of something? (Amusingly, the split second Brolin started firing, the dude got up and left, probably mentally checking it off his list: Yep, saw how that one ended, good enough.)

Now I have to pay to see this shit again. And of course when you complain about such things at the Arclight, they're polite and eager to please, but the response is always, "YOU SHOULD HAVE COME AND TOLD SOMEONE."

Because, yeah, it TOTALLY doesn't take one out of a movie to go leave for four minutes to flag down an usher, then sit there while they try to evict some defensive, ill-tempered texting tool.

comment #19

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