(Untitled)

[dherblay]

I did not mean to give the impression in my last post that the women sitting behind me during North By Northwest were the only, or even the worst, people I've heard talking over movies this summer. To be sure, they annoyed me much more than the woman attending my second viewing of Spider-Man 2, whom I heard from across the theater wondering why

Comments

Even (though less so) if you use a silencer.

[rebekahroxanna]

Where do you get your sense of humor! I snorted coffee this morning. I could ruin my laptop!

Re: Even (though less so) if you use a silencer.

[dherblay]

Nature. Nurture. Whichever.

[dlgood]

I kept attempting to send the telepathic message, You're in the dollar theater on a senior discount. What do you have to lose by just walking out?

So very true. Makes me want to put on my Pedant Hat and lecture on the concepts of 'sunk cost' and 'opportunity cost'...

On the other hand, I used to go see movies at Beltway Plaza, which was in the sort of neighborhood where you got quite a bit of audience participation. It made "The Devil's Advocate" a much funnier experience...

[dherblay]

I think that was the plot of an episode of The John Larroquette Show.

Not the economics lesson, I mean.

[masqthephlsphr]

I think some people simply enjoy complaining about things. These are the same tedious wankers who do websites like Television Without Pity and always make me think, "Why are you watching this if you *hate* it so much?"

Apparently for some, self-torture is a turn-on.

[buffyannotater]

My major problem with TWoP is that when it started, the whole mission statement was making fun of stupid television, and there's plenty of stupid television to make fun of--*cough*realityTV*cough*--but instead they make fun of every show and just find people who don't like each one to write about it. I don't like their whole cynical 'tude of ripping apart everything, because there are so few really great shows on TV now that when they come along, I think they should be treated better. I think it's gotten to the point that they are so in the "tear-apart" mode that they can't recognize a good show when they see it. And I don't think it's a purely subjective thing, because there have been some "quality" shows that I have not personally liked, such as The West Wing (don't know what it is about it, but I never liked it, although I loved Aaron Sorkin's Sports Night) but could tell they were higher on the scale than, say, Full House.

[masqthephlsphr]

Now, that original mission statement I could get behind. I might not read it, because I'm not a fan of negativity, even for humor's sake, but it's understandable.

I went through a long period in the '80's where I was an utter snob about television, thinking it all a vast wasteland with nothing in it for me to personally relate to or find value in. Then came the golden era of genre television in the '90's. Sadly, the day for that is done, but the torch has been passed to intelligent risk-taking cable drama, and I remain a TV whore.

[buffyannotater]

The only thing worse than hearing people in the theater criticize the movie you're trying to enjoy is when people loudly explain the movie to other people in their group. This usually happens with parents and little kids, where you get sort of like sports commentary fed back to you moments after it happens on screen. But the worst I experienced recently was at Fahrenheit 9/11, where this woman was loudly explaining details of the movie to her friends, as if she were holding a seminar, and as if they couldn't quite grasp the "subtleties" of the film without her.

[dherblay]

I may have lucked out. I saw Fahrenheit 9/11 only this past Thursday, and the ten or so people in the theater with me must have all been able to fathom Moore's subtleties.

Wait, he was saying that Bush is good, right?

[buffyannotater]

Well, duh!