Flickgrrl

I would like a device with a mute button to squelch the deafening barrage of commercials that run for twenty minutes before the start of the movie. I do admit to a secret desire to press a button and deliver a mild jolt to those folks in front of me who wear big hats over big hair, eating overly crunchy snacks and muttering away. That would help.

Once upon a time the cellphone met the multiplex and cinephiles everywhere cringed. Management was nowhere to be found. Then mere cellphone ringing eventually grew to actual cellphone conversations during the film, text messaging and its visual pollution was born to complement all the noise pollution, and it soon became pure hell to attend one of these places on a weekend night...I try to attend as many promotional screenings as possible to take advantage of Ritz projection and a usually saner atmosphere. A projectionist once told me some multiplexes also offer a somewhat watered-down, dimmer projection image in order to save money. Seems to me the pager idea comes from the same mold: why pay extra people in management to police the crowd before trying to dupe the crowd itself to do management's job?

In the case of Riverview, what management is there to manage? They can never be found.... they hide out in the offices when there's an issue... it takes a good 10 minutes to find ANY employees - besides the popcorn peddlers - but they are about 20-25 deep with customers waiting for service.... These "call buttons" are reDONKulous. If I did need to push that call button, I think Regal should refund me for the cost of my ticket.... thoughts on that?! I think filmmakers who visit most of Philly's REGAL theatres (Riverview Manayunk) would be appalled by the way their patrons are handled, mishandled, ignored, blah blah.... Besides, managers are also projectionists nowadays... with the dual roles, sadly they aren't experts on managing or projection.

I have no problem with the movie narc...in fact, it can't come fast enough. I'm tired of shelling out nearly 30 dollars so my girlfriend and I can listen to moviegoers who sometimes, quite literally, decide to become a part of the action- yellilng at the screen, telling characters what to do. i'm tired of a screaming "oh no he did not!", or "run nigga, you's 'bout to get shot!" it's absurd and obnoxious. And don't bother trying to shoosh someone...you'll just get a verbal beat down and further distraction. Seriously- is yelling at the screen a black thing? Because I had never experienced such inconsideration prior to seeing a movie in philadelphia.

I think Paul's post is thinly veiled racism. But his point is not wrong. Unless you are at the Ritz (and it even happens there) there is a 95% chance you are going to get someone's witty running commentary during the film. My two favorite memories of this: (1) I was watching Lost in Translation at the Clearview in Bala Cynwyd and the person next to me obviously spent some time in Japan. The entire movie had a running diaglouge akin to "I remember that place" and "they made the best drinks in that bar" etc. And when I saw Million Dollar Baby at the Ritz, the man behind me gasped "don't do it!" when Clint delivered the lethal injection. I don't hesitate to tell people to stop talking now. They usually become indignant and then realize the error of their ways.

Can we start this today. I hate the fools who yell at the screen. Give me two pagers.

Nope..Paul is entitled to his opinion, but rudeness comes in all colors as far as I'm concered. I used to live in PA and now live in the DC area. No matter where you go, movies now seem to be magnets for bad behavior.

Regal is also instituting these "narc" devices in select theaters here as well, and it couldn't come soon enough. I never go to a movie on the weekends either, but during the week when it's quieter. I find also that patrons at Bethesda Row or E Street (our cinema arts houses) are much more considerate and you don't have the problems you do as you would at the mainstream theaters.

I was in a movie recently and the lady two seats down from me was ordering 'Curb Side To Go' dinner during the movie so she could pick it up afterwards! Every movie I go to has either annoying kids, people on their cell phones,people talking or people kicking my seat. It makes watching the movie completely suck! I'll take a pager too! Especially if I can get discounted tickets.

Movie theaters have a fairly narrow profit margin. One of the ways they keep expenses down is by having a bare-bones staff. At any given time, there may be as few as a dozen employees on site, with at least half of them working the concession stand (where the money is really made). The non-concession staff might consist of 2 or 3 "managers" (all of whom are likely to be under 25 years old)and a couple of generic workers responsible for sweeping up, dumping trash cans, cleaning up spills, washrooms, etc. Frequently, you'll see 2,000 customers in a multiplex that's being run by 10 or 12 mostly teenaged employees. There are no employees assigned to go from theater to theater checking to make sure everything is working OK and nobody's misbehaving. In most moviehouses, "ushers" are a thing of the distant past.

We have given up going to any movie theatres that show popular films because of distractions. Ritz theatres or Netflix are the best options for cinema fans.

There used to be a similar device used in every movie theater in the country.

It was called an "usher".

The theaters are merely outsourcing their hosting responsibilities to their audience.

Long overdue.

Will the employees respond?

If they don't respond, do I get a free ticket and/or refund?

People should just be quiet when the movie starts or whisper in very quiet tones to the person they want to speak with that may be next to them, put their pagers and phones on vibrate, and keep from knocking the chair in front of them when someone is sitting there.

Courtesy is definitely lacking, and it seems people are frustrated actors themselves when they start talking to the screen, regardless of their gender, sexual orientation, race, etc.

This bad behavior even happens at the 10:00AM Philadelphia Talk Cinema! There are two "ladies"
that sit center fifth row that make rude comments about everyone around them before the screening and during the screening. I have told them to be quiet several times and was forced to change my seat. I wish we had ejector buttons so we could eject them permanently from the theater. The group I sit with is forced to save extra seats so we are not subject to these "ladies" further rudeness.
If there is no escape from rudeness at Talk Cinema, there is no escape anywhere. SAD.

There is no substitute for a culture that emphasizes personal dignity and consideration for others. But a little intolerance of rudeness goes a long way.

Show me a theater that charges $20 a seat and actually enforces rules designed to discourage rudeness, and I'm there.

As for the movie Narc system described....

I'd love to see Septa adopt some similar method for cracking down on the the numb-skulls that pollute other riders' commutes with their inane 10 decibel chit-chat.

Micah, I dare you to tell someone at the Riverview to stop talking - I guarantee you'll realize thats a big mistake. After fearing for my life when I told some people to shut up during a movie there (learned some new phrases too - I think "you gonna lick boot, bitch" means someone was planning to kick me in the face), I realized i'd rather waste the gas and time driving out to the burbs to see a movie, or, better yet - wait for it to come out on video. You're labeling Paul's post as "thinly vailed racism" makes me think that you've never been to the Riverview (at least not in the last 6 or 7 years.) For any popular movie - you are guaranteed to not even be able to count the number of people talking through/at the movie. It is very frustrating.

When chatty Cathys are sitting near me in a theater, I usually get up and move. But back in the day it was possible to get up, speak to the manager, and have him/her quietly but firmly tell the offender that he was being a nuisance. I know that this is opening a different can of worms, but I don't mind audience talk when it's in response to what's happening on the screen. It's the talk (what are we having for dinner? did you pay the PECO bill? doesn't Amanda Peet look like whatsername?) that makes me mental. One of my favorite movie experiences was seeing Alien with a few thousand souls at the Loew's Astor Plaza in New York. At a crucial moment -- SPOILER ALERT! --Sigourney Weaver is in her underwear and doesn't know that the monster is inhabiting the spacecraft cat. The tension was unbearable. Would the cat spew out the Alien like a hairball, killing Our Heroine? Then a man a few rows back audibly said, "Don't be petting pussy, now" the audience erupted in anxiety-relieving laughter.

I've had it happen at the Ritz more times than I can remember, typically from what my wife and I call the "Explainer Section" of elderly (and usually female) patrons who can't quite follow what's happening on screen, so they loudly will say, "Oh, that's [Character]!" to each other to review the plot points as they're happening.

The worst I can recall was seeing TRAFFIC at the Ritz/Bourse, when the commentary was incessant, ending with "Oh, so he got his baseball field!" at the end, spoken louder than the dialogue.

As a former movie theater employee, I think that narc'ing in a theater is a great idea. As soon as some of the trouble makers see the vests or the shirt or the flashlights, they'll stop what they're doing. The most effective way that we ever found to foil those trouble makers was to have someone in "street clothes" standing or sitting in the back of theater. They would come out and grab someone in uniform to help them calm the situation and/or eject the trouble makers.

Having the ability to fix the film faster would be great, too. When I ran the projectors, there wasn't much down time and focus checks were at the bottom of the list of things to do. In a theater with 6 or 8 screens, there's usually only one dude/ette up there running those huge, complicated pieces of equipment. (And most projectionists are cinephiles as well, and want to make your movie going experience a good one.)

Believe me, the employees don't want to have to "babysit" the theater... they want to go in, do their checks and get back to the other things that have to be done.

Just go see a movie down in Manayunk and you will see this needs to be in every theater in the area, some more then others.

I carried one of these pagers into the movie at the Regal in Delaware, and I got a ticket for a free movie just for participating. I don't mind people commenting during the movie so long as it's about the movie, but I would like to be able to press a button to make the gum crackers of the world disappear!

I am tired of the [epithet deleted] yelling at the screen - and the white trash who can't shut up - give me my pagers now and a better tomorrow will soon follow - and perhaps the movie theatres will last longer!!!!

People still go to theatres to see film? It's been at least 3 years since my last trip. And the above comments certainly haven't whetted my appetite for a return any time soon.

I'm with you there. I'm not with the whole movie snitching. Especially since it'll be at Neshaminy thats where I sneak into the most movies.

I personally believe that consideration for others in public places is part of a bygone era. It is part of a new era of rudeness and inconsiderateness of a growing number of people in this country. I'm afraid your chances of going to the theater and watching a movie without being irritated by someone is a thing of the past. Let's face it, it's not going to get better, only worse. What a shame. It seems the population in general cannot keep its mouths shut. I will have to watch most films on my own screen at home. I do want to say, however, that if one can stand the NOISE, it might be a positive that the movie sound itself drowns out every other sound within a 3-block area!