I recently saw a movie and I rarely see a movie in the theater, mainly because I think its too expensive to see movies anymore. I really dislike movies that are only available in 3D because I really don’t want to pay an extra $4 per ticket just for a gimmick whose fad is starting to wane. But I digress.
So my past movie theater experience was The Dark Knight Rises (you can read my review of it here) and I had a rather rude stranger sitting next to me. He started by arriving late so his girlfriend kept texting and calling him but it was only during the previews so it wasn’t that upsetting, but it set the precedent for the remainder of the evening. He sat right next to me and seemed to want to check his texts or respond to texts every 10 minutes. In fact at one point he was talking on the phone to his girlfriend who he sent out to get him pizza (from the local pizza place located in the same building as the theater).
I couldn’t believe how rude and obnoxious this asshat was. There were a few times I became really tempted to start screwing with the guy. I even thought about trying to reach over and grab a slice of his pizza. In fact I think from now on if you are sitting next to me and you feel the need to read and respond to your text messages, expect to share your messages with me. If I see you reading and sending texts I am going to purposefully look at your phone. I’m not going to try to hide it either. I am going to lean over so you can feel my breath on your neck because obviously your text messages are more interesting then the movie.
There is a reason that theaters have the promotions that play just before the movie asking all patrons to turn their phones off. All of us paid to watch the movie but your texts and phone conversations are not part of the experience, unless you are sitting next to me … then I will make them part of my experience.
/end soapbox