Cinema annoyances...

SixTwoSix

SixTwoSix

SixTwoSix

Soldato
Joined
14 Sep 2007
Posts
15,697
Location
Limbo
Aside from the obvious overpricing of cinema tickets and cinema snacks, what are your annoyances of being at the cinema.

I'm posting this because yesterday after waiting ages, I got to watched Transformers 2, paid extra for the premier seats, sat down, enjoying my food before the movie started, got really excited. A little kid behind started kicking the back of my seat, kindly asked him to stop, he did. That's not the annoyance. No, the dumbass next to me had some kind of bad cold/throat infection or something, literally every 60 seconds or so he was doing a really loud cough to clear his throat. I thought he'd stop once the ads/trailers finished and the movie started. Nope, literally every minute he was doing a loud cough to clear his throat. Ended up having to move a few rows back and to the right onto regular seats to try and enjoy the film. Once we moved he seemed to deliberately cough louder so we could still hear him. What a prize *****.

Fair enough he was ill, but why come to the cinema and ruin other peoples time as well. Rant over!

What are your pet peeves at the cinema?
 
I take the cinema with a pinch of salt nowadays. I love film and watch as many I can a week but prefer DVDs over the cinema experience. Why? Because it's just me and I don't need to worry about other people.

When going to the cinema you can't be too precious. There will be other people there and other people can be loud/irritating/restless. Having said that I can still remember the top three biggest film annoyances for me.

3. Sweeney Todd - some woman who kept mindlessly rustling a bag of sunflower seeds [I think] throughout the whole thing. She wasn't even eating them for most of the time, just sticking her hand in the bag and playing around with them.

2. Drag Me To Hell - A group of Asians nearby who were talking and laughing in full voice throughout the whole film, as well as shaking their popcorn a lot and playing with their phones. Initially I was irritated but ended up finding it amusing because the guy next to me was so annoyed it became funny.

1. Let The Right One In - the was made worse by the fact that I'd been looking forward to it for so long. There was a guy to my left who would eat his popcorn one kernel at a time very very slowly throughout the whole thing. It sounds minor but I remember thinking at the time it was like water torture. Let The Right One In is a slow film with long periods of silence so this was very noticeable.

At the end of the day most people see the cinema as a backdrop for the fact they can just eat somewhere else. In a sense, the film is the support act to the main feature - popcorn, nachos or hot dogs. It's a sad fact that cinemas have to sell food to make money since they don't make much from ticket sales. I knew a cinema which refused to sell food but it closed down.

As a film lover, the bottom line is that DVD watching > than cinema. Independents suffer just as much as bigger chains, in my experience. If you want to go to the cinema be prepared for an annoying crowd.
 
Last edited:
Lysander said:
I take the cinema with a pinch of salt nowadays.
Click to expand...

This was my main gripe when I went to see Star Trek. I rarely go to the cinema these days so thought I'd treat myself to some overpriced but delicious salted popcorn.

It was actually lightly popcorned salt. It was so salty I almost complained about it because I'm certain they must have made a mistake with it, but you get ushered out a back door at the end of the film so they escaped my salty wrath.
 
On the flipside to the "annoying audience" I went to see Up recently, and found that the fact that the cinema was 90% children actually added to the atmosphere, making it more enjoyable because the kids all found the slapstick humour hilarious. It was quite sweet really!
 
It's annoyances like this when depending on the what day it is and if the film is avaliable, I'd glady take the late night/midnight showing because 95% of the time, you can have the place all to yourself. Munch away and sit anywhere you like. It was the case for when I went to watch Star Trek with my sister and her boyfriend, it was just us and two other random people. Not to mention the sound "feels" so much better when its near empty too.
 
We always go to The Electric, a wonderful old cinema in the centre of Birmingham (the oldest working cinema in Britain, I believe). Therefore, there are no annoyances at all and going to the pictures is pretty much always the charming and pleasant experience it should be.

The only real inconvenience is that, being a small one-screen independent cinema, you don't get the choice of films and showtimes you do at a multiplex. But, when they're playing something we want to see it's great: a nice little bar at front-of-house, reasonable prices, comfy seats, a generally nice cinephile clientele, and best of all for a bit more money you can sit on big leather sofas at the back and have push-button waiter service for beers, wines and snacks. How could anyone be annoyed in such surroundings? :D
 
People - that's the most annoying thing about going to the cinema. I hadn't been for years until recently and decided to go and see Wolverine and then Star Trek.

Bloody people in there being so ignorant, rustling wrappers, chatting and some silly bints phone went off in the middle of the film.

So irritating.
 
I go the cinema a fair bit and luckily never get a crowd that are that noisy or bad.

Only once have I got irritated enough to kick the chair in front and tell them to shut up. Worked though, they were talking like they were having a normal conversation.

Rich
 
I went to see Transformers 2 with some people including my sister, she brought a friend who I really couldn't stop looking at, she totally ruined it =/

I've almost been thrown out before with friends because we were watching children of men and when his wife dies we were laughing... Only escaped eviction because the person who came to throw us out was the cousin of someone with us :D
 
The most common one I've experienced is people kicking the back of my chair. I usually give it ten minutes before turning round to ask them to stop, but at that point it's already been ruined because I am stressed and wanting to kill them.
 
Skyfall said:
I went to see Transformers 2 with some people including my sister, she brought a friend who I really couldn't stop looking at, she totally ruined it =/
Click to expand...

Surely you are meant to look at the cinema screen? How can that ruin it?!

Rich

EDIT

Re-read it - just you being pervy :p

/EDIT
 
Last edited:
I hate the cinema, if i MUST go to see something (like for example Star Trek) i wait until the very end of the films run at the cinema (again for example Star Trek which i finally saw yesterday).

If i ruled the world, snacks would be banned from cinemas and the doors would be manned by guards that didn't let people into the screen after the film had began. Kingston Odeon seems to be plagued by chavs that come into other screens after their original film has finished, talk loudly about how they don't have a clue what's going on as they've missed the first half, and then leave. One of those incidents totally ruined Pans Labyrinth for me.

I also hate people who laugh at EVERY SINGLE JOKE no matter how little or crappy it may be. Some guy just wouldn't stop laughing when I was watching Transformers and it drove me mental. Don't get me wrong, i don't want to stop people laughing outright as it can add loads to the atmosphere in a cinema, but when it's a room full of quiet people with one man guffawing, he should really stop and think about how annoying he must be.

Chair kicking also bugs me, but fortunately 99% of the time it's just a young kid who hasn't actually thought about what they're doing and a quick polite request to stop is all that's needed. Only once have i had someone doing it deliberately to a friend sitting near me for laughs, he was kicked out of the cinema fairly quickly though.
 
Last edited:
When i watch a film i require complete and utter silence - except when there is a need to laugh.

I can't stand people who talk and play on their phones! You've paid money to watch a film, not sit in a dark room and chat!

It's the reason why i haven't seen T2 yet.
 
Maybe it's just luck, but the typical audience in my preferred cinema are fairly intolerant of noisy patrons. So the idiots with their phones and rustling etc will usually have a dozen or so people shushing them.

So the only thing that I have to deal with personally is someone kicking the back of my chair. I tell them to stop almost immediately, in a nice way though, and it usually works.

I do try to see films in certain screens though; ones which have the rows of seating arranged in two blocks, with a gap between them. So last row in the block nearer the screen means nobody sitting immediately behind me :o
 
Another vote for 'People'

Went to see Wolverine and someone next to me said very loudly:

Spoilers below!!!!














I bet she's a mutant too (Logan's bird)

Grrrr!!!

BB x
 
last time I went I got some stuck up chav kid and his chavet accusing me of being in there seats.

to be fare the seats were numbered strangely like so

12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | steps | 11 | 10 | 09 | 08 | 07

I was sat in 16 and they were looking for 12. so instead of asking politely they started giving me abuse from the off until I got up and showed them the seat number. Must have been about 10 people round me giggling at his epic fail.
 
When people get their phones out and start texting

I DO NOT WANT TO SEE A BRIGHT LIGHT OUT OF THE CORNER OF MY EYE, TURN IT OFF YOU ******

:)
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom