Sunday, July 03, 2011

For anyone who hates assholes that text in theaters...

You're going to LOVE this!  This is going to make your holiday weekend.

29 comments :

Paul Toohey said...

Best movie theater in the world. I'm glad I live in Austin, TX where the Alamo Drafthouses started.

Dan J said...

ADHs are allegedly opening in NYC and LA (http://www.slashfilm.com/alamo-drafthouses-coming-to-new-york-and-los-angeles-in-20112012/). This is one New Yorker who can't wait!

Der Olli said...

I hope the Cinema owners here in Germany will make similar rules. I hate people who text in movie theathers. OK, not as much as I hate those who make phone calls during a film.

Danielle Solzman said...

That's just awesome. Since the start of 2009, I've gotten three rainchecks because of people that text.

The Ghost of Harry Doyle said...

Ken: M's find yet another way to lose, although we have to give the umpire a big assist this time. A 3-ball walk to Maybin, who comes around to score the only run of the game. M's get 2 hits all night. Offensively impotent, part 43. No wonder the umpire lost track, he's as bored w/the Seattle offense as the fans are.

Mike Botula said...

A foul mouth is the mark of an ignoramus. The texter might have had something legitimate to say - but, by expressing her complaint that way, she just underscored why she deserved to be ejected from the theatre. An empty wagon makes the most noise.

Mac said...

I'd never heard of the Alamo Drafthouse, but right now I'm in love with the Alamo Drafthouse.
I wish all cinemas would take a lesson from this. It must make economic sense, for every idiot customer you chuck out, you'd gain several who want to sit through a film without distraction - that'll be most of us then. As for people who make phone calls in the cinema? What the fu... were they raised by wolves?

FilmBuffRich said...

Foul mouth or not, MikeBo, that girl had nothing legitimate to say, short of demonstrating she's a spoiled brat with an over-inflated sense of entitlement.

The Alamo is famous amongst cinephiles for its strictly enforced "No Texting" policies. There are signs in the lobby. There is an announcement before the movie begins. She broke the rules and they kicked her out. For her to cry about it afterwards is stupid.

The Alamo Drafthouse did not give her bad customer service so much as it gave GREAT customer service to everyone else in the auditorium.

William Jansen said...

If I am ever in Austin, Texas, I know where I will be spending my money!

Anonymous said...

Now if restaurants would only adapt the same policy. Texting, phone calls and checking it for the time because you don't wear a watch - ALL BANNED.

That would be great.

Anonymous said...

"A foul mouth is the mark of an ignoramus." I don't know about that. I have a fine vocabulary of profoundly rude expletives that I have been known to utilize and I'm fairly sure that I'm not wholly lacking in intellect.

Cheers,

Alan Tomlinson

P.S. Ironically, they may actually need to get the permission of the woman in question in order to legally use her message in an advertisement. Perhaps it's a reenactment.

benson said...

Ken is probably aware of this rant, but some younger readers might not have heard Lee Elia, manager of the Chicago Cubs, 1983, finally reaching his breaking point. It is probably the mother of all rants. If you're offended by foul language, you may want to pass on this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S0CDtEz_Bo

Emily Blake said...

I love how she tries to say she was using her phone as a flashlight to find her seat, then admits several times to actually texting.

I hate theater texters.

Yes, honey, you were bothering people. Good riddance.

Unknown said...

I heart Alamo Drafthouse!

I love how this woman talks about the theater being rude and then drops f-bombs all over their voicemail!

I also love also that she doesn't seem to know the name of the country, and totally catches herself in a lie by at first saying that she was using her phone as a flashlight and then admitting she was texting.

If you want to text, text but don't pay for a damn movie ticket.

briddie said...

@AlanTomlinson, true, but wouldn't you love to see that case in court?

I am frequently amazed by the number of people who pretend that a bright light isn't bothering their fellow movie-goers. I am equally amazed by the number of people who refuse to take responsibility for failing to read posted notices.

Unknown said...

I knew that video already because someone left a comment on your blog with the link a couple of weeks ago.

Eduardo Jencarelli said...

THANK GOD, I'm not the only one who despises people texting on screenings!!!!

I'm already slightly sensitive to bright lights, so having an idiot texting in my field of view when I'm watching a film can be really annoying and disorienting. I'm seriously tempted to throw their cell phones in the trash can whenever that happens.

I can't wait to visit these Alamo Drafthouse cinemas! Next time I'm in the US, I'm going.

This approach would NEVER work here in Brazil. Theater managers around here are serious gutless wimps, terrified of losing customers, so they let people do whatever they want and ignore legitimate complaints like mine.

Tim W. said...

I loved how she claimed she would go to another theatre where people are actually POLITE.

I am constantly shocked at how completely ignorant some people are about basic etiquette.

Anonymous said...

David Lee here. Since I now work almost entirely in live theater (plus I go to a lot of theater just because I love it)I have become aware of an even more annoying habit of some audience members: texting while the play is going on. So not only are they disturbing fellow audience members within eye shot of their little blue screens, they are disturbing the performers. Believe me, actors on stage are quite aware of blue lights popping on on and off in the house. Think it might distract them from what they are doing a bit? At least film actors are spared that treat.

Wendy M. Grossman said...

sephim: why do you care if people text in restaurants?

wg

D. McEwan said...

Her - ah - "logic" that this is the theater's scheme to rip her off, taking her money and then throwing her out, amused me. What exactly did she see as being in that for the theater? How does throwing out someeone who has paid increase their profit? But then, this poor girl is excruciatingly stupid, so who knows what she "thinks"?

The reason she doesn't know the actual name of the United States of America is because she doesn't live in the USA; she lives in Texas, which I declared independant the instant they started whining that the wanted to secede. Please secede, Texas. I'd love to see you exit, and take your politicians and your moron citizens like this one with you. (I am aware that not all Texans are morons. The late, great Ann Richards was from Texas for one. However, she may be the only one, in any event, the morons hold a vast majority.)

Mary Stella said...

That's great!

I was just at a large conference in NYC and before every workshop/panel/presentation they reminded us to turn our cellphones to silent and, please, not text or Tweet.

I'd pretty much figured out that seeing phones light up in dark theaters was annoying. I never realized that it's also aggravating to have someone tap-tap-tapping on their phone when the lights are up.

Good lesson now learned.

cshel said...

I think everyone is being way too hard on her. By the sound of her voicemail, and considering her proximity to Houston, I'll bet she had to respond to an urgent message from NASA to give them a mathematical formula that they lost, and that only she would know, so that they could proceed with a Magnited States space shuttle launch waiting on the pad for her reply. The flashlight excuse was just an ingenious ruse to keep her identity as a top M.S. rocket scientist a secret.

RCP said...

Hee hee hee...

Next on the list: Imbeciles who constantly kick or knee the seat in front of them (where I'm sitting.) And don't give me the long legs jazz - I'm 6'2 and make a point of not kneeing the seat - unless the person sitting there is texting or talking incessantly.

Phillip B said...

Have to admit that I have only been to movie theaters twice in the last few months - and both times tickets came to me gratis.

At both showings patrons were warned - first by a live human being and then again on film - that anyone using a cell phone during the performance would be asked to leave.

And in each case people were escorted out. We may be fighting a losing battle here...

Tim W. said...

Wendy M. Grossman,

Imagine you're going out for dinner with someone, and they spend a good amount of the time whispering to someone at the table next to you.

I am astounded at the lack of etiquette people seem to have regarding cell phones, whether texting or actually on the phone. No one seems to want to actually interact with the people in front of them, anymore.

cadavra said...

The one that really kills me is people texting at SILENT movies! Presumably you can follow the action of a talkie by half-listening to the dialogue, but how can you read the intertitles when you're not even looking at the screen? Why are you even there in the first place? Grrrrr...

WV: "salliam"--Film about a mentally-challenged woman.

Roger Owen Green said...

I'm convinced that most texters really believe they're not bothering anyone. I recall being on the other side of the aisle, about eight rows back. And it was DRIVING ME CRAZY!
My texter was so lucky that I am so civilized that I didn't go over to the culprit and take it from her.

Cameron Yarde said...

I actually think it's more annoying when phones are not on silent and people are taking calls rather than silent texting to be honest.