beefjerky

This is inspired by Matthew Chmiel's reply in the Napolean Dynamite thread.

What are some of your worst theater experiences?

Mine has to be during the opening night of Rush Hour 2. These two skanky white girls were sitting behind me, and every single time an asian character came on screen, the two girls would loudly start saying, "Ching chong ching, shut the hell up, chink." They threw out the works. They would comment on how ugly the asian people were in the film, comment on their "chinky eyes," throw out slurs, and just be generally offensive, racist, and obnoxious. Everytime Chris Tucker showed up, they would say, "THAT'S MY BABY'S DADDY."

I've never been more angry in my entire life than at that moment. I'm more angry at myself that I didn't say anything to them though. I really should've told them to shut the hell up and had them kicked out of the theater.

All of my other bad theater experiences don't even compare to this one.

Mondo Kane

There's been a lot of threads like these in the past...And a lot of stories here posted by members that I'll never forget.
Including those from Miami who say that they've seen mothers changing their crying babies' diapers during the movie and there was one story (I don't think this qualifies as "worst" but definetly "weird") where some old guy sat up front with a camera and began taking flash pictures of the screen.

Rivero

May 19, 1999.

12:01 AM.

Sold Out Show.

Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace.

'Nuff said.

Rivero

Wow. I would've slapped those bitches on both sides of their faces right then and there during the show in their movie seats. Seriously.

Forum Troll

My worst experience in the theater? That I actually paid to see these in the theater:

The Cat in the Hat
Catwoman
Baby Geniuses
Battlefield Earth
Robocop III
The Avengers

I was the only person in the theater at each of these screenings.
I like it that way. I make rude comments, throw popcorn at the screen, and do other 'unmentionable' things.

HN

Had to be when I went down to Irvine from LA to watch Return of the King on the Edward's giant screen. Kept getting kicked in the seat. Twice i turned around to ask nicely if he could try to stop and twice he didn't even acknowledge me, just kept looking at the screen. He acknowledged me the third time, tho, when I threw a handful of popcorn at him. Words erupted and we both get tossed. GODDAMMIT ALL I WANTED TO DO WAS WATCH RotK IN ALL ITS SPLENDOR ON THE MASSIVE SCREEN! @%@$%@%#$%

flyboy

That I actually paid real money to see "The Pirate Movie"in 1982, no I did not sit through it all....................

kovacs01

some guy about 5 rows behind me in the movie Kingpin was drinking 40's and had a too many and started yakking. i dont care, im not too squeamish when it comes to that. except that we all know theaters have sloped floors. i realized that it smelled way too much for it to be behind me and looked down to see it running all over my shoes. pretty hard to beat that one......

GuessWho

Saw a fistfight during Die Hard 2.

scott shelton

Wow! Tell that story, please.

Charlie Goose

The one between McClane and John Amos on the wing? That was cool!

BassDude

Someone apparently tattooed "kick my seat please" on the back of my head in glow in the dark lettering.

It never fails... And with the rocker seats, it is REALLY annoying. Even when I took my kids to Yu Gi Oh last weekend, some 10 yr old kid read the kick me message.

I try and get the last row now when my GF and I go, but ya lose some of the surround effect and ya hear the flickering of the projector during quiet passages.

Not as bad as some of these other stories...but...more reasons to wait for the DVD release and watch at home!

guywall

Watching Batman and just as the Joker is hanging on for dear life and getting ready to fall, a bright light turns on the screen so you can barely see anything that is happening.
We got our money back.

I also was watch the re-release of Gone with the Wind, and the filmed slowed down all of sudden and looked like it melted. After a 10 minute break, they respliced it.
We got our money back.

Dabaomb

Since I'm Asian, if they said that, I would've accidentally spilled my drink on them and then b-slapped them.

I'd say he's your baby's daddy cuz you both are skanky hos.

On a side note, those girls in the massage parlor in that movie

Fok

Having teenages behind you talking constantly and kicking your seat. From now on we always sit in the back rows. Those racist girls deserve a smack in the face.

neiname

How is this possible???

cultshock

I've mentioned it in an earlier thread, but when I saw Star Wars Ep 2 in an IMAX theatre, some woman just couldn't handle the experience and barfed, twice, during the first 10 minutes of the film. Her and her boyfriend quickly left after that, but of course neglected to tell the staff about the incident, so the rest of us were treated to the occasional smell of regurgitated nachos. I was far enough away from "ground zero" to not be affected much (and the air conditioner/circulator certainly helped), but some people had been sitting pretty close to her, and none of them moved!! WTF.

necros

Well the one that sticks out most was recently, me and the gang went to see The Village. As we pulled up we noticed 3 school buses around back. Apparently some summer camp or something was doing a special lets go to the movies night for all the kids. We were dumb enough to think they weren't going to be seeing The Village, but lo and behold on a tuesday night at 7:30 the theater was jam packed. Actually, once the movie started people were all pretty queit until these 2 little brats snuck in obviously from another movie they just got out of, and started harassing some girls in front of us. They eventually moved on and started throwing popcorn and candy at people till my buddy told em to shut up. There was quiet for about 10 minutes they they started again despite half the theater telling em to be quiet. Eventually my friend just went and got the manager and out they went. People applauded.

It'd be really nice if they'd have ushers actually do something besides hit on the cute 16 year old candy counter girls. But then every time an usher comes in (if you're lucky once per movie) the bad kids shut up till they leave.

PalmerJoss

I've never really had a truly terrible filmgoing experience. The closest I've come is when I saw Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets at a late showing, around 10:30pm. The theatre was pretty empty, yet a mother and her 2 young children still proceeded to sit directly behind my date and I. One of the children proceeded to kick my chair constantly for about 10 or 15 minutes, despite me having to ask her to stop at least 4 times. Finally I stood up and told the mother to either control her children or I'm going to theatre management. The mother got up and moved her kids a few seats down from us so they couldn't do anything else.

Puzznic

I saw Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind at a sneak preview that was hosted by the local top 40 alt-rock radio station. Not suprisingly most of the people that showed up were expecting a slapstick Jim Carrey comedy and would not shut up about how much the movie "sucked". There were also some old people in front of us that said something along the lines of "what a weird waste of time" after the movie was over.

Abranut

You're so literal, neiname.

mllefoo

Oh come on. The movie wasn't *that* bad.

BassDude

It's a new ink.. Light activates the glow chemical, so when ya walk from daylight into a dark theater it really glows. Took me weeks to realize that annoying glow that I thought was coming from behind me was my own head.

Julie Walker

I have'nt really had many 'bad' experiances. People talking and stuff is annoying as hell. But thankfully 99% of the time so far. They shut the hell up quickly. So I haven't had any really annoying experiances like some people where I have to get management,or feel like beating the shit out of someone until they shut the fuck up.

But without a doubt the worst theatrical experiance was in 1997 for the Star Wars craptacular edition.. The obvious CGI was annoying on the big screen,and even worse on the little screen(when I could actually see the screen!). Since 95% of the film was a blur for me at that showing. The reason?

Some fat white guy Star Wars nerd with a huge afro puffy head of hair blocking my view!

Originally I was in the seat on the side of him,but switched with my little brother who could not see the screen. Alas,I tried looking over each shoulder,then over his head..but he would'nt sit still and kept leaning from side to side,then sitting straight up in the chair.

Meanwhile we were all herded into this theater,packed with Star Wars nerds,and it was claustriphobic in the extreme. It was impossible to get out of your seat,since we had fat people clogging us in. So going to the bathroom was out of the question,lest you want to shove your way over the cattle.

Then if that was not worse enough. They were loud and obnoxious little freaky nerds who would not shut the fuck up! Durring all the 'new' additions. They 'oooed' & 'awed'...laughed at the lame Jaba tail crushing addition in a scary monotonous voice. Meanwhile chatting with each and everyone how 'cool' it was and blah blah blah blah blah.

After that,my dad decided we would NOT see the other two films on opening night,nor durring the time when more people would be at the theater. So we enjoyed the other two films in the afternoon,with a theater largely to ourselves to actually watch the films in peace and quiet.

Seeing the Phantom Menace was just as unbearable,mostly since the film was so horrible.and the nerds,my god the nerds!! So we skipped Ep2 in theaters,and will do the same for Ep3 since nothing is worse than wasting time at shitty films with mindless cultist fans who seem brainwashed and uncleanly from camping out

i did see Ep2 on dvd btw,and it was bad bad bad and boring.

The Wizard

I only got 1 so far.

Signs-I went to go see this at 8:00pm. The threater was pact.
I sat near a group of Teenage girls (the row behind me) and throughout the entire movie they were talking and on their cellphones etc. I couldn't enjoy most of the movie because of them and they had the nerve to say it sucked when The film was over. I had to drive down to Down Town Boston by Subway and buy a Bootleg of it.