Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Why I am seriously thinking of never going to a theatre again.

Let me just preface this post by saying that I love movies, I love watching new ones, I love watching old ones. I love going to the theatre, and sitting down with a giant bag of popcorn. I love licking the salt and butter off of my fingers because I almost never remember to pick up a napkin. I love sneaking extra snacks into the theatre in my extra large purse. I love watching the previews that seem to last almost as long as the movie these days. I don't even mind it that in a really old theatre my shoes stick to the floor.
Well today we got the great idea that we would take our girls to a movie. This can be a stressful experience for us because a lot of theatres aren't exactly wheel chair friendly. Either we have to sit at the very front and try not to come out with a crick in the neck from looking straight up at the screen. Or we have to try to squeeze the wheel chair into the sometimes awkward slots that are "made for" the wheel chair bound. The best theatres are the ones that have an elevator that takes us up to the top so we can be behind everyone else and not be a spectacle. These unfortunately are few and fare between though. The one that we went to today is a dollar theatre, that was unfortunately none of these. It is an old one that is NOT wheel chair friendly. This particular one has one isle directly down the middle with about 8 seats on either side. The isle also happens to be very small. Which means that not only do we have to park the chair in the isle, but that it blocks anyone from getting past us as well. We have only been to this place once before and managed to make a good time of it so we figure... hey, why not. We chose a movie that had been given great reviews, The Fantastic Mr. Fox. We sat three rows from the front, because it was what was available when we arrived. It was a good location because it was far from the door, and hardly anyone would be tripping over us.
Now let me say now that my child that sits in the wheel chair is not a quiet child. She is a little noisy. We do NOT take her to adult movies, we take her to children's movies, ones where there are other children present. Other noisy children. As we sat in the theatre watching this particularly horrible movie, there were two girls sitting in the front row who were continually turning around and staring at my kid! Every time she made even the slightest peep they would turn around and stare at my child. Is it just me or is this incredible rude? I understand that it is human nature to look when you hear a startling noise, I can understand looking more than just once. What I cannot understand it turning and staring for 30 seconds each time. This happened repeatedly throughout the movie. Once I just looked at them and said "She Can't help it!" This was easily the rudest thing that has ever been directed at my handicap child.
Add to this the fact that this movie sucked! Which I expressed to my husband thirty minutes into the movie when I leaned over to him and whispered "this sucks"! It was like someone had had a sixth grader rewrite the script to Oceans 11 and then tried to put it in a cartoon form. By the time it was over we were so glad to get out of the theatre that we were even OK with the fact that it was snowing all the way home.
I came out of there so frustrated, and very glad that I did not pay full price to see this movie.
This seriously makes me want to never go to a movie theatre again!
THANK HEAVEN FOR NETFLIX!!!

5 comments:

Jules AF said...

I hate people who stare at handicapped people. I smile at them, because I smile at everyone who looks at me, and then I look away, just like I do with everyone else.
GET A LIFE, PEOPLE!

Teacher Teacher! said...

To redeem yourself...pawn the girls off on someone and go see Avatar. I loved it! Even my Dad, who is really hard to impress with movies loved it. It's long, so you'll have to get a super nice babysitter. Or just go at night when the girls are asleep! And S can't get all snobby about the special effects, or the script, or yadda yadda ya...it's just good entertainment!

Hehe

mCat said...

people suck.

ZiggyandFamily said...

Oh, Sarah, I'm so sorry this happened to your family! Today's society can be terribly rude and as for the movie, never believe "the reviews"!!!! If the movie is good they say it is bad; if it is bad, they say it is good.... Hey that sounds familiar. Maybe if you stick our your tongue at rude people next time it will at least make YOU feel better. :)

Fiauna said...

The turning and staring thing drives me CRAZY!! I never know quite how to handle it. My sister-in-law's daughter (I guess I could have written "my niece") does this all the time to Keelie. Once, I tried to sit them next to each other, and my niece said, "I don't want her to hurt me." It took me a minute to respond to her, her comment was so blunt, rude even.

 
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