Mr. Crankypants On... Audience Behavior
Saw the new Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie last night and, while the movie it's self left almost no impression on me (it was the very definition of "meh"), the actual screening served as reminder of how much I hate seeing movies with large groups of people in much the same way that a violent car crash reminds you to wear your seatbelt.
A little backstory: Occasionally, when reviewing movies, I get sent to things known as Promo Screenings. They suck. Promo Screenings are where tickets are given out on the street and/or at a specific location to any yahoo who wants to see a movie for free. These things attract the very worst of humanity; I've been to a lot of Promos and never, not once, have I been within earshot of a person who attended their high school graduation. As you can imagine, this makes it extremely difficult to apply any sort of critical thought to the film at hand, what with all the cellphones going off, the constant switching of seats and the never-ending chatter about how that one character shouldn't go in there, better run, should just KILL HIM!!! and so forth. Horror movies are particularly miserable to watch at Promos because any sort of tension that the filmmakers are hoping to foster is taken out into the woods and shot dead by the audience's rudeness.
Anyway, last night... the screening was sponsored by Hot 97, which, for those of you not in the NYC area, is the local rap station. I don't mean to generalize here, but rap/hip-hop fans are idiots. Also, they've apparently never been to the movies before because they clearly had no clue that were supposed to be actually watching the moving images in front of them. What I found particularly amusing was that the middle three rows were reserved for critics, thus turning our little cluster into an island of eye-rolling, shushing exasperation amid a roiling sea of bleating ringtones and people "holla-ing" at their respective boys.
It wasn't, however, the worst one I've ever attended... The Scorpion King with it's WWF fans earns that title, and the Jurassic Park 3 screening that had in-theater fist fights comes a close second.
Still not a fun way to spend an evening and not something I want to do ever, ever again. Ever.
Okay, I'm done being cranky.
A little backstory: Occasionally, when reviewing movies, I get sent to things known as Promo Screenings. They suck. Promo Screenings are where tickets are given out on the street and/or at a specific location to any yahoo who wants to see a movie for free. These things attract the very worst of humanity; I've been to a lot of Promos and never, not once, have I been within earshot of a person who attended their high school graduation. As you can imagine, this makes it extremely difficult to apply any sort of critical thought to the film at hand, what with all the cellphones going off, the constant switching of seats and the never-ending chatter about how that one character shouldn't go in there, better run, should just KILL HIM!!! and so forth. Horror movies are particularly miserable to watch at Promos because any sort of tension that the filmmakers are hoping to foster is taken out into the woods and shot dead by the audience's rudeness.
Anyway, last night... the screening was sponsored by Hot 97, which, for those of you not in the NYC area, is the local rap station. I don't mean to generalize here, but rap/hip-hop fans are idiots. Also, they've apparently never been to the movies before because they clearly had no clue that were supposed to be actually watching the moving images in front of them. What I found particularly amusing was that the middle three rows were reserved for critics, thus turning our little cluster into an island of eye-rolling, shushing exasperation amid a roiling sea of bleating ringtones and people "holla-ing" at their respective boys.
It wasn't, however, the worst one I've ever attended... The Scorpion King with it's WWF fans earns that title, and the Jurassic Park 3 screening that had in-theater fist fights comes a close second.
Still not a fun way to spend an evening and not something I want to do ever, ever again. Ever.
Okay, I'm done being cranky.
posted by Clinton at 9:37 AM
2 Comments:
I had to stop attending previews for the exact same reason. Or I went drunk and didn't care.
Word. I try not to do them whenever possible. One of the great things about living in NYC is the abundance of studio screening rooms, which is where I get to do most of my reviewing.
And getting drunk at those is just as fun.
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