Banning cell phones in theatres.

[Jack T Chance]

While it IS true that here in the US, the FCC has banned the use of active cell phone jamming technology, only an FCC agent with special equipment would even be able to tell it was being used! If you're a member of the general public and you're being jammed, you'd only think you were in a dead zone, because you'd simply see zero bars.

However, it is now possible for businesses to engage in PASSIVE jamming that IS legal, at least theoretically. It's called Cell Phone Blocking Wallpaper, and it uses the same metal mesh principle used in microwave ovens to keep the microwave radiation from leaking out through the window. And the only way the FCC could verify that it's being used is to rip the wallpaper off of the wall!

 

[Scareb]

I'm 6'3 250 LBS and covered in tattoos, when I tell someone to put their phone away, they usually do.

Funny thing is I was at my second showing of Avengers and this 300 pound dude and his friend were in the back row with me when he pulls out his cellphone not to text, but to eat. He literally bought $90 worth of food for the movie with his friend and he was using his cellphone to see what he was eating. I told him to put his phone away and he just snorted and kept doing it so I got up and said "If you don't put that ******** phone away, i'll make you eat it. I'm sure you'd inhale it like the rest of the food you just bought"

The best ever though was when I went to see Chronicle. This dumb teenager kept texting on his phone (the brightness was at full) and a bunch of people kept asking him to put it away and he was snarky and telling them to **** off" Finally this giant of a man, I swear he was like 6'2 and 300 pounds of pure muscle walked up, snatched the phone while the kid was texting, walked down to the main floor, and smashed the phone as hard as he could on the ground. It exploded everywhere and he stomped on it a couple times and went back to his seat. He stopped at the kid and said something but I couldn't hear because i was on the other side of the theater but people were cheering and laughing their heads off. It was awesome. Every theater should have one of him.

 

[Alan Castillo]

They play this 3 times in between the ads before the main feature in my local theatre. Love it :lol

 

[k8ekol]

I thought we were going to have an issue at Avengers last weekend. There was a mom reading on her kindle app while chaperoning a group of preteen boys so you know she had zero interest in actually seeing the movie. She didn't turn her phone off until the opening credits of the movie. If it had gone on past that she was going to get a "are you kidding me? " comment and a complaint to the theater if pointing out her rudeness hadn't been effective.

 

[TheDoctor]

Personally, I think the minute you resort to threats, physical violence, and/or destruction of personal property, you loose all moral high ground and you go from the person being wronged to the person in the wrong. Yes it's annoying, but there's really only two civilized paths to take: get up and complain to the manager (and if they don't do anything, demand a refund) or just put up with (or move to a different seat).

Especially with the threats of violence (or even physical assault) and the destruction of personal property, legally you are now in pretty hot water. Slapping someone's phone away, smashing the phone, or threatening them with a sword now opens you to legal (and possibly criminal) action from the person that was being annoying before.

 

[Jack T Chance]

They play this 3 times in between the ads before the main feature in my local theatre. Love it :lol

That's awesome, but my current favorite is the Beavis & Butthead PSA that theaters started running right around the time MTV brought the show back several months ago! Can't find it on YouTube, sadly.

 

[ReplicantShadow]

People here in my town are usually pretty good about flipping the ringer off but EVERYBODY texts and/or gets up to handle a call during a movie. Used to **** me off years ago but there are more of them than us. Even I keep my phone on cause there no excuse anymore to not be out of reach, fully unacceptable in my own circles and just how society has come to function. Especially if income is involved. Just the way it is now. HOWEVER, if I might add I only go the movies maybe 3 times a year now, don't need too got a killer set-up on 7.1 sound and at 70 inches. Bud's of mine just come over here or I go to their houses when a cool new blu-ray hits.

 

[p51]

I was at a funeral of all things and someone just had to take a call right during a very quiet part of the service! :confused In the middle of a funeral in a church! Even the preacher gave the guy a, "Are you kidding me?" look but the guy (young punk in his 20s) had to have an important call that ended at, "Nah, so what's going on?" Before myself and 4-5 other guys got up to stomp his guts in. Another guy got to him first, snatched the phone out of his hand, walked outside with it and came back without it. the kid was aboutt o get up with an attitude when he looked around and saw half a dozen guys ready to the beat the snot out of him. At the end of the service, he sped out of the chucrch and didn't show up at the burial. His phone was in pieces outside the church entrance. Kid was lucky he wasn't in pieces as well, I've not been that angry in a very long time.

when i was a kid, and up till abotu mebbes 10~15 years ago, people just knew how to behave in public places like this.

Beats me what kind of utopia you grew up in, but I have always seen and heard people who can't shut the heck up in movies. Cells are just a new wrinkle on a problem that has always been around. My parents are in their 70s and they've told me that people would talk in movies back in the 40s and 50s, too. There have always been people doing that.

 

[usconcept]

Went and saw the Avengers last night.. the man (note that I did not say gentleman) infront of us was fiddling with his phone throughout the previews.. no biggie. The movie starts, he puts it away.. 5 minutes later he was at it again! I leaned down and sad "Hey man, do you mind" and to my pleasent suprise he actually put it away, got up and walked into the hall. At least some people still save face!

 

[ItsThatGuy]

I have zero tolerance for cell phones in theaters. I usually take a small keychain maglite with me...I have on numerous occasions shined it in the offenders face.

Yeah, I am a complete d-bag about it.

Once this lady's phone rang and it took her forever to find it in her purse...She finally found it after it stopped ringing...I let it slide. 30 seconds later it rang again, and I just shouted "For the love of God! Turn it off!"

People applauded me.

 

[JD]

I once slapped a cell phone out of a guys hand who literally carried on a 4 minute conversation in the middle of a movie. His voice was even louder than normal conversation outside of the movie theater.

More people these days need an asswhipping plain and simple.

So you're admitting to assaulting someone on an internet forum?

I'm no fan of people talking on their phones/texting/talking in a theater, but stopping to an outright assault - well, that's much worse than the guy talking on the phone.

Get the usher or security or whatever... it's not worth going to jail or having charges pressed on you.

 

[Capn_Jack_Savvy]

Sword method worked great for the first showing of a midnight run. Last thing I want to do is leave the movie to find a manager. Usher? I haven't been to a theater that ever had an usher unless it was one of those POSH Los Angeles theaters that charges $30 to see a non-3D movie:behave

 

[Rjames112]

I wouldn't say cells are a big deal. I was at the avengers today and the wrist was a kid that kept talking and the father not shutting him up, actually talking to him loudly about it. I don't care if you bring your iud to the theatre but show common manners and control them.

 

[Agent RayBans]

When ever I ask someone to stop texting during a movie they always act like I'm the arse hole for saying something, not them. Some people.

I feel like I am letting the texters win, but I am seriously considering rigging up some glasses to block my peripheral vision, and wearing them to the movies.

 

[Scareb]

I have no problem with smashing someone's phone, especially when they're some snarky ****head who has no respect for anyone. If you're continually asked to put your phone away and you tell me to **** off, you can bet your ass your phone is toast.

Same thing with uttering threats. The way I look, most people think my threats aren't just comments.

I'm also not the type to go and cry to the ushers. In the army, my SGT's told us if we had a problem, man up and deal with it yourselves. Same thing applies.

 

[Nwerke]

Personally, I think the minute you resort to threats, physical violence, and/or destruction of personal property, you loose all moral high ground and you go from the person being wronged to the person in the wrong. Yes it's annoying, but there's really only two civilized paths to take: get up and complain to the manager (and if they don't do anything, demand a refund) or just put up with (or move to a different seat).

I agree. It's uncivilised and barbaric and unjustifiable.

Wish there was more of it, though.

 

[TheDoctor]

I'm also not the type to go and cry to the ushers. In the army, my SGT's told us if we had a problem, man up and deal with it yourselves. Same thing applies.

I'm sorry, but NO it doesn't. You forget there are rules for behavior in civilized society. You are 10 times worse than the person you're trying to correct. Yes, asking or telling the person to turn it off is well within your rights, but once you step outside that with threats or physical action, YOU are in the wrong.

Thinking it makes you a man or some kind of hero for escalating the situation is complete BS.

 

[dbalschi]

I once slapped a cell phone out of a guys hand who literally carried on a 4 minute conversation in the middle of a movie. His voice was even louder than normal conversation outside of the movie theater.

More people these days need an asswhipping plain and simple.

Not that I would ever talk on my phone in the theater but if that had been me and you had done that to me I would have called the police on you.

 

[p51]

I'm sorry, but NO it doesn't. You forget there are rules for behavior in civilized society. You are 10 times worse than the person you're trying to correct. Yes, asking or telling the person to turn it off is well within your rights, but once you step outside that with threats or physical action, YOU are in the wrong.
Thinking it makes you a man or some kind of hero for escalating the situation is complete BS.

True. When I was in the Army, we taught our soldiers to be the voice of reason and sanity and to use their training only when the other guy started something. Otherwise, you're a bully, pure and simple.
Then again, on the internet, it's easy to write about how you'd deal with something when in fact, people don't throw down on one another nearly as often as they'd write on a forum that they would. Generally speaking, people talk a good game but when it comes to things, they won't throw down on one another.

 

[Scareb]

I'm sorry, but NO it doesn't. You forget there are rules for behavior in civilized society. You are 10 times worse than the person you're trying to correct. Yes, asking or telling the person to turn it off is well within your rights, but once you step outside that with threats or physical action, YOU are in the wrong.

Thinking it makes you a man or some kind of hero for escalating the situation is complete BS.

On the contrary, I don't think it makes me a man or a hero, I'm just sick of snide little ***** teenagers who think they can get away with anything swear at me and ruin my movie going experience. Or people kicking my chair when I've asked them to stop.

If people have no respect for me, I won't have any for them.