Park Slope's Pavilion Theater: Flicks, Popcorn, Assault

wanderer, the UA Court street theater in Brooklyn is notorious. There are lots of threads on various blogs about it.

People just DO NOT know how to behave in movie theaters. I don't know why it's so difficult to understand.

One time, there was a pack of kids who couldnt have been older than 12 a couple of rows under me. they wouldn't shut the hell up even after i asked them to stop. one of the snots turned around and told me to shut up so i launched my super size $6 cup of pepsi at them. it was awesome cause it exploded everywhere and the manager came and kicked them out. he thought they made the mess. weeee!

i cant remember the name of this movie that i watched but i remember sitting next to some black people and they were going crazy saying stuff like, "oooohweee white peepo are craaaazy!" cause some fbi dude was running around with a gun. i loled.

to be fair, color doesn't play a real factor in terms of movie annoyances. i think ive had more problems with guidos than blacks or hispanics. hell, white people pissed me off plenty of times cause they cant shut up either. plus, what's with the damn perfume? so there. i hope thats fair. to be honest, when i was a lil snot, we used to throw sneakers at the screen and make it flap around. im sure we all misbehaved at the movie one time or another.

One time, there was a pack of kids who couldnt have been older than 12 a couple of rows under me. they wouldn't shut the hell up even after i asked them to stop. one of the snots turned around and told me to shut up so i launched my super size $6 cup of pepsi at them. it was awesome cause it exploded everywhere and the manager came and kicked them out. he thought they made the mess. weeee!

i cant remember the name of this movie that i watched but i remember sitting next to some black people and they were going crazy saying stuff like, "oooohweee white peepo are craaaazy!" cause some fbi dude was running around with a gun. i loled.

to be fair, color doesn't play a real factor in terms of movie annoyances. i think ive had more problems with guidos than blacks or hispanics. hell, white people pissed me off plenty of times cause they cant stfu either. plus, what's with the damn perfume? so there. i hope thats fair. to be honest, when i was a lil snot, we used to throw sneakers at the screen and make it flap around. im sure we all misbehaved at the movie one time or another.

Can't say I've had too many bad occurrences in the city. Go to the right theaters, mainly indies, and you'll have no problem.

Word of advice - stay away from UA Court Street. Of course it hasn't even been mentioned yet so you must all know. I saw World Trade Center here a few years back and a man behind me, before the title sequence, fell asleep. He kicked off his shoes and basically had them in my face, snoring the whole time. I kept cool and woke him up. But have returned to that theater maybe twice since than as there are no good audiences there.

babyhitler, I like the cut of your jib.

I am a still a couple pay raises away myself, but my best bud has a 56" HD w/ a blu-ray and top notch surround sound to boot. Hands down it is better than going to the theater, especially when you add in a comfy couch and a fridge full of beer close by. When these home systems are a little cheaper and films are released in the theaters AND on DVD/on-demand on the same day (happening sooner than later), the savages can babble all they want at the local Regal while people who go to the movies to, um, WATCH THE MOVIE can relax at home and enjoy.

Union Square theater is a fuckin free for all! After getting free tickets numerous times before because of complaining about disruptive people, it still hasnt improved. Last week at Rambo(i know, asking for trouble) a disgusting white trash looking couple, who obviously just discovered what a digital camera was, wouldnt stop taking pictures of the movie with the flash illuminating the theater everytime. That was a first for me. When someone shuffled up to them in the dark to complain and hopefully tear them a new asshole, they looked amazed that they were doing anything wrong, looking at each other like "what did we do?" I could write a freakin book about bad movie going experiences in NYC...but I did have a great crowd at Diary of the Dead yesterday! I try to stick with indies and foreign for movie going, and netflix for the rest, but sometimes I need my trash.

We go to the Pavilion a lot, and have for many years. I have to say I have never had a problem with "audience participation" there. I've seen much worse at Union Square.

Of course, what sucks about the Pavilion is that many of the theaters are only slightly larger than my living room... and my living room isn't all that big.

I saw an altercation before the movie The Aviator in Union Square. The theater was packed, and there were two guys sitting in front of me and my wife with two empty seats on both sides of them.

We were in the middle, and I see this woman squeeze her way all the way to the gentlemen and she politely asks if they will move over one seat and the one guy says, "No".

She's a little taken aback and says, "Uhhh seriously?" He again says no and shakes his head.

So the wife leaves and I can see her talking to her husband. So he squeezes through all the seats and asks if they would mind moving over one seat. This time the man yells, "No, I'm not fucking moving" So the husband says, "You're a real jerk, you know that?"

At that point the man sits up from his chair and starts punching the shit our of this guy. He's bleeding out of his head and is in absolute shock.

Management came in and had him leave, probably had him arrested too. I think what was so strange about the incident was the fact that it was The Aviator. Maybe I would expect this at a horror movie or Step Up 2, but The Aviator?

When people are talking loudly during and ignore all requests to be quiet, I simply go tell a manager and get the offending parties kicked out. works every time.

Someone brought a baby to the screening of "There Will Be Blood" I went to - I wasn't sitting close enough to be bothered, but it made me wonder about the people sitting immediately around this asshat.

Also annoying: when the person sitting behind you kicks and pushes on your seat throughout the movie. Damn, I hate that.

Harveywallbangers -- Have we had experiences with the same couple? This is pretty much exactly what happened to me during the Simpsons movie at the Pavilion.

This girl answered her phone five minutes before the end of the movie and said "I'm not doing anything, just watching a movie" and proceeded to chat. I asked her to get off the phone twice and when she finally did, she turned to her boyfriend and said "It doesn't matter, he's just a faggot anyway." I snapped back around in my seat and the boyfriend pushed her back and threw himself in front of her. I shrugged and turned back to watch the last two minutes of the movie.

So, it wouldn't shock me if the "white teenager" had started the altercation -- that theater really seems to attract a large number of rude, privileged, upper-middle-class brats.

Ms. Politically Correct in PS on that smarmy blog of hers has already changed the description of the Hispanic woman in handcuffs to just "woman in handcuffs"

Sorry Louise, but the cat's in the bag and the bag's in the river.

Not Smart, mom.

Ms. Politically Correct in PS on that smarmy blog of hers has already changed the description of the Hispanic woman in handcuffs to just "woman in handcuffs"

Sorry Louise, but the cat's in the bag and the bag's in the river.

Not Smart, mom.

I haven't run into this annoyance very much BUT that might be because (a) I don't go to the movies very often and (b), culturally, I am about as white as the cliffs of Dover and don't want to waste twelve bucks watching films that use "U" for "you" and "2" for "to" in the title.

Watch films with subtitles. The artsy stuff. You rarely run into NYC's lumpenproletariat at those flicks.

blu-ray Bitch! Why people go to theaters and have to deal with other numbskulls is beyong me. Get a 1080p HDTV and a Blu-ray player. 2001 a space oddyssey and bladerunner are life changing experiences and you never have to listen to "OH NO, HE DIDN'T!" ever again.

you're right, I didn't mention race too. morons come in all colors and they get worse when they are in a pack.

I once sat next to a loudmouthed teenager who kept taking phone calls during the movie (wasn't even on vibrate). I won't mention her race as I realize that friggin morons come in all shapes and colors.

The whacked little imp proceeded to chat with her friend on the phone as I repeatedly shouted "Hang up your phone we are all watching a movie! Hang up your phone we are all watching a movie"

- she leaned over and told her boyfriend that I frightened her and kept on talking. Suddenly the other moviegoers around us joined in with me. After two or three verses of my newly created song, her boyfriend finally took her phone and switched seats with her.

P.S. Her boyfriend went to Harvard - I know this because he kept f@%$king saying it during the movie previews before she decided to use up all her 'friends and family' minutes..

-HW

was one expecting anything different to a screening of Step Up 2 the Streets II?

it's not Merchant and Ivory.

Racial angle aside, no doubt the woman's kids were loud and obnoxious, the single woman shushed her and got beat down. It's not so much racial as cultural; some people don't know how to not be loud all the time. The theaters don't care and wonder why attendance is down.

why can't you black and brown people just be quiet during movies?

I got in a verbal match on 19th & B'way at Dream Girls. Two women behind me figured the movie was a good time to chat about Eddie Murphy's love life, Beyonce's figure & f'ing Jamie Foxx. A couple of polite requests for them to quiet down from my wife prompted louder comments about how the 'white bitch should turn around', which progressed until I lost it in the theater. I stood up in the movie and told them off which resulted in a yelling match with two whores who somehow thought they were in the right.

Anyway, the theater erupted into choas, the bulb in the projector blew three minutes later and the theater gave everyone their money back at the door.

I got in a verbal match on 19th & B'way at Dream Girls. Two women behind me figured the movie was a good time to chat about Eddie Murphy's love life, Beyonce's figure & f'ing Jamie Foxx. A couple of polite requests for them to quiet down from my wife prompted louder comments about how the 'white bitch should turn around', which progressed until I lost it in the theater. I stood up in the movie and told them off which resulted in a yelling match with two whores who somehow thought they were in the right.

Anyway, the theater erupted into choas, the bulb in the projector blew three minutes later and the theater gave everyone their money back at the door.

Well, this is why we avoid most Brooklyn theaters (and usually trek in to Manhattan.)

I remember some idiot wandered in late to a showing at Cobble Hill Cinemas and tried to sit in my lap. (It was some dotty old lady, nothing exciting.) And another movie at the Alpine was marred by folks doing a running translation into Chinese.

I stopped going to the movies at least a decade ago. I remember one of the last times I went. I ended up sitting in three different locations because of the audience. One couple brought an infant (a babe in arms) into the theater and sat behind me. I knew what would eventually happen so I moved. After I moved to my new seat, a loud conversation started directly in front of me. I groaned and changed my seat again.

It's so much easier to buy, rent, or borrow a DVD and watch at home.

My movie going experience has never been the greatest. When I was growing up, my father would decide to go to the movies. He never checked the schedule because he wanted to go whenever he felt like it. I grew up watching movies from the middle to the middle. I once suggested checking the schedule, but he would have none of that.

Give me DVDs any day.

I agree with most of the etiquette tips, except for one. There are times when I wouldn't mind a butt passing in front of my face. It all depends on the butt. The girl in the middle of that poster can face front as she squeezes past me.

Wait, I didn't write this!