Can I stop cell phone talkers in the movie?

Besides being nice and asking them to get off the phone, I’m sure anything else (if not that) would escalate the situation, which will ruin the movie even more.

People have gotten in the bad habit of doing this, and somehow they feel people who ask them to turn off their phones are rude!
The best idea is to ask them nicely, then get an usher to have them ejected.

Minority opinion warning: Everyone seems to have some annoyance that they would love to eliminate from the movie-watching experience: cell phones, talking, loud laughing, coughing, big hair, perfume, loud popcorn eaters, people who get up every 3 minutes to go to the bathroom, etc.
Sometimes I find it odd that people pay a ton of money to surround themselves with people, and then complain that those other people aren’t behaving they way they would prefer them to.
Watching a movie at home allows for more control of your environment. It also means that you don’t have to surround yourself with those things called other people.

Report the talker to the management.

@tom_g But you can have an expectation of a a basic level of acceptable behavior in public, which talking, laughing, and using your cell phone do not meet.

@tom_g Word. I haven’t been to a theater in about a year, and don’t plan to go any time soon. Well, except when the movie has been out for awhile, and I go see it by myself in an empty theater. That’s the shit.

@tom_g Some movies are just better on the big screen, and waiting for it to come out on DVD means you are out of the loop in discussions on the film with friends and co-workers.
It isn’t that difficult to be civil, and turn off a cell phone. If they want to talk on the phone, they should step out of the theater, or feel the wrath of my buttered popcorn!

@mindylane Your best bet is go to the management and make a complaint to them. Or the usher if there is one. And welcome to fluther.

Thanks everyone for your answers, the idea about watching movies at home is now so bad at all :) But sometimes I might be willing to use jammerfan‘s recommendations because it is really great to experience cool movie in the cinema from time to time! :)

I’m not suggesting everyone employ this technique, but one time when I encountered a belligerent lady who wouldn’t turn off her phone, I nailed her in the head with popcorn. After laughs and claps from other theater patrons, she turned red and shut her phone off for the rest of the movie.

Yes, I agree that cell phone use (and other behaviors) are just rude and inconsiderate. However, from what I can tell, that’s how people are. They are rude, inconsiderate shit-tards.

Do your best to stop their annoying behavior. I choose to watch my movies at home and alone.

Note: I notice a ton of complaints about the behavior of other humans while in a restaurant. While I feel your pain, I just can’t see a solution. Some people seem to dive into situations in which they are bound to be frustrated and annoyed with other people.

@WillWorkForChocolate That’s scary. I would only do that to someone who was smaller, a woman, and preferably white. Lol! Ok, the last part was from a comedian

It seems that laughing would be okay if say for example, you’re watching Airplane, Ghostbusters, Young Frankenstein, etc. ;-)

@Brian1946 I remember when American Pie came out. You couldn’t hear the movie for minutes after something funny happened. But it’s ok because it was really funny.

I don’t mind laughing and popcorn, but cell phones are just too much :)))

This is where machine a 32” flatscreen and a 1000W 5.1 sound system in my living room comes in handy :p

By the way, I was a manager/projectionist of a second-run movie theater when I was younger. I would kick people out if they were being loud.
True story: a woman pulled down her pants and peed in the theater during a matinee. Now that is rude.

Maybe I’m in the minority, but I haven’t heard a cell phone go off during a movie at a theater in at least a year… and I’ve never heard someone actually speak on one during a movie (or talk loudly for that matter).

@mindylane : Any use of a jamming device would also prevent emergency calls from coming through to parents and/or caregivers. @jammerfan is promoting a product, not a solution.

@tedd There’s probably regional differences. I’ve never seen people clap after a movie, either, but I’m sure it happens.

@tedd Lucky you are! @JilltheTooth maybe you are right, yet maybe I will use that thing.

“maybe you are right, yet maybe I will use that thing.”
I laughed out loud.

Who wants to go to the cinema anymore anyway? The last time I went (to a major cinema in Liecester square who really should know what they’re doing) the movie was out of focus and they didn’t bother to turn the house lights down. Can you really expect people to concentrate on the movie and behave when the people showing it can’t be bothered.

Ask them nicely, and if that doesn’t work go and complain. Have them removed from the movie, and then ask the staff to seat you in a different cinema so you can see the movie uninterrupted.

Or, throw M&Ms, or squirt them in the back of the head with your drink. These people deserve no mercy.

Sit in the front row.

I had this happen one time, they wouldn’t stop talking over the phone during almost the entire movie. It got so bad I just gave up & accepted it. What was the movie I hear you say? Phone Booth ;¬}

About that link that @jammerfan happened to drop, Did any of you find it suspicious that is led to a pretty much identical conversation on another site (that allows links) between two people? And both on that site were relatively newbies too- question answered in minutes from posting the question? I find it a bit too convenient.

Regarding the question itself (even if it was only posted as a vector for spam) I have asked for my money back when this has happened. Movies used to have ushers who took care of issues like this and cutting back on staff is the actual problem. If enough people ask for their money back perhaps the theater will realize that their thriftiness is more expensive in the long run.

Most movies I go to tell people to turn of their cell phone ringers before the movie starts, during the ads before the movie.

I would just ask the person to please stop, or let out a shhh. I can’t believe they won’t get up and leave or hang up once someone says something to them.

Good catch, @Dog! Extra Liva-Snaps for you!

:D

Zuppy is jealous of your new collar jingle…

Ohhh @JilltheTooth! I just saw that you flagged it! GOOD ZUPPY!!! :D

@mindylane If you want to use a jammer in the US, bring bail money and keep a lawyer on retainer. In fact, you may get in less trouble for just beating them. A year in prison and an $11,000 fine is something I would rather not risk; no movie is worth that.

Rude people is why I hardly ever go to the movies anymore and if I do go it will only be at a sparsely attended matinee. I wish more theaters would be pro-active about kicking people out since most people won’t bother to complain. There’s a theater in Texas that is supposed to be pro-active about this and will not only kick out talkers but people who text. You can read about it here.

And what about the woman who brought her three kids (ages 4–7, if I had to guess) to the second Austin Powers movie? Getting my seat kicked, having the kids go, “I like Mini-me! I like Mini-me! I like Mini-me!”, and listening to mom trying to explain a penis joke…

IMO, small children are worse than cellphones at the movies.

That’s why you get popcorn… It is a harmless, informative, trajectory weapon. it is stealth and nobody ever knows exactly who threw it except for the person next to you. Put down the cell phone and nobody get’s buttered hurt!

We go to the movies at least once a month, and I’ve never encountered this. It’s one of those things where I’m like, “This actually happens?!”

But I’ve always imagined that the best way to stop them is to stand up, and scream really loud, “Won’t you just shut the FUCK UP”

I have however seen the retard with the 5 year olds . . . like really?! Can they really enjoy the movie? So they’re ruinging it for themselves AND for us. Kids suck, LOL

I was contemplating suicide after I just got dumped and was hurtin really bad so I vented out on a loud talker trying to impress his date directly behind my seat. Instead of killing myself, I thought why not take the chance of someone else doing it for me.

So I stood up and yelled to the guy, FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU! IT’s HARD ENOUGH FOR ME TO UNDERSTAND WHAT THIS MOVIE IS ABOUT SO SHUT UP and FUCK YOUUU!

The guy wanted to slug me of course but his date pulled him back hard. I left before management showed up.

With a little electronics knowledge, you can build yourself a cell phone jammer. Not that I’m recommending that anyone actually do that, though :-p

@HungryGuy That same knowledge could also make you a high-voltage stun gun, which is more legal ;)

@jerv How about small children with cell phones? *Gasp!

@jerv – Or a “Blu Ray” laser pistol :-p

I haven’t seen people actually talking lately. What bothers me is when someone spends the whole movie looking at Facebook with a super-bright smartphone screen. You can’t put that shit down for two hours?

I can’t believe how many people on the Q have had negative experiences with people in the theatres. I almost never have experienced loud people or cell phones going off or some other sort of disruption. What was shocking and disgusting to me the last time my husband and I went to the theatre was how almost everybody left their trash behind. It was appalling. I posted it on my facebook at the time, and of course there were people who wrote, “don’t they have people who clean that up?” Well, I guess we know they leave their trash all over. Most people agreed it is disgusting, and they had noticed it was getting worse lately.

Sometimes the talkers retaliate.

Laughing is reasonable – I mean, how else are you supposed to react to that witty bit of dialog? And popcorn is a theater-going staple. But talking beyond small bouts of whispers Mom doesn’t always follow what’s happening in the movies is unacceptable.

I wouldn’t mind seeing theaters put in cell phone jammers. Maybe wire them into the emergency systems so that they shut off when Bad Things happen.