'She Texted. We Kicked Her Out'

And she left an F- and S-bomb-laden message on the movie theater’s voicemail, which they cheerfully uploaded to YouTube as a commercial:

The uncensored version is on the Austin movie theater’s blog, which notes:

As many of you know, I really can’t abide people who talk during a movie. A couple of years ago I was accosted in the Village parking lot by a patron who was warned for talking in a movie. I’ve nearly come to blows more than a few times over the years with rude customers over the same issue. When we adopted our strict no talking policy back in 1997 we knew we were going to alienate some of our patrons. That was the plan. If you can’t change your behavior and be quiet (or unilluminated) during a movie, then we don’t want you at our venue. Follow our rules, or get the hell out and don’t come back until you can.

Recently, we had a situation where a customer persisted in texting in the theater despite two warnings to stop. Our policy at that point is to eject the customer without a refund, which is exactly what went down that night.  Luckily, this former patron was so incensed at being kicked out, she quickly called the office and left us the raw ingredients for our latest “Don’t Talk or Text” PSA. You can check it out below, or come to the Alamo this weekend where the video will be playing before all of our R-rated movies.

Of course, such a scatological “PSA” doesn’t exactly improve the level of discourse in today’s society either, but that’s a whole ‘nother story. Still though, it’s great to see theaters take a stand against all of glowing and tapping going on their in the theaters during a movie.

(My favorite movie-going experience was seeing Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in a San Jose-area theater back in 2000 — that film had it all: screaming babies, yakking kids and adults, texting and cell phone chatting, and a 3.5-magnitude earthquake in the middle of the movie, just to add to the “fun.” That’s entertainment.)

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