Movie experience

I can't believe I always end up next to the noisiest, most obnoxious people when I go to the movies.

Last week, during the dumbest film I've seen in a VERY long time ("You don't mess with the Zohan"), I was sitting quietly in my seat, patiently letting people pass until suddenly this fat chick and a dude drop their huge asses in the seats right next to me. She settles into the seat, smiles at me and says thank you, like we had made some sort of agreement that I was going to keep them seats.

I totally felt my private space invaded. On top of that, the woman places her can of coke right into MY cup holder, then wips out a bucket of buffalo chicken wings and starts chewing them down like Gollem eating fresh fish out of the creeck. Her hubbie leans forward, asks if he can have a bite, the woman grunts and as she passes the wing she was already working on, their toddler appears from nowhere and starts crying. O great.

I tried to be cool with it, you know, tried to stay open minded and all, be in a Zen-like state, focus on the movie, but when the kid started repeating the on-screen dialogue and Mom was laughing more with their own kid than the movie (I have to admit; she was cute), I could not help but give an occasional and very demonstrative sigh.

They finally got the hint and after a while she dropped her daughter into the dude's arms and sends them walking, probably off to the toilet to give the kid instructions on how to behave in a movie theater.

The woman didn't say anything, but laughed hysterically with every little thing. In the end, I didn't really miss a lot of the movie .. it sucked anyways.

Today, I saw "Get Smart" with Steve Carell. I love that guy. And it's a funny movie too. I liked it.

So did the couple two seats away from me. They were laughing out load - scratch that, they expressed their enjoyment by hollering, slapping their legs at every joke, giving in to occasional hand clapping or whistling.
One thing I got to hand to them; they made the jokes on screen become more hilarious. You could tell people around us were laughing more then the people sitting on the right hand side of the theater, where everything was peaceful and quiet.

Americans don't seem to care what other people think when they're enjoying themselves in the movie theater. And I don't blame them at all, in fact, I think their enthusiasm brings out more enjoyment for the ones around them. But when that enthusiasm goes over the top, I just get embarrassed in their place and wish I was sitting in the movie theater in Sint Niklaas, where almost nobody goes to see a movie on a Friday morning and I can enjoy the movie in my own way without any additional 'soundtrack.'