CAPTION: Columbus Blvd, here’s your fifteen minutes!
So as I’m reading up on reviews of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button in preparation for a Sunday outing to go see the film, I came across the most curious piece of local news in a long while.
Apparently an angry filmgoer shot a man in the arm during a showing of the film at the United Artists Theater at Riverview Plaza on Columbus Blvd. in Philadelphia. The shooter had earlier asked the man to quiet his talking son, and the boisterous family continued to make noise despite the request. After most other patrons fled, the shooter remained in the now silent theater watching the film until the police arrived. I guess that means the movie is really good!
While yet another shooting in my beloved Philly is nothing to write home about, the most curious piece of this case is the reaction from the public.
The outcry has been clear: BE QUIET IN THE MOVIE THEATER!
The American public is fed up with people who won’t shut up at the movies.
Also, wake up parents! Don’t take your kids to movies like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button where they will be bored to death and act out. There were plenty of other options for this family at Christmastime, so show some common sense, folks.
Of course I don’t condone shooting people–unless they were the Hollywood producers responsible for The Day the Earth Stood Still–but can we really blame the guy? Perhaps they showed a preview of Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino in front of the film, and that gave the shooter the idea to be the ultimate bad-ass.
Meanwhile, I’ll be seeing the film in Jersey at a curious theater where people know how to be quiet, and no one will be carrying a gun.
Check out the local spin from the Philadelphia Inquirer.
The Schleicher Spin 
OMG. Can people carry concealed weapons in Philly? Were there no ushers at the theater?
I prefer to go to matinees during the week because fewer people are there and so I’ve had the experience of talkative people, too. They treat the theater as if it’s their living room, ignoring the other people around them. And usually, just when I’ve decided to go find a manager, someone else departs and brings back the manager. It’s been quite a pleasure to see the talkers thrown out.
Here’s to quiet movie goers!
When I saw that story, I immediately thought, “It’s about time.” Not that I’m condoning it, mind you; I just thought something like this would’ve happened much earlier. I’ve lived near the now-demolished AMC Orleans 8, and I remember back in the “New Jack City”/”Boyz N The Hood” days of 1991, there were some shootings and gang-related incidents involving people coming OUT of those movies in the parking lot, but never in the theater.
And of all movies too—“Benjamin Button.” The only thing I can think of is that the parents must not have read up on the movie and thought maybe it was a kiddie movie. Probably like the people who walked into my showing of “Magnolia” just to see Tom Cruise and flipped out after he started his “Respect/Tame” bit.
I’ve never been to the Riverview but I’ve heard it’s a nice theater but the patrons are complete jerks.