Things Not to Do: Using Your Phone in the Cinema

By Steven Pate in Arts & Entertainment on Jun 8, 2011 8:40PM

Last night, for the second time in the past week, our eyes and attention were diverted from the big screen during a movie we paid to see by someone unashamedly using their cell phone. Although we resisted a nearly overpowering urge to ask the person who felt so compelled to text or twitter or update their Facebook page with (one imagines) a fetal review of Midnight in Paris that they couldn't even wait until the movie finished exactly where they acquired a mobile device with what was obviously an eight-digit candlepower display, we can't help but get a little Andy Rooney on the subject now.

Especially since yesterday, our siblings at Austinist showed us this little nugget from a local movie theater, the Alamo Draft House, who posted a video to accompany a voicemail from a customer who was furious at the theater for kicking her out. Her crime? Using her cell phone during the movie. We say bravo, Austin.

If you are in a darkened movie theater between the end of the coming attractions and the beginning of the end credits, your cell phone should be on silent and its screen off or hidden from view. You may apply for an exception to this rule if you are a medical professional on call. Otherwise, this rule applies to you. Don't try and be sly. We see you anyway, and you could even end up injuring yourself. It's very easy to stay at home and watch a DVD, or cable, or streaming content amidst a sea of distractions any time you want, but when we're all forking over around $10 to see a movie in a darkened theater for god's sake let's help keep it dark.