Movie Etiquette

I had one of my most frustrating and worst movie experiences ever today when I went to see House of Flying Daggers. It wasn't the movie (more on that at the bottom). But the people surrounding me were intolerable. First of all the woman to my left was munching on something the entire movie that she brought from home evidentially wrapped in cellophane or some other material so loud and crinkly that it annoyed all the people around her. Then there were phone problems, including a woman who got up in the middle of the movie and then came back and plopped down in front of my wife, who is not a tall woman making it very hard to for her to read the subtitles. If that wasn't worse, sitting two rows in front of me, right in middle of the theater was a white guy who is a Sikh and his damn turban got in the way of the subtitles. Now I'm not going to make fun of white Sikhs here. There are lots in New Mexico. But somehow it bothered me a lot more that it was some aging hippie trying to get in touch with his spirituality than someone from India. Call me intolerant if you want.

So here's some rules that I think they should post in every theater.

1. If you're going to bring food from home, take it in tupperware or some other solid, noiseless plastic.

2. Watch where you sit. If you're tall, don't sit in front of someone else unless you absolutely have to.

3. If you are going to convert to a religion that requires big hats or other types of headgear, of if you are inclined to wear large things on your head for some other reason, please sit on the side or way in the back where no one will be behind you.

As far as the movie itself goes, I was a little disappointed. I thought it was far weaker than Hero or Crouching Tiger. Beautiful of course and the acting was fine but the story really fell apart at the end. I don't see how making it a love triangle 2/3 of the way through the movie really helped it out. It was pretty damn interesting as it was as a battle between the government and rebels. And then to not show the final battle between the soldiers and the Flying Daggers was just insane. I simply didn't understand what Zhang was doing at the end of this movie. That said, it's better than most other movies of course, but not Zhang's best.