Where Has Cinema Etiquette Gone?

Today, I (along with my mother and grandmother) went to see Spider-Man 3 at the AMC 34th Street Theater. The film was good. The audience I had the displeasure of watching it with however, need to go take a remedial Cinema Etiquette class.

There was a group of teenage girls sitting next to me who just wouldn't shut up! Something would happen in the movie, and the girl sitting to my left would give a brief synopsis of the last 30 seconds of the film to the girl sitting to her left. By the time we were nearing the end of the film, every time she would say something about the movie, I felt like saying, "Yes, we know!"

Then, there were the cell phones. Have they stopped playing those pre-show commercials that tell people to turn off their cell phones? There must have been about 15 cell phones that rang (whether audibly or not) throughout the whole movie. And people were answering these phone calls, and having conversations!

Like I said, most of the folks in that theater badly need to (re)take Cinema Etiquette 101. At least there weren't a bunch of screaming kids to worry about.