The State of Modern Cell Phone Culture: Not Good

This is going to be the first of two entries stemming from the same outing. My family and I went to see "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" yesterday (the first time the entire family went to see a movie together in years), and we were all pretty happy about this. We get there just in time for the previews (which all looked quite good, as previews these days tend to), my dad got popcorn, and things were looking up. Then, the movie started, and as if on cue, this stupid woman in front of us pulls out not one but two cell phones to fiddle around with. It's safe to say she was texting on her Sidekick or whatever annoying text machine she had, but on some flip phone (presumably her boyfriend's) it looked like she was changing the settings or something. For an hour. The sad thing is that I could actually tell what she was doing since the theater was, as theaters tend to be, dark. She didn't stop until I got tired of having faith in human beings and started kicking her chair. Needless to say, she got the message and put that shit away.

This leads into the point that I really wanted to make: people have actually become over-reliant on their cell phones. It isn't enough to be capable of contacting people at any point in time; people actually feel like it's necessary to stay in constant contact with others regardless of other preoccupations that would otherwise merit full attention. I mean, there's no way that you can't set aside two hours of your life to enjoy a movie, and if you can't, don't go. Rent a movie--stay at home where you can do whatever you want without bothering people trying to share the same experience. Of course this goes beyond the movies, but that's just one pertinent example. Wherever you go, you can see someone answer their phone or return a text without a second thought as to how it will affect others, and though that effect can vary in terms of negativity, it's still not good. There used to be something sacred about eating a meal at a restaurant, rooting for your team at a sporting event, or driving from one place to another, yet now anywhere is fair territory for hollering at yo boy or hitting up shorty with a text.

Strangers with candy . . . and knives

Okay, so I'm writing this blog later than I told Bernadette that I would (though at this time of night, who really keeps track?). For those of you who aren't accustomed to the same internet slang as I am, the initial p in the picture stands for 'pretty', not anything else you might be reading into it. It's safe to say that we saw "The Strangers" tonight; however, I still can't pinpoint what exactly we saw. Generally, I try to stay away from horror movies that claim to be based on a true story if only for the fact that they're usually just about some sort of deranged serial killer(s) killing some regular people in gruesome fashion, but this one looked like it had something supernatural about it. Turns out, I was wrong. Parts of this movie make you want to believe it's got something supernatural behind it, but all it really amounted to was eighty five minutes of build up (involving classic horror elements like chase scenes, the atmosphere, and ambient sounds to scare you) and five minutes of snuff. Then it ends in a somewhat matter of fact manner, letting you know flat out that you saw 95% of a decent horror movie and 5% of a documentary about the murders (yes, people die, that shouldn't spoil anything for you if you're masochistic enough to still want to see this movie) that occurred one night at an out-of-the-way cabin. Does this movie have scares? Yes. Does this movie have blood and guts? Yes. Does this movie leave you feeling like you watched a complete movie? No, and I think that's the worst thing you can do to a moviegoer.