Hoodys at the Cinema

We went to the cinema on Saturday night to see a Night at the Museum. There were plenty of big names in the film but all seemed to be yesterday stars (Robin Williams, Dick Van Dyke, Micky Rooney - how old is he now?) so I was dubious as to whether it would live up to expectations. We chose our favourite seats at the back of the cinema (for the leg room, not anything else) and settled down to enjoy the film.

Before too long a group of 4 lads strode up the stairs towards us. The one wearing the white hoody was carrying a dustbin sized bucket of popcorn and a bucket of fizzy beverage - I had a feeling of impending doom. The hoody sat just one seat away from me and began fiddling with his refreshments and they all talked loudly though the mini film that was designed to encourage mobile phone switch off and minimum disruption. Talking continued through the main film credits but, miracle, they stopped when the film started.

However the munching of popcorn and sucking of drink continued. I marvelled at how anyone could contemplate getting through so much stuff. About half way through the film the hoody must have started getting bored because he could not stop fiddling with his drink. He blew bubbles in it, sucked noisily to get the dregs out from the remaining ice cubes and most irritating of all he moved the straw in and out of the plasic top making squeaking noises. I developed almost overwhelming desire to pick up the bucket of popcorn and invert it over his head but resisted through fear of getting stabbed!

Just then a little girl started scrunching up her plastic sweetie bag and making noises - no attempt by her parents to stop it. I just hope they had been annoyed by the squeaking straw trick.

Towards the end of the film, hoody started flicking what remained of his popcorn at his mates.

Why oh why do people have to eat a mountain of food in cinemas. Let's get back to the good old days of a B movie, an interval with a small ice cream and then the main feature.

Oh and the film was rubbish as well - which is probably why I was so aware of the noises - and Audrey kept waking me up when I dropped off.