I'd really been looking forward to seeing this movie (not unlike virtually everyone else in the western world) and the chance to see it as soon as it came out, was something that I was not going to pass up. So I bought tickets for the three oldest girls and myself and took them to the cinema yesterday morning - without disclosing what we were seeing. This was only the second screening of the film.
The surprise virtually complete (it would have been, had a woman in front not sat down ten minutes before the film started and asked me if we were watching "The Simpsons" - of course Dassi's ears pricked up and she'd heard our conversation), I sat back and prepared myself to enjoy what what would no doubt be an hour-and-a-half of unadulterated entertainment.
The movie started and I was instantly hooked. The jokes came thick and fast and our modest audience (it was only 10 am after all) laughed appreciatively, soaking up the feel-good atmosphere.
Then, after about quarter of an hour, to my horror, a large group of teenagers (not unlike the kids I teach) walked into the cinema. They sat behind us and started off by throwing their popcorn across the auditorium, talking loudly, laughing inappropriately (if you know what I mean) and generally spoiling the entire film for the rest of us. At one point, one schmuck even walked over chairs in-front of us, so that he could get a better view.
My children were shocked at this behaviour, particularly Dassi, as this is not something she has seen before. I sadly felt in familiar territory, not least because, for all I know, some of them might have been kids I'd taught.
So, in short, my entertainment of this film was curtailed by this experience in the cinema, rendering any review I could make, flawed.
What I can say, if I try to rise above the resentment I felt towards these teenagers, is that this is a funny, original and wonderfully subversive movie (pretty much what the Simpsons is all about) and I think I'm probably going to wait to see it again, before I can make my mind up as to how much I do or don't like it. It would therefore be unfair of me to rate it, based on what happened yesterday.
I know I should have tried to get these kids ejected, but did I really want to face the kind of harassment I've experienced from these horrendously brought up, ignorant peasants? There was only me and my four little girls and sometimes, you need to know when to put up and shut up (especially when you don't have the power of the education system, for all its flaws, behind you).
It's a shame, because viewing The Simpsons Movie should have been a much more pleasant experience. I don't think Homer would be impressed.
Then again...
Recommended (because every one will have seen it anyway)
***
Comments