Theater Rager Slaps Movie Talker, Faces Jail Time
As much as I hate the movie theater talkers, cell phone texters, loud popcorn-chewers, backseat-kickers, nervous leg-jigglers, smelly food-eaters, and armchair hogs who combine evil forces to make going to the movies these days a distracting, living hell, I stop myself short of physical violence when it comes to laying down the law of theater etiquette. Which is what one enraged theater patron in the Seattle area did not do when he caught a case of theater rage and slapped an offending movie talker in the face. Making matters worse: The talker was a ten-year-old kid.
Per the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
King County prosecutors contend 21-year-old Yong Hyun Kim knocked out one of the boy’s teeth after the child and several other youths refused to quiet down and stop throwing popcorn in April.
According to charging documents, Kim admitted to hitting the boy and appeared ashamed when confronted by police with the boy’s age. Kim allegedly said he thought the boy was an adult when he slapped him in the face.
Kim has been charged with a felony assault and probably feels terrible, not to mention he might have to go to jail for slapping a child in the face. The offending kid may or may not have learned a lesson in unruly theatergoing, but he's missing a tooth. Who's also to blame, IMO? The management at said AMC Theater who did not stop a bunch of children from ruining another patron's movie before theater rage took hold.
Theater chains, take note: Policing bad behavior is on you, not your ticket-buyers.
(And let this be a reminder: Encouraging texting in theaters is still an awful idea.)
[Seattle PI via @thefilmcynic]
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Comments
It'a about f'n time someone did it. I've stopped myself short of slapping people before who refused to be silent. Go Yong!
just steal films and watch them at home.
Let's hope when the Chinese take over AMC, they'll bring some of that good Red Army discipline to our theaters.
maybe it was his baby tooth. anyway there but for the grace of god go i. But I just go and complain to the ushers. I figure the movie has already been ruined, i might as well miss a bit more and have justice. and if the management won't do something about it i will get a refund.
I'm so happy to watch movies at home and not go to the theater anymore.
That theater-rage doesn't happen more often is the real surprise.
feel worse for the Yong than the kid missing a tooth.
Obnoxious movie prices and obnoxious movie goers. I don't even bother going anymore, but when i did, even going out and complaining (which means standing around and in the lobby and missing the film you paid to watch) doesn't help much. They send in an apathetic usher, who stands around for a few minutes, then leaves. Management will always say it's as easy as asking for a refund, but we all know that's a lie.
Is raging out like Yong good? No. He got unlucky that he hit a child, otherwise, he'd probably not be facing jail time i'd bet...but who drops 10 year olds off at the cinema on their own? And if they had handlers...where the hell were they? Slap Young with some CS, a dental work fees, and maybe some probation and call it a day.