@3OBSERVATIONS OF THE CINEMA by Mark A. Scott @1 I have been visiting cinemas regularly for the past 2 years and have noticed the following trends when doing so. Feel free to comment on my experiences, as well as on your own. 1) @3Cinema confectionary prices@1 - Why is it that all cinemas I have visited charge extortionate prices for sweets/drinks? - A typical example is one of my local cinemas, which charges around 45p for cans of Coke, Fanta and the like. This is generally at least 10p more expensive than corner shops & newsagents. Another local cinema of mine does 3 sizes of drink which range from £1.00 to £2.00. The smallest of these (£1.00) contains less than a can of coke but is strangely over 50p more expensive. They also charge over the odds for sweets/popcorn. Surely the cinemas buy these items for around the same price as shops, so greed seems the motivating factor in this. Most cinemas do not allow outside food in @3[But people do anyway.. Heh! Heh! - Ed]@1 which is fair enough but surely the paying public should not have to pay these prices which go into the cinema coffers. 2) @3Cinema Adverts@1 - When I first started going to the cinema on a regular basis the thing I noticed was that the adverts are the same every time you go. The first advert of this kind was the Bacardi Advert which included Auntie Beryl. GAWD, I MUST HAVE SEEN THAT ABOUT 30 TIMES! Recent ads include "Frank Joining the army" and "The jeans advert with the recent NO 1 Hit - Inside". Come on guys a bit of originality wouldn't go amiss! 3) @3Other people who use cinemas@1 - How many of you have been sat in a cinema with the following groups of people: @5People who insist on talking about irrelevent items from the moment they enter the screen until the credits roll at the end. People who are about 7 feet tall and always seem to sit in front of you. People who predict what is going to happen and share it with the whole audience. People who get up and walk out of the screen half way through a film. (You get disturbed twice because when they return, they make everyone in their row stand up.) People who come in when the film has started, make loads of noise and then sit in your row, causing you to miss a vital part of the film. @1By the way if there are any others I have failed to mention please feel free to contribute yourself. @5P.S - Why is it that people are always complaining about the following actors/actresses by saying they cannot act, are bimbos etc: Sylvester Stallone, Steven Seagal, Jean Claude Van Damme, Sharon Stone and Madonna? @1 1) Are they jealous of their success? 2) Don't they realise that the reason they appear in the films that they do is because that is what they are good at? Just because Steven Seagal only does action films doesn't mean he is a bad actor (It is the same for the others as well.) 3) Do they really expect Jean Claude Van Damme to be cast as a non-swearing, non-smoking and teetotal devout churchgoer with a passion for crochet and needlework? - Get a life people! It will never happen. 4) If they hate these actors/actresses so much, why do the movies they are in do so well at cinemas, and WHY do the people who complain about them still watch the movie? 5) If a film is bad then criticize it but don't slag the actors off for utilizing their strengths. After all, who wouldn't in the same position? See y'all next time folks. End.