Movies
I like movies, but I've noticed that I don't go to the movie theater all that often for a variety of reasons. I have a Netflix account, I'm fussy about seating, I hate the ads they show before movies (what, the $8.00 soda isn't generating enough revenue for you?) and I find most movies to be really ill-timed to accommodate dinner and a film but this is mostly because if I go longer than 3 hours without food I become very cranky (and candy isn't really food, not in the context of this argument anyway).
When I lived in New York I went to the movies a lot more often. In part because they got all the movies (even the incredibly obscure ones) and in part because it was an experience. Some of my fondest movie memories are not of watching good movies but of watching bad or really bad movies during which the audience 'interacted' with the film. For example, I saw Scream 2 in a theater (I know, I know) and when the creepy skull-mask man called the freaked out girl a woman in the audience yelled, "Star 69 his ass!" which made most of us laugh and then say, "Yes, why doesn't she *69 him?" Lake Placid and Deep Blue Sea were both made better by the lively audiences I saw them with, though I confess I actually enjoyed both films. They were over-the-top campy and Deep Blue Sea had LL Cool J (recipe for success!) but the one film no audience could make bearable was Battlefield Earth. Oy freaking vey. I remember the only person enjoying that film was the guy seated at the end of the row drinking from a brown paper bag. He thought it was hilarious. He laughed and laughed. I groaned and left.
What was my point? Oh, yes. I miss audience participation at movies. People in Boston tend to be quieter. They applaud less (the very handsome boyfriend doesn't understand applauding at movies as it's not live--but then neither are televised sports events and you don't see people grasping that the referee can't hear them and their considered opinion on where he can stick his whistle). They yell rarely. Although, I do remember at the Brattle Theater's showing of The Goonies recently, there was a lot of hooting and clapping. It's as if we can behave that way about movies we remember from our youth because we have permission to be nine years old again.