Saturday evening, I went to the late showing of Hellboy II: The Golden Army at the AMC theatres in Kanata with Ken and Brian.  The movie was quite good and most people will probably enjoy it.  But that’s not what this entry is about.

Rather, it is about the father who brought his two very young sons with him.  One was maybe 6 or 7 years old and the other was 4’ish.  Very young kids to be in a move with a rating of 14A in Ontario and that contains a fair bit of violence, but even that wasn’t the real problem.

The problem was the fact the show started at 9:50pm, meaning the actual movie started sometime around 10:15pm or so.  For the first part of the movie, I didn’t notice the kids because they were watching the movie quietly.  But at some point the youngest kid fell asleep and started snoring.

Yes, snoring.

After a couple of pointed glances from myself and other patrons, the father nudged the sleeping kid who stopped snoring and started coughing up a lung.  After a bit, he settled down and then fell asleep again and the cycle repeated itself for much of the rest of the movie.  When the lights came up at the end, the father woke up both of his kids who staggered bleary-eyed out of the theatre.

We were talking about this on the way to our cars after the movie and Ken raised the point that it was late and what was the father thinking bringing his kids to such a late show.  The movie ended around midnight, which is probably too late for them to be out.  Both of them were asleep at the end of the movie, so it’s not like they got anything out of it.

There’s also the question of the suitability of the movie for such young children.  This movie has a rating of 14A in Ontario, meaning it has, among other things, "occasional upsetting scenes that will tend to be more frightening, intense, disturbing – particularly to younger viewers", and there were scenes in Hellboy II that definitely fell into that category.  I recall another movie that was even more violent and inappropriate for young children that a parent had brought their young child to.  The child became scared by the movie and ended up begging their parent to leave, though they ended up staying until the end of the movie.  I don’t recall which movie it was, but I think it was another comic book that had been made into a movie.

So, what’s the solution?  Some theatres offer matinée shows specifically for parents with kids, so maybe they should also offer late shows for adults only.  It was getting to the point that I almost complained to the theatre management on the way out.  It was very inconsiderate behaviour on the part of the father to take his young children to the movie, one of whom seemed sick (one really can’t blame the kids because they’re young and it was late).

If you’re thinking about taking your young children to the movies: Please think twice.  And if you do decide to take them anyway, please be considerate of the other people in the theatre and leave the theatre should they start to fidget, talk, fall asleep or snore, so as not to ruin the movie for the people unlucky enough to be sitting close to you.  And don’t take them when they’re sick.