YgigaplexMV. Maybe it's the fact that the gigas are 90% of the movies around here, so I'm not just there for big event movies, but I see very little hootin' and hollerin' in them. For that, we have midnight Barbarella showings at the Drive-in.

Well, speaking for myself I certainly don't think there's anything wrong with cheering and hollering, Nutty; it's just interesting that Aus./UK audiences don't seem to do it, even at Nuremberg rallies event movies.

I can't remember any Israeli audience cheering or hollering in a movie, and the Israelis are known as people who express their emotions easily and quickly. I'm not sure why - maybe it's fear of the exposure of the inner geek a cheering may lead to, I don't know.

As you can see Leigh has actually touched on a minor obsession of mine too!

It's fascinating, isn't it? I think I started wondering about it because I read something on the net (it may have been a Buffistas discussion, I cannot remember) about people who couldn't stand going to the movies anymore because everyone talked, and I was like whaaa? I love going to the movies and I think I’ve only been bothered three or four times by people talking, and someone usually told them to shut up pretty quickly.

Thus the whole audience whips itself up in enthusiasm for the event

Yeah, I suspect this is part of it, but even at opening day Star-wars, with the waiting in line for an hour, some people in costume, everyone excited -- it all mostly just meant that people hushed really well once the film began.

I think Canadian audiences are pretty restrained. (People stil won't shut up to their movie companions, though.) I've been to shows where there's been applause at the end of the show, but not to much during. People are more inclined to mouth off loudly at trailers.

The exception seems to be late night screenings of old chestnuts. When I saw Shaft at a late showing a few years ago there was much whooing, and cheering. Likewise with a Grease showing, there was singing along with the movie.

edit: Healthma is being sent your way Angus....

Jamaican audiences would put the black American speaking-to-the-screen stereotype to shame. We're a little interactive. Here, in the US, cheers have been commonplace for geek stuff. The first time I saw the Matrix Reloaded trailer, the crowd erupted. Legolas got a cheer for every kill in Fellowship Of The Ring, and X2 certainly got its share of united audience response, off the top of my head.

Angus - - I hope by this time (you know - 3 days later) that whatever it was is all cleared up and forgotten.

Oh, and I think that the folks who make M&Ms were originally FROM England - - they made chocolate there and then came here and made chocolate here too.

I don't know if they are related to the Smarties folks - - but it's possible.

People still won't shut up to their movie companions, though.

Man, the friend-talky people are damn annoying, but I went to see Daredevil with my snarkilicious friend and we just couldn't restrain ourselves. I felt quite guilty afterwards, but really, we both would have suffered a psychotic-break sitting through that thing silently. Ben's hair alone would have done us in.

Angus, I hope you're on the improve but if you need any 'fresh country air' recuperation time you'd be welcome to escape the city as far as Bendigo anyway.

As to enthusiastic audience reactions at the cinema, I've actually experienced this watching The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Dudley Doolittle/Dooright? (the Mountie bloke), Galaxy Quest, and much dancing occurred during the screening of The Buena Vista Social Club.

A few very lively evenings have been had at The Theatre Royale in Castlemaine (the oldest, continuously running theatre restaurant in Australia) and The Star Cinema in Bendigo. Mind you the fact that I am good friends with a couple of projectionists/cinema operators and the aforementioned occasions were all private screenings for a dozen or so friends probably renders the point pretty moot.

Sorry Leigh I'm not much help!