I hate movies on airplanes. Maybe it's because you have to cough up $5 for a pair of cheap headphones unless you're a lipreader. Maybe it's because my idea of a good film is more on the order of "Amelie", "Les Choristes", or "The Sea Inside" (incidentally, all films with subtitles, thus negating the need for those damn cheap headphones!). Or maybe it's because no matter what you do, even if you don't want to watch the film, you cannot escape getting glimpses of it from time to time.
But I think the biggest reason I hate movies on airplanes is that they are totally inappropriate for children. And I usually fly with several.
Last year my then-six year old couldn't keep her eyes off King Kong. I couldn't blame her; after all the damn screen is RIGHT THERE, and my TV-starved kids would likely stare for hours at a flight arrivals monitor, let alone anything with moving images. How can you ignore a large monkey climbing up the side of a building? (and getting shot at, and falling to its death...) But while my kids were mainly being exposed to stupid movies ("Big Momma's House IX: Big Momma Farts a Lot and People Think That's Funny"), LOTS of kids are being exposed to "R" rated movies. With blood and guts and disturbing images a-plenty. They wouldn't be allowed to see them in a theater, so why on an airplane?
Parents are beginning to complain. Mainly the complaints fall on deaf ears (“If you get a complaint, you get a complaint. You can’t please everybody.”), but if this concerns you, have a look here and sign the petition.
It's bad enough airlines took away the bad food they were serving, and the pillows, but I put my foot down when it comes to my kids being forcibly exposed to things that will give them nightmares.
