Also, I can yell at the screen when the fictional character does something dumb...honestly, it really is a good experience.

A query: what if movies reverted back to more of a stage play where (depending on the play) audience participation was encouraged?

Apart from things like Rocky Horror and The Room, audience reactions/participation have never really been a thing over here. One of the first and only times I've heard an audience applaud a movie was the end credits for Revenge of the Sith. Every other time when there's been applause, it has been a bit more awkward with people only joining in because other people are, turning to their friends saying 'What's going on?'.

My favourite tale of a movie audience comes from an old teacher of mine. He snuck in to see The Exorcist, really hyped for it as he loves his horror. Part way through the flick, a guy gets up and starts walking out, so someone shouts
'Sit back down, shithouse!'.
'I'm just going the toilet!'
'Bollocks, you're a fucking shithouse'

This culminated in to a large portion of the theatre calling this bloke a shithouse, so he ended up sitting back down and presumably pissing his pants.

Roger Ebert said that most movies could stand to lose 15 minutes, and I'm inclined to agree, at least with the recent crop of 150-200 min films.

However, the original article's recommendations were pretty bizarre. In many cases, you couldn't EDIT them down by 15 min. You'd have to rewrite them. But half of them need another rewrite anyway.

Matt Singer is terrific. He's half of Filmspotting SVU.