Cheryl JHave you ever walked out of a movie?
April 8th 2008 09:31
Have you ever walked out of a movie and if so what prompted your departure – abysmal script, dreadful acting, too violent, too dull? And I’m not talking turning off the DVD player, I mean walking out of the cinema.
I have only ever walked out of two movies but have spent many wasted hours sitting through a movie I hated, that is so bad for whatever reason, arguing with the voices in my head that I should leave but they keep coming back to the stock standard, “bloody hell, I just paid $15 to see it, surely it will get better!” – but it doesn’t.
The two movies I couldn’t sit through until the end were for very different reasons. The first was Cape Fear with Robert DeNiro who is undeniably an impressive actor. For whatever reasons at the time I could not sit through that harrowing rape scene. I don’t know why that film in particular got to me as I have seen violent rape depicted on film and felt uneasy but never squeamish enough to leave. One day I will hire it and watch it to see if it was just my headspace at the time or if I really do find it too stomach churning to watch.
The other was an Australian film called Metal Skin about a gang of street racers that was just bad. Mind numbingly bad. I really wish I would have walked out of Troy but I couldn’t. I was on a date and that would have been rude so instead said date had to listen to me muttering under my breath as the writers had compacted the epic mythical Trojan battle to a nice neat two weeks and I was not happy. Plus Brad Pitt had obviously been getting acting lessons from Keanu Reeves on how to play wooden, one dimensional characters. By the time the lovely Rose Byrne screamed out “No” which actually came out as a nasal Kath & Kim type “noie” I was ready to curl up in the foetal position.
I saw two bad films in one week last week that had me debating the walk out but someone beat me to it. At least two people walked out of Vantage Point and I would have gone with them but I had settled in to eat my popcorn and stayed hoping in vain that it would improve. It didn’t. The next was 10000 BC which we kind of knew would be crap but nothing could have prepared us for just how deep that crap was.
Have you ever staged a walkout?
I have only ever walked out of two movies but have spent many wasted hours sitting through a movie I hated, that is so bad for whatever reason, arguing with the voices in my head that I should leave but they keep coming back to the stock standard, “bloody hell, I just paid $15 to see it, surely it will get better!” – but it doesn’t.
The two movies I couldn’t sit through until the end were for very different reasons. The first was Cape Fear with Robert DeNiro who is undeniably an impressive actor. For whatever reasons at the time I could not sit through that harrowing rape scene. I don’t know why that film in particular got to me as I have seen violent rape depicted on film and felt uneasy but never squeamish enough to leave. One day I will hire it and watch it to see if it was just my headspace at the time or if I really do find it too stomach churning to watch.
The other was an Australian film called Metal Skin about a gang of street racers that was just bad. Mind numbingly bad. I really wish I would have walked out of Troy but I couldn’t. I was on a date and that would have been rude so instead said date had to listen to me muttering under my breath as the writers had compacted the epic mythical Trojan battle to a nice neat two weeks and I was not happy. Plus Brad Pitt had obviously been getting acting lessons from Keanu Reeves on how to play wooden, one dimensional characters. By the time the lovely Rose Byrne screamed out “No” which actually came out as a nasal Kath & Kim type “noie” I was ready to curl up in the foetal position.
I saw two bad films in one week last week that had me debating the walk out but someone beat me to it. At least two people walked out of Vantage Point and I would have gone with them but I had settled in to eat my popcorn and stayed hoping in vain that it would improve. It didn’t. The next was 10000 BC which we kind of knew would be crap but nothing could have prepared us for just how deep that crap was.
Have you ever staged a walkout?
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Comment by Morgan Bell
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to the best of my knowledge ive only turned off two dvds and those were strictly ballroom and moulin rouge . . . and ive seen metal skin and i could even manage to persist with that!
two fabulous movies which i tried to watch with a distracting group of friends and lost interest because the story was too complex were the hours and the matrix . . . when i watched them by myself later i thought they were masterpieces
thanks for the interesting question!
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But now I'm in a mindspace, my time is precious - if I don't like a movie, I just turn it straight off.
I've got better things to do.
I also fell asleep during Matrix 2 in the cinema - hey, it was a hard day at work...
- Jarrah
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Watching DVDs, though, I've turned off many...
Comment by samaritan
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My friend took her parents to the movie theatre once and choose something really inappropriate. So she walked about with her parents.
I had another friend who sat there reading a magazine through an entire movie at the movie theatres. It was really annoying because she kept discussing it with me and it was a pretty good film.
Aimzster - my kids have phases of watching one DVD over and over and over again. At the moment, it's Prince of Egypt. I haven't actually seen the whole thing from beginning to end, but probably most of it in little bits here and there.
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Comment by Cheryl J
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Well it seems most are in agreement that once we pay to see a movie we will stick it out even if it's not that enjoyable. I know the kind of film and actors that I appreciate but still end up seeing things I would turn off at home.
James, I actually loved the Kill Bill movies. It was so over the top it seemed more like a comic strip anyway. Maybe it is a male / female thing
Journeywoman. Whatever you do, don't try and watch Legally Blonde 2. Ever. I went with a friend who begged me to go and wanted to strangle her afterwards. I love that you bent and snapped! That's hilarious!
Aimzster and Samaritan, I've never seen Prince of Egypt. I have to say I'm a huge fan of Pixar but not Disney. Pixar seem to produce animation that appeals to young and old alike, Disney aims for kids and it's just too cheesey for me.
Jarrah, I fell asleep watching The Horse Whisperer. It was just so long and dull. I wasn't the only one though, I did hear snoring. I hope you at least didn't snore through Matrix 2! I remember being at the ballet at the Opera House once - Romeo and Juliet - and a man in my row started snoring. His wife jabbed him so hard in the ribs he almost fell out of his chair. I had to giggle.
Cibbuano, I wanted to see Atonement and thought I'd get it on DVD, the trailers looked good and it got great reviews. Was it a bad script, bad acting or all of the above?
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I would never walk out a of a film because it challenged me with sex, violence etc. The only two films I ever had to leave because they were just insulting and empty were Forrest Gump and Pretty Woman...saw the endings later and I know I made the right choice to abandon them.
I'm pretty careful with what I see at the cinema so generally even the substandard stuff I choose at least has some redeemable factor that makes it worth sitting through..except for some of the press screenings I'm invited to...I had to watch American Pie once which was like a clockwork orange torture for me, but my review got rid of the angst.
If your interested I did a post on "9 Movies that piss me off" HERE that will give you more information
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Jason, I would love a job that required me to watch movies although I guess you must have to see a lot of drivel. I haven't seen Robin Hood: Men in Tights mainly because I knew I would hate it. Now crack open a bottle and have a good lie down haha!
John, that is a fabulous post! Everyone should go and read it. The film clips are brilliant. Insulting is the worst kind of bad, there really is nothing worse than a film that insults your intelligence trying to be something it isn't.
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I was dragged to 'Shall We Dance' with two friends. One who cried when he watched Carrie and Mr Big get together in Sex & the City (he thought it was romantic) and the other who was a little bitter about love and kept saying loudly that 'It's not really like this in life people'. At least I remember it.
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The first was Saving Private Ryan. I simply could not keep watching people get hurt (yes, even in movies) - It was just too real.
Second was a film called Gerry, one I think have never been shown in Australia because it's just CRAP. Watched it in Poland (and they obviously will show most Hollywood made films) - the entire movie consisted of about five spoken sentences and the rest are scene of Matt Damon and Casey Affleck walking. I kid you not.
The reviews claimed it had great cinematography - I should have taken the hint.
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I've failed to watch many dvd's.
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Hi Amy, Saving Private Ryan certainly had confronting violence as did another war film which focused on a different view, 'Enemy at the Gate' has a brutal sequence at the beginning of the film which made me squirm in my seat. I haven't seen Gerry but it sounds terrible!
Kylie I had to look up Biker Boyz as I've never even heard of it. What a pity it's boring, I really like Laurence Fishburn and Djimon Hansou. Both have been in good films but both have been in some bad stuff also. Terrible and boring, that is movie sin!
Cam_nuckols, you are lucky that you obviously know what you like and don't let friends talk you into bad choices. I have friends that love chick flicks but I hate most of them, sometimes it's a case of majority rules and I have to suck it up. Maybe I should start my own movie dictatorship...except I've picked a couple of duds myself
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The one thing that stopped me from walking out was that I thought one of my friends who enjoying the movie. I went with 3 other friends. After the movie we expressed how pissed off we were and that we wanted to walk out. The problem was, one of us thought another was enjoying it too!
Miami Vice, coming to a Bucket near you.
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But I was 10 at the time and it was on TV.
Meaning of Life- I wish that I had not seen. It was a craptastic self indulgent homage to puke-a-rama comedy. And not very funny.
There, I said it. I may be alone in this opinion but I won't change it.
Only sat through it because friends were with me.
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Was that the Keira Knightly bounty hunter movie? I didn't see it but it sounds like I probably didn't miss much.