Movie Theater Experiences

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flyonthewall2983 · Mon Dec 22, 2014 4:11 am

Has anybody here ever walked out of a movie, for the very specific reason of disliking it?

#527 Post by **domino harvey** » Mon Dec 22, 2014 4:15 am

Never ever ever and I never ever ever will. If I absolutely hate it then that alone will fuel my ability to stick with it, as I want to earn the right to trash it afterwards

willoneill · #528 Post by **willoneill** » Mon Dec 22, 2014 4:35 am

flyonthewall2983 wrote:Has anybody here ever walked out of a movie, for the very specific reason of disliking it?

Never "walked" out, but drove out of the second-half of a double-bill at a Drive-In. It was Crocodile Dundee III, and my girlfriend and I had run out of reasons to stay at the drive-in (and the film sucked). Not that the first half (the first Tomb Raider film) was any better.

#529 Post by **swo17** » Mon Dec 22, 2014 5:05 am

flyonthewall2983 wrote:Has anybody here ever walked out of a movie, for the very specific reason of disliking it?

Only when I was with someone who walked out and who was my ride home. And then I made sure to finish the film later on my own time.

It's so hard to predict the quality of a film's ending based on how I like the first two-thirds during a first viewing. Plenty of films that aren't doing it for me for most of their runtime pull out something interesting at the very end, sometimes even making me reevaluate my thoughts on what came before. Or, as domino says, sometimes you just want to earn the right to trash it.

Red Screamer · #530 Post by **Red Screamer** » Mon Dec 22, 2014 5:12 am

I never have and never plan to but I do remember taking an extra-long bathroom break in the middle of the last Marvel movie I saw.

Zot! · #531 Post by **Zot!** » Mon Dec 22, 2014 5:17 am

Yes, can't remember what it was. More commonly, when I worked at a theatre, I would simply nap instead, if the film was bad. Very nice place to kip, and when I didn't have to pay, it took the sting out of any obligation to the material. I wish to Jesus I had excused myself from Blues Brothers 2000.

bearcuborg · #532 Post by **bearcuborg** » Mon Dec 22, 2014 5:42 am

flyonthewall2983 wrote:Has anybody here ever walked out of a movie, for the very specific reason of disliking it?

I stopped watching was Requiem for a Dream. Some on this board tried to convince me it's worth watching till the end, but I wasn't swayed. I almost walked out of What Dreams May Come, and I probably should have...

Perhaps one day I'll get back to watching Cape No. 7, a blind buy from Taiwan. I stopped halfway through, but it's pretty bad.

The Oscar winning Crash is one I would have liked to stop watching, but I just couldn't believe how awful it was...

In 2010 I went to see Tiny Furniture at SXSW and hated it, I wanted to walk out - but it has some outstanding cinematography. I'm glad I stayed, I enjoyed it - and befriended Lena Dunham and interviewed her for a book I'm writing. I had similar struggle with INLAND EMPIRE, it was awfully annoying for the first hour, but then it won me over. By the time I left IFC I was convinced I had seen a great film.

But in terms of movies in the theater, yes, I've left several. I used to attend lots of film festivals on free passes based on writing I did for their programs/websites.

warren oates · #533 Post by **warren oates** » Mon Dec 22, 2014 5:57 am

The last movie I walked out of was The Limits of Control, probably with about 20 minutes left. Though I should have trusted my intuition and left The Homesman a few weeks ago. I can't fully understand domino's extremism. I mean, it's your time, your life. The only reason I think you'd ever actually need to stick something out that really isn't working for you that thoroughly is if you were obligated to review it. To those who say they'd never walk out -- so you've also finished every video you've ever started watching, never have begun something on TV or the Internet only to turn it off later? If that isn't so, then why is your time in the theater seemingly worth less to you?

oh yeah · #534 Post by **oh yeah** » Mon Dec 22, 2014 6:10 am

Luckily I haven't had that many really bad experiences in terms of people talking or generally being annoying, but a few do stick out. I saw a digital screening of Eyes Wide Shut at my local arthouse last year with two friends, and the theater was pretty full. There was this elderly couple sitting near us who kept on talking aloud, not even whispering but quietly speaking, asking the most irritating or inconsequential or just plain strange questions, or simply speaking any observation or thought that came to their mind, so that they made themselves appear borderline-senile. One of my friends got so mad he "ssshh"-d them quite loudly many times, which in turn irritated my other friend, who found such a practice just as bad as the initial offense. The worst part was in the film's penultimate sequence, where Cruise comes home and we see a shot of Kidman peacefully sleeping with the mask next to her on the bed. "Is she dead?" the old man queried loudly to his wife. You kind of had to be there, but the combination of the incredulous, sincere (and LOUD) way he asked this silly question, accompanied by how pissed off friend #1 was by this point, just cracked me up to the point of not caring anymore.

dad1153 · #535 Post by **dad1153** » Mon Dec 22, 2014 6:57 am

flyonthewall2983 wrote:Has anybody here ever walked out of a movie, for the very specific reason of disliking it?

Never. Closest I came to walking out was on Christmas '98 when I found myself at a sold out screening of "Jerry Springer Ringmaster" (!) in which members of the audience started getting into very realistic-looking fights emulating the staged-for-the-camera fights we were watching on-screen. I literally froze the world for a minute wondering about all the things I had done in my life that had let me to being alone on Christmas in a movie theater watching fucking Jerry Springer! Afterwards I became a lot more picky about what movies to watch, especially on holidays.

MichaelB · #536 Post by **MichaelB** » Mon Dec 22, 2014 7:32 am

The first time I went to the Cannes marketplace where my job was to find something decent to pick up for UK distribution, I had an "impress me within 20 minutes" rule - because otherwise I'd waste valuable time that could have been spent watching something that might actually help pay my wages over the next year or so. But that's slightly different from walking out of something because of simple dislike, which I don't think I've ever done (certainly not if I paid for the ticket).

movielocke · #537 Post by **movielocke** » Mon Dec 22, 2014 7:37 am

The closest I came to walking out of a film was salo. And garden state.

I stayed for salo because I'd only gone to the screening because I'd never finished watching the dvd. hordes of smart people walked out of the screening whilst many smug millenials smirked at those walking out, convinced they were superior for choosing to stay.

The closest I've come recently was to the wonder, I'm fairly certain that's my wife's most hated film now.

TMDaines · #538 Post by **TMDaines** » Mon Dec 22, 2014 10:03 am

warren oates wrote:The last movie I walked out of was The Limits of Control, probably with about 20 minutes left. Though I should have trusted my intuition and left The Homesman a few weeks ago. I can't fully understand domino's extremism. I mean, it's your time, your life. The only reason I think you'd ever actually need to stick something out that really isn't working for you that thoroughly is if you were obligated to review it. To those who say they'd never walk out -- so you've also finished every video you've ever started watching, never have begun something on TV or the Internet only to turn it off later? If that isn't so, then why is your time in the theater seemingly worth less to you?

As swo said, for the most part you cannot really judge a film until you have seen the whole thing. There's plenty of works that I have been indifferent to two-thirds of the way through but loved by the end. On the other hand, there's loads that have run out of steam and left me disappointed. Artists don't always intend their works to satisfy their viewers steadily all the way through.

By and large, I'm not going to watch something unless I have some interest in it in the first place or it has been well reviewed, so I don't encounter too many stinkers. Once I have started I may as well finish anyway. Persevere and I can at least make a fair judgement of another film. Quitting would just leave me with a nagging doubt that I might be missing out on something.

thirtyframesasecond · Mon Dec 22, 2014 10:08 am

flyonthewall2983 wrote:Has anybody here ever walked out of a movie, for the very specific reason of disliking it?

Sadly not. Which means I've seen all of Little Fockers and Horrible Bosses (which I've even seen twice, the second time on a flight, and I really really hated it the first time).

MichaelB · #540 Post by **MichaelB** » Mon Dec 22, 2014 10:17 am

movielocke wrote:hordes of smart people walked out of the screening whilst many smug millenials smirked at those walking out, convinced they were superior for choosing to stay.

How do you know this? Did you ask them afterwards? And if not, on what grounds are you accusing them of being smug?

hearthesilence · #541 Post by **hearthesilence** » Mon Dec 22, 2014 3:47 pm

I was at The Asphalt Jungle the other night and two asshats spent the whole film loudly scoffing like a pair of douchebags. The ONLY two people in the theater doing this. "Let's ridicule everything, like the girl's choice of pre-rock pop music, because 1950 deserves our scorn." Seriously wanted to rip the hairs off one guy's beard and shove the other's guy hat straight up his ass.

#542 Post by **swo17** » Mon Dec 22, 2014 4:47 pm

TMDaines wrote:By and large, I'm not going to watch something unless I have some interest in it in the first place or it has been well reviewed, so I don't encounter too many stinkers. Once I have started I may as well finish anyway. Persevere and I can at least make a fair judgement of another film. Quitting would just leave me with a nagging doubt that I might be missing out on something.

This is an important point too. I save a lot more time skipping out on all the 2-hour movies that don't interest me than I would by shaving 20 minutes off of one every once in a while.

warren oates · #543 Post by **warren oates** » Mon Dec 22, 2014 5:20 pm

Well, I guess it depends on what you're watching and why. I've gone through periods where I only watch great films I've seen before or new-to-me films from directors I already admire pretty unconditionally and also periods of casting my net much wider, because of a personal or professional interest in a certain genre, etc. I'm still kind of stunned that all of the members have time to keep up with everything they want to see, all the new releases and old films, adding extra voluntary homework like the Lists Project and then committing to seeing everything through to the end no matter what. My bar for shutting off something I haven't heard much about is much lower than for giving up on something that already seemed like it could be interesting. It's slightly higher still for walking out of a film in theater (higher again if I'm with someone else) which I don't think I've done until it's closer to at least 2/3 or 3/4 of the way through. So why not just stick it out until the end? You could say the same about getting stuck chatting with someone you really can't stand at a party. Something slightly different might happen if you stay, but you could also just be subjected to more of the same. A radical change that alters your perspective is unlikely and could be fairly weighed against the opportunity cost of getting to talk to someone else. Speaking of which, a lot of this stick-with-it-at-all-costness does seem like it may be about the psychology of sunk costs.

My s.o. walked out of a free museum screening of Trash Humpers with only a few minutes left and has repeatedly held that she's never regretted it and ought to have left me in there alone sooner, so as to, you know, check Facebook and stuff.

movielocke · #544 Post by **movielocke** » Mon Dec 22, 2014 5:21 pm

MichaelB wrote:
movielocke wrote:hordes of smart people walked out of the screening whilst many smug millenials smirked at those walking out, convinced they were superior for choosing to stay.
How do you know this? Did you ask them afterwards? And if not, on what grounds are you accusing them of being smug?

Because I'm a millenial, I saw the faces and heard the sniggers of those in the audience watching people walk out--and more importantly that's what I was doing until the final twenty minutes of the film when I started reflecting on how the film was a critique of the audience, not just fascism.

I'm always just as guilty of anything I critique, usually moreso.

#545 Post by **swo17** » Mon Dec 22, 2014 5:46 pm

I'm not going to tell anyone how to live their life. I just think you forfeit your right to criticize a film if you don't see it through to the end. Or, at least, I don't give much weight to someone's opinion of a film if they haven't actually seen it all the way through.

Michael Kerpan · #546 Post by **Michael Kerpan** » Mon Dec 22, 2014 6:11 pm

I think as long as one acknowledges the incomplete nature of ones viewing -- and can articulate why one felt as one did (and maybe even why one left when one did), the opinion may be worth paying attention to. At least for home viewing, I reserve the right to quit watching any film that looks like a total waste of my time. At theaters, I may just try to fall asleep.

#547 Post by **Mr Sausage** » Mon Dec 22, 2014 9:20 pm

I'm picky about what I watch, so the only time I run into movies of eye bleeding badness is when I'm doing a list project, ie. in a context where there's a reason to finish. God, some of those giallos I put myself through for that horror project--they sure tested my resolve.

John Cope · #548 Post by **John Cope** » Mon Dec 22, 2014 10:27 pm

This happens to me very rarely for many of the reasons stated above. But it has still happened and, in fact, happened just recently.

I almost never go to the actual cinema to see films so it's rarely an issue there but I will always recall two specific instances when it was an issue. One was Batman & Robin which I really wanted to get up and walk out of and would have had it not been a free screening provided by friends. No one enjoyed that though so we commiserated in our misery. The other time that stands out was around that same time when I saw The Island of Dr. Moreau. Here again I wanted to leave and should have but didn't. That experience was just short of sheer torture.

On video it has notably happened as well. The main one I can recall was with Figgis' Cold Creek Manor. I adore Figgis but hated that. I remember actually getting up and walking around looking for other things to do while I left the disc on in the background, a practice which I never indulge. And there was the time just recently which I mentioned in which I attempted to get through Paradise: Love but found, about half way through it, that I simply could not. Generally though I do stick it out to the end even if I'm palpably suffering as I was say with Far From Heaven which I also detested and had to fight the compulsion to throw the disc out my window afterwards.

CSM126 · #549 Post by **CSM126** » Mon Dec 22, 2014 11:29 pm

I usually consider suffering all the way through bad movies a point of pride (sad I know), but I did walk out of Darling Companion. It was some whole new level of hell, like I was cast into the black hole of cinema. I got to about the 45 minute mark and gave up during the four hundredth scene of people bitching at each other like shrews and ninnies.

Black Hat · #550 Post by **Black Hat** » Thu Dec 25, 2014 5:12 pm

The only film I've ever walked out of was Mr. Turner at NYFF, not exactly the place you want to walk out of something, but I'd fallen asleep twice in the first 90 minutes, had no idea nor interest in what was going on plus Turner's grunting & humping was getting on my last nerve and on top of all that I was in a shitty mood as well as hungry so I had the choice of either staying there for another 90 minutes or getting the hell out of there and grabbing some Chinese food before it closed. My friend, who had managed to stay awake, said she was cool with leaving so I faked a coughing fit and ran the hell out of ATH with her right behind me.

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