# Dumbest reasons to dislike a movie **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 11, 2009, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041 "2009-05-11T15:59:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/21 "2009-05-11T18:09:27Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Any examples? > > That wouldn’t bother me, but I will admit being slightly annoyed by the presence of someone named wil.i.am in the Wolverine movie. The name struck me as silly. They should save him until Ron Howard directs the live action version of _Green Eggs and Ham_. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanTigerTamer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e5b9ba/32.png) [@SuntanTigerTamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanTigerTamer)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/22 "2009-05-11T18:11:12Z")
I absolutely hate it when people say they won’t watch subtitled films. I don’t know why it bothers me so much, but if someone says that to me, I tend to think far less of them afterwords. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/23 "2009-05-11T18:11:16Z")
> [@kasuo](#): > > Shawshank _should have_ beat out Forrest Gump Why? They’re both stupid, emotionally manipulative movies that demand an unearned payoff at the end. How about refusing to watch a movie just because it’s in black and white? I think we’ve had some Dopers cop to that one. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/24 "2009-05-11T18:13:34Z")
I have a co-worker who equates “a movie with violent acts” with “bad movie.” ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/25 "2009-05-11T18:16:13Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Why? They’re both stupid, emotionally manipulative movies that demand an unearned payoff at the end. > > How about refusing to watch a movie just because it’s in black and white? I think we’ve had some Dopers cop to that one. “Emotionally manipulative” could describe any movie that makes you feel something, though. That’s a major goal of all fiction. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/26 "2009-05-11T18:18:43Z")
> [@middleman](#): > > To add a gripe to the list, and a comtroversial one at that, I am annoyed when people demand slavish devotion to source material. I agree. Movies and books (or comics) are different media. Changes need to be made sometimes, and if you can’t deal with it, you should just stick with the original version. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/27 "2009-05-11T18:22:57Z")
I knew someone who hated _The English Patient_ but it “glorified adultery.” I always thought that was pretty stupid. But the worst of all is when someone dismisses a movie as “pretentious” when they clearly don’t really know what the word means. It ends up meaning that there was something about the movie they didn’t get; it becomes sort of a sour grapes-style epithet. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/28 "2009-05-11T18:23:11Z")
> [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](#): > > “Emotionally manipulative” could describe any movie that makes you feel something, though. That’s a major goal of all fiction. Possibly, except good movies have more interesting characters with reasons behind their actions that can be understood in the context of the story. Both _The Shawshank Redemption_ and _Forrest Gump_ are centered on characters that are one-dimensional pieces of cardboard: In _Shawshank_, it’s the villains. In _Forest Gump_, it’s the protagonist. (Admittedly, in _Shawshank_ nobody is especially fleshed out, but the villains are extra-thin.) I’ve read the source material in both cases, and I can’t say the movies were unfaithful in any meaningful way. (_Forrest Gump_ was trimmed substantially, but the novel was a failed picaresque POS that should have been trimmed by an editor.) This isn’t a case where you can blame the filmmakers. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/29 "2009-05-11T18:23:17Z")
> [@middleman](#): > > To add a gripe to the list, and a comtroversial one at that, I am annoyed when people demand slavish devotion to source material. I don’t want to use the word stupid because many Dopers disagree, but I simply do not get why someone could hate a film because Peter Parker uses organic webshooters instead of mechanical ones. I get disliking a film that butchers the beloved source to the point that only the name remains, but minor details? Baffles me. I guess that depends on how you define “slavish.” The changes in League of Extraordinary Gentleman are all to the film’s detriment, I’d argue. Contrariwise, the organic webshooters are actually an improvement. Both mechanical and organic webshooters are impossible by the laws of physics, but that’s allowable in a fantasy mileau. A teenager in a public school, from a family that’s just barely making ends meet, inventing mechanical web shooters FROM SCRATCH, in UNDER A WEEK, is hugely improbable, and, as Douglas Adams pointed out, improbabilities are harder to swallow than impossibilities. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/30 "2009-05-11T18:26:01Z")
> [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](#): > > “Emotionally manipulative” could describe any movie that makes you feel something, though. That’s a major goal of all fiction. Only if you don’t recognize the extremely loaded nature of a word like _manipulative_. Movies that make you feel something without being emotionally manipulative can range from _touching_ to _heart-breaking_. IMHO _emotionally manipulative_ is a term normally reserved for a particularly ham-fisted attempt which is simultaneously transparent and unavoidable. My touchstone for emotional manipulation in movies is _Mississippi Burning_. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/31 "2009-05-11T18:31:16Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > A hell of a lot of people on this messageboard hate Forrest Gump and the reason I see repeated over and over is something along the lines of “it sends the message that stupidity will [should?] be rewarded.” What a weird interpretation of that movie and _stupid_ reason to hate it. No, _Forrest Gump_ sends a message far more seductive and far more pernicious: That virtue is more important than intelligence, not on any abstract scale of values but in terms of achieving material success. Forrest Gump gets rich just because he always does the right thing and does what he’s told and works hard and deserves it and has God on his side (which obviously is why his is the only shrimping boat spared by the hurricane), while all around him more intelligent persons destroy their own lives and others’ by running after kicks and causes. The latter part of that is plausible, but not the former. Real-life Forrest Gumps never get rich save through connections or inheritance. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/32 "2009-05-11T18:37:52Z")
Some critics panned _Trainspotting_ for “glorifying” drug use, even though the junkies are shown as living in utterly squalid conditions and wrecking their lives. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/33 "2009-05-11T18:39:42Z")
I know many people who will not watch black & white movies. I also know peole who will nto watch movies that are “old”. Frequently they are the same people. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/34 "2009-05-11T18:40:30Z")
> [@middleman](#): > > I must cop to this type of behavior on a much smaller scale. While I do not hate them, I view (subjectively) undeserved Academy Award films with mild scorn due the fact that they beat more deserving films. Not that I hate the films. Some I even enjoyed. But there is a negative association in my mind. > > Specifically, I am annoyed by Shakespeare in Love and Titanic. Saving Private Ryan and LA Confidential were so much more deserving. Especially SPR. However, SIL and Titanic were decent to enjoyable flicks. For this reason, I still have a certain contempt for _Terms of Endearment_, but at least I’ve seen it. For those who hate _Forrest Gump_, have you tried watching it as a tragedy? I know there’s joy in little things, like having a child, but there should be joy in big things, too. The movie is a chronicle of some of the most singular and special opportunites of the last few decades, wasted on someone who can’t appreciate them. That’s a tragedy. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/35 "2009-05-11T18:40:51Z")
> [@Sir\_Rhosis](#): > > A guy I served with in the marines back in the early 80s decided that he could no longer watch the John Wayne westerns written by Leigh Brackett when I told him Leigh was a she and not a he. > > Likewise, off topic, he had given up on the SF of Andre Norton when he discovered that “he” was really Alice. > > Sir Rhosis You win the thread. ---
**Author:** ![middleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/36 "2009-05-11T18:59:09Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > They should save him until Ron Howard directs the live action version of _Green Eggs and Ham_. If there were a “Like This” button on the Dope, I would have clicked it for you! > [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I guess that depends on how you define “slavish.” The changes in League of Extraordinary Gentleman are all to the film’s detriment, I’d argue. Contrariwise, the organic webshooters are actually an improvement. Both mechanical and organic webshooters are impossible by the laws of physics, but that’s allowable in a fantasy mileau. A teenager in a public school, from a family that’s just barely making ends meet, inventing mechanical web shooters FROM SCRATCH, in UNDER A WEEK, is hugely improbable, and, as Douglas Adams pointed out, improbabilities are harder to swallow than impossibilities. I agree completely. It is a difference between major themes and minutia. If you listed the most substantial elements of the Spiderman mythology, the fact that he BUILT his webshooters would likely rank relatively low. But, as you say, when LoEG turned a literary GN with sophisticated humor and plots into a Sean Connery action flick, you have insulated critics from the charge of demanding “slavish” attention to detail. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/37 "2009-05-11T19:01:21Z")
> [@Knorf](#): > > I knew someone who hated _The English Patient_ but it “glorified adultery.” I always thought that was pretty stupid. > > \*\*But the worst of all is when someone dismisses a movie as “pretentious” when they clearly don’t really know what the word means. It ends up meaning that there was something about the movie they didn’t get; it becomes sort of a sour grapes-style epithet. \*\* I respectfully disagree. This is a very common argument so I won’t hijack any further but I can’t help but offer that I find this attitude particularly “pretentious”. Sometimes a movie just doesn’t appeal to an individual. Sometimes it just plain sucks (in someone’s opinion) regardless of what the critics and hipsters are saying. No need to be insulting; everyone’s mileage tends to vary. ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/38 "2009-05-11T19:06:42Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > Only if you don’t recognize the extremely loaded nature of a word like _manipulative_. Movies that make you feel something without being emotionally manipulative can range from _touching_ to _heart-breaking_. IMHO _emotionally manipulative_ is a term normally reserved for a particularly ham-fisted attempt which is simultaneously transparent and unavoidable. > > My touchstone for emotional manipulation in movies is _Mississippi Burning_. That’s fair. It seems, then, that documentaries are much more likely to abuse one’s emotions than fiction. Does that make sense? ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/39 "2009-05-11T19:18:20Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > Sometimes a movie just doesn’t appeal to an individual. Sometimes it just plain sucks (in someone’s opinion) regardless of what the critics and hipsters are saying. Which is all well and good, but calling a movie ‘pretentious’ because you didn’t like it is rather prattish. If you didn’t like the movie, you didn’t like the movie, that’s that. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/40 "2009-05-11T19:22:05Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > I know many people who will not watch black & white movies. I also know peole who will nto watch movies that are “old”. Frequently they are the same people. What if I don’t like black-and-white movies because I am not good with faces, and I have a really hard time telling the characters apart without the extra cues of hair and clothing colors? It’s worse in old movies where all the men wear suits most of the time, too- then I don’t have different kinds of clothes to tell them apart. All men in suits with approximately the same haircut look alike to me in black-and-white movies. Movies tend to be confusing and not very much fun to watch when you can’t tell the characters apart. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041.md?page=3)