# 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:** 9
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/161 "2009-05-13T21:04:33Z")
Subtitles aren’t necessarily being a snob, as others have pointed out. Sometimes there are subtle visual clues, that you tend to miss, and what about those who are dyslexic? I find myself easily distracted by news-crawls when watching CNN. I don’t know if this is stupid but, I can’t watch anything with snakes. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/162 "2009-05-14T21:37:46Z")
\*\*Anaamika \*\* said: > [@](#): > > One of the (many, many) reasons I have been thus far avoiding Buffy is people keep telling me “It doesn’t get good till the second second season.” They’re wrong. When it first came out, I wasn’t going to watch the show, but 6 mo’s in someone was telling me how good it was, so I watched and immediately got sucked in. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/163 "2009-06-17T09:15:30Z")
> [@Dogzilla](#): > > I won’t _pay_ to watch films that star Scientologists, Mormons, or Jehovah’s Witnesses. I also will not _purchase_ music made by cult members either. Maybe it’s stupid, maybe not. But I will not have my money go to the stars who will then turn around and give their money to support a damaging cult. In regard to the stars’ personal behavior, I don’t care one whit. I just don’t want my money going to Scientology indirectly. > > That said, if a Beck song comes on the radio and I don’t have to spend money to hear it, I will sit and listen to it. Or if War of the Worlds happens to pop up on my free-TV viewing radar, fine. I just won’t allow my money to support cults, having spent the last 20 years recovering from one. They got enough of me, dig? You’re okay to see a movie that a Scientologist only acts in. In that case, they’ve been paid and that was the end of it; your ticket purchase does not directly benefit them. (Unless they got points as well, but since I don’t think there’s any place to look that up, you’ll just have to take your chances.) If they have a producer credit as well, that’s when you want to avoid it, because they do get a cut of the profits. Your policy on music is still sound, though. I used to avoid movies for which the studio unleashed their merchandise too far in advance. The above-mentioned 1989 **Batman** was the source of this. Batman junk everywhere I looked. It went far beyond promotion and into simply cramming the movie down everyone’s throat. When I saw a guy riding his motorcycle wearing a cape and cowl, two weeks before the movie was even out, I figured there was just no way the film could live up to all this hype. I didn’t see it, and I avoided all hyped movies for the next few years. But this prevented me from seeing **Jurassic Park** in the theater. And when I finally saw it on video, I realized I should have been more objective, so I’ve relaxed my policy a bit. (Anyway, home theater has improved to the point where I’ve almost (not quite but almost) been able to recreate the cinema experience.) ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/164 "2009-06-17T12:33:37Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > [According to her Wikipedia article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andre_Norton), which I use as a cite mainly because I haven’t met my hypocrisy & laziness quotients today, she was active in her writing starting in '34. The world was different then; I can easily imagine her getting sent to the women’s lit ghetto at such a time. You hit this nail right on the head. I am pleased to be living in a time when people could seriously wonder why a woman would choose to write under a man’s name. Things are sure different than when I was a lad. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/165 "2009-06-17T12:49:40Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > Pretty much all of the above, as far as I’m concerned. He’s a draft-dodger\*, > > \*I don’t know for sure how I really feel about this. I wasn’t alive during the Vietnam war so I can’t tell you with 100% certainty that I wouldn’t have dodged that particular draft myself, especially had I been a black American in the '60s. From wiki: > [@](#): > > A draft dodger is a term, usually pejorative, that refers to a person who avoids (“dodges”) the conscription policies of the nation in which he or she is a citizen or resident by leaving the country, going into hiding, or other attempts at fraudulent means. Avoidances involving nonviolence or conscientious objectorships are sometimes referred to as draft evasion or draft resistance. Ali never dodged the draft. He opposed the draft, never fled, hid behind his fame, or leveraged his influence to his advantage. He considered himself a conscientious objector and was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to prison for standing up for his beliefs. You may not like him, but calling him a draft-dodger is inaccurate. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/166 "2009-06-17T17:00:56Z")
I have a friend who refuses to watch the new **Galactica** purely because of the gender switch of Starbuck from a boy to a girl. None of the other reboot or rewrite items bother him, just this. He watches any other reboot/remake sagas (Batman, Lost in Space, Spiderman, Star Wars prequels, etc) without issues, but he can’t get past this hang-up. ---
**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:** [June 17, 2009, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/167 "2009-06-17T17:33:07Z")
> [@GargoyleWB](#): > > I have a friend who refuses to watch the new **Galactica** purely because of the gender switch of Starbuck from a boy to a girl. I can think of exactly [one person](http://static.open.salon.com/files/dirk_benedict_galactica_starbuck1232165192.jpg) for whom that might be a valid reason. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/168 "2009-06-17T18:35:44Z")
I knew a guy who absolutely despised _Blazing Saddles_ because of the campfire scene. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/169 "2009-06-17T19:31:07Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > I don’t watch anything about Muhammed Ali because in pretty much all of it, including things favorable to him, he comes across like a huge, egotistical jerk to me, and a man who was not really that bright getting played for a sucker by the manipulative peope around him. That’s not the impression I’ve gotten of him. What I’ve seen is that Ali was a smart guy who knew how to get attention from the press but didn’t take himself very seriously. If you want a tragic outcome, try [Jack Johnson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Johnson_(boxer)), who prefigured Ali in some ways. > [@](#): > > I guess it’s mostly that I view his life partly as a tragedy more than a triumph. Ditto for several related figures, liike Malcom X: interesting but really depressing if you think about how they spent (and arguably wasted) huge parts of their lives. I’ve always been impressed by how Malcolm X opened his mind to new ideas at a relatively late point in his life. Most people won’t do that kind of thing, much less do it when they’re pushing 40. ---
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/170 "2009-06-17T21:19:36Z")
My friend disliked _Pulp Fiction_ because Uma Thurman had dark hair. He also dislikes all movies in which Bruce Willis _has_ hair. ---
**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:** [June 17, 2009, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/171 "2009-06-17T22:03:43Z")
> [@Serenata67](#): > > He also dislikes all movies in which Bruce Willis _has_ hair. This, somewhat amusingly, leads to the conclusion that your friend likes, say, _Tears of the Sun_ better than _Die Hard_. Your friend, plainly, is insane. ---
**Author:** ![rolandgunslinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cdc98d/32.png) [@rolandgunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rolandgunslinger)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/172 "2009-06-17T22:58:09Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > Affleck was the bomb in Phantoms. WORD! Phantoms like a motherfucker! Highfive. ---
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/173 "2009-06-18T01:46:30Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > This, somewhat amusingly, leads to the conclusion that your friend likes, say, _Tears of the Sun_ better than _Die Hard_. > > Your friend, plainly, is insane. I saw your post and just called him… he says he can “make exceptions on a case by case basis” and that because _Die Hard_ is waaaaayyyyy better than _Tears of the Sun_ he can make an exception. But it still bothers him to see Brucie with hair. ---
**Author:** ![Leiko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Leiko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leiko)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/174 "2009-06-18T04:07:42Z")
**Serenata67** - I haven’t avoided a movie YET because of Bruce Willis having hair, but I have to agree with your friend: it’s super weird to see Bruce with hair. Patrick Stewart, too. ---
**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:** [June 18, 2009, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/175 "2009-06-18T13:30:34Z")
> [@Serenata67](#): > > I saw your post and just called him… he says he can “make exceptions on a case by case basis” and that because _Die Hard_ is waaaaayyyyy better than _Tears of the Sun_ he can make an exception. But it still bothers him to see Brucie with hair. Well, that does indicate a certain amount of mental stability, I guess. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/176 "2009-06-18T19:13:42Z")
> [@ArchiveGuy](#): > > From wiki:Ali never dodged the draft. He opposed the draft, never fled, hid behind his fame, or leveraged his influence to his advantage. He considered himself a conscientious objector and was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to prison for standing up for his beliefs. You may not like him, but calling him a draft-dodger is inaccurate. A wikipedia definition of a colloquial term is not authortitative, and besides that it doesn’t say anything that excludes my usage. I’m really personally conflicted about whether or not dodging that particular draft was a bad thing, but he dodged it. ---
**Author:** ![Musky\_Moon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90db22/32.png) [@Musky\_Moon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musky_Moon)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/177 "2009-06-18T20:36:55Z")
I’m afraid I’m guilty of a few stupid reasons myself. I generally refuse to watch sports movies. I know there are a few good ones out there, but they tend to be formulaic and cheesy. I tend to avoid “feel-good” movies as well. There’s something annoying about movies where I know everything will come up roses. I know it’s probably more to do with me being a grumpy old cynic, than any fault of the film. I never watch horror movies by choice (except zombie movies), though my wife loves them, so I’m forced into suffering them more often than I would like. I simply don’t find anything entertaining about watching people die horrible deaths. It always strikes me as sadistic. My tolerance for the more fantastical horror movies is much higher than the slasher/torture porn that seems to be all the rave these days. I avoided the meathead actioners of the 80’s, because they almost always failed to amuse me, but todays action movies are getting better. I still steer clear of movies in that vein like vehicles for The Rock or John Cena. And lastly, I try to stay away from jingoistic “America kicks ass” movies. Not that I don’t sometimes feel like america kicks ass…it’s just that these types of films always induce copious amounts of eye rolling. Come to think of it, I’m a bit of a snob, if you go by my movie tastes. That being said, I don’t begrudge others their tastes, or even their dislikes. With one exception, I can’t stand someone who refuses to see a movie simply because it’s popular, but that’s been covered already. ---
**Author:** ![Cumberdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@Cumberdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cumberdale)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/178 "2009-06-18T21:50:05Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > That’s what I came here to say. Almost all of my favorite movies are in black & white. And there’s also the criticism that people 60 years ago didn’t speak in today’s **vernacular**. [Curly]Vernaculah? That’s a doiby! [/Curly] ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/179 "2009-06-19T03:14:00Z")
> [@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. I have a SIL who pretty much says that. I really, really don’t get it. I hope that what she means is the pacing of older movies, but if someone tells you that Bringing Up Baby is a classic, wouldn’t you see it anyway? ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041/180 "2009-06-19T19:02:49Z")
I was interested in the remake of _The Women_ but after seeing a trailer with Meg Ryan’s stupid hairdo, I decided to skip it. I knew I’d be too distracted by those curls. I guess that’s similar to the poster upthread with a relative who won’t watch a movie with ugly or old women in it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumbest-reasons-to-dislike-a-movie/496041.md?page=8)