I don’t begrudge people who enjoy them, more power to them.
But they just never click with me. Part of it is what I perceive as silliness ("Hey, I should break out in song all of a sudden! And people around me will have a choreographed dance to go along with it!)
Part of it - I just don’t listen to lyrics in music very much. This goes for both regular music and songs in musicals. So I’m generally left pretty cold.
And third of it - musicals seem (in my opinion) all to lean towards overly, I dunno, flamboyance and camp. Which is fine. But it’s just not my bag.
I enjoyed Sweeney Todd well enough, but that’s about it. Every other musical I’ve seen has not really appealed to me.
But hey, if you enjoy them, enjoy them! I don’t hate them, I’ve just come to terms with the fact that I probably will never appreciate this genre.
I like most kinds of movies people here seem to hate. For example, I love horror movies, torture porn, romantic comedies, romance movies, even the occasional Clint Eastwood spaghetti western. But there are two genres I can’t stomach:
Musicals
Cartoons
As per the OP, my exception to both is one movie: South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (hehheh)
There are others I actively loathe and will never watch any movie that qualifies:
Boy, I guess nobody had the experience of having “The Sound of Music” be the very first movie they ever saw, like I did., when I was about 6 years old. It hooked me into movie musicals for life.
Not to hijack, but who does like torture porn (besides Ellis Dee)? Obviously a lot of people who don’t post here, but it seems odd that taking this group as a sample, it’s unpopular as a genre, yet Saw has spawned 5 sequels, just to name one franchise.
OTOH, I’d guess the lack of love for musicals explains why there aren’t as many musicals made anymore, compared to the 50s and 60s, for example.
I suppose I like torture porn, although I’m not sure exactly what qualifies. I like nearly all types of horror films, though. I think I own the first three or four Saw movies on DVD. I thought Hostel was hilarious. In fact, I laughed aloud in the movie theater at several points.
As for the OP, I like most genres of movies, but really don’t care for most romantic comedies, especially the ones where one party can’t stand the other until they’re pestered into realizing how much they really love them. Stupid.
I worked with a guy who loved torture porn, if I understand the definition correctly. Every Monday, we’d be treated to him telling us what gorefest he and his wife had watched over the weekend. We worked on an assembly line, and he was a regular working Joe; and on breaks when he wasn’t talking about torture porn, he could discuss sports, cars, current events, and otherwise generally BS with the rest of us. Overall, he was a pretty normal guy, but if he was any indication, there may have been many like him out there.
My list:
Torture porn
Horror
Fantasy (e.g. Lord of the Rings, which I’ve never seen and don’t care to see)
Spaghetti westerns (though I generaly like westerns, the overlong spaghetti westerns just bore me)
Fratboy comedies, except Animal House
Mobster movies, torture porn, martial arts, and drama.
I really hate pure drama. I just watched part of Crash and I was ready to tear my eyeballs out just to have an excuse to leave the room. Especially surprise dramas that lead you to believe it’s going to be a fun movie, then suddenly a main character dies or gets sick and surprise it’s a fucking drama! (ie. Bridge to Terebithia)
I don’t like most westerns, but new ones have been much better. I don’t like most foreign subtitled movies or subtitles in general, but there are some exceptions. Downfall was riveting, but I have a soft spot for some of the more recent war movies. Pre 2000 war movies were terrible IMO.
That reminds me of a genre I forgot: Kids movies. I’ll watch the occasional one if there’s someone in it I really like. I checked out Terabithia for Zooey Deschanel and found myself impressed with AnnaSophia Robb. (Too bad her first name is so stupid.) Later on I saw her in Sleepwalking and thought she did well there, too, so I’ve become a fan. That’s the exception, though, and even though I’ve become a fan I highly doubt I’ll sit through Race to Witch Mountain.