# Movies that just plain piss you off **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 8, 2006, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540 "2006-02-08T15:13:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 15
**Author:** ![Tracy\_Lord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@Tracy\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tracy_Lord)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/281 "2006-02-13T01:33:22Z")
> [@mr. jp](#): > > Dodgeball: > And most comedys like it. They are just so stupid. The stupid characters. The stupid plot. Its like they are made for 10 year-olds. Oho, them be fightin’ words! Denigrate stupid comedies with plots and jokes made for 10-year-olds if you will, but leave _Dodgeball_ out of it! One of the smartest movies of 2004. ---
**Author:** ![Werd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/4491bb/32.png) [@Werd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Werd)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/282 "2006-02-13T02:37:49Z")
This movie was really bad. I no longer speak to the person who told me to rent this because they thought it was so good. ---
**Author:** ![Crandolph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7cd45c/32.png) [@Crandolph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crandolph)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/283 "2006-02-13T16:22:10Z")
> [@wevets](#): > > Interesting. Albert Brooks was on _Fresh Air_ with Terry Gross a week or two ago. He seemed to think the complete opposite: that the movie was about our inability to understand that there is such a thing as a sense of humor in such a foreign context. But he just made the movie, what the hell does he know better than a guy who hasn’t even seen it? Then why not, if you’re already hauling a camera crew halfway around the world, make a film which shows us what’s actually going on as opposed to writing a fictionalized script by an American from an American perspective before he makes the trip? Worse, the fictionalized story is not so deeply out there as to be implausible. The lost opportunity there to make a better movie (even cheaper in all likelihood!) seems huge to me. Incidentally I didn’t realize this wasn’t a doc at first because I usually avoid reviews in the local papers for the very reason that they do give away all of the plot points, and the brief one I initially saw gave no indication it was a fictional tale. When I looked up movie times on a website I happened to see “Starring [actor] as [character]” and I thought “You’ve got to be kidding me!” ---
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/284 "2006-02-13T16:34:16Z")
> [@Crandolph](#): > > Then why not, if you’re already hauling a camera crew halfway around the world, make a film which shows us what’s actually going on as opposed to writing a fictionalized script by an American from an American perspective before he makes the trip? Maybe he likes to make comedies instead of documentaries. Maybe it will sell better as fiction, how should I know? > [@](#): > > Worse, the fictionalized story is not so deeply out there as to be implausible. Aren’t movie plots _supposed_ to be plausible? I usually ding movies that aren’t. > [@](#): > > The lost opportunity there to make a better movie (even cheaper in all likelihood!) seems huge to me. How do you know it _isn’t_ better than what you think it is? You know, there’s a bit of truth in that saying “don’t judge a book by its cover.” I’m not trying to defend the movie - I haven’t seen it either. I’m just saying your synopsis of what the movie is about (posted above) is at direct odds with what Albert Brooks is saying in interviews. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/285 "2006-02-13T16:52:24Z")
> [@Dr. Rieux](#): > > The two worst movies of 1998 (IMHO)–\*Armageddon \* and _Godzilla_. Not a shred of writing or directing talent on display. > _Showgirls_–sleaze for the sake of sleaze. Ditto _Basic Instinct_. I hated Armageddon until I watched it as a comedy. Then I enjoyed it. Besides, any movie where Bruce Willis chases Ben Affleck with a shotgun is worth it. ---
**Author:** ![Crandolph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7cd45c/32.png) [@Crandolph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crandolph)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/286 "2006-02-13T18:04:58Z")
> [@wevets](#): > > Maybe he likes to make comedies instead of documentaries. Maybe it will sell better as fiction, how should I know? > > Aren’t movie plots _supposed_ to be plausible? I usually ding movies that aren’t. > > How do you know it _isn’t_ better than what you think it is? You know, there’s a bit of truth in that saying “don’t judge a book by its cover.” > > I’m not trying to defend the movie - I haven’t seen it either. I’m just saying your synopsis of what the movie is about (posted above) is at direct odds with what Albert Brooks is saying in interviews. I would say the following: - There’s no reason a documentary can’t be funny. - A good number of movie plots are fantastic (Battlefield Earth, Narnia, you name it). This movie is supposed to be for thinking people to consider a real word situation which currently confronts us… but for some reason is fictionalizing it through the eyes of other Americans. - I initially credited the movie with being better than average because the premise of someone finding a common human emotion in the real world sounded great. The premise of Albert Brooks fictionalizing what he thinks comedy in the Muslim world might possibly look like based upon… who knows… is a lesser concept. I suppose I should underline here that I’ve worked in a couple of very different Muslim societies with different takes on comedy, and I can’t imagine that Brooks could possibly capture any of that with a script written by stateside Americans before they get out of the country, no matter what he’s claiming in interviews. I don’t imagine he’s going to go on Terry Gross and say “Hey I pulled this outta my butt for a few larfs!” Criticize my critiques away, I’ll drop my end of that particular argument in this thread. (Incidentally I don’t have any problem with anyone else being pissed off by particular movies for any reason; it is what it is, we all have our own opinions.) While typing this I’ll say the vast majority of mafia movies piss me off because they usually depict the criminals as dapper, smart and nearly omnipotent. In reality the mob, at least in this part of the world, is box-of-rocks dumb, sloppy, gaudy and semi-competent. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/287 "2006-02-13T18:39:55Z")
> [@Interrobang!?](#): > > **Dead Poets Society** irritated the crap out of me because the audience was supposed to applaud Robin Williams’ character’s narrow-minded view of what poetry was supposed to be. Sure, it’s foolish to use a graph to measure the success of a poem, but it’s just as ludicrous to throw out the collected works of Alexander Pope and other non-Romantic poets in response. Meet the new status quo, same as the old status quo. > > I had friends who loved that movie, and I ended up seeing it four times, and I hated it even more each time. (In part because of the ridiculous crown of thorns Christ imagery with the doomed character, though I only vaguely remember that anymore.) There’s a part in Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Rouge (Red) where one character recommends Dead Poet’s Society to another. I’d love to know if Kieslowski really liked the film and wanted to throw in a tribute to it, or he was being ironic. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/288 "2006-02-13T19:19:18Z")
> [@Crandolph](#): > > While typing this I’ll say the vast majority of mafia movies piss me off because they usually depict the criminals as dapper, smart and nearly omnipotent. In reality the mob, at least in this part of the world, is box-of-rocks dumb, sloppy, gaudy and semi-competent. Even worse, most Mob movies gloss over what the Mob actually **does.** In _The Godfather,_ we see a lot of noble and ignoble battles between several houses at variance, but we never see what they’re fighting over: Turf in which to extort merchants, rake off union dues, hijack trucks, run prostitutes, etc. Exception to both objections: _Goodfellas._ Best Mob movie ever. Stupid brutal crooks doing their stupid brutal crooked things stupidly and brutally. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/289 "2006-02-13T20:02:56Z")
Has anyone mentioned _The Forgotten_ yet? I hate this movie like I have never hated any other movie in my entire life. The twist in this one is the lamest cop out to ever be recycled. Shoddy writing at its worst. My second most hated film of all time is _The Notebook_. What was the point of this movie? The ending is telegraphed in the first ten minutes. From that point forward is another 143 minutes of excruciatingly painful dialog. I hope that special places in hell are reserved for writers who feel the need to recycle old plots for new movies (as opposed to remakes, which I will get to in a minute). To wit, _Firewall_. It was better when it was called _Ransom_. There seems to be a veritable plethora of movies out lately that fit into this genre (for want of a better word). Why do writers feel the need to do this? Are they just lazy? Do they think that since a plot made money the first time that lightning will strike twice? Remakes. What the f\*ck is up with this? Do Matt Damon and his butt buddy really think they can do a better job with _Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid_ than Newman and Redford. Why are they bothering? Didn’t they get an award for original writing? Was that a fluke? My wife refuses to sit with me during the previews at the theater anymore. She will conveniently be out getting the popcorn while I make sarcastic comments about each preview and the fact that it was better when it was called so-and-so, or that it had been done before. ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/290 "2006-02-13T20:35:21Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Exception to both objections: _Goodfellas._ Best Mob movie ever. Stupid brutal crooks doing their stupid brutal crooked things stupidly and brutally. Even better, IMO: _Donnie Brasco_, where the mob is depicted as a bunch of glorified street hoods waiting around for some goon who imagines himself as nobility to tell them what unspeakable acts to perform. ---
**Author:** ![DeadlyAccurate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@DeadlyAccurate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadlyAccurate)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/291 "2006-02-13T21:19:47Z")
I can’t believe this thread is still going. It’s easily my most successful thread to date. I don’t have any to add. I recently watched Alien vs. Predator, The Gift, and Corpse Bride. I liked all three to some degree or another (I was expecting AvP to be really bad, so it was actually better than I expected and I was able to enjoy it.) Corpse Bride was the best of the three. ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/292 "2006-02-13T21:25:24Z")
Before this thread dies, I just remembered the Classic Movie that pissed me off royally when I first saw it as a little kid: “Ben-Hur”. Yeah the chariot race is great. What pissed me off was Jesus healing BenHur’s mother & sister of leprosy. Why them, I asked, in my childishness? why them, and not all the other lepers??? To my little kid mind it sure seemed like Jesus was playing favorites, and I got so pissed off I just couldn’t stand the movie. ---
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/293 "2006-02-13T21:54:54Z")
> [@well he's back](#): > > Before this thread dies, I just remembered the Classic Movie that pissed me off royally when I first saw it as a little kid: “Ben-Hur”. Yeah the chariot race is great. What pissed me off was Jesus healing BenHur’s mother & sister of leprosy. Why them, I asked, in my childishness? why them, and not all the other lepers??? To my little kid mind it sure seemed like Jesus was playing favorites, and I got so pissed off I just couldn’t stand the movie. I think they were just being faithful to the book. It’s been 20 years since I’ve read it so I’m not 100% sure. ---
**Author:** ![sneezy5660](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@sneezy5660](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sneezy5660)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/294 "2006-02-14T04:49:36Z")
Nobody has mentioned the soooo unfunny **Napoleon Dynamite**? My bil made us watch this dreck at Christmas. The only times I laughed was when ND fell over the fence, and his brother’s wedding to LaFawnduh. (that duh is very appropriate). The oldest son has no life other than the Internet, the youngest son is a chapstick obsessed H.S outcast, and the uncle hasn’t realised that the '70’s are **over**. Total waste of film and time. That’s 2 hours of my life that I can’t get back. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/295 "2006-02-14T05:14:29Z")
My usual complaint: **Pearl Harbor**. I’ve ranted about it before, and wont waste time, now. If you’re interested in my views, search for my name and “pearl harbor.” Also, **Millenium Man** pissed me off. Oddly enough, not because of anything with Asimov’s story. Nor the characters. It was trite, but I expected that. What got my goat was two-effing-hundred years in the future there’s exactly one person shown on screen who’s not pretty and _white_. For pity’s sake - that doesn’t even describe America of 1976, let alone now. How much trouble would it have been to simply have a few people of non-white heritage show up on screen? Hmmm? ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/296 "2006-02-14T05:39:54Z")
> [@Kythereia](#): > > _Karla_. > > If you’re Canadian, no further explanation (hopefully) needed. :: shudder :: How long was that in the cinemas? A week? ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/297 "2006-02-14T07:37:13Z")
> [@OtakuLoki](#): > > Also, **Millenium Man** pissed me off. In fact it pissed me off so much, I forgot the title. :smack: [Bicentennial Man](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0182789/). ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/298 "2006-02-14T17:34:00Z")
> [@RandMcnally](#): > > **The Notebook** pissed me off to no end. The first time I saw it, I thought it was a sweet story. The more I thought about it from her ex-fiance’s point of view, the more I realized what a whore Allie was. I mean, on the eve of her wedding she runs off to an old flame and sleeps with him? Without any regard to his feelings? How sweet. Likewise “The Bridges of Madison County” irked me to no end. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/299 "2006-02-14T18:32:20Z")
> [@Biffy the Elephant Shrew](#): > > **Dogville** pissed me off. Repulsive, degrading, and at the same time _so fucking dull._ No duller than watching “Our Town” a second time ---
**Author:** ![Bomzaway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e480ec/32.png) [@Bomzaway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bomzaway)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540/300 "2006-02-14T19:14:40Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Of the subject I love that stupid movie _Crossroads_. I’ll watch it anytime it is on TV. Best soundtrack ever. Ry Cooder is briliant. And I am not talking about the Britney Spears movie. Here, here! And Steve Vai’s performance as Jack Butler ROCKED! His dejected look when Ralph pulls out the classical guitar card is priceless. \*\*Crossroads \*\* is SO underrated. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540.md?page=14) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-just-plain-piss-you-off/343540.md?page=16)