# Movies You Just Can't Watch, Even Though You Want To **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 29, 2001, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723 "2001-04-29T14:33:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Persephone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@Persephone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Persephone)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2001, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/1 "2001-04-29T14:33:34Z")
As I was leafing through mt TV Guide earler today, I noticed that there’s a really, really good movie on this afternoon. It’s _Truly, Madly, Deeply,_ with Alan Rickman. I _adore_ Alan Rickman, and this really is one of his best films. But I can’t watch it. I just can’t. I want to, but I can’t. It makes me cry. A lot. Anyone else got a movie like this? Love it, but just can’t watch it? ---
**Author:** ![Morrison\_s\_Lament](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Morrison\_s\_Lament](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morrison_s_Lament)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2001, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/2 "2001-04-29T15:10:11Z")
That submarine flick where all the Brits turn into Yanks, just couldn’t get past the first 20 minutes. 13 Days, similar deal. 6th day - thought it was supposed to be good so it was a let down to see it suck so badly for the first 40 minutes, I stopped watching. There are also some flicks I know I should see but I just can’t ever find the slightest inclination to do so. They include Titanic and Bullets Over Broadway (I’ve seen EVERYTHING else by Woody Allen, just can’t bring my self to watch a flick about that era). Oh, and I didn’t see LA Confidential for a long time because I can’t stand that darned era, 20’s and 30’s and gangsters and such. Almost missed Goodfellas because of that hangup. — G. Raven ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2001, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/3 "2001-04-29T15:29:59Z")
_ **Desperately Seeking Susan** _. I tried to watch it once, but the situations the characters were getting into were maddening. _ **Magnolia** _. [Reasons here.](http://pw1.netcom.com/~heliboy/reviews.htm#Magnolia) I didn’t really _want_ to see it, but I was supposed to shoot a short parody of one of the scenes and I had to see what was up. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2001, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/4 "2001-04-29T15:31:00Z")
[Fixing the link.](http://pw1.netcom.com/~heliboy/reviews.htm#Magnolia) ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2001, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/5 "2001-04-29T15:32:36Z")
I left the theater during _The Killing Fields_ at the point where the main character was carrying the baby through the minefield. I knew he made it (the story is told through flashback), but I just couldn’t not watch. _The Killing Fields_ is the only good movie I ever walked out on. I certainly felt like walking out on _Platoon_. You could imagine the audiences irritation when I suddenly “had to go to the bathroom” during the scene in which Wilhem DaFoe (sp?) gets killed. You’d think I’d learn about letting my husband pick the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Creaky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e68b1a/32.png) [@Creaky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Creaky)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2001, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/6 "2001-04-29T19:21:44Z")
I could never get through “The Big Lebowski”. I tried four times and fell asleep each time. I was soooo bored! I can never get past the first 25 minutes of “The Grapes of Wrath” either, but that’s because it’s so very sad. ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2001, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/7 "2001-04-29T20:41:36Z")
Not a particular movie, but late at night, right before going to sleep and searching for something to watch, I cannot watch horror movies. Take last night. I was just surfing through the channels, knowing I’d want to go to bed in an hour or so, and I came to the horror Italian movie _Suspuria_. I watched the first 15 minutes to see what the hype was about (something about the first 15 minutes being the scariest). It wasn’t that scary, but I knew if I kept watching I’d be freaked out and would stay up all night. Happend a week ago with _The Fly II_. Little stuff like that. ---
**Author:** ![VitrolicBump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a587f6/32.png) [@VitrolicBump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VitrolicBump)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2001, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/8 "2001-04-29T21:00:06Z")
I own Little Women with Winona Ryder but have only seen it three times(twice in the theatres and once at home). I can’t bear watching Jo and Laurie cry when she says she can’t marry him. It is just too sad. I cry. And movies very rarely make me cry.☹ I have to go cry about it now. And don’t make fun of me either. ---
**Author:** ![RickQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@RickQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickQ)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2001, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/9 "2001-04-29T21:36:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Morrison’s Lament \* > \*\*That submarine flick where all the Brits turn into Yanks, just couldn’t get past the first 20 minutes. > \*\* I think you mean **U571**. Watched the film, laughed my ass off afterwards when talking about it with my friends (all the flaws and inaccuracies). The only one that springs to mind for me is **Sixth Sense**. The end of that film is just so sad (well, I find it sad), the bit where he is in the car with his mum. It is an excellent film though. Rick ---
**Author:** ![hardygrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@hardygrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hardygrrl)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2001, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/10 "2001-04-30T00:27:49Z")
My Life…I think it was called. Michael Keaton and Nicole Kidman were the leads. In the movie, Michael Keaton is diagnosed with cancer and the movies shows his slide from being in good health to being terminal. It showed it so well that it reminded me of the three people I’ve had to watch die of cancer (my grandfather,aunt and nephew) and I could not watch another second of it. Hit stop,rewind and took it back to Blockbuster ☹ ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2001, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/11 "2001-04-30T00:52:31Z")
I want to see **Saving Private Ryan** but from what I’ve heard, I don’t know if I could get through it. I barely made it through **Schindler’s List**. The first hour wasn’t so bad, but the last 3 were an ordeal. The TV movie coming up soon about Anne Frank (the last days of her life in the concentration camp) looks like another can’t-bear-to-watch-it film for me. Besides, I read the biography it is based on and that was hard enough. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2001, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/12 "2001-04-30T05:00:48Z")
I have never seen Act I Scene v (where dad shows up and demands vengence) in any movie version of Hamlet. Either I fall asleep, or have to go, or spill something and must clean up, or something - but the fates have conspired to keep me from seeing the ghost. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2001, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/13 "2001-04-30T07:04:37Z")
“He thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts.” – Sorry, couldn’t resist. I’m struggling with myself over whether or not to see _Freddy Got Fingered._ I know, I know, I fully expect to loathe it. But I’m a movie geek, and I see **everything.** ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2001, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/14 "2001-04-30T07:33:05Z")
I’ve watched Cinema Paradisio 4 times. I am absolutely entranced, enthralled. But for some bizarre reason, each time 5 minutes before the end I fall asleep. I finally rented it a 5th time, fast forwarded to the last bit and watched it. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2001, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/15 "2001-04-30T07:40:35Z")
I had heard such good things about Richard Linklater’s “Slacker,” but about 15 minutes into it I gave up because it seemed like such a pretentious piece of crap. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2001, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/16 "2001-05-01T01:23:50Z")
Two films I had to stop watching even though they were good were Man Bites Dog, and The Cook The Thief His Wife and Her Lover. Man Bites Dog was just a little too real and CTWL was too surreal. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2001, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/17 "2001-05-01T02:00:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by amarinth \* > \*\*I have never seen Act I Scene v (where dad shows up and demands vengence) in any movie version of Hamlet. Either I fall asleep, or have to go, or spill something and must clean up, or something - but the fates have conspired to keep me from seeing the ghost. \*\* If you can locate a copy of Michael Almereyda’s HAMLET (2000), maybe you’d have more luck. 😉 It is set in the year 2000 in New York, but they retain all the language and the structure. Sam Shepard plays the Ghost. To **Zebra** : I rented The cook, The Thief, etc. and watched what I could, but wound up fast forwarding most of it because it was turning my stomach. ---
**Author:** ![ladybug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/46a35a/32.png) [@ladybug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ladybug)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2001, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/18 "2001-05-01T03:11:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by vivalostwages \* > **I want to see Saving Private Ryan but from what I’ve heard, I don’t know if I could get through it.** My mom and I went to see **Saving Private Ryan** right after it came out, and I have to say I have never struggled so much to watch a movie. My mom was an ER nurse for years and even she couldn’t handle the blood and gore. I know I spent at least some of the time looking away from the screen. Don’t get me wrong – I think that the movie was very well done. It was just too hard for me to watch (if that makes sense to anyone). ---
**Author:** ![Cyndar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cyndar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyndar)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2001, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/19 "2001-05-01T13:25:17Z")
I have Amistad, still wrapped. I keep meaning to watch it but I never seem to be in the right mood. I did watch Boys Don’t Cry but it was hard for me to get through because I knew what was going to happen. ---
**Author:** ![Cyndar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cyndar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyndar)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2001, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/20 "2001-05-01T13:36:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cervaise \* > \*\*“He thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts.” – Sorry, couldn’t resist. > \*\* Where is this from? I know it, I just can’t remember. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723.md?page=2)