# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![lolagranola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ea5d25/32.png) [@lolagranola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lolagranola)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2001, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/21 "2001-05-01T13:37:01Z")
I’m a Trekkie, and I have never made it through Star Trek: The Motion Picture. I start off wide awake, and 20 minutes into it, I’m confused and very sleepy. I still don’t know what it’s about, besides an incredible cure for insomnia. **Creaky** , I saw The Big Lebowski, and you aren’t missing anything. Also, like **neptune\_1984** , I have a low tolerance for horror/suspense. ---
**Author:** ![tevya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4491bb/32.png) [@tevya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tevya)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2001, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/22 "2001-05-01T15:33:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cyndar \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*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. \*\* I believe it is an exercise used in speech therapy for stutterers and / or lispers. I think Stephen King (and perhaps other authors) had one of his characters use this in one of his books (how’s that for incredibly vague). ---
**Author:** ![barton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@barton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barton)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2001, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/23 "2001-05-01T15:50:40Z")
I’m pretty sure that’s from King’s “It.” But I could easily be wrong, they all blend into one another sometimes. ---
**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, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/24 "2001-05-01T21:18:01Z")
Yes, yes, I think that’s correct, I think it from IT. whew. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2001, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/25 "2001-05-01T21:48:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cyndar \* > \*\*Yes, yes, I think that’s correct, I think it from IT. whew. \*\* Yeah, that’s from **It.** My vote for movie I just can’t watch is “Showgirls.” I bought it when it first came out on video (I have a passion for bad movies). I never even TRIED to watch it until this last week. I can only get through it in about 15-20 minute installments. Then I have to turn it off and clear my palate. > [@](#): > > lolagranola: > Creaky, I saw The Big Lebowski, and you aren’t missing anything. I LOVE this movie! The problem with the Coen brothers is that either you love 'em or you hate 'em. I love 'em. ---
**Author:** ![Bubble\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c0e974/32.png) [@Bubble\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bubble_Girl)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2001, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/26 "2001-05-02T00:34:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by hardygrrl \* > \*\*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 ☹ \*\* **Hardygrrl** this movie makes me cry every time I have watched. It is one of the saddest movies of all time. I have always wanted to watch _Sophies Choice_ but since I have heard the basic plot line to it and how it ends I cannot watch it. It sounds too sad and I would end up crying. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2001, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/27 "2001-05-02T00:56:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lolagranola \* > \*\*I’m a Trekkie, and I have never made it through Star Trek: The Motion Picture. I start off wide awake, and 20 minutes into it, I’m confused and very sleepy. I still don’t know what it’s about, besides an incredible cure for insomnia.\ > Also, like **neptune\_1984** , I have a low tolerance for horror/suspense. \*\* I think the problem with “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” is the incredibly long sequence where the Enterprise is travelling through this special effects, beautifully coloured thingy (I wish I could describe it better, but it always puts me to sleep, too). I like the horror movies, but they give me nightmares. I don’t like psychological thrillers at all; they _really_ give me nightmares. I hate movies that put me into the psychopath’s mind - I really don’t want to know how crazy killers think, thank you very much. For this reason, I have yet to see any of the Hannibal movies. ---
**Author:** ![heembo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f6c823/32.png) [@heembo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heembo)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2001, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/28 "2001-05-02T01:08:38Z")
Faces of Death. Well, I didn’t really want to watch it, but when I was in high school I tried to sit thorugh it and almost got sick. Also, any “operation” show on TV. I tried to watch a knee surgery once, but again almost blew chunks. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2001, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/29 "2001-05-02T04:45:11Z")
[QUOTE] \*Originally posted by Cyndar \* \*\*I have Amistad, still wrapped. I keep meaning to watch it but I never seem to be in the right mood. I made it through **Amistad** , somehow, but I had to fast forward the part in the middle when the slave flashes back to when he was on the slave ship. The images and events are so horrific and graphic that I couldn’t watch. Also, the other parts of the film are on the slow side. So you’re stuck between slow and horrendous. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@The\_Tof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tof)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2001, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/30 "2001-05-02T04:54:51Z")
I’d like to see Traffic. I kept “almost” goign to see it. Anytime we would go to a movie, it would be on the list. But we always wanted to see something else… frankly, because we didn’t want to see some drug movie. So, I want to watch it. Just, don’t really want to see it at any particular time… ever. ---
**Author:** ![Pammipoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/87869e/32.png) [@Pammipoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pammipoo)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2001, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/31 "2001-05-02T08:25:03Z")
The Matrix. Everyone tells me what a great movie it is. Everyone tells me how I have to see it. I’ve started to watch the damned thing about 5 times now, and it’s just not happening. A few months ago, Scott forced me to sit down and watch it in it’s entirity…halfway through, we started making out, and I lost track of the movie. I think it’s a lost cause… ---
**Author:** ![Phobos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Phobos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phobos)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2001, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/32 "2001-05-02T13:28:22Z")
**The Crow** - Some of the scenes are just too disturbing. **2001** - Saw it once & liked it. I’d like to watch it again, but I can’t lay off the fast forward button. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Cynical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ee59a6/32.png) [@Mr.Cynical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Cynical)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2001, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/33 "2001-05-02T14:45:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tevya \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by Cyndar \* > > \*\* > > > > > [@](#): > > > > > > \*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. \*\* > > I believe it is an exercise used in speech therapy for stutterers and / or lispers. I think Stephen King (and perhaps other authors) had one of his characters use this in one of his books (how’s that for incredibly vague). \*\* Definitely from “It”. This was the exercise used by the Bill Denbrough character to help him with his stuttering. And, for the record, I could not bear the movie adaptation of that book. It just didn’t do it for me. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2001, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/34 "2001-05-02T15:36:38Z")
Soon ST TMP will be coming out on DVD and the film will finally be finished. Director Robert Wise literally had the film taken from him to hit a target date. Now he has gotten the film back and planned effects are being done and the whole film is being re-edited. Some things will added and some things will taken out or at least shortened. Wooo Hooo! ---
**Author:** ![Ross](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@Ross](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ross)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2001, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/35 "2001-05-02T22:09:11Z")
It took me a long time to watch _Braveheart_. I always turned off after his wife had her throat cut. The scene was so offhand, and so clearly a precursor to the violence to come… I dunno. I realise its matter-of-fact style was probably more real than the rest of the movie but it also served a pretty cynical purpose in using the greatest tragedy simply to desensitise us early, like Drew Barrymore’s early death in _Scream_… That said the rest of the film was fine. Choppy thump aaargh crash, hoots mon, etc. ---
**Author:** ![pesch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pesch/32/4925_2.png) [@pesch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pesch)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2001, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/36 "2001-05-03T05:29:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by heembo \* > \*\*Faces of Death. > > Also, any “operation” show on TV. I tried to watch a knee surgery once, but again almost blew chunks. \*\* I went into the break room at work one time and saw this show. They were doing a hernia operation, I think, and the surgeon had made two large cuts into the abdomen, had both arms in up to the elbow, and was moving the skin around like it was dough. That should have made me blow chunks, but the camera was so close in and the image so shocking, that I couldn’t really believe it was a human being they were working on. But I didn’t take any chances and shut the TV off real quick. As for ST:TMP, I started falling asleep when they were touring around the Enterprise the first time. It seemed to last about five minutes, with high weepy music and cuts between the Enterprise and Kirk. After that, the movie just seemed to go downhill. And don’t get me started on Generations! ---
**Author:** ![DRY](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a87d85/32.png) [@DRY](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DRY)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/37 "2001-05-06T12:45:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*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. \*\* “O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!” –Hamlet, Act 1, Scene V > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lolagranola \* > \*\*I’m a Trekkie, and I have never made it through Star Trek: The Motion Picture. I start off wide awake, and 20 minutes into it, I’m confused and very sleepy. I still don’t know what it’s about, besides an incredible cure for insomnia. \*\* Then again, there’s Star Trek V. Watching it, I was reminded of that Dorothy Parker (I think it was her) film review: “For once in my life, I envied my feet. They were asleep.” 😛 ---
**Author:** ![moggy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8c91f0/32.png) [@moggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moggy)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/38 "2001-05-06T18:51:46Z")
I love the movie The English Patient but I can’t watch it, it’s too sad. It’s a beautiful movie but towards the end I’m a mess. Saw it twice, cried like a baby both times. I saw Silence of the Lambs in the movie theatre and it REALLY disturbed me. I had to watch it again in the light of day, on video, turning it off when I needed to, just to exorcise it from my mind. It’s a well-done movie & it deserved all the awards it got but I never want to see it again. Also the version of The Shining with Jack Nicholson. I saw it at a friend’s house on video and it disturbed me so much, I wanted to throw up. I like suspensful movies, but not when they screw with your head, or they have lots of blood and gore in them. I read Hannibal, knew I wouldn’t want to see the movie. The book-and my imagination- was enough for me. ---
**Author:** ![Nimue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d26b3c/32.png) [@Nimue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nimue)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/39 "2001-05-06T21:18:30Z")
I find it very hard to watch Braveheart, although I have seen it a couple of times all the way through. I can’t even listen to the soundtrack without tearing up. (It wouldn’t be so difficult to avoid if it weren’t one of my husband’s favourite movies.) ---
**Author:** ![lolagranola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ea5d25/32.png) [@lolagranola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lolagranola)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723/40 "2001-05-06T23:05:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zebra \* > **Soon ST TMP will be coming out on DVD and the film will finally be finished.** I heard about this. I was very excited, until I realized I would have to buy a DVD player to watch it. _sigh_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-you-just-cant-watch-even-though-you-want-to/63723.md?page=3)