Upon opening up this thread, it got me to reminiscing about the various movies I’d ever walked out on. And then I started thinking about the movies that I wish that I’d had the good sense to walk out on, but had (stupidly) not done so. So, herewith are two lists:
Movies I’ve walked out of
[ul]
[li]Dr. Otto and the Riddle of the Gloom Beam - This is the very first movie I ever walked out on. It was playing at my town’s very first dollar cinema, which normally showed only well known movies in their second run. This was the cinema’s first time showing a first run movie, and this was the movie. Oy.[/li][li]Legend[/li][li]30 Days of Night[/li][/ul]
So. Not a very long list, though I may have forgotten some (but I don’t think I have).
Movies I wish I’d walked out of
[ul]
[li]Tron[/li][li]Gremlins - A caveat: at the time I was longing to bail on this movie, as it was chosen by my friend (the same friend who talked me into actually ponying up the cash to go see Dr. Otto, in fact) over the also showing Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. I so wanted to see the latter movie (again) that that fact hindered my enjoyment of “that stupid Gremlins movie”. I, however, am happy to report that, lo, these many years later, I’ve wised up and have warmed to the movie’s obvious charms at long last. (Though I still vastly prefer the sequel.)[/li][li]Far and Away[/li][li]Men in Black - Much funnier when it was called Ghostbusters.[/li][li]The Blair Witch Project[/li][li]Million Dollar Baby[/li][li]Dan in Real Life - This is the movie that my friends and I walked into after walking out of 30 Days of Night. My friends ended up really liking this one. I, obviously, didn’t.[/li][li]Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull[/li][/ul]
I walked out of Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein twice. I literally ran out the first time when Dr. Frankenstein sliced open the naked woman’s abdomen, crawled up on the table with the corpse and proceeded to have intercourse with it while he was massaging her entrails.
I decided to go back and give it a second try and walked out the second time and got through the necrophilia scene to another sex scene involving (I think) the Doctor’s sister and gardener. She was sucking on and licking his armpit but the soundtrack was so out of sync and atrociously bad, that I gave up entirely and have never seen the end of the movie.
A couple of my friends were big into movies, and drug a bunch of us down to see it at the local arty theater before it had gotten all that big, telling us it was one of the best moves ever.
What a wasted 90 minutes on a pile of stupid that was.
Caligula is the only movie I’ve walked out of the theater on – the list of movies I’ve ejected from the DVD player after 10 minutes is much, much longer.
We saw “Babe” twice, loved loved loved it. One of the best movies ever. The sequel was simply appalling and we got out of there about half way through.
Same for “Homeward Bound”. But they couldn’t leave well enough alone, had to make a sequel to squeeze out a few more bucks. We walked out of that one, too. Appalling.
There was a kid’s movie called “Matilda” that was so dull, and so ugly, I only WISHED we would have walked out. But it was in the upper 90’s that day and we were better off dozing in a nice cool theater!
Since then, I can’t say I’ve walked out of any movies because I don’t go that often, and when I do, it’s to see something worth the trip. Don’t do torture porn, rom-coms, sports, drunken frat boys, and that eliminates 90% of the movie-going options.
I wish I’d walked out of Transformers. How do you make a movie about giant robots that turn into cool things so fucking boring? An impressive achievement.
The last one I walked out of was the 3D version of Coraline – after a few minutes it was obvious that the 3D effects were going to be headache-inducing. I thought of seeing the regular screen version, but decided, meh, wait for the DVD if I get around to buying it.
I wish I’d walked out on The Skeleton Key – “plot twists” telegraphed parsecs away in a paint-by-numbers horror flick – but I was with the in-laws at a theater at the ass end of nowhere with nothing else to do.
Batman and Robin. Got taken to this piece of shit by a bunch of friends. We all spontaneously and independently decided to walk out all at exactly the same time.
Transformers 2. The first one was shit but sat through it anyway. Why I let my dumbass friends take me to the 2nd is beyond me. Left and went to the bar next door to wait for them to come out about 10 minutes in.
I don’t go to see movies with my friends much anymore.
This was a rental, but I am usually able to get through an entire film to find some redeeming quality, but Irreversible is one that even my hard-core [then]boyfriend couldn’t get through.
The first 30 minutes of the film has a background noise with a frequency of 28Hz (low frequency, almost inaudible), similar to the noise produced by an earthquake. In humans, it causes nausea, sickness and vertigo. It was the main cause of people walking out of the theaters during the first part of the film in places like Cannes and San Sebastian. In fact, it was added with the purpose of getting this reaction. It worked, even on a high-quality, home stereo system.
I’ve never walked out of a movie. I usually know enough ahead of time about any that I see that I won’t go to a movie that I know or suspect I’m gonna hate.
With a few exceptions… Although I watched both Transformers movies with my boys, stupefied as the giant robots pointlessly and ineffectually pounded on each other for two hours, I didn’t walk out. Battle, battle, battle, and at the end nothing changed. Ugh. On the other hand, Megan Fox was easy on the eyes.
Also, in college, I was dragged by friends to see the punk/nightclub glam sf movie Liquid Sky, which was so indescribably awful that it’s still the worst movie I’ve ever seen. I felt I couldn’t abandon my friends to it, so I stayed. Sure wish I hadn’t.
Napoleon Dynamite - my brother was very eager to see this. I think he was about 12 at the time, and it was all his friends were talking about, so we went. I guess if I’d walked out I wouldn’t have known that it had a semi-decent ending, but I don’t really feel like my life is enriched by knowing that, and I also would have avoided spending 2 hours watching a bunch of uninteresting people doing nothing.
Night at the Museum - family moviegoing, again. With my mom and both brothers, all of whom seemed to be convinced that it would eventually get better. It didn’t. Luckily I have almost entirely forgotten it now. Amusingly enough, my dad saw it on television later and loved it, which I will never understand.
The two worst movies I’ve ever seen, and I saw them in theaters. For shame.
I’ve never walked out on a film in a theater. I paid, but also I pay attention to the critics before going and don’t pick anything I’m not going to like.
Alien is the only film I ever detested as I watched, but I stayed until the end.
It’s the same for DVDs. There are only three movies I stopped watching in the middle: Scenes From the Class Conflict in Beverly Hills (actually a pretty good film, but not one to watch with your parents), Desperately Seeking Susan and The Departed (but in those cases, it had nothing to do with the film).
I try to see out every film I start, out of the thought that one of my history professors once said it took a lot of effort even to write a bad book, and Kurt Vonnegut once berated Kevin Murphy similarly about films when queried on his opinion about Mystery Science Theatre.
That said, I would have walked out on the latest version of Alice in Wonderland, but I was at appr. 37,000 feet at the time.
Turned the film selection thingsome over to Shawshank Redemption, which I’ve seen before, but was quite welcome. I lasted in AiW until Johnny Depp showed up channeling Red Skelton.