I like movies, good and bad. In fact, I like some bad movies more than I like some good movies (I’ve probably seen Society, starring Billy Warlock, about 20 times). But there are a couple of exceptions:
It’s Pat! - Simply infuriating. I didn’t walk out of it as such, but I refused to watch all of it and I came this close to beating up my friend who suggested we watch it.
Virtuosity - Directed by the man who brought us the awful Lawnmower Man (writer(director), Brett Leonard. It sounded delightfully stupid and starred Denzel Washington and Russel Crowe, who I had been very impressed with in Romper Stomper, but I didn’t even make it to intermission. Really bad but not in a good way. Also, I was asked to attend a party a few blocks away - my friend from school and her model-friends. By Jeebus, that was some party…
…where was I? Oh yeah, stay out of my booze and if you see Society at your local video rental, rent it and be amazed.
Cadfael…did you once post on the TTLG forums, by any chance? Anyway, the only movie I’ve ever walked out of was: Home Fries, which was the most rediculous crap I’ve ever seen.
What surprises me is how many truly excellent movies you have all walked out on, which shocks me, especially for some of the reasons…and so early. Makes me wonder what kind of crap you truly like (not all of you, just some).
I’ve never walked out of a movie, probably because we rarely go to the cinema, preferring to watch movies at home.
I nearly walked out of Bad Lieutenant. It was gross, sleazy, and made me feel physically ill. Inasmuch as that was probably what the director was going for, I’m sure it’s a great film. The whole thing was just a bit gratuitous for me. I didn’t walk out because it was in a small town cinema and everyone there were members of the local film appreciation society. Quite a few of them knew me and my family, and there would have been a certain amount of derision involved. I should have just walked out anyway.
I’ve walked out of a film twice I can remember, first I can’t even remember its name but its about a bunch of Japanese schoolchildren who are sent to an island to kill each other. It was in such extremely bad taste that no deliberation was required.
The other was an extremely dull German film about a female chef called Martha. Nothing interesting happened for too long, it made the adverts seem good!
Films I very nearly walked out on: Once Upon A Time in Mexico, and Cold Mountain. I’m surprised so much schmaltz managed to fit into one film with CM, and with OUATIM I could envisage Sergio Leone spinning in his grave, its just a shameless hijack of a classic film series with no regard to the style of the originals.
Dragged my kids out of RoboCop. I usually tried to pre-screen movies for them but all my neighbors let their kids go so I was lulled into a false sense of security. I was totally not prepared for the violence and foul language. Kids complained bitterly but I wouldn’t relent and refused to rent it when it came out on video. They told me years later they went over to a friend’s house almost immediately thereafter and watched it. Oh well.
I very nearly walked out of The Blair witch project, the only reason i diden’t is becase I was with friends who wanted to stay (though after, they admitted they wish they woulda left too) and I diden’t drive.
I can’t belive anyone liked that total piece of crap movie, it was 2 hours (or whatever, I don’t remember how long it was) of people bitching at each other. wow, great idea.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was pretty damn bad too… I stayed becase I’d heard it was pretty good and I was hopeing it would get better. It diden’t.
I haven’t walked out of a movie that I remember, but I was dragged out of Robocop by my mother as a small child. You’d think parents would prescreen movies or something before taking the kiddies.
I’m a huge Frank Zappa fan but I don’t regret walking out of “200 Motels”.
The only other movie I didn’t make it through was Monty Python’s “The Meaning of Life”. It wasn’t remotely funny, and then came the projectile vomitting…
Hey twin! I saw Caligula, and while I didn’t walk out on it, I didd say the following to my father, when I returned home “Kick me, I feel stupid for sitting through that movie!”
Never walked out of a movie, but when my mom got Stigmata at the library, I think I severely detracted from her enjoyment of the movie. Not for the reasons you would expect a believing Catholic to hate the movie, though. I can grok that it wasn’t meant to be an exposition of Catholic doctrine.
But, when they’re translating all the Aramaic stuff that the stigmaticized chick wrote on her walls, and I hear the phrase “cleave a piece of wood and I am there, lift a stone and you will find me”, I flipped.
I recognized the phrase as being from the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas.
This woman is going through agony, almost bleeding to death, over an apocryphal text that you can pick up at Borders.
I screamed at the screen continuously through the entire rest of the film.
As much as I love watching a good film, I love making fun of a bad one, so I don’t walk out of movies much.
The only time I did was for multiple reasons. I don’t remember the film’s title, but I had been to a party with some friend and on the way back, they saw it playing and wanted to see it. I was drunk, tired and really didn’t want to see it. It turned out to be a concert film of a band I had never heard of. After the first couple songs, the whole audience (including my friends) got up and started dancing, and running around the theater. After the third person I didn’t know hit my shoulders and told me to get up and dance, I had had enough and got up and walked out.
I never walked out of a theater, but I really wanted to leave during ‘Bless the Child’. Unfortunately, my wife didn’t think it was that bad and I was forced to sit through it. She had to know how bad it was, because before long she was shooting me looks during the really bad parts before I even had a chance to sigh.
One of the few videos I did not finish was ‘Crossworlds’. It was really bad, and not bad in an amusing way, bad in a really embarassing yet boring way. During the final fight I realized I didn’t care how it ended, and I turned it off.
I don’t even remember the only movie I ever walked out of, but I left not because the movie was so bad but because the theater (in Fort Worth) was excruciatingly cold and I didn’t have a sweater. I went outside to thaw out. The movie was a western with Raquel Welch and she was having her clothing ripped off, scene by scene, exposing more and more skin. I think that contributed to my cold feeling.
I did come very close to walking out of Happiness, though.
But the only movie, good or execrable, I’ve regretted seeing was Mr. Holland’s Opus. Boy do I wish I’d walked out of that one. Boring, and full of stupid mistakes.
