Which opens the door to a Dorothy Parker-esque comment: “This is not a movie to walk out on. Patrons should run as fast as they can.”
The only time I’ve left a movie in the middle was when I was first dating my (now) wife, we went to see Aliens. After a short time she confessed she couldn’t handle it, so we slipped out and into Peggy Sue Got Married. I got points for not raising a fuss. I got a chance to see Aliens later. It was definitely a better movie than PSGM, but who cares?
Two movies we rented and didn’t finish: Harold and June, and Chasing Amy. I would have watched them through, probably – I’ve watched a LOT of movies where I’d have been better off had I not done so, especially in my 20’s, late at night. Chasing Amy might actually be a great movie, if you’re into that angsty relationship thing. We weren’t. We’d thought we were picking a typical brainless amusing RomCom, which it wasn’t.
Well, I enjoyed that movie, and it was on broadcast TV so I didn’t even get the benefit of any nude scenes! But it was at home, dropped in on it after it had begun (not sure how far in), I wasn’t expecting anything, and it was delightfully campy. I might have reacted differently spending time & money at the theater.
Another one I dropped in on (my son was watching it) and I had a lot of laughs, probably while doing other things. Definitely campy and I know I’d have been disappointed to see this in a theater. Truly bad in many ways, but sometimes that doesn’t bother me too much. It certainly didn’t take itself too seriously. Plus there’s something I like about Jack Black; I seem to let him get away with stuff I wouldn’t for many others. Don’t ask me why, I couldn’t say.
I read it first as a kid, then as an adult, and finally aloud, to my intelligent-but-could-barely-read son. (I read a lot of great books to him, including Stevenson, Twain, Defoe, Dumas, oh boy.) And I may read them all again. I’m currently reading The Silmarillion, which I’m not yet terribly thrilled with. Might start a thread on that one.
I haven’t seen Atlas Shrugged, but I can’t imagine it could be much worse than Bridesmaids. Another movie I should have walked out on, but it was on DVD at a relative’s house. Plus I have a pretty high tolerance for stupidity and schlock. It’s wonderful being easily amused. But I’d rather have those hours back.
I haven’t seen that since it first came out, when I was a teenager. I probably had to bribe some adult moviegoer into pretending to be with me. It made an impression, and though I should watch again to verify, I’m convinced it’s a great movie. That said, I can understand anyone not being able to deal with it. Definitely not an easy movie to watch.
Another one I saw to the end, and really shouldn’t have. Yet I have to say, David Bowie was perfect for the part, and I probably only watched the movie through out of respect for him. Unfortunately, his stellar performance wasn’t enough to carry the film.
Hah – that’s on my list of movies to watch when my wife is out of town or something. I wonder if it’s too terribly out-of-date by now. Nevertheless, from what little I know about it, I can understand anyone not being interested.
lol
My wife and I rented that on DVD not long ago. We knew it was a dud but got it anyway just for the laughs, and did indeed laugh. No doubt wine was involved. Probably lots of wine. One of those movies where, if the people next to you are talking, you probably wouldn’t mind, because at least there’s something to pay attention to!
I sat through it, but about 2/3 the beginning audience was gone when the final credits were shown.
Only one I ever walked out on was Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Half way into the move and Sean Connery still hadn’t appeared, and the woman with the horrible German accent was the last straw – I just couldn’t take any more.
I should have walked out of the 2001 Planet of the Apes remake. Horrible horrible movie.
I’m guessing I’m going to get rocks and garbage pelted my way. Here goes. Back in 1994 I walked out of the running during the opening week of Pulp Fiction********. I went to see it because of all the praise being heaped on it. When the film got to the point of Christopher Walken’s watch speech I was so bored I just couldn’t take it anymore and left.
Many years later I’d see bits of the movie on ifc or hbo and realized I actually liked some of the characters and scenes. So, I then later sat myself down and watched the whole thing all the way through. While I didn’t fall in love with it then, after a few later viewings it became one of my favorites and agree with its praises.
Now, if I could only go back in time to see a pristine print on the big screen.
I rarely walk out of movies, even notable clunkers like New York, New York and Three Women.
I walked out late in The Long Riders. I liked the characters and something about watching them get shot to pieces hit me the wrong way at the time.
More recently I lasted only about a half hour into Spike Lee’s Inside Man. It was a combination of reaching my limit with his atrocious directing and the fact that the guy sitting next to me in a packed theater was coughing up what sounded like gouts of green slime.
Then there’s Anna Karenina, where I hadn’t realized they were going to do that pretentious scenery-moving crap in a manner that shouted “Fake! Fake! None of these people or anything they’re doing is real! FAAAAAKE!!!”
The most recent films I’ve walked out on were The Hobbit and Snow white and The Huntsmen but my sister agreed those were godawful. I fell asleep during the Christmas Carol 3d. I’d assumed I could pass it off underneath the 3d glasses but the person I was with claims I snored.
Does anyone have a shared signal to walk out?
I’ve stuck through some stinkers if I was with someone I wasn’t picking up vibes they hated it too. My sisters are easier to read. We all agreed to walk out of Snatch and Resident Evil.
It can take a bit to figure out someone isn’t a good movie buddy but my hint with one friend was her reaction “That looks cute” to the Alvin and the Chipmunks trailer.
Only walked out of Yahoo Serious’ Young Einstein. Came really close to walking out of Congo.
I’m not sure how I endured Les Miserables. Probably by dozing. If I Dreamed a Dream hadn’t moved me to tears, I wonder if I would have made it.
I didn’t walk out and I like the director, but same thing, all that flying. Bleh.
I’m a John Waters fan and again, I didn’t walk out, but the movie sucked.
I loved True Romance. Awesome flick.
You too, huh? I didn’t see the movie, but I was in a Singer as Actor class in college and we performed various songs from the show. A young girl did a solo on that song–and I almost cried every time she sang it, in rehearsals and at the performance. I almost teared up thinking about it just now. 
I see most of my movies at home, and have turned off quite a few. But the only one I walked out of in an actual theater was Escape from New York. Too many plot holes, bad writing and bad acting.
The Royal Tannenbaums. Horrific. I cannot stand Wes Anderson films; I don’t know what I was thinking when I gave that one a shot, in a real movie theater no less.
Oh, and when I was twelve years old, my very first date with my very first girlfriend was to a Richard Pryor confused mess called Duck something. Boy, that was embarrassing! I can’t recall if we made it through the whole thing or not. Oh, well, I guess it served as a bonding experience of sorts, for a while anyway.
Found it! Not “duck,” but rather Dynamite Chicken. Turns out it was first released in 1971 or 1972; we saw it in 1982 – must have been a limited re-release to capitalize on Pryor’s then-current success in Hollywood. Not limited enough, though! 
(For those of you tempted to rent this just for hipness points, trust me – not worth it.)
An American Werewolf in London was too much for me-- I thought I was up to it, but the Nazi werewolf in the window was enough for this kid. Love the film now.
Another one I remembered, although it wasn’t me walking out: when my college roommate and I went to go see “Monty Python’s Meaning of Life”, I recall several people in the theater getting up and walking out during Mr. Creosote’s projectile vomiting scene. (We, on the other hand, were laughing so hard we could barely breathe.)
Highlander ii, all that stuff about him “forgetting” that he’d come from another planet, and "Wishing " for Sean Connery to come back, reminded me of a pantomime
Some friends and I walked out of an art house showing of the original “Solaris.” At some point in the movie there was a long panning shot through a space ship where absolutely nothing was happening. At one point there was a very long, very s-l-o-wwwww panning shot, that eventually panned up along some sleeping guy’s body and up into his nose.
“There better be something REALLY GREAT inside that nose!” one of us cracked. We laughed our asses off. Turns out there WASN’T anything good inside that guy’s nose. So we all got up and left. One of our better decisions, beer and wings was a lot more fun.
Ew, yeah. I couldn’t take the Mr. Creosote scene. I first watched it on VHS and I had to look away during that part. (I didn’t fast forward because I was watching it with others and we didn’t have a “oh god please hit the button” signal set up.)