What would make a movie so bad you would get up and walk out?

I try hard to not waste money.

The Hills Have Eyes (when a girl was being raped by the deformed people)

@Violet : that was a great reason to leave

If I fell asleep during the movie. I could just go home to do that!

I saw The Happening in theatres…if that didn’t do it I don’t know what will.

Well, I walked out on Birth of a Nation because I couldn’t stand the racism even out of historical interest, and I abandoned Igby Goes Down because there was nothing and no one in it that was likable in any way. I walked out on one live theatrical performance that was done as a parody of a play I happened to love and couldn’t stand to see mocked. There have been various reasons for leaving various other performances, and I guess the only common thread was that for some reason I just couldn’t take any more of it. I guess it’s a very personal matter, isn’t it?

Avatar had an extremely simple story, but I didn’t go for the story. I thought it was technically amazing and visually beautiful. I enjoy going to see the images in an art museum without requiring any script at all.

Never walked out of a movie. I don’t see movies that look really awful to me, so I doubt I ever will walk out on one. I’ve enjoyed some movies more than others, but none that made me want to walk out. There are some that have made me cover my eyes at parts or cringe, but not enough to want to leave.

Also, since I always see movies with my friends, it would be rare that I would walk out on a movie because I found it boring or lame or something. I would just stay there because my friends were there.

I was so close to walking out of Inglourious Basterds

Are you kidding? I work too hard and movies are too expensive for me to just walk out. No movie is that bad.

@Jeruba : I go to art museums for a different reason than I go to movies or theater. In museums, I expect to see pictures which will force me to look at the world through a new perspective, and come to think of it, I believe I might go to movies and theater for the same reason. But a movie or theater has to carry a plot that a painting does not.

I have the great fortune to be a freelance book editor, or it may be a curse. I’ve read so much that I often know a storyline from the first sentence or paragraph. I can get over that by being enchanted in the telling. It’s the way the writer weaves the words that captures my attention.

pretty much any musical. I really wanted to watch that Jack Skellington Nightmare Before Christmas movie that everyone raved about, but when they started singing, I was outta there.

Titanic

I didn’t walk out because I was with a group.

Agnes of God, years ago when I was a teen. We thought it was boring. I don’t even remember the story line. @azlotto People have laughed at me for not giving a damn about that movie. one of my daughters had it and payed it sooo often but I found something else to do. I always say I know the ending!

Years & years ago when my husband & I were dating, we went to a show called Ship of Fools. And they were! No plot, no rhyme or reason for anything. We watched about 30 minutes of it & we left.

@Jeruba I thought Igby Goes Down was fantastic…

I don’t think that I’ve ever walked out on a movie (in a theater anyway). But what would make me walk out is a lack of a good story.

It’s the same reason that I have no desire to see Avatar. If a movie is totally dependent on CGI, you don’t have a movie; you have ‘Spawn’.

The idea that Avatar is dependent on the visual effects is false. Why does everyone insist that there is next to no story?

@Grisaille I haven’t seen it but it appears to have an exceedingly simple plot. Guy infiltrates enemy camp in an unjust war. Guy falls in love one of the enemies. Guy does what’s right and helps his ‘enemy’. It seems very elementary.

@SABOTEUR and @Grisaille If you walk out of a movie before it is over, you get your money back
@hawaii_jake – I agree, thank you

If you’re going to oversimplify the plot, do it right, goddamn it.

“White man is accepted by natives camp, not only successfully does so, but falls in love with native warrior princess. Warrior princess et al. not only grow to treat him as one of his own, but realize he’s the best native ever, better than any native has ever been. White man’s original task is to learn the ways of the natives and hopefully find and convince a diplomatic solution which involves said natives agreeing to move off the land, but eventually realizes find solace, comfort and purpose among them, vowing to fight ‘evil white corporate america men’. White man leads charge against fellow white men, thereby absolving white men’s sin and guilt.

In other words, Dances with Wolves.

There is no “infiltration”, Cameron does not go so far in insulting the audience’s intelligence. The Na’vi realize he’s an Avatar immediately. There is no “war”, it’s an allegory to the “if no peaceful way can be obtained, strike first” theory, an allegory to current international affairs. Guy does not fall in love with “enemy,” as the Na’vi are not considered enemies, simply annoying savages.

Michael Moore.

@Grisaille Like I said, I haven’t seen it. But I don’t think I was terribly far off.

Regarding your plot analysis? Ain’t the point.

Regarding your assumption that it “is totally dependent on CGI” and is Spawn? You’re very, very far off. There is a story, and a pretty decent one at that.

What was wrong with Inglorious Bastards??

The new version of The Wicker Man. It was so awful, we had to stay and find out what the hell was going on and if it would get worse.

It is a simple storyline. As i said in another thread, the bare plot ine is fish-out-of-water (or, a stranger comes to town). It is also David battling Goliath in the Matrix. It’s also boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back again.

When we saw Avatar two days ago. I commented on the way out, “We’ve seen this one lots of times before—but it was never like that.”

I don’t expect every movie to be an audiovisual novel. This script is not high literature. And this is not going to be among my all-time favorite movies. But I would not want to define “movie” so narrowly that I would miss the enjoyment that something like this has to offer. As a young teen I was reading my way through Dostoevsky, but I still loved Uncle Scrooge comic books, and one had nothing to do with the other.

The Happening, White Sands, Birth of a Nation, Glen or Glenda and District 9 were all films that had me ready to leave at any moment, but I kept hoping they would suddenly get better. They didn’t.

I’ve only ever walked out of one film and I cannot even remember the name of it, although I do remember it starred Kevin Spacey and Anna Paquin. None of the characters were in the least bit sympathetic, it was simply a dark, hopeless film with, in my opinion, no redeeming features. It would be interesting to watch it again, 15 or so years on, to see if my earlier opinion remains unchanged.

I don’t go to theaters anymore because I walk out on too many.

No rape or near-rape or attempted rape.
No incessantly screaming women (fear or anger).
No child abuse (you’d think that was rare, but no).
No homophobia.
No racism that serves no purpose to drive the story.
No body-bashing ”
No gender bashing (either gender or inter)”
No gore for the sake of it. (I don’t go to horror movies obviously.)
No ‘Everything that can happen wrong will” (mainly for comedy.)
If I can predict where the movie will go- and I’m right- then I’m out. I can come up with great stories on my own, I don’t need to pay for it.

Film.

It’s not for everyone.

I don’t try to be.

Stupid, insulting, lame, no effort, no budget, too much budget, not enough gore, too much gore, doesn’t fit my personal preferences…

I never walk out of a movie, no matter what I don’t like about it.

Unless it’s boring.

I only recall walking out of two movies. The first was American Beauty, I walked out because I loathed it; from the opening credits I hated it. More recently I walked out of Mystery Men because that guy’s face moving around under that mask just really creeped me out.

A friend of mine was going through a breakup last summer and begged me to see The Ugly Truth with her. She finds Gerard Butler to be the ultimate man candy. Let’s just say she and I have different tastes in men.

Anyways. She paid for it and I almost walked out regardless. She held my arm on the seat rest, so I chose to stay and contented myself by giving her plot points a minute or two before we saw them on screen. Mind you, that is something I never do, regardless of my film major-fu. It was just a shitty movie. Even Gerard gave off the “I am only doing this for the money” vibe.

@SuperMouse

American Beauty is one of my favorite movies of all time… :(

@DominicX I hear that a lot! It is one of those movies that everyone loves, it just didn’t work for me. I also hated Titanic, Ghost, and Forrest Gump.

@gemiwing Sounds like you would have walked out of Dr. Strangelove aka How I learned to Love the Bomb…

I loved Dr. Strangelove!

I just tried to watch Avatar. I had downloaded yes and I stopped halfway thru. I found it just kind of a waste of my time. I’m going to try Angels and Demons now.

@Darwin as you should!

I have never walked out of a movie in a theater. For one, I research movies before I give up my hard-earned cash. For another, even a bad movie can teach you things about how to make a better movie, or at least not to do what they did or do what they did but better.

I am periodically involved in indie films

Have you ever watched the old movie KILLER TOMATOES? this movie defies a persons intelligence. the person that wrote and produced this movie must have been on acid.

@john65pennington Attack of the Killer Tomatoes was a parody, fyi…

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes is a classic. A classic I tell you!

So is Cannibal Women in the Avocado Groves of Death.

The only reason why I didn’t walk out on 2012 was because I was taking my brother to see it.

@Darwin, both of them were a kick!

I’ve only done this twice. It was the one with Ray Romano and he was trying to be.. Town Mayor or something? And a Harry Potter movie. Too ridiculous. I’m sure if I ever had to sit through Twilight, I’d do the same.. haha

@Violet Thank you…that’s useful information. I don’t think I’ll have the opportunity to test it though. Movies no longer hold the magic I felt when I was a kid. I’m nostalgic for the days I could purchase a ticket, watch two preview movies, 2 or 3 cartoons and the feature presentation…and watch them over and over again until closing! Tickets cost 3–4 times more these days and you get way less bang for your buck. So, on those rare occasions I go to the movies, it has to be something I really want to see, so there’s zero chance I’m walking out.

@Sampson Kubrick can suck it as far as I’m concerned. now look out, I might tell you how I really feel.

@gemiwing Serously?! No love for The Shining? Not even 2001? Or Lolita???!!!! You blaspheme!

@Sampson OK damnit, The Shining can stay. You pick the one that I like.

I would never walk out of a movie theater. I don’t even like to stop a rented movie before it’s over, even if it takes several tries to get through it. I don’t have a list of movies I’ve given up on, but I’m certain you could count them with the digits of one hand. The most recent one was just a few days ago when I sent Brazil back to Netflix unwatched. I tried to get through it four times. It bored me to sleep every time and it was so damn long that my bladder woke me up before it was over every time.

@SuperMouse: I don’t like Titanic, or Ghost and I hate Forrest Gump, but I looooove American Beauty. You’re not alone in your dislike, though, I assure you. I get so much crap from one of my friends for liking it.

@MacBean I liked Brazil, too. And I even watched the bad version…

@Sampson: Honestly, it probably didn’t help that I watched it less than a week after brain surgery. I think Iron Man could’ve put me to sleep at that point. Maybe someday I’ll give it another shot. Now was just not its time.

I’d walk out of a movie if it was really boring or if it was very poorly made, silly, or tacky——like some B-grade movies. I have no time to waste.

The only film I’ve ever walked out of was The Da Vinci Code.
When I saw The Hills Have Eyes, a little less than half of the theatre, including two of my friends, walked out before it was finished.

If I’d seen Superman Returns in a theatre, I’d probably wish I had walked out.

“Refried bullsh#t for the Ipod generation.”

I’ve was pissed with the Superman franchise the moment they had him rip the “S” off his chest and use it as a frisbee.

It’s been downhill ever since.

@MacBean You don’t like Forrest Gump? Freak

I downloaded some movie that came out recently some teen horror movie, but in the beginning it was showing some young girl getting raped and beat up, for some reason i cannot stand to watch things like that. I immediately turned it off and deleted it, makes me sick to my stomach.

There was one other movie that I thought was stupid and insipid, and that was Rob Zombie’s version of Halloween. Besides the obviously tacked-on rape scene (what, Rob, no godddamn imagination, dude?) and the fact that Michael Myers became a giant of man by sitting around and making masks (what, were they made of solid steel and other heavy metals instead of cardboard?) struck me as plain old illogical. I like horror movies, and write a few horror stories from time to time, but I need things to happen for a reason, not just added on to make it interesting. Whatever happened to researching a subject?

@camouflage_pants Rob Zombie sucks as a “director” and he even sucks more as a “musician”

I almost walked out of borat and did walk out of apocalyptica.

@delirium I’m curious, was it the humiliation factor that made you want to walk out of Borat? I haven’t seen that or Bruno because I can’t stand to see people humiliated and from what I hear that is Sasha Baron-Cohen’s whole shtick.

@delirium Did you mean Mel Gibson’s movie, Apocalypto? That’s another one on this question that I thought was fucking awesome.

@SuperMouse exactamundo.

@Sampson ugh, I thought it’s portrayal was biased and inappropriate and unresearched.

@delirium Possibly. But that didn’t distract (me, atleast) from the great story and terrific acting.

No love for The Hills Have Eyes much I see. I agree though, the rape scene is quite deranging, I didn’t like it, but point is, that was only included in the Director’s Cut of the DVD release…that and one other part, but it was never in the theaters. >_>

I’ve never seen The Hills Have Eyes. I really want to now. :)

You wouldn’t like it. It’s a horror movie

…Unless you’re being sarcastic….

@Symbeline Yeah, the rape scene is much worse on DVD. I enjoyed it, but that’s because I’m fucked up like that.

@Vunessuh—Gah I think it was horrible. But somehow, while she’s getting raped, the other guy drinking the woman’s breast milk was even worse. Still, awesome movie, otherwise, and those nasty scenes helped me to cheer on the protagonist when he went to take em out, and I usually root for the killers, so this was nice and different.

Number two sucks though.—

@Symbeline Actually, I didn’t mean I enjoyed the rape scene. I meant I enjoyed the movie as a whole. Bahahaha. That must of looked really bad. XD
I actually worked with Ezra Buzzington who played Goggle which I think is the one who took the red sweater and was eating the dog. Pretty nice guy.
And yeah, the sequel sucked balls.

@Vunessuh—Well anyone else saying it woulda been odd…but when I think about you and rape, it sounds good in my bed. I mean…head. Erm.
And you worked with that actor for real? On what?—

“You and rape, it sounds good in my bed.”
Bahahaha. That’s priceless. I’m framing that comment.

I worked with him on a film called Skeletons in the Desert. Nice guy. Because of his look, he gets work by playing a lot of bad guys. Not much of an ego. Kind of a drama queen, but on that miserable set he had reason to be.

—He was awesome in HhE anyways. Hell I was even disappointed that he wasn’t one of the main bag guys, and was barely shown. (One of the deleted theater release scenes included him, no less.)
I still love that dude with the axe though, Pluto I think his name was.)

I don’t leave if a movie is bad, but I won’t take it seriously and I’ll probably talk through it.

And everyone in the theater will kill you.