Author Topic: Movies you've walked out on  (Read 14779 times)

mitch-4

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Movies you've walked out on
« on: June 10, 2007, 09:39:33 AM »
I'm pretty tolerant both of boredom and offense, but there have been a couple times I've walked out of a theater before the end.  Have you done this?  Rarely or often?  And I'm not counting skipping the credits, nor just being in a hurry, nor getting an emergency summons message -- looking for some issue with the movie itself.

  • The Battle of Algeirs.  Late sixties, in the middle of political argument with friends, I couldn't take what I at that time regarded as unreflective contempt for the French settlers
  • Pickpocket.  I was, uh, under the influence, and feeling terribly paranoid.  Whenever the central guy was almost caught I felt like I was going to get caught, and finally walked out to recover from something amounting to a panic attack.  It's funny now, I guess.  I recently gathered some discs/tapes for a private Bresson retrospective, but still haven't watched Pickpocket though it's sitting there in reproach.

There have been other times when a member of my party left but I stayed for the end.

  • Early seventies, went with my gf "Judy" and our pal Alice to see The Mother and the Whore.  They left after a couple hours and waited for me in a bar across the street; I think it was a combination of tedium and (misplaced, by my lights) gender-political objections.  I subsequently think of this as among the very best of its narrow genre: extremely talky French attitudinal films.
  • Do the Right Thing on its first run.  Saw it at the old Hyde Park theaters in Harper Court, with my gf Sarah and my brother visiting from out of town.  Sarah took some of the action/discussion near the end as seriously and simply anti-White racism, and missed the last 10 or 15 minutes. I still regard it as Spike's best.

There's another related category I'm not thinking of listing examples of here, but will note in general that as I see fewer theatrical showings (or single-schedule televised broadcasts) and more tape and disk viewings which can be paused and resumed, you start to have "never finished it" movies to go with the many "never finished it" books.  But that doesn't hit me quite like "I'm not going to sit here for any more of this!".

 ==mitch-4

skjerva

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Re: Movies you've walked out on
« Reply #1 on: June 10, 2007, 10:14:50 AM »
I think there was one movie I walked out on but I can't think of it - or if that's true - for the life of me.

I did leave The Abyss because the new friend I was with was having one of her many attention getting health issues, like pancreas pain.  I probably saw 30 minutes of this one and have never revisited it.

The person I saw Breaking the Waves with was feeling ill and left the theatre for some air, I followed after about ten minutes also starting to feel a bit strange.  We went back in for another ten-ish minutes and both decided we couldn't take it.  The manager said a fair amount of people had been getting ill and leaving, I hadn't yet figured it was motion sickness.  I have not revisited this one, either.
« Last Edit: June 10, 2007, 10:46:22 AM by skjerva »
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JoshuaOst

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Re: Movies you've walked out on
« Reply #2 on: June 10, 2007, 10:24:57 AM »
I don't think I ever walked out on a movie.  No matter how bad or boring it might have been.
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Junior

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Re: Movies you've walked out on
« Reply #3 on: June 10, 2007, 10:39:52 AM »
If I can sit through all of Alone in the Dark, I think I can watch pretty much anything.
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Tequila

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Re: Movies you've walked out on
« Reply #4 on: June 10, 2007, 10:44:16 AM »
Never left the cinema, but I did come close during Team America (outrageously not funny and about 80 min too long) and some german film called C(r)ook I caught in a sneak preview.
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alexarch

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Re: Movies you've walked out on
« Reply #5 on: June 10, 2007, 10:48:06 AM »
Married to the Mob - I saw this with a group of friends in high school, a group that was on the verge of dividing in two.  One camp thought the other camp was becoming too uppity.  I was with the group that walked out.  I don't remember it being that bad, but I do remember it was in a style, a campy style that if you didn't buy, you hated.

Natural Born Killers - I stuck through this for about 3/4 of it because I loved Oliver Stone's visual style from this era, the JFK era where he was doing a lot of double exposures and collages.  I was even stomaching the ultra-violence pretty well until they got to the jail scenes.  At that point, I had such a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach that I had to walk out.  I felt that if I watched any more I'd be permanently damaged.

Eyes Wide Shut - I was so, so, so, so, so bored with this movie.  I got to the scene between Cruise and the daughter of one of his patients.  There was absolutely not a single ounce of sexual tension between the two, and then she jumped across the small table between them to make out with him.  It was preposterous, completely apropos of nothing.  I decided at that point it was the lamest movie I'd ever seen.  I went to see Big Daddy instead.  I really enjoyed Big Daddy.

The Pianist - Again, I got such a dread in the pit of my stomach that I had to leave.  It upset me that badly.  I rented it later and loved it from the safety of my own living room.
« Last Edit: June 10, 2007, 10:50:46 AM by alexarch »

VmSoze

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Re: Movies you've walked out on
« Reply #6 on: June 10, 2007, 11:54:04 AM »
The only movie I ever walked out of was Dumb and Dumber.  I loathe that movie, and have never watched it since I left about 40 minutes into it.  It's a running joke in my family that it's my favorite movie of all time... i seriously hate it.

JoshuaOst

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Re: Movies you've walked out on
« Reply #7 on: June 10, 2007, 01:20:36 PM »
The only movie I ever walked out of was Dumb and Dumber.  I loathe that movie, and have never watched it since I left about 40 minutes into it.  It's a running joke in my family that it's my favorite movie of all time... i seriously hate it.

Wow, I don't know what to think of you anymore.  Dumb and Dumber is one of my favorite comedies of all time.
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sdedalus

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Re: Movies you've walked out on
« Reply #8 on: June 10, 2007, 02:19:11 PM »
I've never walked out of a movie.

I really wanted to walk out of Waterworld, though.
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clownation

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Re: Movies you've walked out on
« Reply #9 on: June 10, 2007, 02:41:41 PM »
Anaconda and Twister.

To my shame, I sat through almost all of Cool as Ice.  My only excuse is that I was frozen in horror.
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