I've never walked out on a film, nor do I intend to ever do so. That said, I was pretty tempted during both Waking Life and Russian Ark. My pretense tolerance is set way below those navel-gazing bores.
I've seen movies at the theater nobody has business seeing at a theater. I saw CHUD at the theater. I saw Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo at the theater. 'nuff said.
If I had been alone, I would have rolled SCREAMING to the box office during Walking Tall.
I am a big summer blockbuster fan, but I put my foot down over such things as Hellboy, Catwoman and Alexander. Van Helsing, I agree with the other classic Universal monster movie fans, was painful. Of course, my biggest gripe is against the alleged Slavic accents that go all over the continent of Europe, except to the Slavic countries.
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Hey, DaveF, my experience with Attack of the Clones was similar, (I was with enthralled friends) except I could NOT get out of the theater.
I had just sustained a spinal cord injury 2 weeks before, it was the first time I was allowed out of rehab, and I was doped to the gills on pain meds.
That said, the pain meds could not even begin to dull the agony of Attack of the Clones. I still remember the entire audience snickering over the "dialog" in the "love scene" between Anakin and Padme.
I managed to make the audience crack up when Yoda drew his lightsaber. I waved my fist in the air, and screeched, "Kick his ass, Yoda! WHOOOO!"
Well, some people leave the theater to go to the bathroom, so it's not clear to anyone what your intent is, unless it's wintertime and you take your coat with you.
The only movie I can actually remembering walking out on was this free screening of a low budget movie written and directed by Michael Miner, who co-wrote Robocop. It was called Deadly Weapon, and Miner, who introduced the film, jokingly described it as what happens to Eliot from E.T. when he hits adolescence and gets his hands on a laser gun Not a great movie but it had some amusing moments, but I had to walk out because I felt myself coming down with a migraine and since the screening was free it wasn't like I was wasting money by leaving.
Wow i had the complete opposite reaction I didn't even want to blink during that one...different strokes i guess
I've walked out of 1 movie Harry Potter Part 2, but only because I became deathly ill and felt like i was about to pass out. I have turned off the radio at a drive in before, around here they play 2 movies at the drive in I was there to see Jurrasaic Park, they were playing species before it. Species was bad...really bad, I ended up turning off the radio and listening to some music.
None us goes to a movie, intending to then leave halfway through. "Hey, this looks awful! Let's get tickets so we can walk out in an indignant huff."
But are there no movies that just aren't worth wasting two hours of your life on? Could you not go to a decent-looking flick, only to discover it's really a soul-sucking void?
I've only left two movies in my life, but I don't understand the attitude of always finishing every movie. Is there some gain-through-pain philosophy of suffering horrid movies?
Since some people are actually bringing up movies not from the year 2004. I have decided to name some other movies in my life that I saw in the theater that dread myself for seeing & wish I walked out on.
Rollerball 2002 The Hulk 2003 Once Upon a Time in Mexico 2003
This thread reminded me of the only movie I've ever walked out on.
A buddy, my girlfriend and I went to see Battlefield Earth, which I had chosen. I knew we were in trouble when I was expecting a cool sci-fi movie and was immediately presented with a tarzan look-alike riding a horse. Thirty minutes into the screening I very literally turned to them both and started apologizing for dragging them to it and mentioned I owed them both for making them sit through such torture. We left ten minutes later.
A lot of Veterans walked out of Saving Private Ryan in the first 20 minutes, hit too close to home I suppose. I saw about 15 older gentleman leave the theater in my showing some of them looked visibly distressed. And I remember hearing about similar incidents in other theaters.
Even if I hate it, I'm morbidly interested in how the movie will end. I figure I might as well put the time in now to finish it rather than to be tempted to watch it again later just to see how it ended. Now with rentals, I have on occassion made liberal use of the fast forward feature if the movie is bad enough.
I always stay because when I'm discussing it later, I want to know just how deeply it sucked. Also, I always like to "re-write" terrible movies after-wards with whoever I'm with. I usually have more to say about the bad ones. In a way, I guess I find bad movies to be MORE inspiring than a film that's perfectly executed. Of course, it's a different kind of enjoyment, but you know what they say about getting lemons...
I've only walked out on one movie, but I swear I can't remember what it was. I suppose my brain is trying to protect me from the pain of it's memory.
These comments are exactly why I will get up and walk out on a movie that I consider bad.
When I first joined this forum I only averaged about one movie every couple of months, and those were for movies that I definitely wanted to see. After becoming a member, I was introduced to a lot of great movies based on recommendations from other members and now I average about one movie a week. I stood by the philosophy of staying until the end no matter how bad the movie is, but after seeing End of Days that has changed. I wanted to leave that movie so bad, but I stayed anyhow because I wanted to see how it ended. Several months later someone mentioned that movie, and I tried to recall how it ended to no avail. Not that I really wanted to know, but they were asking me what it was about.
Since then, I do not hesitate to walk out if I am being bored to tears because I know that I will just end up blocking it out from my memory in no time.
I am glad that there are those that can state that they stayed through every movie no matter what, but why is that such an honor is not clear to me anymore.
I've never walked out on a movie. I'm too cheap, once my money is laid down, I'm sticking it out to the bitter. bitter end.
Alien Vs. Predator was a near walk out, just a horrindous movie, either viewed on it's own or as a part of the Alien / Predator franchises.
Punisher was the other one that was unbeleivably bad, but didn't leave me with the sheer anger that AvsP did.
Starsky and Hutch and Van Helsing where also terrible, but I didn't expect them to be good. SH delivered a few laughs, and Vanhelsing verified to my friend everything that is wrong with a Stephen Sommers movie. Thanks to sitting through it, he now realizes that everything Sommers has directed is awful crap that pisses all over the original source material (I'm talking Universal Horror)
I liked Hellboy! Daredevil sucked, but is greatly improved by the director cut DVD, although I well never like the Matt Vs. Elektra paly ground scene.