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1

I wanted to walk out of Transformers soooooo bad! Thanks to spouses, sometimes we're stuck watching cud every now and then.

I loved Sling Blade.

Posted by Mr. Poe | July 6, 2007 10:58 AM
2

I don't think I've ever walked out of a movie in a theater, but there are a couple of movies I've rented and stopped part way thorugh:

Buffalo 66
Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas (was scared it would trigger a flashback with its trippy style)
Napoleon Dynamite (I'd thought that one would be bad, but so many people whose taste I trust LOVED it. it sucked hard)

Posted by genevieve | July 6, 2007 11:04 AM
3

I walked out of The Matrix. Right after Keanu Reeves woke up in that hanging bathtub of jell-o with tubes stuck in his body, I had enough.

Posted by sam | July 6, 2007 11:06 AM
4

I watched the entire horror that was Battlefield Earth, even though I wanted to walk out. Upside: I bought a ticket to see U-571 instead, just so none of my money would go to The Happy Fun Cult.

Posted by Dr_Awesome | July 6, 2007 11:12 AM
5

The only movie I walked out of was 'The Piano'. Gross.

I stopped watching the DVD of 'Made' about 2/3 of the way through. Didn't laugh at all and I wanted to punch the shit out of Vince Vaughn.

But the worst movie of all time, IMHO, that I didn't stop or walk out on: 'Angel Eyes'. I was on a plane, so there was NOTHING else going on. It was terrible.

Posted by Original Monique | July 6, 2007 11:15 AM
6

Most recently, walked out of "Anchorman", "40 year old virgin" (thats what counts as funny these days? give me a fucking break) and "Hollywoody Ending" (Tea Leoni plays Woody's ex-wife or something. Sad, sad...and I'm a huge WA fan too)

Posted by movie snob | July 6, 2007 11:19 AM
7

I don't think I've ever walked out on a movie, either. If I've paid money for something I'm gonna get the most of it, no matter how terrible! Similarly, there have only ever been one or two books I've stopped reading before the end.

The comment thread over there is insane! I'm very surprised at some people's choices (Anchorman and Borat got multiple hits, for instance).

I liked all of genevieve's picks, and have seen the Matrix multiple times. I like Sling Blade too.

Posted by Levislade | July 6, 2007 11:19 AM
8

I know I'm in the minority in my Sling Blade revulsion (which is why I was so excited to see it in the Trib guy's list.)

It just didn't work on me, at all. All I saw was a guy who learned how to make a funny face and do a funny voice and was ballsy enough to see if the rest of the world would buy it as drama.

I fell on the "not buying it" side, and sitting in a crowd of folks entranced by Billy Bob's magic made me feel like an asshole; I kept wanting to point and laugh. So I left (and snuck into Face/Off, which RULED!)

Posted by David Schmader | July 6, 2007 11:24 AM
9

Hey, I really liked Under the Cherry Moon! Kristin Scott Thomas was wonderful and the soundtrack was amazing, plus the black and white film was so gorgeous. Granted I was like ten when it came out and have only seen it on tape, but still.

The only flick I almost walked out on was 'Wishmaster' until my friend and I realized that under-rated Wes Craven gem wasn't terrible - it was territastic!

Posted by Original Andrew | July 6, 2007 11:24 AM
10

I walked out of Gangs of New York. Thought I might grow old and die before it ended.

Posted by Dianna | July 6, 2007 11:26 AM
11

Hey I loved Under the Cherry Moon too.

Posted by movie snob | July 6, 2007 11:27 AM
12

Never walked out of a movie, but I've stopped watching some at home. I second Fear & Loathing. That movie was godawful.

Posted by Jason Josephes | July 6, 2007 11:28 AM
13

Somebody on the Tribune board has a list of movies they walked out on and they put Mannequin and Mannequin 2 on there. Mannequin was so bad that they walked out on it and then they go see its sequel when it comes out. Fucking idiot.

Posted by Tommy | July 6, 2007 11:28 AM
14

I'm also one of those people who will not walk out. The only movie I ever walked out on was In Good Company. It wasn't terribly bad just painfully mediocre and I really needed a comedy that day.

Movies I should have walked out on, but didn't:
L'humanite -- The worst French movie I've ever seen and that's saying a lot.
Hellboy -- It had promise but was so boring and overcooked.

Posted by keshmeshi | July 6, 2007 11:31 AM
15

I'll stick it out through anything -- even the Keanu Reeves-Winona Ryder "Dracula" -- even shit on DVD -- but I turned "Scary Movie" (the first one, I think) off after ten minutes.

Posted by Fnarf | July 6, 2007 11:31 AM
16

If there's a trend I'm noticing, it's that modern comedy films need to be seen in a theater during opening week...and then things like "Anchorman", "Borat" and "Napoleon Dynamite" work their comedy magic within a group dynamic. Watching them without the buoyancy of a crowd laughing at it--say in the privacy of your own home, or in an empty theater three weeks after it opened--is absolute torture.

I know...I've tried it. (Seeing "NapDyn" for the first time via Netflix was a harsh lesson--as I'd already been quoting the film, simply by mimicking all of my friends, only to realize what I'd been saying didn't actually make me laugh.)

There's NOTHING worse for comedy than sitting quietly and thinking to yourself, "Oh, I guess I can kind of see why some people might find this funny...but I don't have any clue why my friends insist this is the funniest movie they've ever seen..." instead of actually laughing.

Still, I don't feel that any qualification is necessary to share that I pulled out the DVD of Tom Hanks monstrosity that is "The Terminal" before it made me feel that way.

And the two closest times I ever came to actually walking out of a theater to a movie I'd paid money to see would have been "Toys" and "Far & Away."

Not the worst films I've ever seen--because there's more enjoyment in watching a truly bad film to its conclusion--but astonishingly unsatisfying movie-going experiences...

Posted by pgreyy | July 6, 2007 11:32 AM
17

Film I never should have seen in the first place: Bastard Out of Carolina.

Decent flick, but it scarred me for life.

Posted by Original Andrew | July 6, 2007 11:32 AM
18

I walked out of this topic when I saw Reservoir Dogs on somebody's list. It's a fucking classic.

Posted by Mr. Pink | July 6, 2007 11:36 AM
19

I walked out of Bowling for Columbine when the footage of 9/11 was gratuitously used to stoke emotion in a film that was supposed to be about gun control.

I don't like it when right wing nuts do it to stoke people to go to a needless war and I don't like it when left wing film-makers do it either (although their motives are more noble).

Posted by JimH | July 6, 2007 11:39 AM
20

I love "Under the Cherry Moon" too! But, goddamn, it sucks!

(However, the soundtrack in unimpeachable.)

Posted by David Schmader | July 6, 2007 11:39 AM
21

I loved Sling Blade.

I walked out on the second Lord of the Rings movie. I thought the battle would never end. It's probably still going on.

Posted by duncan | July 6, 2007 11:42 AM
22

You should all try watching Cold Creek Manor. Make a game out of it. You win if you can sit through the entire movie.

Posted by Mr. Poe | July 6, 2007 11:47 AM
23

Weekend at Bernies Two. UGH.

Posted by cam | July 6, 2007 11:50 AM
24

I don't think I've ever walked out of a movie, at least not voluntarily. When I was a kid, I went to see the DeNiro Cape Fear, and my sister dragged me out of the theater after he bit some woman's cheek off. Then again, i purposefully go to shitty movies, like Catwoman, and thoroughly enjoy myself.

Posted by spencer | July 6, 2007 11:53 AM
25

Two films in recent memory:

SIDEWAYS: The reviews I'd read portrayed it as a fairly sensitive film. Instead I got to watch two unlikeable characters mope about, enacting a chamber of commerce's wet dream of a vacation... mostly.

KING KONG (the new one): I can watch the RKO original over and over again. Maybe if I was 12 again I'd have been able to enjoy it, but it was more of a video game than a movie.

Posted by Chris B | July 6, 2007 11:54 AM
26

I think people who walked out of movies because they were too violent, contained vulgar language, or the person has A.D.D, should not be allowed to contribute to the list.

Choices should be reserved for just really bad movies, like "The Funeral" or "Destiny Turns on the Radio."

I don't care what prudes think.

Posted by Samson | July 6, 2007 11:58 AM
27

The only one I can think of that I walked out on was that weird Brad Pitt, animation hybrid thing Cool World when I was like 13. I made it to maybe 20 minutes from the end and did not even remotely care what happened.

Posted by Julie | July 6, 2007 12:01 PM
28

The Squid and the Whale.

Not nearly enough squid, too much whale.

Posted by dirge | July 6, 2007 12:10 PM
29

I've never walked out of a movie, but I badly wanted to walk out of Dead Ringers (gross!). I fell asleep on my date's shoulder instead.

I came very close to walking out of Pirates of the Caribbean #3 (ugh!), but I was with a friend and figured I might as well, I had paid for it... sigh. Wish I had walked out.

Normally I'm very picky about the movies I see, so I don't subject myself to lousy movies that often.

Posted by Kristi in Kitsap | July 6, 2007 12:12 PM
30

"SAY YES TO WAR!" Dan Savage in The Stranger Oct. 2002
Is the United States Killing 10,000 Iraqis Every Month? Or Is It More?
Michael Schwartz, After Downing Street
War on Iraq: 300 Iraqis killed by Americans each day sounds like an impossible figure, but a close look at the reported numbers of violent deaths and rate of armed patrols makes it all too likely. http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/

Posted by Awful Troll | July 6, 2007 12:15 PM
31

Bullworth. That movie is terrible.

Posted by Danielle | July 6, 2007 12:23 PM
32

Thank you for that, Dirge @ 28.

Posted by David Schmader | July 6, 2007 12:25 PM
33

How about Arthur? I walked out of that, with my mom no less. Most stupid piece of crap ever.

Would have walked out of Borat, but I kept on keeping on thinking that something funny was surely just about to happen.

Fell asleep during the first Pirates film. Johnny Depp talent is wasted on those pics.

Posted by Brad | July 6, 2007 12:31 PM
34

Ah, see, Empire Records isn't really a "theatre" movie. You needed to watch it on video later, and you needed to be 16 years old and silly-drunk on wine coolers. Trust me.

Posted by Darcy | July 6, 2007 12:50 PM
35

#31 Not on mushrooms it isn't.

Posted by elswinger | July 6, 2007 1:14 PM
36

Elswinger,

Why would you waste your funghigh on Bullworth? That's crazy.

Posted by Mr. Poe | July 6, 2007 1:17 PM
37

Finally got Dan Gildark to walk out of a movie a couple weeks ago - a first! - it was that Silver Surfer shit. He didn't need a lot of persuading. Last paid, theatrical non-festival screening I'd walked out of was 'Garden State'. Yecch.

Posted by Grant Cogswell | July 6, 2007 1:21 PM
38

@34

I second the motion. I saw Empire Records on video when I was in high school, and it became an instant classic amongst my peers. I think often times a movie speaks to one particular generation, creating alienation to those outside it's target audience (i.e. old man Schmader).

The same can be said for other movies I find to be classics- my father was horrified when I screened Fight Club

Posted by Griff | July 6, 2007 1:29 PM
39

I saw A Clockwork Orange with a friend who wanted to walk out because he found its ideas and images so very disturbing. I wanted to stay because I found its ideas and images so very disturbing.

I don't recall whether, in the end, he watched the whole movie. But I sure did.

Posted by N in Seattle | July 6, 2007 1:35 PM
40

It's not a movie, but I walked out of Intiman's extremely lame rendition of Uncle Vanya the other day.

Posted by Cedar | July 6, 2007 1:36 PM
41

38 and 34: I can't deny being old, but I don't think the generation gap has much to do with my amazement at "Empire Records." I just saw it this year, and was blown away, in a near-Showgirls way, by the mercilessly accruing avalanche of completely un-humanlike human behavior and mind-boggling cliches.

It seemed like a movie for alterna-kids written by some midwestern 50-something who read about grunge in Newsweek. I love it, and will be discussing it at some length in the future at Northwest Film Forum.

Posted by David Schmader | July 6, 2007 1:44 PM
42

Grant Cogswell @ 37,

I couldn't walk out of Fantastic Four: Silver Surfer simply because I was amazed that they'd managed to pack every single, imaginable superhero movie cliche into the film. It was a pastiche masterpiece! Hollywood is famous for plot recycling, but this took it to a whole new level.

The only thing that kept me sane was imagining Chris Evans bent over my sofa.

Bang zoom!

Posted by Original Andrew | July 6, 2007 1:46 PM
43

SUUUGAAARRRR HIIIGH!!1!one

Posted by Mr. Poe | July 6, 2007 1:52 PM
44

I have never walked out of a "mainstream" film, and it's very rare for me to walk out of even festival screenings. I feel like I've committed myself to the viewing and have an obligation to see it through; and there's a tiny optimistic part of me that keeps saying, "Well, maybe it will get better," until the film ends and it didn't get any better and I wonder why I stayed.


The last movie I can recall walking out of was a SIFF midnighter called I Want to Be a Vampire (it's listed in IMDb as Bloodsuckers). It was truly hysterically bad, but it went on being that way for so long that I just got irritated and couldn't take it anymore. However, should it ever be available on video/DVD, I think it would make a fine party gimmick with a large amount of mood-enhancing substances.


I really, really WISH I'd walked out of Park Chan-wook's Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. I have a strong stomach, but the sheer mean-spiritedness of the movie made me want to punch the director in the nose. I hated it so much that I will never see another of his films, no matter how much people rave (hello, Oldboy).

Posted by stresskitten | July 6, 2007 1:52 PM
45

A Boy's Life. horrible. relentlessly grim. filmed in Concrete, WA, and it showed.

It took every ounce of cheapness I posess to stay through Intiman's Heartbreak House. And I LIKE drawing room comedies. GBS isn't the shit.

Posted by maxsolomon | July 6, 2007 2:01 PM
46

Love, Valour, and Compassion: made me want to burn my gay card.

Pirates of the Carribean 3: I went shopping at Bed, Bath, and Beyond while I left my friends with that piece of shit.

Posted by andrew | July 6, 2007 2:05 PM
47

I walked out of Casino when I saw it at the Crest... I've been reassured that it is a great movie, but I was in middle school, and high, and I couldn't follow the plot for shit.

I wish I'd walked out on Napoleon Dynamite. That's time I'll never get back.

Posted by E | July 6, 2007 2:05 PM
48

What Dreams May Come.
I was already throwing up on Robin Williams's cloying performance, but when I found out that the story was going to be Robin Williams leaving heaven and going to hell to save his wife who had committed suicide, I ran as fast as I could.
Gag!

Posted by bobbo | July 6, 2007 2:35 PM
49

I wanted to walk out of Audition, but I was there with my best friend and a date, and I thought they wanted to stay and finish it. It turns out they both were thinking the exact same thing. If we'd known, or one of us had been a leader, we wouldn't have been subjected to that level of pornographic violence that left me wondering why there aren't thousands and thousands of Japanese serial killers.

Posted by Gitai | July 6, 2007 2:45 PM
50

I very rarely see movies in the theatre - can't stand dealing with what assholes people are these days - so I've never walked out on a movie I'd paid for. Even at home, I have this bizarre compulsion to finish even the worst movies, to see if they ever get any better. I did, however, blow off the Colin Farrell movie Tigerland last week, after I realized it has every useless, inaccurate, hell-in-boot-camp cliche ever written in it. Bleagh.

I WISH I'd walked out of Midnight Express when I saw that in the theatre - not because it was bad (parts of it are very good), but because it was disturbing and gave me nightmares for years afterward. Ditto Eraserhead, which triggered one of the only flashbacks I've ever had.

Breaking the Waves and Happiness were the two best-reviewed movies that I thought were the most colossal pieces of shit, yet for some reason, I sat all the way through both of those horribly depressing, pointless wastes of time. Go figure - my husband walked out of the room about 40 minutes into Breaking the Waves and about 20 minutes into Happiness. He has a lot less patience with crap than I do.

Posted by Geni | July 6, 2007 3:17 PM
51

@41 It seemed like a movie for alterna-kids written by some midwestern 50-something who read about grunge in Newsweek.

And to wannabe-hipster band dorks exiled to the South for the duration of their adolescence, it was pure gold. We had no idea! I don't think I've seen it since, uh, back in the day, though. I'm afraid to watch it again and utterly ruin it.

Posted by Darcy | July 6, 2007 3:26 PM
52

Mr. Poe,

I was heavy tripping and afraid to leave my apartment. I'm one of those bakers who like to stay home and listen to tunes or watch TV. It was different when I was in my 20s.

Posted by elswinger | July 6, 2007 3:31 PM
53

@ 51: Testimonies such as yours aren't rare, and make Empire Records all the more fascinating to me.

Here's a question: Did you turn out okay? I can only imagine what having that mindboggling collection of paint-by-numbers neurotics as role models might do to a soul...clearly you didn't die from excessive cutting or fatal socking-it-to-the-man, but have you sustained any residual Empire Records damage?

(My adolescent worship of the Smiths has brought nothing but trouble...)

Posted by David Schmader | July 6, 2007 3:35 PM
54

I've only walked out of two movies but there have been more than a few where I considered it.

The first was "Buckaroo Banzai". It started off fun but eventually every single scene became brain-numbingly pointless. My brother and I were just kids but we both hated it and left the theater to go climb some trees.

The second was "Naked Lunch". Blech. Fled the theatre when a beautiful gay teenage boy started getting simultaneously fucked and EATEN by a giant bug. What a piece of crap.

I just realized both movies starred Peter Weller. How odd. He sure had lousy taste in scripts.

Posted by Ray | July 6, 2007 3:38 PM
55

I understand how Empire Records works better on TV than in the theater. My patience for a film is in direct relation to how much I paid to see it. Had I been sober and had paid to see Bullworth I probably would have hated it. Watching it on TV when I was stoned, well..Warren Beatty was done rapping before my body could react enough to cringe.

Posted by elswinger | July 6, 2007 3:40 PM
56

I've never actually walked out of a film, usually if I hate it (Wild, Wild West or Titanic) I just allow myself to fall asleep. However when I was 10 my mom forced me to walk out on Bladerunner. Well not so much walk out as drive out...as we were at a drive-in and she was driving. She just didn't get it.

Posted by walt | July 6, 2007 3:53 PM
57

I'm surprised that Fear and Loathing was mentioned twice. That's the only movie I've ever walked out of. It was the most inane thing I've ever seen, and I dabble in drugs. All of my friends think it's a great movie.

Posted by jamier | July 6, 2007 4:11 PM
58

I've never walked out of a movie at the theater... but I came damn close with Palmetto. The last half of that movie is absolutely awful.

Posted by Gomez | July 6, 2007 4:23 PM
59

I admit that I walked out of The Matrix. I'm not a sci-fi fan and I just didn't get the movie at all. I've since watched it again (after being forced to do so by friends) and found it tolerable, but I still don't get the hype. This discussion is cathartic... it's nice to admit that.

Posted by Eric | July 6, 2007 4:44 PM
60

I saw Pulp Fiction two and a half times in the theater because my date had first insisted we go see it despite my warning to her that she wouldn't like it and then made us walk out when Bruce Willis picked up the chainsaw.

It was the only time I ever walked out on a movie and the only time I dumped a girl.

Posted by elswinger | July 6, 2007 4:55 PM
61

@53: I turned out to be shockingly okay*, if a little square with bad taste in music. No attention seeking head shaves or adderall/speed freakouts in college or anything like that.

The thing is, we knew these characters were all horrible stereotypes and that the movie was pretty stupid. They were never really role models for us - at least not me or the kids I was friends with - but I think that, for those of us who had various chips on our shoulders, some of the sentiments rang true, even if the specifics didn't. Nobody wanted to turn into some lame caraciture, but we didn't want to keep being boring straight-A suburbanites, either. We probably could've used much, much better material than Empire.

*All right, I will cop to occasionally watching CSI: Miami re-runs because I still think Rory What's-His-Name is cute.

Posted by Darcy | July 6, 2007 6:23 PM
62

Under The Cherry Moon is maybe my favorite movie. It's wonderful in the most fucked-up way. And yeah, the soundtrack is incredible.

Posted by violet_dagrinder | July 7, 2007 11:28 AM
63

Claire's Knee.

Posted by Mark | July 7, 2007 9:09 PM

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