EW Readers Confess: The Movie I Walked Out On

[caitlin1214]

On EW.com's PopWatch blog, many of you shared horror stories about the flicks that were so boring, offensive, or nausea-inducing that you got up and left. Here, your funniest tales


300. Toward the end of the film (yeah, I grumpily stuck it out that far), the bad guy says something like ''You will not enjoy this, nor will it be over quickly.'' I decided that was the best possible review of the film and just left.



True story: I was 17-years-old and the girlfriend at the time decided she wanted to see an artsy-type film. So we go see Crash (the David Cronenberg one) with another couple who were friends. Yeah, about two freaky crash-sex scenes later, she pulled us out of that one. The explicitness wasn't the problem, it was just so darned boring. Alas, we weren't even old enough to be actually seeing the R-rated movie, so none of us had the guts to ask for a refund.



It was AI for me... I love sci-fi, but any movie that makes me wish that some cute little kid (okay, robot kid) would just DIE ALREADY is just too far over the creepy meter for me.



Eyes Wide Shut. My hubby & I were on a double date with friends of ours whom we had set up and who were on their first date together. Of course we had to pick a film that contained an orgy scene! LOL! I was bored throughout the entire first half and so was my hubby, but neither of us wanted to disrupt our friends' evening by leaving. But then...the orgy scene. I immediately got up and announced my departure (I think I actually said, ''This is bull s***!''), but told the others they were welcome to stay if they wanted to, as I would be happy to wait in the lobby until the film was done. Two seconds later my friend came out to join me, mortified and relieved that I had left. My hubby followed soon after...but our other friend stayed put! LOL! The three of us were sitting in the lobby like, "Where IS he??" Of course when he came out fifteen minutes later, he assured us that it was ''getting to the good part.'' Yeah, right!

 

[caitlin1214]

The first time a movie sent me scrambling for the exit was the opening cartoon for Pokemon: The Movie. Four minutes of watching characters mimic dialogue by repeating their name ad infinitum sent me to the lobby, where other, more resourceful parents were already sharing and comparing headache medicines.



In my late teendom in the late '90s, I plunked down actual money to endure both truly craptastic fare (Batman and Robin) and self-prententious drivel (Thin Red Line). But the Worst Movie Ever Watched in a Theater award must go to Very Bad Things. The title should have tipped me off, but it was so vile I wanted a shower after leaving.

Though Peter Berg has redeemed himself since (especially with Friday Night Lights - the series), Very Bad Things remains one of the most repellant theatrical experiences I've been subject to. I'm still scratching my head at the massive talent that signed on for that soulless piece of garbage.



First and only time I ever walked out of the theater: Oliver Stone's Alexander. A half-hour into the film I was envying the many, many Persians who had been decapitated onscreen by the sharp Macedonian blade of the dull Colin Farrell.

In regards to epics...I love them. But a bad epic can make you want to hang yourself. Alexander was that kind of experience. It wasn't Lawrence of Arabia by any stretch. How could Oliver Stone make a fascinating tale of history so dull?



What was that hideously awful movie perpetrated on the movie-going public a few years ago? With Richard Gere and Farrah Fawcett? I've blocked the entire experience from my mind, so you're gonna have to help me with the title. I remember something about Farrah jumping around in a mall fountain? ACK! I'm having flashbacks!!!

EDITOR'S NOTE: Sorry to dredge up such painful memories, but you're thinking of Dr. T and the Women.



I walked out of Hostel. Of course I saw it while vacationing in Europe. Bad idea.

 

[caitlin1214]

The only movie I ever HAD to walk out on was In the Cut. The camera work was so all over the place that I actually got nauseous. Meg Ryan was all lips and no talent.



I've never walked out of a movie because I've been offended (though I have turned DVDs off), but I had to leave the screening of The Bourne Ultimatum because the shaky camerawork gave me a huge migraine. It looked like a good film, but I HATE how filmmakers think handheld cameras make a movie artistic, when it's really just nausea-inducing shoddy camerawork. I got my money back, too.



I remember happily and speedily walking out of Seven Years In Tibet. Frankly, it felt like the movie was seven years long. Not even shirtless Brad Pitt coulda kept me in that theater.



One time only: I was young. I loved Friends. So I went to see Clockwatchers. You may rememeber it...Lisa Kudrow, Toni Collette, Parker Posey...what a cast. I thought I couldn't go wrong. I couldn't have been MORE WRONG! NOTHING HAPPENED! THE WHOLE MOVIE!

 

[caitlin1214]

I walked out of The Covenant. My boyfriend loves those werewolves/wizard/warlock-type movies. He dragged me there. Sweet Jesus... I got up and left when they started calling either other We-otches (instead of Be-otches) and waited for him in the lobby.



Reds. I went with my Mom and my Aunt. After the intermission, I remember walking out and playing Space Invaders in the lobby until I ran out of quarters. I walked back in just in time to see Warren Beatty pee blood. Went back to the lobby and watched other kids play Space Invaders until the movie was over. IMDB notes that it was 3 hours and 14 minutes long.



It has been a while since I walked out of a movie. My wife and I trade off [picking] movies and I paid her back big time to see Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. Thank the Lord she hated it so much that we walked out... It was ghastly and a stark reminder that as pretty as Ashley Judd is, she picks really bad movies to be in. *gag*



The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover. They needed to add the Garbage Man so he could carry it to the curb.



Never walked out of a movie. 25 years, going strong — until CAPTIVITY... Blast you, Elisha Cuthbert! You ruined the streak! And I've sat through Blair Witch II: Book of Secrets! Seed of Chucky, Batman and Robin, how oh how could this happen?

 

[caitlin1214]

Kingdom of Heaven. Never seeing a movie based on my love for Orlando Bloom alone again. My friend's boyfriend fell asleep for part of it, during which time my friend and I discussed how one gets leprosy.



Waking Life. If I wanted to watch animated people talk about the philosophy of life I could have stayed in my dorm room.



I try my best not to walk out of movies 'cause I don't want to waste my money. But the one movie I did walk out on was Hannibal. I had never seen Silence of the Lambs so I really didn't know what I was getting myself into. Boy, was I in for a surprise. I just couldn't take it.



Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. I stayed about 20 minutes [until] I realized that I'd rather clean my room or wash my car than stay and waste my life in that theater.

 

[caitlin1214]

The recent movie I REALLY wanted to leave was Bad Santa, which my movie-prude father selected as our family's holiday movie. We begged him to choose the heart-warming Elf, but he swore the Bad Santa movie was the one he heard recommended on the Hallmark Channel. Talk about a Christmas memory.



The first time was Solaris. The one with George Clooney. I chose to walk around aimlessly in the freezing rain instead.



I think you can usually learn something, even from a movie that sucks, so I never walk out, but I did it. Once. In 2003 I got talked into going to see that Heath Ledger catastrophe where he's a priest, with the ghost children... The Order. I walked right up out of that after about 20 minutes and into the next theater, where I found The Battle of Shaker Heights. I had no idea what it was, but I discovered Shia LaBeouf. And that, my friends, is why you should always walk out of movies that are garbage. I should do it more often.



My most recent walk out: Sin City. Visually stunning, to be sure, but also pornographically violent. By the time [Elijah Wood, pictured] got systematically dismembered and fed to wolves while still alive — and that by the film's HERO, mind you — I was ready to make my exit.



Remember the Bee Gees-Peter Frampton Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band? I actually stayed for a second showing, so that when Frampton sang ''What would you think if I sang out of tune? Would you stand up and walk out on me?'' I could stand up in the theater, yell ''YES!'' and walk out. Loudest laugh I ever got in my life.

 

[Baby Boo]

haha i agree with someof those

 

[lv-lover]

I don't think I could walk out on a movie, and I don't think I could turn a DVD off unless I've already seen it. I'm the type of person who just HAS to see what happens in the end of a movie no matter how bad it is. I even watch those bad low budget movies that go straight to TV.

I can't believe that girl walked out on The Covenant. The guys were hot!

 

[talldrnkofwater]

I've never walked out of movie but I have fallen asleep on one. I hated HEAT. I thought it was long and boring and so many people that I know loved it.

 

[chloe777]

I like a lot of the movies on this list. There are a few here that were not that good but I would never ask for my money back or walk out of a movie. I NEVER listen to critics because they are paid to say if a movie is good or bad. If it looks like something I wouldn't wanna see and pay 20 bucks for I just rent it or get it from netflix.

 

[KatsBags]

I'm mot sure if this counts as "walking out" ... but when we were watching Pirates of the Caribbean on DVD, I went to bed when the movie was about halfway over. I couldn't believe it was this huge "blockbuster" that everyone loved. I thought it was stupid!

DH watched it until the end and said I was smart to go to bed

 

[Charlie]

I never walk out but I do fall asleep sometimes, that happened to me twice while watching Kindon fo Heaven (at the movie theater) :shame:

I actually like some of the movies in the list, such as Sin City, The Bourne Ultimatum, Hannibal, 300 and AI.

 

[Vegas Long Legs]

How did Blair Witch Project not make this list?

Many of these I wouldn't even waste my time to go to.

 

[savvy23]

I am not surprised "A thin red line" was one there...my DH and everyone in the Movie theater walked out on that one!

 

[caitlin1214]

In college, I worked at a movie theatre. It was a small theatre that showed one or two movies. It was down the street from the one that showed the more mainstream ones.


Anyway, Boys Don't Cry was showing there and people walked out.

(And if you've seen the movie, you know why.)