Films You Switched Off Before The End

[checkoutgirl]

I did a half arsed search for an existing thread but life is too short etc. So it's basically a thread for films you couldn't be bothered watching to the end. Maybe it was the film's fault, maybe you just hadn't the patience or weren't in the mood and never bothered going back to it. I'll put a few I have and add more if I remember them.

Don Jon (2013)

This is reasonably well received and I thought I'd give it a go after someone mentioned it in a porn addict thread. I found it very difficult to get past the fact that Gordon Levitt's character is an extremely obnoxious Italian Jersey type character with a ridiculous accent and annoying attitude. Also I could predict that they were lining up Julianne Moore as the woman who straightens him out and makes him see the joy of a deep meaningful relationship and fixes his head. I got about 40 minutes in and realised I couldn't be arsed spending another second with this twat of a character.

Total Recall (2012)

Gave this one a whizz the other day and my god it's dull. I thought the lovely effects and set design would carry me through but no. It doesn't help that I find Kate Beckinsale to be one of the least charismatic people in the entire world. I don't have much time for Colin Farrell either, he was okay in Minority Report but he bores the tits off me in nearly everything I've seen him in apart from In Bruge, which was an anomaly. I got about 30 minutes in and suddenly realised I wanted my life back. Completely by the numbers script and boring acting, action and sets. There were loads of obvious rip offs of Bladerunner and other sci fi films that I can't think of right now.

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)

I have a quite atypical relationship with the work of David Lynch. I rarely am bowled over by his work but he's the type of dude who could disappoint me 20 times in a row and I'd still give him more chances. He has earned his right to infuriate or bore me over and over again. I also bow to the judgement of others when it comes to Lynch. People say he's great and that's good enough for me. So I popped Firewalk in expecting to be confused. I was not disappointed and bailed after 15 minutes or so. I like what he does with actors and locations but I need a narrative that makes some sense and get confused and bewildered by deliberate obfuscation. Even so, I'm still considering watching all of Twin Peaks before the new series comes out.

[clingfilm portent]

Re: FWWM.
This is the one Lynch film I wouldn't rush to defend. Actually I wouldn't even saunter to defend it. Despite some good, even great moments, there's no justification for casting Chris Isaak. This man should never have been allowed to attempt acting. Its just shit (mate). Also I had a problem with the fact that Lynch opted to cram every single weird thing he could think of into the first half an hour, with nothing to really ground it. It should be intriguing but it just feels like an indulgent mess to me. Maybe one day it will click but I'm not holding my breath.

Films I've turned off:
Room 237: I can't believe this was shown in cinemas. Like being cornered at a party by a conspiracy theory bore. Nothing against the theories but like everything, presentation is kind of important. Hated this.

Sightseers: Started ok, then got boring and unfunny, leads were a bit too charmless for the premise to work.

The Comedy: Some bloke acts relentlessly like a cunt, no other characters to latch onto, tedious and meandering. Could have been a brutal examination of the hipster lifestyle but it left a lot to be desired.

Godzilla: Walked out of the cinema. I will not be toyed with.

Me And You And Everyone We Know: AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGH.

[madhair60]

Burn After Reading
W
Meet the Spartans
Pirates of the Carribean 3

[Johnny Textface]

Room 237: I can't believe this was shown in cinemas. Like being cornered at a party by a conspiracy theory bore. Nothing against the theories but like everything, presentation is kind of important. Hated this.

Yep me too. I love The Shining and generally can't get enough of documentaries about the films I love. It was the theories presented here which I found fucking woeful however.

I walked out of Contact when it was on cinema release - just before, I have since found out, an extraordinary ending. Still not revisited - overdue?

[Noodle Lizard]

Frances Ha - made it about 10 minutes before realising I was probably damaging my teeth.

[Don_Preston]

Burn After Reading

Eh? Burn After Reading's brilliant. Were you laughing too hard and could no longer concentrate?

[checkoutgirl]

La Dolce Vita (1960)

A highly rated film by one of the most revered directors ever. But bugger me if this film isn't long and inconsequential. I think it's supposed to be about rich good looking people who have fuck all to do and all the time in the world to do it. I might have made it to the hour mark but I started skipping through it at that point. There's a quite nice moment between the lead and some girl on a beach at the end but fuck knows what happens between that point and the two hours that precede it. The whole thing bored my brain numb and tested my patience beyond breaking point.

I'd welcome any explanation of why it's so brilliant. 3 hours though, that is a long time.

[checkoutgirl]

Wild Strawberries (1957)

Another film that was highly praised by a genius director. To be honest I probably just wasn't in the mood for this one as it was just starting to come together and I switched off for some reason. I think I was short of computer memory so deleted it. I will come back to this film at some point as it looks like it might well be worth the time investment.

[Retinend]

I didn't hate Don Jon when I finished watching it, but the more I think about it the more of a disaster it seems. It's both obnoxiously crude (the porno montages, the "fapping" sound effects and so on) and intolerably mushy, with that ending.

[Old Nehamkin]

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)

I have a quite atypical relationship to with the work of David Lynch. I rarely am bowled over by his work but he's the type of dude who could disappoint me 20 times in a row and I'd still give him more chances. He has earned his right to infuriate or bore me over and over again. I also bow to the judgement of others when it comes to Lynch. People say he's great and that's good enough for me. So I popped Firewalk in expecting to be confused. I was not disappointed and bailed after 15 minutes or so. I like what he does with actors and locations but I need a narrative that makes some sense and get confused and bewildered by deliberate obfuscation. Even so, I'm still considering watching all of Twin Peaks before the new series comes out.

Sorry if I'm misreading you, but are you saying you watched the film first without seeing the show? Because that's definitely not the way to go about it- there's loads of stuff in the film that will make no sense (ok, less sense) out of context, and it also spoils the identity of Laura's killer and the events of the series finale. The TV pilot is the only place you should start with Twin Peaks.

As for the film, I didn't finish it the first time I tried either, despite being a huge Twin Peaks fan. It's lacking a lot of the warmth and humour that the show had and I was disappointed by the diminished MacLachlan presence and the absence of several other characters. I rewatched it a while back, though, and it really grew on me. Sheryl Lee is absolutely brilliant in it and it's great to finally get a proper look at that character's life after she cast such a big shadow over the series. It's definitely not an easy watch (unsurprisingly, since it's about a teenage girl being abused and murdered) but I think there's a lot to like about it. I didn't even mind Chris Isaak, really, I thought he was fine. And they replaced Laura Flynn boyle with somebody who isn't the least likeable actress of all time, so that's a bonus.

[madhair60]

Eh? Burn After Reading's brilliant. Were you laughing too hard and could no longer concentrate?

It was a "secret screening" at a film festival and when it turned out to be something on general release anyway, I left.

Coens aren't really my thing, anyway. No opinion on the movie, just walked out on principle really. Back when I could afford to have them.

[checkoutgirl]

Inland Empire (2006)

Lynch again. Did my best with this one but gave up around the point where someone wonders off from a table meeting in the studio and walks around the corner to find...........nothing. I think a combination of pure boredom and the daunting 3 hour duration made me throw in the towel after about 20 minutes. It's a shame because I'm intrigued by this film and want to watch it but my patience sometimes won't allow it. I reckon I might dust it off and aim for the summit again for Halloween.

[checkoutgirl]

Berberian Sound Studio (2012)

Tried watching this last night and got to about 20 minutes from the end. Then everyone started talking Italian and I had no subtitles. Also the central characters played by Toby was getting bullied for ages and that got on my wick. I'm pretty sure Toby Jones's character went mad in the story but I'm not sure why. It's a highly rated film but there's a lot of screaming in it which was annoying. I'm not saying it's a bad film but it did test my patience.

[Blinder Data]

Sightseers: Started ok, then got boring and unfunny, leads were a bit too charmless for the premise to work.

Ah, I would say this film is a grower. Kept my attention throughout with very funny and unbearably awkward bits. The ending's a killer too. I imagine if not enjoyed in the cinema though the low-key British grimness might get too much.

The new A Team movie: started it after a particularly indulgent Boxing Day feast and after ten minutes everyone realised that the following hour and a half or so would be totally wasted on a terrible film. Glad I never watched it - so many modern Hollywood action films are utter cack.

madhair, you seem like a great guy but your lack of love for the Coens makes me doubt your greatness.

Also checkoutgirl, you seem to give up on films a lot. Or maybe everyone does this and I'm a stick-in-the-mud for refusing to switch a film off if I've decided to dedicate my time to it. Do you feel you've truly 'watched' a film if for example you've switched it off 20 minutes before the end? IIRC the last 20 minutes of BSS are quite eventful and important to the film.

[madhair60]

madhair, you seem like a great guy but your lack of love for the Coens makes me doubt your greatness.

This is partly why, because people who like the Coens say stuff like this.  I'm not into them.  I don't feel particularly strongly about them.  I liked Raising Arizona.  Haven't seen a lot of their films tbh.

Edit: This seems like an angry post.  It's not, though.

[Blinder Data]

This is partly why, because people who like the Coens say stuff like this.  I'm not into them.  I don't feel particularly strongly about them.  I liked Raising Arizona.  Haven't seen a lot of their films tbh.

Edit: This seems like an angry post.  It's not, though.

Fair enough, and I'd be appalled if any perceived smugness of mine put you off even further. If you liked Raising Arizona, maybe try Big Lebowski if you haven't already, though if you didn't like BAR at the same time as liking RA then I'm not sure they are for you after all. A Serious Man is a grimly hilarious film, perhaps my favourite of theirs though I ought to rewatch it.

Better start a Coens thread...

[newbridge]

Films I've turned off:
Room 237: I can't believe this was shown in cinemas. Like being cornered at a party by a conspiracy theory bore. Nothing against the theories but like everything, presentation is kind of important.

I can't understand how this got good reviews. I knew it was going to be crazy theories, that's what I was looking forward to, but the presentation and construction of the documentary are horrendously amateur. It's like the guy got license to use some Kubrick clips and figured that was enough. I watched it all the way through but should have turned it off when one of the "interviews" (sounding like it was recorded off Skype) gets interrupted for like a full minute by the guy's kid crying in the background - and it was left in the movie (?!). The interviews are also cut together so confusingly that you never know who is talking or what's going on.

Bad documentary, critics do not know what they're doing these days evidently.

[Lost Oliver]

Not a fan of The Big Lebowski - just didn't find it funny. I really like their other films but it just didn't click with me. Maybe because of the hype around it.

As for films I've not managed to finish I can only think of one. Usually I see it as a bit of a challenge and try to make way through no matter what but Baise-moi was fucking awful.

Films I've seen recently that I didn't really enjoy:

Brick
Stories we tell

Films I did:

Berberian Sound Studio
Alps
Dreams of a life
Les glaneurs et la glaneuse
The Great Beauty

[Blumf]

I walked out of Contact when it was on cinema release - just before, I have since found out, an extraordinary ending. Still not revisited - overdue?

Extraordinarily shit ending, yeah.

Mr. Garrison's take on it in South Park is pretty much accurate. It was a lame cop-out of an ending.

[checkoutgirl]

Do you feel you've truly 'watched' a film if for example you've switched it off 20 minutes before the end? IIRC the last 20 minutes of BSS are quite eventful and important to the film.

Have you truly watched a film if you are too stupid to follow it? Because I often am too stupid. The reason I switched of BSS before the end is it was a torrent and it had no subtitles, so I couldn't understand it.

I often give up on films but that's because I'm trying o educate myself despite having a poor attention span, making switch offs inevitable.

[brat-sampson]

Turned off Nowhere Man after realising it was going to be some bright cheery version of The Butterfly Effect and I wasn't in the mood for hearing about how we're all so special really and no matter our choices it's the person we are that'll make our life special and bleergh.

[clingfilm portent]

Have you truly watched a film if you are too stupid to follow it? Because I often am too stupid. The reason I switched of BSS before the end is it was a torrent and it had no subtitles, so I couldn't understand it.

Its not really worth it in this case. I think the lack of subtitles was just there to suggest that Jonesy had been absorbed by the film or something. Anyway, BBS really lost its footing towards the end. It got so much right in terms of mood, but it gets too repetetive, then squanders it completely on one extended dream sequence of an ending.

[Stone Cold Jane Austen]

I reckon about half the films I watch I give up on, way before the end. I started watching The Woman In Black the other night because it was on telly and after about 20 minutes I could just tell it was going to be shite so off it went.

The quickest I've ever given up on a film was Zero Dark Thirty which I switched off after about half a minute. It started with that 'black screen with loads of overlapping audio of news reports' thing and I just thought "Nah, fuck this".

[Thomas]

I started watching From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) a few months ago. I was enjoying the setup, and that sexy song about Salma Hayek, but then

Spoiler alert

vampires

[close]

happened. I just wasn't in the mood for it that day.

[biggytitbo]

'Hot teenage slut fucks 8 lucky guys'. After a certain point I just had no desire to continue watching it. Weird.

[madhair60]

Fair enough, and I'd be appalled if any perceived smugness of mine put you off even further. If you liked Raising Arizona, maybe try Big Lebowski if you haven't already, though if you didn't like BAR at the same time as liking RA then I'm not sure they are for you after all.

I didn't watch Burn After Reading, didn't see it.  As soon as I realised what it was, I gave someone else my seat.  It was a "secret movie" at a festival, and I was kind of disappointed that it was just a film that was on general release anyway.  I'll watch Lebowski.

[Sexton Brackets Drugbust]

I started watching From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) a few months ago. I was enjoying the setup, and that sexy song about Salma Hayek, but then

Spoiler alert

vampires

[close]

happened. I just wasn't in the mood for it that day.

I had pretty much the same experience, much to my mate's disappointment, who introduced the movie to me without mentioning the tone change[nb]not to say that he should have, by any means.[/nb], hoping to observe a similarly enthusiastic reaction to his own.

[clingfilm portent]

The quickest I've ever given up on a film was Zero Dark Thirty which I switched off after about half a minute. It started with that 'black screen with loads of overlapping audio of news reports' thing and I just thought "Nah, fuck this".

I can relate to this. Its key to have a healthy amount of cynicism when entertaining anything, film, tv or music. People will say to me, give it a chance! and I'm like fuck that, sometimes a piece of shit film will lay its cards on the table, and I'm thankful for those occasions.

[Lt Plonker]

Inland Empire (2006)

Lynch again. Did my best with this one but gave up around the point where someone wonders off from a table meeting in the studio and walks around the corner to find...........nothing. I think a combination of pure boredom and the daunting 3 hour duration made me throw in the towel after about 20 minutes. It's a shame because I'm intrigued by this film and want to watch it but my patience sometimes won't allow it. I reckon I might dust it off and aim for the summit again for Halloween.

I got sloshed on a fine bottle of red and stayed up 'til 3am watching this. A belter of a night. Fucked if I can remember any of it. The rabbit sitcom and something happened in an alleyway, I think.

[prwc]

I never turn off films once I've started them, even if I sometimes really want to. The last one I desperately wanted to switch off was Anatomy (2000), a fucking awful German take on 90s teen Hollywood horror (probably my least favourite phase of the genre ever) that people seemed to lavish with praise, at least at the time, seemingly just due to it not being American.

I did fastforward through Slaughtered Vomit Dolls when I was going through my phase of trying to see all da sikkest m00v1ez eva made, upon reflection I'm embarrassed I even gave it a chance, though I didn't hate the sequel Regoregitated Sacrifice, even if I cringe simply typing that title out.