Generally, I'm a stay-to-the-end guy. Doesn't matter if the game is boring or the movie makes no sense or the lead singer can't hit a note with a tennis racket. Sometimes it's more fun to watch bad stuff than good stuff. Sometimes you might leave just before something great happens. And I've never cared about beating traffic.
Still, this Chicago Tribune blog post about walking out on movies made me go back and remember. I can think of two things I walked out on.
-- When I was in high school, the movie "Tess" came out. Here's the imdb.com description: A young strong-willed peasant girl, becomes the affection of two men, in the end tragically falling into the arms of one.
Just the kind of movie your typical teenage boy would love. In hell.
Best I can remember, I went for two reasons: 1) I had a crush on a girl who worked at the theater, and 2) The movie starred Nastassja Kinski, and I thought there was a chance she might get naked. I never found out about 2) because I fell asleep about 15 minutes in. When I woke up, men in Victorian wear were giving long speeches. So I left.
-- The other event I walked out on was in 1995, when my beloved Georgia Bulldogs played our hated rivals, the Florida Gators, in Athens. It was a special event because the teams usually play on a neutral field in Jacksonville. It turned out not to be a special event when Florida went up 35-0 in, I think, the second quarter. By then I was already halfway to my car. The final score was 52-17.
It hurt just to write that.
So... Have you ever been to something that was so bad you walked out? Or did something make you walk out for another reason (too scary, too loud, etc.)? Add your candidates in the comments.
Friday, July 06, 2007
What did you walk out on?
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27 comments:
1967. Indianapolis. Two nineteen year olds, me and my buddy. The movie: La Dolce Vita. Marcelo Mastroiani and Anita Ekberg. Expecting: art and porn. Result: 100% dud. Walkout sometime during the show. No idea what was happenning or where the story, if any, was going/had been.
Early 1990's. CityFair, now gone, angle from Mythos. Bo Diddley. The man is a legend. The performer was bored. The venue was hopeless. The crowd would have all been on cell phones, if they were around at the time. I took a break and found Bo in the men's room. Trouble with the chinese mustard he loves, he says over the undigestive noises. I am so out of there.
I walked out on '48 hours' ... odd to say. I did NOT like the opening, with the criminals beating up two women. When one of them stuck a gun in a girl's mouth, I was outta there. I know, the movie was decent otherwise, but that opening really steamed me.
I also walked out on 'The Exorcist,' but that was because I guy in front of me fainted in the theater, and his girlfriend started screaming. I thought he had a heart attack. I was so freaked out by that I just got up and left.
I walked out on The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I just didn't get he audience participation part. I just wanted to watch the movie.
I also walked out of a Jimmy Buffett concert. Dallas, Texas, summer 1987. Hot as hades. Concert is midafternoon, outside at Fair Park. I never heard a note from Jimmy. All the Parrotheads sang every single song. I couldn't take itl.
Marie Antoinette...probably the biggest waste of time, worst movie in the history of history. What a crock of sh..ip
I walked out on "Born on the Fourth of July". Too vulgar to be entertaining. On DVD, I tried to watch "Moulin Rouge" twice, and turned it off after 15 minutes both times. BORING.
WISH I had walked out on Nicole Mullins concert. Too loud. Ears still ringing.
'Moulin Rouge' also failed my '10-minute' rule, which is that if a film sucks in the first 10 minutes, it is time to give up and turn if off.
But 'Moulin Rouge' did get better and I actually liked it by the end. Very quirky. A rare exception to my rule.
I walked out on a Monty Python movie, I think it was "Life of Brian," but I've blocked it out, so I may have the name confused with a different movie. There was an extended scene where an enormously fat man ate, barfed, and ate some more. I'm sure it was a hilarious satire but I couldn't figure of what, and I just don't see anything funny about vomit (this was before I had children, and I still don't think that vomit is amusing). I realized that if I'm not having fun, I don't HAVE to stay for the end, so I left. I'm not abnormally squeamish, I loved Monty Python's humor usually, and loved the "Knights of Ni" skit, but they lost me at the vomit.
I can't remember the movie name. It was about maybe 10 years ago. It was about a kid who finds out his neighbor was a Nazi. The scene that did me in was when the Nazi guy put a cat into the oven. Not sure if the cat made it out alive because I was outta there and getting my money back!
First Home game of 2005 for the Charlotte 49ers Mens Basketball team.
Half time score:
Mississippi State - 21
Charlotte 49ers - 9
The worst 20 minutes of basketball ever played!
I'm a huge theater fan so it pains me to say that the only event at which I left before it was over was a production of "Copenhagen" at the Booth Playhouse. No disrespect to Mike Collins whom I like on stage and on the air and the other actors, but the play was incredibly boring. My friend agreed and we left at intermission.
The Monty Python film is 'Monty Python's Meaning of Life' ...
And just to show that the world is full of incredibly differing opinions, here is an excerpt from a review by Jeffrey M. Anderson of the San Francisco Examiner:
"The vomiting scene is one of the funniest moments ever filmed."
My granddaughter and I left the movie, "Norbit" after 15 minutes. She is 9 and actually said, "this movie is not appropriate for me". I was SO relieved because I was appalled at how awful this Eddie Murphy movie was and could not wait to run out of the theatre!
Walked out of "A Clockwork Orange" at the midnight movies at Eastland Mall. The movie was terribly offensive to me and the rape scene was too violent and made me sick to my stomach.
I wished I had walked out of TGI Friday's one Friday night before the Comedy Zone's Black Comedy Night. Everybody was so loud in there we couldn't even hear each other talk! Why do people have to be so LOUD??????
Walked out of the 2nd inning of a Knights baseball game on a Sunday because they were getting beaten so badly, because I couldn't buy beer there on Sunday and because it was so BORING.
Years ago my mother had recommended my x-girlfriend and I go see "The Perfect Storm". It was so boring and long. We both fell asleep and then got up and left. I think that is the only movie or sporting event I have ever wlked out on.
I've walked out on plenty of things. Stores, when the merchandise is cheap, aisles littered with trash, and prices are ridiculous. Movies, when the plot or the acting is awful or offensive. Restaurants, when poor service or lack of cleanliness or screaming kids at the next table makes enjoying a meal impossible. A job, when after 10 years of service and devotion I get treated worse than a temp off the street. Even my brother's wedding, but that's a whole 'nother can of worms.
Given the right circumstances, there's nothing wrong with just walking out.
1970 SOMETHING: On a double date, went to see Frank Zappa's "200 Motels." Booorrrring!! I think we left after the 3rd or 4th hotel. Same era-fell asleep during "Papillon" with Dustin Hoffman & Steve McQueen. Saw it years later & liked it, so maybe I was just tired the first time. Recently rented the remake of "The Producers" but had to turn it off after about 1/2 hour. Too boring.
I walked out on "The Pope of Greenwich Village" although many of my friends said I didn't give it a fair shake. Maybe not...
To anonymous 3:02, the movie you are referring to was "Apt Pupil" and I too, thought it was very disturbing.
This is not on the subject of movies but restaurants (actually a truck stop in nowhere Texas). My (now ex) husband and I stopped for breakfast in west Texas on I-20 one early morning. We had not been there before but wanted to eat. We sat down and were completely ignored by the server; other people, locals maybe, were getting served and staring at us. Maybe it was a drug house/restaurant. We left in a hurry!
I had to walk out on Crash. When the cop molests the man's wife in front of him? That was it for me. All of those glowing reviews just summed up, for me, that people live on the internet and/or la-la land these days. The movie was trite and tried to shock you just for the sake of shocking.
I also wanted to walk out on AI. I thought it sounded cool and would have if the second half had matched the first. By the middle of the movie with Jude Law's character and all the dark imagery I had no idea what was going on.
The re-release of the movie 'Fantasia'. Except for the Mickey the wizard scene, i can't even sit through the video with my kids. Also, I couldn't take 10 minutes of "Bean" with that usually funny British actor who was also in Scooby Doo. I actually liked the TV version. As a teen i went to lots of classical and opera concerts. I have completely lost my patience as I hit my late 30s. Can't stand them now. Must be the instant skip ahead gratification of the CD and iPod generation. The way we tolerate Movies and TV is affected the same way.
I walked out of "Gods and Generals" -- an appallingly bad movie.
To this day, I WISH I had walked out of Seven. The entire movie was filmed with a 40 watt lightbulb, the cops always had to use flashlights whenever they were inside, and even when outside, it was always raining. Not to mention the disurbing scenes & awful ending.
My girlfriend and I walked out of the late 70's movie, "The Car". A car goes around killing people. That was basically it.
I did kinda enjoy when the crazed car ran down the french horn blower/ hitchhiker. James Brolin I believe, starred.
It would have been a great movie for a drive in, though.
Fell asleep during "Rear Window", "Barry Lyndon", and "2001: A Space Odyssey" and should have walked out of "Bewitched", "Ron Burgundy" and "Caligula".
I've turned off many a rented video because it was just too awful to bear (notably everything I've rented by or about Stanley Kubrick).
I've only ever walked out of one movie - "The Avengers" starring Uma Thurman, Sean Connery, and that-other-guy-whose-name-I-can't-remember.
P.S. I regret driving more than 30 miles to Harrisburg from my home town of York (both in Pa.) to see "Closer."
1998 - My friend and I fell asleep during the first 15 minutes of City of Angels starring Nicholas Cage. I thought it was so boring, but we could have just been tired that night because i saw it on TV years later and I thought it wasn't bad.
My husband and I also had to walk out of this Mexican restaurant on Eastway. We wanted some authentic Mexican food when we first moved to Charlotte. Apparently this place was a little too authentic because as soon as we walked through the door, the whole place came to a halt...the loud music stopped, the guys in the big cowboy hats at the pool table stopped playing and stared, the guys shooting craps in the ground in the corner stopped and stared, the barkeep who was laughing turned real serious and stared and when he looked to be reaching for something behind the bar, we flew out of there so fast, we made our own heads spin. The second the door closed behind us, we heard the whole place explode in hysterical laughter.
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