I love Dune, first the book and then the movie - I mentioned in some other thread, but I remember pleading with my mom to take me, then we get there and they’re handing out several photocopied pages of notes, explaining what the hell stuff like the Bene Gesserit and the Houses Prime are. I knew that was the movie for me.
I was thinking it might have been my introduction to David Lynch also, but now I’m thinking I probably saw Elephant Man prior to that. I must admit I haven’t been back to see Dune in a really long time, maybe best if I leave it to the past. I’d hate to shatter that particular illusion.
Apparently the original cut was significantly longer than anything available to consumers today, including the extended cut, and Harlan Ellison (who reviewed movies sometimes) really loved that version.
I took my significant other to see Lord Of The Rings : Fellowship Of The Ring upon its release. (I had already seen it). We went to a late feature and they were running through Moria when the Balrog appears and chases the party through this and that.
Right at the appropriate moment in the film, it got caught and the frame burned up before our eyes (pre-dating digital). After that it was declared that the Balrog won and everyone had to go home with comps.
There’s a fan edit out there that takes the Lynch version about as far as it can go. It’s fantastic. (I just wish it had included the ecology of Arrakis that was more prevalent in the book, like the life cycle of sandworms, for instance.)
I’ve never stormed out of a theater. I have angrily retorted to a dumb line of dialogue or stupid plot development. The Devil’s Advocate springs to mind. It wasn’t Keanu’s fault, either. After scenery was hellishly devoured, it turned out it was all a dream. Gah! And then… it wasn’t a dream? Double lazy gah!
Oh, I did walk out of Ocean’s 8 last summer. But that was because I thought I was walking into a different theater for a movie that hadn’t started yet. “This trailer for Ocean’s 8 is going on a long time and is kind of dull,” I thought, before I realized I was in the wrong place. Luckily I was able to escape before the ushers caught me.
The first was Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Now, let’s be clear here: I adore most Mel Brooks films. Even the fairly bad ones like Dracula: Dead and Loving It. But for whatever reason, this movie just annoyed the crap out of me. Flat jokes, bad dialog, and Cary Elwes squandering any lingering admiration he built up for me in Princess Bride of Hot Shots.
I had forgotten the second movie until @Nesrie reminded me of up above: Avatar: The Last Airbender live action movie. It being Shyamalan, I wasn’t really expecting a good movie, but holy crap, I didn’t expect that much shittiness, especially given how great the source material was.
Interesting. I feel the same way about Brooks. But I discussed with the group I was with at the time about walking out on Dracula: Dead and Loving It . Men in Tights I found merely bland.
So… I’m not saying either of these films are “bad” but two instances spring to mind:
There’s that film Into The Blue with Jessica Alba; I was 24 and took a girl on a date who I was head over heels for. It was a cheesy film, but there is that one scene where a girl gets her butt bit off by a shark. My grandfather lost half his butt to a land mine on Iwo Jima, but that’s another story. I was fully consciously aware how cheesy the film was, yet on a subconscious, psychosomatic level it somehow really hit home. I was an ocean lifeguard at the time, and drinking too heavily…
…this is all leading up to the fact that during that scene I broke out into a cold sweat. Nothing like it had ever happened to me before. I was hoping my date wouldn’t notice until she leaned over and whispered are you OK?
One of the more embarrasing moments of my life. We kept dating some more months but things didn’t work out… she is now married with two beautiful children.
…and then there is Prometheus. I saw it with my brother and, say what you will about the film, at a couple moments it got me. I actually had to walk out of the theater for a breather when… um… well I guess I won’t spoil it for any who haven’t seen the film. It involved killing something with fire. That’s the only time I recall ever leaving a theater during a movie, and I came right back.
I’ve walked out of the theater on exactly one movie, which @Navaronegun will not like me saying:
A Thin Red Line
At the time it was too disjointed for me and the person I was watching it with and we had expected a more action movie draw as a war movie, not a thinking man’s emotional walk through of war.
That being said, I’ve matured both personally and in my movie watching since then, but it has simply been a movie I haven’t made time to re-watch, yet.
As for stops during media or streaming at the house, there have been too many to count. Sometimes you just have to be in the right mindset for a movie, and sometimes a movie is just so crappy that you just want to turn it off.
I’ve told this story before, but I walked out of The Ring the first time I went to see it. Not because of the movie - I really like it - but because there was a ginormous herd of teen girls seeing it. They let off a chorus of screams approximately every 7-13 seconds during the exceptional opening sequence. And then, after getting through it, they kept doing it. I was furious.
I walked out of The Crow 2 City of angels. I saw it on the heels of The Island of Dr Moreau so I was pretty salty as it is. It was so bad.
I didn’t walk out of The Messenger but only because I was there with someone else. that movie is fucking terrible. The scene where Rain Man offers up all the alternate explanations for the sword, and you get to the one where the dude just walks through the field and nonchalantly tosses the sword aside sent me into a laughing fit that I couldn’t stop.
Movies I wished I had walked out of:
Prometheus The Island of Dr Moreau (I was very close; those were dark days) They - so rote and bland Every starwars prequel
The only times I walk out of movies are for reasons other than the movie’s quality. Sort of. Last one I bailed on was The Fifth Element, which was at a theater in Fontana, CA, and the sound system there was just so fucking loud, I was developing a migrane that needed a richter scale to measure, so I left.
Before that, I think the last one was the Robin Hood film with Kevin Costner. My AC at home was on the fritz and I went to the movies to get cool. Started with Terminator 2, then slipped into a City Slickers showing, and made it about 45 minutes into Robin Hood, and decided it wasn’t really winning me over, my ass was getting sore, and it was late enough that I could return home and make do with some oscillating fans.
I’ve shot down lots of rentals, however. Most recently, Jurassic World 2 and that godawful Spiderman flick that even Michael Keaton couldn’t salvage.
My mom walked us out from the Return to Oz movie. She said we were horrified as kids, and I do remember being freaked out by the multiple heads lady. That was an actual walk-out. She never said if we got a refund, and interestingly enough, I have never actually seen that entire movie.
