Movies You Couldn't Finish

[Wesley Dodds]

So I rarely make threads these days, but I just tried watching seminal '70s revenge thriller Death Wish for the first time and, I don't believe it, but I couldn't finish it.

Usually, if I'm not enjoying a movie I'll still just sit it out, but I thought this would be fun.

Yeah, it wasn't. The movie had such an overbearingly seedy air, add to that the poorly written characters, unappealing grimy look, and really badly put across message of "Shoot your problems away" and I had to turn it over.

Influential? I have to give it that.
A cultural landmark? yeah, maybe a minor one.
A genre masterpiece? I think not. At least I reckon so.

You guys have any movies that you just couldn't finish? And, if so, why?

 

[Project862006]

tree of life

now killing them softly is a movie i wish i never did finish waste of my damn time

 

[cabel]

Thin Red Line, kept falling asleep

The Sky Crawlers, about halfway through I realized I could barely tell the characters apart, much less care about them.

 

[redhawk23]

Try as I might to stay awake, Haywire puts me to sleep every time.

 

[jonathancrane]

Men in Black.

I have no idea how I watched it as a kid.

 

[MMMMM...Pancakes]

Bangkok Dangerous

The 4th Resident Evil

 

[Man in the Suit]

Ninja Assassin

 

[CGHulk]

tree of life

I came here to post this.

 

[MMMMM...Pancakes]

Fell asleep during Paranormal Activity 3 and The Grudge if that counts.

 

[Thundarr]

So I rarely make threads these days, but I just tried watching seminal '70s revenge thriller Death Wish for the first time and, I don't believe it, but I couldn't finish it.

Usually, if I'm not enjoying a movie I'll still just sit it out, but I thought this would be fun.

Yeah, it wasn't. The movie had such an overbearingly seedy air, add to that the poorly written characters, unappealing grimy look, and really badly put across message of "Shoot your problems away" and I had to turn it over.

Influential? I have to give it that.
A cultural landmark? yeah, maybe a minor one.
A genre masterpiece? I think not. At least I reckon so.

You guys have any movies that you just couldn't finish? And, if so, why?

First off, I gotta disagree with your assessment of Death Wish. Maybe it wasn't exactly your cup of tea, but that doesn't make it a bad movie. It's just a matter of taste, and DW doesn't suit yours.

As for your question of movies I couldn't finish watching. The two that come immediately to mind are the Nicolas Cage movie "Guarding Tess", about a Secret Service agent (Cage) assigned to guard the very demanding former first lady (Shirley MacClane). It was billed as a comedy, but about 45 minutes into the movie I hadn't so much as chuckled even once so I turned it off.

Another is the Harrison Ford movie "Frantic". It was supposed to be this amazing action/thriller, but 30 minutes into it I was so bored I had to turn it off.

I'm not sure if this counts, but the unaired pilot for the live action "Justice League" TV series. I tried watching it on You Tube and had to turn it off about 40 minutes into the show. I love superhero comics, but the live action Superfriends show from the 1970's was actually better than this piece of crap.

 

[Teelie]

My list is heavy of mostly b-movie crap trying to find something good so I'll skip those.

Thin Red Line I tried to watch it but fell asleep myself back when it first came out on DVD though that was due to having been up more than 24 hours and I never got around to rewatching it.
Garbage Pail Kids: The Movie, first movie I ever quit watching it was so horrible. And being a kid, who collected the cards at the time, says something.
The Blair Witch Project, a movie so boring and uneventful that I fell asleep watching it too.
Paranormal Activity, much like Blair Witch a boring, uneventual snooze-fest I skipped through large chunks of it in hopes of finding something worth watching.
Pledge This, Paris Hilton, need I say more?
Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace, terrible, terrible sequel.
The Creature Wasn't Nice, despite having Leslie Nielson, it's not a comedy although it is laughably bad, just not enough to finish.
The Human Centipede (First Sequence), terrible filmmaking not even worthy of the D-movie title.
The Bay, attack of the isopods... of ridiculousness.
The Collector, should have collected more than pointless gore porn shots.
The Hole, another movie that just bored me to death.

That's everything I can recall not finishing besides stuff not worth even mentioning.

 

[kedrell]

Anything by Terrence Mallick or Darren Aronofsky.

On the comedy side, Shallow Hal and Meet The Parents are the only movies I paid to see in a theater that were so bad I just left halfway through.

 

[Lobo]

I couldn't get through Haywire.

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

Haywire and Natural Born Killers both come to mind.

 

[O_B_Juan]

S.W.A.T. from 2003. I eventually just watched it with the director's commentary on and thought the making of the film was more interesting than the film itself.

 

[Rowsdower!]

The Royal Tenenbaums (fast forwarded through the last 20 minutes because I was so bored, only to see how it ended, and of course the ending was as underwhelming as the rest of the movie)

Giant
Ronin
Dogville

Honorable Mentions: Synecdoche, New York and Only God Forgives (wish I hadn't finished them but somehow I got all the way through those pretentious snorefests)

 

[Steyin]

All of the LoTR films. That kind of fantasy/genre isn't my thing.
Titanic, bores me to death.

 

[Rowsdower!]

The Namesake is another pretentious bore of a movie that I would have turned off halfway through if it wasn't for my annoying, pretentious b**ch of a girlfriend at the time. She thought it was sooooooooo good.

Glad I dumped her ass not long after that.

 

[Rockbottom]

I know a lot of people love it but I actually turned off Enter The Void, I thought it was boring.

 

[StarLord]

The Village.

 

[iwontsaveu]

Any Tyler Perry film, and recent M.night shyamalan films

 

[Donnie Darko]

As a general rule, I hardly ever don't finish a movie. Even if I have to break it up into chunks, I will finish it eventually. These are a few that I couldn't do, though...

The Informant starring Matt Damon. It was promoted as a comedy, and I like Matt Damon, so I decided to watch it one day. I think I made it like 40 minutes before I called it quits.

Fighting starring Channing Tatum. My wife (girlfriend at the time) and I decided to watch it. It had MMA (good for me) and Channing Tatum (good for her), so we gave it a shot. About 30 minutes in, she just goes "can we turn this **** off?" I was like "thank God. I was afraid we were going to sit through the whole thing."

Paranormal Activity. I made it 30-40 minutes in and just stopped. It was just... nothing. On top of there not being anything actually going on in the movie, the characters did not interest me at all, so I just stopped.

 

[Donnie Darko]

All of the LoTR films. That kind of fantasy/genre isn't my thing.
Titanic, bores me to death.

So, did you actually try all of the LOTR movies after not even being able to make it through the first one? If so, why?

 

[Hyde]

Attack of the Clones.

I could also hardly sit through The Matrix but I forced myself to finish it...

 

[Steyin]

So, did you actually try all of the LOTR movies after not even being able to make it through the first one? If so, why?

My college room mate watched them religiously one year, especially RotK. I've seen more of that film than the first two. For some reason I find RotK more engaging, but I can't sit through the whole thing in one viewing. The others just don't interest me.