Movies you stopped watching, and why

[Sunsilver]

Maybe a better topic for a thread would be "Great" movies that YOU hated"?

The first two on my list would be "Gone With The Wind" and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"!

GWTW was at times a visual treat, but I just could NOT stand spoiled, manipulative, self-centred "Miz Scarlett"! The scene that REALLY did it for me is where she's looking for the doctor to birth her sister's baby, finds him trying to cope with hundreds of casualties, and expects him to DROP EVERYTYHING to help her sister!

Butch Cassidy must have been a guy flick. I really really didn't 'get' it, but my brother LOVED it! I really do enjoy a good Western, but this, in my opinion, wasn't one of them!

I've sometimes toyed with the idea of watching it again, just to be able to better pinpoint why I disliked it, but the opportunity hasn't come around. I do remember not being able to hear a lot of the dialogue. Now that most movies I watch on TV are subtitled, it would be interesting to see if that would change my opinion of the film in any way!

[Sunsilver]

DP

[JewelSong]

Well, I loved "Sundance" and I am certainly NOT a guy!


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[Cerin]

I didn't get 'Sundance' either, Sunsilver (speaking from my memories of the first-run viewing). From what I remember, I wouldn't put it into the traditional Western genre. Is there a genre name for the bromance road trip movie? I remember it as more of that sort.

I clearly remember my introduction to 'Gone with the Wind.' I was around 13 or 14; we had a neighbor living in the adjacent apartment to my family's. She was in her early 20s, worked in Manhatten (we were in Brooklyn), and we (me, my year older sister and my best friend) thought her so sophisticated and worldly. She was a wonderful friend to us; we would hang out in her apartment of an evening, and she would always lend an ear to our teen-age musings, and offer an older perspective. One Saturday in April, she said, 'They're having a revival of 'Gone with Wind' at Radio City. Let's all go!' We were not enthused. 'Gone with the Wind'? *whine, whine* What's that? Clark Gable? Who's he?' But having nothing better to do, we agreed to be persuaded. I even remember exactly what I wore, and that the day was damp and cool.

The next I knew, it was August and I felt a lot older. The intervening months were wiled away in a dreamy daze. I will say that I did feel somewhat retroactively disappointed in the adaptation once I read the book shortly afterwards, as so much of the post-war complexity was overshadowed by melodrama in the movie. (I couldn't stand Scarlett, either. )

[Frelga]

I don't think Scarlett is supposed to be a wholly sympathetic character, although she does mature through the story. When I read Maus, I was reminded of Scarlett - both characters are survivors, no matter what, who sometimes create more problems for themselves in an already terrifying world.

[narya]

I remember reading the book twice as a young teen and thinking Scarlett was a wonderful woman, then seeing the movie as a young woman myself and thinking what an immature, irritating, irresponsible girl she was. Part of the difference was the adaptation, but I think most of it was my perspective.


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[JewelSong]

Another movie I couldn't get through was "Lost in Translation." I know it's supposed to be good movie, but...there was NOTHING happening! Couldn't do it.


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[Passdagas the Brown]

Sophia Coppola - wildly overrated director, IMO.

[Passdagas the Brown]

Sophia Coppola - wildly overrated director, IMO.

Though to her credit, she managed to turn a beloved actor (Bill Murray) into a pretty creepy guy. No mean feat.

[Impenitent]

Most movies that were bad enough for me to stop watching them have been forgotten by my brain. I can't recall their titles.

This, primarily.

I know there have been films I couldn't finish watching because they annoyed me to the point of anger, and I know there were films I didn't finish watching because they bored me, and my brain finds it a fruitless exercise to remember anything much about them. I tend to agree.

Of course, that does leave me prey to accidental or inadvertent second viewings...

[axordil]

Sophia Coppola - wildly overrated director, IMO.

Though to her credit, she managed to turn a beloved actor (Bill Murray) into a pretty creepy guy. No mean feat.

Nah, Murray's always been able to access his inner creeper. What he did for LIT was suppress the things that normally make that kind of character funny. Compare his character at the beginning of Groundhog Day.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Sophia Coppola - wildly overrated director, IMO.

Though to her credit, she managed to turn a beloved actor (Bill Murray) into a pretty creepy guy. No mean feat.

You probably won't be surprised to hear that I thought that Lost in Translation was an excellent film, though it is the only one of hers that I have seen.

[kzer_za]

Sophia Coppola - wildly overrated director, IMO.

Is Sofia Coppola really very highly rated besides Lost in Translation? I haven't seen any of them (LiT included), but most the movies she directed are below 7 on IMDB - an imperfect measurement, but still a rough indicator of general consensus. She's still mostly known for her infamous role in Godfather Part III. I don't dislike that movie as much as some people do and she's probably been picked on for it too much over the years, but it really is a dreadful performance.

Nah, Murray's always been able to access his inner creeper. What he did for LIT was suppress the things that normally make that kind of character funny. Compare his character at the beginning of Groundhog Day.

Or Ghostbusters, really!

[Impenitent]

You probably won't be surprised to hear that I thought that Lost in Translation was an excellent film...

Me, too! Jewel, I agree that nothing much happened, externally at least. It was very much a film about an individual's internal dialogue to accommodate emotional/spiritual change in deciding Who I Am, and What Do I Want. I also really enjoyed the gentle chemistry between the two characters, actually.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Me too. It certainly didn't have the spectacular special effects of a movie like Gravity, but I thought the characters were far more interesting and believable.

[Passdagas the Brown]

I actually didn't mind LIT (and feel it was Coppola's best). It was generally well-crafted and captured the kind of detachment that can happen in such situations. But I had to listen to far too many hipsters tell me that it was the second-coming, so I enjoy hating on it.

I also have a problem identifying with characters who are, well, bored. Johanssen is in Japan for the first time, and all she can do is be bored by it. No sense of curiosity or adventure whatsoever. Just cool, detached boredom.

I prefer stories about characters who are curious about life, existence and all that. There's so much too see and learn and do. How can you ever get bored? Boggles my mind.

[Passdagas the Brown]

I actually didn't mind LIT (and feel it was Coppola's best). It was generally well-crafted and captured the kind of detachment that can happen in such situations. But I had to listen to far too many hipsters tell me that it was the second-coming, so I enjoy hating on it.

I also have a problem identifying with characters who are, well, bored. Johanssen is in Japan for the first time, and all she can do is be bored by it. No sense of curiosity or adventure whatsoever. Just cool, detached boredom. And Bill Murray was also bored (and generally boring), which bored me!

I prefer stories about characters who are curious about life, existence and all that. There's so much to see and learn and do. How can you ever get bored? Boggles my mind.

[JewelSong]

I also have a problem identifying with characters who are, well, bored.

This might have been part of my problem with it. And I didn't like either of the main characters, or identify with them in any way.

Now, another movie where I didn't like the characters, but I did watch until the end, was "Sideways." I thought Paul Giamatti's character, Miles, was a complete loser and not at all appealing. And I detested Jack Cole (played by Thomas Hayden Church) and thought he deserved to lose everything...but of course, he didn't.

However, the movie kept my interest and I thought about it afterward (my test for a "good" movie.) But I really didn't LIKE it (if that makes sense) and I doubt I'd ever watch it again.

[Cerin]

It's been quite awhile since I saw, 'LIT', but I do not remember the Johanssen character as being bored. I thought there was a tremendous amount going on internally, for which she had no outlet or means of exploration (whereas 'bored' for me implies a certain mental dullness). I enjoy when a film seems to evolve organically, as opposed to being obviously plotted. I remember being quite fascinated with this film; I probably would not have the high opinion of have of Johanssen had I not seen this film and 'Girl with the Pearl Earring'. In a way, it's unfortunate when actors become box office draws and start getting the blockbuster roles that require less subtlety of craft.

[Passdagas the Brown]

Jewel,

Agreed on Sideways. Intensely unlikeable characters (and made me despise the Wings guy, who I used to like!)

I think LIT and Sideways are actually rare examples of films that I strongly disagree with the critical consensus on (the others being LOTR, Black Swan, the Fountain, and a few others I'm probably forgetting).

Cerin,

Johanssen's character certainly had a LOT going on internally. But she certainly seemed bored by her surroundings, despite being in Tokyo for the first time in her life. But that's not so much a criticism of the film and the script, as much as it is an expression of my inability to relate to her.

I have a lot of difficulty empathizing with bored, indifferent and extraordinarily self-pitying and navel-gazing characters. I find the world endlessly fascinating, and can't imagine ever reacting to a new place as her character does (or getting tired of the world, as Murray's character does). On top of that, the significantly older man-young female dynamic tends to creep me out.

But judged on its merits as a film, it's a solid piece of film-making and it looks great.