[Closed] dumping films midway through...

I've dumped more TV shows halfway through, like 3-4 seasons in, than films.

I've dumped more replies to top..

Suicide squad was my last DNF. Have given up on more TV series than films, though.

Oddly, I do the opposite on flights. When I start watching a film, and it turns out to be utter shit, for some unknown reason, I just endure it until the end.

The Point Break remake, for example. Or, on my most recent jaunt, Passengers (Yawn) and Life (Predictable and dull).

*Edit*

drlex - Member
Suicide squad was my last DNF.

Guess what? Yep, that's right. I stuck it out until the bitter end.

*Edit*
Why can't I just turn them off and watch something else instead?

Ghost in the Shell. Not even Scarlett's ass could save that.

Does anybody do the whole flicking through Netflix, Prime et al for eons and then not actually watch anything or is that just me?

Not just you FunkmasterP I'm right on the point of binning off both and just watching stuff off YouTube

I dump about 50% of it these days.

Time was a 'big film' was something they put on TV at Xmas or maybe on Bank Holiday, or you walked to the video shop and rented it - it was a special thing, you watched it whatever and even if it was crap it was better than 90% of what was on TV.

These days I've got Netflix, iTunes, Film4 and whatever else 😉 there's too much choice to endure a crap film willingly.

Why can't I just turn them off and watch something else instead?

Probably fifty percent of stuff I watch I lose interest halfway through. The last enjoyable film I watched was (not kidding) The Equalizer with Denzel Washington, along with Line of Duty (best TV thing I've seen for ages).

That's what a phone/pad stuffed with music and ebooks is for.

I know! Tablet is always with me, loaded with interesting stuff from iPlayer, as well as things like all of Blackadder, all of Yes Minister/Prime Minister, etc, and whatever films I know will take my fancy. Perhaps the problem is that it's usually during the meal service that I start watching a film, when it's easier to use the IFE.

[i]Does anybody do the whole flicking through Netflix, Prime et al for eons and then not actually watch anything or is that just me?[/i]

Tick! I find the Netflix interface/method of browsing really irritating. Endless scrolling, if you see something and keep browsing, you can't find it again. And loads of feature length documentaries hidden within the films.

well I'm glad it's not just me then

Netflix is pretty weak for films these days. I usually stick to their series.

Ghost in the Shell. Not even Scarlett's ass could save that.

CFH - emphasis on bitter?

Yeah post Netflix I just CBA to get to the end. I slightly hate it actually! I used to really love films, they used to a be a real special event. I'm still enjoying the cinema though, so I might ditch the Netflix and go back to that 🙂

Ps ditto with flights- there's something about them that makes the shittiest movie sooo watchable!! 🙂

I don't even bother starting

Aeon Flux! I'd almost forgotten that. You sod.

On the verge of dumping Game of Thrones, because I got bored after 1st episode of S6. Not watched since. Still recorded though so might catch up.

Films, only one i came close to was Highlander 2 at the cinema.

Modern films rarely get a chance of starting now as so many are garbage and reboots. I have little enthusiasm for films now to even get near to dumping (my consumption of films isn't really streaming though to just "dump" them).

We dumped Orange Is The New Black four episodes in - utter shitetrollop.

emphasis on bitter?

Oh my was it awful. In fact, beyond awful. And yet....

flights- there's something about them that makes the shittiest movie sooo watchable!!

I have quite a tolerance for bad films. I think, "well, I've got this far, might as well see how it ends." It's very, very rare that I'll bin a film halfway through, about the only time is if I start watching it very late, go to bed and then CBA to watch the rest another day. I think "Drive" was the last one I did that with.

Dumping TV shows is a different conversation IMHO.

😳 I quite enjoyed Aeon Flux. It's right up there with Ultraviolet.

I can't give up on any movie. Once I'm watching I'm committed to the end or the thought of not knowing what happens drives me mad.

Agree with Drive. I watched most of it hoping it would get better. It didnt. Gave up 2/3 way through.
Ghost in the shell. Managed 20 mins. I fell asleep. Woke up to the credit music. Didnt feel the need to find out what was going on.

The Revenant. About half an hour. Bin.

king arthur legend of the sword = dog turd

I wish I had walked out of the cinema

Same here - most hollywood films utterly predictable. Switch off halfway through and then check on wikipedia to see if i'm missing anything.99% of time i'm not. Prefer asian films - they quite happy to throw a curve ball/kill off the main charactert if it makes more sense to the film- you know that 99 times out of a hundred the hero of a hollywood film will still be there at the end. Watch some korean thrillers - train to busan/man from nowhere/war of the arrows to pep your viewing up or even one of the recent chinese films such as taking of tiger mountain/extraordinary mission.
Agreed King Arthur - full of cockney geeezers in medieval britain. Had more fun making toast. Did enjoy the hippopotamus - but that was because of the acerbic performance of Roger allam. A quick look on netflix shows that the man from nowwhere is on their at the moment and some other asian films worth watching depending on your tastes - let me know if you want any recommendations. Also try - look whos back - a very interesting film

shermer75 - Member
Ps ditto with flights- there's something about them that makes the shittiest movie sooo watchable!!

I don't think I've watched a film on Netflix for ages.

I find myself doing the trawling-through-Netflix thing for an hour or two, and then either watching another episode of STNG, or giving up and going to BBC iplayer, which has tons of good stuff on it.

Or Radio 4.

We have a 20-minute rule for films. If we can't stand any more, or just don't care what happens it gets binned.

The Girl on the Train was this weekends casualty. Everyone was unpleasant. Bye.

Another vote for Suicide Squad. I've had two DNFs with it.

Some shite called Nocturnal Animals on Sky last night, pile of poo. Ditched within 15mins.

I just work my way through the imdb top 1000. At my rate of consumption Im covered for the next 100yrs anyway

I often fast forward through films, it's usually obvious after 10 minutes if there's going to be any worthwhile character development or if it's mostly filler with the odd action/drama part. Purge 3 I probably watched about 15 minutes in real time for example.

bikebouy - Member
Some shite called Nocturnal Animals on Sky last night, pile of poo. Ditched within 15mins

Best film of the year ?

Really ?

Well, to some maybe.

The problem is with 'big' Hollywood films. They are getting worse and worse. But the studios are pushing them as much as ever which makes it hard to find anything else. Most of the creativity seems to be in TV series these days, and there are piles of top notch series - for me at least.

Top tip on Netflix - look for foreign films. There are some superb ones on there. Korean and Chinese comedy martial arts films are a favourite.

Other thing to note about Netflix is their recommendation algorithm seems rather narrow-minded. So the more of one kind of film you watch, the more you get, and therefore the closer to the bottom of the barrel you end up. You can edit your preferences better on the website IIRC.

Agree with bikebuoy, only managed 20 mins of it.

Last film we dumped was Hellboy 2.

If I know a film is going to be crap I can deal with that, I have watched some rubbish in my time (having Stealth narrated by a drunk Ukranian made it so much better)

Netflix is pitiful for films, last time I checked Prime wasn't much better.

bikebouy - Member
Best film of the year ?

Really ?

Well, to some maybe.

As with everything a lot comes down to taste but to say it's a crap film is a bit much.

The last enjoyable film I watched was (not kidding) The Equalizer with Denzel Washington,

I saw that on TV recently and really enjoyed it. Don't normally like Denzel but I thought he really suited it.

I stopped watching films based on reviews or friends recommendations years ago. I read a description and try it out, sometimes you can get something you love but has been panned by the critics. I did this with The Cobbler - I do like Adam Sandler but not all his films so when my wife and I were searching through Netflix (I think) it came up and we wondered why we hadn't heard of it. Watched it and really enjoyed it, I checked the reviews a week later and found it had been universally panned and was a complete flop!

Watched some 80's films again recently, including Desperately Seeking Susan, which I had never seen before and thought that was ace!

Maybe you lot should go to the cinema to watch films more often. Hardly ever walk out as I've paid! Or maybe used my free Lloyds vouchers. Crap I've endured includes Ghost in the Shell, Lego Batman, Transformers: Last (please let it be the last!) Knight, Alien: Dross. Never would've finished those on TV! The Revenant was awesome at the cinema.

Last film I walked out on was 'Cake'. That was particularly bad as I booked online to see Inherent Vice and they changed the film.

Ok, crap I'll rescind and replace with "boring".
HTHs.

Mainstream films predictable and boring shocker. Most big films are just paint by numbers plots with marketing razzle dazzle. The more money involved, the more corporate interference, the safer and more predictable they become.

This is compounded by the contrarian attitudes towards legitimate film critics - "Mark Kermode is a ****, it's a great film because I enjoyed it".

Films definitely get more predictable as you get older for obvious reasons. And, as has been pointed out above, Hollywood only makes pretty much the same movie everytime they get quite unwatchable after a while!!

And, as has been pointed out above, Hollywood only makes pretty much the same movie everytime they get quite unwatchable after a while!!

Well said Mike.

Film4 has a crime "season" on this week - some fab looking films showing. Mainstream actors like Matthew Mcconaughey, Tom Hardy, Ben Kingsley.. but def not mainstream films - The Drop, Killer Joe (tonight 10:45, do not miss!), Sexy Beast, Good People... (plus a couple of duffs, but hey-ho)

mikewsmith

[b]To be honest I couldn't disagree more.[/b]
Films like Drive, Nocturnal Animals etc have been a breath of fresh air, properly well made stuff, Logan was exceptional and crossed genres, T2 was great and not formuleric, Arrival carried me along with it and didn't make me guess ahead as the story unfolded. Rogue One chucked out the convention for the ending, Deadpool just did things differently very well and got us away from the 12A drudge of crap.
Fantastic beasts brought a whole new world to life and extended a great story. Stuff like Fences and Moonlight are telling amazing stories really well. [b]There is a load of great cinema out there, some of it challenges you to think some of it just lets you flow along with it - there is some great stuff that just needs watching[/b]

I agree with the point you've made but some of the examples you've chosen to make it are........terrible 😈

Want to tell my why they are terrible?

mikewsmith - Member

Want to tell my why they are terrible?

Not really, but in a nutshell Drive, T2 and even Nocturnal Animals are relatively small films. I think the malaise that is afflicting Hollywood and viewer disenfranchisment is really more about big films. And there are so many smaller independent/semi independent films which are much better.

Rogue One doesn't have an original thought in it's head, even the downer ending seemed an homage to Empire Strikes Back. Deadpool is just a crap film that gets credit for having swearing and violence, great that it's true to the source material in that respect but it's otherwise a completely generic, formulaic film and predictable film. Logan is a much better film, but again all it's doing is respecting the source material and following a roadmap to credibility laid out by Deapool. It doesn't cross genres in any meaningful way either that I can see.

I didn't agree entirely with mike's films, but it was a good general point.*

Deadpool is probably my favourite film of the last 10 years. Pure entertainment - plus a lot of originality and a great script.. Dead wrong to say it's crap. Didn't bother with Rogue 1 as knew I wouldn't like it.

*Pretty much what jimjam said, in reverse 😳

It's probably worth considering that we're in the age of $400 million films, and most of the big franchises / tent-pole films are 175 - 300 million. Even a James Bond films costs $250 million.

Googling "average hollywood film budget" it seems that the average cost of a major studio release is $100 million. In that context $5 million or even $10 million seems like nothing.

Want to tell my why they are terrible?

Fantastic beasts was not really fantastic. Someone thought 'I know, let's do something with lots of weird animals in it' and then tried to come up with a plot to fit them in. Felt very contrived. And the plot was a bit non-existent really. Ooer look at all the scrapes we get into to keep all this a secret.

I couldn't "dump" a film watching on TV really, unless it was something I'd drifted into to see what it was like. Watching films I make an effort, set everything up, crank up the surround system and lights off. Can't be eating food either. I don't casually watch films as they're an investment of time and need my attention.

Noting that I don't generally watch "no attention span required" films, though that rules out most modern films.

It's one reason I don't watch much now, despite being a big film fan at one point. I often don't want to invest/waste time watching a film, and less so if I probably won't like it, as I will watch it to the end. So instead I just don't even start. Plus I usually have other stuff I need to do. I'll just fill a bit of time around meals with a half hour or hour at most TV show.

Fantastic beasts was not really fantastic.

To be fair though, you're probably beyond the primary target audience by some 30 years.

I rather enjoyed it myself, I thought it was fun and nicely put together.

[i]Fantastic Beasts was not really fantastic[/i]

Oh gawd - completely forgot I'd seen that. Goes in the 'terrible children's films you've had to endure' thread. Would definitely have turned off the tv before the end of that rubbish, even the kid hated it.

Maybe you lot should go to the cinema to watch films more often. Hardly ever walk out as I've paid! Or maybe used my free Lloyds vouchers. Crap I've endured includes Ghost in the Shell, Lego Batman, Transformers: Last (please let it be the last!) Knight, Alien: Dross.

Your film choice suggests that you are 15?

14 actually.

The first Lego movie was the most recent for me. Utter, utter crap, needlessly voiced by smug celebs and I say that as somebody who watched and enjoyed Dinocroc vs Supergator (i.e. my standards are very very low).

the lego movie was awesome

OTOH the Lego Scooby Doo episode was superb. And only 20 minutes long.

retro83

The first Lego movie was the most recent for me. Utter, utter crap,

I thought it was very good. Well written, visually unique and enough in jokes and pop culture references to entertain adults without alienating it's main audience - kids. I enjoyed Lego Batman ever more though, as did my kids. Genuinely funny with tons of in-jokes for Batman geeks and visually spectacular (although by the end I did want some more variety in the colour palette.

needlessly voiced by smug celebs and I say that as somebody who watched and enjoyed Dinocroc vs Supergator (i.e. my standards are very very low).

I think you'll find that with animated films voice actors are far from needless, they're pretty much essential. It also helps to have people with great comedic timing like Chris Pratt and Will Ferrell as there's a disconnect between the actor's delivery and the viewer. As an added bonus their star power helps drive the promotion of the film.

A lot of this is subjective and half of the above is obviously awful and the other half disliked I thought was fab.

I'm going through my "top rated" films I've yet to see and recently couldnt get to the end of Mulholland Drive; what the hell am I missing with this cos it was junk - and I am a sucker for art house stuff.

paulneenan76 - Member
A lot of this is subjective and half of the above is obviously awful and the other half disliked I thought was fab.

jimjam - Member
I think you'll find that with animated films voice actors are far from needless, they're pretty much essential. It also helps to have people with great comedic timing like Chris Pratt and Will Ferrell as there's a disconnect between the actor's delivery and the viewer. As an added bonus their star power helps drive the promotion of the film.

To an extent, yes but mainly I think it's far more likely to have been "we have a mediocre film, how can we make sure it sells" as with the film "Shark Tale".

retro83 - Member

To an extent, yes but mainly I think it's far more likely to have been "we have a mediocre film, how can we make sure it sells" as with the film "Shark Tale".

With animated films they'll develop the script, cast the actors, record the dialogue, then use the dialogue as reference for the animation as well as using the actors' features and expressions as a basis for the look of the characters.

You can't retrospectively cast big names in order to improve a bad film.

jimjam - Member
With animated films they'll develop the script, cast the actors, record the dialogue, then use the dialogue as reference for the animation as well as using the actors' features and expressions as a basis for the look of the characters.

You can't retrospectively cast big names in order to improve a bad film.

Okay then, let me rephrase: "we have a mediocre script, how can we make sure it sells".

That 97% of people on RT seem to rate it is puzzling.

I love Lego, I love comedy, I've enjoyed a lot of kids films but I genuinely thought it was one of the most boring films I've seen in a long long time. Not just that but the pacing was also awful.

retro83

Okay then, let me rephrase: "we have a mediocre script, how can we make sure it sells".

So you have a $100,000 script that's mediocre so you are going to spend 10,20,30 million dollars on paying super stars to fix that problem rather than spend another $100,000 on script revisions or a better script?

Sharks Tale is a wretched film but it probably failed for a myriad of reasons, death by a thousand cuts in terms of compromises and errors of judgement as opposed to "let's try to make a hit with a shit script and some famous names".

I think whatever criticism you were trying to make regarding the Lego Movie having needlessly famous voice actors isn't really valid.

I genuinely thought it was one of the most boring films I've seen in a long long time. Not just that but the pacing was also awful.

What was wrong with the pacing? Why do you think it was boring?

Well obviously you don't think it's valid, you liked the film! 😆

The pacing was ludicrously fast, the film felt like an hour and half long episode of family guy on fast forward. Gag, gag, gag, cultural reference, gag, , gag, gag, lego reference, gag, gag, movie reference, gag, gag, movie reference, gag, gag.

Ultraviolet
Was the last one I walk away from the cinema, never mind the TV lol