How much of a chance you give to a movie?

[Oliuj]

What I mean is, do you always watch a movie to the end even if you don't like, or do you leave if it doesn't engage you?

I try to watch until the end, but maybe I'm wasting my time with something that doesn't give me pleasure.

[pabs]

Depends, if it's a 90 minute flick and I really can't bear it by the halfway mark, and I can also tell it won't improve, I stop.

[MrCarmady]

I am pretty stubborn, I've abandoned maybe 1% of films I've ever seen and I think the timings were inconsistent, except I guess most of them occurred before the halfway mark as if I'm hating something but I'm only 20 minutes from the end, I'll just finish it to form a complete opinion.

[rischka]

i give it 30 mins. sometimes i'll try again cuz it could just be my mood but i refuse to finish every movie i start. i do try to pick things i'll probably like (based on friends or subject or directors)

[FLABREZU]

the REAL question is if you dont finish it do you still put it in your log

[Roscoe]

Depends. My bullshit detector has gotten to be pretty reliable. I bailed on the entire DOWNTON ABBEY phenomenon after the first fifteen minutes of the first episode, and the occasional checkin over the years confirmed me in my decision. On the other hand, it was three attempts before I made it through SATANTANGO and HARD TO BE A GOD, and well, you know. I recently bailed on LA GRANDE BOUFFE after about 45 minutes, we'll see if I give it another shot.

[Umbugbene]

So far I always finish what I start, but it's a policy from my 20s whose wisdom I often question. I end up seeing some bad movies, but I always try to learn from them. I'd break my rule without hesitation if a movie were sufficiently offensive.

[rischka]

the REAL question is if you dont finish it do you still put it in your log

absolutely not -- i will log it at the start to encourage myself to finish. if i don't finish i delete it

[Silga]

I agree with MrCarmady. I've probably abandoned very few films in recent years and, of course, didn't log it.

Recent one I've quit was Beautiful Boy by Felix Van Groeningen. I left cinema after maybe 30 mins. But I caught it playing on TV one day and finished it, mostly because I loved previous film by Van Groeningen called Belgica. But my opinion about Beautiful Boy didn't improve one bit and I beautifully awarded it 1/10.

[MrCarmady]

Hah, I was just thinking about how bad Steve Carrell is in that. And those montages set to indie music! Laziest shit I've ever seen. Good to know Belgica is better, though.

[nrh]

by this point i feel like i have a pretty good sense of what's worth finishing - i.e. either a movie i'm predisposed to like or something that is interesting enough that i'll find value in it even if i don't fully enjoy it.

the trickier question i find is just working long hours and only having time to watch movies somewhat late at night, when you get to that point where you either fall asleep during something or feel too tired to continue. that's definitely where i find myself considering whether to move on or not.

[Monsieur Arkadin]

I never finished the Paris Hilton House of Wax or Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven. If you ignore those two, I think I have a 100% completion rate.

But I usually don't watch movies alone. So after the whole rigamarole of mediating possible choices with my wife, I'm pretty damn committed.

[Oliuj]

the REAL question is if you dont finish it do you still put it in your log

I don't do it. You can't really judge a movie by watching only a part. You only know that it didn't grab your attention. Better not to waste time.

[Holymanm]

Oh man, I love abandoning movies (which is a distant cousin to abandoning plans to see movies, which I also love). I watched the first 20 seconds of that Ender's Game adaptation, and I turned that junk off posthaste because I could (presumptuously perhaps) already tell just what it was going to be, and what they were going to do to that book. Some other examples like that.

Recently I watched the first 7 minutes of Booksmart, and couldn't bear to watch any more, so I turned it off and gave it the old 0.5/5 - feeling that at least 7 minutes was sufficient to judge it (unkindly). With a 20-second-turn-off, I wouldn't. But then yesterday I was about to turn off Steel Toes after the first 20 seconds, because it had some absurdly bad slow-mo, and I was like "FFS Canadian (taxpayer-funded) cinema!!!" ...but then I kept watching, and it was a solid 2.5 or 3 in the end. Weird!

[flip]

if i've chosen to watch a film, there's usually some reason i'm interested in it, and that reason is usually compelling enough to make me finish even when the film seems awful. films i didn't choose to watch are a different story though (things i've watched with my nephews or partner or whatever). i rarely log something i don't finish, but i don't feel bad doing that with really formulaic hallmark movies or similar, where you can tell halfway through if there's any talent involved in the production. the only films i'd ever log without finishing are things i'll end up rating 1-star or less.

[liquidnature]

I rarely completely abandon a film, and usually only if I find it repulsive or immoral or aggressively against my own personal values, but I do skip through a good number here and there if I'm uninterested or can assess the quality of the film early on - one recent example of such a film would be Wilder's Five Graves to Cairo, about 50% through I knew what I was in for and wasn't keen on finishing. For such a film typically I will watch at least until halfway and then skip about 5 minutes ahead at a time in order to get the gist of the remaining plot or intentions of the film. But most films I complete, even if takes multiples days or even a week to get through.

[pabs]

It's really rare that I abandon a film. I usually get my recommendations from trusted viewers (some of whom are on this forum), which means 95% of the films I bother to see are going to be watchable to the end (usually). But even if I stop watching a film 10 minutes before the end, I won't log it as "seen".

[greennui]

I rarely turn off a film but I might stop paying attention and not bother to rewind.

[john ryan]

I have trouble abandoning even the worst films. I recently turned off Caligula after an. I thought I was watching one of the worst things I'd ever seen. I turned it back on several hours later after feeling wracked with guilt

[wba]

if i've chosen to watch a film, there's usually some reason i'm interested in it, and that reason is usually compelling enough to make me finish even when the film seems awful. films i didn't choose to watch are a different story though (things i've watched with my nephews or partner or whatever).

Same here, so 99% of times I want to or have to finish something I started.

If I choose it myself, I'm very much interested in it (so there's no reason to stop), and if I'm watching with someone else, it's not easy to get away from it, so I'll have to sit through it.

If I'm lucky and watch with other people, and the other(s) also hate(s) it, we might agree to turn it off.

Mostly I haven't finished movies I started watching cause something happened, like I fell asleep (in a theater), or somebody called me or someone got sick, etc. and I forgot all about the film.
If life intervenes, it can be difficult to finish a film.

I would never fast forward a film or converse during a film or think about other things while watching or such. That's blasphemy for me.

[pabs]

The worst film I ever watched 'til the end was Cat Woman (2004) with Halle Berry. I literally wanted to scream from boredom and frustration at how frigging badly made it was. It was a completely hopeless wreck of a film and to this day I still can't believe how bad it was. But I was stuck in a room with four or five people, one of whom had brought the film over for us to see, and I didn't have the courage to get up and leave at the 30 minute mark. These days, I wouldn't be so polite!

I still remember this session with anger. Such an incredibly bad piece of shit that film is, my god!

[MrCarmady]

The worst film I ever watched 'til the end was Cat Woman (2004) with Halle Berry. I literally wanted to scream from boredom and frustration at how frigging badly made it was. It was a completely hopeless wreck of a film and to this day I still can't believe how bad it was. But I was stuck in a room with four or five people, one of whom had brought the film over for us to see, and I didn't have the courage to get up and leave at the 30 minute mark. These days, I wouldn't be so polite!

I still remember this session with anger. Such an incredibly bad piece of shit that film is, my god!

Fair play to Halle, though, think she's the only person ever to accept both an Oscar and a Razzie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-7s_yeQuDg

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

Fair play to Halle, though, think she's the only person ever to accept both an Oscar and a Razzie.

Sandra Bullock did it too for All About Steve and The Blind Side.

[MrCarmady]

Fair play to Halle, though, think she's the only person ever to accept both an Oscar and a Razzie.

Sandra Bullock did it too for All About Steve and The Blind Side.

I want you on my pub quiz team!

[FLABREZU]

06 Catwoman (2004) - 6.0/10