Movies you regret watching

[Aedilred]

Requiem for a dream for me, not that it's a bad film at all, I'd say it was a great film. Just really, really harrowing! It's a good job my other half at the time was about or I may have jumped out the window!

As I've grown older I've developed a bit of a problem with needles. I never really had this as a child or adolescent but in the last ~5-6 years I've noticed that I'm (apparently visibly) apprehensive every time I have to have blood drawn/shots/whatever. Now, I'm not saying that this is entirely the fault of Requiem for a Dream... but I'm pretty sure it didn't help.

Other movies I regret watching:
The Matrix Reloaded: Just took so much away from the legacy of The Matrix which I had in very fond memory at the time (Although I must admit, it did not age that well). I did not watch the third part.

God that film was terrible. I'm not sure if I regret watching it per se, or if I'd just prefer that it had never been made.

.
Er, no. All I need to do is make this noise and people think of Inception. The moment any of my friends mention the word 'big', 'dark', or 'painful', Baneposting immediately follows. Fury Road and The Wolf Of Wall Street are movies that still get talked about. The Cabin in the Woods is already the cult classic horror movie of the decade.

Interstellar has been forgotten, and will be kitche within a decade. It's not the definitive classic of the 2010s by a long shot.

...Actually, what would you say is the definitive classic of, say, the 80s, 90s, or 00s? Just to get an idea of where you're coming from.

If Doma is a pedant, then 2010 would be considered the last year of the 00s, and as such Inception is not a film of the 2010s.

But even leaving aside Inception, I think Fury Road is the standout action film of this decade so far. In a more general popcorn sense, I think The Avengers also merits consideration. While I thoroughly enjoyed Wolf of Wall Street I'm not sure it will stand the test of time any better than has, say, The Departed, which is a great film but not one that immediately leaps to mind as a standout film of its decade.

If that's the sort of genre we're dealing with, I'd imagine the 70s classics in question would be Jaws and Star Wars; Alien(s) and Back to the Future from the 80s, and Terminator 2 and Jurassic Park from the 90s.

Higher-brow classics are of course a completely different kettle of fish.

[thorgrim29]

The 2010s will probably be remembered mostly as the Marvel decade. I don't think any individual film is going to have the cultural importance and staying power that that franchise did. Although Transformers and the Fast&Furious movies as well as the DC movies have also been crazy box office draws so it might be generally the big franchise decade (add in Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Twilight, etc..) or the shared universe decade.

[sktarq]

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Now I generally like "Oscar Bait" movies.
I often like movies that others find boring and slow.

This movie annoyed me.
This I felt insulted by.
This seemed like every pompous insult directed at "high cinema" as put together by someone taking the mickey. . . It is as if they were trying to be the horrible stereotype but so earnestly.
I kept finding new ways to be annoyed or insulted by it for days after
I was actively pissed off by the societal acceptance and lauding of a insipid film major's student project that somehow got a wide release. And the negative pressure it put on other artists to make movies like it.
I was in a worse mood because of this movie for an extended period of time. This was regularly spurred, in spite of my attempts to forget it and put it behind me, by its inclusion with Silver Linings Playbook, Django Unchained, Argo, Life of Pi, Amour, Lincoln, and Zero Dark Thirty (which may not have all been my cup of tea but I got why others would like them)
Seeing it made my life actively worse than watching a white screen for 93 minutes.

So yeah I regret seeing this movie.

and I don't recommend it.

[2D8HP]

Casino Royale.

The 1967 "parody" of course (worst Peter Sellers/Woody Allen film ever), but I also regret seeing the 2006 film, not because it was bad (it wasn't), but because it led me to trying to watch the subsequent Bond films, which don't seem to be worth watching after the opening song.

Yes I liked the Mexico City part of Spectre but I could well miss the rest.

But my real issue with Casino Royale is viewIng it led me to try to (once again) read the novel.

[Wookieetank]

Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, as a die hard SW fan, I had to forcibly keep myself from walking out of the theater in the hopes that it got better by the end. It didn't. The only good part of the movie was the Yoda vs Dooku fight and that was not enough to save the rest of this train wreck. I've only ever seen it start to finish once, and that feels like 1 time too many.

[Peelee]

Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, as a die hard SW fan, I had to forcibly keep myself from walking out of the theater in the hopes that it got better by the end. It didn't. The only good part of the movie was the Yoda vs Dooku fight and that was not enough to save the rest of this train wreck. I've only ever seen it start to finish once, and that feels like 1 time too many.

Saw the Clone Wars in a theater. I longed for the quality of the prequels.

[Strigon]

Saw the Clone Wars in a theater. I longed for the quality of the prequels.

Admittedly, it was designed to be a kids' show.
But yeah, it was rough...

[Wookieetank]

Admittedly, it was designed to be a kids' show.
But yeah, it was rough...

Gravel grained sandpaper comes to mind...

[solidork]

Beasts of the Southern Wild

So yeah I regret seeing this movie.

and I don't recommend it.

The only thing that left a lasting impression on me was the soundtrack, which I quite like.

[Mister Tom]

[*]Forrest Gump: Here we get to my personal least favorite movie, which is greeted only with visceral hatred. Most of the rest of the movies on this list I merely dislike (although a Sandler or two might sink into the hated category). This I despise - a several hour long smarmy, condescending anti-intellectual lecture openly hostile to anyone who might even tangentially be categorized as intellectual cleverly disguised as an uplifting movie with a positive message about mental disabilities. A sickening hybrid of nostalgia and jingoism presented as some sort of meaningful statement on a wider culture. Contrived moralizing in the form of religious propaganda taking brazen glee at the misfortune of those who aren't a member of the chosen religion*, all papered over with a thin veil comprised mostly of self satisfied smugness. The rest of the movies on this list are awful, but they come by that through a combination of laziness, ignorance, and ineptitude. This gets there by malice, and then manages to get a good critical reception on top of that. The rest of these I'm willing to hold against the higher-ups involved as artists. This one I hold against them as people.

*RAPTUROUS APPLAUSE *

Also Star Trek: Nemesis, the patron deity of sequel decay.

[8BitNinja]

The Martian.

There's nothing wrong with it, it's just that it didn't interest me.

[DomaDoma]

Er, no. All I need to do is make this noise and people think of Inception. The moment any of my friends mention the word 'big', 'dark', or 'painful', Baneposting immediately follows. Fury Road and The Wolf Of Wall Street are movies that still get talked about. The Cabin in the Woods is already the cult classic horror movie of the decade.

Interstellar has been forgotten, and will be kitche within a decade. It's not the definitive classic of the 2010s by a long shot.

...Actually, what would you say is the definitive classic of, say, the 80s, 90s, or 00s? Just to get an idea of where you're coming from.

Memetic value isn't what I'm talking about here.

Aaand then I'm going to follow that up by saying that the definitive classic of the 1990s was Independence Day. Because it was a profoundly unserious decade that genuinely believed worldwide harmony was going to descend at any moment. The 2000s? Dark Knight. (Don't blame me if Nolan is the closest thing we have to a Capra or a Hitchcock.) The '80s... honestly, I can't think of a movie. Plenty of good movies, but I've seen none that really encapsulated and looked round the overall zeitgeist a fraction as well as Watchmen did.

[8BitNinja]

Memetic value isn't what I'm talking about here.

Aaand then I'm going to follow that up by saying that the definitive classic of the 1990s was Independence Day. Because it was a profoundly unserious decade that genuinely believed worldwide harmony was going to descend at any moment. The 2000s? Dark Knight. (Don't blame me if Nolan is the closest thing we have to a Capra or a Hitchcock.) The '80s... honestly, I can't think of a movie. Plenty of good movies, but I've seen none that really encapsulated and looked round the overall zeitgeist a fraction as well as Watchmen did.

I think that the 80s was the decade of the action hero. At least for me, when someone talks about 80s movies, I think about actors like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. I believe that Hollywood in the 80s liked to focus on dudes with a ton of guns and even more testosterone going in to a place and killing everything and it's okay because justice or something.

I don't know, it might just be my viewing habits.

[Leewei]

Both Terminator and Aliens are genre classics from the mid-80s. Terminator had themes of the menace of technology versus human resilience and instinct. Aliens had similar human themes, but the antagonists were killer xenomorphs aided by human overconfidence and greed. Interestingly, the android in Aliens was a very convincing good guy.

Overall, I'd have to give this one to Aliens. Terminator showed our machines turning on us in a terrifying fashion, but Aliens showed technology as a useful tool against a very hostile universe -- and that our problems, serious as they are, are often self-inflicted. Reference the Cold War, the rise of trickle-down economics, and the pervasiveness of automation as important parts of the 1980s zeitgeist. (Japan's growing economic power and continued increase of fuel prices are other facets of the decade which do not make it into either movie in a meaningful way.)

[8BitNinja]

(Japan's growing economic power and continued increase of fuel prices are other facets of the decade which do not make it into either movie in a meaningful way.)

If you want that, look at any cyberpunk movie.

[tomandtish]

I think that the 80s was the decade of the action hero. At least for me, when someone talks about 80s movies, I think about actors like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Frank Stallone. I believe that Hollywood in the 80s liked to focus on dudes with a ton of guns and even more testosterone going in to a place and killing everything and it's okay because justice or something.

I don't know, it might just be my viewing habits.

Are you sure you didn't mean Sylvester Stallone? Yes, Frank was in a few movies, but he's not the Stallone that coms to mind when you think 80s action movies....

If you did, more power to you.

[Lleban]

I usually try to find at least one or two positives for what I watch, so I'm not filled with regrets. Independence day 2 is the exception to that rule and can die in a fire.

[veti]

For the definitive 80s movie, I'm going to say Die Hard. It's got the bad guys who are what Hollywood thought terrorists were like in the 80s, because Hollywood had even less of a clue then than it does now; it's got the heroic individual working outside of, but not opposed to, authority; it has themes of globalisation and technology and terrorism, and somehow reduces them all to a romantic relationship between two Americans. Can't get any more 80s than that.

For 90s, I'm thinking Pulp Fiction. Multiple protagonist viewpoints, 'cool' nonlinear storytelling, antiheroes, criminal protagonists.

(It follows that the definitive "Mr Hollywood" of the late 20th century was Bruce Willis.)

For 2000s: trickier, because I saw fewer movies that decade, but I'm gonna go with Avatar, as the ultimate example of elevating style and f/x over content. Also because it practically kick-started the 3D craze of its time, and thus was directly responsible for movie ticket prices going up by about $2 all by itself.

[Jimorian]

For the definitive 80s movie, I'm going to say Die Hard. It's got the bad guys who are what Hollywood thought terrorists were like in the 80s, because Hollywood had even less of a clue then than it does now; it's got the heroic individual working outside of, but not opposed to, authority; it has themes of globalisation and technology and terrorism, and somehow reduces them all to a romantic relationship between two Americans. Can't get any more 80s than that.

The bad guys in Die Hard weren't terrorists, they were common bank robbers acting like terrorists as part of their scheme.

But yeah, considering that just about any action movie was pitched as "Die Hard in a plane", "Die Hard on a ship", etc. until you get Speed with "Die Hard on a bus". After that every action film was pitched as "Speed on a [X]" until I'M SURE some pitch meeting somewhere in Hollywood brought things full circle with "Speed in a high-rise office building!"

[8BitNinja]

Are you sure you didn't mean Sylvester Stallone? Yes, Frank was in a few movies, but he's not the Stallone that coms to mind when you think 80s action movies....

If you did, more power to you.

Oh crap, I put Frank.

Wrong Stallone, I'll edit that.

[Leewei]

If you want that, look at any cyberpunk movie.

Were there any from the 1980s? The literary genre is certainly from the '80s, but it seems like Hollywood took its sweet time making movies of the sort. I suppose Blade Runner could sort of count. There's also the Max Headroom serial, but that's best left forgotten in the dustbin of bad ideas.

Strange Days, Johnny Mnemonic, and Ghost in the Shell (animated movie) were all productions of the mid 1990s.

[Lethologica]

I suppose Blade Runner could sort of count.

That's an oddly reserved position. Blade Runner is to cyberpunk film what Neuromancer is to cyberpunk literature.

[Leewei]

That's an oddly reserved position. Blade Runner is to cyberpunk film what Neuromancer is to cyberpunk literature.

Blade Runner does do a great job at telling a noir story in an impersonal dystopian future. But -- nobody plugs their brain into a computer, nor is much information technology of any variety featured in the movie. The humming heart of cyberpunk is the interaction between humans and machines -- artificial intelligences, virtual and augmented realities, and replacement parts for people.

The street vendor selling eyeballs was an example of the last of these, but this was only tangential to the story. The story revolved around the Replicants, their humanity, and Deckard's identity crisis.

Also, the movie is based on material that isn't cyberpunk.

[Vinyadan]

OT

About Wolf of Wall Street: if I have to say what its problem is, I'd say that it's a colossal movie about a claustrophobic story. Well acted, well everything, but the fbi dude on the subway is much more interesting than the rich guy in his office/ship/whtv. I actually wonder who the target audience is: Glengarry - Glen Ross is similar in some ways, but much, much, much better.

About long-lasting memorable movies, for this decade, I'd say Zootopia (and, as it was rightly noticed, Inception). For the MM, Gran Torino, a beautiful outlier. For the 1990s, Big Lebowski.

[2D8HP]

Were there any from the 1980s? The literary genre is certainly from the '80s, but it seems like Hollywood took its sweet time making movies of the sort. I suppose Blade Runner could sort of count. There's also the Max Headroom serial, but that's best left forgotten in the dustbin of bad ideas.

Strange Days, Johnny Mnemonic, and Ghost in the Shell (animated movie) were all productions of the mid 1990s.

Blade Runner does do a great job at telling a noir story in an impersonal dystopian future. But -- nobody plugs their brain into a computer, nor is much information technology of any variety featured in the movie. The humming heart of cyberpunk is the interaction between humans and machines -- artificial intelligences, virtual and augmented realities, and replacement parts for people.

The street vendor selling eyeballs was an example of the last of these, but this was only tangential to the story. The story revolved around the Replicants, their humanity, and Deckard's identity crisis.

Also, the movie is based on material that isn't cyberpunk.

I remember being so mad when ET won the Oscar for "Best Visual Effects", instead of Bladerunner.

As far as a man/machine interface in a "near future dystopia"?

1987's RoboCop


Now for a "cyberpunk-ish" movie I regret watching?
1990's Hardware (even though it did have Lemmy from Mőtorhead).

[Leewei]

I remember being so mad when ET won the Oscar for "Best Visual Effects", instead of Bladerunner.

As far as a man/machine interface in a "near future dystopia"?

1987's RoboCop


Now for a "cyberpunk-ish" movie I regret watching?
1990's Hardware (even though it did have Lemmy from Mőtorhead).

RoboCop was awesome -- I still to this day crack a grin when remembering the movie's fake ads.

My own cyberpunkish regret is Tetsuo, Iron Man. Just ew.

[Eldan]

Not that I regret watching it, since I've never seen it, but my brother and I were randomly clicking around on IMDB when we found a summary that is pure gold:

Romeo Montague is the alias of (the re-animated) Patient Zero, a skilled, mutated android hit-man/pimp/ancient relics collector, that lives in Verona City, N.Y.; a dystopic metropolis filled with extreme horror & sexual deviancy; featuring: a lustful, demonic, man-eating Astro-Queen, a psychotic South American underworld god, human/android sex-slave party-girls, bloodthirsty zombies, vengeful deities and alien hooker vampire junkies/go-go girls. The cities are also plagued with murderous cybernetic 'goon' robots, that are constantly trying to take Montague's life, as he and his street hustling pal 'Tricky' tries to figure out which one of his jive-ass enemies are trying to kill him (as well as trying to stay one step ahead of 'The Man'). In the middle of this chaos, Romeo/Zero tries to find the thief of his ancient , multi-million dollar voodoo ring.

[sktarq]

That sounds like a scion or exalted game put to film

[Aedilred]

For the definitive 80s movie, I'm going to say Die Hard. It's got the bad guys who are what Hollywood thought terrorists were like in the 80s, because Hollywood had even less of a clue then than it does now; it's got the heroic individual working outside of, but not opposed to, authority; it has themes of globalisation and technology and terrorism, and somehow reduces them all to a romantic relationship between two Americans. Can't get any more 80s than that.

For 90s, I'm thinking Pulp Fiction. Multiple protagonist viewpoints, 'cool' nonlinear storytelling, antiheroes, criminal protagonists.

(It follows that the definitive "Mr Hollywood" of the late 20th century was Bruce Willis.)

For 2000s: trickier, because I saw fewer movies that decade, but I'm gonna go with Avatar, as the ultimate example of elevating style and f/x over content. Also because it practically kick-started the 3D craze of its time, and thus was directly responsible for movie ticket prices going up by about $2 all by itself.

I think a lot of this sort of thing is going to come down to a definition of "definitive". Doma seems to have used it without a lot of thought as to how we were going to interpret/nitpick the term.

One of the problems of course is that a decade is an almost entirely arbitrary measure. The only reason I say "almost" in there is because a studio/director might consider a particular idea to be, say, "so 1990s" and so make conscious choices on that basis.

Also worth considering is that trends can take a long time to coalesce. Often they only become visible in retrospect, or when a film leans on them so heavily that it almost becomes a pastiche of them. In that situation, is the "definitive" film the first film of its type, which started the trend, the best film of its type, the most popular/profitable film of its type, or the last noteworthy one? Arguments could be made for any of them. When we talk about the "definitive" film, are we considering whether the point is that we can watch a film to get merely a snapshot of a period in cinema/life, warts and all, or to see the prime example of that sort of filmmaking, or to get an idea of the creative context that informed the period?

With the above in mind I think in some cases the "definitive film" of a period might not actually fall within that period at all. For the 80s, for example, there aren't many more typically 80s films than Total Recall (released 1990). Die Hard (1988), mentioned above, was either some way ahead of or a long way behind its time, having more in common with disaster films of the 70s or 90s than its blood-splattered, roid-ragey contemporaries. The most influential action film for most of the 2000s was The Matrix (released 1999). The best-known (and generally best) example of a 1930s-40s era Hollywood musical is probably Singin' in the Rain (1952). Avatar (2009), like The Matrix, had a big impact and remains a great example of the typical effects-heavy 3D spectacular... of the 2010s. You get the idea.

Meanwhile, if you want to be transported back in time to the 1990s, I'd say you'd want to watch something like American Beauty or The Beach. Neither of these really attained any lasting cultural currency, perhaps in part because they were so much of their time that within a couple of years they looked rather dated. Which is one of the reasons why I'm sceptical of Doma's dismissal of memetic value. You can't be the definitive film of an era if nobody remembers you exist. It's too early to tell, but I think Interstellar, which started this whole conversation, is showing similiar signs that having made a moderate-sized splash it's nevertheless going to sink pretty much without further trace.

And that's before you take genre into account. How can you possibly compare Jurassic Park, The Usual Suspects, Southpark: Bigger Longer Uncut and Schindler's List? Which of those is the most definitive film of its era (the 1990s)? (Leaving aside for the moment that there may be better contenders in each genre).

[Gnoman]

And that's before you take genre into account. How can you possibly compare Jurassic Park, The Usual Suspects, Southpark: Bigger Longer Uncut and Schindler's List? Which of those is the most definitive film of its era (the 1990s)? (Leaving aside for the moment that there may be better contenders in each genre).

You could almost certainly drop List from this consideration. While it is probably the most important film of the four in terms of lasting impact, there's not that much to mark it as a 1990s production, so it doesn't really reflect the era. I'm not familiar with Suspects, so can't comment on that. Between Jurassic Park and South Park, I'd give the crown to South Park. JP was pretty groundbreaking in the use of special effects, but was fundamentally just another Jaws descendant. SP was the product -possibly even the culmination- of a type of adult animation that really defined the 1990s