I'll give my award to Ralph Bakshi's animated version of LORD OF THE RINGS. I still vividly recall the sheer tedium of the film which I thought would never end.
Traffic was another one, and I think I'll say that was a worse experience than Batman & Robin. At least the latter movie actually had signs of life, even if it was still boring. But Traffic just about put me into a coma. Even the guy behind me drifted off a few times and would start to snore before I'd hear his wife wake him back up.
ASH WEDNESDAY-73-I don't know what the director and editor was on when working on this ELIZABETH TAYLOR pic, a ton of sleeping pills?
Right on with that choice! Probably the only other film I saw (on the most enthusiastic recommendation of a good friend!) that was even more sleep-inducing for me was the Swedish film CRIES AND WHISPERS. Pretentious snoozer, CRIES AND WHISPERS is thy name!
For me - never. If you want to get in out of the cold, or in out of the heat, it might be a consderation. But I've always felt that sitting through a film that's boring or that you can't 'get into', or seem to hate is no excuse for remaining in your seat because you've paid your admission price and feel it would be an obligation to get your money's worth. Even if I were with others it wouldn't change anything for me, I'd simply meet them afterwards at film's end. It's a simple thing really, you stand up, move to the aisle and walk up it until your at the door and then outside. Life's too short to sit through a film you don't like.
ASH WEDNESDAY-73-I don't know what the director and editor was on when working on this ELIZABETH TAYLOR pic, a ton of sleeping pills?
Right on with that choice! Probably the only other film I saw (on the most enthusiastic recommendation of a good friend!) that was even more sleep-inducing for me was the Swedish film CRIES AND WHISPERS. Pretentious snoozer, CRIES AND WHISPERS is thy name!
Bergman's 'Cries & Whispers'? Sacrilage!(But, I can understand where you're coming from with this.)
The Others (2001) Figured out the shocking"twist" a few minutes in and then got some much-needed sleep. The only time I ever fell asleep during a movie. Even ten-year-old me remained awake when I saw Reds at a Dollar theater showing. I must have been riveted by the pseudo-documentary feel of Beatty's Oscar-winning opus.
Interesting thread! It's amazing to read the selections and to try and understand why some of these films bored people.
Quite a few of them are among my favorites....mainly because they don't insult my intelligence, they allow me to think about what I'm seeing while I am watching and they all have very satisfying endings.
I won't say which ones.
But I definitely see the effect on the younger generation of quick edits, lots of sound and fury signifying nothing, action without substance, etc., that seem to have influenced some of the selections.
Two films, for me, tie for most boring theatrical experience: "Armageddon" and "Pearl Harbor". Both movies have positives, I admit, but how many climactic endings does "Armageddon" really need? I felt it had three...and by the last one, I was disgusted. "Pearl Harbor" was a movie that lasts longer than the actual attack by the Japanese, or so it seems.
Harlem Nights. The most piss awful vanity project ever made.
Plus any musical ever made bar Little Shop of Horrors. I despise camp dance routines and singers staring soulfully into the distance-vomit inducing tediousness.
Interesting thread! It's amazing to read the selections and to try and understand why some of these films bored people.
Quite a few of them are among my favorites....mainly because they don't insult my intelligence, they allow me to think about what I'm seeing while I am watching and they all have very satisfying endings.
I won't say which ones.
That's why I gave up with the idea of a thread I thought it could be interesting, though : "Very Famous/Awarded Golden Age Classic Movies You Don't Like At All". Of course this thread would have been meant for golden age film buffs (what's the point to name golden age movies if you don't like golden age movies in the first place !) with the following rule : explaining why we dislike a "very famous/awarded golden age classic movie" !
But I guess this would have caused too much pain...
And about Woody Allen's SEPTEMBER : I was 16 and it was a school screening with our english teacher in a theater nearby our school with no possibility to escape !
I, along with my Wife, Sister & Brother-in-law fell asleep during CRIMINAL LAW in the Theatre.
A very BORING movie and score by Goldsmith - same thing happened to me during THE RUSSIA HOUSE, when I watched it on Cable - also, sold off the CD to that movie, as well.
And about Woody Allen's SEPTEMBER : I was 16 and it was a school screening with our english teacher in a theater nearby our school with no possibility to escape !
Oh man-you just reminded me-Chariots of Fire-what a yawn fest! At Christmas every year our teachers would hire a video (yes, I am THAT old). One year we had Airplane!
Unfortunately the Headmaster walked in just as the bare breasts jiggled across the screen, had some sort of conniption and decided he would choose a 'more suitable' ie boring film the next Christmas.
Cue a hundred or so very bored teenagers utterly disinterested in a film about cross country running. Even Vangelis can't save this one for me!
Flight...not that it's a bad movie at all, but in the UK (as discussed somewhere else) it was really pushed and advertised (including the trailer) as an action thriller...so once the initial (and admittedly spectacular) incident happens, the entire cinema was waiting for the action to kick off, and of course it didn't...so boredom set in rather quick...and I think I caught a few Z's too...
Having rewatched it on DVD without such expectations, I "get it", but the unforgivable advertising turned a slow-burner into a dead dud.
How anyonce though can list some of the movies mentioned in this thread as "The Most Boring Movie They Sat Through In A Cinema" though is beyond me...still, different people, different tastes I suppose..but also think there's a bit of contrarianism going on
For me the film was so incoherent that I simply gave up trying to understand it. Indeed, after the end credits a woman in the audience yelled out that she'd buy anyone a drink if he/she could explain what she just saw!
My husband has still not forgiven me for taking him to The English Patient. I loved the film, but he kept praying the guy would die so he could leave.
lol, are you married to Elaine Benes of "Seinfeld"?
I zoned out for much of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture." It didn't help that I wasn't a ST fan to begin with. I like that film more now - the measured pace is actually refreshing compared to the action now! style of so many genre movies.
