Movies – the good, the bad and the ones you walk out of
02/01/10
Friday night is my most favorite time of the week. There’s something about those few short hours after I end my work week, knowing that I have the whole weekend ahead of me to relax and do what ever I want to do… and it’s not even Saturday yet! I love that feeling! We usually go out for dinner, have friends over or just sit in our cozy couch watching a good movie.
This last Friday we decided to go to the movie theater with some friends – we watched “The Book of Eli”. I should say we “attempted” to watch it, actually. A few short minutes – or really, more like seconds – into it and my stomach cringed and my muscles tightened. I knew it wasn’t going to be my kind of movie as soon as I saw that ugly skinny cat starting to munch on the dead man’s leg. And then the cat eating, people killing, hand chopping, women raping started….. and then I was out of the theater!
I tried to stay and watch it, I really did… I lasted for about an hour! And it’s not that I’m so squeamish I can’t see blood or anything – I watched Braveheart, 300 and other bloody movies just fine! But this movie was just way over my tolerance level. I felt dirty by watching as much as I did and finally realized it wasn’t going to get any better so I just got up and left. It was terribly depressing, horribly disgusting and extremely violent.
While I don’t enjoy wasting my money on movies that I end up walking out of, I will always do it if the movie is not worth it. This is how I see things: there is enough violence, sadness, poverty in the real world – if that’s what I want to see, it’s enough to just watch the news. When I watch movies I want to be able to escape reality in a way, I want to be able to relax. That doesn’t mean that I’m only going to watch cartoons and romantic comedies (although this is my favorite genre), I enjoy a good drama or a thriller just as much. But when I watch a movie for an hour and all I see is a destroyed world, a depraved society where even the “good” people have to kill others in order to survive, women being treated like animals… it is just not worth watching and I will not stay for the next hour and a half to see if maybe it gets better. My friend sent me a synopsis of the rest of the movie and I suppose that without all the dirt in it, the story was actually quite good – the way that it was presented though made me completely lose interest in it.
Thankfully our Friday night wasn’t completely lost, though! We went back home to find our faithful friend that is usually the star on movie nights: Netflix! (BIG FAN right here!!!) The movie that saved the night was “Fun with Dick and Jane” - who doesn’t love a funny Jim Carrey movie?!? 
So now it’s your turn. Have you ever walked out of a movie? What made you say “Enough is enough”? Let’s talk!
Hi Cristina,
I love the way you write! Do it more often!
Well, let’s talk about your topic: the movies.
I really don’t have enough time to watch a 2 hours movie. With 2 kids time is so precious! And I feel guilty to watch a movie while pretending to play with them.
Still, before watching a movie I always look on the net to see if there’s any commentary left regarding that movie. Or ask my friends about it.
I hate watching violence as much as I hate those “What- for-News”(I called them so), every day on PRO TV at 5 o’clock. Remember? Yeah, those “braking news” are still alive, every dat, at 5 o’clock! Well, that really makes me say “Enough is enough!”
I watch cartoons because I love that different reality full of laughs, colour, cute animals and simple events. And I sometimes watch the Young and the restless. Wait, don’t judge me! I’m watching it only to improve my English. The characters speak a perfect one!
That’s it for now. Thanks for letting me share this with you!
Bye-bye!
Neli, you’re such a sweetheart! You made some good points, too. I always check the trailers for movies before I watch them, and I did with this one too… but we really wanted to get out and meet with our friends, so we went against our instincts. Bad choice, obviously!
I know what you’re saying about the 5 o’clock news – I used to hate those! And believe it or not, they have them here, too… There’s no escape, apparently!
And one last thing – I wouldn’t dare judge you on watching The Young and The Restless, that’s kind of my dirty little secret. :p I used to watch it in Romania, off and on – I liked the fact that you can still understand the action even if you’ve missed 10 episodes. Gotta love that! They have it here, too, but it’s probably a couple of thousands of episodes ahead, so I’m trying really hard to figure things out constantly… and I only get to watch it maybe once every 2 weeks, on my day off… But it reminds me of good ol’ days at home, in Romania, it’s very comforting. If only my mom was with me so we could watch it together…
Thanks for replying to my post and please do it again! Kiss-kiss!