There are good movies, and there are bad movies. However, most of us, even when we know we’re watching a bad movie, take the time to watch all of it. There’s always the chance that something that isn’t working at first might turn around, or have some redeeming quality that makes it worth seeing, even if it’s not great. Sometimes movies are so bad that they can still be enjoyable. ‘So bad it’s good' is a thing, after all. But then sometimes, movies are so bad that you simply can’t make it through.
In the age of streaming, it’s pretty easy to just off a movie if it’s really so bad you can’t keep going. A recent Reddit thread brought a spotlight some of these films that people either turned off unfinished or walked out of a theater midway through. There are some really interesting examples, including franchise films from Star Wars and the Wizarding World as well as one of Will Ferrell’s most infamous comedies.
- Holmes and Watson, starring, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly. I knew going into it that it was supposed to suck, but I like watching trainwrecks for the fun of it. This was god awful. I can usually finish a movie to the end but this one tested my limits, hard. - BIKEiLIKE
- When I was a kid I went to see Star Wars: Attack of the Clones in theaters with my dad. He made us leave part-way through the movie after one of the Anakin/Padme scenes. I think after they were rolling in a field? I remember him saying “this isn’t Star Wars.” - -doesnotcompute-
- The Secrets of Dumbledore. From a drive-in theater. We made it as far as Newt saying "we have to be as confusing as possible" and realized immediately that was an in-universe excuse for horrific writing. -CryptoCentric
- That forgotten Fantastic Four from 2015. I didn’t turn it off but rather fell asleep. It’s so damn boring, nothing grabs your attention. - FisherKelTath00
- The Mummy with Tom Cruise. It’s not even close to the Brendan Fraser version. - Arcade1980
- The second Wonder Woman set in the 80s, whatever its title was. I just couldn’t do it. The slap stick comedy was just so bad. - ARazorbacks
- Star Trek: Section 31. I tried for like 15 minutes, before my brain just said, "nope!". - Kakarroto007
There are a lot of perfectly good candidates for movies not worth finishing here. After Earth, Battlefield Earth, and the recent War of the Worlds on Prime Video are among the titles listed in the thread. The movie that launches the conversation is Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon, which received poor reviews upon its release in 2023. It looks like more than one person never even made it to the second half. There's also the unfortunate Dark Tower movie that was supposed to launch a franchise, which is now being revived for TV instead by none other than Mike Flannigan.
Considering that Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly have made some absolute god-tier comedies like Step Brothers and Talladega Nights, the fact that Holmes & Watson is so universally panned by movie fans truly says a lot about how bad it is. Similarly, while the Star Wars prequels have been reappraised over the years, they were famously trashed at the time, With that said, though, Attack of the Clones is still viewed by many as the worst movie in the entire franchise.
As somebody who counts watching movies as one of his job responsibilities, walking out of a movie isn’t something I do, though I’ll admit there have been times I’ve been tempted. What movies have you never finished?
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