When it boils down to it, movies are completely subjective and not everybody is going to love even the most celebrated movies of all time. But, sometimes, a movie comes along that even the biggest cinephiles can’t sit through in full.

  • In 2022, it seemed like more big name movies come out on streaming services than in theaters, and that is tough because it is a lot easier for people to turn off a movie on TV than to walk out of a theater. A perfect recent example came with the brand-new Netflix comedy movie Me Time. While the movie had Kevin Hart and Mark Wahlberg in the lead roles, and it sat at the number one spot on Netflix the day it came out, the Netflix original received terrible reviews, and the audience score even hit a low 29 percent. Even Redditors hated it, with renome posting they “turned it off around halfway in.” With more movies arriving on streaming services, quitting a movie early might become more commonplace.

It might not be all that difficult to sit down and watch a movie for two hours, but some bad films can break the most patient people in the world. Whether it’s down to terrible editing, a bizarre premise, or completely misunderstanding the source material on which the movie is based, Redditors turned off these films as early as 20 minutes in.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)

* Stream now on HBO Max

Ben Stiller starred in the comedy The Secret Life of Walter Mitty in 2013, and was met with polarizing reviews. While some critics praised its ambition and spectacle, others complained that Stiller’s character never once acted like an “ordinary man,” which is what he was meant to represent.

While the movie was under two hours, Nydus_The_Nexus wrote that they couldn’t get past the opening before turning the movie off, writing, “Personally, I found it cripplingly/offensively boring and didn’t make it passed the 10 minute mark.”

Anger Management (2003)

Anger Management was an Adam Sandler comedy from 2003 that also starred the acting might of Jack Nicholson. The story featured people who struggled to keep their anger in check and ended up going to anger management classes with Nicholson’s trainer pushing every boundary they had.

The movie ended up too uncomfortable for many people to watch all the way through, with Sandler’s Dave being pushed around the entire movie. After one Redditor said they couldn’t get through it either time they tried to watch it, Nydus_The_Nexus wrote, “A movie about the protagonist basically getting gaslit and psychologically abused was somehow meant to be funny? Yikes.”

Halloween Kills (2021)

When Halloween rebooted the franchise while only respecting the first two movies, it ended up as a giant success. That made expectations for the sequel high. However, Halloween Kills left many fans disappointed and even more angry at what happened in the movie.

Most of Halloween Kills saw the townspeople gathering and wanting to kill Michael Myers, going so far that they even targeted innocents along the way. Bearmanly26 wrote on Reddit that, “I made it halfway though Halloween Kills before throwing in the towel… It was just a slog full of dumb, un-fun characters that usually I’d love to see get murdered in fun ways, but when they do start falling I just didn’t care anymore.”

The Irishman (2019)

* Stream now on Netflix

There are also cases where critically-acclaimed movies can be too much for a person to sit through. When it comes to Martin Scorsese’s recent crime epic, The Irishman, he put viewers in a difficult stance. The movie was three hours and 29 minutes long, and it arrived on Netflix instead of in theaters.

While Scorsese can’t be blamed for Netflix being the ones to finance his movie, making it that long on a streaming service meant a lot of people might have tapped out early. On Reddit, frenchtoasterss wrote, “The Irishman took me several days to complete. I suffered thru that movie. a painful experience, I will never forgive Martin Scorsese for putting me thru this.”

The Dark Tower (2017)

* Stream now on FX Now

One big reason that a lot of viewers can’t finish a movie and will throw in the towel is because it doesn’t match up to what they expected or wanted. A perfect example is when Stephen King fans finally got a Dark Tower adaptation and the movie didn’t follow the books at all.

The movie took place “in the world” of the Dark Tower series, but when it veered off too much from the books, many fans rejected it outright. On Reddit, johnnyfiveundead wrote “I intentionally and intently tried to lower my expectations as much as I could. They were still set far too high. I don’t think I’ve ever felt a sense of disappointment so thoroughly. The feeling was so strong I had to physically get up and walk out of the theatre.”

6 Underground (2019)

MovieMentor couldn’t finish watching the latest Michael Bay movie, 6 Underground, because the “editing was absolutely atrocious.” It’s a problem that most Bay movies suffer from, but it’s hard to ignore in the 2019 action film. And as there are so many action sequences, including parkour, which is one of the most impressive skills to show off on film, it’s so hard to keep track of what’s going on because of the editing.

Compared to movies that use parkour in action sequences in such sublime ways, such as District 13 and Casino Royale, 6 Underground comes off way too messy. Even outside of those scenes and the unfollowable car chases, there are basic editing issues throughout the whole two hours.

Mank (2020)

* Stream on Netflix

TriscuitCracker isn’t exactly sure why Mank exists, and they gave up on the movie midway through, citing that it’s “very well filmed. But I kept wondering why I should care.” The film was more of a vanity project than anything, as David Fincher decided to direct the movie, which was written by his father all the way back in the 90s.

On top of that, the whole movie is based on the rumor that Orson Welles didn’t have as much of a hand in the screenplay for Citizen Kane as people think. But the idea that Welles wasn’t as involved as he claimed was already debunked years before Mank ever went into production. For that reason, it ultimately seems pointless.

The Matrix Resurrections (2021)

Given that there are so many monologues throughout the whole of The Matrix Resurrections, it isn’t a surprise that some viewers have fallen asleep during one of the many exposition dumps. However, given that it was available to watch on HBO Max as well as being released in theaters, bicameral_mind didn’t just fall asleep, but they actively turned it off.

The Redditor claims that they “couldn’t be bothered to finish.” At certain points in the film, it feels more like work than entertainment. Though there’s nothing wrong with movies making audiences think, which is what the original 1999 movie did so well, some fans think the 2021 Matrix sequel is simply nonsensical.

Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

Wonder Woman was the DC Extended Universe’s first major success story, as it was so critically acclaimed and loved by audiences. But Wonder Woman 1984 received a terribly negative reception, which was more in line with the universe’s other movies.

DickRaglessMD thinks it’s impossible to finish, and they call out the movie by saying it’s “incredibly bad, just shockingly, stunningly bad.” While there are some things 1984 got right, the cringey depiction of the villains and the bizarre love story left many viewers with second-hand embarrassment.

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013)

* Stream now on Paramount+ & Prime Video

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues follows the same formula that worked so well with its predecessor, as the 2013 film is full of mostly ad-libs and actors riffing off of each other. But it didn’t quite work as well as the original, especially not in Gogojack’s opinion.

The Redditor bowed out way early on too, as they explain that they turned off the film after watching it for just 20 minutes. In fairness, Anchorman 2’s blooper reel is better than the movie. And in a hilarious comparison, the Reddit user also notes that The Legend Continues “stunk like a rancid bottle of Sex Panther.”

The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard (2021)

Along with being a mouthful of a title, the film itself seems like biting off too much that viewers can chew as well, as TVxStrange notes that they couldn’t finish watching the comedy. They mention that they “fell asleep about halfway through and had zero interest in finishing it.”

While the first film in the series is a strong contender for being the best buddy cop comedy of the late 2010s, the sequel was too meandering and full of tired genre clichés. And given that, it isn’t much of a surprise that the Redditor fell asleep.

The Many Saints Of Newark (2021)

The Many Saints of Newark is a very serviceable gangster movie, even for those who haven’t seen The Sopranos, to which the film is a prequel. But the film still had its critics. Dangerous_Fold9140 claims they couldn’t get through the movie. They explain that it “was absolutely horrible. Couldn’t finish it, just didn’t care.”

Though Many Saints is full of violent scenes that wouldn’t seem out of place in The Sopranos, it’s still missing that authentic quality and a compelling lead character that the TV series had. Ironically, the story would have been told better if it was a TV show instead of a movie.

F9 (2021)

Fans of the Fast and Furious series have had to suspend disbelief more and more with each consecutive release, but F9 took it to a whole other level. Though the return of Han, a car with a rocket engine, and destroying the whole of Edinburgh all sound exciting, it felt completely flat. Medster101 couldn’t finish watching the movie because “it’s just not fun anymore.”

Between going into space, becoming superspies, and having the kind of power and strength that not even Superman is capable of, the ninth entry in the series is so unrealistic even by Fast and Furious’s standards. But at the very least, F9 did spawn some hilarious “family” memes.

Sorry To Bother You (2018)

* Stream now on Netflix & Hulu

Unlike many of the other movies that Redditors had to turn off midway through, Sorry To Bother You is actually very critically acclaimed. The movie is a surrealist comedy about a group of people who work in a call center, but it isn’t exactly The Office and not everything is as it seems.

The 2018 film becomes more bizarre with each scene, which is why SweetFlamingJerk couldn’t finish the film. The Redditor mentions that it has too much of an “in your face, smacking you with a giant hammer message that anyone can see from a mile away.”

Dolittle (2020)

* Stream now on Freevee

While fans want nothing more than a Sherlock Holmes 3 or even a Kiss Kiss Bang Bang follow-up, Robert Downey Jr.’s choice to star in Dolittle after his tenure as Tony Stark ended is questionable at best. Though the actor’s role in the film is the least of the remake’s problems, Pizzapiejaialai cites Downey as the reason they couldn’t finish Dolittle.

The Reddit user explains that “the minute I heard RDJ breakout a pretty terrifying Welsh accent, I turned Dolittle off.” Unlike the actor’s other movies, the 2020 film didn’t exactly take the world by storm, and with an inflated budget of $175 million, it was a box office disaster.

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