Movie 2023 MOVIE DISCUSSION THREAD

[Craig H]

Species 2 is probably the legit worst movie I've ever seen in a theater. Most of my friends in high school were girls (I was the safe always friendzoned friend with one girl never realizing I could have had a good relationship with the girl that actually liked me a lot) so a bunch of us went to the movie to make fun of it and we were the only people in there. 

Johnny Sorrow reminds me that I also saw Toys in the theater. That was fucking terrible.

Street Fighter was pretty bad and disappointing. My friend and I couldn't understand why no one had special moves.

I already mentioned Glass.

Does Eyes Wide Shut count? Is that a legit bad movie? I hated it at least.

Oh man, I went on a date to see the movie Double Jeopardy, yes, the originator of "the entire movie is in the trailer."

Terminator Genisys is legit terrible and one of the most convoluted movies I've seen in a theater.

TENET comes to mind. This was the first movie my wife and I returned to a theater to see and we're both huge Christopher Nolan fans. Midway through she turns to me and asks, "do you know what's happening?" and I answer back "I have no idea. Is this movie good?" and she goes, "I don't think so. I can't even understand what's being said." I mean, I love a confusing movie. I've seen Primer way too many times. But TENET was just the all time worst audio production I've heard in a movie. 

My first biggest disappointment in a movie was either Ghostbusters 2 or Back to the Future 2. I'm going to be 43 this year and I'm still trying to convince myself that Back to the Future 2 wasn't that bad. Same for Ghostbusters 2.

I'm sure there a ton more legit bad movies I've seen in a theater. I think I spent so much of my childhood, teen years, and early adult years going to movies all the time. Now though, I'm so selective with what I go to a theater for and even movies I'd love to see in a theater I have to wait to buy on digital, like Creed 3 and John Wick 4. So usually what I see now are the biggest blockbusters, like MCU movies, Top Gun Maverick, stuff like that. 

 

[twiztor]

8 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

I think a better question almost would be how many legit bad films have you seen in the theater? For me:

going to point out "Batman & Robin" again here. 

"Mortal Kombat: Annihilation" ranks up there. absolutely terrible after how much i loved the first one.

also saw "Godzilla '98" as my buddy is a huge Godzilla fan. I do like this movie because it annoys him so much.

adding to that, "Double Team" the JCVD/Rodman film. a different buddy was obsessed with Rodman so a bunch of us went.

i remember sitting through "RocketMan" (1997) and knowing that it was dogshit. 

saw "Warriors of Virtue" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warriors_of_Virtue) at the drive-in during a double feature. 

i saw "Snakes On A Plane" in theater. I wanted to go opening night, but wasn't able to, so i waited for the dollar theater to show it. I was the only one in there, and actually took a(n unimportant) phone call during the film- something i would never due in normal circumstances.

 

what i'm learning about myself all of a sudden is that i watched a lot of fucking terrible movies in 1997 and 98. i am WAY more selective about what i see in theater now. 

[Craig H]

I too saw Godzilla 98 in the theater on opening weekend, but the same girl friends I mentioned seeing Species 2 with were the same ones I saw Godzilla 98 with, so we made it into a good time.

And for the utter garbage like Species 2 or Godzilla 98 we'd see in a theater, we also saw our fair share of bangers like Half-Baked that had us nearly rolling on the floor laughing. Man, being 17 or 18 and fucking around with friends, driving around doing nothing, going to bad movies and good movies, little to no responsibilities except to make sure everyone made it home alive was the best. 

[The Natural]

At the cinema off the top of my head:

• Batman Forever (1995) though I have a tiny soft spot for it as it was the first Batman movie I ever watched at the cinema.
• Batman and Robin (1997).
• Daredevil (2003).
• Blade: Trinity (2004).
• Iron Man 2 (2010).
• Iron Man 3 (2013).
• Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016).
• Suicide Squad (2016).
• Jason Bourne (2016).

[Curt McGirt]

Oh shit, I saw Street Fighter and Ghostbusters 2. AND Mortal Kombat (the first one). Neither me nor my non-discerning, dumbass eventual cop friend liked it. We also saw Dangerous Minds together and came out of it calling each other 'ese' but I gather despite the Coolio track it doesn't hold up at all.

Edited April 18, 2023 by Curt McGirt

[Zimbra]

34 minutes ago, twiztor said:

what i'm learning about myself all of a sudden is that i watched a lot of fucking terrible movies in 1997 and 98. i am WAY more selective about what i see in theater now. 

I worked in movie theaters from 97-01 so I watched pretty much everything that came out, good or bad.

Pretty sure the biggest piece of shit I watched was Gone Fishin'

[Craig H]

My run of working in movie theaters was 98 to 2000 so that basically encompassed one of the best years ever for movies and a fuck ton of turds. And the early boom of Pixar movies on Thanksgiving or Christmas weekends where at least once a weekend some little shit would throw up or you'd be sweeping up dirty diapers and...man...those parts of working at the theater sucked. But hanging out late and watching a lot of good movies and some bad ones but having a theater to yourself and anywhere from 5 to 20 others and you're all either into it or making fun of it made for good times.

[odessasteps]

1 hour ago, Curt McGirt said:

I think a better question almost would be how many legit bad films have you seen in the theater? For me:

Dracula Dead and Loving It (sorry Leslie, sorry Mel. I did love the staking scene though)

Batman Forever

Godzilla '98

Super Mario Bros. 

Wishmaster

Candyman 2

Leprechaun 2

off the top of my head. And the first movie I ever saw when I was five years old? Drumroll please...

Masters of the Universe

Does being a film critic, and thus my job, mean a lot of my list gets an asterisk. as I’ve said before, the first two films I reviewed were a Dutch (with Ed ONeill) and Problem Child 2 (which at least had Gilbert in it). I’ve forgotten a lot of the bad ones. My girlfriend went with me to see Cats Eye, because she was a big Stephen King fan. 

[HumanChessgame]

On the legit bad movies I've sat through, as mentioned before Godzilla 98, Speed 2, Mission Impossible 2, Batman and Robin (and Batman Forever a few years before).

I saw Street Fighter in the theater twice, though the second time I think I just needed to kill some and there was nothing else playing. Must have been a sad state of the cinema if that was the best I could do for entertainment.

A date suggested seeing Highlander: Endgame and I don't remember it being bad just really made for tv quality. IIRC I got her to watch The Big Lebowski afterwards.

A friend and I (who actually showed me the Rocky series initially) went to see Rocky 5 in the theater but were too young to realize it sucked, if that makes sense.

I saw the first two Ninja Turtles movies on opening weekend with some friends because like most kids born in the early 80s we loved everything TMNT related. By the time the third one rolled around, I was a preteen and kind of over it, and the franchise was waning in popularity in general. I don't think I've seen the movie since then but remember it being pretty objectively bad and any review has pretty much roasted it.

Matrix Reloaded was probably the most disappointing movie I saw. I'd loved the first one and was really excited for this, but my friends and I went to see it and were massively underwhelmed. After being so let down I don't know if I even saw the third one all the way through

[John from Cincinnati]

Eyes Wide Shut and Tenet are great. Of course the idea that Tenet was going to revive the movie business at the height of COVID mitigation efforts was... wishful thinking at best. So many people floundered before Tom Cruise won the delayed 2020 blockbuster sweepstakes. Tenet deserved better. 

Not sure about the worst movie I've ever seen in a theater, but I know I definitely paid real money to see Gangster Squad. That's got to be up there. 

[Log]

I have not smoked a ton of weed in my time, but one time that I had smoked I went to see The Waterboy. I thought it was amazing. So, when some friends were going to see it the next day, I said I'd go again. This time, perfectly sober, it wasn't so great.

I saw so many bad movies in the theater growing up. I'm from a tiny little town, so there wasn't a lot to do. We'd drive a few towns over to the movie theater and just see what was starting soon. Saw so much bad stuff.

I don't remember the quality of the movie, but for some reason, I saw Steve Martin's Leap of Faith twice in the theater. I was 14. Why the hell would a 14-year-old go see this movie twice?

[JLSigman]

1 hour ago, Curt McGirt said:

I think a better question almost would be how many legit bad films have you seen in the theater? For me:

Mortal Kombat 2
Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever
That one with the Van Damme playing two roles

Edited April 18, 2023 by JLSigman
remembered another bad one

[S.K.o.S.]

I saw The Happening in a theater. Unclear on why I chose to do that, but after having seen M. Night's first 3 movies I skipped The Village and Lady in the Water so maybe I didn't realize how bad The Happening was going to be.

[S.K.o.S.]

11 hours ago, Brian Fowler said:

Bandit: Bandit, Bandit

Had to google this, because my first reaction was "he made that up".

[Johnny Sorrow]

I just remembered that I did walk out of Howard The Duck 10 minutes in at my girlfriend's insistence and we snuck into Aliens.

I worked at a theater from Fall 87 through June 88 and there were definitely some shitty movies. And it was an old classic theater that had one huge screen and a balcony. The worst ones off the top of my head were the Friday the 13th with the girl who had telekinetic powers, Casual Sex, and the first Steven Seagal flick.

Edited April 18, 2023 by Johnny Sorrow

[Craig H]

I also saw The Village and The Happening in the theater. With the Village I at least had the good fortune of going out to eat before hand and having a few long island iced teas so I fell asleep during it and woke up for the end and still thought it sucked. The Happening was just me sitting there pondering how is it possible for a movie to be this bad.

[Raziel]

40 minutes ago, Johnny Sorrow said:

I just remembered that I did walk out of Howard The Duck 10 minutes in at my girlfriend 's insistence and we snuck into Aliens.

 

Ok, while I'll defend Howard The Duck depending on the day I'm having (Jones, Thompson, and Robbins knew they were in a piece of shit and went all in, I gotta respect that), swapping from that into Aliens is a upgrade of several orders of magnitude.

[Curt McGirt]

Y'all are heathens about some of these because they're GOOD bad movies. The New Blood? Marked For Death? Those would have been a blast to watch. 

Speaking of which, that last Texas Chainsaw (in fact all of the last ones) was terrible but hugely entertaining to me.

[Eivion]

Don't think I have ever walked out of movie. If my family paid for something we watched it through regardless of quality.

Here are the movies I can recall watching and thinking were actively bad at the time.

• Batman Forever 
• Batman and Robin 
• Streetfighter
• Mortal Kombat: Annihilation 
• Daredevil 
• AVP
• Blade: Trinity
• Tomb Raider 2
• Eragon
• Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
• Suicide Squad
• Transformers Revenge of the Fallen

These are the ones I watched for sure that i can recall right now, some partially just due to people talking about here. Can't recall if I saw Double Dragons and Super Mario Brothers (original) in the theater. I just knew they were terrible as I watched them. Same with Dracula Dead and Loving It.

I never hated any of the Terminator movies or Godzilla 98 despite also realizing they were not good.

Batman Forever and Batman & Robin are fucking horrible, and I don't really see an argument for otherwise. There might be positives in both, but they don't outweigh the bad. Think of Streetfighter here. Raul Julia was fantastic at chewing scenery, and even JVD and others had a few good/funny lines. Streetfighter still sucked so much. No reason to claim otherwise with Forever and B&R. Just appreciate the positives while admitting they suck. 

Too young to have seen them in theaters, but I have never quite understood the dislike for Back to the Future 2 or Ghostbusters 2. I'm sure both have their flaws, but they are still generally decent-solid and entertaining.

Conversely I'm sure Howard the Duck is probably terrible, but I loved it as kid.

Can't remember if I saw the first TMNT movie in the theater. Pretty sure I did the second and third. Enjoyed the second. The third mostly bored me opposed to me actively hating it. Had similar feelings with Alien 3.

I honestly can't remember particularly liking or disliking the Transformers movies after ROTF. I enjoyed the first film and Bumblebee. Still think the animated movie from the 80s is the best of them. 

[odessasteps]

I think Clooney could have been a good Batman with better material and director. 

[Brian Fowler]

Really bad movies I saw in theaters

Gothika

The Village

Lightyear 

[colonial]

Films I walked out of:

 

As a child ...

Popeye -- I was six when the movie came out and it confused the heck out of me. Several kids and their parents walked out as well (according to my dad). I watched it in full in college

The Pirate Movie -- My sister wanted to see it and the four of us (me, my sister and my parents) went to the theater. My dad and I left halfway through and we played air hockey in the lobby for the rest of the film. My sister still loves the film but I thought it was stupid.

 

As an adult ...

Just Visiting -- this was the American version of "Les Visiteurs" with Jean Reno. My then-girlfriend and I were the only ones in the theater and we walked out halfway through. Just ... unfunny.

Christopher Robin -- my wife and I took my daughter to see this when she was seven. She got upset at a specific scene and wanted to leave, so we did.

Sherlock Gnomes -- another film for my daughter when she was seven, this time with my wife and her parents. Me, my wife and her dad all walked out to avoid falling asleep 20 minutes in. We spent the next hour talking about insurance policies and pet care while my daughter and her grandmother watched the film.

[SirFozzie]

Long posts here. About a going to a movie, and then a trailer I saw before the movie.

Had a bit of an uh-oh moment. I decided to go to the 11:30 am Mario Movie showing at Regal Bellingham (MA). Why a Tuesday matinee? because, well, there's not a lot of folks going to theaters at that time. It helps with my anxiety/social discomfort (If I get overwhelmed, I can glance at my phone for a minute or two and not bother folks if there's no one nearby) On the way over, I saw a school sign I really should have seen before hand. "Have a great Spring Vacation 4/17-4/20. "Oh yeah, that's right. April Vacation week. And I'm going to see a movie that every kid's going to want to watch, in the middle of the day when most parents are desperate to get their kids out of the house.

 

(Insert expletives here)

 

I almost turned around and went home at that moment. And again when I got to the theater and there was about 60-80 people (majority kids) in the theater for the showing.

 

(insert louder expletives here)

 

As it turns out, there was a semi-solution, that helped me, so I'm passing it on just in case someone you know has the same issue. Theaters (especially chains like Regal) have headphones for folks who are hard of hearing or have social anxiety (like me). It helped tune out all the kids cross chatter and mostly focus on the movie. It was still a lot to deal with (there's a reason up to recently I hadn't gone to a theater in years), but it got me threw the movie without wanting to leave due to anxiety.

[SirFozzie]

Now the part about the trailer.

Apparently the trailer for Barbie just started airing today, and I saw it before the movie.

What. In. The. Flying. Flamingo??????? (ok, the last word is not Flamingo.)

I am eagerly waiting parents who thought that "Of course it's family friendly, it's BARBIE" and bringing their younguns to watch it raising a almighty hissfit about it. (Despite it being rated PG-13 instead of G)

 

Let's put it this way. The trailer had like 15-20 straight seconds of two guys threatening to beach each other off.

(yes, they meant to say "force each other off the beach ala the ol surfin movies.) I can't imagine Mommy Dearest trying to explain Little Suzy Q asking "Mommy, why are these men trying to beach each other off?"

And before you think I'm exaggerating, here's the section of the trailer:

 

 

I was simultaneously gigglesnorting and cringing so hard that I'm surprised I didn't cause an earthquake.

[Craig H]

I’ve seen so many people mention BvS, but honestly, I think my two close friends I saw it with and the stranger to my left saved that movie for me. My friends did their part by laughing at all of the really awful shit in that movie, like the jar of piss in the courtroom. The stranger to my left did their part by being WAAAAAAY too into what was a terrible movie. Like while my friends couldn’t contain their laughter at the jar of piss, the dude to my left audibly gasped and was shocked at Holly Hunter’s reaction to the jar.

Awful movie, but not a total loss.