To ask for your worst viewing experience in cinema or theatre?

[LouiseBrooks]

Inspired by another thread where people are dissing one of my favourite recent films (please go over there if you want to moan about that one ). Which other film or play did you utterly loathe?

Mine:
Film - Out of Africa. Streep's ridiculous accent, Redford's (who I normally love) awful miscasting, the fact that I knew they had messed about with the facts. Michael Kitchen was great though . My Streep fanatic friend left at the interval since she hated it more than me.

Theatre - Blood Brothers. Absurd story and awful songs.

Ps but really really bad theatre is brilliant - as anyone who saw Bernadette The Musical (about a bunch of nuns) will testify.

I was dragged to the cinema by my son to the Pokemon movies many years ago, the one with the blue cat thing was the worst. Unredeemed
by even a hint of plot, decent animation or voice acting.

Worst theatre experience was having tickets to a play that I was absolutely desperate to see as it had my favourite actor in it.

Then, on the night we were due to go, the UK was hit by a massive hurricane and there were no trains into London at all. (It was in all the newspapers the next day, so a major weather event.) The theatre completely refused to refund or swap dates for the tickets, (although there were still plenty of seats still showing free for later dates that you could buy.) I know they aren't obliged to, but I'd spent all my savings on getting some tickets, I was terribly poor at the time, and couldn't afford to just rip them up and buy some more.

(Harold Pinter theatre, I'd never go there for a show now on principle)

duffaho sounds like you went to the same production of Blood Brothers that I did. To be fair, I only really went to see Marti Pellow 😇

@user1478806039 I had something similar to your experience. I had tickets to go and see a comedian, the whole town flooded including the power stations so my university accommodation was evacuated and everyone had to leave, so I had to go back to my hometown for a few days.

I got in touch with the theatre and told them that I had been evacuated from my accommodation due to the floods (widely publicised) and wouldn't be able to go. The bastards refused to refund me.

Went to see American Hustle with DH... we were both so looking forward to it and both so actually bored to tears during it. We didn't like any of the characters or feel sympathy for anybody except the supposed 'bad guy'.

Halfway through there was a power cut in the cinema and the whole film went off for about 15 minutes. I said to him that if they offered us our money back or vouchers that we would take them and run. Sadly they got it working again...

I have form for watching shit misery films on trans-Atlantic flights. American Hustle, The Revenant, The Wolf of Wall Street, Twelve Years a Slave, The Danish Girl. I'm trying to go to sleep, but even those don't work. Every now and again I get lucky.

Fifty Shades you just have to laugh at. I saw both whilst staying at a lodge with a mate and drinking heavily. That fringe! And her magenta lipstick. And she never gives him a blowjob.

^ seconding the pp who mentioned Early Man
I assumed being aardman it'd be along the same lines as chicken run, with some jokes. Christ it was boring, both DH and I struggled to stay awake through more and more damn football. Cost us damn nearl £50 for all of us, biggest waste of money.
I'm warning everyone I know!

Master and commander with Russell Crowe. Never have I seen so much shit in my life.

I agree about Early Man. I was so bored, I nodded off! I can't believe it's had such rave reviews.

@crazycatgal That is appalling. And it's SUCH bad business on their part.

When I first rang, the person who answered at the theatre was totally understanding and ready to transfer my tickets to another day, but then had to pass the phone over to a jobsworth manager for approval who basically told me to F* off.

For the sack of being decent about a national weather issue, they have forfeited all my and all my family/friends' future patronage, and also ensured bad press from me for years and years afterwards with everyone I talk to (as evidenced on this thread.) (it might be nothing to the theatre manager, but it was MASSIVE to me)

Dh took his parents to an opera which was trying to push boundaries and there was lots of enthusiastic gay sex. Most of the audience walked out it was on the news. His parents are the opposite of relaxed and easy going, but having paid they all sat through it in silence. Cringe.

Films I walked out of were Munich and Black Swan. Ones I sat through and still regret wasting time on were Three Burials, The Fountain (I should have known then never to give Darren Aronofski another chance), and Les Miserables (I love the book and the musical, both film and stage versions, are simply sacrilegious). Oh and Detachment, some humongous pile of shite with Adrien Brody playing a disillusioned teacher - SO pretentious and boring. There's a scene where a pupil makes poisoned muffins and I really wanted to steal one to put an end to my sufferings!

thought The Danish Girl was terrible - DP and I kept giggling as it reminded us of when Bugs Bunny dresses as a woman and everyone “fancies” him even though he is merely Bugs Bunny with lipstick on.

Another one for Les Mis. AND I was seated next to a woman who Facebooked her way through the whole thing whilst eating a family sized bag of Doritos. I couldn’t really blame her for the FB thing, but the Doritos were the end.

Most things with Tom Cruise in but particularly Vanilla Sky and Days of Thunder.

Theatre - saw a terrible production of Rebecca with Nigel Havers in it. I can't even recall where as I've tried to erase it from my mind.

VelvetSpoon

Last week my bf and I went to see Downsizing. I would have got up and left because it was shit, but it was cold outside so I stayed put til the end. I'd recommend you all give it a miss. What was Matt Damon thinking?!

I went to see that yesterday as I'd seen the trailer and it looked interesting.

WTAF???? It was like skipping through a field of turds! Went nowhere fast and I actually sat through to the end expecting something to happen.... and it didn't!

I too thought this was going to be about the cinema/theatre experience rather than just 'what film did you think was shit'

My worst two theatre experiences were on Broadway - something that should have been amazing. The two times I've been lucky enough to go to New York and going to a show on Broadway was like a dream come true.
We took the kids to see Aladdin which was a jolly enough and well executed musical but dear god the audience were just wankers.
A family group behind me played musical chairs chatting loudly all the way through. I expected noise from children but the adults were worse. The bloke next to me had his phone out scrolling the whole time while talking loudly to his teenage son. At one point he showed his some video footage with the sound on.

Then An American in Paris. I took my mum who dawdled over pre theatre dinner then insisted I try and get a cab for her because she couldn't walk the short distance. She's not normally demanding so I don't know what was going on that night. We had to be allowed in after the start and our seats were in the middle about three rows back.
After the excruciating entrance I then spent the rest of the night dying as my mum noisily sang along - even to the songs she didn't know.
Awful.

Eyes Wide Shut- a soul numbingly boring film where Tom Cruise doesn't manage to get laid, even at an orgy.