Films you generally avoid...

[Gov Kodos]

I avoid most films due to rising prices at the theater. In judging whether to see a movie it is a matter of the very small pool of actors I enjoy coupled with the genre. Much as I like Meryl Streep there is virtually no way I will go to a musical. I really like Johnny Depp, but, while I didn't mind Dillinger, my general lack of interest in gangster films made it feel less interesting to me than many others of his films.

 

[DarthTom]

Anything with Nicholas Cage, Owen Wilson, or Julia Roberts in it. It is very rare that I call someone a bad actor---even sit-com actors usually have SOME kind of chops, but those three just leave me saying, "How are they popular?".

That's interesting. I liked Cage in the critically acclaimed film Leaving Las Vegas. And National Treasure for me was just fun entertainment.

Regarding people I dislike, Woody Allen despite being popular with 'intellectuals,' I think is an abomination of a person - marrying his adoptive daughter.

I don't care how much the critics fawn over him - he's a scum bag IMO.

 

[Warped9]

An actor or actress is not a genre. That said, though, there are actors that turn me off initially. I generally don't care for Julia Roberts, Steve Martin, Jim Carrey, Adam Sandler and some others whose presence is most likely to dampen my interest in a film.

As mentioned upthread: mindless action, sappy family dramas, torture porn, vampires, buddy flicks...

 

[Deckerd]

I never got into the Harry Potter kool-aid.

What does that mean?

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

I guess I'm another one who's not that much interested in Mafia films. Mostly, they are stories about despicable people whose inevitable downfall is often shown as something tragic for some reason. Good riddance I say.

That being said, I kind of enjoyed Ridley Scott's American Gangster. Of course, this movie also contained these sub-plots with Russell Crowe's Serpico-like character and Josh Brolin's corrupt police officer character. Now I happen to like cop dramas and stories about corruption in police very much. Of course, there's also the whole angle with Denzel Washington practically being the first black Mafia boss. That adds the issue of racism and racial equality, even if it is racial equality in organized crime. (In a way, American Gangster was an odd pastiche of Malcolm X, Serpico,and Goodfellas. *lol* )

 

[Warped9]

I never got into the Harry Potter kool-aid.

What does that mean?

So many people around me seemed to get into HP and from day one it just didn't interest me. A kid who can do magic. Okay there might be more to it, but basically the appeal or idea or hook just didn't click for me.

 

[Kirkman1987]

Anything that has way too much shaking and has that Blair Witch first person documentry style.

Most Romantic Comedies. I like everything Woody Allen did in the genre and a few others, but this type of movie is mostly summed up by the images of their generic photoshopped head movie posters.

Pretty much all sports movies other than Rocky. It helps that I actually like Boxing a lot, but I also like football to a lesser degree and those movies have never appealed to me.

Dance movies. Musicals are fine, but any movie that is just about dance grates on me.

Most modern cop movies bore me. all the technology and psych profile stuff has spoiled the genre for me. I'll take a gritty film like The French Connection over a modern police film anyday.

On the other hand, The genre I'm the most forgiving of is the 80's action movie. I can sit through any terrible Cannon Chuck Norris or Charles Bronson film and love it to death.

 

[Deckerd]

I never got into the Harry Potter kool-aid.

What does that mean?

So many people around me seemed to get into HP and from day one it just didn't interest me. A kid who can do magic. Okay there might be more to it, but basically the appeal or idea or hook just didn't click for me.

Yes but your terminology suggests that you think the HP fans are following it blindly, without any discrimination. This is strange since by definition a 'fan' will gravitate towards whatever pleases them most. Are you saying all fans of all genres are the same? Or is it just Harry Potter fans that are kool-aid drinkers?

 

[Warped9]

^^ Actually I don't think that is far from true. I do think it happens often enough that a lot of people can gravitate towards something simply because many others are or seem to rather than looking at it and making their own judgement.

More simply, though,it happens often enough that many people are interested in something that does absolutely nothing for me. I never got into Star Wars the way many seem to. I hated Friends. I loathe ST09. And there have been quite a few other instances.

I don't hate HP. I just never got the appeal.

 

[Deckerd]

At least you went to see ST09 before making up your mind.

 

[Warped9]

At least you went to see ST09 before making up your mind.

There was no way I was going to pay my hard earned cash for a film I didn't see any appeal in. I was content to wait until it aired on television. But then not long after it debuted someone lent me a download they had, a crappy one. Not long after that someone lent me their dvd copy. The better quality didn't help---it was still a shitty film.

 

[Deckerd]

Alright you know what I meant.

 

[DarthTom]

So many people around me seemed to get into HP and from day one it just didn't interest me. A kid who can do magic. Okay there might be more to it, but basically the appeal or idea or hook just didn't click for me.

I understand. And what clicks for one person doesn't necessarily click for another.

Trek fans should remember that many of the concepts sold in Trek as advanced technology are really no different than magic either.

Dilithium Crystals power the warp drive.

The Q species snap their fingers and claim to be omnipotent beings.

FTL travel and transporting most credible scientists claim are a scientific impossibility. etc. etc.

There is lots of 'magic,' in Trek lore.

 

[Klaus]

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

--ACC

 

[the G-man]

Hostage movies make me tense
Movies where pets are in danger and/or get killed upset me too much.
Any movie with a redneck sheriff produced after "Smokey and the Bandit."

 

[Klaus]

Hostage movies are supposed to make you tense!

...and I agree about the pet thing, I almost walked out of I Am Legend when I realized he was going to have to kill the dog.

 

[the G-man]

Hostage movies are supposed to make you tense!

Yeah, I know. It's one of those things where you see something scary when you're a real little kid and it sticks with you more than it should

and I agree about the pet thing, I almost walked out of I Am Legend when I realized he was going to have to kill the dog.

Having read the book I knew enough to ask before I paid to see Legend.

Similarly, my parents saw "Gran Torino" before I did and so I asked them if anything happened to Clint's dog.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I have The Searchers recorded on my DVR downstairs and can't wait to finally watch it once I get out from beneath my deadlines.

The Searchers is awesome.

I've never been interested in slasher-type horror movies. Jason and Michael Myers do nothing for me, and their spiritual descendants even less.

 

[Harvey]

The Searchers is weighed down by plenty of racism and by cutting back to secondary characters that don't matter. But it's still an okay film, if not the great one it is often recognized as.

In terms of films which I avoid, I tend not to see romantic comedies. They're far too formulaic for my tastes, and obviously not intended to appeal to my demographic.

In addition to that, if I never see another D.W. Griffith or Cecil B. Demille silent it will be too soon. I will probably never view one of those outside of the realm of a classroom.

 

[Kegg]

Generally I don't watch many Westerns, zombie films, slashers (most horror where gore is the selling point)... uh... romantic comedies... most American comedies, really. I was pretty hostile to teen films and TV shows as a teenager, and while the hostility has lessened since then I still don't watch it. (Ebert told me Juno was better than No Country for Old Men and he still failed to get me into the theatre.)

In addition to that, if I never see another D.W. Griffith or Cecil B. Demille silent it will be too soon. I will probably never view one of those outside of the realm of a classroom.

What, you want to see D.W. Griffith's sound films? Because he's pretty off the rails at that point.

I have a book somewhere which holds the opinion that DeMille's silents are his best work... but for my money, that's his early sound flick Cleopatra. One disgresses.