Hacker News Reader

Comment by vasco | Hacker News Reader

The phenomenon of walking out of a show I paid to watch, even if I'm not enjoying that much is so alien to me. The first thought I might have is "what am I missing", and throughout I'll be trying to either find something good in it or start joking about it in my head. Maybe it'll turn good, maybe it'll be so bad it's good. Maybe the way they tell the story is bad but I still want to know how the story ends. I feel like I have so many reasons to stay there that it hasn't ever ocurred to walk out. Do you walk out of stuff often?

View on HN

I don't watch enough movies in a theater to measure walk outs there (though I would have walked out of the latest Avatar had I not been there with my son; so boring and long...), but I do stop maybe 1/5 novels without finishing and maybe 1/20 movies without finishing them. There's more interesting stuff I could be doing with my time, and if they are completely not my taste, I'd rather be ding those things.

Not him but I have video games I didn't complete and books I stop reading midway. You already wasted your money, why compound the loss further by wasting your time on things you don’t care for.

Time is worth more than money. It could turn around, but it could also not, and if it doesn't, you're not getting those two hours of your life back. You have a very limited amount of time allotted to you on Earth, choose what you do with it wisely. You'll get more money, you won't get more time.

Walked out once of a movie people convinced me to go to. I found it childish and boring, kept thinking it is a nice sunny weather outside, what am I doing wasting my life in this darkness watching this commercial crap. It felt great being outside. I wish I had used my time similarly wisely in the years that followed :)

You're just a victim of the sunk-cost fallacy.

Come on, Titanic wasn't that bad. :)

Maybe not... but your joke on the other hand... ;)

I completely agree. I posted it in a moment of weakness. Undoubtedly "inspired" by recently watching [0] :)

[0] https://futurama.fandom.com/wiki/A_Flight_to_Remember

I once walked out of a picture, for Ermanno Olmi's Il mestiere delle armi (The Profession of Arms). I was not ready for what I later discovered was a masterpiece about the last days of Giovanni Dalle Bande Nere. If you are interested in the life of the most famous " Capitano di Ventura " of the Renaissance, I recommend the magisterial biography of Giovanni Dalle Bande Nere written by Cesare Marchi.

I watched it at home, so I didn't walk out technically, but I also turned off "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood". The only movies I've physically walked out of have been "The Departed" and "Tree of Life". I don't think it's a big deal to bail on something you're not enjoying, but have given a best effort to get into.

When you start consistently walking out of Oscar nominated or winning films I know immediately your opinion on films is probably not worth much.

I really wouldn't go that far. Oscar nominations are industry nominated movies. There's no real bar of quality aside from what the committee deems worthwhile. The committee famously doesn't care about animated movies, so the generally the only animated films that wins Oscars are Disney films, despite strong international presence.

If I’m falling asleep during a movie or I’ve watched 50% and have no idea what’s happening, I don’t much see the point in staying :)

I've done this once in 30+ years. Little Nicky was a terrible movie, no clue what Adam Sandler was thinking with that one.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com