Sometimes, you can just tell…

I’m talking about how you just instinctively know that a movie is gonna SUCK.

Maybe it’s just from a preview, maybe it’s the subject matter, or maybe you get about five minutes into it and you realize that you just wasted your money…

Check out how AskReddit users know that a movie is gonna be a stinker.

Good point.

“They start throwing out buzzwords unironically

As someone who loves progressive themes in movies, the second someone tosses out something like “toxic masculinity”, I know it’s not gonna be good.

The primary rule in story telling is “show don’t tell”, and a lot of movies that want to be progressive and “make people think” don’t think their audience is smart enough to figure out stuff like symbolism and nuance and basic storytelling, so they’re gonna smack you over the head with just how progressive they are.

A good example of this is comparing the original Black Christmas from the 70s to the most recent remake (ignoring the one with all the eyeballs). The original one was a feminist movie, with complex female characters who aren’t dying with their t**s out, the protagonist has an abortion and is not painted as a bad person for it, all the women in the movie are different, and are allowed to be smart, rude and imperfect. It’s feminist because at the time, this was much rarer in movies, especially the abortion part.

Meanwhile, the most recent version of Black Christmas is trying really hard to be feminist, including a character who is a walking Instagram Infographic, and while I appreciate the themes they were trying to explore, they spell it all out in the dialogue and don’t let the visuals and the symbolism speak for themselves.

You can absolutely have great movies with progressive themes, you just have to rest it like any other movie and focus on the storytelling, not proving to the audience that you’re up on all the feminist terms.”

Bingo.

“It’s a remake of something that didn’t suck.

I h**e that there’s so many remakes of decent/good movies. Feels like it’s just a safe money-grab.

It would be cool if movies that didn’t do so hot, get reworked into good movie remakes, but I guess that’s too much of a risk for studios to bother with.”

Look it up.

“Directed by Alan Smithee.

You’re not actually allowed to use that name anymore because Eric Idle made a movie where he was a director named Alan Smithee who wanted to not be credited for a terrible movie but the only name he could use was Alan Smithee.

I guess it pi**ed the Director’s Guild off that he was mocking the system that way and just said, “Fine, f**k it. You can’t do that anymore.””

Nailed it!

“If there are multiple trailers for a comedy movie, but they use the same joke in all of them.

It’s usually the only funny joke in the movie.”

Drives me nuts.

“When the trailer shows you the whole movie.

I’ve scratched titles off my watch list because I feel I’ve already seen the important parts of the film through the trailer, why bother?”

Too many cooks in the kitchen.

“Not always the case but when there are more than 3 writers a movie tends to lack vision. It can also occur due to rewrites.

Not A Bomb Podcast reviews movies that bombed financially or critically and this is a subject often discussed if anyone is interested.”

What’s the hold up?

“It’s been in production for too long.

There’s always a reason, for a recent example; ‘Chaos Walking’. It changed screenwriter, director and production company so many times over 10 years but was sold on it been “A Charlie Kauffman movie starring Daisy Ridley and Tom Holland”.

Kauffman left in 2013, Ridley and Holland filmed it over years due to so many reshoots and failed screenings. Then Lionsgate said the negative reviews were shocking to them.. Really??”

Ehhh, don’t pause it.

“When I wanna get up to get some snacks 5 mins into the movie but don’t pause it because I feel like “I’m probably not missing out on much”.”

Seen that one before.

“Jenifer Lopez is in it and it’s about weddings.

“No, Rosa María! you can’t marry your rich client! You are the wedding planner and the daughter of immigrants…”

It ends with them getting married in the middle of a Puerto Rican town.”

What’s up with the hair?

“I had a hard time watching True Grit (the John Wayne one) because the female lead’s hairstyle was very clearly from the 1960s… and it was so distracting.”

Sounds familiar…

“The preview shows a girl who’s Just Too Focused On Career to find love going back to her small hometown for whatever reason.”

How do you know when a movie is gonna be bad?

Let us know in the comments.

Please and thank you!