What's the most boring movie you've ever seen?

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zisou

In recent years, TAR.

“Local Hero.” As dry and lifeless as sandpaper in the Mojave.

Oppenheimer

The Brutalist

Please don't shoot me but I have fallen asleep every time I watched FANTASIA.

Conclave.

Dreamgirls. Awful.

2001: A Space Odyssey

Doctor Strange boring snoozefest. Most exciting movie is probably Citizen Kane.

2001 yes definitely, the Emperor's New Clothes.

Iron fucking Weed.

Meloncholera

Johnny Dangerously

"A Sunday in the Country" (1984) - only film I ever fell asleep at in the theater.

The English Patient. Oh. Dear. God.

Koyaanisqatsi. I was not stoned enough.

Can't believe it took 15 responses before getting to the correct answer.

Thread closed R16.

'Night Mother. I wanted to shoot myself before she did.

Another vote for The English Patient. It wanted badly to be a David Lean-esque Zhivago event, but provoked more yawns than tears

2001: a Space Odessy

My Dinner with Andre

I just watched Civil War on HBO......What the fuck. A complete waste of my precious life.

The English Patient. I wanted to love it, but I couldn't stay awake.

Out of Africa

The Madness of King George.

Shakespeare in Love

That Blair Witch shit.

Moment By Moment. Tomlin & Travolta.

I can only pick one? I can’t.

I will give you a whole GENRE that’s a complete bore to me: science fiction. All of it. I am constitutionally unable to pay attention to it.

Mahogany

All those LOTR movies.

[quote] Mahogany

No. That hilarious scene in the car makes it worthwhile.

Another vote for 2001: A Space Odyssey. I've been trying for decades but I can never get through it. It's like death.

You people are stupid enough to sit through a movie that bores you to [italic]death?[/italic]

Wow. I'm sorry.

You sound grossly obese R35.

Another vote for Oppenheimer. Total emperor's new clothes situation. I think it will be forgotten in five years.

Boyhood

[italic]L'année dernière à Marienbad.[/italic] I tried. I really tried. I love French cinema. I have no problem with experimental films or non-narrative films. But this was torture, and I stopped the DVD less than halfway through.

El espíritu de la colmena (The Spirit of the Beehive).

Drive.

The Gosling vehicle.

Crash by David Cronenberg.

Re: Oppenheimer - I quite enjoyed it. But I honestly wonder if there was an element of people not wanting to seem uncultured after doing the Barbenheimer double bill, so they claimed to enjoy the film about the atomic bomb as much as the film about a doll.

All the President's Men

Australia

Wind, 1992

I fell asleep when I saw The Legend of Bagger Vance in the theater

Oppenheimer should have been tremendously thrilling and powerful given the subject matter

Gandhi

Another vote for "My Dinner With Andre," which, inexplicably, made a lot of critics' 10-best lists the year it was released. It was the movie that made me realize that Siskel and Ebert often had their heads up their asses, the way they raved about it. What a great cinematic innovation: Planting a camera in front of two tedious talking heads.

Death in Venice. We're on the beach now SLOWLY pan left, pan left, pan left, pan left, pan left. Now stop. Now SLOWLY pan right, pan right, pan right, pan right, pan right. Ugh.

The Happening

Don’t bother

The Blair Witch Project

Inland Empire

The Power of the Dog

and The Tree of Life can be considered boring, but it’s one I actually really liked. I definitely can see why others don’t like it, though.

I love Last Year at Marienbad. I watch it again every couple of years and own the DVD. One of my favorite films.

I will go to my grave loving "The English Patient" and the way the story unfolded like an old fashioned, bittersweet, romance saga. I'm sorry you guys couldn't enjoy it.

The Thin Red Line.

The French Lieutenant's Woman

Michelangelo Antonioni's "Beyond the Clouds".

Chariots of Fire

The Betsy

Titanic

Eyes Wide Shut.

R55, as unfashionable as it might be, I still love The English Patient as well. If you can't at least take pleasure from three of the world's finest actors at their most gorgeous (well, for Fiennes, in half the movie), then you're missing out.

There's probably some Russian film that's worse, but the most boring movie I've ever seen is Jeanne Dielman, 12 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles. Even the title is longer and more pointless than it should be. The whole thing is just the most excruciating slog ever made. Some of Malick's movies might be snoozes, but at least they have some filmmaking artistry behind them instead of just bludgeoning you with the dullness one woman's domestic drudgery.

Citizen Kane

The Liz Taylor Cleopatra is mostly boring, aside from a few camp moments

"Secret Ceremony". Despite Liz and Mia, nothing happens really slowly.

Someone here recommended "The Attic" (1980). I hate you.

Ralph Bahkshi's animated The Lord of the Rings. I found it so incredibly painful to sit thru, I could never bring myself to watch any of Peter Jackson's trilogy.

All of these are highly entertaining compared to my choice.

“A Ghost Story” is the most boring movie you will ever watch. The movie was so slow there were moments I thought I had accidentally put the movie on pause.

This is the one example of how slow it is. It’s 5 minutes of Rooney Mara eating a pie. This is the most action that happens in the movie aside from 1 minute at the end.

My bore detection is good, so I almost never embark on that two-hour time-waste. Lots of the films cited above are in fact favourites I'll gladly re-watch.

However two films by big-name directors were so vapid and pointlessly glossy I stopped watching at least half-way through: Woody Allen's 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona', and Nora Ephron's 'Julie and Julia.'

We had to watch MY DINNER WITH ANDRE in college as part of a Psych. class. I thought maybe I didn't get it, but God bless. What a self-indulgent piece of shit.

Have yet to get through CITIZEN KANE without falling asleep. This has become helpful over the years as I have chronic insomnia. Apologies, Mr. Welles, I'm sure this isn't the response you were going for.

I’m glad I’m not the only one who found Oppenheimer deliriously boring. I typically enjoy historical dramas.

I’ll add Hugo to the list.

R62: "Jeanne Dielman" was rather a controversial choice, to say the least, as "the greatest film of all time," as voted by professional film critics in the British Film Institute's "Sight & Sound" magazine:

Probably something by Tarkovsky, like Solaris.

[quote] There's probably some Russian film that's worse, but the most boring movie I've ever seen is Jeanne Dielman, 12 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles. Even the title is longer and more pointless than it should be. The whole thing is just the most excruciating slog ever made. Some of Malick's movies might be snoozes, but at least they have some filmmaking artistry behind them instead of just bludgeoning you with the dullness one woman's domestic drudgery.

It was voted the greatest film of all time in 2022 by the famous Sight and Sound poll of film scholars and film critics.

Yes, see R71.

All the Marvel movies I find boring. They’re all the same visually with over the top CGI special effects and uninteresting characters that are just of no interest to me. I tried to sit through one as a favor to a friend but I kept falling asleep.

I don’t appreciate Monty Python.

The Greatest Showman - soul crushingly mind-numbing dreck

R77, I hated that movie

Zone of Interest

Zone of Interest wasn't boring, though the whole thing made me sort of nauseous and the yelling & screaming in the background gave me headache. No doubt that was the intended impact, but it was a hard watch. It definitely made me consider the horrors of today that we just sort of hold our nose and pretend not to notice.

I actually thought Nosferatu was kind of a bore - maybe not the *most* boring - but felt surprisingly lifeless for a vampire movie. My mind kept going to random things like "how does she get her eyes to roll back in her head like that?" "god, can you imagine the crap stuck in the vampire's mustache?" "is ATJ ever going to get naked?"

Bros

Barbie

I still Believe

I suppose I am self-indulgent and a bore, because I love My Dinner with Andre.

I rewatch it every five or so years, and I always get something entirely different out of it.

Zone of Interest was very boring.

The Shoes of The Fisherman

I thought Avatar: Way of Water was boring.

r83 I think that was the point. The banality of evil.

One of the most boring I’ve ever seen was The Brontë Sisters. I had high hopes because I love the director and the actresses, but apart from some beautiful cinematography, this was a total snore.

By The Sea, that shitfest starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

That Di Caprio/Winslet Oscar-bait snoozefest, Revolutionary Road.

Reds - the only film I ever fell asleep at in the theater.

Rune gets broken serving for the third set then does his usual little bitch act. Like clockwork.

Ghandi

R40 The last scene is worth it

R9 beat me to it. "2001: A Space Odyssey" for the win.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being Moon in the gutter Apocoplase now Deer Hunter

Dawson’s Fifty Load Weekend. By Load 6, it became rather repetitive.

The Killing Of The Sacred Deer.

I didn't find Oppenheimer boring, but I definitely felt its three-hour length.

When I was taking film classes in college, the most boring film I watched was "Rome, Open City."

Ishtar was absolutely horrible. Without a doubt, it was the worst movie of the 1980s, and that's no small feat.

Eyes Wide Shut. Nicole Kidman speaking is like trying to talk when you’re yawning.

Bela Tarr specializes in boring movies, but none are as insanely boring as WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES.

For me, almost all franchise superhero movies are mind-numbingly boring.

Dog Star Man.

Fantasia

I couldn’t have been older than 10 the first time I saw it and didn’t have the maturity to appreciate it. As an adult I think it’s gorgeous.

But I can’t think of anything that bored me as much as Fantasia as a 10 year old.

Jacobs Ladder and another vote for the English Patient . I pretty much dislike anything with La Streep .

The Last Days of Disco

dull, navel gazing foolishness by straight white people. nothing at all to do with the fabulousness that was disco.

Whit Stillman defines boring filmmaking.

R101, I have heard a lot about Bella Tarr. Regardless of his reputation, nothing could make me sit through the entirety of Satantango. Isn't it an 8 hour movie? Who has time for that!? Only film critics, obviously.

R104, I understand disliking Jacob's Ladder but I would never call it boring.

ANORA

Couldn't even finish it,

"Once." A pointless unentertaining snore-fest.

The Brutalist.

One man’s trash….

I know it’s a movie with no action but I loved “Jeanne Dielman”. I don’t know what it was about it that I liked but I was never bored and it didn’t feel overly long despite being quite long.

Jeanne Dielman is so boring she even is boring in the kitchen, making the same thing over and over again. Breaded cutlets. She must be the most boring prostitute in Belgium.

R113 That is kind of the whole point of the movie.

Moonrise Kingdom

Marriage Story. Absolutely unbearable and uninteresting. I couldn’t wait for it to end.

Beloved

I imagine Oppenheimer would be very boring

I imagine Oppenheimer would be very boring

R1 the title alone gives it away no synopsis needed

R7 it took me 4 tries

POSEIDON ADVENTURE. We tried to watch it recently, because a DL thread made it seem so exciting. We fell asleep and still haven't finished it.

Lord, it was boring.

Am I the only one that was rather blown away by 2001? I'll give that some of the early plot threads meandered and went nowhere, but I still wound up riveted.

I was checking my watch during The Dark Knight

I loved loved loved 2001, and still do.

2001 is a classic but you really have to be able to sit down and get lost in it.

Someone said 2001 was boring? It's immaculately filmed and expertly manages creating a mood without words. It's almost like art. Maybe it is art.

Gangs of New York

"The Big Lebowski". Even if I was a hardcore straight guy, it would've still bore me as hell. Only truly stoned guys cold enjoy this film.

Its crazy how, with Streaming, if it doesn't grab u in the first 20 mins, you will switch off. Will that mean every movie and show will always go for the James Bond opener; the pattern will become the same; throw as much into the first 20 minutes? As a kid I walked 3 miles to the video library, often browsed for an hour, chose a movie and you watched that movie no matter what. But the worst movie ever was Barton Fink, only because a tv critic daid it was Amazing, an actor was playing Louis B Mayer...so i was in....dragged my friends to it, and i was never allowed choose the movie again for yeats lol. Barton Fink became a running joke. Iys probably a clever movie but it was not right for a group of 19 year olds at the cineplex. Also, batman forever, i fell fast asleep in the cinema. Btw, do Americans ever call it the cinema or just the theatre? In Europe, a theatre is for shows not movies.

I know it’s seemingly loved here, but Barry Lyndon. I don’t get why this is supposed to be good.,

Star Wars

R131, every screenshot looks like a painting. It is long though, I'll give you that. But I don't find it overlong.

R130, the phones really have killed our attention. I love Japanese films and I bought The Human Condition Trilogy a few months ago. I still haven't gotten around to watching it because I'm afraid I'll be too distracted.

lol My Dinner With André is one of my favorite films.

I'd own the action figures if I could

I totally understand why people find it boring! ... but for me it's something wonderful and poignant and very important.

Cleopatra (1963)

Boyhood

2001: a Space Odyssey. I fell asleep in the theater.

I love the English Patient. I watch it every time I catch it on TV and I own the DVD. So go figure.

Ryan's Daughter

Citizen Kane is noted here a few times. Perhaps because it's shown so often, it's become boring. I enjoyed it the first time.

[quote]I suppose I am self-indulgent and a bore, because I love My Dinner with Andre. I rewatch it every five or so years, and I always get something entirely different out of it.

You have a much greater tolerance of Wallace Shawn than I do.

Andy Warhol's first films, like EMPIRE (65) and SLEEP (64) were deliberately boring. Even 70 minutes of TAYLOR MEAD'S ASS (68) is too long.

R135

Hat tip for the Guffman reference.

I'm wondering what it was that some of the posters in this thread expected of My Dinner with André. Did they go expecting something else altogether? As I recall, there was more than a little forewarning (previews and critic's reviews) of the subject matter and pace. Just the title, let alone Wallace Shawn's face provided a rather reliable set of clues.

[quote]Its crazy how, with Streaming, if it doesn't grab u in the first 20 mins, you will switch off.

That is true - because there's so much content, you tend to have little/no patience for a movie that's slow to develop. That & the first time you're watching movies, you're watching at home. I thought Annihilation was a terrible bore the first time I watched it, but after watching it again, I think I would've been more transfixed if you had the full impact of the world they were trying to create in a theater

[quote]let alone Wallace Shawn's face

This makes me laugh for some reason

The Bostonians

It's funny how talented filmmakers can make even the most mundane scenes appear intriguing and hold your interest, while hack directors who are trying to do something completely original and have the gifted cast & crew and financial resources to back them up, can produce complete snoozes.

There are well-made films that feature drudgery and monotony, like Steven Soderbergh's short-ish "Bubble" (2005) or the more recent "On Falling" (2024). In the latter, a young Portuguese woman takes a job as a "picker" in an Amazon warehouse somewhere in Scotland. The dialogue between her and her housemates and her work colleagues is hyper-realistic: discussing whether a (fictional) new Netflix series is or isn't worth watching, accounts of going to the ATM and being told you have "insufficient funds," shall we or shall we not go out for a pint tonight, talking about the job, foods from her housemates' various native countries, etc. The actors don't even speak like actors, but mumble like many regular people do. Every day is the same, it's always raining, the characters appear to be stuck in a perpetual November, they try (and often fail) to form connections with one another, yet I watched this film and felt completely immersed--as if that were MY life. It's not about what you have seen, the plot, what happened, and who did what: in this case it's about how the movie made you feel when you were watching it.

R142's "Empire" (Warhol) is probably (intentionally) THE most boring film ever made. Was there anyone who DIDN'T walk out and demand their money back at a screening back then?

I did manage to fall asleep for all three Lord of the Rings Movies, but CGI does that to me every time. I tried 3d googles once, lasted about 30 seconds and came to when the ushers shook me awake as they thought I'd died. It was like coming out of general anesthetic.

Three films I could never get through:

Two directed by Elaine May - ISHTAR (mentioned earlier) and MIKEY AND NICKEY (her imitation of a Cassavetes film). Whatever gifts she had as a performer and writer certainly didn't translate to directing (as well as writing in these two cases).

FELLINI SATYRICON. After about an hour you realize nothing interesting is going to happen. And the lead characters aren't remotely interesting.

La noiseuse

I loved the spectacle of Fellini Satyricon

R3 Noooo! This is one of my favorite movies ever! Beautiful cinematography, quirky characters. Yes, it moves along at a leisurely pace, but I found it so charming and heartwarming. I didn't find it boring at all.

I fell asleep in the theater during "Quiz Show," so I guess I'd say the movie was pretty boring.

I liked it. John turturro at his best

I loved Melancholia

I get people finding Citizen Kane boringt; it iIS slow and non-eventful my modern film standards. But, then, what isn't? And anyone who denies it's place as the greatest film ever is just being contrarian.

Contrarian here. I could not make it through CITIZEN KANE once but I’ve seen ROMY AND MICHELLE’S HIGH SCHOOL REUNION 30+ times.

ROMY is better.

Oh. My. Fucking. God. Doctor Zhivago

Do you have the action figures, [R82]?

Schindler's List

R72 had it right with the director - Tarkovsky - but the most boring movie in the world is his "Stalker". I'm also with R152 on the spectacle of "Fellini Satyricon", and his "Casanova" even more so, but then I've recently come to realize that meaningful spectacle is my absolutely favorite film genre. Too bad late '60s to late '70 were the only time in the cinema when meaning and spectacle came together.

Dune and Fargo

R65 I’m the one who recommended the Attic and I stand by it, BITCH. How can you find a movie with a monkey boring? And Secret Ceremony is a camp masterpiece. The part where Mia Farrow feeds plump Liz a lavish breakfast and she wolfs it down like she hasn’t eaten in days.

Paper Moon

Brazil (1985)

I watched it many years ago- SLOW TORTURE

I love most of his movies, but Ingmar Bergman’s films like Cries and Whispers where people are laying in bed slowly dying. And then a dwarf walks by. I liked Spirit of the Beehive, made me feel like a kid again.

“Boom!” I saw it before WAOVW. Growing up, Elizabeth Taylor was a Joan Rivers punchline and this movie reinforced that.

Yentl

2001

Brazil. I walked out after 30 minutes

Picnic at Hanging Rock. Fell asleep.

The Postman with Costner.

R168, I saw Boom! on YouTube not long ago and given its notorious reputation as one of the biggest bombs of the 1960s I thought it was actually sort of watchable. With a different cast that movie might have worked. Unfortunately Taylor and Burton overwhelm it. Burton is not bad but he is woefully miscast, and apart from one or two moments Taylor is pretty much at her screechy worst.

Name one Hentry James novel that has been adapted for the screen in which there is any action or interest at all.