51stcenturyfox | I've been squicked

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I've been squicked

We don't see many movies in the theatre anymore. I think the last one was the latest Indiana Jones flick. (Which was worth it because the poor staff decorated the entrance to the screening with vines and had to dress up in costumes and we had LOLZ along with our greasy butter-hands.)

So the spouse brought some DVDs home: The Bank Job and Transsiberian.

BOTH had some surprise shit I just hate in them because it SQUICKS me out but I'm only going to spoil Transsiberian under the cut.

First, The Bank Job. Decent flick. An elaborated-upon true story. Soundtrack was good. Loved the period (early 70s) styling and the look of the film. Not a huge standout but not bad either. Jason Statham is hot and Peter de Jersey turned in a great performance as Michael X. I don't have any good review wordiness to put in here but it definitely didn't suck.

Second: Transsiberian. Started out great, though I'm not a Woody Harrelson fan, but I'm liking Emily Mortimer and Kate Mara's characters. (Woody and Emily play a couple traveling from China to Moscow and they meet Kate's char- she's a boho type travelling with her Spanish boyfriend - played by Eduardo Noriega.)

Not only was I pissed not to see Eduardo nekkid, because he and ol' Emily's character were USTING LIEK WHOA but then we end up with...

innocent tourists implicated in drug-smuggling plot.

Innocent tourists implicated in drug-smuggling is my squick!

Brokedown Palace? Fuck that, I am not watching it. They even popped that evil scenario into Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. That was a comedy, but surprise innocent tourists implicated in drug-smuggling pisses me right off. I don't want to see helpless, frantic people freaking out over being used by some heartless and gutless smuggler and beaten by cops. Or threatened with the Gulag. Or the many other things that can happen to you when you lose your American Express card and your passport on the same day and some asshole plants horse in your luggage. Run on sentence. Sorry.

I know it's stupid but it's my squick and I'm owning it.

Another thing I despise: Creepy (often apparently inbred) freaks terrorizing stranded/lost travelers.

Do you have any unusual squicks related to films you wish they'd warn about? Surprise clowns, something like that?

By the way, I saw this product in a GIANT bottle at the supermarket today and it made me larf. Head Lube. It's glossy!

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Sadistic doctors taking advantage of patients = instant squick.

OH yes. Especially if they're gynos or dentists.

Dead Ringers comes to mind.

Marathon Man?

It's not unusual, I suppose, but: Public humiliation. To be fair this extends to TV, books, and theatre as well. It's almost ubiquitous in cinematic comedies these days, which is why I don't go to the cinema much (I also am not fond of: explosions, shakycam, or bad writing, which narrows my field basically to Pixar and after Wall-E I'm not even sure about them).

It's that moment where the hero is in front of a crowd of judgmental strangers and has just done something for which they are being Judged. It's meant, archetypally, to reinforce collective social values, but I hate the sense of comform-or-die it inflicts on me and the cringe of shame I feel on behalf of the hero.

This is also the reason that there are only about forty seconds of "Something Borrowed" that I'm willing to watch, and the reason I can't adore "Captain Jack Harkness" as much as most of my friends. Because dude just kissed a guy in the middle of a room full of HOMOPHOBIC SOLDIERS UNDER HIS COMMAND, judgmental 1940s are judgmental! And that's probably the reason he dies the next day.

Uh. You may have hit a hot-button issue with me. Disregard as Cranky Sam Hates Cinema. :D

I love House of 1000 Corpses/The Devil's Rejects too much for their utter hilarity and over-the-topness (Though the first one is more over the top than the sequel which is played straight a lot more, but you still find yourself getting a giggle out of the horrific deaths, but the movie is from the perspective of the killers who really do find it amusing) to give freaks terrorizing travelers a thumb's down. Wrong Turn sucked balls, though. Not worth it, not even for Eliza.

I don't like awkwardness. I don't like comedy that comes from someone being put in an awkward/embarrassing situation. I had to fight to watch I Love Lucy as a kid (I often, literally, ran out of the room because whatever Lucy was doing was so embarrassing to me), and it's just gone on since then. It will take me hours and hours to watch some movies because I'll just pause it until I feel like I can get back to it. Romantic comedies have this a lot, and I don't find it endearing. Especially in unrequited love with a love triangle storylines.

I hate the sense of comform-or-die it inflicts on me and the cringe of shame I feel on behalf of the hero.

I do feel that too. We're supposed to (and maybe it's a cheap reaction grab) but it doesn't technically squick me.

The Captain Jack Harkness moment is utterly bewildering to me. I have to rationalize it as Rift Magic with nobody in the dance hall remembering the period before Jack and Tosh were sucked backed to the present.

Oh, you know... Lucy? Yes.

I sort of *like* awkwardness in rom-coms if it's endearing awkwardness.

Hugh Grant is the king of endearing awkward moments.

Yeah, I still haven't finished About A Boy because of the awkward. Hugh Grant as the Prime Minister in Love Actually getting busted in his epic dance sequence is made of WIN, I will admit. That's okay awkward because that's like, real person awkward. Everyone gets caught doing something silly at some point in their lives. Even the Prime Minister.

Perhaps we're on a different definition of squick from each other? Are we talking a visceral sensation of discomfort, or more of an intense "oh god, that's disgusting" reaction? For me, squick is the former, but I can see how it would be defined as the latter too.

I wince a little with stuff like Gwen walking in on sex, or Ianto getting head-patted when he protests the wedding dress isn't for him, but that's one-on-one and for some reason that's okay. When it's a crowd of people, whether they know the hero or not, I find it almost unbearable -- I've left/muted/skipped it when I've seen it coming, and when I don't see it coming I find I often can't enjoy the rest of the film/show. When I lived at home it made my parents absolutely nuts, because it was very hard to find a film the entire family wants to see. We finally called a compromise whereby I no longer got input in video rental and they no longer objected to my ignoring the film in favour of my laptop. :D

Squicks:

Ten-minute rape scenes, which I was not prepared for when I watched The Baby of Macon. NOT OKAY. In fact, I actually almost threw up.

To me, a visceral sensation of discomfort = squick. So I'm getting your reaction here.

I'd classify some things as "minor squicks", I suppose.

Torture, to me, is a full-on squick. I have to cover my ears and screw my eyes shut when surprise torture shows up onscreen.

Prison rape, too. I won't even see films which could conceivably have prison rape scenes in them - unless I've read the book first and know they won't.

Whoa. Now I have another film to add to the "do not watch" list.

I haven't heard of that one, though.

See, and I'm -- well, not okay with those, I'd prefer not to see them, but they don't make me squirm the way humiliation does. They're easier for me to cope with, perhaps because I have no personal experience with them. Whereas I have done stupid, self-humiliating things a lot. :D

It's one of Peter Greenaway's firsts, and very interesting aside from that scene, though it is disturbing throughout. It's a pretty condemning look at religion and popular entertainment all at once, and some of the scenes are just beautifully (though again, disturbingly) executed. However, TEN FULL FUCKING MINUTES of a woman getting raped to death was pretty much totally excessive and again NOT FUCKIN' COOL.

Whereas I have done stupid, self-humiliating things a lot.

Meeee tooooo.

I had to learn to either laugh at those or mentally block them out or I'd never go out in public again. :)

Silly/charming awkward is okay by me as well.

I was thinking of the Hugh Grant love confession in Four Weddings, which was painful... but I liked it anyway.

Did you catch that in a theatre or on DVD?

A ten-minute rape scene would squick almost anyone, IMO. That would be especially horrible to watch in a public setting.

I downloaded it like a bad boy. I'm SO GLAD I didn't see it in a theater. Oh god.

((OMG, I love your icon!))

Well, like a lot of people on here, it appears I am in the same category of public humiliation. I can no longer watch "Seinfeld." I just feel bad for everyone around them and I get antsy. This is especially true when George is onscreen.

Squick: impaling. Things like arrows, spears, etc. I'm okay w/ blood on my screen and in real life. I just don't want to see the thing sticking out of flesh. Major squick.

Squick: hurting animals. I am in animal protection for my job, and there is a world of shit that humans throw at animals, in the most casual way possible. Don't want to see it in something that is supposed to be entertaining me.

Squick: fake boobs. They just don't move naturally. And then I get embarrassed for the poor actress who felt she needed to enhance her boobs for the job, and they look so terrible. (I could only get through one episode of "Californication" for the fake boobs, and one other squick, which I'll get to. I'd say that the little girl who used to be on "The Nanny" had real boobs, but damn I couldn't look at her -- she used to be on "The Nanny"! She should not even have boobs! You know what I mean.)

Squick: skeevy guys who still get women despite oozing skeeviness (see "Californication") -- we are not that desperate.

Squick: fat jokes. They are never funny. I fucking hate fat jokes.

Damn, I have a lot more. But I will shut up now. And go to bed!

Naughty!

I couldn't even sit through The Accused. And I knew what I was getting into with that film.

Icon is by

throwthebones :)

That's it. Nothing is safe for you to watch! Interesting list.

Animals being hurt. I find that disturbing as well.

Impaling as in "on a pike, the hard way". NO THANK YOU. I don't even want to read about Vlad.

Really, there should be a website specifically for listing the 100 most-common entertainment squicks, with like... bingo cards for films/TV.

Oddly dentists are not a problem for me, just doctors. Evil evil doctors.

It's not unusual, I suppose, but: Public humiliation.

Butting in to hardcore agree, I absolutely HATE Cringe Comedy.

I really, really hate going to the doctor. Even in an emergency room "OH my GOD I think something is broken" scenario.

It brings forth manic nervous joking on my part.

The only way anyone's been able to get me to see one in the last five years has been when I'm too unconscious to stop them. :(

Well, I've had to concede the point on a few of them -- there will always be guys whose skeeviness does not have a detrimental impact on their social lives. I think "Californication" bothered me so much b/c I wanted to like it. Nine (or, what, seven and some change?) years of watching David Duchovny, and then that's what I'm given? I'm all for busting free of your image, but damn.

One more major squick: when characters don't wash their hands after using the bathroom. Oh, disgust!!!

Seriously going to bed now. But I like your post!

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