Weekend Roundtable: Movies You Regret Buying

We’ve all done it. If you collect movies on DVD or Blu-ray, you’ve undoubtedly purchased a disc at some point that you later regretted. Perhaps it was a blind-buy that you expected to like, only to discover that you hated it. Perhaps you even bought the movie knowing that you didn’t like it, but needed to own it for collectible purposes (or because you wanted to watch the bonus features). In today’s Roundtable, we share our shame.

Daniel Hirshleifer

I bought ‘Ben-Hur‘ on DVD, not having seen it since I was a kid. I mainly remembered the chariot scene, as I’m sure most people do. I had completely forgotten how heavy-handed and over the top the Jesus content was. I started laughing out loud at the ridiculous way Jesus was portrayed. I sold it after one viewing, shaking my head, and went back to watch my Criterion copy of ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’.

Luke Hickman

Back when I was in my ignorant youth, I did a whole lot of needless DVD blind-buying. While some were totally worth it (like ‘Gangs of New York’ or ‘Spy Game’), many were not. One that still sticks out to this day as the worst blind-buy of all time is a title that was recommended to me by just about every friend uneducated in the ways of cinema: the Denzel Washington drama ‘John Q‘. I hated every minute of this horribly sappy and manipulative movie that panders solely to simpleton audiences. I bought ‘John Q’ when Hollywood Video used to run “3 for $12” deals, and the stock was loaded with this title. When I tried to hawk it at a used DVD shop, the store wouldn’t even take it because the market was so oversaturated with this turd. To this day, it’s still sitting in a junk box in my garage. But now that it’s back in my mind, I think I’ve found a perfect “White Elephant” gift for my work Christmas party.

Mike Attebery

Remember the kid in your high school class who got an A+ on every paper, test and project since First Grade? Ever think that kid sometimes got a reputation for straight A work, and the teachers didn’t seem to notice when he turned in something that really sucked? I think Martin Scorsese is that kid. First, let me just say the guy is good. Really good. A master, yes. But for every ‘Aviator’ he releases, he churns out something like ‘Shine a Light’, a self-indulgent, tone-deaf turkey. For every ‘Departed’, there’s a ‘Shutter Island’. Then there’s the worst case scenario, when he releases something that really, really stinks, but it gets so much praise that I blind-buy it, then find myself suffering through something so unfunny, untouching, undramatic, dull and pandering that I flat-out want to pop the disc in the microwave. I’m talking about ‘Hugo‘. My God, do I regret buying that awful movie.

Tom Landy

The last movie I really wanted my money back on was Lars von Trier’s ‘Melancholia‘. After hearing the acclaim for this film, I decided to give it a blind-buy on Blu-ray. Man, what a mistake that was. The first ten minutes are nothing but scenes in super slow-motion that really don’t serve any purpose other than to appear artistic. All these tedious interludes do is make you scream at your TV. Personally, I found them to be more lazy than creative. The rest of the movie is basically just a bunch of unlikable characters competing to see who’s best at pissing each other off. By the way, there’s some kind of sci-fi backdrop going on during all of this, but really, who cares? A much more appropriate title for this pathetic excuse for filmmaking would have been ‘Pretentiousia’.

M. Enois Duarte

Recently, I caved and bought ‘Prometheus – 3D‘, partly because I was hankering for some 3D and curious to see how this turned out. The other reason was simply to give the movie another chance, a second viewing just in case it could persuade me to like it. Turns out, the movie is even dumber the second time around. The Blu-ray presentation is great, but the story actually grew worse over time. I thought that at the least my feelings would remain the same, but the opposite occurred. The movie is insulting to my intelligence and to science in general, like it really doesn’t give two-shits about even the slightest bit of authenticity or accuracy. And the script’s so-called philosophical debate on creationist faith is not as worthwhile as I previously thought. It’s really a grade-school understanding of the issue, especially since so much of the plot is inspired by the idiotic ‘Chariots of the Gods?’ book. I regret buying it, but regret even more having watched the movie a second time.

Josh Zyber

I have to admit that I did this just recently when I trekked out to Best Buy to pick up the exclusive SteelBook edition of ‘The Dark Knight Rises‘ (or, more accurately, I made Mrs. Z trek out to Best Buy to pick it up for me). I didn’t even like this movie when I saw it in theaters over the summer, but the completist collector in me needed to finish the trilogy, in a SteelBook to match the previous two movies. I don’t know how much I really regret the purchase, though. I knew why I was buying it. I suppose that I’ll give the movie another shot and see if it plays better on a second viewing, but I’m in no hurry to do so.

Over the years, I’ve certainly requested my share of review screeners that I regretted, but those don’t really count if I didn’t have to pay to own the discs.

Although not a movie, I felt very foolish after laying out a good chunk of cash for the complete ‘Thunderbirds‘ 1960s “Supermarionation” TV show when it first came out on DVD. I don’t even know what drew me to this. The show was well before my time, and I had no special attachment to it from childhood. It just seemed like something that might be kitschy and fun, and I must have thought that the box set would be… gah…collectible or something. It was expensive, it takes up a huge chunk of real estate on my shelves, and I think I’ve watched two episodes since I bought it. I didn’t hate the series or anything, but the pacing is sooo slow, the episodes are sooo long (why was this an hour-long show??), and they’re sooo repetitive. I haven’t been able to force myself to watch more than those two episodes. I also have the DVDs for the two movies, sitting unwatched on the shelf as well. That’s money I wish I’d saved.

Don’t pretend that you’ve never done this. Go ahead and tell us in the Comments about the discs you’ve regretted buying.

88 comments

  1. Jordan Farrington

    There has definitely been quite a few “blind purchases” over the years. One some that I regret. in fact there some movies that I am flat out embarrassed that I own. I love Blu Ray video and audio and collecting movies has become a huge hobby of mine. There are a few horrible movies that come to mind though. One is PUSH. That was one Superhero wanna be bad flick. The plot was horrible, acting was horrible. Then there was 2012….I have a friend who swears this was the greatest movie ever. Again, atrocious acting, stupid plot, and the characters get out of one impossible situation after another. Both of these movies were blind buys. Granted, I still have them. Why? I’m not sure. Its probably just the movie lover in me….I RARELY ever throw away a bad movie. But there was one movie that i actually threw away. I mean literally, like, in the trash can. What movie am I talking about??? MYSTERY MEN. Good GOD that movie was TRASH. I didnt even bother to finish watching it. Think i tried to watch it twice. Couldnt take it. Everything about that movie was trash. And it was NOT funny. Ironic since it was supposed to be a comedy. I love me some Ben Stiller but that had to be his worst film ever.

    • flskydiver

      Agree with 2012 — I gave that away to my father before even finishing it (as we were watching it together) because I was so disgusted with it (and he seemed to be enjoying for some reason I can’t fathom). AWFUL.

      Disagree on MYSTERY MEN though. I don’t yet own it, but I’ve always enjoyed it.

      My biggest regret? THE POSTMAN. Suspected it would be awful going in; bought it anyway because I’m a sucker for the post-apocalyptic genre (and actually liked WATERWORLD apart from the Exxon Valdiz namedropping); and sat through the whole thing even though every fiber of my being wanted to immediately eject the disc and burn it all the way through. God that movie sucked.

      2nd biggest regret was QUANTUM OF SOLACE. G-damn the completist in me for needing to buy that most shameful a sequel in the history of sequels.

  2. DrMaustus

    Anything with the words “Trans” or “Formers” in the title. I bought those as demo material but have been embarrassed to actually show them to anyone.

  3. HuskerGuy

    Off the top of my head I’ll go with my Transformers 3 blind buy. I should’ve seen it coming, but gave it a shot anyway.

    My wife and I ended up fast forwarded through parts and eventually just turned it off with about 15 minutes to go it was just mind numbingly horrible. Oddly, I kept it if only to have the entire crapfest collection (actually, I do like most of 1 and 2-3 scenes of part 2).

  4. Bob

    With age, comes wisdom and the ability to overcome urges until I view a promising movie through Netflix. Rarely a regret.

    My most recent regret??? The 3D version of “Finding Nemo” – second copy that is!!

    With age comes wisdom – and a lot of forgetfulness that you’ve already bought a copy! (The first copy bears no regret at all, I must say).

    • Ed

      Don’t feel bad, Bob. I did something similar just recently myself. I ordered the Catch Me If You Can BD from Best Buy, not realizing I’d already pre-ordered it a few weeks ago. I didn’t catch the unintentional “double dip” until I received two separate emails saying each disc had been shipped! LOL

      Surprisingly, BB gave me no flak about returning the extra copy (although the chippy who waited on me was exceptionally rude…)

  5. Tim

    Absolutely, without question the movie I most regret buying, ever,in my entire life, is Sideways. Most boring, pretentious piece of crap that I’ve ever seen. One day I’ll learn to stop listening to critics.

  6. Wow, it’s weird when someone has a complete reversal of your own tastes! In Mike Attebery’s choice, I was the opposite of all of his Scorsese choices, I thought Departed, while a cool movie, was vastly overrated, if I want to see that story done perfectly I will just watch Infernal Affairs. I thought Shutter Island was brilliant, Aviator was well put together but a bore, and I loved Hugo! Oh well, that is the beauty of us being movie fans…still love ya Mike!

  7. Phil

    The worst one for me was The Core. I was young and just love to buy DVD’s. After watching a few minutes of the movie and it’s horrible special FX and dismal acting I stopped and it sat on the shelf for years. I recently was able to use it at best buy as a trade in so at least I got $5 for that coaster.

  8. John Hemphill

    Like many out there I bought the original run of James Bond on Blu-Ray. When the Bond50 boxset was first announced I did not much care for the pictures or how it was presented. I decided to sell all of my existing Bond Blu-rays at a loss on Ebay and rebuy all of them again including the new titles so that they would all match. At first it seemed like a reasonable thing. I made $75 on Ebay and paid $9.99 a piece for the individual titles. I figured I lost about $30 which I was ok with to have the individual cases with the new artwork. Then came black Friday and Amazon’s $99 deal. I am now thinking that I didn’t hate the box set as much as I thought that I did.

  9. Twonunpackmule

    Dragonheart on HD DVD. I remember absolutely hating this film when I was a kid. I purchased it because I was addicted to HD. Man, if there’s a way to cure people of their addiction, Dragonheart is it. Terrible film.

  10. Twonunpackmule

    Oh, and I still have the stupid piece of film in my collection because I can only get 50 cents for it.

  11. Dimwit

    For me it’s about 80% of all the dvds I own. Not the content, tho I have some real stinkers but just that I wish they were Blus and I’m not rebuying them again.

    My latest regret was getting the Criterion Brazil dvd boxset because Universal had released their Blu and I figured Criterion wasn’t going to be able to do so. 18 months later… sigh.

    • M. Enois Duarte

      Yeah, but you gotta admit that really is a nice DVD box set from Criterion. The BD is a generic clear keepcase.

  12. Over the years there were way too many movies that could be called stinkers. I bought i9n average 3 DVD’s a week, so one can imagine the amount of bad flicks that ended up in my collection. To name one of the many I have to say Norbit is pretty much up there with the worst, ever.
    What I always regret are the shit re-leases on BD of some of my favorite movies, like Goldeneye, The Big Blue or Rising Sun, just to name a few. You wait for years to get those favorites and then they use the 10 old DVD master.

  13. JM

    Peter Jackson’s ‘King Kong’ – Dude’s a one-hit wonder.

    ‘2 Days in the Valley’ – I love James Spader, but Tarantino-esque this was not.

    ‘The Producers’ with Broderick and Lane. Only good part is Ulla Dance!

  14. WOW, there are some pretentious people here. ‘Dark Knight Rises’ ‘Prometheus’ and ‘Hugo’ from the site bloggers. If those movies are the WORST buys in your collection, then I MUST see what else lies on your shelf…unless of course those are the only movies you’ve ever bought. You know I somehow own ‘Run Fatboy Run’ due solely to a love of Simon Pegg. THAT was a bit of a dud- but for you guys to list movies that would be the prize piece in most Americans homes is simply pretentious. Let me ask you, if you went into “regular” old persons house and saw these movies on their shelf:

    xXx
    Spiderman
    Alien vs. Predator
    50 first dates
    Tower Heist
    10 things I hate about you
    Con Air
    Armageddon
    Expendables

    and somehow ANY of ‘Hugo’ – ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ – ‘Ben Hur’ – ‘Prometheus’ were on that shelf, would you even think of how you sound?

    There’s a LOT of movies out there. You guys mostly come off as snobs shooting down big movies that had success and not films more in line with the actual subject.
    Again, I own ‘Run Fatboy Run’ for some reason, and that comes to my mind because it genuinely was a mistake and a poor movie. Scorsese, Nolan & the like have better wet dreams than 90% of directors greatest efforts.

    • Josh Zyber
      Author

      Charles, you seem to have missed the point of this Roundtable. Nowhere here did we say that these were the worst movies we’ve ever seen, merely that we regretted buying them.

      Dark Knight Rises was a dud for me. Sorry, that’s just how I felt. I like most of Christopher Nolan’s other movies, including his previous two Batman movies, but this one felt lazy, sloppy, and all around half-assed. I did not enjoy watching it in the theater. Yet I found myself compelled to buy it on Blu-ray even though I knew I didn’t like it.

      I have a copy of Con Air on my shelf. It’s a dumb movie, but a fun movie (unlike Dark Knight Rises, which is no fun at all). While I don’t currently own them, I have watched and enjoyed 50 First Dates and 10 Things I Hate About You, and would not be ashamed to own either.

    • Lars Ulrich

      Charles Patterson…..FINALLY….a man with a brain still intact! Almost everybody here think they come off as “cool and trendy” as they dare to bash a huge movie with success. It makes me laugh!

      There is a ton of REAL bad movies out there, and you suckers came up with BEN-HUR and DARK KNIGHT RISES?!?! What movies do you own? Seriously….you should take 15 rounds with yourself and ask why you even like movies. Why are you interested in them? Why do you watch movies? As I said…There is a ton of BAD movies out there….TDKR, PROMETHEUS and BEN-HUR are NOT among them! Why don`t you just watch paint dry? That must be really exciting for you guys 😉 REAL magic in motion….It should raise your pulse a notch.

      • Josh Zyber
        Author

        If you want to debate movies, then debate movies. Personal attacks are not allowed here. Please attempt to keep your insults in check, or your comments will be deleted. This is your only warning.

        I have no desire to censor our readers’ opinions, but I do insist that you behave like adults.

        Not everyone likes the same movies that you do. Learn to accept this. You are more than welcome to disagree with anything written on this site, so long as you are civil about it.

        Thank you for your understanding.

  15. unauthorized account

    Charles, you couldn’t be more right. I usually don’t comment on stuff like this BUT this is the most obnoxious, pretentious group of film “fans” I’ve ever run across. And the lack of even a general understanding of cinema is stupefying. In a matter of 15 comments this bunch has managed to call into question the film making abilities of Martin Scorsese, Sam Mendez, Christopher Nolan, Peter Jackson and Alexander Payne!
    Reminds me of the old Blockbuster days with the obnoxious, clueless, pimple faced clerks talking loudly about obscure little films just so they would seem cool. until you question them about said film, which you saw and they never actually did.
    And by the way, calling Peter Jackson a “one hit wonder” because of King Kong is much like calling Tarentino an over night hack because of “Death Proof.”

    • EM

      Claiming that a particular director’s filmmaking ability must not even be questioned—now that’s pretentious!

      • Not at all, but again, I’ll take a Scorsese snuff film over a Uwe Boll masterpiece anyway. But again: considering we’re on a film enthusiast website, and the probability that most people here own dozens of movies, it’s a bit baffling some of the films listed as “biggest regrets” if you just consider how vast some of these collections could be.

          • I don’t know where you’re seeing blind devotion. Blind devotion would be defending movies I have not seen. If you’re referring to my comments on Scorsese, then perhaps I am showing “blind” devotion. Directors like him & Tarantino have an approach to filmmaking like that of a surgeon. They are truly artists. There’s a shot in Tarantino’s ‘Inglourious Basterds’ – where he gives us each dollop of cream with their own close up shot for each spoonful. I found myself more than anything in that movie marveling over those 3 shots. He went out of the way to help build the scene and add to the tension in said scene. Call it what you want, but I personally think there are directors out there that are a bit above the curve, and they do things that prove that most of the time in their films. That’s all. Sports has their superstar players, and I feel film has superstar directors, actors, etc. Whether or not you like some person’s work, the effort they put forth in situations when some people wouldn’t even think to do such thing has to be recognized. I didn’t like the Bulls, but I understood that Jordan was just simply at a higher level than anything else going, and him on a bad night was still better than mid-level player’s best effort. I don’t speak about things I know nothing of, I have no “blind” devotion to anything.

    • Josh Zyber
      Author

      Personal attacks will not be tolerated here, and will be deleted if you continue. You are allowed to disagree with anyone here, but not allowed to be abusive about it.

      Martin Scorsese, Sam Mendez, Christopher Nolan, Peter Jackson and Alexander Payne are all talented filmmakers, but none of them is infallible. Have you seen Mendes’ twee hipster road movie Away We Go? I found it insufferably unwatchable from beginning to end. Jackson has made several flat-out turkeys, including The Frighteners, The Lovely Bones and his bloated King Kong remake.

      You may feel differently. By all means, stand up to defend any of these movies. But please focus your argument on the movies themselves, and not on attacking someone just because they have a different opinion than you do. Thank you.

      • I don’t think I was attacking personally per se, if that comes off as such I do apologize. In the end, we are all here because of some form of interest in debate. But I was just stating what I felt from the lineup put forth in the article. I can’t speak of who owns what, but again considering we’re on an enthusiast website: My imagination would be that people here own a couple dozen (or in my case a couple hundred movies) You’re absolutely right, we’re all entitled to our own opinions, it just seemed as if there was some sort of budget/mass appeal threshold that needed to be crossed here. If somebody listed ‘The Frighteners’ I’d have much more respect for that, but you guys are bloggers for a fairly large home video enthusiast website. Looking back, I have noticed the the article does not specify “worst” buys so I have a bit of egg on my face in that respect. But again, I just wish there was a bit more “depth”…? to some of the choices. I didn’t mean to attack anybody, and certainly didn’t mean for that to come off as such, I just enjoy reading articles on this site, but this piece just seemed a bit nose-in-the-air-ish about more mainstream successes. I personally would’ve loved to hear about some movies perhaps I haven’t seen, and perhaps go and netflix them to see why somebody would feel that way. I just didn’t get that here. Again, I apologize.

        • Lars Ulrich

          In my opinion Charles…You have nothing to apologize for. It was spot on, and if someone can`t take it…Just leave. When you have a “comment” section on an article like this you better be ready for strong opinions. I respect everybodys opinion..This all comes down to “Personal taste”.

          But really…..Saying “Frighteners/King Kong” are “flat out turds…..WOW! I just lost my respect for the people behind this site. That is MY personal opinion. You just can`t discuss movies with folks like that. Sorry

        • Bruce

          Same here josh.. Not looking for a fight. Just amazed for some of the reasons, given. Not liking Ben hur because of Jesus being in it for three minutes and doesn’t even speak. It comes off as dissing the film just because the movie shows him as a positive figure.. Unlike the last temptation of Christ and other such flicks that degrade him.
          To say that the most regrettable move you regret buying for the reason given in insulting to many of our readers and members on the Forum. That’s all , not attacking anyone.. Clearly I’m not the only one who reads it that way. That’s all. Just having a respectful debate.

          • Josh Zyber
            Author

            I didn’t read Daniel’s entry as attempting to belittle anyone’s religious beliefs. Rather, he’s saying that he found the treatment of religious content in that particular movie to be heavy-handed and over-the-top. Honestly, while I like the movie more than he does, I don’t disagree with him on that. The film has a very stodgy, simplistic, 1950s attitude towards religious spectacle.

            Not to put words in his mouth, but I assume that Daniel prefers The Last Temptation of Christ not because it “degrades” Jesus (which is an argument for another day), but because it attempts to examine religion from a more complex, intellectual perspective.

          • It amazes me that some people bother with coming to movie websites if they don’t like to hear opinions that differ from their own. I mean, sure, we all have debates about our opinions, that’s the whole point (I’ve had my fair share lol!) but everyone is entitled to those opinions, and we have FUN debating them because of our differences.

            Some of the views here are tantamount to saying “You can’t have a negative or different opinion of these films, because I consider them better than any other films you might like.” Does that make any sense?

          • William Henley

            I agree. I like movies that other people think are turds, and I HATE movies that other people practically hold as being some of the best movies ever made (Pulp Fiction is a movie that I am usually very vocal about, and I have only seen one Kubrick movie I like). But I know we have different opinions. That is kind of the point behind a website like this.

            The issue I have, and I think Josh has, is when it goes from disagreement to personal (or religious) attacks. There is a difference.

          • Dan Hirshleifer

            I tried to word my post carefully, so people understood that my issue wasn’t with Jesus, but with the way the film portrays Jesus. As Josh mentions, it’s a stodgy, simplistic, very 1950’s way of portraying Jesus, with people falling to their knees at the sight of him.

            Again, Josh is spot-on with my reasoning for mentioning The Last Temptation of Christ. First, I don’t think the movie degrades Jesus at all. In fact, I’d argue it’s the most sympathetic view of Jesus ever put on film. Secondly, I think that Scorsese made a very personal, very sincere examination of religion and the ramifications of the Christ story. That is why I mentioned it, not to put Jesus down but rather to show that his story can be treated more intelligently than I think Ben-Hur does.

  16. Two movies I wish I had never bought.
    1) Breeders
    2) Hostel
    Both were so bad in my opinion I never even wished them on a friend, they went straight to the trash can.
    If you know me, you could have guessed Birdemic. At least with Birdemic I can laugh because it is so bad!

  17. Dan

    Haywire was the worst blu-ray blind buy I have ever made. I watched 20 minutes of it, shut it off and sold at a buy back store!

  18. Charles

    Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence. I think I might have been 14 or 15 when I saw this at the theatre and I loved it. Now many years later after buying it, I can’t get over how bad the acting is. It’s really, really awful. Whoever told Bowie he can act was being too kind. Unwatchable.

  19. I was an early adopter of Blu-Ray (January 2007, just a few months after the format came out), and was desperately trying to get my hands on anything and everything HD. As Netflix or Blockbuster wasn’t renting Blu at this time, I ended up picking up a few turds. Granted, I picked up a few since then too.

    Here is my list
    – Monster House
    – Happy Feet
    – March of the Penguins
    – Hannah Montana – Best of Both Worlds concert
    – Babel
    – Quantum of Solace
    – Twilight
    – New Moon
    – Some of the very early Funimation disc releases (issues with audio, poor video quality – they fixed the issues probably within the first 9 months of their first release, but a few turds were released in that time period that looked like upconverted DVDs)
    – Bedtime Stories
    – Beauty and the Beast (mainly because it was released in 3D later, and I had finally opened my Blu-Ray like a month before it was announced in 3D)
    – Pirates of the Carribean 1-3 (I love the movies, I just paid retail price for them – $35 a disc)
    – Nim’s Island (once again, love the movie – I just paid retail)
    – Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (I know, i’m a sinner, I HATE the original one, and LOVE the Tim Burton remake.)
    – Evan Almighty (although I only paid $3 for it on HD-DVD)
    – Miracle on 34th Street (I had no clue it was originally shot in B&W, I had only ever seen the colorized version, and the screenshots on the package were from the colorized version, but only the B&W version was available on the disc. I just want to think It’s A Wonderful Life for providing both versions).

    there are several others. I am just too tired to go look at the shelf.

  20. John Grady

    Melancholia and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

    Didn’t mind watching them, but so wish I didn’t own them, ugh.

  21. hurin

    Ghost World, good movie actually just not my cup of tea.
    Magnificent Seven, was an amazing movie when I was 10 now not so much.
    Robocop II, the only one I am actually mad at myself for buying, because I saw it at the premier, and should have known better. The movie is a disgusting, vile piece of trash.

  22. Blindly buying the awful looking BD of “One Eyed Jacks” before reading any reviews is my biggest regret.Granted, the BD looks better than the DVD I had, but that’s like preferring cat shit to dog shit.

  23. This is one of those things that is highly personal, with no right & wrong answers. For instance, Daniel, I LOVE Ben-Hur (an absolute CLASSIC & getting ready to watch it this evening), and, Mike, I totally enjoyed Hugo (and Shutter Island was awesome, too!). That being said, 2 movies that immediately come to mind out of the hundreds I’ve bought over the years are Speed 2 and Crash. Speed 2 took a while before I grew totally disinterested, as I kept thinking it would get better and be a worthy follow-up to Speed. Crash, on the other hand, took about 10 minutes before I ejected the disc and promptly gave it away. Just not my cup of tea at all….

  24. ack_bak

    I can think of several.

    The very worst.. Ghost Rider… I did not even make it through the whole movie before I turned it off… Luckily I sold it for more I paid for it…

    The Fountain… I guess I should have dropped acid before watching this wretched movie?

    The Transformers movies.. I bought the first two and just have not been able to even rent the third one..

    • Ryan

      I guess it’s not for everyone, but The Fountain is one of the most beautiful films I’ve ever watched. That BluRay is in my top 10 for sure.

  25. Ryan

    I’m going to have cheat here and go with just “DVDs” I’ve regretted buying. And that would be the Seinfeld seasons. I bought them, and not once ever watched. I still love the show, but it’s on every single day! There is absolutely no reason to own them. I recently sold them for that reason.

    As for actual movies I regret buying? Well, most of the ones I regret buying I’ve re-sold. One recent movie would be Drag Me To Hell. I loved it in the theater, but just didn’t find the movie to be very fun the second time around at home.

    Another would be the LOTR Theatrical Editions. I know I will never watch them (sorry, it’s Extended Editions for me)…yet I own them anyway.

  26. Kevin

    I’ve definitely got a few-

    The original Blu-Ray of “Gojira”. The movie itself is awesome, but the picture quality on that release was terrible. I threw that disc in the trash as soon an Criterion announced their release of the film.

    Then there’s the two “DragonBall Z” Level sets. I bought them, fully intending to collect the entire series. Then, after the second release, the company pulled the plug on it.

    My biggest regret, though? “Lost Boys: The Tribe”. I bought it the day it came out, alongside the original film, figuring “how bad can it be?” Turns out it was easily the worst film I’ve ever seen in my life. I thought about selling it, or pawning it off onto a friend/family member, but I figured that would just be cruel, so, like with that original release of “Gojira”, into the trash it went.

  27. Curt Myers

    My worst purchase was Gator with Burt Reynolds. I’m a sucker for 70’s Reynolds stuff, but this was unwatchable. I sold it back to Coconuts the next day. A few years later, this girl I was dating wanted to see Gator after she saw the movie poster. Forgetting how awful it was I bought it again and watched it again.

  28. nagara

    Ditto on all three LOTR movies. I actually bought them twice. Once on DVD then again on blu ray, knowing full well that extended editions were coming.

    For some reason everyone of my friends thought I would like Tarsen’s “The Fall”
    I can’t explain how much I hated that movie.