"I want those two hours of my life back!"

People say this all the time about movies they hated. Why does it bother me so much?

The big reason is probably that it seems to imply that art owes you something, which I disagree with. Also, even if I'm not enjoying myself at the time, I'm ultimately thankful for bad experiences with art as much as good ones for contributing to the refinement of my taste.

I guess it's just a very consumer-oriented attitude.

Is anyone else bothered by this expression? Do you use it yourself?

Change the 'hours' to 'minutes' and it's the story of my sex life :(

I feel this way all the time, but never about movies. You can turn movies off or leave the theater.

Usually, I feel this way about forced social events.

^^this

I feel this way sometimes about ilx otherwise no, it's a stupid thing to say xp for reasons mentioned above not least

i dont think ive ever met anyone who meant this literally; i always assumed it was a sort of funny thing to say, funny, or "funny," at least in part because it would be pretty ridiculous to actually take that kind of attitude to life. not that it would surprise me to learn that there are people who say this seriously.

it's used in a funny way when it's about seconds

People are expression irritation that they paid money for something they didn't enjoy. This isn't really rocket science.

A couple additional points:

1. Whenever I hear someone say this, I always wonder how they would've spent their time differently if they'd somehow known that the movie wasn't worth seeing.

2. Very rarely do I dislike a movie completely out of proportion from my expectations. It does happen from time to time (Transamerica is a good example), but I generally tend to avoid movies that I know I'll dislike right off the bat. (Or else if I do see them, I know what I'm getting myself into.)

people who say this need to consider investing their time in reading reviews, finding movie critics they agree with, etc. sure, they may want the 15 minutes per week they spend on this activity back, but isn't that better than wanting a whole two hours of their life back?

I always wonder how they would've spent their time differently if they'd somehow known that the movie wasn't worth seeing.

Watching a better movie is my guess.

you guys know a lot of people who are totally serious when they say this???

People are expression irritation that they paid money for something they didn't enjoy.

Phrasing it in terms of money ("I want those $10 back") actually bothers me much less, for some reason.

I felt this way about Vertigo. I could only watch the first hour. I watched the second half about a week later. I'm glad I did, it kicks off!

I was tempted to write a personal note to Kim Basinger to get my money back for 'Boxing Helena' - it was my own fault really. Weirdly there's the forgiving sci-fi fan in me that can recall book basis/writing talent when it comes to Costner's Postman and Waterworld - so - I wasn't as mad (kinda liked Waterworld).

Maybe it's a roundabout way of wishing you could turn back time and remove the memory of having seen a terrible movie/show/play from your brain, thus alleviating the pain of reliving the terrible experience, ie I want the one minute I spent reading this thread back.

(j/k ILU John!)

dude this is just a way of saying that something was really shitty

ie I want the one minute I spent reading this thread back.

Beat me to it

one minute is nowhere near enough the time needed to absorb the subtle undercurrents and subtexts of this thread - i recommend further study before you post again

dude this is just a way of saying that something was really shitty

nono this is a LIFESTYLE and it must be STOPPED

it's just a way of saying that something was really shitty, but it's a retarded way of saying it with lame connotations of entitlement

c/d people who get really worked up about threads that overanalyze common turns of expression but have somehow managed to post continuously to ILX for five+ years without having an aneurysm

^^^ the real heros

Really, how dare someone pay for entertainment and expect to be entertained. What shocking entitlement!

uh the connotations of entitlement here are related to time (i want those two hours of my life back), not money ... the idea being that someone's time is so valuable that they deserve to be compensated for wasting that time in seeing a shitty movie instead of a quality movie

yeah but time IS money

or didn't you get the memo!

it's just a way of saying that something was really shitty, but it's a retarded way of saying it with lame connotations of entitlement

Those connotations of entitlement really depend on who the speaker wants those “two hours of life back” from. They might realize they did this to themselves, by not choosing a more fulfilling way to spend two hours.

It's called HYPERBOLE.

Movies are a dodgy way to spend time and money. Might as well buy some scratch-offs.

It's ok to say this about movies that seem worthwhile until they fuck up the ending, demonstrating that the previous two hours have, in fact, been wasted.

like if you're thomas edison, maybe you shouldn't have allotted two hours of your time to check out "high school musical 3" that you could have spent electrocuting elephants in the name of science

Rly I think of this as being about things that you were somehow obligated to do but didn't enjoy. Like...the bonds of friendship obligated you to go to a friend's friend's birthday drinks where you didn't know anyone, or...the person you date really wanted to a see a certain movie and you hated it...that kind of thing. IE acknowledging that you COULD have gotten out of it if you absolutely HAD to, but circumstances/politeness required you to waste your time.

Other such statements might include, "I wish I had spent those two hours getting a root canal w/out anaesthesia instead!!!1" xxxxp

They might realize they did this to themselves, by not choosing a more fulfilling way to spend two hours.

I think this idea is very key here.

electrocuting elephants in the name of science

?

should this turn of phrase be reserved for the wrongly imprisoned who want to be compensated for the length of their sentence then?

no one goes to jail for two hours

....unless they just saw WANTED, which is LIKE going to jail!!!!!!!!! LOLOLOL

Surely they could have chosen a more fulfilling life than one of crime? Actually, elmo, I'm not sure where you're going with this...?

I think the phrase is a joking self-condemnation, even a little wry. If it were used in all seriousness by someone who wasn't directing any of it at themselves/meaning to be funny, I might find it more hateable. As jaymc does.

you can go to prison for 2 hrs if you are a celebutante???

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/01/dayintech_0104

I want those two minutes of my life back

you can go to prison for 2 hours if 2 hours after you got to prison someone stabbed you with a shiv and then you would no longer be in prison, you'd be dead

n/a dropping science

In order to make sure that Topsy emerged from this spectacle more than just singed and angry, she was fed cyanide-laced carrots moments before a 6,600-volt AC charge slammed through her body. Officials needn't have worried. Topsy was killed instantly and Edison, in his mind anyway, had proved his point.

what if you went to purgatory after that, tho, that'd be like being in prison

if ur body is still in prison rnt u still in prison even if ur dead???

^^^^ philosophy

Man, if only cinemas had bars. "psst, this sucks...I'll be in the bar, find me when you're done..."

The place we go to has a bar!

You know how they say that in Michigan/Minnesota/etc you're never more than 10 miles from open water? In New York, you're never more than 5 blocks from someplace you can get a drink.

Woody Allen said it more emphatically: "If I had to live my life again, I'd do everything the same, except that I wouldn't see The Magus."

He should have known it'd be a bad film though; it's got Michael Caine in it (I don't think it's even the worst film Michael Caine has been in).

"The novelist Kingsley Amis was once asked what he would do differently if he could live his whole life over again. He paused for a few seconds before replying 'well I wouldn't read The Magus'"

Results 1 - 7 of 7 for "I wouldn't see The Magus"
Results 1 - 4 of 4 for "I wouldn't read The Magus"

Are you all serious? We publish that linebacker of a book. I read it. Does it actually not make any sense and I wasn't just too dumb/not literary enough to "get" it?

randy quaid once said if he could live his life over again, he wouldn't have seen the magus.

"Peter Sellers was once asked what he would do differently if he could live his life all over again. His response: 'I would do everything exactly the same, except I wouldn't see The Magus.'"

Read it once years ago, from my recollection it was some kind of bullshit. Tempted to read it again just out of perverse curiosity.

Paris Hilton once said, "You know, my life is, like, I look back at it and go, 'That's hot.' I would totally do everything the same if I lived it again. Except I wouldn't see 'The Magus.'"

i went to some party that some dude was throwing at his parents' house (they were out of town for the weekend!!) and i walked in and it was 18 guys silently watching jackass

― omar little, Thursday, December 11, 2008 2:39 PM (24 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

if anyone would watch jackass silently, i would guess Some Dude

hahaha

that was Some Zing

I would do everything the same, but I wouldn't dance about architecture.

OK I read this whole thread. And I'm surprised no one has mentioned this common variant: "That's two hours of my life I'll never get back."

You don't get any of it back, dude.

Last week I rented After Hours by Martin Scorcese. I defy anyone to actually watch that all the way through on DVD. In the cinema I can understand that peer pressure probably kept people in their seats but my Lord. After about an hour myself and the lovely Emma B realized that shouting "you IDIOT" at the screen is only fun for about that long.

^^^ major rongness up there with nabisco on master & commander

I attempted to watch "I Accidentally Domes Your Son" but turned it off maybe 20 minutes in. Some movies should only be watched with incredibl drunk friends.

I defy anyone to actually watch that all the way through on DVD.

I did this a year or two ago. I liked it!

"I want my two dollars!"

http://www.xenafan.com/movies/bod/images/johnny05.jpg

i have watched after hours several times and would again

I think it's also like Alex in NYC's favorite movie of all time.

yes
RFI: Classical Music in Scorsese's "After Hours"

we need him over here now

My major problem, as you may have guessed, is that the main character is an idiot and very little that he does makes any sense. Which is a problem if you're supposed to be the everyman protagonist in a movie full of kooky weirdos.

It also really drove home how Scorcese just cannot write women's parts. Whatever fascination or investment I might have had evaporated when I realized every single woman was a different piece of Scorcese's well-polished collection of misogynist stereotypes.

i saw reality bites with my dad and he walked out and walked in to ace ventura: pet detective

good call on his part frankly

Parts of After Hours are greater than the whole:

search: Rosanna Arquette; Teri Garr; John Heard
Destroy: the drawn out mistaken for a burglar plot

probably yeah, but these days i would rather watch RB again, if only for "lol '90s/serious ben stiller is serious" value.

I like After Hours, mostly. It helps to think less about the guy's passively bad decision-making and think of it more as a comedy about how bad life was before ATMs and cellphones. The entire film is technologically unthinkable now. Plus Soho is dirty in it.

s1ocki, take it to the Master & Commander thread. I am tempted to watch that entire movie again just so I can argue with y'all about it again. That and Crash are probably most most-hated films of the past many years. Those and the mistakes of renting Petulia and Barefoot in the Park.

wait do you like M&C, i forget

Tracer, Scorsese doesn't "write" many of his films at least not for credit.

However, see: Sandra Bernhard in The King of Comedy

The hours of my life I want back are currently spent hiking/riding to a decent supermarket/ eats from my nabe.

yeah, after hours script was famously touted at the time for being the work of a film school student. scorsese was in a sort of lull at the time (coke?) and took it on because he could do it fast & cheap. sort of to "recharge" - at least that's how people talked about it at the time.

scorsese de-coked pre raging bull from what i understand but yeah the narrative was that he was trying to go "indier" after NYNY/RB, hence king of comedy, after hours, life lessons, even last temptation

I think Raging Bull was the post-coke film (xp). After Hours was made after Bull did weak box office (yes) and KofC barely got released.

I need to watch The King of Comedy again.

king of comedy, after hours, life lessons, even last temptation

the two on the ends are my favorites; maybe i should see the others. tho i think i've tried with after hours and didn't get far as tracer says.

KoC is great

if i had those two hours of my life back, i would use them to watch king of comedy again

but if they were a different two hours then i would probably do something else

for people who don't read I Love Film/SNA: what was the last film you walked out of and why?

yeah, after hours script was famously touted at the time for being the work of a film school student.

This might interest some fans of the film: The Scandalous Origins of Martin Scorsese’s After Hours

i want two hours for reading this thread please ok

# what do you want for the christmas? [Started by Tracer Hand in December 2007, last updated 4 minutes ago by sam york] 23 new answers
# "I want those two hours of my life back!" [Started by jaymc in December 2008, last updated 9 minutes ago by sam york] 200 new answers

I once watched a whole episode of married w/ children with one of my old roomates because we both thought the other liked the show

"I wish I could have the next fifty years of my life back."
http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0cg83o393JbDd/610x.jpg

:/

i kinda feel this way abt my 20s tbh

hey man at least your 20s only lasted two hours

for most people theyre like 10 years

i was under the impression the time on this was sort of elastic