One of my favorite questions to ask friends is: what movies have you walked out of? For me, it’s only been two films, Baby’s Day Out and Miracle on 34th Street, both of which came out in 1994 when I was a bored seven-year-old with no attention span, apparently.
I haven’t left the theater early for any movie as an adult, but god knows I’ve been tempted. I’m pretty sure I was on my phone for most of Transformers: The Last Knight. (Don’t worry, it was an empty theater, which, in retrospect, should have been clue number one that it was going to be a stinker.) Stephen King also didn’t enjoy a Transformers movie-going experience, but he made the smart call and walked out.
In response to crime novelist Linwood Barclay tweeting that “Jurassic World Dominion has the distinction of being the first movie I’ve walked out on in years,” King replied, “I have walked out of only one movie as an adult: TRANSFORMERS. Would like to know what other movies people have walked out on.”
Inquiring minds had to know: did he mean the animated Transformers movie or Michael Bay’s Transformers? “Michael Bay. The first one,” the horror maestro replied.
Wow. Someone hates the Strokes.
If Bay was on Twitter, there is a 95 percent chance he would respond to King with something like, “I walked out of Maximum Overdrive, more like Maximum Crappy Movie,” followed by six explosion emojis. Instead, he’s busy making Ambulance 2 (hopefully).
Michael Bay. The first one. https://t.co/WZ5TXeKREm
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) June 28, 2022