Next week I will be revealing my favourite movies of the year, but before that, my least favourite.
TEN – Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides: better than the other two sequels but ultimately another pointless movie that devalues the fun of the original Pirates movie.
NINE – Unknown: after reinventing himself as an action hero in Taken, Liam Neeson does it again in Unknown and it is worse than Taken. it’s a shame to see a talented actress like Diane Kruger in crap like this.
EIGHT – Scream 4: As clichéd and irrelevant as the first film was original and groundbreaking. It does have some humorous moments and the Anna Paquin/Kristen Bell cameo is great but ultimately a waste of time.
SEVEN – The Silent House: High concept Uruguayan horror inspired by real events. Some good ideas and some good moments but ultimately it doesn’t work.
SIX – The Eagle: With a talented director and an interesting story I really wanted to enjoy this movie, sadly I didn’t. If you want to see a good fictionalised story about the legendry Roman Ninth legion rent the DVD of last years Centurion.
FIVE – The Resident: I really wanted to like this movie; a Hammer horror/thriller featuring Christopher Lee, what more could you ask for? A decent script would be top of the list!
FOUR – Season of the Witch: Total hokum, fun in places, Nicolas Cage is thankfully understated and Ron Perlman is always worth watching but the film is seriously dull.
THREE – Transformers: Dark of the Moon: better than Revenge of the Fallen, considering how bad that movie was it really is the definition of damning with faint praise.
TWO – The Hangover: Part II: A dull, predictable and repetitive rehash of the first movie that is both xenophobic and homophobic, worst of all it just isn’t funny.
AND THE WORST MOVIE I HAVE SEEN THIS YEAR – Sanctum: The story is silly, clichéd and very predictable. The 3D isn’t bad but is still a pointless gimmick that adds little to the movie.
Finally, a few movies that just escaped the bottom ten include: The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1, Footlose and a movie everyone else seems to love, Attack the Block. A nasty and pointless movie whose horrible characters and lack of morality could have been excused if it was an enjoyable well made movie, it isn’t.
*A note on the selected movies, I am not a film critic, just a movie lover so I only see the movies I want to see (about 110 at the cinema this year). Therefore this isn’t a definitive list of the worst movies of the year, just the worst I have seen.
Feel free to disagree and share your worst movies of the year.
The only one I’ve seen on this list is Season of the Witch, and I agree that it was really pretty bad. Far too boring for what a film starring Cage and Perlman should have been.
Did you see I Am Number Four? That would probably top my list at current standings. Wretched film devoid of qualities.
I actually enjoyed I Am Number Four. I currently have it ranked at around #70 of the movies I have seen this year.
Agree. The only one I’ve seen is Season of the Witch (although I’d forgotten I’d seen it until you mentioned it). Can’t remember a thing about it apart from it took me a while to realise Cage was in it, and that I though it was rubbish.
Mercifully, I haven’t seen any of these ten (but I loved Attack the Block).
There are two for me that are miles clear. Father of Invention is terrible but….Passion Play is past bad, past horrible, way further than so bad its good, even further than so bad you need to see it bad.
Glad to say I haven’t seen either. I think I’m just about the only person who hates Attack The Block
Did the first twenty minutes of AtB and gave up. No idea what the heck it was all about.
You are not alone, Attack The Block it is by far one of the worst movies I’ve ever endured. It was just beyond awful, I have nothing good I can say about that movie other than I didn’t pay for it (if I had I would have asked for my money back). It’s a movie I feel like my life is worse for having seen lol. I generally like most movies, so I was surprised that I actually really HATE this movie. It is one of the worst movies if not THE worst movie I have ever seen.
Glad I’m not the only one.
I think Transformers 3 was the worst of the franchise…it was like they weren’t even trying. And the hangover didn’t need a sequel
I actually think they were trying really hard with Transformers 3, the addressed the big problem with 2, namely the prolonged scenes of robots hitting each other with no human involvement. It was still rubbish!
Your right, The Hangover didn’t need a sequel but it made so much money it was always going to happen. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a third one.
Ah, Scream 4. I got to say from about half way through I started thinking that maybe 70% of the characters were the ‘bad guy[s]’ in varying degress of complicity; some paired, some threesomes, many unaware of the of the other murderous partnerships until a ridiculous ending involving all the murderers in the same house. Satirically I thought it would be awesome to with a supremely ridiculous ending where the police get called so all of them calculate that they have to kill everyone else and injure themselves in quick succession if their lone surviving victim thing is going to hold up, but in the confusion and limited time they get careless and all of them accidentally kill each other. Rationale wise, I thought it would work that Sidney’s fame and the negative media attention has made the whole town feel in the shadow of her stigma, always marked by it slighly no matter are far they move away of what success they want to have, and a growing epidemic amongst the youth has made them subliminally aware that the only real way to gain some individuality and success that overshadows Sidney’s would be to become the one killer who succeeds. Maybe with Neve also having chosen the crazy killer route due to having developed an adrenaline complex and success with her book only brought it to her attention that she craves the attention she thought she wanted to get rid of, so she becomes the killer with a victim scenario to escape the fame from her book and get back to the victim role she’s now so comfortable with.
I was really disappointed they didn’t do that. Oh well :p
Got to admit I disagree about Attack the Block. But maybe its because I come from that sort of background so I started from a empathetic background and the characterisation later on did compell to like the characters even more. It wouldn’t have occurred to me to think of them as horrible and without morality. I saw em as just kids used to a certain type of lifestyle and stuck in a difficult situation where you act tough because thats the culture and its better than being transparently weak which only gets you messed up all the time by people willing to act tough. Plus, I’m a big fan of the filmmaker. Its timing was pretty uncanny as well, considering the riots and everything…
I was kind of hoping Sidney would be the killer this time.
There is a big difference between kids who act tough for self preservation and kids who mug a lone woman and kill a defenceless animal for personal gain or even worse for kicks. The film then gives these characters a chance of redemption through the situation they are in. They achieve this through further violence and killing rather than any attempt to make up for their mistakes, the plot then tries to make us feel sorry for them by reminding us that they are just kids and they have had a hard life. Interesting that you draw a comparison with the riots, I think of the characters in as being like the rioters/looters, I know you have more sympathy for them than I do.
From a more positive point of view, I like the way the kids are inner city kids who talk they way kids talk and not an imitation of an American movie or a BBC idea of how people talk. For better examples of movies that do this see: Kidult hood (2006), Adulthood (2008) and 4.3.2.1 (2010).
God, look how long ago this was. I suck at remembering which threads to go back to :p
Regarding your thoughts re: Attack the Block, I see where you’re coming from. When I lived in a semi rough, semi ok area [by that I mean literally one street lovely and pleasant, the next street parallel crazy dangerous, its funny how that happens] growing up I wasn’t a criminal, principles and behaviour separate people even on the same street. I hated the fact every bonfire night and halloween we’d have to avoid certain walkways and alleys because of mutilated animals [or pieces of them] left by horrible, disturbed little thugs who tortured them with fireworks and if I’d found any proof of who was doing it I woulda shopped em in a second, regardless of their background. Same goes for the criminal gangs who robbed my friends, robbed our home, pointed guns at my mother and tried to set our house on fire. But I also remember a period during that when I started developing behavioural problems, have violent blackouts and started getting stigmatised because I fell through the cracks during the reading/writing early years and was illiterate, and I know that if certain opportunities had not come my way I would have reached a point where I would victimise others and never let myself think about their individual rights to be left alone because theres only so many things that can get taken away from you before you don’t care about taking away from others. I wouldn’t consider myself sympathising but empathising with the premise of the movie. I think it taps into something fictional that exists everyday without a premise to showcase it. I agree with you about cultural issue. As you point out I like that they didn’t try to ape American urban culture, which definitely would have been a massive fail on the authenticity side of things, or follow BBC cop outs. I’m surprised you preferred 4.3.2.1 though – Its possibly my least favourite film of ’10 and some of the worst character development I’ve ever seen! :p Different strokes innit. Very curious what you liked about it?
Great list and couldn’t agree more with it. Hopefully this year will see some fantastic films being released. I’m sure Scott, Nolan and Jackson will do the business! 🙂
…Scream 4 would probably top my list for being such a disappointment.
Lots to look forward to in 2012. The Dark Knight is top of my list.
Personally, I’m glad you’re disappointed in these films…as a screenwriter of more enlightening material I’m often indignant about the plethora of fear-based, and poorly made, crap that proliferates the film world. What’s on your favourites, I do wonder…thank goodness there are some good films made, hmm? And thanks for loving movies!
Thanks for taking the time to read this. My top ten will be up in a few days.
Green Lantern and Father of Invention would be on my list.
Green Lantern just missed the list and I haven’t seen Father of Invention, I don’t think its been released here yet.
I haven’t seen a single one of those movies. I guess I should consider myself fortunate. That’s what you have other bloggers for, to warn you. 🙂
I’ve heard pretty good stuff about Attack the Block though. I’ll definitely try to see it on DVD.
The by far worst movie I saw this year was a Swedish one that you hopefully never will hear of, Kronjuvelerna. It was the one and only 1/5 I put this year. I hope noone will ever get the crazy idea to try to export it.
I really hate movies where gangsters become heroes. I mean, here it’s not about gentlemen thieves, it’s muggers and street thugs who attack innocent people for easy money or even just fun. I understand that growing in some neighborhoods in London mustn’t be very easy for some people, yet nobody is starving or need to commit violence against innocents in order to survive.The aliens are more likeable, at least they are just like animals who cannot choose. Perhaps the director needs to experience being mugged sometimes, then we’ll see how he likes his ‘heroes’…
Silent House is rediculous! Who would block all the windows before you move your things out?