I am a Hamlet 2 fan.
Come on how about “Get Smart” I really hope they don’t let Steve Carell make any more movie’s.
All the movies listed in the “best of 2008” thread.
The Happening
Twilight
Two miserable films that should never be watched.
it wasn’t that indiana jones was bad…it was just disappointing..
Did Youth Without Youth come out this year? Because that movie was a nonsensical wreck.
I do find myself liking a lot of movies that no one else really did, though. Especially those released throughout the summer. I liked Hancock and the new Indiana Jones speifically. I’ll even admit to this; The Happening wasn’t horrible.
I wisely stayed away from other guaranteed offenses-to-God like Sex and the City, The Happening, etc.
I thought “Diary of the dead” was pretty good. I was a little let down by the end being so much like “Night….” but now that I think about it I think that was the point. There was nothing really GREAT this year like “Children of Men” and “There will be blood” from the past couple of years. This was a year of medocraty. There were some pretty good movies but nothing made me stand up and go Wow thats Cinema. Also take into consideration that I have not seen “Synecdoche, New York”, “Transsiberian”, or “Slumdog Millionaire” all films with I have very high hopes for.
10,000 BC
I was THIS CLOSE to stopping the DVD and returning it to the rental store halfway through. But I figured, “Hey, this is an action movie, right? So even if the plot doesn’t get better, the FX and action shots will get better. Right? Right!?”
And I was sooooooo wrong.
I generally avoid something that looks like I’ll hate it. I did make an effort to see more Hollywood movies early in the year and during that time I saw a terrible movie. The Other Boleyn Girl. Piece of garbage.
Also, Southland Tales was so bad it should count for multiple years.
Um there have been plenty of bad or underwhelming films this year especially Indiana Jones and probably every other summer film not named Wall-E or The Dark Knight.
However, so far this year three films really insulted my movie-going experience..all three of them for very different reasons;
Speed Racer- This one just gave me a headache. I saw that Time magazines film critic had this on his top 10 list for 2008 and I just kinda have to shake my head. Sure the technology here is new but there is nothing surrounding. I don’t care if it captured the feel and essence of the anime..to me that just says that the anime was pointless as well.
Hamlet 2 – This one is probably done in by the vast amounts of hype it was given after being snatched up at Sundance. Still though, aside from the 10 minutes or so during the actual musical, this film is very very unfunny. Most scenes seem like they were unfinished or simply pieced together out of improvised takes.
Burn After Reading – I actually enjoyed this movie while watching it until I thought about it. I get it Coen Brothers, you are rejecting the idea of being grand filmmakers who need to make important films. But please don’t throw away your talent on cynical piles of trash. Even other throw away Coen brothers films like Intollerable Cruelty were somewhat fun (yeah that’s right I just defended that movie). IF BAR isn’t exactly the WORST film of the year, it certainly is the biggest waste of talent.
theres so many negative threads in here at the moment, what with this one, the one entitled “movies you just dont like” and “which movies have you walked out on” to name but three. i thought people on here liked film.
10,000BC, The Happening, Diary of the Dead and Day of the Dead were all pretty bad. The worst in my opinion was Rambo. Bad writing, bad direction, very bad acting and Stallones human growth hormone enlarged head. The people in the theater were all laughing everytime someone’s bullet ridden head blew up with bad cgi.
10,000 B.C. (but what did I expect?)
Jumper (again, what did I expect?)
Indiana Jones and the poo poo plot.
Strange Wilderness
I’m sure there were more but I skipped a lot of them.
The best are: Milk, Dark Knight, Snow Angels, Iron Man, Synecdoche New York (can’t think of what else came out this year).
@ Nate
How about Transsiberian? Excellent movie, that.
@Adam
We do like film. But most of the movies mentioned on this and the other aforementioned threads can hardly be considered film.
@jake
so why not discuss films that you do like?? excuse my bemusement but i just find it off that people would spend so much time moaning about something they profess to enjoy, especially in an environment as valuable as this website.
Calling movies like 10,000 BC the worst film of the year is sort of like making fun of Special Ed children, at least in my opinion. Movies like that are made for a reason, to please the lowest common denominator, they’re made to be bad. Studios shuffle them out on a monthly basis to fill their bank accounts.
I prefer listing things like The Happening, or the new Indiana Jones. Movies that tried to be something worthwhile, and failed on every conceivable level.
@ Adam
There are lots of best of threads on here as well. I advocate all.
Adam-
I see the point you’re making – why waste time on films that most would regard as a waste of such? There are a number of negative threads going around (many of them repeats of other threads), and most of those I don’t pay attention toward. However, some of the finest arguments can stem from one person’s hatred of a film and another’s love for it. Certainly, it’s probably best to just shrug and move on when it comes to the new Dane Cook movie, but in the case of something like ‘The Brown Bunny’ or more recently ‘Synecdoche New York,’ arguing either case can express a person’s love for film in general (even if they hated the film of which they speak). And in addition to that, though tastes always differ, I’m always appreciative of someone whose taste I respect warning me off something truly dreadful. As for ‘The Happening,’ I received the warnings and proceeded anyway, needing to see that disaster with my own eyes.
Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist—aptly named as it felt like it’d never end.
Indiana Jones.
I knew what I was getting into with Jones and Crystal skull—but still…
Try these out:
5. “Wall-E”
- A film where pretty much nothing happens.
4. “Dungeon Siege: A Knight’s Tale”
- We came so close to voting away Uwe Boll’s career. What happened? See this and you’ll feel compelled to vote.
3. “The Haunting of Molly Hartley”
- Yeah, there are a lot of dumb horror flicks. This one was the dumbest.
2. “A Girl Cut in Two”
- So pretentious. So miserable. So… French…
1. “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas”
- Moronic, manipulative and oh-so trendy. This is the nadir of Nazi-Holocaust fetishization.
A total screw job meant to make dummies cry that was an ideological and aesthetic failure. If you like this then you are a bad person.
The year’s biggest “winner” seems to be Delgo, a computer-animated doozy that grossed $511,920 on 2,160 screens this past weekend ($237 per screen, or an estimated two people per show). Despite its legacy as Anne Bancroft’s final film, Delgo – seven years in the making – couldn’t even attract bored parents of indiscriminate kids and it now will be remembered (if at all) as having the worst wide-release opening in movie history. It’s a brave artist who tries to work without a Disney/Pixar/Dreamworks safety net; that’s the stuff that dreams are made of.
Drillbit Taylor was good. Duh.
I don’t understand this overwhelming hate for Indiana Jones. Honestly, what were you expecting when you walked in the theatre? I hated the CGI and the plot was ridiculous, but knowing that Harrison Ford is 100 years old and that Shia LaBeouf is in the supporting cast, I wasn’t expecting anything more than moronic entertainment, which is what it was. At the very least it was entertaining, I definitely wouldn’t put it as the worst of 2008.
Mamma Mia! hands down, maybe just in the hype to tripe category. This year, I felt, was better than some, if I have to eat shit, I want it to be directed by Spielberg or star Will Smith (he’s an ok actor, but a really charismatic guy) or feature Angelina Jolie and guns. But for comedy it may have been the worst in awhile, I think we had… what… Epic Movie, I don’t even keep track of their goddamn names anymore. Love Guru, Get Smart, Meet Dave… it’s an all-star showing of TOTAL UTTER CRAP, like the worst movies any of these people have produced (’cept Norbit! :-P BLECK).
I think the Dark Knight is the best comic book movie I’ve ever seen. I don’t see how it can be considered the “worst” in any way imaginable, seeing how it is a hollywood blockbuster and should be judged as such. Synecdoche I also disagree with, it was certainly overly long and boring in places but I think it should score points for trying to be different even if it didn’t completely succeed.
As of a few days ago “10,000 BC” had my vote. But I might have to change it to “The X-Files: I Want to Believe.”
I was a huge fan of the show growing up. HUGE. And I was really excited when the producers hinted that they were moving away from the mythology and concentrating more on a “monster-of-the-week” format…as good/confusing as the mythology tended to be, the show’s strength was in it these stand-alone episodes.
But they f-ed it up. Big time. Wasn’t scary, creepy, or even that confusing. And the acting was horrible by all (which is a shame, because Gillian Anderson is usually a revelation). And the plot was just God-awful. If you were a fan of the show, stay far far far away. One of the worst movies I’ve seen in some time.
Drillbit Taylor had some painful editing issues. Just embarrassing. I thought Owen was pretty funny in parts, though.
Jeffrey B
Misguided though I may have been, I expected better from Hamlet 2, Eagle Eye, X-Files: I Want to Believe and Tell No One.