Welcome to a special episode of Lights....Camera....Popcorn!
I hope you all enjoyed my entertaining and possibly controversial Top 10 Best Films of 2010. It's now time to give you my Top 10 Worst Films of 2010.
This list was much easier to put together.
10) The Wolfman. Directed by Joe Johnston. Written by Andrew Kevin Walker & David Self. Based on the 1941 screenplay written by Chris Siodmak.
5 star score - 2 stars. Recommendation - "Netflix It."
The prospects for this film being good weren't strong early on. Several issues sent the project into movie purgatory more commonly known as developmental hell. Script re-writes, casting changes and a director replacement ran rampant throughout the process. That always spells trouble in tinseltown. The end result was a jumbled mess of a movie. The only aspect that kept this from being a complete disaster was the stellar makeup work of Rick Baker. Combined with impressive special effects during the transformation scenes, it was the only watchable parts of this very disappointing remake of a classic horror film.
9) Due Date. Directed by Todd Phillips. Written by Alan R. Cohen, Alan Freedland, Adam Sztykiel & Todd Phillips. Screen story by Alan R. Cohen & Alan Freedland
5 star score - 1 star. Recommendation - "Save The Loot."
Due Date was quite simply a failed attempt to ride the momentum of The Hangover. You have a recycled character (Galifanakis) playing opposite an uptight jerk (Downey Jr.) in a Road Trip meets The Odd Couple presentation. No good. You don't care about Downey's character at all. In fact you root for him to miss his baby's birth because he's such an ass. The laughs are sparse and at times non existent. Just a bad film that displays with pride it's convolution.
8) Robin Hood. Directed by Ridley Scott. Written by Brian Helgeland. Story by Brian Helgeland, Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris.
5 star score - .5 stars. Recommendation - "Save The Loot."
It's amazing how hard it's been for Hollywood to tell and re-tell this classic legend. So instead of giving us more of the same, Scott Free (Ridley and Tony's production company) decided to tell us an origin story. That's great except. Nobody cares about how Robin Hood became Robin Hood. We want to see him shoot his arrows at bad guys, save the Maid Marion and defeat the Sheriff of Nottingham. OK. Fine. If you insist on telling us about the origin of Robin Hood, the story should at least be entertaining. Which it certainly was NOT! Oh Ridley. What have you done? I guess everyone's entitled to an off day.
7) Cop Out. Directed by Kevin Smith. Written by Robb & Mark Cullen.
5 star score - 0 stars. Recommendation - "Save The Loot."
Kevin Smith is as black and white that you can get in the movie biz. You either love him or hate him. I myself am a big Kevin Smith fan. His brand of comedy is an acquired taste. His trademarks over writing and being very pretentious with his dialogue. He gets away with it because the characters that utter his multi syllabic monologue's occasionally throw a 1 liner or 2 that get big laughs. This keeps the "on the fence" audience still on board the ride. A lot of this comes from the fact that every film he's directed came from scripts he's written. Until now. Hey Kev. Don't do that again.
6) Chloe. Directed by Atom Egoyan. Written by Erin Cressida Wilson. Based on the motion picture Nathalie written by Anne Fontaine.
5 star score - 0 stars. Recommendation - "Save The Loot."
This was my first reader request since I started this review column. It will be my last. The story is so all over the place. The premise is as absurd as the characters expressions during the revelations of infidelity. The twists are see through and quite old for a film of this beaten up genre. There is no redeeming quality to this film in any way shape or from.
5) The Losers. Directed by Sylvain White. Written by Peter Berg & James Vanderbilt. Based on the graphic novel The Losers written by Andy Diggle.
5 star score - 0 stars. Recommendation - "Save The Loot."
What do you get when you combine a group of idiots who don't know how to read a comic book? This movie. Moving on.
4) The Last Airbender. Written and Directed by M. Night Shyamalan. Based on the Nickelodeon cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender created by Michael Dante DiMartino &
Bryan Konietzko.
5 star score - 0 stars. Recommendation - "For The Love Of God Stay Home."
What do you get when you combine an egotistical, holier than thou, malcontent director with a popular kids cartoon. This move. The Last Airbender was proof that Scam-a-lan's magic is gone. He replaced it with an insatiable desire to put his name on every frame he shoots. I mean literally put his name on it. When was the last time you saw a Scam-a-lan film that didn't have "Written, Produced and Directed by" on the screen after you see a trailer or TV commercial. Your name is already out and now it's stands for the wrong reasons. Get off your high horse dude and make a damn MOVIE!
3) The Warrior's Way. Written and Directed by Sngmoo Lee.
5 star score - 0 stars. Recommendation - "For The Love Of God Stay Home."
I know I rated this film as The Worst of 2010. But after careful deliberation I came to the decision that this movie though not good by any means isn't the absolute worst of the year. The main reason is quite simply this movie just flat out was meant to be bad. There's no way anyone can tell me that the producers of this film expected great things from this mess of Wu Shu and the Wild West.
2) Skyline. Directed by Colin Strause & Greg Strause A.K.A The Brothers Struase. Written by Joshua Cordes & Liam O'Donnell.
5 star score - 0 stars. Recommendation - "For The Love Of God Stay Home."
This one was a stinker from the opening credits. Then for a fleeting second I began to feel a sense of movie history. It looked like Skyline was going to break a very used up mold for this genre of alien invasion movies. Instead I was treated to not only a cowardly attempt to end the film. The last 5 minutes was 10 times absurd as the rest of the film. I never walked out of a movie angrier this year than after leaving this one.
1) Legion. Directed by Scott Stewart. Written by Scott Stewart & Peter Schink.
5 star score - 0 stars. Recommendation - "For The Love Of God Stay Home."
I just finished saying that Skyline pissed me off more than any other film this year. So why is this #1? The answer is simple. I knew Skyline was going to be stupid going into it. I still went to see it anyway thinking "what the hell." Legion hustled me. It looked really cool and turned out being really, really REALLY BAD! The premise was simple yet interesting. The problems that happened here were the writers came up with the main idea and that's it. There was no intent to fill in the gaps that were bleeding this film dry. Lazy writing, poor performances and dreadful plot holes just make this film by leaps and bounds the Worst Film of 2010. What's even more impressive is that this is the first film I saw in 2010. It led wire to wire. That's really something. That no other film was bad enough to make a run at the belt. There were a couple of challengers but when a movie gives you the appearance of entertainment and provides unintentional laughter then you got a winner hands down.
That's a wrap for today. Up next is my 100th review.
Until Next Episode...."I'll Save You A Seat!"
"D"
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