Originally Posted By gadzuux Picking worst movies is like shooting fish in a barrel - there's a lot to pick from. I try not to waste my time and money on bad movies, but sometimes they catch me anyway. For movies that I actually saw, I would say ... "Love Guru" with Mike Myers - two hours of burp/fart/pee/poop jokes. Enough already. And an honorable mention goes to ... "Get Smart" - I smelled a stinker going in, but I had to see Anne Hathaway as agent 99. And I was in Palm Springs and it was over a hundred degrees outside, so I got my money's worth in A/C alone. As for movies that I tried to watch and couldn't make it through the DVD ... "Rambo" - I also would have included Rocky if Stallone had made another one. Pointless mayhem and explosions. "X-Files 2 - The Truth is Out There". Let it stay at out there til it dies. "Untraceable" - Diane Lane trying to solve unspeakably heinous crimes from her laptop. Reminded me of another stinker from years back "Bone Collector" where Denzel Washington solves unspeakably heinous crimes from his bed. At least Ironside had a wheelchair. "Burn After Reading". I tend to like comedies, so I try a lot of them. But they need to be funny, and this wasn't. It was a 'stretch' for Brad Pitt so I hope he had fun. I sure didn't. "The Happening" - Did anything ever happen? I never made it to the end so I don't know. "10,000 BC" - A lot of running away from very big dinosaurs. I've seen it before. "Zohan" - or something like that, with Adam Sandler. I was a captive audience on a plane, and I still walked out of it. Movies that no one with testicles should ever go near ... "Mamma Mia" - didn't see it. "Australia" - won't see it. "Four Christmases" - christmas has come and gone. And who's going to rent a christmas movie this spring when the DVD comes out? "What Happens In Vegas" - should've stayed there. "Curious Case of Benjamin Button" - One 'stretch' from Brad is enough for me - I sure hope he's having fun. "Over Her Dead Body" - Men who enjoy looking at Eva Lanoria can be forgiven for this one. Otherwise there's no excuse.
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy 10,000 BC definitely belongs at the top of this list. I sorta enjoyed Zohan, funny moments.
Originally Posted By gadzuux For me, not so much. I enjoyed BHC enough because it delivered some good laughs. I liked it more than Bolt, which looked grrreat but didn't have many laughs. I also cared more about the characters in BHC than Bolt. Just my take.
Originally Posted By gadzuux One more thing about Beverly Hills Chihuahua - the trailer had this big musical production number that never really materialized in the actual movie. That was a disappointment.
Originally Posted By DAR Some real stinkers I saw: The Happening-Shamaylan has one great film in him The Sixth Sense. One underated, Unbreakable. One great until the last 20 minutes-Signs. After that everything has been pure garbage from this guy. The Love Guru/Semi-Pro/Step-Brothers/You Don't Mess With the Zohan-Mike Myers, Adam Sandler and Will Ferrell can be funny people, but they keep playing the same characters in all their films. Any of the "Movies"-Superhero Movie, Epic Movie, Remember the Spartans, just unfunny parodies with no real connection to the movies they parody. Will date real badly. Pineapple Express-Not so much the worst as the most disappointing film I saw. James Franco was amusing the rest was just annoying.
Originally Posted By ecdc >>"Curious Case of Benjamin Button" - One 'stretch' from Brad is enough for me - I sure hope he's having fun.<< Wow. Couldn't disagree more. I just saw this today and it's my favorite film of the year, and will probably end up being an all-time favorite. David Fincher once again outdid himself. The charm of this movie never wanes, and the themes of life and death are marvelously explored. As for the worst movies, I don't get to go to a lot of movies, so I'm very picky (no doubt my friends would say obnoxiously so) about what I see. I haven't really seen a "bad" movie in the theatre this year. I guess the only movie I didn't really enjoy was the Tale of Despereaux, which I got talked into by my kids.
Originally Posted By Spooky Ghost Here's my worst for 2008: 1. The Happening- such a massive misfire from every aspect. The screenplay is bad and idiotic. The direction is stale and flat and the acting from the two leads(who are usually quite good) is just viciously bad. 2. Meet the Spartans. "HEY LOOK! I'M THE GUY FROM 300... GET IT?!?!?!" 3. Disaster Movie- pretty much the same deal as Spartans, this one is slightly less an abomination to celluloid due to one tiny joke in the Enchanted "parody" that I (ashamedly) found pretty amusing. 4. The Women- I made it up untill Anette Benning uses her "Terminator" radar to go shopping at Sacks. I wish I was making this up... 5. Step Brothers- I was only able to stomach this turkey for about 20 minutes. How long untill Will Farrel goes away? 6. Prom Night- More safe/cuddly horror for the tweener set. On the plus side this movie gave me and friends one of the best home versions of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 7. Saw V- I really loved this franchise up untill this entry. What once used to be clever and at times a bit insightful now becomes a showcase for disgustingly implausable gore sequences, alarmingly stupid characters and one of the worst wigs i've ever seen on an actor outside of community theatre. 8. The Boy In The Striped Pajamas- I've seen some bad "tearjerkers" in my day. But never one quite this bad. The movie seems to exist for absolutly nothing for most of the runtime untill the last 5 minutes where the audience is treated to one of the worst, most exploitave sad endings. I'm thinking of filming someone kicking puppies and making a bundle on it, it holds pretty much the same appeal as this film. 9. Righteous Kill- Honestly, not a bad movie in its own right, it would have been perfectly acceptable as a cable movie staring some B-list TV stars washed up from the 80's. But this is a big reunion of DeNero and Pacino and the best script the two could find is this? Such a wasted oppertunity. These guys could have commanded the best screenwriters in the industry. Instead all we get is a lame cop drama which feels like nothing more than an extended Law and Order rerun. 10. Nick and Norahs Infinite Playlist- Michael Cera, you might as well get as much money and work out of your George Michael Bluth schtick as long as possible, it's really all you're good for. Even sometimes that doesn't even pass muster like seen in this annoyingly "angsty" teen flick. Too cutsey for the "alternative" crowd to enjoy. Too "alternative" for the tweener crowd. I plan on posting my Best of 2008 list somewhere on the forum after the weekend, i've still yet to see Revolutionary Road and The Reader, I plan to see both this weekend.
Originally Posted By mawnck Courtesy of my "unique" movie going habits, here are the 5 worst *animated* features of 2008: 5. Space Chimps A squeaker between this and Roadside Romeo, neither of which were really THAT bad. It was quite a good year for animated features overall. 4. Horton Hears a Who A smirking, hyperactive Horton? When are they just going to give up and admit that it's impossible to do an adaptation of a Dr. Seuss book that is feature length and doesn't suck? I did not like it, not one little bit. 3. The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything A crushing disappointment, since I enjoyed the heck out of Jonah. When the Veggie Tales jump the shark, they don't mess around. The humor was just plain "off," and the (literally) deux ex machina ending was a jaw-dropper of Biblical proportions. 2. Fly Me To the Moon You missed it, didn't you. It was a 3D feature (there was no theatrical "flat" version) about three young flies who stow away on Apollo 11. Heinous character designs, one-dimensional (har har) lead characters, and a script that made your head hurt even worse than the glasses did. 1. Delgo Oh lordy lordy, where to start? Ugly flying alien lizard people in a Romeo and Juliet knock-off. Scriptwriting software should be designed to automatically crash when someone types in something like this mess. Aside from general suckiness and rampant idea theft from better movies, it featured an incompetent sidekick character just like Jar Jar Binks except REALLY annoying, and he was on camera for about 70% of the movie. Luckily for the world at large, NOBODY went to see it: <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/16/celebrity-voiced-delgo-ma_n_151356.html" target="_blank">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...356.html</a> (The link includes the trailer, which makes the movie look a lot better than it actually is.)
Originally Posted By Dabob2 <When are they just going to give up and admit that it's impossible to do an adaptation of a Dr. Seuss book that is feature length and doesn't suck?> Even for the animated Grinch, Chuck Jones had to pad it to make it reach 23 MINUTES. Of course he did so with some brilliant business, but padding to 90 minutes just ain't gonna work (and didn't). It's kind of like most of the movies they've tried to make of Poe short stories. They're SHORT stories and don't really work when padded to 90 minutes. House of Usher was pretty good. That's the only one I can think of.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 BTW, if they want to make a full-length Seuss movie, they should take several stories and make a compliation. Maybe get several directors with an affinity for this kind of thing (Tim Burton maybe) and get a little friendly competition going. The three or four segments could even be in totally different styles (2-D, 3-D, stop-motion, puppetry, even live) and it could be a semi-experimental film (at least in part) with the completely accessible Seuss material. I'd pay to see that.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 Start with McEliot's Pool - was my fave Zeuss book growing up andgot to meet Dr Geisel @ a company sponsored recognition event years ago - and had him sign it. He was an engaging speaker as well. I agree with the movie of many stories -- -- even then it could be tough..
Originally Posted By Dabob2 I loved both of the Bartholomew stories (The 500 hats of... and the Oobleck).
Originally Posted By Dabob2 Oh, and BTW, there IS a good feature-length Seuss movie, "The 5,000 fingers of Dr. T." The difference was that this was not, AFAIK, a short story first but was written for the screen by Seuss. It's kind of a forgotten film (with forgettable songs) but it has some great Seussian imagery and a wonderfully hammy Hans Conreid as the villain.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA <Movies that no one with testicles should ever go near ... "Mamma Mia"> How dare you. Only real men watch movie musicals. Viva La White Christmas! Good lists of stinker movies. In the San Francisco chronicle, 'Australia' was listed as the #1 stinker of 2008. 'X-Files' -- Wife and I saw it just last night. Super gross premise and rather dull and boring. Scully and Mulder (I remember their names because they each said each other's names about 75 times!) have no chemistry left. 'The Dark Knight' -- No, not the worst of 2008, but I just don't get the love-fest for this one. Saw 'Iron Man' over the holiday, thought it was a better movie overall. 'Hancock' -- Great premise. Awesome trailer. Stupid script and stupid movie. Will Smith couldn't even save it. There are so many movies now that I just won't go to, based on the trailers alone. 'Australia' 'Get Smart' 'Love Guru' -- any of the gross-out teenager comedies produced by Seth Rogan -- 'Stepbrothers' -- other movies like 'The Spirit' 'Marley & Me' 'Made of Honor' 'The Other Bolyn Woman' -- I just won't part with my $10 if I feel it's going to be a stinker. Think I'll go pop in my DVD and watch the 'Dancing Queen' sequence.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip 'The Happening' is probably the worst movie I saw this year, followed closely by 'Hancock'. I thought 'Burn After Reading' was a hoot. What can I say??
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA We saw 'The Happening' also -- oddly enough -- nothing happened.
Originally Posted By gadzuux One that hasn't been mentioned is 'Harold & Kumar'. You know goin' in that it isn't shakespeare, but like 'Love Guru' it leaned heavily on pee and poop jokes and the teenage gross-out humor. But it had some upsides - the DVD had a lot of gratuitous nudity (a rarity in movies these days), and 'doogie' was a lot of fun - again. I was pleasantly surprised to see whatsername from 'designing women' as a cathouse madam. But the story kept veering from ridiculous to disgusting, and as I get older I have less patience for this kind of stuff.
Originally Posted By hightp Of the movies I saw, the Love Guru was, hands down, the worst. Get Smart was tolerable as was Superhero Movie (and both even had some funny scenes), but Mike Myers should just take a few years off and try to come back fresh on a TV comedy series.
Originally Posted By BrnardM I suppose I'll have a corner of my man card clipped for admitting I've seen it, but Twilight belongs on this list. The book is alright, but I feel sorry for the fans about lazily the movie was made. I did enjoy the aweful dialogue though, sometimes it was laugh out loud funny.
