Sunday, December 12, 2010

Top 10 critical disappointments of 2010.

2010 has been a year where I went on Rotten Tomatoes, and often found these movies with strangely low ratings which surprised me a little. Well, some, I knew were gonna be bad, but not quite as bad as it's Tomatometer rating said it was...

Please note: This isn't the 'worst films of the year' list. I've barely seen enough 2010 movies to make that list. And also, I haven't seen many of these films, so I'm not judging them on my opinion only, but mainly the critics who savaged them.

10. Love and Other Drugs


44%--It's a pleasure to see Hollywood produce a romance this refreshingly adult, but Love and Other Drugs struggles to find a balance between its disparate plot elements.

I wanna see Love and Other Drugs for a few reasons: Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway and Edward Zwick directing a rom-com. Also, this looks pretty different than all the other romantic shit coming out. I mean, this could have easily been awards material, but the critics may suggest otherwise. I guess this won't be so out of the ordinary after all.

9. Due Date


40%--Shamelessly derivative and only sporadically funny, Due Date doesn't live up to the possibilities suggested by its talented director and marvelously mismatched stars.

Okay, so it would have been hard for Todd Phillips to possibly live up to his The Hangover success so soon after it's release. But he could easily have done that with great leads like Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianikis. No such luck though, as some critics have been unashamedly harsh on this film, which leads me to wonder how The Hangover 2 will be.

8. For Colored Girls


32%--Tyler Perry has assembled a fine cast for this adaptation of the 1975 play, and his heart is obviously in the right place, but his fondness for melodrama cheapens a meaningful story.

Remind me never to judge a movie by it's cast or posters again. The cast looks pretty great, and the posters really caught my eye, too. However, by reading some scathing reviews on this one, it looks like Tyler Perry is still incapable of making a good film. And to be perfectly honest, this film just looks like another Precious wannabe.

7. Hereafter


48%--Despite a thought-provoking premise and Clint Eastwood's typical flair as director, Hereafter fails to generate much compelling drama, straddling the line between poignant sentimentality and hokey tedium.

Clint Eastwood is a great director, and Matt Damon is a great actor. The story sounds pretty interesting, too. And hey, it's still out to get Oscars (there are quite a few FYC campaigns for this film on the loose at the moment). It just shows that even the masters can't always make great movies, and Hereafter will probably disappoint. Guess I'll just have to wait and see for myself in February.
(Side note: Is anyone else insanely jealous of Bryce Dallas Howard's hair in that picture? Geez, I want it!)

6. Jonah Hex


13%--Josh Brolin gives it his best shot, but he can't keep the short, unfocused Jonah Hex from collapsing on the screen.

Yeah yeah, it's based on a video game and what not, but I thought Jonah Hex would take. Coz, you know, it has Josh Brolin in it, and he usually picks the right films (apart from that horrid movie W.). It's a western, too, and how often do we see them around? Not often, but when they do come, they are usually pretty good. Oh well, I guess it's just a case of Megan Fox coming to ruin everything.

5. My Soul to Take


9%--Dull, joyless, and formulaic, My Soul to Take suggests writer/director Wes Craven ended his five-year filmmaking hiatus too soon.

I'm not sure that many people saw My Soul to Take, the first film for Wes Craven since the reasonably good Red Eye, and I doubt that we will be getting it here any time soon. It just goes to show that no matter who the director is, a horror movie that is made into 3D for 'extra thrills' will always be a load of crap. And here was me thinking that Wes Craven was better than that.

4. The Bounty Hunter


8%--Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston remain as attractive as ever, but The Bounty Hunter's formula script doesn't know what to do with them -- or the audience's attention.

It seems to me that some of the most highly publicized movies (i.e. set pictures arriving in every womans magazine possible) happen to be the most disappointing. That was certainly the case with The Bounty Hunter, which was given so much publicity thanks to the relationship between Aniston and Butler: the two guiltiest parties of bad comedies. I knew it was going to be bad, but I didn't know it was going to be bad enough to garner 8%. After seeing the movie, I can now understand why it deserved that rating.

3. You Again


18%--No consensus.

I don't know what I'm shocked most about: This film passing as a G rated here (I mean, WTF?! Not even a Disney fantasy movie could pass with that rating!), or, that this film only got 18%. Was I the only one that thought the trailer delivered promise? It has Sigourney Weaver and Jamie Lee Curtis in it for Christ's sake! Is there no one who can make a good mainstream comedy these days?

2. Sex and the City 2


16%--Straining under a thin plot stretched to its limit by a bloated running time, Sex and the City 2 adds an unfortunate coda to the long-running HBO series.

I may have been one of the few people who thought the first one was actually pretty good, and one of the few people who thought Sex and the City 2 would get around 50%. Upon seeing the critics savaging and dismissing this film, I was more than surprised. I know that chick flicks aren't usually good, but they usually ain't that bad either. When I saw SATC2, I was less than impressed. It just ruins everything that came before it. Let's hope they don't make another mistake like SATC3. The poor ladies are getting old and too tired to act.

1. The Tourist


20%--The scenery and the stars are undeniably beautiful, but they can't make up for The Tourist's slow, muddled plot, or the lack of chemistry between Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie.

Here is another movie which was heavily publicized, and failed to give. I always knew there was something iffy about it's trailer, but I never expected such a critical uproar over it. If anything, the names Depp and Jolie will sell, but it looks like it was a waste of their talents and the opportunity to have them together in a film. Is it just me, or is Johnny Depp's career rapidly going downhill? Well, it looks like The Tourist might just back that idea up.

4 comments:

  1. Out of these movies, I only saw The Bounty Hunter, and didn't like it. Anyway, there are many films from this list I still want to see, knowing that they were not well-accepted. As for The Tourist, the trailer seemed so cheap, and has already been a letdown for me. I'm a fan of Johnny, and I like Angelina but...

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  2. Ya, Love and Other Drugs was pretty bad, and I wholly agree with that critical concencous. However, Hereafter is a great movie despite that rating (another film that people dismissed because it requires them to work as opposed to laying it all out) and will certainly be on my best of list.

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  3. @Lesya I still wanna see most of these films, like Love and Other Drugs. Maybe The Tourist, but it didn't look too promising from the trailer. I'll just have to wait and see!

    @Mike I'm still going to see Hereafter. It looks great, despite the rating!

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  4. The movie hanover is really awesome.In the follow-up to the record-breaking hit comedy "The Hangover," Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms), Alan (Zach Galifianakis), and Doug (Justin Bartha) travel to exotic Thailand for Stu's wedding. After the unforgettable bachelor party in Las Vegas, Stu is taking no chances and has opted for a safe, subdued pre-wedding brunch. However, things don't always go as planned. What happens in Vegas may stay in Vegas, but what happens in Bangkok can't even be imagined.
    Good reviews!

    ReplyDelete

You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.

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