Because of the slightly smaller Worst Of list for this year, I will also be doing a short list of the films I think are the most underrated for the year, mainly because I want to talk about some other films that really deserve to be mentioned, but I couldn't actually fit them onto the Best Of lists. Anyway, enough explanation, let's get on with the shaming!
7. The Butler
Over the years, I've begun to build up an intolerance for blatantly obvious Oscar movies. And this was the most obvious Oscar-wanting film I've seen for a while. It's everything the Academy likes; a story about a man over-coming his struggles in a country plagued by racism... I'm not getting at the man the film is based on, but this film is just so bland and cliche ridden! The acting is good, and Alan Rickman gives his best American accent to date as Ronald Reagan, but the plot is so predictable and boring! It's not the worst film of the year, but it is one of the ones that disappointed me. Expect it to get nominated, multiple times.
6. The Man Who Laughs
Talk about disappointments, this has to be the biggest one of the year. In reality, I should blame myself for only watching the trailer in French, but in my mind I blame this film for luring me in with beautiful imagery, Gerard Depardieu and an interesting synopsis, and then giving a melodrama that makes no sense with some of the worst acting I have ever seen. It's so ridiculous! Just when you think something good is going to happen, something even more terrible comes along. The plot is just one bad thing after another. Which is a shame, because it looks amazing. Maybe the dialogue is better in French, but I doubt it.
5. A Good Day to Die Hard
The Die Hard films series is one of my favourites (I even don't mind the questionable fourth film), and this film fails first by not being a Die Hard film. Oh sure, it's got all the elements to be a Die Hard film. Terrorists, explosions, guns, Bruce Willis. But it lacks the energy and effort of the other Die Hard movies. It feels as though some people were trying to make an action film and Bruce Willis turned up on the set and wouldn't move, so they had to rearrange the script around him. It's just a mess. An annoying mess that stains the otherwise pretty strong series. I almost hope they make another one just so we don't end the franchise on this sour note. But I doubt that another sequel will be made, and I am quite glad for that.
4. Hitchcock
When a film advertises itself to be about the making of Psycho, then you at least expect that film to be in some part about the making of Psycho. I'm not even sure what this film was about. It's a waste of good actors, and doesn't tell the audience anything about Alfred Hitchcock except that he was a bit odd. Thankfully, it's so bland that it doesn't sally my favourite horror film. But it does leave with the question of whether or not it should actually exist. Hitchcock deserves a much better film about him than this trash.
3. Spring Breakers
This film thinks it's smarter than it is. It also thinks that its provocative portrayal of youth spiraling out of control is going to shock, but there are far more shocking things on the internet than this film. Really, the only thing this film is is annoying. Annoying characters, annoyingly scripted, annoyingly acted and filmed. I was so full of hate for this film when I first saw it, but now looking back on it, it really doesn't deserve my anger. It's too annoying and mediocre for that. There is one good sequence in this that saved it from being in the top two, but one good sequence does not make this film, that seems to have been made just so Harmony Korine could spend time with a lot of girls in bikinis, anything more than an annoying waste of time.
2. The Counselor
To anyone thinking about going to see this film, watch the trailer. It's more exciting and makes more sense than the actual film. I am so pissed off with the script for this movie, I want to punch Cormac McCarthy in the face. Does he not know that films are different from books? After seeing this turd, I was so confused that I had to go to on Wikipedia to find out what actually happened. I'm still not sure what the film was about. The most interesting thing about the film was the drug truck, and yes, I am being serious. It just baffles me how so much talent could produce such a badly put together film. Anyway, someone else I know who saw this film said it best; "This film will go down as the film in which Cameron Diaz has sex with a car." Yep.
1. Oz the Great and Powerful
James Franco pissed me off the most this year. Not only was he so disgustingly annoying in Spring Breakers, but he also shat all over one of the greatest series of children's books ever written. Chez Apocalypse did a blog on this, and it pretty much sums up everything I hate about this film. But even more than that, this film was just not needed. It doesn't do anything for the Oz universe, except make the witches more sympathetic than the wizard (not a good thing when you re-watch the original film. That film needs to have an unsympathetic villain). But right now, it doesn't deserve any more of my time. It can go fuck itself.
Well, this was a hard list to write. It may come as a shock, but I don't like writing horrible things about the medium I like the most. But these things need to be said sometimes. So, hopefully soon the next list will come out. Not sure when, and I'm not going to give a date I can't keep. I also don't know which one I'll write next. Probably the Most Underrated one. Anyway, until next time readers.
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