Happily I no longer subject myself to things I know have little to no chance of being any good. I used to do that, watch just about anything and everything, just so I could know where bottom is. But no more. I may see some of these out and out stinkers when they hit cable TV, or at least watch a piece of them, but I can't stomach sitting through dreck anymore. Certainly not at the theater.
So, while I'm sure flicks such as
Norbit, Ghost Rider, Kickin' it Old Skool, Lucky You, Code Name: The Cleaner, BRATZ, Delta Farce, Primeval, Epic Movie, Because I Said So, Hannibal Rising, Good Luck Chuck, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, Hot Rod, Shooter, Hostel Part II, The Hills Have Eyes 2, Saw IV, Are We Done Yet?, Firehouse Dog, Evan Almighty, I Know Who Killed Me, The Heartbreak Kid, Daddy Day Camp, Balls of Fury, The Brothers Solomon, The Game Plan, The Comebacks and
Southland Tales are all worthy of scorn and ridicule, to paraphrase Jules I wouldn't know 'cause I wouldn't watch the filthy mutherfu*kers. When many of them get Razzie nominations in a few weeks, I'm sure they will be well-earned, but I can't speak from personal experience on the matter, glad to say.
A few stinkers I did manage to see in the bad, totally unfunny and witless comedy department are
Wild Hogs (saw this on an airplane),
Blades of Glory (rented this one, though I confess I turned it off two-thirds of the way through having not laughed once, even by mistake) and
License to Wed (paid to see this in the theater over the summer). Of those the most disappointing by far was
License to Wed, because it had a least a glimmer of potential. But still, not the worst movie I saw this year.
Live Free or Die Hard was just dreadful, especially carrying the
Die Hard brand name. I suppose as a preposterous would-be action movie it's just on the bad side of average, but that they dragged the John McClane name through the mud and tricked me into seeing it because of faith in the franchise makes it exponentially worse, and even a minor sin (cinematically speaking).
But the absolute worst movie I had the displeasure of seeing...
The Kingdom. Racist and ridiculous, cheap and insulting, making trite out of serious and complicated issues...concluding with a seemingly tacked-on cliché, hacky action finale that was not only totally unbelievable but also the worst possible message to send about the state of the world, either as a popular artists or as a human being. Just a total waste of time and talent. I saw this for free at an advanced screening over a month before it was released, and I almost demanded my money back it was so infuriating. Much more than the loss of time, it's the kind of bad movie that actually made me angry and want to beat up the screenwriter (Matthew Michael Carnahan) and director (Peter Berg). I hate this movie for the ugly sentiment it is underlining and that it attempted to market to the mainstream.
As tedious, obnoxious and totally unentertaining as
BRATZ or
Norbit surely are, I doubt they're in the same kind of league as
The Kingdom.