Least Favorite Movies this year

So far, what are your least favorite movies in 2002?

I'll kick it off:

1. The Rules of Attraction - Bret Easton Ellis' books are dreadful enough, but this insipid adaptation of his worst novel makes them look like founts of lyric beauty and humanism. Probably the most worthless movie of the year, and we've still got 3 months to go.

2. Road to Perdition - Is there a more pretentious director working than Sam Mendes? Did anyone read his interview in New York magazine, where he speaks about the function of water in this film, and how it suggests the "mutability of life"? Please. A long ugly bore, whose tone shifts from glacial to cheaply sentimental with all the grace of Homer Simpson.

3. Moonlight Mile - Never before has a movie so enraged me. My own biases concerning grief and how it should be handled notwithstanding, Moonlight Mile is hateful toward its characters and passes off the worst kind of audience button-pushing as mysticism.

4. My Big Fat Greek Wedding - bored the bejesus out of me. the jokes could have been stolen from Friends. News Flash: surely enough, they're making this movie into a sitcom. they certainly wouldn't have to change much. i hope they don't actually film any episodes, when they can just divide the movie into 30 minute intervals and show those. it would be a waste of stock.

5. Full Frontal - one of the few movies I've seen in which the director's pretensions are actually matched by his imprecision. Even Road to Perdition was cohesive and somewhat coherent - Soderbergh's movie is one of the poorest, most graceless examples of self indulgence in the past ten years. There are only 2 reasons this movie is at number 5, instead of the top spot:
1)The Rules of Attraction
2) Nicky Katt as Hitler

Let the fun begin!

__________________
**** the Lakers!

I wouldn't bother to see The Rules of Attraction in the first place.

I agree completely with The Road to Perdition. Terrible movie, completely disappointing, unbearably pretentious...therefore it'll probably win a bag full of Oscars.

But I disagree 100% with Full Frontal. I thought it was a bunch of clever fun, admittedly self-conscious and contrived, but fun just the same. I liked that one a heck of a lot, and laughed the whole way through. Still one of my favorite movies I've seen this year.

Disagree with Moonlight Mile as well. I didn't think it was great cinema, but I enjoyed it and found all four of the main performances engaging. I didn't feel overly manipulated by the narrative or direction, in fact in my book it gets points for being fairly restrained and employing as little button-pushing as melodrama allows. It was definitely TV movie-of-the-week material, but for me I found it was handled much smarter and more subtly. Diff'rent strokes, I reckon.

As for My Big Fat Greek Wedding, yeah it was sitcom-level stuff most of the time with that kind of hollow quirky/cutsey fluff by design...but at least it was a decent, watchable sitcom. Again, not one of my favorite movies of the year, not by a long stretch, and it is VERY overrated, but I don't begrudge it it's success. I'm much more heartened that Greek Wedding, as middling and unambitious as it is, made $100-million at the box office than I am to see the list of usual Hollywood-grinding-machine suspects (Scooby-Doo etc.) that continue to numb the masses. Because of the story behind the production, and because it was such an unexpected hit, Wedding is sure to nab some high-profile Oscar nominations. Eh, big fat deal. Overrated, but it surely won't be the worst movie to garner award nominations this (or any other) year.



Let's see, the worst I've had the displeasure of seeing so far this year theatrically...

1. Hollywood Ending
2. Big Trouble
3. Road to Perdition
4. Men in Black 2
5. High Crimes

I hated all of those movies, though I wouldn't grade any of them complete failures. Definitely complete disappointments, but I know there's much worse out there at the multiplexes. But I find I'm becoming much more discerning and not seeing too much all-out crap-ol-a at the theaters. I just don't have the time or energy for it anymore.

__________________
"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

Death to Smoochy
Resident Evil
Eight Legged Freaks
Showtime
Star Wars: Episode 2
The Time Machine


I liked Road to Perdition and I loved Moonlight Mile. I don't understand how you can say they treated the characters hatefully. I thought they treated them with respect and dignity. As Holden said, diff'rent strokes.

__________________
"Today, war is too important to be left to politicians. They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought. I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids."

Yeah, I don't know what Steve means by "hatefully" either. But I'm sure he'll be back to expand upon that thought sooner or later.

Ditto on The Rules of Attraction; I have no intent of seeing it. The ad campaign is making it out to be another American Pie. Sha, right.

I won't argue with you any further on My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Ya'll know how I feel about it already.

I must disagree with your impression of Road to Perdition, though. I have not read the graphic novel, and I don't particularly care about how pretentious Sam Mendes is (and from what you've said of him, he sounds very pretentious). Judging this film apart from any personal shortcomings of the director, I found it to be beautifully shot and surprisingly satisfying. Hanks, was, as usual, impressive. I won't launch into a full-blown review here, but suffice to say, I enjoyed it.

Anyway, my list...

The Top Five Worst Movies I've Seen This Year

• Reign of Fire
• Eight Legged Freaks
• The Time Machine
• Blade II
• Mr. Deeds

I almost hate to put the last two on there, as I didn't really dislike either of them...I enjoyed almost all of the movies I saw this year. Admittedly, though, without John Turturro and Steve Buscemi, Mr. Deeds would be one of the first films on this list. Turturro should've had more screentime. Hilarious stuff.

"You underestimate 'ze sneakiness, sir."

I didn't get an American Pie vibe at all from the Rules of Attraction commercials. American Psycho, but not American Pie. But then, I also know what Bret Easton Ellis is about, so that probably tints my interpretation of the advertising campaigns to begin with. If you know Ellis' work, there's no way in the world, for even a half a second, you'd be thinking American PIE.

But as I disliked both of those movies, neither one would be a selling point for me anyway.

And on top of all that, the casting of all those beautiful twenty-somethings against type for it's own sake doesn't interest me, AND I thought Roger Avery's first film, Killing Zoe, was a chore to sit through.


So as I say, there was no way I was going to subject myself to The Rules of Attraction anyway. I would have been shocked if it were even watchable, much less if it turned out to be at all good.

Right; if you know Ellis' work, it's obvious that the flick isn't going to be like that. However, the commercials, I think, clearly steered it in another direction for those that aren't in the know. The abstinence/mathematics joke was the prime example, IMO. I'd be shocked if a lot of teens didn't find their way to the theater based on the mostly lighthearted trailers expecting something very different from what they got.

Just my view. For what it's worth, the flick's first poster was hilarious.

I would have to say even though it was slightly good the worst movie IVE SEEN this year was without a doubt Blade II

What have I seen this year that has been made this year. Hm. Not a lot. Not enough. I didn't see Reign of Fire, MIBII, Mr. Deeds, Eight Legged Freaks, Blade II or any of those films. I'll be lucky if Full Frontal opens here; although I'm sure that I would love it, and I'm sure that I would like Road to Perdition. Not love, but still.

Thing is, if I list the worst films I have seen this year it will probably overflow into the movies that I actually liked. Which is odd, isn't it?

__________________
www.esotericrabbit.com

the movies i've seen theatrically this year were:
char's counterattack (1988)
ran (1985)
the whale hunt/koro's day out (2001)
sunshine state (2002)
avalon (2001)
spiderman (2002)
star wars episode 2 (2002)
la brassiere (2001)
spirited away (2001)

of the three from 2002, i'd give the lowest score to star wars (but still an 8.25 out of 10). of all of those movies, it'd be a tie between star wars and avalon and la brassiere.

I agree that it's being marketed as a lighthearted comedy, and this is all wrong. I also agree with both of you that Ellis' work is so unbelievably dreadful that I can hardly sit still at this desk when I talk about him. The only reason I saw the movie is because I did enjoy American Psycho for what it was - a lighthearted comedy (the movie, not the book.) I wanted to see what Avary was made of, since I've never seen Killing Zoe. I'm not impressed.

Re concerning Moonlight Mile - it was hateful toward its characters, to me, for one reason: over the course of the 2 hours I was viewing it, I felt unreasonably uncomfortable. It felt like an exploitation movie, particularly in Susan Sarandon's scenes of grief. And I think that, at its heart, the movie was a coming-of-age story with lots of (gasp!) lighthearted comedy. If Brad Siberling regards the death of a loved one as a peripheral issue, he loses me as an audience member. I object.

Aww, TWT, how can you even say Blade 2 was one of the worst movies of the year? What about when he killed the vampire and blood went everywhere?? wait, that was the whole movie. I loved it. Also, Reign of Fire is such an easy target.

Good effects, good action, disappointing movie

I'd say some bombers this year are:

The Time Machine
Blade II
xXx
Resident Evil
Men In Black 2

__________________
"I was walking down the street with my friend and he said, "I hear music", as if there is any other way you can take it in. You're not special, that's how I receive it too. I tried to taste it but it did not work." - Mitch Hedberg

How anyone can put a classic comic book movie such as Blade II into the same group of gutter tripe such as xXx, Men In Black 2, and Resident Evil is beyond me.

They are not in the same category.

Despite its origin, it's still a disappointment.

Blade isn't bad, but I think Blade II contains the energy, effects, and character-fun the first one could only dream about.

Lacked in the major area, STORYLINE.

I'm going to have to agree.

Today: Punch-Drunk Love and Bowling for Columbine. I can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!

Without a doubt the worse movie I’ve seen all year was The Scorpion King… and before you all laugh… it wasn’t my choice to see it… a friend begged me to go with them… the others on my list would be:

Men in Black
Ballistic
Reign of Fire - although I loved the dragons in that one…
Star Wars: Episode 2 - better than Phantom but still very disappointing…

__________________

I flat-out LOVED Bowling for Columbine. I'm going to have to see it again soon.



As for Moonlight Mile, this is one of those differences in opinion that is so wide it's like we saw two completely different movies.

You obviously have some issue with the way grief is handled in the film in general, and I don't want you to get into personal specifics on the board here if this is touching on a painful subject or memory for you - which may be why you've only alluded to it thus far. But whatever that personal point of view is, it has tinted your entire perspective severely, to the point where I think you've even misjudged what kind of a movie it is.

I honestly don't see, from my own experience of course, how showing the characters in intense moments of pain is being disrespectful or exploitive. It's what the story is about, how these four particular people (characters) deal with - or rather don't deal with, their losses. How you interpreted this issue as peripheral has me stumped. It is the central issue of the film.

And I don't know what moments of lighthearted comedy you are referring to either. Besides the dog puking and the initial "meet cute" of the two younger leads - both moments which happen in the first fifteen minutes of the movie before the narrative has even begun to devulge the layers of the secrets and grieving (and even the meet cute is suddenly given weight when she realizes which invitations he's looking for and why), I can't recall any other such comedic moments.

That Sarandon in particular was so good at conveying her character's deep emotional pain underneath her anti-social bravado, I can see why that might strike a chord with a viewer even to the point of being uncomfortable watching it, but isn't that true of any good dramatic performance that touches on such issues? And isn't this the point?

From your comments so far, I gather you feel that kind of intensity and rawness was simply incompatible with what you perceived as otherwise a romantic comedy of sorts. Is that an accurate assessment? If so, I hope you give the movie another chance when it hits video months down the line. While there are some moments of dramedy throughout the narrative, I don't at all see it as a comedy. If I were describing it, catagorizing it for a movie fan, comedy wouldn't be a genre I would have any impulse to use as a label. At all. Yes, there are a few laughs in it, but there's a really good, honest laugh in Schindler's List too, but I wouldn't ever call that movie a comedy.

Like I say, we saw two completely different movies. I'm fascinated by just how different.