Avatar, for reasons that have been beaten to death on this very board.
Children of Men, ditto.
Oh god 7 Pounds.
I saw that one because someone I know was glowing about it and said it was the most profound thing he’d ever seen. “Profound” my ass, I was totally rooting for the jellyfish.
I also got dragged to see the live-action How The Grinch Stole Christmas. I knew it wasn’t going to have the same vibe as the cartoon, but…echh. The things I could have done with THAT eight bucks instead…
I can’t say I was too impress with the Coen Brother’s True Grit. I didn’t really care for No Country for Old Men either. I may be losing some affection for the bros.
I thought Men in Black was pretty good. But it’s not all because of Will Smith, it’s the magical combination of Will Smith AND Tommy Lee Jones that makes it work. Much like volatile chemicals you have to make sure you’ve got a good balance.
The Hangover was OK. I probably would have enjoyed it more though if it hadn’t been so hyped.
The 2 movies I have been most disappointed in were Lost in Translation & Shrek 2.
I should also mention Beverly Hills Cop 2, My Big Fat Greek Wedding (again, I would have enjoyed it more if it hadn’t been over hyped) & Return of the Jedi since they haven’t been mentioned yet.
Tim Burton’s Batman. I was so pumped to see this. Was expecting it to be something like Batman Begins or Dark Knight. Instead I got the theatrical version of Batman. Jumbo set props, theatrical acting, cartoonish. They might as well made it a musical.
Oh, I knew Avatar was going to suck (and look really good doing so) as soon as I saw James Cameron’s name attached to it.
I’m on board with that one. I think that might have been the genesis of my extreme hatred of Tim Burton.
Prizzi’s Honor. All the critics loved it. We hated hated hated it.
This. And I’ll throw in Broken Flowers.
Crystal Skull has already been mentioned. As has Phantom Menace. I fell asleep IN THE THEATER during Menace.
I had forgotten about this, but yeah. I wasn’t expecting much, but I still ended up astonished.
As for Crystal Skull, it was exactly as bad as I expected.
this isn’t the first time I’ve seen someone say this. I thought it was a perfectly competent movie, but not exceptional in any way and not one I need to see again - baffling that it received such critical adulation.
The Star Wars prequels
The Matrix sequels
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Last Dragon (Recommended heavily by a close friend. After I watched it I was angry with him)
Avatar: The Last Airbender (I sort of knew it would suck, but I never could have imagined…)
Percy Jackson’s The Lightning Thief (Same as The Last Airbender)
First of all, I love my kids and would gladly die 1000 painful death for them. As a dad, you go to lots of kiddie movies just for the sakes.
However, The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D made me want to go back in time and get a vasectomy before I met their mother so that I wouldn’t have had kids and therefore go to that leviathanically bad movie, even considering the extremely low bar i’d set for it. On top of its “badliness” I could never see the 3D because I can do it with the blue-red thingies.
You’re right, he did a very good job in that and a decent job in Independence Day. I forgot about that one.
Add another for Crystal Skull - Don’t get me wrong. I expected badness. I just didn’t expect it to be THAT bad.
The ending of AI killed the entire thing for me. I got as far as Roboboy choosing to reanimate ‘mommy’ for like 5 minutes, knowing then she’d be gone for good, and as soon as that hit, I walked out of the theatre. I’m assuming they reanimated her, but I’ll never see it myself, and I’m ok with that.
Batman and Robin was godawful. Again, not very high expectations, but JHChrist was it bad.
Kind of amusing; I looked up the child actors and the one who played Sharkboy is now one of the leads (Jacob) in the Twilight saga.
And I’m going to have to defend Requiem for a Dream. The only problem I have with it is the whole Sara in the hospital scene. The doctor having her sign the electroshock consent form, when she clearly isn’t making, or capable of making, an informed consent is not only unethical, but probably illegal. Also, from what I’ve heard, electroshock therapy is way different than what the movie was showing. Or rather, the way it was portrayed was they way it was done 50 years ago or so. And as for bad things happening to everybody, well, yeah, bad things can and do happen to heroin users.
Body Of Evidence.
I’m a huge Madonna fan and over the years I’ve slowly been working my way through her filmography. I knew this one had a bad reputation but I like lots of movies that the critics hated so I thought maybe it’d be okay, and I don’t think Madonna is as bad at acting as she is made out to be.
Holy shit. It was so bad I could hardly believe it. And the worst thing is, because it’s Madonna and I collect works related to her, coupled with the fact that the film is pretty obscure these days and probably not available down at my local video rental store, I actually bought the DVD. I paid money for a copy of Body Of Evidence. It is sitting in my room right now, and every time I look at it I hate myself and everyone involved in the film.
I’m not sure exactly what I was thinking about “Boxing Helena” now, it’s been a lot of years ago. I suppose that something made me think it was going to be kind of a weird, dark horror/comedy.
I, on the other hand, had no expectations that “Couples Retreat” would be worth watching. My wife recorded it off cable a few months ago (and confused me, because it ain’t her kind of movie at all) and I think we got through about 15 minutes of it before we gave up.
The mom’s story was the worst part. There was just something poorly done there. I have been told that no, I’m wrong, and her part is actually good cinema. Whatever.
Cracked is a not very credible source, but I did see this on ECT the other day (Number 4).