The Big Picture: The Terrible Twenty Films of 2014 Part 1

Reasonable Atheist

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Jandau said:
I gotta be honest, I almost turned off the video when Bob opened with Interstellar. That film is one of my favourite thing is a long time and I love it to bits. And not as a guilty pleasure, I genuinely think it's objectively good. I can understand it not being someone's cup of tea, but putting it on a "Worst" list? Nope, you pretty much lose me on the spot. I did end up watching the whole thing, and I didn't object to any of the other entries, but still...
I totally agree with you, I just saw interstellar in a small three cinema theatre last night, and LOVED it. I liked it so much, it might be my favourite science fiction movie ever. No idea why bob did not like it, I also stopped watching right away after he mentioned interstellar, but I suppose I should continue watching now.
 

PunkRex

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Scarim Coral said:
Wait, Maleficent in the top 10? Sure Robocop, TNMT and Amazing Spider-man 2 I can get but Maleficent isn't that bad!
I hope it's number one, I hated that film.

Maleficent took the stylish aesthetic of Sleeping Beauty and turn't it into a boring, grim dark fantasy.

Also, not every anti-hero needs a tragic back story to be interesting, the 'mistress of all evil' didn't need to be another victim.

Also, also, turning every character into an evil dick or a complete moron just to make you MC more likable is lazy.
 

Red Panda

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Fox12 said:
I really don't understand Bobs insatiable hatred for Nolan, or Interstellar. I understand it's a little bit more complicated then what he's used to, and it doesn't have the pretty colors of Guardians of the Galaxy, but one of the worst films of the year? I don't think so. His dislike seems almost personal.

It had a somewhat weak third act, but all things considered, it was my favorite film of the year.
He doesn't hate Nolan. It has nothing to do with the movie being "complicated" not that it even was. Trust me, a guy that has been doing movies his whole life I gurantee you he has seen more complicated movies than Interstellar. I would have to go back and watch the review to be sure but I am almost certain that the reason he panned the movie and the reason why nolan has been striking out lately is because of his character acting. It had the wrong actors trying to deliver emotional depth that nolan is not good at producing. And yes, it is possible to enjoy a movie and still recognize it for the failure that is is, that is why it is number 20, its the movie that was almost great.
 

dragonswarrior

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Feb 13, 2012
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I have no idea where people are coming from with "Moviebob hates Nolan!" If you actually listen to the videos and the reviews, he praises Nolan frequently for what he thinks the man is good at doing. It just so happens, he doesn't think that's a movie like Interstellar. He also apparently thinks Interstellar is a better movie than Godzilla, and you know he loved the last bit of that. All in all, what I took away from this is "Wrong director for the wrong movie, either of which could have worked if things had been different. It was a mess, but not horribly bad." It's not the end of the world like some people seem to be screaming about...
 

Fox12

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Red Panda said:
Fox12 said:
I really don't understand Bobs insatiable hatred for Nolan, or Interstellar. I understand it's a little bit more complicated then what he's used to, and it doesn't have the pretty colors of Guardians of the Galaxy, but one of the worst films of the year? I don't think so. His dislike seems almost personal.

It had a somewhat weak third act, but all things considered, it was my favorite film of the year.
He doesn't hate Nolan. It has nothing to do with the movie being "complicated" not that it even was. Trust me, a guy that has been doing movies his whole life I gurantee you he has seen more complicated movies than Interstellar. I would have to go back and watch the review to be sure but I am almost certain that the reason he panned the movie and the reason why nolan has been striking out lately is because of his character acting. It had the wrong actors trying to deliver emotional depth that nolan is not good at producing. And yes, it is possible to enjoy a movie and still recognize it for the failure that is is, that is why it is number 20, its the movie that was almost great.
I thought the actors did a wonderful job portraying a surprisingly complex set of characters, particularly Anne Hathaway. In fact, I thought this was the one time that Nolan really nailed the emotional core of the story. The Dark Knight was alright, and Inception was dreadful, but Interstellar delivered. Yes, this is largely due to the actors carrying the weight of the story, but it worked. Even the young girl.

The film was far from perfect, and I have my criticisms, but it's a little tiring to see people praise the rather shallow and poorly written Marvel films (Captain America) while placing Interstellar in a list of worst films because it apparently lacked... well developed characters (it didn't).
 

mjharper

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Apr 28, 2013
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SonOfVoorhees said:
Have watched Godzilla twice and i still dont remember how the first MUTO died. Thing is with a character that has 25 movies to his name you dont need to hide him. He was even in full view on the posters and dvd art work. I just wished they didnt cut away from the earlier fights. Granted they can hide it with shaky cam or with dust and debris every where but they should have showed it. It would have made the boring humans part more bearable.

Kevin Smith peaked with his first movie, very bad as then he has nothing to work for.....just like M Night. Great directors like Ridley Scott, James Cameron and Steven Spilberg had to go through many bad movies. That increased their learning of film and made them great when they did peak. I always find it funny when i remember that Steven Spielberg directed the first episode of Columbo.
Ridley Scott's first movie was The Duelists, which was great, followed by Aliens and then Blade Runner. James Cameron's first movie as director was The Terminator, followed by Aliens. Obviously they had worked on other things before, Scott mostly in advertising, and Cameron mostly in effects. Spielberg's first movie was The Duel, which was a good starting point; his third movie was Jaws, then Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and although he directed the first series episode of Columbo, there had been two movies previously.

I know I'm nitpicking, but the directors you mention didn't really have weak starts to their directorial carriers; instead, you could argue that they have never quite achieved the same quality since. Though personally, I don't rate any of them as really great directors.
 

Arcane Azmadi

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Startled to find 'Sin City: A Dame to Kill For" on this list- I was under the impression that Bob kind-of thought it was OK. Then again, this was more the "disappointing or meh" list, the ones he didn't want to trash TOO hard- the truly BAD stuff is coming next week.

KazeAizen said:
Earthfield said:
Man, I forgot about half of them, but somehow I feel I already know the next ten batch.
I know what is going to be at the top for damn sure. A certain red and blue spider themed super hero.
Actually, I'm not ENTIRELY sure of that. Bob's attitude to ASM2 seems by now to be more one of sick resignation- he even admitted openly that it was better than the first one and that wasn't even his #1 worst film for 2012 (that was Branded). I'm betting it'll be his #3 or #2 worst and #1 will be either A Winter's Tale or the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot.
 

josemlopes

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Diddy_Mao said:
Instead we're just watching a generic soldier as he stumbles his way across country not really effecting the plot in any significant way.
Really? If I remember correctly he deactivated the nuke, he killed the babies to help Godzilla, he helped Dr. Serizawa in his research and while being a good way of giving the movie a point of view (a soldier in the chaos) that would make the budget easier to handle while mantaining some action (Godzilla doesnt show up as much because it tried to emulate Jaws, it was because it would be expensive).


I dont get why people seem to focus so much on a generic character over another just because he was "conceptually more interesting".

For example, I do find the idea of having the movie be from the perspective of a soldier (and shown as if it was a more realistic war movie but with monsters) interesting, it didnt worked out as well as it could have but it was no typical movie where the soldier is a one man army against the monsters.

I just dont think that the problem of the movie was the main character because there are bigger problems with it and changing the main character to another just as generic wouldnt be the solution.

It all just feels like a scapegoat.
 

Gustavos

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Aww I thought Tammy was pretty good. Good enough to be in the "ok" pile where we see it in neither list. Behind the often immature humor, I thought the characters were endearing.
 

Paul10238

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I didn't find Watanabe's character very interesting. I like him as an actor just like I like Johnson, Olsen and Strathairn but their characters were just as boring. Only Cranston managed to breathe some life into his character in the entire movie. I blame Edwards for this as well as Max Borenstein(boy, if he isn't aptly named I don't know who is) who wrote it. Because I've seen all the rest of these actors do solid work before. Edward's last film Monsters had a similar problem. This bodes ill for the Star Wars film he's directing, not that I care much as Star Wars means nothing to me. But I'd be concerned if I was one of you Star Wars fans.
 

The_Waspman

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Now, I can't be bothered to go back and check, but I seem to recall Bob giving Interstellar a fairly decent review. Then again, he also gave Man of Steel a fairly decent review when he first saw it, and spent pretty much every video he made since slamming the shit out of it. Now, granted, peoples opinions can change. Especially when it comes to movies. I've completely switched polarity on certain movies I've seen in my life, but this tends to happen over time, and certainly not to generate traffic on the internet (which it seems Bob tends to do a lot these days).

Having said all that, to everyone else who "cant believe" he put Interstellar in his top 20 worst (my personal opinion: much like Inception, its an interesting film, interesting premise, decent watch, disappears up its own arse in the third act, and I'll probably never watch it again), remember, this is the guy who voted Guardians of the Galaxy as the best film released this year, an (in my opinion) empty, vapid, actually quite dull action film which had huge lapses in logic and basic sense. Not really the films fault, because its like almost every other Blockbuster these days. Much like a McDonalds or Masturbation, fun while it lasts, but leaves you feeling empty and ashamed.
 

Strain42

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As a lifelong Godzilla fan, I have to ask...SERIOUSLY, what is people's problem with the MUTOs? I honestly think they're one of the better Godzilla monsters to come out of the franchise. They have a pretty cool power, a (mostly) decent design, and backstory, and best of all, an actual story beyond just trying to kill things.

I mean c'mon, so many of the Godzilla villains are just "it came from space" that I really liked seeing the MUTO play out the way that they did.

And for the first time since Biollante, I actually questioned if Godzilla really was the good guy or not here. I mean the MUTO just wanted to live and love. They didn't even actively try to kill that many people. They were Kaiju with character, and truly embodied one of Ishiro Honda's most famous quotes about Kaiju

"Monsters are tragic beings; they are born too tall, too strong, too heavy, they are not evil by choice. That is their tragedy."

That sums up the MUTO pretty well as far as Godzilla monsters go. I for one was happy to see new Monsters coming out of the franchise.
 

Metalrocks

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lol. didnt expect sin city in it. sure, its far from great but still an ok watch.
the rest, havent seen them besides sin city and godzilla. that was could have been great if they would have actually shown him more instead of always showing boring soldier boy no one gives a damn about.
but yeah, i can expect the next 10 movies as well. as many of you have listed.
 

Baresark

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I don't really understand... you could have just done the bottom ten. At worst, numbers 11-20 are simply unextraordinary films. Some of them you mentioned as being bad weren't bad so long as you don't hate white people? They have white people in Exodus because the movie is not historically or Biblicly accurate and is most likely aimed towards a white audience. And you didn't bring it up but you are probably the most out spoken of critics for Godzilla's "generic white guy" story (your words from your original view).

But, you are of course entitled to your opinion, as a matter of fact, that is why we all came. I'm assuming you didn't have any content ideas which is why you are doing top 20 worst.
 

crazygameguy4ever

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at least Toho Studios is making a "True" Godzilla film right now that is a reboot of the series and ignores the american one we made.. can't wait till 2016 for it's release
 

AgDr_ODST

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It's most likely only because I saw it yesterday and found that to my own shock I liked it, but I'm surprised that Bob's 'highlight' reel is suggesting that Divergent will be among his picks on his top 10 worst list. Then again though I guess I shouldn't since he has for the most part been unkind to the emerging sub-genre of movie adaptations of young adult books.