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

[Fox12]

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]

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.

 

[Raika]

You leave Tusk alone, Chipman. You leave Tusk right the fuck alone.

 

[Arcane Azmadi]

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.

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]

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]

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.

 

[SnakeoilSage]

Eva Greene would have made the best Wonder Woman. Ever.

 

[Paul10238]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.

 

[MatsVS]

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.

I'm leaning towards agreeing with this. Not the being ashamed of masturbating, of course, that shit is awesome. But the rest, yes.

The Marvel films that Bob has such a comical hard-on for mostly manage to get a pass by the virtue of not insulting your intelligence too much while delivering a fun spectacle. They're about absolutely nothing, are as vapid as wet farts, and their "characters" arcs never manage to elevate themselves above comic book level. Which is to say, they are for (man-)children. Not to mention that the influx of these films over the past decade have absolutely choked the AAA action market, so that barely anything else of note is released.

Bob is really doing a huge disservice to the medium by elevating these entertainment pieces while simultaneously punishing films for daring to try tell stories that actually say something. You know, like good art is supposed to.

For the record, the best films I've seen this year is most likely John Wick, Interstellar, The Babadook and The World of Kanako.

 

[KazeAizen]

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.

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.

I'm sure those will be near the top. I'm just saying ASM2 because of his review, the title of it, his reaction initially after the movie, and how he ranked Man of Steel last year. He openly admitted Man of Steel wasn't the worst movie made last year but being a biased list, which he never hides, he did say it was the biggest disappointment of the year. Which I can see how a movie they thought was a monumental disappointment could top a personal 10 (or in this case 20) worst list. Still I'm willing to bet the top 5 will be ASM2, TMNT, The Fault in our Stars, A Winter's Tale, and one other movie.

 

[ilisium]

The Marvel films that Bob has such a comical hard-on for mostly manage to get a pass by the virtue of not insulting your intelligence too much while delivering a fun spectacle. They're about absolutely nothing, are as vapid as wet farts, and their "characters" arcs never manage to elevate themselves above comic book level. Which is to say, they are for (man-)children.

Anyone who finds "comic book level" story arcs nothing doesn't understand comic books... and their complexity is not intended for children. Any medium is capable of great story, just as it is capable of rubbish. Honestly comic books do it more consistently than most others.

 

[daxterx2005]

Tusk was a horrible movie, the only upside to it's existence is now Kevin got funding to make Clerks 3.

 

[Tim Chuma]

Kind of lost interest in the big releases once I started listening to film discussion podcasts last year. I do still watch a lot of films but mainly on DVD.

Scott Adkins in pretty damn cool, was a retrospective of the Undisputed films that I listened to and had to buy the third movie just to see BOYKA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tTduaZZI-s

Getting to see Escape Plan on the big screen was awesome, only screened once but Big Arnie still got cheers and applause for his scene.

I am sad that the local theatre and the only one-screen house in my city is going to close in the new year, but they are going out with a "fan favourites" program including 2001 as the very last film they screen.

I have been going back to the Warner Archive releases as they have a lot of things I have never heard of, case in point the Doberman Gang/The Daring Dobermans https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMupA9_wLcw Not sure if it is meant to be a kids movie as the dogs viciously assault people. I liked them both.

Boxer's Omen and I are bros
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_I-x3nVfuM

 

[Darth_Payn]

I'd always heard that Bob has a hate-boner for Nolan, but I had no idea it was this....pronounced.

While Bob is free to have his own opinion, to me this list is laughably inane. I agree that some of the films listed easily deserve being listed, but there were far worse films this year than the other listed titles.

'Course, I tend not to look to Bob for an opinion on film. I rarely see eye-to-eye with him. So I suppose this occasion is no different.

I don't remember Bob having a hate-boner for Nolan, seeing as he liked Inception and The Dark Knight Rises (with some caveats). His hate-boner for Kevin Smith is very pronounced, what with dedicating 3 Big Picture episodes to it. I sure am saying boner a lot.