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

MatsVS

Tea & Grief
Nov 9, 2009
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The_Waspman said:
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

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Jul 17, 2013
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Arcane Azmadi said:
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.
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

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Nov 2, 2013
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MatsVS said:
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

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

Tim Chuma

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Jul 9, 2010
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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

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Aug 5, 2009
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Vigormortis said:
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.
 

Vigormortis

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Darth_Payn said:
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.
Yes. Yes you are.

But is that a bad thing? I mean, is it really?

<.<

Ahem, anyway:
I don't really keep up with Bob's body of work all that often, so I can't say I'm qualified to gauge his full opinion beyond the snippets I've seen. It's just that I've heard from other posters, quite often in fact, that he really has it in for Nolan. I've been told he gives backhanded compliments while constantly deriding the director and his work. Often being unusually critical of any shortcomings in Nolan's films while being overly lenient with others.

Don't get me wrong. I don't really care if someone loves the film or hates it. The level of enjoyment others have derived from the film is of no real consequence to me. I just thought it exceptionally odd that he'd include the film in a "Worst of the Year" list.

There were much, MUCH worse films this year. Certainly enough to fill a Top 20 Worst list. So to include films like Interstellar (and even Godzilla to a degree) in a list as an equal to Heaven Is For Real, Tammy, and Tusk feels like putting The Godfather on par with an Uwe Boll film.

That example is extreme, I know, but it's one that would leave me just as baffled as I am with parts of Bob's list. It almost feels like it's there out of spite.
 

Alatar The Red

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Aug 10, 2012
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Interstellar would have made my top 3 best movies of 2014

and guardrians of the galaxy would have made my top 3 worst movies of 2014 (because it represents everything I hate about CGI, idealized perfect characters, extremely pandering and marketing heavy no substance comic book movies, etc).

Then again that's probably why I don't watch bob's videos. His opinions are the polar opposite of mine from PCs to politics to movies. Not watching saves a lot of pointless rage.
 

Nixou

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Jan 20, 2014
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I wouldn't have been as kind as you on this one, Bob. When your way of introducing your "hero" of the movie, Godzilla, is to have him inadvertently drown hundreds of innocent people, you've already lost me. It's hard to root for someone who might kill me in the process of saving me. I call it the Man-of-Steel-Syndrome

The problem with your comparison is that Clark is supposed to be the quintessential benevolent farm-boy-scout, while Godzilla is more of an uncaring force of nature, so the whole "save mankind because it identifies whatever's killing us as a threat to itself but doesn't give a shit about collateral damage" plot is internally coherent in a movie starting the old Kaiju, while it pretty much goes against supe's character.
 

walsfeo

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Feb 17, 2010
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piscian said:
I don't know bob I'm sure I could come up with 20 movies this year that were easily worse than Interstellar. I 100% agree the 3rd act of Interstellar was a bit hodgepodge, but if someone asked me to go see it again today I'd go. The movie is amazing. The "twist" was just poorly executed. In fact what I really loved was the epilogue. I loved how it was treated and how it looked.

I was sitting in a huge IMAX thankfully when I saw it and the flight through the blackhole was worth the price of admission.
Yeah, Interstellar wasn't a groundbreaking masterpiece, but it was pretty good. The hard Sci-fi parts were good and the "we have encountered something we don't understand" parts were interesting if a bit of a state change. Interstellar felt like a Niven & Pournelle style disaster story with some hints of David Brin and just a splash of dumbing it down at the end so that the American Audience would like it. I frequently agree with Bob's movie critiques, but in this case he's off-base.

I can understand where he might say Interstellar belongs on a "most disappointing", list instead of a terrible list, because that's where preconception and perceived outcomes intersect but with his dislike of the director is it even disappointing?
 

JenSeven

Crazy person! Avoid!
Oct 19, 2010
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Fox12 said:
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).
What Bob did here in this piece is write down an OPINION. He gave his OPINION on those movies. He liked some and didn't like some others. That someone can dislike some movies is purely based on what they like and dislike.
You have your OPINION on certain movies, like you have written down above here, and that OPINION isn't the same as Bob's OPINION.
Nothing wrong with that, everyone has opinions. Nobody needs to conform to other people's opinions.
I dislike horror movies and Stanley Kubrick movies, and I do not need to change my opinion because someone else likes those things.
I don't agree with some movies Bob likes and some he dislikes, but I can respect his opinion on those, they don't affect me.
It's a matter of TASTE, and TASTES DIFFER.

Now that I've made myself clear, can you understand all of that? Or is there something else I need to explain?
 

MrJoyless

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May 26, 2010
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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 came here to say the EXACT same thing, Interstellar was a great movie. He better put the damn Hobbit movie on here if he is actually being honest...ugh that movie sucked.
 

Super Cyborg

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Just want to talk about the Godzilla movie a little bit. From a number of the Godzilla movies I've seen, it seemed to follow the formula of the one from this year. There is a threat of monster(s) against Japan, or something that Godzilla will have to fight. There is lots of fluff about various characters about the situation, saying that only Godzilla can stop the monster. After an hour with maybe some brief appearances, the final battle comes with Godzilla versus the monsters. It lasts for a bit then the movie ends.

Saying it is trying to emulate Jaws seems like a weird statement to make, as almost all Godzilla movies (at least the ones I've seen and remember) follow the formula the 2014 movie made. The older movies might be considered "better" because of the cheese it had, but this movie was just like the other Godzilla movies. Whether you think this movie is good just because it followed the other movies formula is your opinion, but don't pretend that this movie crapped over the others.

My big complaint is that the fighting was shorter compared to the other movies, and that the stuff leading up to the big fight was lackluster. However, it was a Godzilla movie, through and through.
 

Fox12

AccursedT- see you space cowboy
Jun 6, 2013
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JenSeven said:
Fox12 said:
Red Panda said:
Fox12 said:
...so we both stated our opinion? Thank you for that insight.

Bob has every right to put Interstellar in the worst films category, and I have every right to heartily disagree with him, especially since there were films in his best list that failed far worse at the things that he was complaining about in Interstellar. You can claim that Shakespeare is the worst writer in history (not that Christopher Nolan is a Shakespeare), but just because your given a podium and a right to free speech doesn't mean your given the right to be taken seriously by your audience. At least in this case.
 

Ashley Blalock

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I've got to disagree about it being a good film year. Yes there were films that remembered to have fun and movies that gave us something truly interesting with characters and story. But there was way too much bland and boring as Hollywood tried too hard to play things safe and hoped that special effects would be all it took to get people to waste good money buying tickets for bad movies.

With the domestic box office down so much this year you would think it would be some sort of wake up call that hey people want something better. But who wants to bet that Hollywood will just blame pirates or anything else other than the quality of their films? When you can ship crap like Transformers 4 to China to make money because Chinese ticket buyers don't know any better then I don't think better films are a goal of Hollywood.

While I had a blast with The Lego Movie, Captain America 2, Guardians of the Galaxy, 22 Jump Street, and Big Hero 6 mostly it was a year I could have spent as a hermit on a tropical island without messing much of anything at the movies.
 

tyriless

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Aug 27, 2010
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Lucy. That's the worst movie I've seen all year and Bob recommended it. I love me some Scar-Jo, but casting her as emotionally neutered pseudoscience clap-trap-philosophy spewing sociopath is not my definition of fun, interesting, or entertaining. Forget the science aspect, I knew it was silly going in, but the director seemed to actively hate the audience by taking one of the most beautiful and talented actresses of our day, and doing absolutely nothing interesting with her.

Moviebob, I love your show, but your taste in films is like your taste in video games: questionable.

However, there is nothing better when we both hate the same movie. God damn it...A Dame To Kill For was so disappointing. You putting it on the list was therapy for my soul. It was like Miller and Rodriguez was trying wring out an orange rind for just a bit more juice and it had hardly any. Everyone was wasted in that film, including Jessica Alba.

Hate is what brings us together in the end.
 

tyriless

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Ashley Blalock said:
I've got to disagree about it being a good film year. Yes there were films that remembered to have fun and movies that gave us something truly interesting with characters and story. But there was way too much bland and boring as Hollywood tried too hard to play things safe and hoped that special effects would be all it took to get people to waste good money buying tickets for bad movies.

With the domestic box office down so much this year you would think it would be some sort of wake up call that hey people want something better. But who wants to bet that Hollywood will just blame pirates or anything else other than the quality of their films? When you can ship crap like Transformers 4 to China to make money because Chinese ticket buyers don't know any better then I don't think better films are a goal of Hollywood.

While I had a blast with The Lego Movie, Captain America 2, Guardians of the Galaxy, 22 Jump Street, and Big Hero 6 mostly it was a year I could have spent as a hermit on a tropical island without messing much of anything at the movies.
Chinese ticket buyers might not know any better now, but we've been funneling money to Michael Bay films for years before we decided he was a hack. At some point (hopefully soon), they will figure that out too, and he can either try a little harder or get bumped out of the business.
 

Mr.Evil

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Nixou said:
I wouldn't have been as kind as you on this one, Bob. When your way of introducing your "hero" of the movie, Godzilla, is to have him inadvertently drown hundreds of innocent people, you've already lost me. It's hard to root for someone who might kill me in the process of saving me. I call it the Man-of-Steel-Syndrome

The problem with your comparison is that Clark is supposed to be the quintessential benevolent farm-boy-scout, while Godzilla is more of an uncaring force of nature, so the whole "save mankind because it identifies whatever's killing us as a threat to itself but doesn't give a shit about collateral damage" plot is internally coherent in a movie starting the old Kaiju, while it pretty much goes against supe's character.
Internally coherent? Perhaps. But that doesn't change my point, though, and that's probably why I'm not the biggest Godzilla fan. The only Godzilla movies I've liked are the ones that either paint him as a villain (like the original movie) or where he keeps the collateral damage to a minimum. Hell, I'm not even a Mothra fan (despite its typical depiction as a good-guy monster) since its actions in its first movie caused lots of death and destruction. I like my good guys GOOD, damn it.

Give me Pacific Rim over Godzilla any day of the week. At least that movie knew what it was and had fun with the idea.
 

Paul10238

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I found Interstellar to be full of itself(no big surprise coming from Nolan). Chalk another stinker up for him. If the damn Nolanites don't like it that's just tough shit for them.
 

aba1

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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...
Had the exact reaction I was literally jaw dropped cause I would have placed it up there for best of the year and I have studied film for many many years so its not even like i am a idiot when it comes to what makes a good or bad film.