Worst Films of 2010

For a year that everyone claimed didn't have any good films, 2010 ended up having a wide array of great movies. These ten films are not among those. With the good come the bad and with that, here are my ten least favorite films of 2010.

Side note: Jonah Hex did not make this list. In all honesty, I believe that Jonah Hex is so incredible that it transcends good and bad to create an alternate classification that is just simply awesome. I think films of this caliber should now be called "Hexcellent". Feel free to use it in your everyday conversations.

10. 8: The Mormon Proposition

A documentary about the Mormon's backing of Prop 8 in California should be an interesting issue for a documentary, and there is some great material in this documentary. However, there is one argument that instantly negates any of this information. In 8: The Mormon Proposition, narrated by Milk scribe Dustin Lance Black, actually in one point compares homosexuals to people who practice bestiality. Look, in a film where you are trying to support the right for gay marriage, is it really the best idea to make that comparison? Especially one that many politicians use in order to work against gay marriage. What could have been a great documentary is scarred by glaring issues such as that.

9. Alice in Wonderland

I have always been a Tim Burton supporter for his style, which for the most part helps further his films and creates a dark, brooding atmosphere that works with the film. Yet with his update to the overdone Alice in Wonderland story, Burton puts his characters in a world not so much filled with wonder and imagination but rather overly filled with CGI. Burton relies on it so much, that hardly anything in the film is actually real. Now look, I understand the argument that "Wonderland" is a world where everything is backwards and nothing is as it should be, which is fine. But that same world can be created without such over-reliance on computer trickery. Whole worlds have been created before without using as much as Burton does. Look at The Matrix, Lord of the Rings, and even though I hate it even more than Alice in Wonderland, look at Avatar. Hell, even Burton has done it effectively before. Check out his twisted suburbia in Edwards Scissorhands or his melding of the truth and lies in Big Fish. Plus, Burton adds action and a huge finale that couldn't be less needed. He even creates completely new characters for the sake of a unnecessary final battle! I still respect Burton, but maybe his gothic adaptations of famous known stories should stop right about now...

8. Clash of the Titans

Poor, poor Sam Worthington. He's soon going to be synonymous with the brainless big-budget blockbuster. First it was Terminator:Salvation, which in all fairness, Worthington was probably the best part of. Then he was in the highest-grossing film of all time, Avatar, which is also one of the most idiotic films to make over $100 million dollars. Finally last year he made the remake of Clash of the Titans, which I'm pretty sure absolutely no one was clamoring for. What results in an overly-serious sword and sandals "epic" with no character and, basically, no point. When a video game like "God of War" can far surpass the storytelling of a wide-release film, you know there's a problem.

7. Knight and Day

Knight and Day is essentially Hollywood putting two stars together that they believe to still be relevant in a film that is top to bottom, generic and bland. Even the title, a play on words that doesn't make sense (Who is the "Day" is the film? Your guess is as good as mine) seems like a fake movie parodied on SNL. While I saw this film, here's what I remember about it: Tom Cruise, who is a spy or in some military agency, or fucked if I know, saves Cameron Diaz's life and then continues to have to do so for some reason that I can't remember for the life of me. I could figure it out with a quick Google search, but then if I were to die and someone went through my search history, I would be embarrassed that someone would find that I had looked up the plot synopsis to this crap.

6. Resident Evil: Afterlife

OK, I'll admit it: I'm a huge fan of almost anything "Resident Evil". Almost. I've played all of the games in the canonical series and even liked the first two films, as campy as they were. Then Resident Evil: Extinction. "Alright, two out of three ain't bad", I thought as I ejected the DVD. I was even mildly excited with the trailer of Afterlife, which promised elements from the best game in the series, "Resident Evil 4", including one of video game's greatest villains, Albert Wesker. Unfortunately, Afterlife feels like the SyFy network took over the duties for the franchise. At this point, Alice is one of the least interesting female "badasses" ever, which isn't helped by the atrocious dialogue and painful addition of 3D shots (more on that later). Like Clash of the Titans, you'd be better to play the video game that covers similar ground rather than spending your money in the theatre.

5. Saw 7: The Final Chapter

It's ironic that a film series that was about escaping from traps has attempted so many ridiculous plot-twists and labyrinthian logic that it seems like Jigsaw's greatest puzzle has been convincing people to go to the theaters SEVEN TIMES! The Saw franchise is the definition of diminishing returns. The first began as a simple independent horror experiment. Unfortunately, that led to the creation of "torture porn" films and six more Saw films. I was interested to see how, if at all, the films would be wrapped up in a suitable way, and in some ways the ending is kind of perfect, but the journey is so insanely moronic, it ruins any poetic justice put in the end.

Oh and a fun side note, the traps in the final seven range from the most intricate traps (the most insane is one trap where a man that is glued to his car must stop the trap before the car goes and A) one of his acquaintances has every limb torn off B) his tire falls and runs over his girlfriend's face C) he runs into another one of his acquaintances and D) he is killed in the car accident, apparently from lack of a seatbelt) to the simplest (literally jumping over a moderately sized set of spikes). 

4. Remember Me

I have nothing against Robert Pattinson. I honestly don't. I actually like that they guy can have a sense of humor about himself and I truly believe that he has the potential to have an interesting career, he just needs to pick the right roles. However, he is still making movies like Remember Me. 

Remember Me starts off in New York circa 1991, then after a short prologue, "10 Year Later". Hmm...what happened in 2001 in New York? Pattinson plays a troubled college student who no one understands, until he meets Emilie de Ravin who does get her, due to her own set of problems and the quirkiness to which she eats dessert at the beginning of her meals!!!! What craziness!!! By the end of the film, Pattinson is finally figuring himself out and beings to patch up his relationship with his father, played by Pierce Brosnan. Everything seems to be coming up to Pattinson until...wait, why does that calendar say September?!? Huh, September 2001?? In the most blatant plea for sympathy I think I have ever seen in a movie, Pattinson goes to meet his father for lunch....at the World Trade Center....on September 11th. While 9/11 was a terrible day filled with much grief, the shot of Pattinson in the WTC made me burst into laughter. The filmmakers' attempt to make you feel sympathy for this character is trite and pathetic and is an example of blatant disregard for the intelligence of its audience.

3. The Lovely Bones

Love him or hate him, Peter Jackson has taken on some pretty hard to topple works in the last decade. From the almost impossible to film Lord of the Rings trilogy to remaking one of film's greatest films' King Kong, Jackson hasn't shied away from much. But with all of Jackson's powers, he still can't make The Lovely Bones a good story. Jackson consistently uses one of my biggest pet peeves: narrating what the audience can obviously see. For example, main character Susie Salmon rides her bike down the street with a smile on her face, to which the narration says something along the lines of "I liked to ride my bike." No shit. Not only that, but the story makes it seem like getting raped and killed wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. Oh, and that heaven is apparently the place where you become friends with the other victims of said rapist/murderer. 

To make matters even weirder, the film toys with the idea that Susie could possibly make an impact on the living world long after she has passed. Which she does. By entering the body of a girl who was obsessed with her and kissing the guy that Susie liked without her consent. Now I know that one is more extreme than the other, but Susie is forced to do something she doesn't want to do right before she dies and then after she is dead, comes back as a spirit to take over someone and do something that that person doesn't necessarily consent to? How is one terrible and the other seen as a happy conclusion to a story? 

2. The Runaways

Hey, here's a great idea. Let's take two of the most important females to rock and roll, make a biopic about them BUT give it to two of the most indifferent actresses of their generation? That's what happens when you get Dakota Fanning to play Cherie Currie and Kristen Stewart to play Joan Jett, both of The Runaways. The Runaways hinges on the acting prowess of these two women, yet they seem, to put it bluntly, not give a shit at all. It really shows when Michael Shannon, a phenomenal actor, who plays The Runaways' manager, shows up and acts Fanning and Stewart under the table. The films begs, rather, screams, to be taken seriously, but as these women fall down into the cliched devices of sex, drugs and rock and roll, it comes off more like lil girls playing rock stars. 

1. The Last Airbender

This should come as no surprise to no one. The Last Airbender became the whipping boy of bad films of 2010. And for good reason. The Last Airbender has the worst of every aspect of film. Acting, directing, writing, editing, special effects, everything, the worst. And just when you thought Shyamalan could only go up after The Happening, he goes ahead and makes this abomination. And of course, it would be in 3D. 

The Last Airbender has the darkest, fuzziest 3D of any film in 2010, and probably in the history of 3D films. If 2010 is remembered for anything, it will probably be how 3D was thrown into every film after the worldwide success of Avatar. Five of my ten worst films of the year were in 3D. Coincidence? Not at all. 3D is a terrible device that needs to be stopped and The Last Airbender shows why. It adds nothing, but rather takes away from a film, even if it is as terrible as The Last Airbender was to begin with.


Well those are my ten least favorite films of 2010. If you think I've left off anything, leave a comment and tell me what you think should have made the list.