Movie Jail Relay Race

Nostra of My Film Views and Terrence of The Focused Filmographer have created a relay race in which we put people in jail.

Here's how they describe it:

It’s time to put some movie people in jail. The object is to give a prosecutor’s argument as to why these movie people belong in “Movie Jail” whether it be for violating the integrity of the content source of one their films, or being a sell-out, just making bad movies overall, getting worse as time goes on or not being in a good movie for many years.
The baton will be passed to another blogger who will have to do the following:
In order to free someone from Movie Jail they have to do 2 things
1 – Give a defense attorney argument defending the plaintiff
2 – Pay bail: the cost of which is another case for the court and a prosecutor’s argument against the actor/director of their choice that will replace the one set free.
There must always be 10 people in Movie Jail.

I was passed the baton by Stevee at Cinematic Paradox, who put in Adam Sandler in there. Here are the current inmates:

Adam Sandler

Al Pacino

George Lucas

Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer

Jennifer Aniston

Michael Cera

Raja Gosnell

Sam Worthington

Tom Cruise

Here are the previous entries in this project:

Nostra of My Film Views
Sati of Cinematic Corner
Alex of And So It Begins...
Steven of Surrender to the Void
Stevee of Cinematic Paradox

Who I'm Defending: M. Night Shyamalan

One of the most criticized filmmakers out there, this director has fallen from grace with critics and moviegoers alike. For instance, his breakthrough film The Sixth Sense received a Best Picture Oscar nomination and grossed over $672 million worldwide. However, his last three films have been nominated for Worst Picture Razzies, with his most recent one The Last Airbender "winning" the award. But those films have also grossed over $554 million on a total budget of $268 million. Apart from 1998's Wide Awake, his only true flop is Lady in the Water, and his failure with The Last Airbender gets thrown out, because it was never going to be easy to turn an anime series into a live action film. He didn't pull it off, but his work from The Sixth Sense to The Happening is full of interesting genre fare. Furthermore, I consider Signs to be one of the best thrillers in recent memory. Needless to say, I'm one of his few remaining fans, but even the Cahiers du Cinema voted The Village and Lady in the Water into their respective top 10 lists. Though he has support that is few and far between, he's no Uwe Boll. Not sure what After Earth will bring us, but go free and create, Shyamalan, before you end up in movie jail again.

Who I'm Throwing In: Eddie Murphy

Arguably an easy target, he is still guilty. Despite his recent performances in Dreamgirls and the (early) Shrek films, he has also appeared in Meet Dave, Imagine That, and A Thousand Words in the past few years.  Admittedly, I haven't seen any of those films. I couldn't be bothered after the reception they got. Not to mention witnessing Murphy's train wreck Norbit, a multiple Razzie winner that somehow grossed $159 million worldwide. The last time he didn't work for a paycheck, he received an Oscar nomination. Ever since, he's been cashing in on flop after flop, even if Tower Heist was a moderate success. For over three decades, he's been in box office hits, critical darlings, and fan favorites. The problem is that he's also done many forgettable, if not horrible, ones, such as Beverly Hills Cop III, The Nutty Professor films, Showtime, and I Spy. (Again, I couldn't bring myself to watch films like Harlem Nights, Boomerang, Metro, or The Adventures of Pluto Nash.) The star of 48 Hrs., Trading Places, Beverly Hills Cop, and Coming to America has gradually faded since the 1980s, and, until he can make better career choices, he deserves to be in the slammer.

I pass the baton to Nikhat at Being Norma Jeane. Can't wait to see who she picks.