Top 10 Worst Films of 2008

"Ten at a Time" is a series of my top 10 lists of movies in different areas, like a particular year or lists of a more specific nature like a certain genre. Most of the lists will be retrospective, meaning I will be looking at years past, now having had the chance to view a lot of films I might not have seen in the cinema, and am now familiar with the films for a longer period of time. These aren't definitive lists of what are the best films of a particular area but just my own personal opinion.

The following is my list of top 10 worst films of 2008. Please note that they are included in the list if I personally saw them in 2008, so if, what is to you, a 2007 film appears on the list then it's simply that it was released in my country (the UK) in 2008 when I then saw it.

Enjoy.

10. Outpost

In spite of an admirably originally basic storyline and some effective scares towards the end of the movie, Outpost is overtly disappointing. It takes well over a solid hour to get going, to get to anything even resembling the characteristics of its horror genre. And when it does it's not all that scary, certainly not anywhere near as much as you'd hope and expect. Points go to the filmmakers for making such a film as their first and on what was inevitably a fairly small budget, but it's also abundantly clear they have little to no experience.

9. Taken

Here we have a film so morally bankrupt that no amount of well choreographed fight and chase sequences can make it enjoyable. Neeson is supposed to be our action hero but he's about 15 years older than the age believable to be one, and subsequently you can never take him seriously. At the base of the film is a kidnapping plot so uninspired and cliched there's nothing to carry you when the punching, kicking, and running takes a break. But it's the morally suspect nature of the film that bothers me the most; the body count is higher than you can possibly keep track of, and when humanity and morality is the point of your film, it creates a contradiction I just couldn't see past.

8. You Don't Mess With the Zohan

When did Adam Sandler forget how to be funny? He used to be flat out hilarious (I still love Little Nicky and The Waterboy, I don't care what people say) but with the stuff where he's just the same character in different stories (Big Daddy, Click, Happy Gilmore, Billy Madison, on and on...) I've grown out of the juvenile nature employed within them. Although this sees Sandler attempting to play an actual character again, as opposed to just himself once more, the film fails most of the time to be funny. An attempt at political humour (satire) is apparent, but whenever this kind of joke rears its head, the film lazily falls back on unfunny, over-the-top slapstick and sight gags. The film at least attempts to make you laugh by just hitting you again and again and again with gags, but sadly the vast majority of them just aren't funny. I was hoping this would be a return to comedic form for Sandler, but alas it was not to be. Is Sandler now lost for all time as a comedic actor?

Article Author: Ross Miller

I am a film critic and blogger, and have been so for almost three years now, going from starting my own movie review website, Movie World (which is still running), and then moving on to writing for various movie blogs.

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