4. The Spirit
It pains me to put a film by comic book genius Frank Miller on the list. I really was holding out hope that his writing/directing debut could be something truly special, but alas Miller just doesn't have the experience or know-how to make this story work on-screen. His dialogue is cheesy and embarrassing to listen to, it's stylized lazily close to Sin City, the characters are laughable yet strangely unmemorable, the action is poor and the story muddled and lacks any sense. It's just a complete mess of a film clearly made by someone who just doesn't know what they're doing behind a camera. Please, Frank, stick to creating comic books.
3. Redacted
Probably the only film on this list that I hated for a reason other than it wasn't very good (which it also isn't). No, I bordered on despising this film because of how exploitative and condescending it was, and how sloppily director Brian De Palma put it across to the audience. It's choppily done but not in an artful, savvy way but a way that comes off as if he just doesn't care. The film is about a terrible incident involving U.S. soldiers and the rape and murder of a young Iraqi girl. But instead of having the guts to tackle it head on, De Palma just hints at it but seems to afraid to bring the camera up close, to give us the true horror of the incident. At the time I saw the film at the start of the year, and still to this day, it was the first film (that I watched in a cinema) that made me physically angry after at it; literally hacked off. So in at number 3 it goes.
How on Earth do you screw up the concept for this film? You get some aliens and some predators (two much loved characters from movies past) and you make them fight for 90 minutes, with any humans who happen to get in the way being horribly killed. Somehow they found a way to muck it up, with over an hour of focus placed pointlessly on the infuriatingly cliched human characters. When we eventually do get to the fight sequences, everything is kept so darkly lit that it's virtually impossible to tell who is doing what to whom. Aside from some cool gory moments here and there and well designed costumes and sets, this is one hell of a bad "action" movie, as it's so called (although I would be the first to point out it sorely lacks in that department). C'mon, Hollywood, I think it's time to lay those aliens and predators firmly to rest, before you make an even worse film involving them (although I doubt that's humanly possible).
Article comments
1 - Jordan Richardson
Interesting list.
I actually quite liked Redacted and didn't mind The Happening either. Zohan had a few laughs, too.
I'd consider:
Space Chimps
Meet the Spartans
Disaster Movie
The X-Files: I Want to Believe
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Rambo
Ugh. I honestly rather watch Zohan ten times over than see any of those again.
2 - Ross Miller
Thankfully I managed to avoid all but one of those (I did see Rambo, but I ended up not minding because of the last half hour of full-on, crazy violence).
My list isn't "the worst of the worst" of ALL movies from 2008 because I managed to skip some of the absolute crap (such as Disaster Movie and Meet The Spartans). My list is just the worst of those I personally saw.
3 - Arlo J. Wiley
Oh man, The Happening is awesome. I mean, yeah, it's actually awful, but it is so rare to see a filmmaker of Shyamalan's stature fail so completely and spectacularly that it kind of inspires awe.
Definitely the funniest movie I saw all year.
4 - jaylord l.
uhm...i think the happenin g is really awful...indeed. your right it is somewhat like incomplete...but if polished can be a very nice film..
5 - heloise
Ihave not seen any of your worst movies. But I did see Australia. It is not a worst just confused. My worst so far is Mama Mia, why did they make it? My question.
Heloise