Dominic Corry lists off some of the worst movies of 2014.
Talk about squandering a potentially awesome premise - the artificial intelligence-centric directorial debut of Wally Pfister, Christopher Nolan's long-time cinematographer, made a strong argument for Pfister sticking to his day job. The thematic overlap with Nolan's work didn't help.
The blandness and creative bet-hedging of Marc Webb's 2012 Spidey reboot gave way to outright awfulness in the follow-up. The film made $700 million worldwide, but even Sony seems to know they laid a turd.
Flatter than a pancake, this rote "true story" couldn't even muster up the soap opera theatrics of Naomi Watts' Diana.
If a film is going to present itself as the "newer, better" version of some prior hit (even a non-classic like 1996's Twister), it really needs to do something, y'know, new or better. Utilising the 'found footage' model doesn't count as either.
It blows my mind that we're four films into the Transformers franchise, and they're only just beginning to hint at going into outer space. That so much money could be spent on simply more of the same is really quite depressing.
This compromised fantasy romance is almost enough of a hot mess to spill over into so-bad-its-good territory, but not quite. If a film features Will Smith cameoing as The Devil and it still isn't entertaining, something has gone very wrong indeed.
Even in the low-expectation context of video game adaptations, Need for Speed felt superlatively stupid. A plot that defies logic at every turn and not one single decent car chase. For shame Pinkman, for shame.
As an Adam Sandler defender (seriously, That's My Boy is great!), I weathered the storms of Just Go With It, Grown Ups 2 and Jack & Jill. But Blended defeated me. Final proof, if any was needed, that Sandler's modern movies are just filmed family vacations.
A bonding montage in search of a movie, this regressive, insulting-to-everyone "comedy" revelled in the kind of girl power that makes Ginger Spice look like Gloria Steinem.
An insufferable idiot played by Simon Pegg traipses around the planet asking everyone he meets: "What is happiness to you?" Answer: Not watching this movie.
* What were your worst films of the year? Comment below!
- nzherald.co.nz
The Australian site cited a 'heightened threat level' as the issue.