Disappointing movies.
Movies that let me down - maybe they were overhyped by other people, maybe they had potential but didn't reach it, maybe I got the wrong impression of what they would be, etc.
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- DirectorWilliam Peter BlattyStarsStacy KeachScott WilsonJason MillerAn ex-marine psychiatrist attempts to rehabilitate his patients by indulging their fantasies, and seeks to prove the existence of a loving God to one especially troubled inmate.STYLE OVER SUBSTANCE - an intriguing premise and some gorgeous imagery and scenery aside, this film is unendingly heady and pretentious. Regan simply telling the astronaut in "The Exorcist" [1973] "you're gonna die up there" is more deeply disturbing than ANYTHING in this film.
- DirectorRidley ScottStarsHarrison FordRutger HauerSean YoungA blade runner must pursue and terminate four replicants who stole a ship in space and have returned to Earth to find their creator.WASTED POTENTIAL - a miracle of special effects, cinematography and production design with a nice score to boot, but it's all wasted on these dull-ass stone-faced boring-ass characters.
- DirectorJim HensonFrank OzStarsJim HensonKathryn MullenFrank OzOn another planet in the distant past, a Gelfling embarks on a quest to find the missing shard of a magical crystal, and to restore order to his world.WASTED POTENTIAL - it's a beautifully-made film with gorgeous art direction, character and creature puppets and matte paintings. Unfortunately, nothing much really happens and it feels like the plot of a TV episode.
- DirectorOle BornedalStarsEwan McGregorNick NolteAnais EvansA law student, who takes a job as a night watchman at a morgue, begins to discover clues that implicate him as the suspect of a series of murders.WASTED POTENTIAL - started off so good, such nice camera movements and performances and editing. But none of that can hold up the directions the plot goes in.
- DirectorTarsem SinghStarsLee PaceCatinca UntaruJustine WaddellIn 1920s Los Angeles, a bedridden patient in a hospital captivates a young girl with a fantastic tale of heroes, myths, and villains on a desert island.STYLE OVER SUBSTANCE - some beautiful scenery and production/costume design, but bad performances (especially that child) and not much of a story. Basically an excuse to thread pretty images together with a vague narrative.
- DirectorQuentin DupieuxStarsStephen SpinellaRoxane MesquidaWings HauserA homicidal car tire, discovering it has destructive psionic power, sets its sights on a desert town once a mysterious woman becomes its obsession.WRONG IMPRESSION - I really thought this would be a movie about a tyre flopping people to death. It's actually a pretentious, meditative meta-comedy about the audience that are observing the tyre, which kills people with psychic powers (i.e. not flopping).
- DirectorDrew GoddardStarsKristen ConnollyChris HemsworthAnna HutchisonFive college friends head out to a remote cabin for a getaway, but things don't go as planned when they start getting killed. They soon discover that there is more to the cabin than it seems.OVERHYPED - it was supposed to be the horror movie that redefined the genre but it really just imitates tropes from classic horror movies and lampshades them. There's nothing clever about describing the archetypal protagonists, settings and monsters of horror movies in dialogue.
- DirectorDuncan JonesStarsJake GyllenhaalMichelle MonaghanVera FarmigaA soldier wakes up in someone else's body and discovers he's part of an experimental government program to find the bomber of a commuter train within 8 minutes.WASTED POTENTIAL - had a cool sci-fi premise, but Gyllenhaal's character is a total stupid-ass and the last half hour of the movie is him trying to rescue a bunch of simulated people that don't even exist so he can be with a simulated woman he just met. It's like "Inception" [2010] but bad.
- DirectorAng LeeStarsSuraj SharmaIrrfan KhanAdil HussainA young man who survives a disaster at sea is hurtled into an epic journey of adventure and discovery. While cast away, he forms an unexpected connection with another survivor: a fearsome Bengal tiger.STYLE OVER SUBSTANCE - a seriously gorgeous-looking film that claims (by proxy, via its narrating characters) it will make agnostics believe in God. Except that it's a farfetched story with an annoying protagonist, and it's *fiction*.
- DirectorRobert RodriguezStarsDanny TrejoAlexa PenaVegaMel GibsonThe U.S. government recruits Machete to battle his way through Mexico in order to take down an arms dealer who looks to launch a weapon into space.TRIES TOO HARD - "Machete" [2010] already nailed the over-the-top grindhouse action movie pastiche thing with a memorable story, characters and action, but this one tries too hard with craaazy characters that do nothing, wacky plot threads that go nowhere, and a sci-fi third act setting up a sequel that still doesn't even exist.
- DirectorDoug LimanStarsTom CruiseEmily BluntBill PaxtonA soldier fighting aliens gets to relive the same day over and over again, the day restarting every time he dies.OVERHYPED - I've being hearing amazing things about this movie for years, and when I finally got a chance to watch it, it turned out to be less a high-concept action sci-fi movie and more a lame comedy with neat VFX.
- DirectorAlex GarlandStarsAlicia VikanderDomhnall GleesonOscar IsaacA young programmer is selected to participate in a ground-breaking experiment in synthetic intelligence by evaluating the human qualities of a highly advanced humanoid A.I.OVERHYPED - I just didn't like the characters or the way the story unfolded. Felt more like a psychological thriller than a sci-fi movie about AI, which I expected it would be.
- DirectorWes AndersonStarsRalph FiennesF. Murray AbrahamMathieu AmalricA writer encounters the owner of an aging high-class hotel, who tells him of his early years serving as a lobby boy in the hotel's glorious years under an exceptional concierge.STYLE OVER SUBSTANCE - despite some good worldbuilding, comedy and dialogue, it felt like being wacky and stylish was more of a concern than having a solid story that weaves everything together. So it's about two guys stealing a painting then breaking out of prison...?
- DirectorRyan GoslingStarsChristina HendricksIain De CaesteckerMatt SmithA single mother is swept into a dark underworld, while her teenage son discovers a road that leads him to a secret underwater town.WASTED POTENTIAL - I basically watched this because of the people involved, including Matt Smith playing the gangster villain, the wonderful Benoît Debie as director of photography, and Ryan Gosling (recent star of Nic Refn's brilliant "Drive" [2011] and even better "Only God Forgives" [2013]) writing and directing. But it turned out to be an incoherent hybrid of David Lynch and Harmony Korine.
- DirectorQuentin TarantinoStarsSamuel L. JacksonKurt RussellJennifer Jason LeighIn the dead of a Wyoming winter, a bounty hunter and his prisoner find shelter in a cabin currently inhabited by a collection of nefarious characters.WASTED POTENTIAL - a wonderful cast of actors playing an interesting cast of characters in an epic western shot on 70mm. Except halfway through it turns into exactly what you'd expect from every other Tarantino film - shoot-outs, exploding heads, and more shoot-outs.
- DirectorSam MendesStarsDaniel CraigChristoph WaltzLéa SeydouxA cryptic message from James Bond's past sends him on a trail to uncover the existence of a sinister organisation named SPECTRE. With a new threat dawning, Bond learns the terrible truth about the author of all his pain in his most recent missions.WASTED POTENTIAL - comes across forced, and following up "Skyfall" [2012] like this reminds me of how the miserable "Quantum of Solace" [2008] followed the excellent "Casino Royale" [2006].
- DirectorDan TrachtenbergStarsJohn GoodmanMary Elizabeth WinsteadJohn Gallagher Jr.A young woman is held in an underground bunker by a man who insists that a hostile event has left the surface of the Earth uninhabitable.OVERHYPED - thought it was awkward and weird, and really nothing special.
- DirectorAna Lily AmirpourStarsSuki WaterhouseJason MomoaJayda FinkIn a desert dystopia, a young woman is kidnapped by cannibals.STYLE OVER SUBSTANCE - like a never-ending music video based on the director's favourite songs.
- DirectorRon ClementsJohn MuskerDon HallStarsAuli'i CravalhoDwayne JohnsonRachel HouseIn ancient Polynesia, when a terrible curse incurred by the demigod Maui reaches Moana's island, she answers the Ocean's call to seek out Maui to set things right.WASTED POTENTIAL - I didn't watch the whole thing so maybe I missed the best bits, but I was expecting something more along the lines of "Hercules" [1997] for Māori mythology. Instead it seemed like just a routine Disney princess story.
- DirectorTurner ClayStarsSonny BurnetteTurner ClayTerri CzapleskiA journalist goes on an adventure to prove that ghosts exist.WRONG IMPRESSION - maybe this isn't the movie's fault (I honestly don't know) but it was advertised as a documentary on Amazon Prime. It was clear to me from about 5 minutes in that it was actually a horror mockumentary, so that felt very misleading.
- DirectorWilliam FriedkinStarsWilliam FriedkinJeffrey Burton RussellChristinaFather Gabriele Amorth performs his ninth exorcism on an Italian woman.WASTED POTENTIAL - comes across a little pointless when, with all its build-up, the exorcism is just people chanting for 20 minutes. It's so boring to watch that they added in distorted voice sound effects over the possessed woman's screaming and rambling.
- DirectorRian JohnsonStarsDaisy RidleyJohn BoyegaMark HamillRey develops her abilities with the help of Luke Skywalker, as the Resistance prepares for battle against the First Order.WASTED POTENTIAL - it goes in subversive and interesting directions, sure, but sometimes it does a disservice to "The Force Awakens" [2015] because of it. Characters follow the same arcs (Finn overcomes his cowardice -again-, Kylo Ren leans towards the light but does something to cement his place in the dark -again-), plotlines are wasted (Rey and Ren's connection goes nowhere, Finn and Rose's escapade is pointless), and questions go unanswered (how did Maz get Luke's lightsaber? Who are the Knights of Ren?).
- DirectorAnthony RussoJoe RussoStarsRobert Downey Jr.Chris HemsworthMark RuffaloThe Avengers and their allies must be willing to sacrifice all in an attempt to defeat the powerful Thanos before his blitz of devastation and ruin puts an end to the universe.OVERHYPED - after being won over by "The Avengers" [2012] and its writing of the heroes and their dynamics as a team, I really expected more. Some of the plot threads are better than others, but I found a lot of the characters' decisions to be stupid, Thanos to be a little underwhelming, and the tone to be inconsistent.
- DirectorRichard StanleyStarsNicolas CageJoely RichardsonMadeleine ArthurA secluded farm is struck by a strange meteorite which has apocalyptic consequences for the family living there and possibly the world.WASTED POTENTIAL - down there with "Troll 2" [1990], "The Room" [2003] and "The Last Vampire on Earth" [2010] as one of the most baffling and shockingly bad movies I've seen. Like those three, it feels like it was written, directed and acted by aliens, which means you're in for hilarity and confusion.
- DirectorTaika WaititiStarsRoman Griffin DavisThomasin McKenzieScarlett JohanssonA young German boy in the Hitler Youth whose hero and imaginary friend is the country's dictator is shocked to discover that his mother is hiding a Jewish girl in their home.WASTED POTENTIAL - could've been a really clever satire but it just wasn't, and it didn't even have that many laughs.
- DirectorJoe CornishStarsLouis Ashbourne SerkisDenise GoughDean ChaumooAlex, a 12-year-old boy, and his friends fight an evil sorceress with the help of Excalibur, the sword of King Arthur, in a bid to save the world from her atrocities.WASTED POTENTIAL - incredibly cheesy. It might be a family movie but that doesn't mean it has to be as badly-written, poorly-acted and derivative as it is.
- DirectorRemi WeekesStarsSope DirisuWunmi MosakuMalaika Wakoli-AbigabaA refugee couple makes a harrowing escape from war-torn South Sudan, but then they struggle to adjust to their new life in an English town that has an evil lurking beneath the surface.WASTED POTENTIAL - the trailer was solid, but the movie's essentially a sequence of abstract dream sequences with little in the way of real scares. Vague imagery and lame jump-scares don't affect me.
- DirectorBen WheatleyStarsJoel FryReece ShearsmithHayley SquiresAs the world searches for a cure to a disastrous virus, a scientist and park scout venture deep in the forest for a routine equipment run.STYLE OVER SUBSTANCE - frustratingly vague, despite a solid and enthralling first half.