I just posted my picks for the 50 best films of the past 3 years.
Now, here comes the fun part.
Here are my picks for the 26 worst films of the past 3 years:
- Anonymous (directed by Roland Emmerich)
- Straw Dogs (directed by Rod Lurie)
- Branded (directed by Jamie Bradshaw and Aleksansdr Dulerayn)
- The Wicker Tree (directed by Robin Hardy)
- The Devil Inside (directed by William Brent Bell)
- Love and Other Drugs (directed by Ed Zwick)
- Project X (directed by Nima Nourizadeh)
- Rock of Ages (directed by Adam Shankman)
- This Means War (directed by McG)
- Dead Season (directed by some guy)
- The American (directed by Anton Corbijn)
- The Conspirator (directed by Robert Redford)
- Chloe (directed by Atom Egoyan)
- Clash of the Titans (directed by Louis Leterrier)
- Hereafter (directed by Clint Eastwood)
- Haywire (directed by Stephen Soderbergh)
- 96 Minutes (directed by Aimee Lagos)
- The Rum Diary (directed by Bruce Robinson)
- Dylan Dog: Dead of Night (directed by Kevin Munroe)
- Priest (directed by Scott Stewart)
- The Beaver (directed by Jodie Foster)
- A Thousand Words (directed by Brian Robbins)
- Contagion (directed by Stephen Soderbergh)
- Dream House (directed by Jim Sheridan)
- Another Earth (directed by Mike Cahill)
- Savages (directed by Oliver Stone)
Through the Shattered Lens 
Hmmm, it still looks like there’s an aversion for odd numbers with this list. XD
I think I may be the minority in saying that Contagion should not be on this worst of the last 3 years. LOL
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Contagion was just too slow and serious for me. I actually like quite a few of Soderbergh’s films so I actually feel kind of bad about having not one but two of his films on my worst of the past 3 years list. Lol.
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I’ve seen only two of the films on this list, which means I’ve dodged four six-shooters full of bullets.
However, I did see “Hereafter”, and I didn’t think it was that bad at all. Clint Eastwood is known as somewhat of a sceptic, so it was interesting to see him do something rather different from his previous material. He tried something different…a lot of filmmakers could learn from this example. After some 40 years of directing films, Clint is still taking the whippersnappers of Hollywood to school.
The other one from the list that I saw was “Another Earth”, and to be honest, I don’t recall much about it.
(However, I’ve just re-read your review of it, and I’m reminded of the various plot points and why it didn’t altogether work).
That was also the review where you dealt with that horrible person who was making fun of you, the one who thought the film was “brilliant” but didn’t say why.
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Hereafter was a bit too slow for me and both Matt Damon and Jay Mohr looked rather puffy and unappealing in the film. Add to that, I thought the little English kid was a terrible actor and it annoyed me that Eastwood’s vision of the “hereafter” was so banal.
Another Earth is a film that I’ll probably have to rewatch sometime soon, just to see if it’s more entertaining when watched without the burden of expectations. Since writing my original dismissive review of Another Earth, I’ve been impressed by Brit Marling’s work in Sound of My Voice and Arbitrage.
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I love this list because : so many bad movies for so many different reasons. (Btw, you are correct, contrarianism is not a valid reason in toto – but we can’t help bringing our own context to everything, so don’t sweat it).
At least not all of them left me demanding a refund of the preceding two hours – but there are some real hateful films here!
Of course – I would take out Contagion (merely mediocre) and Another Earth (better than you think, in a vacuum)
🙂
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By the way, any reason why “Dead Season” is credited to “some guy”? Is this an inside joke? It says at IMDB that Adam Deyoe directed it.
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I’ve had the chance to communicate with a few people who were actually involved in the filming of Dead Season and every one of them, while describing how disorganized the production was, has referred to the director as just being “some guy.” 🙂
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That could end up becoming a new version of saying “directed by Alan Smithee”. 🙂
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