The Worst Movies of 2014
It’s getting close to that time of year once again. The time of year when the bulk of the “best of” and “favorites” of the year come out, but it’s also often time for film writers to take a look at the other side of cinema, the “Worst of” the year. And if you clicked on this link looking for the films that I thought were the worst of the year, then go ahead and click somewhere else because I’m not here today to spend any more of my time talking about film that I didn’t like. Instead, I much prefer to celebrate the films that I did enjoy for one reason or another. I have indulged in calling out some of the worst superhero films, but I’ve also talked about the “best worst” superhero films, the ones that are bad but I still enjoy watching them. Instead, what I’d like to do is to reach out to the other film writers that read this site and encourage them to drop the “worst” lists this year, and instead only celebrate what’s enjoyable to watch.
I know it’s often much easier to tear down a film that you didn’t enjoy. Heck, I just experienced it after I watched the Men in Black trilogy. I struggled with writing my review of the first film. A film that is great in many respects and I love for many various reasons. But I had to take a bread from it and ended up almost completely writing the review for the second film which I found extremely lacking in quality. But I feel that there is a difference between writing a negative review of a film that I didn’t like, and creating an entire list dedicated to multiple films that I didn’t enjoy. Sure, it may be cathartic to write. The varying ways to synonimize “crap” might help dilute the experience of watching a bad film. But at the same time, what it is really doing is giving press to those films. If I watch a bad superhero film, I write a negative review. But that’s because I write a review for every movie. They all get equal weight when it comes to the written reviews. But if it’s a film that I don’t like, I prefer to have it end there. When I watch a great superhero film, I like to celebrate it and talk about it as much as possible. I might try to find any list possible so I can include it so it will get just that much more press and maybe someone else will give it a chance and enjoy it as much as I did.
It does help that I am in such a niche here where I don’t watch much outside of superhero movies and comic book adaptations. So I am spared from some of the worst of the worst movies that I know I would not enjoy in the least, typically the stupid comedies such as the latest lazy parody film, or the generic action franchise, or the sappy teenage romance. I know a lot of people didn’t care for the Robocop reboot this year, but I didn’t think it was all that bad. I, Frankenstein also got quite a bit of flak, so much so that I have kept putting it off. But I’m willing to bet that no matter what movie it is, there is someone out there that will enjoy watching it. And besides, if the film is really that bad, why do you even want to waste your time thinking about it when you could spend that time thinking about something that made you happy. That’s just my thoughts, what about you? Are you planning on writing your own “Worst of 2014” list? Or do you just enjoy reading others’ lists? Or will you join me in avoiding the discussion all together? Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.
Posted on December 5, 2014, in Blogs and tagged Blog, list, movies, worst, year in review. Bookmark the permalink. 22 Comments.
Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was my disappointment of the year. I doubt I’ll put together a worst of 2014 list, though. Just something I try not to do. Oh, I too didn’t think the Robocop reboot was all that bad.
I do think there’s a slight difference between calling something out as a disappointment and having a “worst of” list. This is just something I’d like to see more bloggers start to get behind.
I liked that the remake of Robocop didn’t do an exact copy of the original. I was just pissed off at all the little nods it makes to that movie. I’ll be doing a worst of list but it will be mostly for As You Watch
Yeah, I noticed that you had that in your schedule. I might listen just to hear the intro for Heather joining the show officially but I’ll likely just skip it for the Home Alone episode.
I have this on my Biggest Disappointment list, which is one of 30 best/worst posts i have planned for next year
I would probably call it a disappointment for myself as well, though I just used the poster as an example. I didn’t think it was “worst of the year” material, but I figured it would show up on a lot of people’s lists.
I did a “Worst” list a couple of years ago, but I agree it’s not very worthwhile. Instead, last year I wrote a few mammoth posts simply ranking and mini-reviewing every film I’d seen that came out that year (about 50 films). Most of these were films I hadn’t reviewed, so it was good for me to get my thoughts down on them. Technically the first half of that post is my “Worst of” list, but I do it anyway.
Yeah, i have no problem with that type of list because, again, you’re giving equal weight to all the movies instead of singling out the worst and leaving out the middle of the road films.
I really don’t get the hate behind this one. I thought the first was better, but this was still very entertaining. That ending about crushed me.
The biggest one for me personally was Godzilla. I was so disappointed in that one and want my money back.
I haven’t heard too much hate on Godzilla, some disappointment here and there and several people really enjoyed it. I didn’t get around to it as I was more of an MST3K fan of the Gamera movies anyway.
I just do a best of the year list and include my biggest disappointments somewhere near the bottom as well as what i’m looking forward to next year 🙂 I usually ignore films I dont like but occasionally I’ll slam a remake for bastardizing a beloved film. Or if I feel I’ve been duped in some way, I’ll write about my displeasure and why I think it was deceiving or not worthy of others to watch. But, yeah mostly if they’re that bad I don’t do any review at all.
That’s good to hear! I was starting to think people weren’t even reading the post or understanding my reason behind it. I totally get the disappointment factor, when you’re either looking forward to a movie so much, then it lets you down, or if a remake completely gets everything wrong about what made the original so good.
I dunno, if I don’t have much to say about my least favorite movies, then I usually don’t make a post about it (which is looking to mostly be the case this year so far, but we’ll see). But if I’ve got a lot of thoughts, I’ll usually go for it. A good rant is usually fun to write, and can even be fun to read, too. Hell, some of my favorite and most popular posts have been when I’ve gone off the hinges ranting about a movie, lol. 😛 But yeah, in general, I understand what you’re saying.
Thanks, I do understand the appeal of it. And I believe I did say I have been guilty of it at one point or another, I just wanted to share my thoughts and hopefully have more people join me from this point in avoiding “worst” lists.
I’m guilty of making “worst of” lists. I just did one a few weeks ago. I certainly understand your points, but for me, they serve a couple purposes. The easier, more selfish reason is that they are both cathartic and fun to write. Lots of my liveliest writing is done about movies I dislike. Therefore, it’s a way to showcase some of my most fun work. it can also be fun reading them by others. The more magnanimous reason is that I might actually help someone avoid some of these movies.
Yeah, negative reviews often flow out so much more quickly and creatively than the positive ones do.
I so totally agree with this that I almost didn’t read it because of the title. (I think I only did because I happened to catch a later tweet from you that suggested the post wasn’t actually a list of worst films!) I’ve done it in the past, too, and at the time I found it cathartic, but I just don’t anymore. With limited time and limited resources, I’ve got no interest in writing about things I didn’t like, or reading about what other people didn’t like. It seems at best a pointless endeavor, and at worst a mean-spirited one.
Yeah, I realized that even though I personally dislike click-bait headlines that this almost counts as being a click-bait headline. Or at least a bait-and-switch title bringing in people expecting a worst of list. It was mainly just a rant I needed to get off my chest, but I’m glad that some people agree with it, kudos!
Robocop for sure. What a stinker that thing was.
I am working on my worst of list right now…
Pingback: The Roundup: January 2, 2015 | The Frame