Jason's Movie Blog

Hello, everyone! With the year of 2015 officially over, it’s time to exam the “best” and “worst” movies that of that year. Indeed, there was a lot of movie releases seeing in 2015. In total, I’ve personally seeing (and reviewed) over 68 new movies in 2015, some that were very recognizable, while others were “sleepers” that flew underneath the mainstream radar. There were also a lot of movies that made big money at the box office in 2015 as well as some that gained critical praise from both critics and moviegoers. And yet (in amidst those movies), 2015 saw a number of pretty “bad” films. Whether by a flat story, bad acting, weak writing, or poor execution, these movies were just plan horrible with little to no interest in purchasing a ticket to see it theaters or to buy / rent it for its home release a few months later.

Naturally, I have a “Best” movies of 2015, but let’s get the bad ones out of the way first. Here’s my personal top ten worst movies of 2015. But before I begin, here are some other “horrible” (I mean honorable) runner-ups that almost made it on my top ten worst move list of 2015.

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Runner-ups

(click on the pictures for full review)

WE ARE YOUR FRIENDS

“I came here for music (not the movie)“

MORTDECAI

“Depp’s art-heist capper misses its mark“

PAN

“How Peter became Pan (sort of)“

ALOHA

“Crowe’s Aloha says goodbye before ever sailing hello“

DARK PLACES

“No shining light for Dark Places“

And now my top ten!!!!

10: Daddy’s Home

Rating: 2.4 out of 5

Review: Daddy’s Home Review

Released on Christmas Day, this comedy, pitting the fatherly figures (dad vs. stepdad), was supposed to be funny with actors Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg playing the lead roles. Unfortunately, the end result was purely a bland effort. From its mediocre (and formulaic) story to its mostly unfunny comedy jokes and gags, Daddy’s Home was a disappointing misfire.

9: Fifty Shades of Grey

Rating: 2.4 Out of 5

Review: Fifty Shades of Grey Review

Review: The worldwide success of E.L James’s erotic Fifty Shades trilogy cannot be denied. Thus, it was a forgone conclusion that a movie adaption of James’s work would be inevitable. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. Despite its inherit hype, its cashing in big at the worldwide box office, and the popularity of Ellie Goulding’s song “Love Me Like You Do”, Fifty Shades of Grey is a terrible movie and definitely not worth the hype. Its premise is vaguely familiar (the first Twilight installment), its characters are wooden, the dialogue is laughable, and the movie’s explicit scenes are “tamed”, to say the least. As James Dornan’s Christian Grey says in the movie “I’m fifty shades of f**ked up” and I couldn’t agree more with this movie.

8: Seventh Son

Rating: 2.3 Out of 5

Review: Seventh Son Review

Based on the first installment in Joseph’s Delaney’s The Last Apprentice, Seventh Son was aiming for a franchise tag, toting some big name actors such as Bridges, Moore, Hounsou, (and even a small role for Game of Throne’s star Kit Harrington) as well fantastic creatures and locales in its visual effects. Unfortunately, a franchise tag is not what it received, but rather a “dud” at the domestic box office. Its story was rather campy and predictable and the acting was “hokey”. In truth, Seventh Son is a poorly conceived (and executed) and is simply a forgetful fantasy adventure romp.

7: Transporter: Refueled

Rating: 2:3 Out of 5

Review: Transporter: Refueled Review

The character of Frank Martin Jr. returns behind-the-wheel in this fourth installment, but with a different actor playing him. Replacing Jason Statham with Ed Skrein, Transporter: Refueled wanted to try to capture its own identity, while also trying to live up to expectations from its predecessors. The final result of the movie is a bland endeavor. The screenplay is weak, its plot is redundant, its action has a “done there, done that” feeling, and, for all his efforts, Skrein can’t escape Statham’s shadow. To be fair, the Transporter franchise wasn’t the greatest franchise to begin with, but Transporter: Refueled is just a mindless mishap.

6: Self/Less

Rating: 2.3 Out of 5

Review: Self/Less Review

The allure of immortality and the consequences that follow was the inherit premise of Tarsem Singh’s Self/Less. Unfortunately, its premise was the only thing interesting about the movie as almost the entire movie seemed very lackluster. Despite having several big and / or recognizable actors (Ryan Reynolds, Ben Kingsley, Mathew Goode, etc.), Self/Less is just “blah” with a generic action / drama setup, poor dialogue, and a underwhelming third act that’s disappointing. The movie even failed to recoup its $26 million dollar production budget. Of course, after seeing Self/Less, I can definitely imagine why.

5: Jem and the Holograms

Rating: 2.2 Out of 5

Review: Jem and the Holgrams Review

Just like a one-hit wonder pop song, Jem and the Holgrams is catchy, flashy, and totally nonsensical. This movie, which is based off of the 80’s cartoon series, is a millennial targeted film that talks about the perks and pitfalls to a “Rise to stardom” internet sensation as well as expressing individuality. Though, its so bubblegum and hokey that its themes and messages come across at being shallow and stupid. It also doesn’t help that the acting was “meh, its characters are one-dimensional, its story was predictably clichéd, and a side-story involving a little robot (Synergy) felt completely out of place in this teen drama feature. In the end, Jem and the Holograms was such a bad movie that it was pulled out of theaters after two weeks and has only made $2.3 million (less than half of its $5 million production budget).

4: American Ultra

Rating: 2.2 Out of 5

Review: American Ultra Review

Some movies have an interesting premise of two opposing ideas that collide to make a intriguing theatrical story. American Ultra wants to be like that, but fails to do so. This film, which stars Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart, acts as part action-spy and part stone-comedy and ultimately was a failed attempt to have those two movies genres harmonize in a feature film. Unfortunately, coupled with a weak story, uninteresting characters, unfunny humor, and being downright stupid, American Ultra was a flat-out bomb at the box office, failing to gross back its $26 million budget and only making roughly $15 million worldwide.

3: Pixels

Rating: 2.1 Out of 5

Review: Pixels Review

Patrick Jean’s Pixels, a 2 minute video of classic 8-bit video game characters attacking New York City, was interesting and played upon arcade nostalgia and the notion of one day turning the video into a feature length film. The reality, however, is that it was turned into a movie with director Chris Columbus helming the picture Pixels.  Unfortunately, the this comedy, starring the now unfunny Adam Sandler and his usual entourage pack, was barely entertaining. Sandler was completely devoid of laughs as was the rest of the movie in its jokes and gags department. Its characters were thinly written and shallow and its outlandish story was uninteresting. Truly, Pixels was a farce of a movie that didn’t need to be made.

2: Hot Pursuit

Rating: 1.9 Out of 5

Review: Hot Pursuit Review

The buddy cop film has always been favorite of the action / comedy genres. However, the movie Hot Pursuit is just stupid, plain and simple. To put it straightforward, Hot Pursuit tries to rally on the comedy angst of Reese Witherspoon against Sofia Vergara and, while both actresses are gifted in there only right, their on-screen performances and characters are painfully grating to watch. Additionally, adding a bad and played out narration did not help elevate the movie and its comedy was dead on arrival. There’s just nothing great about this movie and it was almost my number one choice for being the worst movie of 2015. That it was (for a time) until I saw another movie that took it spot.

 

And now (big drum roll)

 

1: Fantastic Four

Rating: 1.8 Out of 5

Review: Fantastic Four Review

So what can top Hot Pursuit at being the worst movie of 2015? Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four. So…where to begin.

Nowadays, whether you like it or not, the movie industry is in its golden age of blockbuster comic book movies, with so much hype, money, and anticipation for each theatrical superhero installment. Thus, it was somewhat a surprise that 20th Century Fox decided to reboot the Fantastic Four franchise, but, while its intentions were well-known (trying to cash in on the superhero fandom in current movies), Fantastic Four was a huge mess of a movie that didn’t even come close to its hype, providing to be the biggest disappointment in recent superhero movies of late.

The story was vague, thematically haphazard, and somewhat of a hodgepodge of ideas that don’t completely pan out and its visual effects were blandly mediocre. The acting in the movie isn’t bad, but their characterization is just flat-out deplorable, especially the movie’s main villain (Dr. Doom). Early promotions for the film depicted the Fantastic Four as Marvel’s first “superhero family”, but (in the movie) they were hardly anything like a family. The movie only grossed $56 million domestically and another $111 million at the foreign box-office, bringing the sum total roughly to $167 million, which did cover the cost of its $125 million production budget, but (adding the money spent on its marketing), the movie’s is still considered a blockbuster flop. Adding to its early bad reviews, it also didn’t help its publicity when director Josh Trank went on the offense and (publicly) slammed 20th Century Fox on the movie’s opening weekend. To me, Fantastic Four was such a colossal superhero disappointment and one of the worst I’ve seen in all of 2015. There was nothing exciting, intriguing, or thrilling about this unimpressive movie at all. It wasn’t even a fun movie to watch. And personally, I would rather watch the two older Fantastic Four movies (Fantastic Four and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer) rather than watch this horrible movie again.

As I said in my review for this movie….there just nothing fantastic about the new Fantastic Four.

 

 

There you have it…my top ten worst movies of 2015. Of course, I did skip some movies in theaters (i.e. The Last Witch Hunter, Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2, etc.). So what do you guys think? What was your top ten worst movies of 2015? Check back soon and I’ll be posting my personal top ten best movies of 2015.