Top 10 WORST Films of 2016: Part 2 (#5-1)

Welcome back to Rhode Island Movie Corner’s end-of-the-year list in which I’m counting down my Top 10 WORST films of 2016. This is the second half of a two-part list and today, I’m listing my Top 5 WORST from this past year. If you haven’t read through it before, be sure to click the following link to be directed to Part 1 where I list films #10-6. But now let’s get back to the list!

This next film attracted quite a considerable amount of controversy in terms of its casting. But, as it turns out, that wasn’t even the worst of it.

5. GODS OF EGYPT

Prior to this film’s release, there was quite a lot of controversy surrounding the fact that, for a film set in Egypt, the main cast was predominantly white. And to put all this into perspective, the director, Alex Proyas, was born in Egypt. At the very least, unlike some other instances of controversial white-washing, Proyas and the film’s distributor, Lionsgate, did apologize for this instead of just trying to make an excuse for it (e.g. they needed A-listers for it to be financially successful). However, the predominantly white cast ultimately isn’t the film’s biggest problem. Gods of Egypt is an overproduced and in some cases undercooked fantasy-adventure flick. It’s overproduced in the sense that it’s a ridiculous spin on the traditional story of Egyptian gods, in which these gods fight each other wearing elaborate Iron Man esque armor because, you know, Ancient Egypt! And the action sequences are just CGI overload. I’m not usually one to complain about CGI but this is a case where the film goes quite overboard with its visuals. And with that over-reliance on CGI comes a severe lack of any character development or plot (that’s where the ‘undercooked’ aspect that I was alluding to earlier comes into play). Thus, much of the film’s talented cast is wasted; Chadwick Boseman, Elodie Yung, Geoffrey Rush, etc. Sure, some are trying their best with the terrible material, like Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as main protagonist Horus, but then you have Gerald Butler completely hamming it up as the main villain Set. In short, Gods of Egypt aspires to be a fun action-adventure film a la Indiana Jones but ultimately ends up being a considerably lackluster affair. And while I generally hate to see films bomb at the box-office, I’ll admit that when I saw the first trailer for this film, I could tell right away that it was going to be one of the year’s biggest commercial flops… and it was.

At Number 4, we have the latest installment of a franchise that’s really starting to fizz out. It’s even more noticeable when considering that this franchise wasn’t really that good to begin with.

4. THE DIVERGENT SERIES: ALLEGIANT

Now, like I said two years ago when I listed Divergent at the Number 9 spot in my 2014 ‘Worst of’ list if you’re a fan of this franchise then all the power to you. Clearly, I’m just not part of this franchise’s target demographic. But even with that said, the Divergent series just doesn’t do much for me. In the genre of ‘young adult’ based book-to-film franchises, this isn’t anywhere on the level of The Hunger Games or The Maze Runner. Thus, the first film, Divergent, landed at the Number 9 spot on my ‘Worst of 2014’ list for being extremely dull and rather unbearably overlong due to its hefty runtime of two hours and twenty minutes. When it came to the first sequel, Insurgent, I didn’t end up seeing it in full before I published my ‘Worst of 2015’ list. But I have watched it since and, yeah, it would’ve ended up on that list. The series saw a change in director with this installment, going from Neil Burger to Robert Schwentke, and despite having marginally better pacing compared to the first film (i.e. this one wasn’t nearly two and a half hours long), the story was still generically dull and it was this film where I realized that I do not give a crap about any of the main characters. Looking back at that list, it would’ve probably edged out Unfriended from the Bottom 10 and be at the Number 7 spot, right below Fifty Shades of Grey. And now, this year, we have Allegiant which, as you’ve probably noticed, lands the highest spot of any entry of the franchise to date at Number 4. This is because watching this film, it’s become apparent that this franchise is now running on fumes as it nears its end.

First off, this is supposed to be the first of a two-part finale because, of course, this has become the trademark of the young adult genre following the success of the two-part adaptation of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The only thing, though, is that Deathly Hallows is the only instance where splitting the final entry of a series into two films fully worked. It clearly didn’t work for Twilight and with The Hunger Games, the results were mixed at best. So you take the already dragged out narrative of Divergent, split the final book into two films, and yeah you can see where this is going. Heck, they’re still incorporating new ideas into a story that should probably be over by this point. But even if this is ‘probably’ the most interesting of the films in terms of what they’re bringing into the story, it’s still a very dull affair. And while this is also the most visually-heavy entry of the series to date, the CGI visuals are lousy, which is rather inexcusable considering this film’s sizably large budget of $110 million. It also doesn’t help that I legitimately don’t give a crap about any of these main characters for being the trigger-happy, violence-eager sociopaths that they are. Seriously, these films feel more violent in tone than The Hunger Games due to how often the main characters get into fights, and that was a series about televised battles to the death involving kids, for crying out loud. Thus, the talented cast members of these films (e.g. Shailene Woodley, Naomi Watts, Octavia Spencer, Jeff Daniels, the list goes on…) are once again wasted due to the mediocre material. And even then, it’s starting to look like even most of the main cast is starting to be bored by all of this.

But you want to know the most embarrassing thing about this film? It may very well be the last film in the franchise… in terms of ‘theatrically-released’ films, I mean. When this film was released, it was absolutely savaged by critics with a pathetic 12% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. And that wasn’t the only ‘series low’ this film was hit with. While both Divergent and Insurgent managed to gross nearly $300 million each, Allegiant couldn’t even manage to break $200 million. It only grossed $179 million worldwide. Thus, it’s currently unclear if the final installment of the series, retitled Ascendant instead of Allegiant Part 2, will even see a theatrical release. It may very well get to the point where it ends up being a TV film that would then segue into a spin-off TV series. Not only that, there’s a possibility that most of the main stars, including Shailene Woodley AKA the main star of the entire franchise, aren’t even going to be returning for it. However, back in September, Woodley stated in an interview on The Today Show that this isn’t finalized yet. Still, if it does happen, talk about going out on a low note. I mean, imagine if this happened to The Hunger Games; imagine if they announced that Mockingjay Part 2 was going to be a made-for-TV film. Who knows if Jennifer Lawrence would’ve returned to play Katniss? Thankfully that didn’t happen but it could happen for Divergent. And even after all the negative things that I’ve said about these films, I’ll admit that even I feel a bit bad for those involved with this series if it ends up coming to this.

Sadly, for Gerard Butler, Gods of Egypt wasn’t the only stinker that he starred in this year. And this one was much worse.

3. LONDON HAS FALLEN

2013’s Olympus Has Fallen was one of two films that year that were basically ‘Die Hard in the White House’. The other film was Roland Emmerich’s White House Down and while both films received mixed-to-negative reviews from critics, Olympus was the more successful of the two from a financial standpoint. It earned more than twice its budget at the box office whereas White House Down did not break even despite grossing more worldwide. But, to be honest, when comparing the two, I prefer White House Down. Because even though both films are generally mindless action flicks, Emmerich’s film was at least much more self-aware about it and more lighthearted in tone. By comparison, Olympus Has Fallen tries way too hard to be dramatic and serious at times despite its ridiculous nature. Sure, it technically gives the film a bit more depth compared to White House Down but it does clash with the over-the-top nature of the action sequences. But, like I said, it was a hit, hence why we now have a sequel in the form of London Has Fallen, which transfers the action from Washington D.C. to England’s capital. And… oh boy, this one’s a rough one. Oh sure, it starts out harmless enough with some decent moments involving leads Gerard Butler, who plays the main character Mike Banning, Aaron Eckhart, who plays the President of the United States Benjamin Asher, and Angela Bassett, who plays Banning’s boss at the Secret Service, Lynne Jacobs. But then that all goes by the wayside in what is ultimately a generic and mindless action flick. The action sequences are lousy and it also doesn’t help that some of them are paired with some pretty weak CGI.  

But, believe it or not, that’s not the worst thing about this film. This film’s biggest flaw is that it is one of the most culturally offensive films of the year. Released not too long after the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris, France, this film really makes the city of London look BAD, specifically in regards to how ineffective the city’s police force is at dealing with terrorists. Heck, some terrorists even masquerade as police officers. This film is so xenophobic that you’d swear it was written by Donald Trump. Seriously, this is a case of a film that is so oozing to the brim with patriotism that you can just put the ‘America, F*** Yeah’ song from Team America: World Police over the action and it’d have the exact same effect. I usually abstain from going political in these reviews but here I must make one comment because I feel that it needs to be said. As much as I love my country, sometimes there can be examples of ‘too much patriotism’. This is a prime example of that. And the next time I watch Olympus Has Fallen, I bet that I’ll notice more of the same sort of overblown patriotism that I didn’t notice the first time. Bottom line, this film is culturally insensitive and, for me at least, it once again reinforces the fact that I preferred Roland Emmerich’s entertaining/mindless action extravaganza White House Down over these two films that try way too hard to be emotional heavy-hitters. But, like Olympus, this film did well at the box office despite the negative reviews, meaning that we have another one of these on the way, titled Angel Has Fallen. Oh boy…

For most of the year, London Has Fallen was at the very bottom when it came to this list. But then came these final two films. And at Number 2, we have the lowest of lows in a year that saw plenty of great animated films.

2. NORM OF THE NORTH

It seems like January is usually the time of year where we get a subpar animated film. It was the case in 2014 with The Nut Job and this year, that film was Norm of the North. 2016 was a pretty great year for animated films everywhere else. Disney Animation had a one-two punch in the form of Zootopia and Moana. Pixar had a billion-dollar hit with the highly-anticipated sequel Finding Dory. And Laika Entertainment had a critically acclaimed flick on their hands with Kubo and the Two Strings. Norm of the North… has twerking polar bears and pissing lemmings. Yeah… this is pretty much one of the biggest low points in the history of animation. The animation here is mediocrely subpar to the point where it’s like something out of a direct-to-video film… from the 90’s. The story is a generic ‘save the homeland’ plot and the film is really nothing more than just a series of lame pop-cultural references, a ton of pop songs, and, again, twerking polar bears. Now, usually, when it comes to animated films, I’ll admit that I sometimes give ‘lesser’ animated films a pass if, at the very least, they’re harmless for kids. But, going off fellow film critic Chris Stuckmann’s review of the film, it looks like even kids won’t get much out of this. In his review, Chris noted that kids were getting bored at his screening and seemed relieved when the film was finally over. That is saying something…

So, what can be worse than Norm of the North, you ask? How about a completely pedestrian affair from one of the most notable personas in the film industry? Thus, my pick for the WORST film of 2016 goes to…

1. YOGA HOSERS

Kevin Smith has been a major player in the film industry since 1994. Over the years, he’s amassed a considerably large fan base thanks to many of the cult-classic films that he’s made, including his 1994 directorial debut Clerks and its 1995 prequel Mallrats (yes, Mallrats is a prequel; it’s set one day before the events of Clerks). But, nowadays, he’s arguably more known for hosting geek-related podcasts like Fatman on Batman and starring in the hit AMC show Comic Book Men, proving that he’s just as big of a geek as most of us are when it comes to things like Star Wars and Marvel and DC. The reason why I say that he’s become more known for this kind of stuff nowadays is because if his newest film Yoga Hosers proves anything, it’s that Smith is just starting to mess with us now in terms of his directorial efforts. Yoga Hosers is the second installment of a True North trilogy, in which all three films are horror films set in Canada. The first of these films was Tusk, released in 2014 and starring Justin Long as a podcast host who gets turned into a walrus by an old sailor. I haven’t seen Tusk but I’ve heard that it was mediocre. The second film of this trilogy, Yoga Hosers, centers on two characters who originally appeared briefly in Tusk; the Colleens, two high-school freshmen who work at a convenience store. The Colleens are played by Harley Quinn Smith, Kevin Smith’s own daughter, and Lily-Rose Depp, daughter of Johnny Depp. Speaking of Depp, he appears in both this and Tusk as ‘man-hunter’ Guy LaPointe.

Yoga Hosers… is one of the laziest films that I’ve ever seen in terms of directing. The plot is completely stupid. It follows these two girls as they combat a bunch of mutated Nazi bratwursts… yes, you’ve read that right, Nazi bratwursts (all of whom are played by Kevin Smith, by the way) that emerge from their victims’ rear ends. And aside from that, the whole film is nothing but jokes at the expense of Canadians, specifically the myth that when they say ‘about’, it comes out as ‘aboot’. Throw in some terrible visual effects and lame running gags and you have one hell of a poor horror comedy. The only real positive thing that I can say about the film is that, at the very least, the camaraderie between Lily-Rose Depp and Harley Quinn Smith is legit. They have been friends for years and you can at least see that in the film regardless of the nepotism on display here. But Johnny Depp on the other hand… I have absolutely no idea what’s he doing in this film. This hasn’t been a good year for him in general, namely due to a troubling divorce/domestic violence scandal, but this is easily the worst performance of his career (I’m guessing it’s the same situation with Tusk as well). In short, this is just embarrassing on all accounts… and to make matters worse, this isn’t the last of the True North trilogy. The last installment will be starting production soon; Moose Jaws, AKA ‘Jaws with a Moose’. And while, again, I haven’t seen Tusk, it seems as if these films have been going down in quality with each new film. So, given how bad Yoga Hosers turned out, I can only imagine what we’re in for with Moose Jaws.  

And those are my Top 10 Worst Films of 2016. Ahh… now that was cathartic. You see, folks, this is why I do these ‘worst of’ lists first; like getting a flu shot, I do this list first just to get it over with. Now I can work on my big Top 12 list of my favorite films from this past year. Be sure to check that out in the first few weeks of the New Year! 

Top 10 WORST Films of 2014: #10-6

Another year has come and gone and you know what that means. That’s right, it’s time to look back upon all of the films that have come out in 2014. It’s when we both honor the best films of the year and cleanse ourselves from the worst of the year. Of course, because of the typically cynical nature of the internet (don’t deny it, it’s true), we’ll be starting things off with my picks for the worst films of the year because let’s be honest those lists are far more popular than the ‘best of’ lists. If you remember, my list last year mainly consisted of comedies, showcasing what was easily the worst year ever for the comedy film genre. This year, thankfully, the list is a little more varied in terms of film genres with only one actual ‘comedy’ making the list. But of course, we are still talking about the ‘worst films of the year’ and while many others will no doubt be putting films like ‘Transformers: Age of Extinction’, ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’, or even ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ on their list, those films won’t be appearing on this list… and don’t try and give me crap for liking these films, either. Instead, I give you what are my personal picks for the Top 10 worst of 2014. Now normally when it comes to these year-end Top 10’s, I usually talk about a lot of key points from all of the films I list but of course because this is the ‘worst of’ list, I’m not even going to bother with a Spoiler Warning. So let’s not waste any time and dive into my picks for the absolute worst films of 2014.

When it comes to the films that I see every year, I tend to stay away from the so-called ‘worst’ of the year, only watching them after they left theaters so that I don’t have to pay a full-price ticket to watch them. Admittedly, I also don’t see a lot of ‘bad’ movies so the Number 10 spot on my ‘Worst of’ list is usually reserved for a film that, while not very good, isn’t really as bad as the other films that will come later on the list. That is the case with my Number 10 worst of 2014, a film that tries to be the equivalent of another popular film franchise but doesn’t quite live up to the reputation.

10. NEED FOR SPEED

Okay first let’s get the obvious thing out of the way; who decided that it was a good idea to adapt the ‘Need for Speed’ video games into a film? I’ll admit that I haven’t played a lot of the ‘Need for Speed’ games (save for ‘Underground’, an IPhone port of the recent ‘Hot Pursuit’, and one of the arcade games) but even then I can tell that there really isn’t much of a plot to these games other than street racing and avoiding the cops. So again, how do you make a frigging movie about that? Well just try and be the ‘Fast and the Furious’ movies, of course. But you see the main problem with this film is how it tries to do just that. One of the great things about the recent ‘Fast and the Furious’ movies is that they have become very much self-aware of how silly they are so they just roll with the punches. ‘Need for Speed’, on the other hand, tries to go for a much more serious tone and as shown from the reaction towards 2009’s ‘Fast and Furious’ (which for the record I did like), that’s not really the best option. I mean, considering that this a film about racing and crazy stunts, you’d think that the writers would go for a more light-hearted story but instead they go with a story that’s all about revenge, brotherhood, etc. And really, considering that this is a video-game adaptation, it’s really hard to take a lot of this seriously.

To the film’s credit, there are some genuinely good things about it. For one thing, the actual driving sequences in the movie are really, really good. And there’s a very good reason for that as they were actually done with practical effects, which is really cool given the fact that they could’ve just easily been done with CGI. But thankfully the filmmakers didn’t go that route, resulting in some very visually impressive stunts. Also, the cast is pretty solid as well. Aaron Paul, in his first major leading role since the end of ‘Breaking Bad’, proves that he definitely can be a solid leading man. Dominic Cooper plays a really fun despicable bad guy and Imogen Poots is incredibly charming as the female lead. There’s also Michael Keaton in quite a scene-stealing role as the head organizer of the big race that Paul and Cooper’s characters partake in at the end of the film. Ultimately though, ‘Need for Speed’ tried way too hard to be something that it wasn’t. It tried to be serious when in reality it’s fairly hard to take a film based off of a series of racing video games with minimal plot that seriously. The film does have it moments, mainly thanks to the practical stunt-work during the racing sequences, but ultimately you’re much better off with the recent ‘Fast and Furious’ movies. They too can be quite silly but unlike this movie, they know that. And while I am a fan of 2009’s ‘Fast and Furious’, this is basically the exact same thing for anyone who wasn’t.

I’m certain that I’ll be pissing off a lot of people who were fans of this movie and the book series that it was based on. But I’m sorry folks, this film really didn’t do much for me, especially when compared to the other big ‘Young Adult’ book-to-film adaptations that came out this year.

9. DIVERGENT

Yeah… I’m sorry to anyone who was a fan of this movie. I know that a lot of audiences really liked this movie and to be honest I’m not exactly the target audience for this series in the first place. However, I do have to disagree with popular opinion on this one. And while I’m not one to compare films, I do have to compare this to another adaptation of a young adult book. For the record, I’m not comparing it to ‘Hunger Games’ because, well, there’s no contest there. Instead, I’m going to focus on the other major young-adult book-to-film adaptation of this year; ‘The Maze Runner’, which if you recall I really liked. That film had a very engaging premise that kept you invested the whole way through. This film, however, doesn’t have that same benefit. I swear I was kind of bored throughout the majority of this movie. I never really cared about any of the characters and I felt that the movie dragged at certain points and considering that this is nearly two and a half hours long, that’s really not a good thing. For the record, I haven’t read the book that this was based on so I don’t know if it’s the same way, but this was just a fairly bland film that I think tries just a bit too hard to be ‘The Hunger Games’. And while I hate to use the word ‘rip-off’ because let’s be honest nothing’s really original these days anyway, this film has quite a lot in common with ‘The Hunger Games’ in terms of certain plot elements (for the record this book was first published in 2011, three years after the first ‘Hunger Games’… just saying…).

But like with ‘Need for Speed’, there are some good things about it. For one thing, director Neil Burger (who I feel rather sorry for having to be stuck doing this film, having directed some really solid (and in some cases underrated) films in the past like ‘The Illusionist’ and ‘Limitless’) does create some really eye-catching visuals from time to time in this, which can mainly be attributed to the fact that in the story, the characters occasionally get put into simulations that are part of a series of tests. While certainly not the best lead from a young adult series, the main character Tris is actually a pretty likable protagonist and Shailene Woodley does do a pretty decent job in the lead role, proving that she definitely is one of the best actresses of her generation. But ultimately, like I said, this film really didn’t do much for me and I don’t really have much interest in seeing the other films in this series. Of course like with almost every major young adult book-to-film franchise out there, the final book in this series, ‘Allegiant’, is being split into two films. Given the fact that I wasn’t that invested in this first film, I can already tell that this wasn’t a good idea (on a side note, thank you Fox for not doing the same thing to ‘The Maze Runner’). In the end, though, I don’t think this was as bad as something like ‘Twilight’. ‘Twilight’ was god-awful, this is just… meh…

You’ve got a director regarded as one of the worst working today in Hollywood helming a film that had a lot of potential given what it’s about. Well, you can kind of tell where this is going.

8. POMPEII

A film like this, about the infamous eruption of Mount Vesuvius and how the ancient titular city of Pompeii got absolutely decimated as a result of the eruption, does have some potential to be a fun little disaster film. But in the hands of director Paul W.S. Anderson, this ends up being a big case of ‘style over substance’. For the record, this is only the second film of Anderson’s that I’ve seen, the other being ‘Mortal Kombat’ which, while not exactly a great movie, wasn’t that bad. But the rest of his filmography isn’t exactly well-liked by a lot of people, especially his ‘Resident Evil’ films in which he continues to over-glorify his wife, Milla Jovovich. As for this film, it feels rather uneven at times as it starts off as a gladiator movie (in other words, it’s a cheap version of 2000’s Oscar-winning ‘Gladiator’) and it stays in that genre up until it actually gets to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. I mean sure, I guess the whole ‘Vesuvius’ thing probably isn’t enough for a whole film but it feels like this is two films in one and that the film started off forgetting what it was all about. Sure, the visuals in ‘Pompeii’ are nice, especially after Vesuvius does erupt, but you don’t give a crap about any of the characters in the film, especially given the fact that because this is based on a real-life event, you can already tell how this is all going to end. And yet they try to hammer in a love story trying to be like ‘Titanic’. But again, why should we care about these two lovers when we know that they’re just going to die anyway like everyone else in this movie?

Now because I don’t have HBO, I haven’t been watching ‘Game of Thrones’ so this is basically the first major thing I’ve seen Kit Harrington in. Overall, I don’t really think he’s that bad in this but he just doesn’t have anything to work with so his character comes off as being really bland. The same can be said for his love interest, played by Emily Browning, who really, really needs a new agent after starring in a bunch of crappy films like this, ‘The Host’, and of course, ‘Sucker Punch’. Then you have Kiefer Sutherland, who overacts his ass off to rather embarrassing results as the main bad guy, a general who is looking to marry Browning’s character. The only real major highlight in the cast is Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as a gladiator who Harrington’s character Milo befriends while they are both slaves, who manages to actually give a good performance here despite the crappy screenplay, so much so in fact that you actually wish that the film focused on him instead of the incredibly bland love story. That’s ‘Pompeii’ for you, a film that actually had some potential but was ultimately wasted mainly due to the fact that it was a case of ‘style over substance’. It may have had some nice visuals but given what we know about this real-life event, it’s hard to care about a group of characters that are all going to be dead by the end of the film.

I listed this film’s predecessor on my ‘Worst of’ list last year and surprise, surprise, guess what film lands the Number 7 spot on my 2014 list? That’s right, it’s that first film’s sequel.

7. SHARKNADO 2

Yes, because last year’s ‘Sharknado’ became such a big sensation ever since it first aired on the Syfy channel, mainly due to social media and the title of the film above anything else, it has led to a sequel getting made. And, like last year, this film does count on this list because it did get released in theaters, if only for one day. With the first film, I noted that though it was a bad movie, it was one of those cases like ‘Batman and Robin’ or ‘The Room’ where it’s ‘so bad, it’s good’ because of its cheesier elements. However, the more that I think about it, I might have over-exaggerated that a little bit. Sure, this film does have some genuinely ridiculous moments that result in unintentional hilarity, like the many scenes where the main character Finn is apparently Superman due to some of the crazy things he does in the film (like shooting a shark that’s high up in the air with just one shot from a pistol or diving headfirst into a shark’s mouth and managing to cut his way out of it with a chainsaw). But for the most part, it was an incredibly dumb b-grade film with lame effects and bad acting and at times it tried to take things way too seriously when in reality we’re talking about a film that is about a tornado of sharks that wreaks havoc upon the city of Los Angeles with a tagline that says it all; ‘Enough Said’.

‘Sharknado 2: The Second One’ is pretty much exactly the same thing, except this time it is in New York, resulting in quite a lot (and I mean a lot) of product placement, including an entire sequence taking place in the New York Mets’ ballpark Citi Field, multiple shots of Subway (including a cameo from the ‘Subway’ guy himself, Jared Fogle), and multiple scenes of television broadcasts featuring cameos from Al Roker and Matt Lauer from ‘The Today Show’ and Kelly Ripa and Michael Strahan from ‘Live with Kelly and Michael’. In contrast, the first film did not have any product placement of any kind, which I guess shows how popular that first film was if this film is full of cameos and product placement. Like the first film, ‘Sharknado 2’ does have its ridiculous moments, like when Finn surfs on a shark inside the ‘sharknado’, but it also has the exact same problems of the first film. Laughable special effects, poor acting, and while this one isn’t necessarily taking things as serious as the first film did, they still try to add in some emotional drama, which is really unnecessary seeing how this film is called ‘Sharknado’! I mean, in a sense, it’s rather pointless to critique this movie as we all know that it’s bad. It’s just that quite frankly I’m a little disturbed that these two lousy B-movies became such a cult sensation. But hey, if you’re a fan of these two films, that’s fine. I’m just not one of those people who got caught up in all of the hype, probably because I already knew they were going to be bad going in.

Oh yeah, and this film also has the most pointless post-credits scene of all time, which I think is trying to parody ‘Avengers’ as this one also features the main character going somewhere to get a bite to eat but really it’s just a waste of time.

This year’s been pretty solid as far as animated films go. I didn’t see ‘How to Train Your Dragon 2’, but I heard very good things about it and I did see two superb animated films in ‘Big Hero 6’ and ‘The LEGO Movie’. But then you’ve got this film…

6. THE NUT JOB

Boy, talk about a bad start to the year as far as animated films are concerned (thank god ‘The LEGO Movie’ came out just a month later). Now usually when it comes to family films, especially animated films, I’m not as critical towards them if I find that they are at least good for kids. Films like ‘Cars 2’ and the recent remake of ‘Annie’ are prime examples of this. But as for ‘The Nut Job’, I doubt that there’s even much here for kids. I mean, I’ve read a review online in which the author had taken his kid to see the film and the kid wanted to leave early, which kind of shows how weak the material in this movie is. As the title suggests, there’s a lot of nut jokes in it (including some that I think are a little too risqué for a kids film) and it gets old pretty quick. It may be a heist film, about a bunch of squirrels trying to rob a nut store that at the same time is a front for a bunch of criminals who are planning to rob a bank, but as far as the genre is concerned the writing and the film’s characters are pretty sub-standard. The animation is decent enough but nowhere as good as something from Pixar or DreamWorks. So with all of that in mind, some of you might think that this really isn’t that bad; just a rather mediocre animated film that is light on the jokes.

Well, as many critics have already pointed out, the biggest problem with the film is with its main character, Surly. Though voiced by the incredibly talented and funny Will Arnett, who thankfully had a much better turn as LEGO Batman in ‘The LEGO Movie’, Surly is just an incredibly unlikable character. He’s very self-centered and egotistical, putting himself before others and as a result, he ends up destroying the other animals’ food for the winter as a result of him trying to get food for himself. He doesn’t work well with others and constantly bullies his partner in crime, a mute rat by the name of Buddy, around. While he does ‘redeem himself’ at the end of the movie, it doesn’t really feel that genuine because of how big of an a-hole that he was before. In short, it’s because of this incredibly unlikable character, the lead character in the film, that ‘The Nut Job’ ends up being a fairly poor animated film. Like I said before, while I’m usually one to forgive an animated film if I find that it’s harmless enough for kids, I don’t even think that kids will like this one too much. They might end up being rather bored by it, which is not a good thing when it comes to animated films. But it seems like a lot of kids did like this film as it was commercially successful enough for a sequel, which is planned for a January 2016 release. Oh well…

And that’s the end of Part 1 of this list. Check back tomorrow for Part 2 in which I list my Top 5 worst of the year.