Happy New Year! By popular demand, I am adding another list to the “2011 in Review” series – the worst films of 2011. It’s often said that it is more fun to write a negative review than a positive one. I agree to some extent: one can be wittier or funnier; likewise, the task of trashing a movie affords more opportunity to let loose. Or does it? Perhaps, but it doesn’t feel as good to pan a movie as it does to rave one. For example, I admittedly enjoyed sticking it War Horse for being so repulsively sappy; on the other hand, I really didn’t enjoy knocking films like The Skin I Live In. It’s true that without bad reviews, endless ‘thumbs up’ seem meaningless, but I would rather take the time to encourage someone to see a good movie than to deter them from seeing a stinker. (People generally don’t read negative reviews, anyways.) However, I do feel compelled to wave a flag when an especially foul film comes along. On that note, here are the ten films that stunk up 2011.
The 10 Worst Films of 2011:
Bitch, bitch; groan, groan. Watching Freddie Highmore stumble over the gratingly annoying script made me loathe all the classic teen angst films that inspired it.
2. Kennyville
Not even this shameless cheerleader for Canadian film could find something nice about Kennyville… and I recommended French Immersion!
3. Flypaper
If Jessica Chastain wants to one-up her The Help co-star Octavia Spencer, she should start mailing screenings of Flypaper to the Academy. (But then Patrick Dempsey and Ashley Judd will surely put a hit on her, and we don’t want that!)
4. Trespass
A new career low for Cage and Kidman, this is the film that allowed Madonna to breathe a sigh of relief for not having the worst film of TIFF 2011.
Another TIFF turkey, That Summer is the only film to have ever driven me to drink.
This insufferably annoying documentary is a poor rehash of What the Bleep do we Know?!
7. Sucker Punch
I still could not tell you what this movie was about – I bet even 13-year-old boys find it stupid.
8. Restless
The most annoying hipster film since The Art of Getting By.
9. Hobo with a Shotgun
The kind of schlocky Canadian-content film that provides a good joke for Barney Panofsky. Or what the TIFF Bell Lightbox calls “One of Canada’s Top Ten.”
10. The Green Hornet
When an art-house director makes a superhero movie, it’s as disastrous as a foray into art film by Michael Bay.
There we go! May these films be rewarded with little golden raspberries.
Did I forget any turkeys?