As we’ve discussed already, we reckon 2015 has been a pretty good year for movies so far. A bunch of festival favorites from 2014 have finally arrived in theaters and found wider audiences, brand new movies have arrived to great acclaim, there’ve been a few blockbusters as good as any we’ve seen in years in “Mad Max: Fury Road” and “Inside Out,” and Sundance, Cannes and other film festivals brought a new selection of tantalizing pictures that’ll be unveiled to mass audiences over time.
But it’s not all been milk and honey, unfortunately. For every great or very good film, there’s been a crushing disappointment, a total trainwreck or a barely-watchable, deeply offensive insult to anyone’s intelligence. Bad movies aren’t going anywhere, and barely a week pops by without something deeply stupid hitting theaters.
There’s a value to a bad movie, though: it’s possible that filmmakers may not repeat those mistakes. Now that we’ve crossed the official midpoint of 2015, we’ve picked out the 20 worst films of the year so far. Let us know your least favorites, or if you want to defend one of our picks, in the comments.
“Any Day” (original review)
Perhaps searching for a role where he doesn’t die at the end (a quest that also led him to “Jupiter Ascending” this year: maybe it’s time to rethink that strategy…), Sean Bean toplined “Any Day,” which is equal parts miserabilist mid-period Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu knockoff and faith-based drama. Rustam Branaman’s film sees Bean’s puzzlingly-named Vian released from prison after killing a man in a drunken fight and being put up by his sister (Kate Walsh) and her young son, with a new job and promising new romance giving him the chance to start over. The film is essentially plotless and doesn’t have enough engaging on a scene-by-scene level (the performances are merely serviceable) until a demented third act that sees tragedy pile on tragedy and a religious subplot kick in, leading to the cruelest "god-has-a-plan" "triumph" since Mel Gibson’s wife got cut in half with a car so she could deliver the message that Joaquin Phoenix should hit an alien with a baseball bat in “Signs.” Nicholas Sparks might envy the craziness of the ending, but the rest of us resent not only that, but the two-thirds of the film that came before it.
“The Cobbler” (original review)
Adam Sandler in serious mode can be a great thing: just look at the masterful “Punch Drunk Love,” or Judd Apatow’s undervalued “Funny People.” But he hasn’t had a great run of it more recently, and if you made Jason Reitman’s “Men Women & Children” and then this, the biggest flop of your career, it’s no wonder that you’d turn back to the warm arms of dumb comedies for Netflix. What’s particularly disappointing about “The Cobbler,” in which Sandler plays a shoe-repairman who discovers he can magically turn into his customers when he puts on their footwear, is that it comes from writer-director Thomas McCarthy, who’s done such sterling work on “The Station Agent,” “The Visitor” and (to a lesser extent) “Win Win.” The director comes enormously unstuck here, despite Sandler being relatively invested in his performance and a strong supporting cast (Dustin Hoffman, Steve Buscemi, Dan Stevens, Melonie Diaz and Ellen Barkin), with a film that melds a sort of high-concept “Click”-type comedy with a sub-Michel Gondry look at community. The nicest thing you could say about the film is that it’s probably well meaning, but there’s a pretty offensive and racist undercurrent, such an oddly dour tone, and such inept storytelling that you suspect that McCarthy was replaced by a pod person.
“Entourage” (original review)
“Sex And The City” was a pretty good TV series. It was narrow-minded in some ways, and it quickly dated, but was consistently strong and entertaining. Yet its reputation has been tarnished in a big way by the two movies that followed it, which double-downed on the worst elements of the series (the enormous privilege of the characters, tone-deafness, crassness) while losing the best. As far as we can tell, when “Entourage” creator Doug Ellin came to make his own spin-off of his own HBO series, he used “Sex And The City 2” as a model, and came up with a movie just as plotless, queasy and loathsome as the final adventure of Carrie and her friends. Focusing on the lousy-looking directorial debut of Vinny Chase with various negligible subplots and supermodel-banging in the background, hardcore fans of the show surely found something to like, but hardcore fans of the show would probably would have been happy with a tatty issue of Maxim from 2001 and a tape recorder with Jeremy Piven shouting the word "fuck" a lot. Which is essentially what this film is. Baring even less relationship to reality than most Hollywood satires and featuring cameos from the glittering likes of Andrew Dice Clay, David Arquette, Kelsey Grammer and David Spade, it’s a movie so bad that, in the “Entourage” universe, it probably would have made four billion dollars and won 24 Oscars.
"Fifty Shades of Grey" (original review)
Yes, this film is a great deal better than the book. But since the book is simply one of the worst things to have ever existed, that still allows plenty of room for Sam Taylor-Johnson‘s film version of "Fifty Shades of Grey" to be all manner of dreadful. And indeed it is, since while a certain flat gloss to the filmmaking and an above-par performance from Dakota Johnson in a thankless role compensate for the crushing borderline illiteracy of the source novel’s prose, certain other elements are not lost in translation to the screen, unfortunately. Namely, the plot, the gender politics, the vomity driven-snow "purity" of the heroine, the fawning, tone-deaf Randian adoration of Expensive Stuff. But perhaps all of that could have been forgiven, or at least have kept the film from the ignominy of this list, if it had actually done what it promised and provided a progressive, even transgressive perspective on sexuality and the nature of power play within BDSM relationships. Or failing that, some actual smut, goddammit! But instead, we get an entirely flaccid Cinderella story which wears its "Twi-lite" credentials on its sleeve in characterizing Christian (Jamie Dornan) as a creature so wholly unreal he might as well be a sparkly vampire.
“Get Hard” (original review)
Will Ferrell is demonstrably funny. Kevin Hart is also demonstrably funny. So teaming that pair up in a film directed by “Tropic Thunder” scribe Etan Cohen and penned by “Key & Peele” showrunners Jay Martel and Ian Roberts should have led to hilarity, right? Wrong. So very, very wrong. “Get Hard,” which did dispiritingly well at the domestic box office this spring was a ludicrously creaky comedy, the kind of exercise you can imagine Chevy Chase starring in as his star started to fade, and even in the late 1980s it probably would have unacceptable on a number of levels. Ferrell plays a wealthy hedge fund manager framed for a Ponzi-style embezzlement scheme and sentenced to ten years in prison, and who, assuming his car washer (Hart) has been in prison because he’s black, asks for a crash-course in life on the inside. Maybe there was a way of approaching that premise that wasn’t offensive, or at least toed the line in a “Trading Places” sort of way, but “Get Hard” instead relies on a string of gags about race and sexuality that are so out of step with the time that you wonder how a lot of smart people involved at all levels of productions could have let it happen. It’s a waste and rivals “Bewitched” as Ferrell’s worst movie.
“Home Sweet Hell”
Having publicly trash-talked her biggest hits “Knocked Up” and “Grey’s Anatomy” and having her brief rom-com lead career run dry, Katherine Heigl is in need of a comeback. She’s actually pretty good in “Jackie & Ryan,” per our review, but any hope of an upswing with “Home Sweet Hell” wasn’t just quashed, but was obliterated once (a very small handful of) people saw it. Like a Coen Brothers black comedy film made by someone who hates the Coen Brothers, black comedy and films, it sees Heigl and Patrick Wilson as a married couple, Don and Mona Champagne (urggh), whose life of not-bliss is interrupted when Wilson starts an affair with gangster’s moll Jordana Brewster, eventually ending in blackmail and Mona’s suggestion that they kill the moll. Heigl attacked “Knocked Up” for its perceived sexism, which makes it doubly puzzling that she’d sign up for this film, perhaps the most aggressively misogynistic film that we’ve seen in some time, with Heigl’s character alternating between repressed, Type A shrew and manic psycho (and being awful at both). Tone-deaf, never even remotely funny and crudely plotted, it’s the kind of film that you need a long shower after —even then, you won’t feel any better.
“Jupiter Ascending” (original review)
We so wanted to love “Jupiter Ascending.” There are Playlist contributors who are great defenders of the Wachowskis‘ last couple of movies “Speed Racer” and especially “Cloud Atlas,” and we’re always hoping the siblings will return to the giddy heights of “The Matrix.” Channing Tatum is turning into one of the great movie stars of this generation, and the film looked like the kind of original, non-franchise grand-canvas sci-fi adventure that we’re all crying out for. Even with disappointed advance word, we went into the movie optimistic, and had our hopes sadly crushed by a film that wasn’t even enough fun to qualify as a guilty pleasure. A sadly miscast Mila Kunis starred as a humble immigrant cleaner who learns via Tatum’s part-wolf intergalactic bounty hunter that she’s a genetic clone of the Queen of the Universe and is wooed by three feuding siblings (Eddie Redmayne, Douglas Booth and Tuppence Middleton), in a lavish sci-fi adventure that nevertheless felt like you’d seen it all before (in part thanks to the film’s eye-melting, and not in a good way, excess of CGI). Every so often, it felt like it brushed against the self-awareness that a film involving an elephant pilot, a Terry Gilliam cameo and a character called Chicanery Night should have, but this was mostly po-faced, surprisingly regressive in its gender politics (Kunis spends essentially the entire movie being rescued) and almost no fun at all.
"Kingsman: The Secret Service" (original positive review)
There is one clever thing about the wilfully unclever ‘Kingsman’ —by introducing elements of ’70s Bond pastiche into a film that is far more a ’70s Bond homage, it gets to have its cake and have anal sex with it. The film’s fans, of whom there are depressingly many, can therefore claim that detractors just didn’t get the joke when we complain about its treatment of women, its homophobia, its sickening glorification of the ugliest violence, its shoddy filmmaking —it’s "sending up" those elements, innit, fans claim. However, its finer impulses —Eggsy (Taron Egerton, a legitimate find), overcoming the class system, learning about teamwork etc— those are… valid points the film is actually making? There is no premise elastic enough to contain all these contradications, so instead we get lowest-common-denominator sensationalism slathered in limp justifications —ordinarily, you might feel bad about Colin Firth assassinating a church full of people, but not to worry, they’re bigots, which makes it all terrific fun instead! Serial offender Matthew Vaughn tops even his own back catalogue for sheer obnoxiousness here, delivering a film whose ultimate irony is in how those who didn’t "get" its corrosive, debilitating cynicism get to accuse everyone else of not "getting it."
“Monsters: Dark Continent” (original review)
2010’s “Monsters” was maybe the most ingenious indie genre film of the last five years, finding director Gareth Edwards setting himself up for future “Godzilla” and “Star Wars” gigs by taking a micro-budget and turning it into blockbuster-sized scope with enormous resourcefulness while still doing some compelling work with character. Sequel “Monsters: Dark Continent”… does not. Well, that’s not entirely true. Tom Green’s follow-up, linked to the first film only by an exec producer credit for Edwards and having some monsters in it, manages to achieve some hugely impressive visuals on a limited sum, with a few money shots that can compete with anything mega-blockbusters have offered this year. The trouble is that the film offers nothing beyond that. The “Aliens” to the first film’s “Alien,” this movie turns into a war film, with a group of American soldiers (played by British actors, not so much underwritten as unwritten) setting out to rescue some friendly troops in an area where they’re under threat from both the looming creatures and insurgents. It’s thinly plotted, badly written, deeply sexist (this is a world where women are not allowed to both talk and have their clothes on), politically both obvious and questionable, and just plain boring. Frankly, it doesn’t deserve to carry the name “Monsters.”
“Mortdecai” (original review)
After spending most of the ’00s on top of the world, Johnny Depp’s had a rough several years: only the critically savaged fourth “Pirates of the Caribbean” made big bucks, and big-budget vehicles “Dark Shadows,” “The Lone Ranger” and “Transcendence” each hit that very particular kind of failure known as ‘completely shitting the bed.’ Let’s hope that this fall’s “Black Mass” marks a turnaround, because “Mortdecai” feels like it would be difficult for Depp to dip any lower. Reteaming with his “Secret Window” director David Koepp and based on a series of novels by Kyril Bonfiglioli, it sees the star play an aristocratic art dealer and conman who’s enlisted by the British police to retrieve a stolen Goya. It’s an attempt to revive a sort of ’60s caper picture, but like “Gambit” a few years ago, it ends up feeling brutally dated. In part, this is because Koepp can’t settle on a tone, vacillating between broad parody and something closer to adult thriller. In main, it’s because Depp’s recent string of increasingly cartoonish performances reaches its zenith with a manically mugging, desperately unfunny turn, like Terry Thomas if he’d snorted way too much cocaine. This film is so bad that even a brief appearance from Jeff Goldblum feels unwelcome.
“Outcast”
What, you really thought this list was going to go up without a Nicolas Cage film? Like fellow once-respected actors Adrien Brody and John Cusack (though the latter’s on the comeback trail in a big way with “Love & Mercy”), Cage is looking to the east for a revival of his career with “Outcast” marking his first Chinese-made picture. It’s probably not the worst film he’s ever made (there is stiff competition as such), but it’s still flat and uninspired enough to more than deserve its place here. It pairs Cage with Hayden Christensen, who’s somehow still booking gigs well over a decade after he proved objectively that he can’t act with the “Star Wars” prequels, as a pair of crusaders enlisted to protect the younger brother of the despot-in-the-making who’s targeted him for assassination. It should be said that the film has a certain degree of style and does a decent job at eking out some degree of production value. But the story’s highly derivative and mostly uninteresting, Christensen’s exactly as flat as you might imagine, the Chinese actors fare little better, and Cage continues to chew the scenery to increasingly diminishing effect. Once, the idea of him essentially riffing on Toshiro Mifune would have been exciting. Now, it’s just depressing.
“Paul Blart Mall Cop 2”
Potentially unpopular opinion: Kevin James could have been a good movie star. In his first big-screen appearance, in “Hitch,” he was warm, likeable, displayed chemistry with his co-stars and showed off the comic timing that had made him popular as both a stand-up and a sitcom star. But in the decade since, James has made nothing but lousy, lowest-common-denominator choices, with “Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2” marking something like the bottom of the barrel. It might be easy to pick up on something like a sequel to James’ earlier sleeper-hit, which relocates his semi-competent, hypoglycaemic security guard to Vegas, where he has to foil another heist. It’s the ultimate critic-proof film, made for kids and even less demanding audiences. There’s no reason that something like this couldn’t succeed on the level to which it aspires, but Andy Fickman’s film doesn’t appear to have any aspirations beyond ‘we have enough footage to make it to 94 minutes,’ resetting Blart to zero (if his love interest from the previous film left him after six days, why would we care about him?), and then lazily replaying the plot of the first film. Even James’ likability fails him here (he punches an elderly woman in the stomach at one point), leaving a film that has literally not a single thing to recommend it.
“Serena” (original review)
Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence are pretty much on top of the world right now. They have three Oscar nominations apiece in the last five years (and one win for Lawrence), have toplined megahits (the top three grossing films of 2014, for instance), and have previously starred together in commercial and critical hits “Silver Linings Playbook” and “American Hustle.” So given that it was an adaptation of an acclaimed novel by Oscar-winner Susanne Bier, there was every reason to be excited about “Serena.” Well, at least until the film was delayed for years and eventually snuck out on VOD and a brief theatrical run. And little wonder: though “Serena” isn’t the worst film on this list, it might be the most disappointing, a mostly inept and entirely boring period picture that’s likely to be brushed over on the stars’ CVs in years to come. Based on Ron Rash’s book, it sees Cooper’s lumber tycoon taking Lawrence’s enigmatic title character as his bride, forming an ambitious partnership that soon leads to murder and more when Serena discovers she can’t have children. The story comes across like it should be narrated by Will Ferrell’s character from “The Spoils Of Babylon,” and could have been more engaging with a director who embraced the batshit craziness (Cooper’s character is randomly eaten by a cougar at the end, for instance), but Bier’s too tasteful for that, so the end result is tepid, entirely miscast and badly told.
“The Seventh Son” (original review)
Long delays don’t have to mean that a project is in trouble. “Mad Max: Fury Road,” for instance, began shooting at the beginning of 2012, spent nearly two years in post production, and turned out to be the best action movie in decades. The same unfortunately can’t be said for “The Seventh Son.” Intended to fill the gap left by the “Harry Potter” series, this adaptation of a young adult series began shooting at the same time as “Fury Road,” spent as long to get to theaters, with a number of release dates whizzing past, and even changed studios (Legendary having moved from Warner Bros. to Universal along the way). But then, it sucks really hard. Directed by “Mongol” helmer Sergei Bodrov in what seems likely to be his only English-language picture, the film sees witch-hunter Jeff Bridges (giving an identical performance to his last few paycheck gigs) finding a new apprentice in the wildly uncharismatic shape of Ben Barnes to battle the evil Julianne Moore, nearly Norbit-ing her Oscar. There’s occasionally nifty design work at play, but the performances are dire bar Alicia Vikander, and the action is interchangeable with “Snow White & The Huntsman,” “47 Ronin” and all the other sub-standard fantasy movies of late.
“Strange Magic” (original review)
The return to filmmaking, if ‘story credit on an animated movie seemingly released through contractual obligation’ can be considered a return, for George Lucas, “Strange Magic” arrives at a time when we’ve come to expect more and more from animated features, thanks to masterworks from Pixar to Miyazaki. Despite being a musical set among fairies, it doesn’t so much call back the classic age of animation as the days when you’d find things like “Ferngully” and “The Pagemaster” clogging up theaters in search of a quick buck. Riffing very, very loosely on “A Midsummer Nights’ Dream,” with Evan Rachel Wood’s fairies and Alan Cumming’s goblins tussling over a love potion, the film has an over-complex nonsense plot that should be familiar to anyone that saw “The Phantom Menace,” but without much of a personality to go around in design or theme. The voice cast appears to have been assembled at random (Alfred Molina! Maya Rudolph! Tony Cox!), the film’s gratingly scored by diabolicial, sub-“Glee” renditions of pop standards, and is littered with ‘humor’ haunted by the spectre of Jar Jar Binks —the kind of ‘joke’ that a 70-year-old man thinks children would find funny. Director Gary Rydstrom was going to be at the helm of the lost Pixar movie, “Newt” —on this evidence, we may have dodged a bullet.
“Taken 3” (original review)
Not to get too processy, but when we came to put together the longlist for this feature, we ended up writing “Taken 3” down three separate times before realizing that it was already there. It perfectly encapsulates both how awful and how entirely forgettable the film is: only six months after release, it already feels like it’s been filling up service station bargain bins since the mid-1980s. This nadir of a franchise that was shitty to begin with sees Liam Neeson’s ill-starred former special-ops type Bryan Mills (if you gave Jason Statham a script with a character named something as boring as Bryan Mills, he would probably eat it), this time at home in L.A, framed for his wife’s murder, pursued by detective Forest Whitaker (barely conscious), and once again out to rescue his annoying daughter (Maggie Grace), who should maybe just stop leaving the house at this point. Entirely tired and interchangeable with other entries in the series, lumbered with a ‘surprise’ bad guy in Dougray Scott, who might as well walk around in a t-shirt that says ‘bad guy’ from his entrance, and stuck with a toothless PG-13 rating (which pleasingly led to the lowest-grossing movie in the franchise), the only surprising thing about “Taken 3” is that a man named Olivier Megaton could be responsible for action sequences as awful as these.
“Ted 2” (original review)
In fairness, “Ted 2” is better than “A Million Ways To Die In The West.” It’s certainly better than Seth MacFarlane’s Oscars. But given that the “Family Guy” creator has given himself such a low bar to clear in his encounters with movies so far, none of the preceding are compliments. From the opening, a shoehorned-in musical number that once again indulges the filmmaker’s love of the classic era of the American Songbook and stops the movie literally as it’s starting, this is a MacFarlane joint (pun intended, and on about par to the laziness of the writing in the film) through and through. Jokes over-extended to fill the running time? Check. ‘Equal opportunity offensiveness’ aimed everywhere but at straight white men? Check. Callbacks and references that don’t function as jokes except to say ‘this is a callback and/or reference?’ Check. Maybe one in ten times a joke will land, and Mark Wahlberg remains incredibly game, making you wish that the film around him matched his willingness to embarrass himself. But this is exactly as regressive, scattershot and uninspired as the first film, and even more rage-inducingly follows the MRA/Gamergate tactic of using the language of civil rights and progressiveness (here, in a plot that has Ted fighting for his civil rights) to diminish the importance of those things. To put it in terms the movie would appreciate: fuck “Ted 2.”
“Unfinished Business” (original review)
After two episodes, it remains to be seen if “True Detective” will be the career reinvention that Vince Vaughn hopes it’ll be. Emphasis on hope, because after a comedy as dismal as “Unfinished Business,” he needs to change tack, double-quick. Directed by Ken Scott (whose previous team-up with Vaughn, “The Delivery Man,” looks like a masterpiece next to this), it sees Vaughn as a businessman (‘business’ is about as specific as the film gets) who with his misfit colleagues Tom Wilkinson and Dave Franco head to Germany to close a crucial deal against rival Sienna Miller. The film can’t decide whether it’s some kind of “Jerry Maguire”-ish dramedy (the sub-plots involving Vaughn’s kids back at home might be the least interesting sub-plots in the history of sub-plots) or a broad “Hangover”-style bro-com, and ultimately settles on being a hollow, hateful, uneven amalgam of both. If you think that the treatment of Miller is mean-spirited, it’s nothing next to the staggering misjudgements involving Franco’s on-the-spectrum character, or Nick Frost’s cameo (the actor’s arguably the best thing about the film, but still). And whatever Vaughn’s lizardy charms once were, they’ve long since dissipated in the comedy world. Honestly, there were more laughs in the actor’s endless “True Detective” monologue the other night that there are here.
“United Passions” (original review)
Even in light of the currently unfolding FIFA corruption scandal, it can be hard to explain to those who don’t follow sports about the huge self-importance the soccer organization has projected for years. But it might be easier to understand after a couple of hours with “United Passions.” Almost entirely financed by FIFA, the movie tells the stirring story of the roots of the organization’s executive branch. Without ever setting a foot on an actual pitch, “United Passions” is a corporate centered look at soccer that boldly humblebrags (and overstates) FIFA’s contributions to ending apartheid, promoting diversity, ensuring the popularity of the sport and bravely surviving bankruptcy several times over. While both bizarre and jaw-dropping, the film is never awful enough to be interestingly bad, laboring on tediously as Gerard Depardieu, Sam Neill, and Tim Roth cash their paychecks to star in what has to be one of the most expensive self-promotional video ever made. A self-congratulatory appraisal of FIFA’s triumph over managerial adversity, the film is ultimately Sepp Blatter’s love letter to himself, and something of a legal defense as well, painting him as a man who courageously saved the group from corruption but becomes unfairly tainted in the process. Wildly self-serving, inaccurate and dull, “United Passions” will hopefully go down in history as FIFA’s final act of hubris before the walls came crashing down.
“Woman In Gold” (original review)
No one really anticipates a film like “Woman In Gold,” do they? There are no blogs living off plot tidbits for “The Third Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” no twitter storms when the trailer for “Lady In The Van” arrives. These films hit arthouses, and sometimes they’re good (“Philomena” being around the upper tier), sometimes they’re not, but they usually make a healthy amount of money. “Woman In Gold” did well (with over $30 million in the U.S. alone, it’s probably the biggest indie of the year so far), but presumably this is because this particular audience is so starved for content that they’ll see literally anything with a middlebrow patina of "prestige" or "class," because this film is an incredibly weak example of the genre. Based, inevitably, on a true story, it stars, inevitably, Helen Mirren as Maria Altmann, a Jewish immigrant to the U.S. who filed a suit against the Austrian government for the return of paintings belonging to her aunt, including the Klimt picture of the title, worth over $100 million. It’s well meaning, incredibly simplistic, and almost spectacularly bland —director Simon Curtis has made his previous picture “My Week With Marilyn” look like John Waters made it, with Ryan Reynolds’ beige attorney and his wife, Thankless Wife (Katie Holmes) being the most flavorless element of a flavorless, manipulative, cheap and disingenuous picture. “Orphan Black” star Tatiana Maslany makes a strong case for future cinematic stardom as the younger version of Mirren’s character, but there’s little else to like here.
Honorable Mentions: Aside from the twenty films above, we considered a selection of others, but ultimately the films either had their defenders on staff, or we couldn’t find enough people who’d seen them, or they simply weren’t deemed quite bad enough. In brief, there was John Travolta crime thriller “The Forger,” vanishing thriller remake “The Loft,” Sean Penn trying and failing to do a “Taken” with “The Gunman,” Cameron Crowe’s much-mocked, not-quite-as-bad-as-all-that “Aloha,” and Jack Black and James Marsden in “The D Train.”
Then there was Blake Lively‘s immortal romance “The Age Of Adaline,” the Soviet-accent-safari of “Child 44,” Neill Blomkamp’s “Chappie,” tiresome gross-out “The Human Centipede 3,” substandard comedy sequel “Hot Tub Time Machine 2,” Simon Pegg ‘thriller’ “Kill Me Three Times,” David O Russell’s disowned “Accidental Love,” and would-be Sharknado “Zombeavers.” Anything else you hated? Let us know in the comments.
— Oliver Lyttelton, Jessica Kiang, Kevin Jagernauth
Ted @ Looks like he might be the delinquint brother to the little Snuggle bear and Taken # im glad to see it bomb Liam Nessons a hypotcrite and a fool
Markunator is right to a degree, calling you out DORIS the first thing this article did wrong in judging a cinematic work was bring in a predetermined bias to judge a movie. A movie is judged on its exceptional work in what it is made, it cannot be any less of a work of art because simply this movie "offended" people. Kingsman was not an homage of a Bond film. If you examined the film and watched it multiple times, you can see that Kingsman progresses a satirical self aware view of the Bond classics. Mocking the classic spy genre. Openly poking holes within itself, being ludicrous, over the top and partaking in anal sex because a relationship with the girl everyone expected did not follow the satirical trend of the movie. This movie was insane and different on purpose. To make a point, obviously, this reveiwer did not see that. Check the reveiws mate, this movie has been solidified as one of the more strong films of the year, and a choreographic masterpiece despite its supposed "bigot" nature.
Doris, I\’s not cool to talk like that anymore. You sound like you made the wrong turn at the Renissance! Oooooooooooooohhh!!!!!
Very "clever" point of view on a movie so overly the top satirical one carachter offers her rear ends up to a completely stranger in the most hilarious way possible. Did you mention the winner contestant was a woman? You forgot? OK
You have left out Tangerine – probably the worst film I have ever seen, Diary of Teenage Girl is a close second.
So after Hollywood blabber mouth Liam Nesson blames american gun owners for the shooting and people star away from his movie I am glad it(TAKEN 3)has bombed
They cant make a movie today without using toilet talk in it why dot they learn to flush as well
Liam Nesson has probibly pernamatly put a wedge between his movies and the american public with his amount of hypocracy over his anti-gun stance while using guns in his movies
The Loft wasn\’t that bad, but hey anything with Karl Urban, I\’ll see without hesitation. I saw that Heigl film which was mildly amusing, but was happy to see her character die near the end. You also missed BLACKHAT. This was a disappointment coming from Michael Mann. Hopefully his next film is better.
Nathan Duke, what do you mean by smug nihilism?
Finally saw "Kingsman" last night. While I wouldn\’t rank it with the few worst of the year, it was definitely off-putting – decent filmmaking in service of smug nihilism.
Agree with pretty much all of the list, and the honourable mentions, but I don\’t see how "Kingsman" was bad enough to belong in the list. What about Hot Pursuit. Very tepid year for (big) movies.
A Scandanavian girl offering anal is far from misogynistic. Feminism is so dominant in their culture that women are now expected to make the first move rather than men. The Princess being so forward with her sexual advance is an indication of how much further feminism has progressed in their culture versus ours in the US. The woman wants to f*ck so she f*cks. No slut shaming. She wants to offer a sexual favor as a prize to a man for saving her life, why not? Let\’s not forget that he is a mere servant (a highly paid and skillful servant, but a servant nonetheless) and her status is ROYALTY. So, the power dynamics of that exchange puts the upper hand firmly on HER side. SHE has the power to initiate a sexual side to the relationship, and she invokes this power without hesitation.
ferrell and hart are were never funny. lousy actors to boot.
\’Kingsman\’ was incredible! And I actually am a cinephile.
Hey calm down SUPER ANTI-DORIS! We only want DORIS to shut up. Respect the others (except PRO-DORIS… there is something about that name I don\’t like at all…)
EVERYONE SHUT THE HELL UUUUP!!!!
I have no strong feelings for one DORIS or another DORIS.
Kingsman is like shopping in Forever 21.
Kingsman does not belong here whatsoever… it was a fun fast paced movie that had everything I would want in an action movie. I guess the people who dont like it, are people who dont like British movies or they are complete morons (im betting on the later). Ted 2 wasnt awful, I laughed more at that movie than hideous wrecks like Hangover 1-3 (especially 2) and any POS Melissa McCarthy movie with her one trick pony acting.
@Ray – Revenue doesnt equate to good movies. Look at Jurrasic World, its another rehash of the same tired dinosaur gets loose and eats people… Zzzzzz. Grandmas Boy was a flop financially but was and is one of the best comedies no one has seen, its becoming a cult classic just by word of mouth.
The Kingsman is my favorite movie this year. Irony or not, it was solid entertainment.
Just what I figured. Your 20 best movies of the year are movies no one ever heard about minus maybe 2. Your worst movies are all mainstream movies that everyone knows. Another pompous critic who stands back and tells everyone what is good and bad. Bottom line- Revenue determines the best movies. Whatever movies get seen the most are the best. Believe me, if these so called best movies were so good, a big time company would purchase them and make them top grossers.
I came to commention on kingsman like everyone else but I can\’t be the only one that quite enjoyed ted 2. Yes I like MacFarlane and his brand if humor so I do guess thats a pre req lol
Kingsman is dog sh*t.
Hey, Zombeavers is awesome!! Yes it\’s a ridiculous horror/comedy full of nonsense – because it\’s a parody. It\’s supposed to look and feel silly and cheap. That\’s what makes it funny.
Why in the world is Kingsman on this list? It is one of the best movies of 2015. That action is stylish and amazingly choreographed. It is hilarious and clever. The performances were fantastic (aside from Sam L Jackson\’s annoying lisp). How is the church massacre scene not one of the best movie moments of the year?
The film is exceedingly entertaining and subversive.
PRO-DORIS Gonegirl was so shit. Can\’t even talk about it. Such a long never ending build up end then…?? NOTHING!!!
all this blah blah. Fact is: Kingsman was awesome. Highly entertaining and not one dull, boring moment. Total fireworks. I don\’t get shitty Aloha isn\’t on the list but Kingsman is. That\’s BS!
Markunator I couldn\’t agree more with everything you have said. Kingsman was great fun, stop being "too" serious about cinema people. I do agree with the rest of the list though. I also thought FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD was pretty shit.
Jesus!
Videogames and TV have evolved and are experienceing a golden era, but cinema has stayed in a rut for a long time (since 80s IMHO). gimmicks like 3D and shared-universes aren\’t helping.
this list is accurate IMO but thought you guys liked kingsman secret service when it came out?
I have to say, it\’s nice to see the Playlist comments section so animated..! If film can still polarise and provoke arguments, maybe the art form ain\’t done yet…
DORIS! DORIS! DORIS! DORIS! DORIS!
@PRO-DORIS – You\’re just naming great films from the past and lesser films from the same directors. We can play that game all day, but the fact is great films come out all the time, they\’re just going to be DIFFERENT than the ones you may have grown up with (or were told from the get-go that they were great, classic films). Boyhood, Under the Skin, The Social Network, There Will Be Blood, The Dark Knight, Inside Out – all great, all inspiring. Opinions are fine, but what you guys are saying is just cynical.
I really liked Age of Adaline,I will give it a 7/10.Hot tub machine was a total waste of time and a mistake for a movie.I love Liam Neeson but Taken series should scraped
doris is sort of right about the state of movies….. she\’s not the first to say it either. what\’s better: badlands or to the wonder? alien or prometheus? raiders of the lost ark or tintin? ed wood or big eyes? se7en or gone girl? T2 or terminator Genysis (or however the f–k its spelled)?
just sayin\’ YO
SHUT THE HELL UP DORIS!
Shut up DORIS.
Magic Mike XXL was terrible
I\’m shocked to see no place for the pretty-but-bland-and-vaguely-nasty FOCUS (Requa/Ficarra continue to tumble into a creative abyss after starting so well with I LOVE YOU, PHILLIP MORRIS) here, even in the dishonourable mentions…
That moment when Kingsman get\’s an A- and is considered one of the worst movies of the year….wtf.
I think Hayden Christensen does Outcast a lot of justice, just as he does with the Star Wars prequels. The writing fails him the most. His swordplay in the film is even more impressive. And, come on, that haircut is just bonkers enough to be badass. Nicolas Cage should\’ve been left on the cutting room floor. Outcast suffers most when he\’s on screen.
In my opinion, Jurassic World was the classic example of a dumb blockbuster that uses excess to sell, didn\’t deserve to be part of the Jurassic Park franchise.
Interesting. I half-expected this list to be 99% composed of female-led movies, just for the sake of bashing women, as I often see on these sites. I am pleasantly surprised.
At last! Somebody who agrees with me about the hatefyl Kingsmen. I was expecting a fun, tongue-in-cheek romp and it was so nasty, nihilistic and puerile. The first time in a long while that I actually considered walking out of a film.
\’ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL\’ makes me want to kill myself; worst movie – thus far – of 2015. Bret Easton Ellis, we need you to save us from this self-congratulatory crap on the screen.
I love that big goofy guy in the cobbler! He\’s freakin adorable! And woody allen made a bunch of concepty movies like that in the nineties and everyone had a good time. Well i had a good time with the cobbler and so did my family. Sure, Method man didn\’t have to play a thug…
Having seen Kingsman and absolutely loving it I might have to watch some of the others too now…..
For me "The Age of Adaline" was the worst of them all. Blake Lively was wooden, other than looking good in the costumes she brought absolutely nothing to the role. The character of Adaline needed depth, Blake Lively played her hollow. There isn\’t enough popcorn and wine to make this movie twice watchable.
I was totally disappointed with Cameron Crowe\’s \’Aloha.\’ It was a horrible screenplay. I\’m still in shock how he managed to waste such a talented cast that included Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone and Rachel McAdams. I\’m not exactly certain when his fall from grace started but his films have gotten progressively mediocre over the years.
wyatt I\’m sorry but none of those movies were what you could honestly call a masterpiece. Some fine films, some great… but in decades it\’s unlikely anyone will still be watching them. Does anyone even remember Foxcatcher one year later??
To each their own, but if you really think that smarter-than-average blockbusters like Kingsman belong on this same list over most other inane spectacle movies (ahem, Jurassic/Marvel dogshit), then you don\’t appreciate when… oh screw you, this whole site wouldn\’t know taste or film language if it bit their leg. You\’re like libertarians of cinema, thinking you like indies but really and unadventurously towing the Hollywood line.
I liked Kingsman myself, though I wouldn\’t say it was at all faultless. I will say that Aloha was pretty much THAT bad (there\’s one long take early in the film that has to be the worst-directed scene of the year), and Chappie was so absurd and illogical it all but nullified any lingering regard I had for Blomkamp.
You guys are all gross.
MRA/Gamergate tactic? I thought we were talking about movies. Stupid me. I was mistaken when I was looking for some criticism of film and not culture war rhetoric from someone who knows so little about both movements they actually think the two are linked.
Kingsman – shit movie imo. Maybe I "just don\’t get it" but that\’s perfectly fine by me. If that\’s what cinema goers care to see that\’s fine by me. I\’ll stick to seeing interesting films like Ex Machina, Jauja, Mad Max: Fury Road, and Manglehorn.
Also, for the people who complain that this site gave it a higher grade in it\’s actual review for Kingsman, guess what – more than one person writes for this site (and blog). Some of them even have different opinions on movies from one another. I know I\’ve just blown your minds, but settle down now.
Not to just pile on, but the KINGSMAN inclusion is so dumb. That was a really good movie and it did exactly what it set out to do.
THE KINGSMAN is overrated, but then so is MAD MAX: FURY ROAD which the author praises. Most critics, like people in general, are relativists who lower their own bar year after year, probably without even knowing it. At least THE KINGSMAN tried to create a new franchise though instead of rehashing another decades-old franchise.
How did The Boy Next Door not make it on this list?
Kingsman does NOT belong on this list. I\’m not going to say it\’s a fantastic movie, but to put it in the same category as Mordecai and Fifty Shades is just wrong. Sure, youre entitled to your own opinion, and actually a lot of the time I am in agreement with this site. But here we must part ways.
Sorry, Doris, but you\’re beyond wrong. You want a masterpiece? Just in 2014 we got Foxcatcher, Leviathan, Selma, Boyhood, Birdman, Ida, Winter Sleep, Mr. Turner, Two Days One Night, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Whiplash, Nightcrawler, Gone Girl, Inherent Vice, Snowpiercer, Goodbye to Language, The LEGO Movie, Guardians of the Galaxy, Edge of Tomorrow, The Babadook, Calvary, Wild, Frank, A Most Violent Year, Noah, Mommy, and more. This decade we\’ve gotten everything from The Social Network to The Tree of Life and everything in between. This decade has been a new golden age for cinema as an art form. A few bad blockbusters and terrible comedies aren\’t going to change that.
Kingsman is one of the best films of the year and ever in its genre. You completely discredited yourself.
Playlist, I love you. Your hit rate here is 100%. Great work!
For the record, I quite love The Playlist. I think you guys provide an eclectic voice rarely heard on most other film-centric sites. That\’s why I find the Kingsman entry on this list confusing. Not because I think you\’re wrong in including it (hey, it\’s your list), just because it\’s so seemingly definitive in it\’s judgement. I\’m quite a big fan of the movie, as well as Vaughn himself. I don\’t think he\’s a shoddy filmmaker in the least and has actually provided some of the most kinetically unique action sequences of the last decade. I also didn\’t interpret the film as being homophobic. I figure there\’s probably a solid point to be made regarding the Kingsman as an all-masculine unit which would be hard to take any other way besides all of them being homosexual. But none of that really matters because I know that\’s only my interpretation. And that\’s the point. I\’m sure that I "get" something from the movie that you don\’t, and that\’s okay. To each their own. I\’m just not sure why the Kingsman review seems so much more like it\’s solving a personal vendetta than the rest of these entries?? And I\’m really not trying to make any sort of point other than I\’m curious as to why this might be. Especially after an original review, giving it an A-.
Actually, I\’d say that "Mortdecai" was corny more than bad. But I do agree that the "Taken" franchise was terrible to begin with. Will Liam Neeson EVER return to serious movies?
nah doris has a point films arent as good as they were i mean how many live up to the hype? BUT doris you are wrong about kingsman it was one of the best spy films ever and shouldn\’t be on the worst list!!
I just had a great comment (in my opinion) towards criticism in generell and you perceived it as spam.
Glad to see they didn\’t put Tomorrowland in here.
And Doris . . . please leave this site, the proposals for films are way beyond only american films, and proposals have been flowing from every country, and continues to do so,
I\’m with Markunator on this one. I rather enjoyed Kingsman, particularly more than some glaring omissions from this list. Jurassic World anyone? Now, I\’m not saying that Kingsman is for everyone, nor that it should be, but film is a wonderfully subjective medium. And, Kingsman was not so poorly crafted to garner such criticism. I think a true cinephile (again, such a subjective concept) finds pleasure in watching a variety of films and can discern the technically good from the bad, but still have a good time doing so. Film is art, but it is also entertainment. I can\’t imagine such cynicism and still truly being a lover of film.
phil — a cinematic explosion of bravura filmmaking? Vertigo? Taxi Driver? Jaws? Road Warrior? The Shining? Shadow Of A Doubt? Blade Runner? Airplane? Blue Velvet? Hard Boiled? Fight Club? i.e. something made with a personal vision by an artist untethered by studio executive bullshit notes and flogged by producers as awards-bait. Something that\’s becoming more and more rare as execs get more leverage. You should read Biskind\’s Easy Riders Raging Bulls — a great look at how movies became Big Macs.
Wow, how nice the view must seem from your pedestal. Just for perspective, my favorite films this year have been EX MACHINA, MAD MAX and seeing JAWS on the big screen. That said, I saw TED 2 last night, and was surprised (a) how many people were there, and (b) how fun the film was — perhaps you can name some recent Indie-approved flicks which elicited so many laughs from a paying audience? TAKEN 3 – yeah, agreed — HOWEVER, the original TAKEN was great entertainment, not sure why you hated it so much?? KINGSMAN, terrific fun – amusing, and kicking ass (as you say, pun intended my Indiewire mofo\’s). So, to borrow from your review – "Fukc Indiewire"
Kingsman was awesome and get hard was funny so those shouldn\’t be on here
Chocolate City.
Jurassic World, to me, was easily the worst movie so far this year. A blatant rehash of the original, not done very well with plot holes galore, and soulless characters.
Doris is definitely a cinephile. Is that the same as first year film student? Can you please explain what a transcendent cinematic explosion of bravura actually means?
It Follows is by far the worst movie I\’ve seen in years. The plot was awful, the acting even worse. It couldn\’t decide what decade it was set in. Just plain horrible.
Not sure Woman In Gold was that bad to be on that list…
There\’re 2 films which definitely don\’t belong on that list.
The first one is KINGSMEN which for me has been one of the biggest surprises so far this year. That movie combines the best of old school Bond movies, over the top comedy without beeing ridiculous and a couple of good twists (at least for that genre). Therefore this film is far from beeing eligible to be put on such a list.
The second one is TAKEN 3. As much as I admire the first one, I hate the sequel. predictable, poor storywriting, too short and so many flaws…it\’s a shame that Thing is even allowed to carry the TAKEN trademark. But the third in this series has been a welcome return to what made the first one so good (without beeing THAT good). First of all it didn\’t immediately start with the action without even trying to create some backstory. It wasn\’t that unpredictable, but at least you were able to see that writer and director tried to deliver some kind of twist. The villain was exactly that, a villain, especially compared to the one in episode 2 who has been as terrifying as kitten. Roundup: Taken 3 is definitely not a candidate for the best Top 20 movies of 2015, but neither does it belong on that one here.
A response to Doris: There Will Be Blood, Amour, A Prophet were absolute masterpieces, to mention only a few.
And Kingsman is a good, if flawed, film. To include it in this list is foolish.
and yes I\’m serious about Con Air.
Mulholland Drive was the last great classic. And the last great classic before that was undoubtedly Con Air. Kingsman never once came close to the vertiginous cinematic highs we all experienced watching Cameron Poe\’s epic odyssey.
"Channing Tatum is turning into one of the great
movie stars of this generation"
So depressing!
I don´t care even a little bit if anyone get´s it or not.
I loved "Kingsman". I found nearly everything great, funny and wonderful over the top in this hilarious and highly entertaining movie. Best scene? Clearly the killing spree in the church. I laughed my ass off, first of the wonderful idea of killing a bunch of idiotic bigots (kind of Westboro Baptist Church idiots) and second because of it´s sheer madness.
Say what you will. If you want some cerebral experience at the movies, fine. I also like that. But I also like something like "Kingsman" – a lot.
I don\’t get the hate for chappie or elysium?
I just stopped reading at Kingsmen, which is one of best movies of the year so far. Not high art for sure, but damn good fun and one of the best times at the movies in a long time. Sorry Doris, Mulholland Drive was the last great piece of cinema? That\’s for making beer shoot out of my nose laughing so hard. I\’ll take Markunators horrendous taste over you\’re self acclaimed good taste every day of the year. And no, thank heaven\’s I\’m not a cinephile, just a lover of movies. Windbag.
I relatively agree with your list, except for Kingsman\’s Secret Service. I\’m a woman and i love that film, because (from the beginning) it was meant to be a pure fun. As quoted from Colin Firth\’s character in Kingsman\’s that spy movies are getting too serious lately. I saw and felt the " fun" energy and vibe in Kingsman\’s. And that was good. I can feel Vaughn was having fun with Kingsman, just like George Miller was having fun with Fury Road. I don\’t mean to put Kingsman and Fury Road into the same league (Fury Road is too far superior), but they are fun movies. I wonder, did you miss Michael Mann\’s Blackhat in this worst movies? That movie was so awful. It felt like no vision and waste of money.
Markunator is right. And how can indiewire claim it\’s one of the worst movies of the year when they themselvesgave it an A-?
Kingsman was one of the best action movies of the year. You need to stop turning films into a political issue, and criticise every little things that falls outside of your extremely narrow field of political correctness.
KINGSMAN … I\’m sorry, you just lost credibility. There were far worse fims this year. Your going to tell me San Andreas or Unfinished Buisness was better than Kingsman?!? Please
I find it remarkable that I can almost agree with this whole article word for word – yet disagree & be so disappointed and sorry for you that you didn\’t grasp the wonderful awesomeness of Kingsman.
Yeah, I agree with this whole list except for its inclusion of Kingsman. I\’m echoing someone else and saying that yes, you really don\’t get the movie. First off– you say it\’s misogynistic because of the one anal joke? Yeah, most of its fans don\’t like that joke, and even Matthew Vaughn had apprehensions with it. It was meant to be a tongue in cheek reference to how Bond always gets laid when he saves the world. The fact that there was an actual shot of it was really because the film was rated R. I still think it\’s in poor taste, but calling the ENTIRE film misogynistic is missing the point. The character was a very MINOR character, and the other three main female characters in the film were either depicted as INCREDIBLY STRONG and also NOT ROMANTICALLY INVOLVED with their leads (maybe Gazelle but eh, nothing terribly explicit), or having instances of weakness, but never made to be shamed by the heroes for it (in the case of Eggsy\’s mother, who is in a bad relationship but in the way domestic abuse victims often are, and Eggsy always treats her with respect and so does Harry). DON\’T GET ME STARTED ON ROXY, THE MOST BADASS FEMALE WITH NO LOVE INTEREST THIS CENTURY, WHO ALSO MIGHT BE LESBIAN OR BISEXUAL.
Your other points. The "homophobia" you mention? Oh hell no. The only time any sort of "homophobia" is brought up is when the "bad" characters make fun of the heroes, such as Eggsy being labeled a Rentboy. Whenever homosexual subtext is brought up otherwise, nobody seems offended by it. Vaughn has even said that in the sequel he\’s planning on revealing that Merlin himself is gay. Now Eggsy might be a little rough around the edges, but he\’s certainly open minded, and that\’s EXACTLY why Harry brought him into Kingsman in the first place. Harry and Percival, Roxy\’s supporter, wanted to bring fresh blood into the otherwise uppercrust, pretty boy, elitist Kingsman ranks, and they SUCCEED.
You make it seem like all movies must be sophisticated and have no entertainment value whatsoever or else, by labeling this "pandering to the lowest denominator." What happened to actually being able to enjoy a popcorn flick? Also, were you even WATCHING the same violence that others were? Yes, the church scene is BRUTAL, but we are NEVER made to believe that oh, these people deserved it because they were OOOH orthodox christians! The fact that Harry slaughtered them all without realizing it ACTUALLY affected him, which is clear after he comes out of hypnosis, and actually regrets doing it. The violence was stylized in a way that it was like a cartoon, which was the POINT because it\’s based on a GRAPHIC NOVEL like Kick-Ass was. This kind of violence can be cathartic to watch on screen because it is so out of this world and could never happen, and thus we\’re able to appreciate it in its own diegetic universe.
There\’s nothing cynical about this movie, nobody wants people to keep murdering themselves. These are pretty boy spies coming into the real world, and the crazy people they\’re fighting want this apocalyptic universe that thrives on the cynicism you speak of. It\’s SUPPOSED to be campy, it\’s SUPPOSED to be cheesy, and it\’s SUPPOSED to be extremely violent.
Like I said, I agree with your list otherwise, but this does not deserve to be on there. It seems like you don\’t believe there should be actual fans of anything you think isn\’t top-tier. I\’ll admit I\’m a fan of this movies, and yes, it does have flaws; namely the anal joke (which, as I\’ve said, I don\’t believe undermines its otherwise feminist messages at all, I mean HELLO a disabled antagonist who kicks ass? Granted, it\’s a homage to Bond antagonists who are often maimed or disfigured or disabled, but the fact that it\’s a WOMAN and she\’s capable of doing ALL THIS AMAZING STUFF on her own with her disability AND the actress did her own stunts, THAT is outstanding), and also some of the middle bits drag on, the under usage of Jack Davenport, and some of the side characters, but otherwise it\’s a solid movie that doesn\’t actually take itself that seriously, if you pay enough attention.
OK, lets see on Rotten Tomatoes:
Outcast – 6%, Strange Magic – 18%, Seventh Son 12%, Serena 18%, Paul Blart Mall Cop 2 – 6%, Woman in Gold – 52%, Ted 2 – 46%, Taken 3 – 9%, Unfinished Business – 11%, United Passions – 0%, Home Sweet Hell – 6%, Jupiter Ascending – 25%, Monsters Dark Continent – 19%, Mortdecai – 12%, Any Day – 0%, The Cobbler – 11%, Entourage – 31%, Fifty Shades of Grey – 25%, Get Hard 29%, KINGSMAN THE SECRET SERVICE – 74%!!
What the hell guys?? You dropped the ball on that one. If you didn´t like it fine, but at least look around you. That movie was pretty good!
Chappie and Aloha are faaar worst. Kingsman?? Really?? Damn!!! … o and Doris… many people would argue that mulholland Drive is a slow, tedious and boring movie (not me mind you) so get over yourself
I haven\’t seen many of these, but I did see KINGSMAN. And it was truly terrible indeed. Glad to see it called out. To the fine analysis I\’d like to add the vomit inducing performance of Samuel L. Jackson. If you decide on your character having a stupid lisp, at least make sure to maintain it throughout the film.
The only thing that made me happy is they made sure Colin Firth can\’t be in the sequel. Unless he can of course.
Your list is kind of all over the place. If you start putting movies like Kingsman that are just supposed to be the way they are, you should probably also put Jurassic World and Age of Ultron and every other movie with dumb fun action.
Kingsman was actually a remarkably solid movie with a nearly decent concept. Though stuck in its own class system critisms and disappointing plot points (killing off the only decent character 20 minutes before the end of the film), it was actually remarkably decent. Mortdecai served it\’s purpose as a quaint comedy, with a consistent humorous tone throughout. I don\’t understand why movies so decent and actually fairly entertaining are being compared with this year\’s actual trash. Maybe the writer could only find 18 so he decided to include them? I just don\’t get it
Hilarious how Kingsman is making such a fuzz here. And I totally agree with the yaysayers, that movie was absolutely brilliant. This list lost its credibility when I saw that. One of the best movies of the year.
Kingsman? You gotta be kidding me
YOU PUT KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE ON THIS LIST?!?!?!? YOU, SIR, ARE LOWER THAN DIRT!!!!! YOU COULD\’VE PUT ANY OF THE DISHONORABLE MENTIONS ON THE LIST BUT NO YOU DIDN\’T! YOU ADDED KINGSMAN TO THE LIST!!! AS SOMEONE IN THE FILM CRITICISM PROFESSION, YOU WILL GET NO RESPECT FROM ME!!! IT\’S NOT BALLSY WHAT YOU DID, IT WAS CRASS BECAUSE IT WAS A GENIUNELY GOOD MOVIE!!! SHAME ON YOU, BIG TIME!!!
Also, "Hot Pursuit" I thought it was pretty terrible and I am actually surprised it`s not on the list.
Kingsman is one of the worst this year? Are you high?! That movie belongs no where near movies like Paul Blart Mall Cop. Was it Vaughn\’s best? No. But at least it was made with quality and had effort put into it. The others on this list I agree with; for the most part it\’s lazy filmmaking.
Doris, you have no grounds to say that he has "horrendous taste" and that he\’s less of a cinephile than you. Do you honestly believe that there has been truly great cinema since Mulholland Drive? Did you not see There Will Be Blood, Lost in Translation, The Master, City of Dog, Children of Men, Pan\’s Labyrinth, The Lord of the Rings, Inland Empre, Brokeback Mountain, The Lives of Others, I Saw the Devil, Oldboy, Before Midnight, Zodiac, Bohood, A Separation, Drive, Tree of Life, Inside Llewyn Davis, Dogtooth, Dogville, Antichrist, Frances Ha, Midnight in Paris, Amour, Mud, The Skin I Live In, Her, Take Shelter, Before Sunset, A History of Violence, Michael Clayton, , Let the Right One In, Caché, Goodbye to Language, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Martyrs, and so many others?
"Kingsman" is a fantastically entertaining movie, a live-action cartoon (it was based on a graphic novel). Over-the-top, incredibly violent, it was terrific, definitely my favorite movie of the year. The church scene was violent, extreme and FUNNY. This is worse than "Zombeavers" and "Hot Tub Time Machine 2"? I\’m with Markunator– you just didn\’t get it.
Make up a list, throw in a controversial title and watch people going apeshit over it! It\’s either hilarious or very sad.
Wow, Doris, nothing good has come out since Mulholland Drive? Yet you still are taking time to see movies like Kingsman? Are you masochistic? Sounds like you\’ve been torturing yourself for the past 14 years…
You can pull that stick out of your butt now.
Knock Knock
What about It Follows? That\’s another art house film such as The Woman in gold but at least the latter was watchable It Follows was a terrible film and did not deserve the attention it got therefore marking it as the worst film of 2015… And btw Kingsman and The Age of Adaline did not deserve to be mentioned those were good movies
Negative clickbait like this is what I hate about The Playlist since they went under the IndieWire umbrella. I refuse to believe that you guys REALLY think that articles and "discussions" like this are good for film culture.
Unfortunately, I legitimately think you DIDN\’T get Kingsman. It was outlandish, ridiculous, and brash on purpose. It played like a self-parody of the spy film genre while using modern technologies and settings. The whole point of the movie was a newcomer to an established and antiquated espionage system trying to work through their ways and push through them. It\’s coming from the baroque stage of the film narrative, where the concept has been done and experimented with so much that it can make fun of itself. Like Austin Powers or Get Smart, but with less overt satire. It\’s by no means a pinnacle example, but taking it seriously isn\’t the way to go.
\’Kingsman\’ is a great movie, clearly. And liking it, luckily, is not a negative reflection of who I am as a person ��
I say Zombeavers should be stricken from honorable mention, that was a hell of a lot of fun. It gave us everything it told us it would, zombie beavers. But I also think Kingsman was a fantastic film. My girlfriend and I still talk about how great of a time we had watching that flick. But films are always subjective, and at least they make something for everybody as long as we look for what we want. For me, the worst film I\’ve seen this year was When Marnie Was There. I\’m not gonna lie, I\’m okay with this being potentially the last Studio Ghibli film.
I disagree with Kingsman being on there. It\’s a bit of fun, not meant to make a statement. What most reviewers do is they pick at what isn\’t there, without taking films for what they are. But otherwise, i\’d agree with this list. I think Tomorrowland should be up there though.
What is the point of any "Worst of…" lists? It\’s needless negativity and a waste of time. The time spot writing this list could\’ve been spent making a list of overlooked films of 2015 that need championing
Doris, he does not have a horrendous taste in film and you have no grounds for thinking that he\’s any less of a cinephile then you are. Clearly you have your own issues to work out if you think there hasn\’t been some truly incredible films since Mulholland Drive came out in 2001. Did you not see There Will Be Blood, Lost in Translation, The Master, The Lord of the Rings, Synecdoche New York, Certified Copy, Drive, No Country For Old Men, Children of Men, City of God, Pan\’s Labyrinth, Before Midnight, Shame, Hunger, Short Term 12, Frances Ha, Dogtooth, Midnight in Paris, Inland Empire, Inside Llewyn Davis, Tree of Life, A Separation, Dogtooth, The Social Network, Zodiac, Started Up, Life During Wartime, Blue Valentine, The Lives of Others, Let the Right One In, Timecrimes, The Babadook, Caché, I Saw the Devil, A Prophet, and so many others
Kingsman isn\’t a peasant\’s film though, my dear J. It\’s an overblown, over-budgeted mess that struggles to settle on a tone. Real "peasant movies\’ are far more fun.
Kingsman is essentially a pretentious Johnny English.
And really, Aloha is as-bad-as-anything-you-might-say, but in a glorious, "The Room" esque way.
Good list. Kingsman belongs here. It\’s noxious twattery for a kids who love extreme sports, red bull, rape and sexism.
Jurassic World.
Partially in that it has to power to, and very well may, ruin cinema.
Doris is obviously a cinephile because she uses big, important words. Can\’t be seen to enjoy a peasant\’s film like Kingsman, eh, that\’s striclty for the lowe classes who like to have, what do they call it… "fun", whatever that is.
And now for the 20 worst film bloggers of the year so far.
The Playlist staff.
A bunch with so much self-importance and strained self-loathing they convince themselves as being superior to other people actually writing complete scripts that one multitude assemble to produces as a film while other multitudes go and see the film. Words coming-off as resentment, projected the acknowledgement of uselessness, or praise for a film harnessed by delusions of their own grandeur.
No, "Aloha" was crap. Worse than "Elizabethtown".
Playlist staff, you obviously haven´t been to London. That´s what is in ´Kingsman´. The self-hatred with too much stoicism, which turns tasteless.The British people.
Or maybe you all just have no capacity to really interpret.
Where\’s Insurgent?!
You forgot Jurassic World.
50 shades of grey was not bad.
No Tomorrowland?!
Kingsman on this list? Wow, the staff has proven to be…unique in the worst sense of the word again.
my real issue with Kinsgman is that Kick-Ass was such a bloody good movie with great performances, masterful action, and was so much fun (particularly at the Tottenham Court Road Odeon on opening night with a big cheering crowd)… and Kingsman never reached similar giddy heights. So it was a let-down. There. My issue with Kingsman laid bare.
You are definitely in the minority when it comes to Kingsman. Certified fresh on rotten tomatoes, 7.9 on imdb, and quite frankly you are the only person I\’ve seen review it that panned it like this. Not sure you watched the same movie as the rest of us.
Yeah, because I\’m not being honest about what\’s shit, that\’s the issue here. Yep. It can\’t be that YOU really disliked \’Kingsman\’, which you\’re allowed to, of course, and you\’re now surprised by the fact that so many recognize what a cool little film it is. It loves itself, it\’s a bit all up in your face at times, but at least it\’s memorable. Bland is the very last word I would use. \’Kingsman\’ was an awesome, fresh cinematic experience, and including it on a list like this is beyond ridiculous. Not alone on this, I feel. And yeah, Fury Road kicked ass.
Doris, you are a pretentious pseudointellectual. You are clearly not a cinephile either, your original comment made that clear.
Kingsman is crap especially Samuel l Jackson
It\’s fine to like shit films. We all do occasionally. But at least be honest about what\’s shit. Kingsman was a less memorable Austin powers. It\’s an old joke told in a fairly bland way. Agreed on fury road though. That was a fun and inventive pic
Talking out of your collective, synchronized asses when it comes to \’Kingsman\’. That was a brilliant film. Well acted, sharp dialogue, memorable characters, and a gleeful sort of spirit that so many are too quick to shout foul at. And also dat soundtrack. I loved it. Second favorite of the year behind Fury Road.
Doris, I am a huge cinephile and must say that you are way off based. Mulholland Drive is last cinematic masterpiece? Get off your high horse. Kingsman is not a bad movie. It\’s not great either, but it certainly does not belong on this list
Yo Kingman was awesome, what the eff.
Markunator you have horrendous taste. Kingsman was hideously ugly, weakly performed and tonally confused. You\’re not really a cinephile are you?
ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL is by far the worst movie I\’ve seen this year. Damn Sundance…
About "Kingsman" – YES, YOU DON\’T GET IT. Yeah, I know you probably thought you were being all clever by predicting that we were going to say that, but you\’re not. You really don\’t get it. Being snarky about it doesn\’t change the fact that you don\’t get it, I\’m afraid. That was some of the worst critical analysis I\’ve honestly ever read.
Oh, and Doris? Kindly shut up and go watch more movies made since "Mulholland Drive". Okay?
Movies as an art form are in a really morose place at the moment. Studio movies and indies alike have become incredibly pompous, overlong, self-indulgent and timid. I think the last genuine masterpiece was mulholland drive. That movie pretty much said all that needed to be said. Since, there hasn\’t been a truly transcendent cinematic explosion of bravura. Why!?
All the points about Kingsman either make no sense or are incredibly stupid.