I believe that every movie begins with a simple goal; to create a work of cinema that audiences will find entertaining and engaging. Unfortunately, that goal does not always come to pass for a variety of different reasons. Here are a few films that stand out for me from last year that were not successful at achieving their goal:
"It"
"It", the film based on the classic Stephen King novel, became a massive international success last fall. It scared up over $700 million worldwide and has gone on to become the highest-grossing horror movie of all time. And I just don’t get it. While the film is proficiently directed by Andy Muschietti and looks great thanks to the work of cinematographer, Chung-hoon Chung, "It" feels shockingly routine and lacks any genuine scares. After his younger brother vanished a year ago without a trace, Bill (Jaeden Lieberher), a stuttering teenager, continues to be grief-stricken while his parents are still so distraught that they are neglecting him. Other unexplained tragedies involving missing children in the town have been going on for centuries and Bill and his band of misfit friends discover the culprit; Pennywise, a blood-thirsty, dancing clown played with zest by Bill Skarsgård. "It" has moments that entertain and may sends chills down a few spines yet not nearly enough effort has been made to make the film a truly scary nightmare.
"Rough Night"
The comparison to "Girl Trip", last summer's hilarious hit female-buddy comedy, is inevitable but "Rough Night" ain't even on the same block. This misguided attempt of a dark comedy hit theaters first where it was met with a collective groan and a quick dismissal. Four college friends (Scarlett Johansson, Jillian Bell, Ilana Glazer and Zoë Kravitz) reunite after ten years and decide to have a girl's weekend trip in Miami to celebrate one of them getting married. As cinema history tells us, nothing good will come from this and it doesn't as a male stripper is accidentally killed by one of the ladies. The rest of the film deals with them ridiculously trying to hide and then get rid of the body. Kate McKinnon shows up with a bad Aussie accent as another friend from their college days and "Modern Family's Ty Burrell and Demi Moore appear as a creepy, deviant couple who live next door to their rental house. While the similarly plotted "Girl Trip" successfully combined warmth and uproarious raunchy humor, "Rough Night" is just uncomfortably and incredibly bad.
"T2 Trainspotting"
Much like the follow-ups to movies like "Wall Street", "Basic Instinct" or "300" (to name only a few), "T2 Trainspotting" was another sequel that nobody really asked for. Danny Boyle, now an Oscar-winning director, returns to direct the follow-up to the 1996 film and much of the original cast are back. Irvine Welsh, the author of "Trainspotting", did write a sequel to his book called "Porno" but "T2" uses an original script by John Hodge that is loosely based on both books and follows those junkie Edinburgh lads twenty years later. Mark "Rent boy" Renton (Ewan McGregor) has been off heroin for years and living a normal family life in Amsterdam but divorce and a heart attack brings an end to his peaceful existence. After his marriage fails and loses visitation of his son, Daniel "Spud" Murphy (Ewen Bremner) becomes an addict again. Simon "Sick Boy" Williamson (Jonny Lee Miller) owns a run-down pub and has a coke problem but makes a living blackmailing dirty, old men with his young Bulgarian girlfriend (Anjela Nedyalkova). And Francis "Franco" Begbie (Robert Carlyle) is doing serious time in prison for drugs and robbery. The first film was driven by a reckless youthful energy while "T2" simply wheezes lethargically with sad and depressing middle-age spread.
"Snatched"
"Snatched" was one of the films I was really looking forward to seeing but ultimately it turned out to be one of my biggest disappointments on the year. This lame comedy stars one of the funniest comedians working today, Amy Schumer and features the return of comedy legend, Goldie Hawn who makes her first screen appearance in fifteen years. We also have the reliable talents of Joan Cusack, Ike Barinholtz, Wanda Sykes and Christopher Meloni all on board in supporting roles. With so much talent involved, the question remains why is this film so incredibly inept? One of the biggest problems is the underdeveloped script by Katie Dippold ("The Heat") and the very few laughs generated from it. The film tells the story of Emily (Schumer), after being fired from her job and dumped by her boyfriend, who is still determined to go on a nonrefundable vacation to Ecuador. She talks her unadventurous mother (Hawn) to go on the trip with her and the two end up getting kidnapped and held for ransom by a murderous gang. We spend the rest of this tragic comedy watching this mother and daughter trying to escape from their captors and the unamusing situations that occur during their getaway. Fans of Schumer, Hawn and comedies definitely deserved better than "Snatched".
"Ghost in the Shell"
Even without the whitewashing controversy involving the casting of Scarlett Johansson as a clearly Asian character, "Ghost In The Shell" had other serious problems. Based on the popular Japanese manga, this Hollywood version spent most of their time and money on developing visual effects and action sequences and far less on plot and characters. Set in the near future, Hanka Robotics have secretly developed the ability to merge a human brain with an artificial body or "shell". Against the wishes of the inventor, Dr. Ouelet (Juliette Binoche), the experiment of the former Mira Killian, whose body was badly damaged and has become the cyborg, Major (Johansson) will be used as a deadly counter-terrorism operative. The rest of the muddled story involves sabotage within Hanka and the mystery of Killian's past. But the most infuriating thing about "Ghost" is that this is another American film that completely mistreats the glorious gifts of France's "La Binoche".
"Justice League"
"Justice League" brings together some of the world's greatest super-heroes; Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg. What should have been a thrilling and exciting adventure turned out to be a whole lot less. Dull, uninspired and pointless, "Justice League" lets down comic-book fans with a film that simply goes through the motions and makes zero effort to elevate the material to higher than average. A perfect example of lazy film making at it's finest.
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