Blechy Movies of '10

Like last year, I should probably talk about those movies that weren't that good...scratch that. Those that were horrid. This year, that as 12 of my 147, 8%, a smidge worse than 2009.

There were more than a handful of movies that were just dull, or wastes of time--mostly indie comedies, oddly. But there were a few that I actively disliked--if not downright hated/got angry with. Those were (in order that I saw them, not in order of horribleness):

• Jennifer's Body - Karyn Kusama


• Big Fan - Robert D. Siegel


• I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell - Bob Gosse (truly vile flick)


• Where the Wild Things Are - Spike Jonze


• The Blue Tooth Virgin - Russell Brown


• A Serious Man - Ethan Coen, Joel Coen


• Remember Me - Allen Coulter


• The Runaways - Floria Sigismondi


• Greenberg - Noah Baumbach


• Babies - Thomas Balmes


• The Secret of Kells - Tomm Moore, Nora Twomey


• Agora - Alejandro Amenábar

Two of those, I want to call out for special attention. Remember Me, I thought I'd written a blog post ranting about, but I can't find it...whoops. It was a perfectly uninspired/uninspiring indie drama with competent-to-really good performances, that they totally screwed up by pulling a surprise ending out of nothing, an a horrible attempt to add weight and heft to the movie. So instead of a nice-enough movie I'd have forgotten about within a month or two, I'm going to be carrying around the hate for years.

The other bad movie was The Secret of Kells. Awesome animation, great artwork, love the idea of using this medium to talk about the actual Book of Kells. But, in order to avoid talking about the content of the book (an illuminated Bible, for those who don't know), they go for some silly mystical, pseudospiritual idea where the artwork is what gives hope to people. Just horrid. Horrid thing to do regarding the actual truths contained in the book. Skip the flick, listen to Iona's album instead.