Tireless reader RRA dares to watch the worst so we don’t have to — and sometimes discovers movies we missed that are worth catching up to. Movies he feels got unfairly slurred and slammed on release because they fell outside the fringes of what critics normally deem “worthy.” He’s chosen 13 titles from 2008 that might deserve a second look, and gives us his well-argued reasons for saying so.
[NOTE: RRA wrote most of this the last week of 2008, and his worries that Valkyrie might be ignored have proven unwarranted -- since it's earned a solid $75 mil since Christmas. RRA's interest in unsung movies is partly motivated by his wish that we don't miss a decent movie. So he decided it was "better to risk looking foolish in jumping the gun than having Valkyrie die on the vine and be proven right." The best thing about the heads up for Valkyrie is that we can't miss it if hasn't gone away. No need to wait for the DVD to catch up.]
WORTH WATCHING
Thirteen Flops of 2008 You Should Go See
by RRA
Unless it’s a rare exception like say THE INSIDER a decade ago, most pictures that are honored and win awards usually are hits. No really, Think about it. I mean look at 2008 where THE DARK KNIGHT is this decade’s TITANIC, Danny Boyle’s SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE is the pretty profitable annual Independent contender, the political biopic MILK will squeak by green, and probably the same ultimately with THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON.
But even if the Internet has opened up the movie community, with knowledge shared and wisdom grown, there still persists a certain stupid maxim. If a movie flops, it must surely because it was terrible. Now some reds are lousy films that deserved to die, like the recent THE SPIRIT, but otherwise financial failures occur for a myriad reasons, with examples of good movies provided. You have inadequate studio marketing and backbone (CITIZEN KANE), wrong release date with crowded competition (BLADE RUNNER), lack of serious support from mainstream critics (WONDER BOYS) or not enough (PRINCE OF THE CITY), guilt by star association (EYES WIDE SHUT) or just outright misunderstood. (FIGHT CLUB) Especially with bad release buzz, when the dreaded groupthink comes into play in shouting down and silencing dissenters (FEAR & LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS)
Logic dictates that box-office is irrelevant if a movie is good or not, right? Wrong. Box-office duds carry a stigma of failure this side of a homeless Vietnam veteran that prevent folks from checking out many really good movies, with exceptions like CITIZEN KANE and BLADE RUNNER, which happened only after many years of critical rehabilitation. Most are remembered by limited cultdoms on the Internet, and the rest just disappear into obscurity.
At this time of year, the cinema blogosphere is busy with their Top Ten Best listings. Well, I’ll the same but a unique twist. In 2008 I saw thirteen movies that bombed in theatres that I truely think people should truly check out on DVD. So basically this Worth Watching list is my perhaps feeble attempt to recommend underseen quality from art house to popcorn. A few titles you’ll immediately remember, others only as a blur, and some you probably never even heard of. I’m not saying you’ll dig them all, for hell you might in fact hate a few of them, but I’m willing to risk tarnishing my (already shaky) reputation out on a limb to personally pimp these pictures out. Plus, look at the number I’m using. I’m just asking to be cursed, just for you all.
Now before we begin, two quick notes. First, This list is alphabetical, and in no way a ranking system. Some titles are better than others, but they’re all equal today. Second, when talking of box-office flopping, I’m speaking only about America, Hollywood’s chief economic market. A handful of films mentioned have subsequently recouped their costs in foreign territories or on DVD, but nobody celebrates or cares about such things. Anyway, flying out of the flames of defeat comes…
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APPALOOSA
I like AwardsDaily and crew, but otherwise I fucking hate Oscar season. Many smart adults go retarded and end up using bullshit to defend/dismiss would-be contenders, dumb logic they wouldn’t practice with movies usually. Like the current GOP, no logical center exists for which to celebrate movies that aren’t award-winners, but still boogie.
Take star/director Ed Harris’ APPALOOSA, a pretty good western that died quietly at the Toronto International Film Festival with words like “too light” and “too pedestrian.” I guess compared to recent great westerns like THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES, it would welt. But you still have a terrific cast in Harris, Viggo Mortensen, Renee Zellwegger, Lance Henriksen, and Jeremy Irons who is playing deliciously DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE fun villainy again.
APPALOOSA starts out as your basic story of good guys fighting baddie over a girl, but with some critical plot developments, becomes something else all together that is slightly off-base, much like the horse it’s named after. Go ahead look at a snapshot. One scene I loved was when Harris courts Zellwegger, and he awkwardly asks Viggo which wallpaper is best for their new house. For these gun-slinging nomads, when domesticated they are quite hopeless.
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THE BANK JOB
I’m a big unashamed Jason Statham fan. With his cockney tongue, baldhead, and martial arts background, he is our epoch’s Charles Bronson, a good actor who oozes with pure badass charisma but mostly relegated to B-action fare like the TRANSPORTER series. THE BANK JOB is a step in the right direction for Statham’s career, even if got jailed in USA. Don’t worry it’ll get paroled.
Allegedly based on a true story of an unsolved real-life British bank robbery in 1971, you have minor-league criminal Statham and his hack crew hired to rob a London bank, which they pull off. The problem is their loot, which they realize too late include compromising blackmail on everyone (including scandalous naked pictures of a British Royal) which makes them targets of MI6, gangsters, corrupt cops, and black militants.
Roger Donaldson has shot some satisfying thrillers from NO WAY OUT to THIRTEEN DAYS, and his limey-flavored BANK JOB is a solid exciting heist tale, which also incorporated an awesome line uttered by the gang’s lookout to his cohorts, which inadvertently was recorded by a local radio ham operator: “Money may be your god, but it’s not mine, and I’m fucking off.”
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BE KIND REWIND
Many scoffed at this as too whimsical, with video store clerks Mos Def and Jack Black reshooting in zero-budget/low tech “swedes” an entire erased VHS movie library, but I think director Michael Gondry snatched upon at least three touching themes:
(1) A dying urban community coming together and be revitalized
(2) How pop culture, from neighborhood mythology to cinema, socially connects people
(3) how sterile uninspired international corporations like Blockbuster snuffed out the local innovative mom & pop businesses which served local needs.
Indeed, BE KIND REWIND maybe challenges the ole Auteur Theory, which argued that the sole responsible professional author for a movie is the director. But what if an amateur re-cuts said film on YouTube, or like REWIND remake Disney’s animated blockbuster THE LION KING as a low-tech puppet show? Yes they used industry licensed-footage and ideas, but wouldn’t these new mutated alternate versions in spirit no longer belong to Hollywood? What belongs to who?
Blockbuster with its anti-NC-17 policy and blacklisting independent studios like Troma, is dying at the hands of Netflix. The video store didn’t die, but instead evolved into something else, like that Star Child in 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.
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BODY OF LIES
My parents had the Cold War, and I’ve got the War on Terror. That generation saw mushroom clouds, and we witness planes crashing into skyscrapers. They never got over Vietnam, and unfortunately my disgruntled age group might not either with Iraq. The difference is, the only recent successful Hollywood release involving such politics was IRON MAN.
The Middle East is the focus of American intelligence, and Sir Ridley Scott’s BODY OF LIES argues that we’re losing that conflict not due to lacking technology or firepower, but because how we do our “ground,” (human) Intel-gathering. The increasingly-impressive Leonardo DiCaprio is the well-meaning bastard CIA agent who learns better methods from Jordanian spies for as their chief sneers: “You Americans are incapable of secrets because of your democracy.” Contrasting Leo is his fatass boss Russell Crowe, who as proxy-Dubya pisses off our crucial regional allies who are there on the ground, and not watching it on television from the Pentagon.
BODY is slick that if you don’t want politics, they get a satisfying streamlined BOURNE-inspired action-thriller scripted by William Monahan. But if you hunger for topical commentary, Leo learns too late that as THE QUIET AMERICAN warned decades ago, what goes around comes around.
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DOOMSDAY
A deadly virus ravishes Scotland, and Britain quarantines that whole region by walling it off from the world. Years later, survivors are found within that dead zone as the disease returns in London. Military squad led by Rhona Mitra venture into anarchistic Scotland to find a vaccine.
DOOMSDAY from Neil Marshall (THE DESCENT) was a love letter to the post-apocalyptical trend from the late 1970s and early 1980s like MAD MAX and ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, which means cannibalistic Mohawk/mascara-wearing punks who somehow still have enough gasoline to raise asphalt hell. Most female action leads struggle with credibility, but Mitra is a believable tough gal. Nice genre touches include Malcolm McDowell ruling a bizarre retro-medieval society from a Scottish castle, Gift Shop sign still standing, and a highway climax where the villain straps his woman, decapitated earlier by Mitra, to his passenger seat. Now that’s love.
I’m still surprised that most Internet Nerds (especially Aint It Cool News) didn’t get behind this one, for it’s made for us. I guess if Robert Rodriguez or Quentin Tarantino had directed, they would overhype it immediately like they did with GRINDHOUSE. Instead we get last year’s great action trash matinee spectacle.
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LEATHERHEADS
Poor Renee Zellwegger, she’s on this list twice.
Unlike today, professional American football in the 1920s was a joke, while college football was popular. From a screenplay penned by Sports Illustrated columnists, LEATHERHEADS is well knowledgeable and accurate about this rarely covered period. Pro player George Clooney convinces college star John Krazinski to join his failing team. They win, make money, and split over journalist Zellwegger.
Director Clooney shoots a nice Hawks-esque screwball comedy you would expect him from him and the Coens, but since they weren’t involved, perhaps that got LEATHERHEADS sacked. Clooney is his usual dastardly-but-charming, though his chemistry with Zellwegger isn’t as fun as it should be. We didn’t really need that whole World War I subplot with Krazinski, but I laughed at how he got some Germans to surrender. Also, Jonathan Pryce is always a plus.
LEATHERHEADS may be a touchdown or fumble, but like another title down this list, Clooney was obviously sincere about what he wanted, enough to trade most of his salary for box-office points (which never materialized) to get it produced. He can be a pompous Hollywood liberal, but otherwise I dig him, a guy most movie stars should aspire to be like.
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PUNISHER: WAR ZONE
OK, maybe I enjoyed this one more than I should have, so sue me. No don’t really I need the money.
I loved the PUNISHER comics as a kid simply because unlike other superheroes, he: (1) Had no powers, (2) Used Guns, and (3) When he defeats criminals, they usually don’t come back because he kills them dead. In high school I read Garth Ennis’ PUNISHER run, which expanded the character’s pulp action exploitation roots to include macabre black comedy, like kicking a totally maimed mafia matriarch into her burning house. Sadistic yes, but Ennis made it hilarious.
WAR ZONE tries to follow Ennis’ writings, with overt influence from Brian DePalma’s excessive classic SCARFACE. With vigilante Ray Stevenson (Pullo from ROME), this WAR ZONE has enough giant guns, ridiculous action sequences, gory violence, campy baddies, and f-bombs to possibly make you say damn. If not, then the scene alone where mutilated villain Dominic West, a.k.a. “Jigsaw” (must be a SAW fan) aims a gun at a 9-year old girl and calls her jailbait.
That asshole deserves to die just for that statement. Thankfully, the Punisher agrees with me.
BTW, did you know that a woman directed this?
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REDBELT
Playwright-turned-filmmaker David Mamet has turned more politically conservative in recent years, and at the same time has possibly made his best stuff. SPARTAN with Val Kilmer was a great smart action-drama, his THE SEARCHERS for our time, and tried dramatically as a honest conservative to make the Clinton and Dubya governments more accountable.
His REDBELT, a future cult classic among Mixed Martial Arts fans, is about a noble Jiu-Jitsu instructor (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who tries to live by a simple honor code, until he’s deceived and disgraced by fight promoters. Such a plot is mostly reserved for mindless B-actioneers, but Mamet wanted REDBELT to be a Kurosawa-esque samurai flick, yet in America and without swords. He strings together a low-down serious intelligent but complicated story about what Ejiofor does to regain honor not just for himself, but also for his corrupt sport. Hell, even friggin Tim Allen gets allowed to display some decent dramatic chops.
I must admit, I was moved by Ejiofor’s climatic confrontation, and I cheered this side of ROCKY. Critics dismissed the last shot as under whelming, but I argue it’s more an organic feel-good ending, or THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION for the macho guys at your local gym.
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SPEED RACER
Those pissed off by THE MATRIX sequels found an outlet to backlash at the Wachowski Brothers.
The marketing campaign for family-friendly SPEED RACER didn’t appeal to kids, and alienated adults who fondly remember the television series, which was one of the earliest successful anime-imports. But in watching it, I realized that with $120 million and CGI up the ass, the Wachowskis sought to create in spirit a honest to God live-action campy Saturday morning adventure cartoon, mixed with an involving Man-defies-Society sports story this side of Norman Jewison’s ROLLERBALL. Unlike most such TV-adaptations, they resist the temptation to mock the original material in sarcasm.
Such sincere ambition that I can respect, and I think they pretty much pull it off.
Before they got replaced on AT THE MOVIES by the current morons, Richard Roeper and Michael Phillips in positive unity remarked that “it will be loved by the art directors of tomorrow.” And they’re goddamn right, for RACER has a very colorful if ADD-threatening pop-bubblegum FX visualization that is for today what TRON was back in 1982. Ahead of the curve, but noted until years after the fact. SPEED RACER should be a strong technical Oscar contender, but it won’t.
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SWING VOTE
I don’t care for Frank Capra, but many Americans including those in Hollywood sure do. I guess there is appeal to his sappy-but-genuine sentimentality in cynical times.
SWING VOTE has a Presidential election much like we had in 2000 and 2004, where the nation is bitterly divided between lame uninspiring nominees, and the winner squeaked by barely. Except this time, it’s down to one single ballot, an unemployed drunk loser dad in star/producer Kevin Costner who’s such a fuck-up that his brainiac kid daughter has to be the adult of that household. He’s proudly ignorant, especially of civics. Both candidates in Kelsey Grammer (R) and Dennis Hopper (D) do everything to bribe for his sole vote, including outright selling out their core political beliefs. What’s weird is how both guys in real-life are Republicans, though Hopper broke ranks this year by supporting Obama.
Anyway, Costner as major dumbass embarrasses his town, and becomes a national punch line. But ultimately the dude sobers and cleans up his act, becomes a spokesmen for millions of Americans shut out of the electoral process, and gets a final candid debate between the contenders.
Corny yes, but even I like cream corn when it’s warm.
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TRAITOR
Like BODY OF LIES this War on Terror thriller was designed to appeal to both brains and balls, but TRAITOR is different as a unique double agent saga, in that until the finale we never truely know where Muslim American Don Cheadle’s true allegiances lie. Playing and manipulating both the Al Qaeda terrorist cell he’s join, and his supposed CIA handlers, the mystery is intensified by the fact that as a boy, Cheadle witnessed his father’s murder by a car bomb. TRAITOR wisely never tells us who were responsible, and thus Cheadle credibly could go either way.
He thinks the terrorists are bastardizing the Qur’an for their purposes, but doesn’t dig at all America’s role in the Middle East. Plus they busted him out of that hellish Yemen jail, and who knows maybe if he convinces a member or two to not pull the trigger, the world will be better for it. The U.S. government botches Cheadle’s faux-explosion that accidentally ends up killing civilians, and they’re racial-profiling his people back home, but he doesn’t leave them.
One of Cheadle’s more complex, interesting, and compelling performances, in any other year he would score an Oscar nomination.
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VALKYRIE
Man, this movie is getting way too much shit. If anybody else but Tom Cruise had been casted, like say Johnny Depp, I guarantee half of the negative reviews for VALKYRIE would reverse course. But since it’s Cruise, it sucks.
Yeah, Cruise acted daffy and insane years ago with the couch jumping, but don’t kill a pretty good movie because of his involvement. I usually despise his stupid TOP GUN persona myself, but at times (i.e. MAGNOLIA) he can take a project seriously and actually bother to act. His problem in VALKYRIE is that his excellent British supporting cast from Branagh to Stamp to Wilkinson who don’t have to try to be great. Still he does one scene well when he struggles to activate a bomb with only 3 fingers on his lone hand.
Bryan Singer’s VALKYRIE worked for me like those fantastical WW2-era adventure/thriller novels we used to get from Alistair MacLean or Jack Higgins, except this July 20 Plot led by Cruise and other good Germans to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1944 actually happened. Some critics whined that VALKYRIE doesn’t explain enough character motivations, but fuck man it’s Hitler. You don’t have to try hard to convince me.
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THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE
I reviewed this over the summer for AwardsDaily, and I know only four folks who liked this one, whom are Roger Ebert, Bill Hunt, myself, and someone who commented that she agreed with me. We’re lonely, for even most X-FILES fans seem to hate it, but then they like me probably expected a creature feature. Instead we surprisingly get a down to Earth theological drama that asks tough questions with no easy answers, and also somehow brilliantly argue that faith has always been the central theme of THE X-FILES, whatever it be in the existence of God or UFOs. As I wrote, “we got a summertime BAD LIEUTENANT.”
How can a righteous God give prophetic eyes to Billy Connolly the pedophile priest, while giving innocent kids terminal cancer? A quote from WAR ZONE could have been applied to I WANT TO BELIEVE: “Sometimes I would like to get my hands on God.”
This is the most difficult title for me to sell to you personally, for I truly don’t know if you would like it or not. But I want to believe that you could, which was the point behind this list in the first place.
48 Responses for "13 ‘Flops’ of 2008 worth Netflixing"
Hmmm…
I don’t mean any offence (obviously, as your list, RRA, is purely opinion, as is my comment) but…
I’ve seen eight of your thirteen. I thought Be Kind Rewind was alright. I thought that the others were all pretty bad…
Appaloosa was dull imo, I know I sound like a dick here but that film did so little. Body of Lies was overdone and a little arrogant in thinking that it was offering up a fresh spin on things. Speed Racer was just misguided, and The X-Files was such a let-down considering what it had going for it.
But,as I say, it’s just opinion. Good idea for a post, RRA, and well done.
sorry, but i just can’t give the author X-Files. Loved the series and the first film. the 2nd one was crap.
I agree with Doomsday. It’s severely underrated, and as well as being an excellent apocalyptic adventure ride, it also has some cheeky, insightful throwbacks to the England-Scotland rivalry.
Appaloosa, Body Of Lies, Speed Racer and Valkyrie are the only ones worth watching, fuck you with the other ones dude, seriously.
Of all of the ones I’ve seen, no offence either, but Speed Racer is the only one I’d agree on and maybe Body of Lies for the acting. The rest of this list is just awful.
I would have said U23D at least.
Bank Job was very underrated…I’m a sucker for a good heist flick.
I’m also an unashamed Jason Statham fan but The Bank Job was pretty bland. I also didn’t care much for Doomsday which was nothing if not a blatant Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome rip-off.
Hey Ryan,
Good list man. I know that this is your opinion, but I would recommend many of this list. The X files movie was not as bad as the public was made to believe. I thought Speed Racer, Appaloosa, “Rewind” and Valkyire were very enjoyable movies. Actually Appaloosa was a damn good western, I thought it was an actors showcase of sorts. I’ve recommended Valkyrie to many people.
I thought Leatherheads was going to be better, but it was quite funny.
I’ve read some of the responses to your list, some a little hostile. No doubt these are the people who choose their movies based on what is hot at the boxoffice, and what has been nominated the most. My message to them, “Go see Wendy and Lucy”
Take care.
The Bank Job, Doomsday, and Punisher: War Zone are all well worth seeing, for various reasons, of course. The X-Files: I Want to Believe I still have mixed feelings on. Like The Dark Knight, it’s subtly more compelling than what you would expect from most summer fare and certainly better than Death Race or whatever the fuck else came out this summer. However, the movie has an extremely unsettling undercurrent of homophobia. The series, progressive as it attempted to be, suffered from the same, though it’s even worse in the film. I’ll be seeing Appaloosa soon based on the strength of the cast alone. Lance Henriksen is one of the most underrated character actors working today and I’m glad Harris gave him a supporting role and screentime with a giant like Irons. That said, I can’t fucking stand Zellweger.
RRA, I LOVE your list. I was probably the person that agreed with you on X-FILES, which I adored (as a diehard XF fan who watched the show till the bitter end). Also totally dug Doomsday (why aren’t there more cyberpunk flicks?), Speed Racer (some day the Wachowskis will be vindicated), and the great Be Kind Rewind (another theme on that flick: did you notice how each section of the movie was don in a different genre, i.e scifi, action, love story, etc?) Very beautiful love letter to movies. Valkyrie was much better than it was given credit for, and Body of Lies was CRIMINALLY underappreciated. Fantastic piece, RRA, bravo!
I gotta say…APPALOOSA & BODY OF LIES are ENORMOUS disappointments.
BE KIND REWIND, REDBELT, THE BANK JOB, & TRAITOR are pretty good.
The most underrated movies of 2008 are THE WACKNESS & BIGGER, STRONGER, FASTER*
I definitely support the Redbelt shout out. That moved me a lot.
BLinus4815 – Fair enough. Hey, remember how the first X-FILES movie painted FEMA as the effective evil shadow government? After Katrina…hahaha!
Paddy M – Thanks for the compliment, even if we totally disagree.
Cal – FINALLY, someone else on the Net who liked DOOMSDAY! I mean really mate, why do people hate that one? I just don’t get it.
Kruel – Why fuck you very much too, seriously!
aghr – U2-3D flopped?!? Weird….well I couldn’t include that one because I didn’t see it, and also I’m not a U2 fan. Sorry. I’m more a fan of The Clash, which is what U2 is without balls.
Noah R. – Well, didn’t you at least laugh at that great scene in BANK JOB when two respectable aristocratic PMs are all gentlemenly and shit in conversation to each other while they both are with naked whores?
and yeah, DOOMSDAY was a MAD MAX rip-off. Then again, Carpenter ripped off Leone/Hawks for ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK. I mean all artists borrow, but the great ones steal!
Commonman – Speaking for Ryan, thank you!
Kyle – Yeah, that homophobic plotpoint in BELIEVE did bother me too. I mean come on Chris Carter, this is 2008 not fucking 1973. You didn’t need that shit. That said, if not for that connection bullshit, I would have liked that for once, we had a gay married villainy team.
Now Hollywood needs a gay action hero, and we’re good.
My mother doesn’t care for Renee either. She says that Renee always has that look as if she found out that someone farted in the room.
Irish70 – This aint an Underrated, but more Flops that I happened to like.
I didn’t see THE WACKNESS or BIGGER, STRONGER, FASTER, but I want to see both when they hit DVD, especially the later. I have many bodybuilding buddies (who all fucking loved REDBELT) and I want to see that FASTER just so I could talk with them about it afterwards.
bebe – Holy shit, you was the one from back in the summer! I’m glad you also liked DOOMSDAY.
Silencio – You know, if I had done a “Best Badass Scenes of 2008″ list instead, that finale in REDBELT would get picked by me. To quote it, “There’s always an escape.” Really, REDBELT Is the sort of picture John Milius would have shot if he was still making movies.
Also folks, I gotta give credit to those who also saw WAR ZONE in theatres with me. Did you all know that in Marvel Film’s history, its had 3 flops: ELEKTRA, WAR ZONE, and goddamn HOWARD THE DUCK.
Yes, fucking HOWARD THE DUCK.
You’re all kiss asses, “oh ryah, great list”, does he put food on your table or something? Specially “Why so Serious RRA?” what kind of douchebag addresses everyone on the comments? No life much? The list sucked and you won’t regret missing out on 80% of these movies, period.
Kruel = lopez = none of your business
In case there’s anyone who didn’t pick up on the identical attitudes.
We forgot to post something about The Dark Knight for him to screech and writhe around about today.
Kruel – Would you rather I write a random “convoluted” paragraph involving TDK somehow?
And really, if Ryan actually paid me (sorry bud, but back rubs don’t equal $$$) I would kiss his ass more.
Not CHUD or AICN brown-nosing bad, but just about.
The Bank Job was the best of the list. I don’t think it was a flop, though.
Valkyrie was pretty good.
I got what Speed Racer was going for and I really bought into it. And it looked great. I’m surprised it not getting nods for sound editing, art direction, and costume.
I loved THE BANK JOB. One of the most entertaining movies I saw last year.
And I’m glad to see someone else liked LEATHERHEADS. Maybe it’s because I’m a fan of stories about the early days of football, as well as 30’s screwball comedies, but I enjoyed this.
I also liked TRAITOR and APPALOOSA, though I had problems with both of them (for the former, the film was better as character study than thriller, while for the latter, Zellweger was miscast, and yes, I do think the film was somewhat sluggish at times), because of their lead performances.
And until the ending, I really liked REDBELT. Ejiofor gave one of the best performances of the year, and I like Mamet.
Can’t get behind the love for BODY OF LIES, however; it seemed like everyone was on autopilot for that one, even though it was based on a pretty good novel.
Haven’t seen the others on the list.
RRA, I think the reason the Zellweger shows up twice on your list is because she has become The Beast that Devours Movies. Appaloosa could have been a contender if another actress, any other actress, had played that role. It was an interestingly written take on the Western female protagonist. Unfortunately Renee zellwegered her way through the film and had zero chemistry with either of her two co-stars. Which is a feat all by itself.
And I avoided Leatherheads because she was in it. The trailer was enough to scare me away.
PS. Statham also has the hotness factor, which can never be sneezed at.
Bank Job and Valkyrie were not/are not flops. Traitor and Doomsday didn’t do that bad for how they were expected to do. Not sure what the criterion here is for “flop”–especially since word of mouth made the Bank Job very successful, for its budget and anticipated income. Valkyrie, incidentally, got good reviews on balance, as did Bank Job–though I think Valkyrie was a wasted opportunity of a film without stakes or internal conflict–covering a series of supposed heroes as they bungled an assassination attempt years after they should have done something about Hitler. Also–no attempt to show us, rather than assume our understanding–of what could have been prevented had hitler been killed eight months earlier. No establishment of stakes, and no establishment of conflict (or risk)–and we were supposed to sympathize with these men who did nothing as the persecution of Jews started years earlier, and finally took a stand only after it was clear Germany was going to lose the war. A strong film does not assume our understanding of the context, but allows us to see it through characters who themselves have lived in a state of denial–only to choose to risk their families when they are moved by a principled or moral decision to act. As the characters in Valkyrie had already reached that stage, the interesting part of the film–what it takes to make a devoted loyalists recalcitrant, was gone. Hence–the aftertaste that these men were merely taking a futile stand in history, too late, so that their deaths might be caused not by the allies but by the axis–a heroic repudiation of their own implicit complicity. In any case, all that said–financially, very successful it seems–not a flop.
Yay Be Kind Rewind, one of my favourite films of the year!
The Bank Job was also a surprisingly entertaining flick.
Paul Outlaw – I thought she was fine for what she was, a earnest woman in whatever situation to “associate” with the Alpha Male of the appropriate moment. But yeah I do agree that another better actress maybe could have been casted.
And yes, Statham is a sexy bitch.
Max – I must refer to an old maxim from Lloyd Kaufman: “According to Hollywood, no movie has ever made a profit.”
Was THE BANK JOB a flop or barely squeaked by in theatres? Maybe, I don’t know. It wasn’t an obvious superhit like say TDK or whatever, but not an obvious failure like say SPEED RACER.
As for VALKYRIE, yeah its probably gonna surprise people by breaking even, and that’s good. I like when good productions don’t fail financially.
But I totally disagree with many of your complaints. Remember that bloated THE GOOD SHEPHERD from years ago, which instead of concentrating on the CIA and WW2 and Cold War stuff, it was stuck “exploring character drama” with that goddamn useless domestic storyline with Jolie and Damon?
No, Singer/McQuarrie were slick to make VALKYRIE as “edutainment” like THIRTEEN DAYS, in that it was both educational, but also entertaining as a streamlined thriller-drama. Plus, I think your point about earlier botched Hitler assassination plots was covered by Branaugh’s own failed bomb scheme, before Cruise joins the conspiracy.
As for your point about the conspiracy itself, remember that before 1943 that Nazi Germany was winning. If that coup had been attempted, the whole German nation wouldn’t have gone along with it, for to quote Lincoln: “Don’t change horses in mid-stream.” By 1944, yeah they could have maybe gotten away with it.
Or not, since the Allies wouldn’t quit unless they got an unconditional surrender. The July 20 plot wanted an Armistice like WWI, but that shit wasn’t gonna happen. It’s more Germany was at risk of getting double gangbannged by Anglo-Americans and the Russians (which happened anyway) and that group decided they better try something than nothing.
Also, anyone that would have criticized or done anything to save the Jews, Hitler and his SS boys led by Himmler would have your ass shot, and that would be it. I mean remember RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK when Indy is told that Hitler wants the Ark?
Well your brain immediately goes: “No No No the Nazi mother fuckers can’t get their hands on the ark!” Why?
Because THEY ARE THE FUCKING NAZIS, you need to explain or elaborate really. Nobody likes them, in short the best Hollywood villainy ever. Shit, even the modern Germans fucking hate them too. As I said in my list, its Hitler! Some stuff explains itself.
Point is, no jail or public condemnation if you tried to oppose Hitler in any way, but just a bullet to the skull, or a trip to the gas chamber.Or to use a modern example, look at recent years with Iraq.
Many people warned that invading Iraq was a bad idea, philosophically and tactically, but they were basically dismissed as hippie-pussies. Then by 2004, many more realized that there is a problem, but again they were dismissed as quitters/traitors…and Bush won re-election anyway. A whole new administration is coming in to deal with two fucked-up/half-assed wars, but what if smarts and realism (but not necessarily liberal) had been in 2003 in planning all that?
Or to quote VALKYRIE, alot of people that tried to stop a pointless war botched were crushed by the momentum of history. Plus, look at when VALKYRIE was released, in 2008. I just mean just think about it, for not all movies are literally always what they mean. M*A*S*H was about Vietnam, those BOURNE movies about Dubya, etc.
As for your “stakes”…..you write as if nobody has ever watched The History Channel, aka The Hitler Channel. Sure I guess I would have liked for people to come together in the July 20 plot with various reasons to explode the Fuhrer, but not at the expense of the narrative energy.
THIRTEEN DAYS pulled it off, so yeah maybe you’re right, VALKYRIE could have done that too. But as it is, I thought VALKYRIE was pretty good for what it was.
I mean American culture and mythology hasn’t yet gotten over WW2, mostly because (1) We Won, and (2) We were the good guys.
What I dig about VALKYRIE at least is that Hollywood made a movie about Good Germans where some people, with noble or even perhaps dubious reasons, risked their lives to kill the top monster.
Alot of those guys knew they risked their lives, and some as shown were executed via hanged by piano wire from fish hooks. But more than that, they risked being seen as TRAITORS to their country, and taint their families with such possible public historic shame.
Instead, they are heroes in modern Germany, and thats why that country was initially pissed at Cruise the Scientologist for being cast as Stauffenburg, but from what I see so far from that media, they seem to think like I do, which was he did FINE.
I’d like to throw in “Son Of Rambow” “The Signal” and “The Tracy Fragments”.
I second Mr. Patrick above me on The Signal. Someone else said The Wackness which I agree with as well. I’d like to also submit these underrated, underperforming titles as worth watching:
Pride And Glory
Blindness
Synecdoche, New York
Cassandra’s Dream
Hamlet 2
Ghost Town
RockNRolla
Choke
Chris Price – I’m intrigued by ROCKNROLLA, but concerned because I hated Ritchie’s last two movies (SWEPT AWAY and REVOLVER)
So yeah, glad to hear that its apparently pretty good or a return to form for Mr. Ex-Madonna.
Wanted to see PRIDE & GLORY, but that lasted only 6 days at my theatre. I’m a Norton fan.
Also, SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK is coming to my local theatre.
In April.
Oh I’m so pissed.
Anyway mate, a good list that could have been a better NETFLIXING list than mine.
I just saw Be Kind Rewind tonight and I thought it was alright but not great. I loved the look and feel of the film but I was bored throughout most of it, no matter how hard I tried to get into it.
THE BANK JOB is on my top ten list, loved that movie. Saffron Burrows deserves a nomination for Best Supporting Actress, no joke.
Also, isn’t it time for us to all begrudgingly concede that VALKYRIE was pretty damn good?
Marshall – Yes, yes indeed.
Its nice to be reminded that Bryan Singer can indeed be a pretty good filmmaker, even if shit like SUPERMAN RETURNS can make one forget.
I’m also laughing that VALKYRIE was directed a Gay Jewish Liberal….the 3 sorts of people that Hitler would have sent to the gas chamber.
What a grand fuck you to ole Adolf.
Nicely done. The last part of your Valkyrie segment made me laugh.
The only of these I’ve seen are Appaloosa (good parts, but also too many bad parts and could have been so much better) and The Bank Job (hated it, possibly unfairly), but it’s an interesting list.
Did you have another list of flops you watched in the hopes of finding hidden gems that were really just terrible and deserved to flop? The RRAzzies?
I’m glad to see someone else liked Leatherheads. I’d have loved it more if Clooney had gone more unapologetically screwball instead of going a bit too conventional (imo) in the second part. But hey, it’s not easy to be Hawks and anyway, this is just Clooney’s third movie.
Of your list, the other one I’ve seen is The X Files: I Want to Believe. And I wanted to… but just couldn’t. For me, it’s probably the second biggest disappointment of the year, the first one being Indiana Jones (which still hurts).
I have seen a few of these films and enoyed them. I agree box office doesn’t equal an enjoyable movie.
X-Files – well I am almost the biggest fan of the series and was waiting with baited breath to see the new movie – I couldn’t believe how awful it was – a cop thriller no less – yes I wanted a lot lot more.
Traitor – I recommend this movie to everybody that will listen I loved it – how about giving Guy Pearce some credit too he is also wonderful in Traitor.
Body of Lies – I just loved it – two of my favourite actors together – enjoyable movie – entertained me.
The Bank Job – I really really enjoyed this movie – I had nothing to watch and rented it out and WOW it is really good.
Valkyrie – One of the best films I have seen for awhile and I see a lot – about time people got over the crazy Tom Cruise that was ages ago and nothing to do what his films are like – I find his movies entertaining. I wouldn’t call this a flop it is now equal to the cost and still earning money. Does the International take count or just the American box office?
I will rent out some more of the films mentioned – I have to say I never watch a Renee Zellwegger movie I can’t stand her as an actress.
Thank you for a great list it gives me more movies to watch.
Jennybee – The RRAzzies! I love it!
I usually try not go see movies that in my gut, I think will be shit. But I’ll use 3 that I did see, and which did deserve to die in theatres, and quickly recap them just for you!
(1) DEATH RACE – oh man I fucking hate Paul W.S. Anderson. If not for Michael Bay, he would probably be my #1 enemy filmmaker. Both hacks though have the same problem in that they grew up wanting to make James Cameron movies.
Except they only remember the big action sequences, and not Cameron’s strong writing or great acting or actual intelligence.
So DEATH RACE 2000 was a cult classic, a charming but cheeky violent action/satire where pro wrestler-like racers ran over pedestrians and scored points. David Carradine was just badass as Frankenstein, the cyborg who plans to win the race win so he can shake the dictator President’s hand, and kill him with a grendade in his robotic arm.
Instead, Anderson takes that solid Arnold Schwarzenegger actioneer THE RUNNING MAN and remakes it, but adding convulted as mother fucking hell plotting this side of a PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN picture. For instance, a criminal was let out by villain Joan Allen to murder Statham’s family so that Statham can go to her jail, and he become the new Frankenstein.
Why doesn’t that crook when out just decide to fuck it and run off to freedom? Also, why such nonsense? Why not simply kidnap him this side of that Stallone flick LOCK UP, send him to jail, and he does the gig just to get out?
Look, I love dumb action cinema when they’re done right, preferably stream-lined with economical action and pulp storytelling. I mean, look at DOOMSDAY, a good example of what I’m talking about. But DEATH RACE is just fucking dumb, the sort that give action cinema a bad name. Jason Statham needs to quit acting in bullshit like this, for crap like DEATH RACE will kill his career.
Worse, I think Anderson is a dummy who really thinks he’s intelligent. How sad, but do you expect from the director of MORTAL KOMBAT, and also helms his “video game” pictures as bad games worthy of a Angry Video Game Nerd scathing review?
(2) MIRRORS – Yet another lame fucking American horror remake of another fucking good Korean/Japanese/Tawainese/Tibetan/Chinese/Indian/Nepalian/Hong Kongian/whatever horror movie.
I saw this mostly because I like Kiefer Sutherland, and honestly this remake at times I admire this MIRRORS for trying to be what most contemporary Hollywood Horror isn’t, which was patient, not obsessed with the gore quota, and so on, even with a few touches of stupid shit you still expect these days.
But ultimately, I realized by the finale when Jack Bauer is fist-fisting a fucking skeleton how MIRRORS is still another disposable silly addition, and I retreat even more to 80s Horror, back when America knew how to make kickass scary movies. So MIRRORS is broken, half good and half bad.
President Obama, that should be your first priority. Make Americans be proud of their own horror cinema.
(3) THE SPIRIT – The Outlaw Vern is the best critic on the Net (sorry Ryan) for he at least intellectually respects the action genre, and uses smarts and logic to defend it as a legitimate art.
With him, I agree that there is something almost always appealing about action pulp when its done right. Streamlined, and with economical storytelling along with pure old school beat-em-up fighting, its usually good fun. For a great example, watch BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES reruns sometime, which is prime episodic pulp with beautiful animation work, an action comic strip come to life.
THE SPIRIT was based off a real and legendary action comic strip, and Frank Miller did the stupid thing by adapting it as SIN CITY. Wrong, wrong, wrong FUCKING wrong, you name it.
In a way, SPIRIT is like RACE in that its way too convulted in plotting and execution, with too many characters, none ever interestingly developed, more worried about “trying” to be cool. To quote Yoda, either you do or don’t, there is no trying.
THE BANK JOB? That had some badass moments, because it wasn’t trying, it just fucking did it. A heist film with elements familiar to us, but a nice Limey twist and hey, its Jason Statham.
Worse, its not fun at all…not one bit at all, despite all the alleged “action” on the big screen. This is Peter Jackson’s KING KONG all again.
kezza – this list is only about American box-office, which doesn’t include foreign, because really Americans especially Regular Joe dont give a shit about such things.
Only people in Hollywood wanting to count more $$$ (THE DARK KNIGHT) or desperate to make their budget back (SPEED RACER) care about foreign box-office numbers. And maybe BoxOfficeMojo too.
Also, you are right, Pearce was good in TRAITOR, but my problem with him was his accent. Since I’m from the South, such tongues are tricky for actors to pull off, for either they do or don’t. No middle ground. His…didn’t.
But, still good. At least he wasn’t like Nicole Kidman in fucking COLD MOUNTAIN
I am so happy that almost everyone here seems to dig THE BANK JOB. Does Statham finally have a universally-dug hit outside of his action-niche fans (like me, ala TRANSPORTER?)
International box office is sometimes much more that the American box office – I always look at that on Mojo. What a shame that the rest of the world doesn’t count! I’m sure the bean counters do though.
I am from Australia that is why I mentioned Guy Pearce is he well respected here. I did notice his accent in Traitor but forgot about it as the story drew me in.
Yes I will go and see more Jason Stratham movies I like a bald action hero – hey Bruce!
RRA, very interesting list, but I have to disagree with calling “Bank Job” a flop. It did a very decent box office (64 worlwide, 20 million budget), and I read somewhere is the second most illegaly downloaded film of 2008, only losing to … TDK, of course.
And Jason Statham is the coolest action heros nowadays. F… great guy. IMO, he could be a wonderful 007, if his screen persona, are not so much of a “hooligan” dude. Bond has to be a badass, but with a little finesse
X-Files and Punisher were awful and really disappointing (particularly X-Files since it is one of my favorite TV series). But Speed Racer (but keep in mind that is def. not a film for all tastes), Valkyrie (though I’m not sure I would call it a flop, I actually thought it was exceeding box office expectations), and Bank Job are all worth checking out, and I would put Ghost Town in there as another commercial flop that I would say is even better than all the others on the list.
“Be Kind Rewind” was the biggest let down and at times unwatchable. Only free preview Ive been to (and I attend many) where a lot of people walked out on.
‘Appaloosa’ stared out good, but sagged in the middle.
A good list of missed movies!
kezza – I believe in the foreign box-office, I really do, but most folks outside of our movie-loving community don’t.
I really do like Guy Pearce, (if not his tongue in TRAITOR) for he was really terrific in that underrated Australian western THE PROPOSITION some years ago. Though my favorite Pearce picture is still L.A. CONFIDENTIAL.
Joao Mattos – Alright wanna know a secret? I sorta fudged to get THE BANK JOB mentioned. I mean, I really want to pimp it, so I…well, with that “American B.O. only” rule, I could I guess get JOB included.
What’s appealing about Statham, is what IFC.com described him as a “Working Class Action Hero.” He isn’t an aristocratic posh boy like 007, or a foreigner (Van Damme) or Hong Kong (Jet Li) or a guy who went foreign to get training (Seagal) or whatever.
Much like Bruce Willis, Statham is at best his persona as a working-class/regular Joe action hero, but with the difference that Jason is Cockney, and who also knows some good martial arts.
Didn’t know about JOB being the most illegally download picture behind TDK. Rather interesting. Thank you!
BTW, did anyone see that CRANK 2 teaser trailer on YouTube? Damn that shit was fucking insane, even more than the first one, and CRANK #1 was apeshit personified.
Ben M. – Yet another GHOST TOWN mention! Maybe I was wrong to have avoided it in theatres.
Just saw the Crank 2 trailer (in front of My Bloody Valentine–don’t have judgment!), and although I’d rather chew foil than watch it, I gotta admit it must have been fun for the writer(s) to come up with lots of ways for Statham to zap himself.
I agree with all thirteen. Be Kind Rewind was the only entertaining movie of that bunch that I sat through and actually laughed. The rest of them were dull, unorthodox, and just not very entertaining. I know somebody who saw the Spirit and they said it was terrible as well. No one saw the movie. It’s the new Pinnochio with Roberto Boeignhi. Punisher: War Zone was a let down. The X-Files was just Okay. The Bank Job just wasn’t good old fashioned Jason Statham.
I never thought I’d see the day people got heated on this site. One of the only reasons I would read it – free of fanboy rubbish where an opinion is an opinion.
I too was disappointed with Be Kind Rewind. Huge let down.
I wasn’t at U2 fan at all, but U23D was so joyous it converted me.. a little.
Valkyrie wasn’t a flop, moron. It made back its production budget.
Be Kind Rewind was god awful.
[...] Source & Source [...]
So happy you mentioned “Doomsday”…one of the best films of the year, in my opinion…
Uncle Jay – DOOMSDAY should have gotten nominated for the Best Decapitation Oscar.
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