Predicting the Movie Hits and Bombs of 2016

Not a fan.

 

I found Animaniacs extremely annoying, myself, but my three year old and I are not above watching some Pinky and The Brain now and then...

 

I can now confirm that Assassin's Creed fully deserved to tank at the box office. There are a few words I could use to describe it, but I fear that those words would cost me my SH.tv membership. Not many times I felt that I had wasted my money and my time to go to see a movie at the theater. This was one of those times. Horrible.

 

Yep, back on page 55 of this thread, I let my feelings known. Worst movie of the year for me, even more than Independence Day: Resurgence.

 

Resurgence is a masterpiece compared to that ***** piece of cinematographic **** that is *******Assassin's Creed. Those who made it possible should go and **** themselves for wasting the time and money of all the ****heads like me who spent their money to watch this **** at the theater. There's more art in a flushing toilet than in ******* Assassin's Creed

and for the record, I moderated myself; just subsitute the * with the right letters.

 

Well, I didn't say Seaquest was a huge success! Just that it didn't vanish without a trace almost immediately, like most of Spielberg's other TV misadventures (apart from the animated ones).

 

In the case of Amazing Stories, it didn't get cancelled immediately because they had a 2-year "pay or play" deal. The show never got out of the low 40s in ratings (which is not good for a show that sometimes cost $1 million an episode in the 1980s), but NBC did try desperately to move it all over the schedule in an effort to improve the audience viewership. It didn't help. As Roy Scheider noted above, changing the cast, changing the show focus, changing the year, changing the title, and changing the time slot did not save Seaquest.

 

Yeah, I recall Amazing Stories being something of a dud back in the day, and a costly one at that.

 

Yeah, I already said Spielberg made good movies after "ET":

He just lacks the natural ease that he showed for those 4 1975-1982 classics. Back then, he made filmmaking look effortless - after that, you could feel the thought process involved in each film...

 

Yeah. I liked Jurassic Park (as one example), but as I was leaving the theater I turned to a friend of mine, who's an editor here in LA, and I said, "I felt like I was seeing the story boards throughout most of the film." He knew what I was saying: that the film was very contrived, calculated, and crafted, with very little nuance or naturalness. It's a very good film and I enjoyed it, but it's not the romp that the Indiana Jones films were or like Spielberg's earlier films. I think Spielberg is aware of that and has tried to get away from it; famously, he said he completely storyboarded Schindler's List from start to finish, then got to Poland to shoot it, looked at the locations, then threw away the storyboards and just shot it by eye. That's a much more natural-feeling film to me. And yet I liked and enjoyed both films.

 

I recently watched 'Sugarland Express' which seemed like it was directed by a very talented TV director who tried to invest it with some character as the budget allowed. To his credit, the movie transcends the glaringly non-sensical motivations of the principals, though Ben Johnson couldn't be un-credible if he tried.

I always thought and hoped Spielberg would just do a straight ahead big city crime drama. Something like "Ronin" or the 'Taking of Pelham 1-2-3" ( the 1974 version) which seems to be a straightforward ransom movie and evolves into something else, with surprising action. Or take on something like 'Sicario'. Surely more interesting stories must have been available to him than BFG.

 

Wasn't "Munich" kind of his take on a "serious" action movie? Granted, it comes with more obvious social commentary/ramifications than most, but it strikes me as something in that vein.

Huh - I thought I didn't like the movie but I re-read my review and realized I did. Good thing I have a website or I'd never remember what I think of movies!

 

But, you are allowed to change your opinion of a movie over time and then admit how wrong you were initially.

I forget which one it was, Siskel or Ebert (I think Ebert,) who panned a classic, popular movie (forget what movie,) that almost all critics and viewers loved. Then much later, he reviewed the film again and did a 180 and admitted he was wrong in his initial review.

 

Oh, sure - I change my mind about movies. Heck, I've already updated my view of "Rogue One", which I disliked on first screening but moderately enjoyed on 2nd.

I once rewrote a review because I changed my mind to such a huge extent. When I reviewed the first DVD of "The Big Hit", I hated it, but then I saw it on a second DVD and loved it. I left up the original review because those statements were still a valid POV but I felt the need to pen a new article to reflect my changed opinion.

In the case of "Munich", though, there's no change of heart - I haven't seen it since I reviewed the DVD. I just misremembered my 11-year-old opinion!

When you've seen as many movies as I, that's gonna happen - I'll think I liked something I didn't or vice versa...

 

and the nominees are


Here’s the full list of 2017 Razzies nominees:

WORST PICTURE

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Dirty Grandpa

Gods of Egypt

Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party

Independence Day: Resurgence

Zoolander No. 2

WORST ACTOR

Ben Affleck / Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Gerard Butler / Gods of Egypt & London Has Fallen

Henry Cavill / Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Robert De Niro / Dirty Grandpa

Dinesh D’Souza [as Himself] Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party

Ben Stiller / Zoolander No. 2

WORST ACTRESS

Megan Fox / Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows

Tyler Perry / Boo! A Madea Halloween

Julia Roberts / Mother’s Day

Becky Turner [as Hillary Clinton] Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party

Naomi Watts / Divergent Series: Allegiant & Shut-In

Shailene Woodley / Divergent Series: Allegiant

WORST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Julianne Hough / Dirty Grandpa

Kate Hudson / Mother’s Day

Aubrey Plaza / Dirty Grandpa

Jane Seymour / Fifty Shades of Black

Sela Ward / Independence Day: Resurgence

Kristen Wiig / Zoolander No. 2

WORST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Nicolas Cage / Snowden

Johnny Depp / Alice Through the Looking Glass

Will Ferrell / Zoolander No. 2

Jesse Eisenberg / Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Jared Leto / Suicide Squad

Owen Wilson / Zoolander No. 2

WORST SCREEN COMBO

Ben Affleck & His BFF (Baddest Foe Forever) Henry Cavill / Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Any 2 Egyptian Gods or Mortals / Gods of Egypt

Johnny Depp & His Vomitously Vibrant Costume / Alice Through the Looking Glass

The Entire Cast of Once Respected Actors / Collateral Beauty

Tyler Perry & That Same Old Worn Out Wig / Boo! A Madea Halloween

Ben Stiller and His BFF (Barely Funny Friend) Owen Wilson / Zoolander No. 2

WORST DIRECTOR

Dinesh D’Souza and Bruce Schooley / Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party

Roland Emmerich / Independence Day: Resurgence

Tyler Perry / Boo! A Madea Halloween

Alex Proyas / Gods of Egypt

Zack Snyder / Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Ben Stiller / Zoolander No. 2

WORST PREQUEL, REMAKE, RIP-OFF or SEQUEL

Alice Through the Looking Glass

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice: Dawn of Justice

Fifty Shades of Black

Independence Day: Resurgence

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows

Zoolander No. 2

WORST SCREENPLAY

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Dirty Grandpa

Gods of Egypt

Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party

Independence Day: Resurgence

Suicide Squad

 

From the list, the Hillary film is the only one I haven't seen but the rest...man, they're all masterworks compared to Assassin's Creed. Trust me. Yes, even 50 shades of black. Maybe "Assassin's" didn't get nominations because it would have won every award. No contest. Embarrassing film.

 

That's a great list, and a lot of those films deserve to be there. I don't think Ben Affleck was that bad as Batman, though -- I think he did the best he could in a stupid movie.

 

I notice in recent years they've focused the Razzies less on mocking obvious targets like bad Sylvester Stallone action movies or Adam Sandler comedies, and more on chastizing talented people for doing work that's beneath them.

 

M. Night Shyamalan's "Split" is #1 at the box office, with over $40 million. It also has a 76% on Rotten Tomatoes.

I am glad to see this Hollywood redemption story. I love the first four films. Despise the next few, and now he seems to be redeeming himself.

 

Wrong year thread for this. Already posted in 2017 thread.

 

Misread. Sorry about that.

 

Yeah, it did. It's typical for shows with limited runs that they never find a life in syndication due to the paucity of episodes. Here's a list of just some of the TV series produced by Spielberg:

Amazing Stories (1985)
Tiny Toon Adventures (1990)
SeaQuest DSV (1993)
Family Dog (1993)
Animaniacs (1993)
ER (1994)
Pinky and the Brain (1995–1998)
High Incident (1996–1997)
Band of Brothers (2001)
Taken (2002) (TV)
Into the West (2005)
United States of Tara (2009–2011)
Falling Skies (2011–2015) (TV) (producer)
Terra Nova (2011)
Smash (2012–2013)
The River (2012)
Under the Dome (2013–2015) TV series (executive)
Extant (2014–2015)
Red Band Society (2014–2015)
The Whispers (2015)
Public Morals (2015)
Minority Report (2015)
Halo (2016)

For the most part, 90% of these were not successful shows, critically or financially. Some were enormous outright bombs, particularly High Incident, Taken, Terra Nova, Smash, The River, Extant, Red Band Society, The Whispers, and so on. Not to say there aren't good things there: I enjoyed Smash, and I think Pinky and the Brain was a terrific show and Animaniacs was OK. ER was undeniably a huge, blockbuster show for its time.

 

It's only by a technicality, but "Extant" got a second season so I suppose it can't be an outright bomb. That show was, not surprisingly, kind of right in that same range as "Under the Dome" and "Falling Skies." The first season of "Extant" was better than "Dome." "Extant" was another on of those "interesting concepts" that was executed in a rather wonky fashion. They unfortunately did a pretty big revamp for the second season that turned away from the sci-fi stuff and moved more towards action.

 

Extant (S1) was much, much better than Dome or Falling Skies ever were. I emphasize S1 because S2 really dropped the bar and stooped to the same level as those two. It got to be so bad that I dropped it after the first few eps of S2. They should have stuck with the interesting AI/boy plot rather than pivoting to the silly alien monster on the rampage thing.