Worst Films of the Decade

[Deleted]

Alright, I knew that the movie was based on a book, but going in I didn't know that it was based on a book that was historical fiction. The doctor in the film? A completely made up character. Never existed.

But why really does that made up character have to be there? Ida Amin was a very real person, and a horrible and fascinating one at that. Does the movie have to have a character like the doctor? Wouldn't an all-out movie about Amin have been more interesting anyway? And Forest Whitetaker is a great actor. Why couldn't he be the main focus, rather than the corruption of his white doctor, who doesn't even exist in real life or history?

The doctor was the main character in the book as well. It's the original novel that created the fictional character to tell the story through - the film is pretty faithful the novel, which mixed fact with fiction. I don't deny that Hollywood always chooses a white POV to tell stories about Africa, but in this case, they didn't make it up, the book already provided it for them.

The inclusion of the doctor works for me because he's a physical representation of the kind of general fuckery of the British in Africa. His character progression is thus - starting with somewhat noble intentions, then giving that up to follow the money and power, ignoring it when things go bad, then when things get really bad just buggering off and leaving the African people to deal with the mess.

[Hamatron]

No, you are right. I should have made that more clear. Once I figured out that it was based on a novel (a friend of mine had read it and said it stuck to the book pretty well), I was annoyed, but gave it some slack.

But some of the PR out there at the time for the movie made it sound like it was striving to present factual events with reasonable accurately. The statements that the director and cast made in the documentary on the making of the movie also implies this. I think this is part of my frustration with the movie. Also, I think the director was totally out of line with his statements on his intentions with the movie versus the reality of the film he made.

[carrier76]

I need some time to think about this, obviously, but I'm going to list two. Glitter and Crossroads. Glitter is in that special category of movies, usually reserved for Lifetime fare starring Meredith Baxter Birney, that hop the painful "bad movie" train and head straight to "totally awesome"-ville. Love over a xylophone, anyone? Crossroads certainly had potential to do the same, but it was just plain BORING.

I need time to think about this, obviously...

[Deleted]

Jan 2, 2010 18:22:55 GMT -4 Hamatron said:

No, you are right. I should have made that more clear. Once I figured out that it was based on a novel (a friend of mine had read it and said it stuck to the book pretty well), I was annoyed, but gave it some slack.

But some of the PR out there at the time for the movie made it sound like it was striving to present factual events with reasonable accurately. The statements that the director and cast made in the documentary on the making of the movie also implies this. I think this is part of my frustration with the movie. Also, I think the director was totally out of line with his statements on his intentions with the movie versus the reality of the film he made.

Idi Amin did have white British doctors working for him. Also, the book's author conflated those men with Bob Astles, a British soldier who was one of Amin's trusted aides. The Garrigan character in the movie was not invented out of whole cloth.

[divasahm]

Jan 3, 2010 23:52:40 GMT -4 carrier76 said:

I need some time to think about this, obviously, but I'm going to list two. Glitter and Crossroads. Glitter is in that special category of movies, usually reserved for Lifetime fare starring Meredith Baxter Birney, that hop the painful "bad movie" train and head straight to "totally awesome"-ville. Love over a xylophone, anyone? Crossroads certainly had potential to do the same, but it was just plain BORING.

I need time to think about this, obviously...

The only thing that saved Mariah Carey's career after Glitter opened was the fact that it opened on September 7, 2001.

[JeanBean]

I know this is probably a crowd favorite, but I walked out of Pineapple Express. So boring and bad.

[iClaudia]

I echo the sentiments about Crash which, if not technically the worst movie of the decade, was certainly the most overrated and thoroughly undeserving of the praise it got, much less the Oscar. I used to faithfully watch every second of the Oscar telecast but Crash permanently killed my Oscar viewing enjoyment. I now only half watch if I even bother to watch at all.

My actual worst movie vote has to go to From Justin to Kelly. Perhaps it shouldn't even count as a movie since it's almost incomprehensible that they actually released it in theaters. I was a huge AI fan back then and even I waited for it to show up on cable. I figured it would at least be fun in a Saved by the Bell TV movie kind of a way but it made SBTB look like high art.

[FotoStoreSheila]

Crash winning Best Picture was a travesty, but my pick for worst movie is Gigli. I watched it years after the public flogging had stopped, and it was every bit as terrible as everyone said. Ben looked embarrassed to be there, and Jennifer was doing a watered down version of Karen Sisco.

[Deleted]

300. I like a good fight scene as much as the next gal, but no. No on the pantslessness. No on the overdone CGI'd abs. No on the overdone makeup. No on the irritatingly frequent use of slo-mo. No on the yellow color scheme. Just no. I still haven't forgiven David Wenham for appearing in that piece of shit.

Crash. I've not see nit but I know enough people who have to avoid it. The friends I was watching the Oscars with that year thought I was going to have a coronary, I was so pissed off when it won.

[LAX]

Crash is definitely the worst Oscar winning picture of the decade.

Gigli is really, really bad and is firmly in my top ten worst, but the most horrible movie I saw in the aughts was Beerfest. It isn't even fit for Comedy Central, yet they keep playing it. It is like the worst of the 80's movies, mixed with bad acting, and really, really bad accents.

ETA: I almost forgot about In the Name of the King. I think my mind was trying to be merciful in allowing me to forget that one. Really horrible Uwe Boll movie that almost destroyed my crush on Jason Statham.