5. After
It’s easy to realize that this is a fanfiction adaptation. The film was based on a young adult romance novel written by Anna Todd, whose writing was inspired by the music and fandom of One Direction. She started by writing stories on her phone with the Wattpad app. Her “After” series is compared to the “Fifty Shades” trilogy, and you should keep in mind that when your work is compared to that trilogy, it’s never a good thing. It’s basically the teen version of “Fifty Shades of Grey.”
As you can imagine, the movie features the glamorization of an abusive relationship, with stereotypical teenage characters who live exaggerated teenage lives in a fantasy world. The story moves quite fast and you don’t get to relate to any of the characters; not that there’s much to relate, anyway, as both characters have zero depth.
The central relationship has no complexity. It doesn’t explore any of its toxic or passionate sides, or anything interesting, for that matter. In fact, it’s almost surprising that a movie like this got released into theatres. It just screams like an average Netflix film that they dump with little promotion. As for the conclusion, well, it’s as predictable as it can be.
4. The Silence
From the man who gave us “Mortal Kombat: Annihilation,” “Annabelle,” “Wolves at the Door” and “The Butterfly Effect 2” (what a filmography, huh?) comes a dull and dreadful Netflix film that took its chance at getting attention after “A Quiet Place.” Even if you didn’t like “A Quiet Place,” this movie will make you appreciate it more – especially its pacing and sound work.
Actually no, you’ll appreciate everything about “A Quiet Place” more after this. Stanley Tucci was praised as the best part of the film, but even he fails to deliver anything he hasn’t done before. For the most part, the movie feels dull without anything compelling going on.
The film looks very bland and the characterizations are also very poor. The plot is full of holes, and the cult aspect is really bad. The end is also rushed, and some of the characters make some very silly decisions. So at this point, what is left? Basically nothing of a movie.
3. Dark Phoenix
Maybe “Logan” was the right kind of ending to this series. It’s not the only clunker in the X-Men franchise, but who predicted that they were going to end it with this? Marvel will probably reboot it into their MCU; we don’t know how it will work yet, but we sure are going to miss the franchise because when they delivered, they really delivered. So it’s a shame that we didn’t get the right finale, the end that the franchise deserved.
Though from the trailers it was kind of obvious that this film was going to tank. Sophie Turner is even a bit of a miscast here. The story itself remains one of the seminal pillars in X-Men history, and then the movie just keeps showing its failures; its concept doesn’t work, the conflicts between characters feels unearned, the makeup is strangely off-putting at times, the effects are pretty bad, and action-wise, it just doesn’t deliver.
In fact, the action sequences feel kind of boring. You simply witness that there’s no heart put into the material, and even though Simon Kinberg has done a good job writing the X-Men films, as a director he fails on many levels.
There are some bad shots here and there and the film suffers from pacing issues. And what a lame villain. Jessica Chastain is totally wasted. Yes, “X-Men” films were not always great, but they were often fun. It’s such a shame that it ended on the sourest note possible.
2. Hellboy
“Dog Soldiers” and “The Descent” are cool movies; “Centurion” is also good for what it is, but director Neil Marshall’s latest movie is surprisingly bad. Based on the Dark Horse Comics character of the same name, the project began as a sequel to the previous Guillermo del Toro-directed “Hellboy II,” but del Toro was not offered the full writer-director capacity he had performed in the first two films. Ron Perlman refused to come back to the role, so the studio decided to get an R-rated reboot.
Surely an R rating is suited better for the world of Hellboy, but unfortunately, the movie fails on almost every level possible and its gore (which is not executed that well) is the only minor elevating element. And of course, David Harbour does his best, but you keep missing Perlman’s approach. An uninspired and generic storyline, an inconsistent tone, a not-so-interesting villain, and humor that just doesn’t work.
The CGI was also surprisingly poor. Some fans thought the film is basically a B-movie compared to the del Toro-directed versions, but the problem is that, even as a B-movie, this new “Hellboy” doesn’t deliver the fun. Even the music choices are a bit weird. Just a disappointing act all around.
1. The Haunting of Sharon Tate
Total garbage of a movie. This August will mark 50 years since Charles Manson’s followers went on their killing spree in Los Angeles, murdering eight people in a two-day period. So recently we’ve kept getting films on the subject back to back.
Chris Hemsworth’s character was definitely based on him in the much-underrated “Bad Times at the El Royale”; Mary Harron made an okay film called “Charlie Says” that unfortunately doesn’t live up to her best work; and of course, Quentin Tarantino has his “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” upcoming.
Then there’s “The Haunting of Sharon Tate,” which is just unbelievably awful, cheap, and unnecessarily violent, with no respect or shame or anything whatsoever. It’s the kind of movie where everything is bad – like really, really bad. Whatever director and writer ties to come up with just fail.
The cinematography is awful, the CGI is terrible, the editing is poor, the acting is terrible, and you can’t even blame Hilary Duff because everything else surrounding it is a piece of garbage and she has to deliver terribly written lines the whole time.
The movie just has nothing to say; it takes a well-known tragedy and treats it like a snuff film. The definition of a tasteless movie that is not just bad, but something that will really make you feel annoyed and angry.