Top 10 worst movies 2022

Notes: Seriously, it was so bad, I wonder if it wasn’t the worst movie I have seen so far starring Mel Gibson. Basically, the end-result was some kind of mix of ‘Saw’ with ‘Mr. Robot’ and, even though you might think that this combination sounds awesome, I’m telling you, it was just really pathetic and, above all, not entertaining at all to behold. The funny thing is that I was recently watching ‘Mr. Robot’, arguably the best thing ever made about hacking, and to follow up with this movie was actually pretty rough. Indeed, all the hacking done by Kevin Dillon looked so pathetic and not convincing whatsoever. By the way, the actor really did sound like a cheap version of his brother Matt. Concerning Mel Gibson, it seemed that, like so many other veteran actors, he apparently needed some extra cash and decided to get involved in such awful cheap direct-to-VOD action flicks like this one. Eventually, as usual with the genre, even though he was displayed prominently on all the promotional material, he was actually involved only in a few scenes. In fact, I do believe that Gibson is a solid actor but it was actually almost funny to see him struggling with such abysmal material. Eventually, you might wonder which was worse though, the performances by the whole cast or the laughable dialogues they had to work with.

Notes: To be honest, pretty much nothing worked with this movie, I’m afraid. Indeed, right from the start, they gave us the most unconvincing webcam show you could imagine. Sure, I have to admit that I have never seen a real webcam show but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t look anything like what was displayed in this movie. Anyway, the writing was just so damned lazy. I mean, a top homicide detective was living next door of the first victim and he was actually going on a date with the sister’s victim the very same evening she was killed without mentioning the fact that, somehow, Grace was also visiting her sister apparently just at the right moment. Basically, it was all too convenient. I mean, there were so many ways they could have spiced up this setup. For example, they could have removed the sibling connection between this writer and the victim and they could have moved the romantic relationship involving this writer and the detective way later in the timeline. Then, they could have said that this famous mystery novelist could have heard in the news about this webcam girl who was murdered and that this writer would somehow become obsessed with this murder, entering this dark and sleazy webcam world, and interfering with the police investigating the case. Instead, she actually got the greenlight from the police chief to actually be directly involved in this investigation which was just ridiculous. One of her great contributions was to replace her sister as a webcam girl, a idea actually supported by the police chief, as some kind of bait for the killer but the best part was that, without it, they would still have found out who was actually the killer.

Notes: Well, my wife apparently thought it was not bad but, to be honest, as far as I was concerned, it has been a while since I have seen such a generic and limp thriller. Indeed, there was really nothing original about the damned thing and, even though it was rather short, it took forever to really take off. Seriously, during the first half, pretty much nothing really happened and then, during the second half, they kept throwing some really underwhelming twists. Furthermore, what was the point of having the action taking place in Croatia if you won’t do anything interesting with this place? I thought it was also fairly ridiculous how they acted as if flying from England to Croatia was like taking a bus (which was supposed to explain how a specific character was able to randomly pop up a couple of times). Concerning the cast, I think it was the first time I saw Leighton Meester playing the lead and she was not bad. Still, her commitment to deliver the most average woman possible did make her character rather tedious to behold. However, the rest of the cast was even more uncharismatic so I had a hard time to care about any of them. Was the damned thing doomed to fail from the very beginning? That’s actually a possibility.

Notes: Somehow, I have seen most of the action flicks starring Liam Neeson since he showed up in ‘Taken’ and I wonder if this movie might be actually the weakest of the bunch. Indeed, the damned thing was just so derivative and simply just plain boring to watch. The worst thing was that the concept actually did have some potential. Indeed, the idea of a FBI agent specialized in helping out undercover agents in trouble was actually pretty neat and the fact that the guy was struggling with OCD was also interesting. In fact, that’s one thing that really bothered me with this movie, the fact that Liam Neeson doesn’t really even try anymore. Indeed, even though this guy was supposedly affected by some severe OCD, he actually played the character exactly the same way he played his usual tough guys which was just so lazy and disappointing. Sure, he would repeat some gestures 3 times just to show that, look, we are not joking, he really has OCD, but, in fact, it just didn’t have any impact on the story after all, at least, not enough. Instead of properly developing this aspect, they spent way too much showing that his relationship with his family was strained which is such a boring cliché and the fate of 99% of Neeson’s characters in such action flicks. Concerning the rest of the movie, it was basically dealing with some tedious generic conspiracy involving the boss of the main character which was not only seriously predictable but another boring cliché.

Notes: My wife actually preferred this sequel and I have to admit that it was slightly better than the previous instalment but only slightly though. Indeed, the first thing that did bother me was that Thijs Römer, probably the only one who managed to deliver a decent performance in the previous movie, was actually recast. To make it worse, his replacement, Geza Weisz was actually pretty weak. What was also confusing was that, instead of bringing back Donna played by Nicolette van Dam, they added another random blonde girl called Angela played by Bettina Holwerda but why? Just because they needed to keep 3 girls going abroad on holiday like in the previous movie? By the way, this time, they sent these girls to Ibiza instead of Curaçao but the end-results was just as jarring as it was in the previous movie. At least, the returning characters were better fleshed-out this time around. For example, Yolanthe Cabau’s character was slightly less one-note as they focused more on her career but she wasn’t helped by the fact that the conflict involving Bo and Said still felt seriously bogus. I mean, sure, Said messed up a couple of times but, during both movies, nothing really major happened that would justify such a major crisis in their relationship. On the positive side, even if the jokes were never really amazing, they were at least harmless and there was nothing awful like the kid swallowing some Viagra in ‘F*ck de liefde’.

Notes: Back in the 90’s, Juliette Binoche turned down some major Hollywood blockbusters like ‘Jurassic Park’ but, recently, you get to see her popping up in some US productions from time to time but to be honest, she does make some rather bewildering choices (the ‘Ghost in the Shell’ live-action remake? Seriously?). Well, you might wonder why she bothered to show up for this flick as well. Sure, it was dealing with an important subject but the damned thing had seriously no pulse whatsoever. The fact that it was almost 2 hrs long probably didn’t help. Eventually, it seems that Juliette Binoche really wanted to get the opportunity to drive one of these huge US trucks and, at least, she did look the part but, to be honest, she wasn’t really convincing though. The fact that her character was from Canada but her brother was from the US was a completely unnecessary convoluted piece of information which was obviously added there probably because she couldn’t master a perfect US accent. I mean, on one hand, they mentioned that they got separated at some point but then, 5 mins later, they would talk about how he was protecting her through seemingly most of her childhood. I also thought it was rather lazy and poorly written.

Notes: To be honest, I didn’t expect it to be so lame after all. I understand Russell Crowe has now entered a phase in his career during which he just wants to do whatever he wants and doesn’t give a sh*t anymore about what everybody else might be thinking, good for him, but, seriously, what was the point in making this movie? It couldn’t be the money since he probably didn’t get much to do it and basically no one saw it when it was released but it couldn’t have been the abysmal story or concept either (was there an actual concept involved here actually?). Anyway, I always had a weak spot for movies dealing with poker and, with such a title, you might have expected to see plenty of playing action but you will be really disappointing since they only played for a short while after all. I guess the basic idea was to show that the main character was going through life as if it was some kind of poker game but I can’t say the end-result was deep whatsoever. Concerning the characters, none of them was interesting but the fact that they were not developed probably didn’t help either. Sure, Elsa Pataky is still really lovely but what was the point of her character who showed up for 10 mins to deal some cards and then completely disappeared afterwards? Eventually, even though ‘The Water Diviner’ was not a bad directorial debut, this sophomore effort was just abysmal and it seems that Crowe should just stick to acting.

Notes: Unfortunately, it turned out to be another lame Dutch romantic-comedies from Johan Nijenhuis and I really struggled to care about the damned thing. Basically, ever since ‘Love Actually’ ever came out, the Dutch film industry has kept releasing some cheap knock-offs like this year but it has been 20 years since the classic British rom-com was released, it would be nice if they would finally move on at some point. Above all, it is such a lazy way to write romantic-comedies. Indeed, as a result, you get a whole bunch of half-baked sub-plots instead of one solid plot. In this case, it was actually too bad because most of the characters were actually not so bad at all as there was something genuine about them and I wouldn’t have mind spending a whole movie focusing on one of these stories. Furthermore, I have to admit that the cast was surprisingly solid and the different struggles they faced linking to having a baby were all actually fairly interesting and/or entertaining. However, since we kept jumping from one character to the other, none of these stories was developed properly and, therefore, they were all underwhelming. Finally, just like in ‘Rokjesdag’, it was just ridiculous that Johan Nijenhuis tried to convince us that a gorgeous woman like Lieke van Lexmond would even struggle to find a guy to start a family.

Notes: It’s only after the watching the damned thing that I discovered that it had received some rather weak reviews and, unfortunately, I would have to agree with the critics on this one. Indeed, it turned to be a huge disappointment and easily the weakest movie Jeunet has delivered so far. Sure, there were a couple of decent ideas but most of it was actually really weak. Concerning the story, it might have had some potential but, eventually, it was just too generic and not really interesting after all. And I shouldn't forget to mention that it was supposed to be a comedy but most of the jokes were just terribly lame. At least, Jeunet has always been a visionary film maker, especially visually speaking, and the idea of having him playing around with so much CGI was actually really neat. However, the whole thing looked just not really convincing and was rather ugly so, even in this area, it turned out to be rather disappointing. Finally, the casting was not bad, at least, I won’t blame the actors, but there were probably too many characters involved as none of them was properly developed. In fact, most of these characters were rather obnoxious but, even if it was done on purpose, none of them was either interesting or really entertaining. Eventually, the more I think about it, the less I actually enjoyed the damned thing and, yet, with such a concept, with such a director, it could have been really cool.

Notes: It’s such a pity that so many interesting directors like Judd Apatow, when they finally get to work for Netflix, pretty much always deliver their worst or, at least, their most underwhelming directorial effort so far (see also Duncan Jones, Joe Wright, David Ayer, Matt Thompson, David Michod, Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini). Anyway, in this case, the damned thing was so lame, it was seriously pretty much unwatchable. It’s too bad because it was the very first movie I saw which was actually really acknowledging the Covid pandemic so there was definitely some potential. Eventually, you might wonder if it was too soon to make a comedy about this worldwide tragedy but I don’t think it would have made any difference if this movie would have been released 10 years later. Indeed, it has been a while since I have seen such a comedy during which 99% of the jokes fell completely flat. To make things worse, all the characters were so uncharismatic and so tedious to behold in spite a decent cast involved (Karen Gillan, Leslie Mann, Pedro Pascal, David Duchovny, Kate McKinnon). Eventually, the only one who managed to do something slightly interesting with her character was Iris Apatow and her first TikTok video was actually pretty cool. However, if the only thing you can enjoy is a random TikTok video involving the characters of this movie, well, it is pretty obvious you are watching something pretty bad.