Top 10 worst movies 2022

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: 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.

Notes: To be honest, I have to admit that I wasn’t familiar with this character at all but I thought that it was a perfect fit for Dwayne Johnson, even if Johnson is not Egyptian at all. On top of that, Black Adam is a really cool complex dark character. So, on paper, this movie definitely had some potential. Unfortunately, as pointed out by the reviewers, the damned thing turned out to be so weak after all and, eventually, after ‘Morbius’ also released this year, it turned out to be another adaptation involving an intriguing darker comic-book character which was completely botched. First of all, it has been a while since I have seen Dwayne Johnson deliver such a weak performance. I never thought he was actually a bad actor but this character was apparently just too subtle for him. Indeed, Black Adam is certainly not a good guy, at least, that’s how he was originally designed but, since he was also the main character of this movie, he couldn't be completely evil either so what did Johnson do after all? Well, pretty much nothing actually. Indeed, during most scenes, Johnson just stood there showing no emotion whatsoever as if he had no clue how to play this character. Concerning the rest of the characters involved, well, I had never heard of them before but they all seemed to be some rather cheap knock-offs of some similar MCU characters (the fact that DC might have created these characters actually before Marvel is not relevant). Finally, even if it was shorter than most MCU instalments, it still felt too long because the story was just too derivative and simply not entertaining enough.

Notes: As expected, it turned out to be a big dumb loud blockbuster but, to be honest, I have to admit that I was actually fairly entertained. It’s too bad they never really figured how they should handle the material though. Indeed, they seemed aware of how ridiculous the concept was and they had fun with it but, unfortunately, the whole thing very often took itself way too seriously with some supposedly elaborate scientifical explanations which were really ridiculous. Another issue was that, while it made sense that they wanted to show the mayhem going on Earth, the group of characters involved in this group was just so poorly developed and uncharismatic. To make things worse, facing the destruction of the planet Earth was probably enough, they definitely didn’t need to bring some looters in the mix as well. At least, the trio of main actors (Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson, John Bradley) was not bad and I especially enjoyed Patrick Wilson who was solid playing the usual washed-up reluctant hero. And what about the ending? Well, it was probably a little bit too much and it was another example of they took themselves way too seriously. Still, I have to admit that it was actually pretty cool to see this loser conspiracy theorist who always dreamed to be an astronaut eventually getting involved in some mission in space to actually save the world.

Notes: Of course, like most of Disney’s recent live action adaptations of their classic animated features, the damned thing felt really misguided from the start. Especially in this case, it felt even more pointless since they followed so faithfully the animated version. Sure, they did tweak a few details here and there but these details had so very little added value, you wonder if a shot-by-shot remake wouldn’t have been more efficient. At least, it was visually not bad, even though I wasn’t so sure about the approach they chose for the main character. Sure, Pinocchio is supposed to be a wooden puppet but it felt as if the puppet was not completely finished yet, as if the wood was still raw, and it gave him a rather creepy look. Concerning the story, it has always been one of the weirdest and even more unsettling tales delivered by Disney, something you will never see anytime soon again coming from these guys. Here, with this modern adaptation, they tried to smooth out some of the dark edges somehow but the end-result was rather unsatisfying since they never settled for a specific tone. And, yet, it is still a fascinating tale and I just loved the relationship between Pinocchio and Geppetto, even in this really misguided new version.

Notes: To be honest, I have to admit that I actually never played the video-game but, at least, this movie actually made me want to give it a try at some point. Anyway, even though my rating might make you think otherwise, I actually really struggled to care about the damned thing. I mean, I do love adventure flicks, I’m a huge fan of Indiana Jones, and I always had a weak spot for heist movies so to combine both should have been awesome but, to be honest, the end-result was only mildly entertaining after all. Eventually, I think the biggest issue was with the story. Indeed, instead of telling an actual story, it felt like they were checking some boxes (Nate’s brother is leaving, Nate is meeting Sully, Nate has a face to face with Moncada,…). Most of it didn’t feel really organic or convincing or actually really entertaining. At least, I did like the fact that everyone was constantly backstabbing each other and, with a darker and more cynical approach, it could have been interesting. Concerning Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg, on paper, it did sound like a real cool duo but, in my opinion, they didn’t have much chemistry after all. Concerning the action scenes, I have to admit that the opening scene was neat but it was also another problem, they gave the most spectacular scene right at the beginning and I can’t remember a single other memorable scene that occurred afterwards.