Shaun’s Worst 10 Films of 2016

For me, 2016 in film will be a more of a disappointment and what could have been rather than a great year for film. Like all top lists there is always a shit list, this is my worst of 2016 – again I would like to point out that this is based on the movies that I have seen in 2016 so there is probably going to be a lot of shit ones missing because I am not wasting my time seeing it e.g. The angry birds movie and whatever film Adam Sandler released this year.

Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice (Extended Edition).

Yep, you knew this was on the list – this should have been great, it was the film I was looking forward to the most and instead I got heart broken. Yes, there are some good things in it but it can’t revive the shit storm that the rest of the film was. 2016 was a bad year for DC fans and this started the downhill fall that it was. I’m putting the extended edition on the list because it promised to fix some of the problems but in reality, it didn’t really fix anything and I’m sick of trying to defend this shit show.

The BFG.

I found that the whole movie lacked charm. It was 2 hours of “this happened, then that happened. Now, look at this special effect sequence. Now we’re going to have people talk to each other”, with no real establishment if of why I should care about anything going on or the characters themselves. As I said, the movie lacked engagement and charm Sure, it was a Spielberg movie so the movie was not *technically* bad. The man knows how to put together a movie. However, this was not an engaging one. Some of the pacing was totally off in this film. Some jokes and sequences lasted WAY too long, where other important elements were pushed through too fast. At the end of the day, one might say “well it’s for kids”. To that, I say that the kids who were in the theater seemed less than thrilled as well.

Dirty Grandpa.

Another example of a decent trailer getting my attention and end up being absolutely rubbish and the funny thing is I’ve seen this movie three times. The film see’s Robert De Niro (how the mighty have fallen) and Zac Efron team up as a grandfather and grandson duo going to spring break. All the jokes and gags are everything we have seen before with the story being predictable and at times disturbing. If you have let this go in 2016 you have done well.

Ride Along 2.

I have never seen the first one and I have no idea why I watched this one but this was truly a piece of shit. Going through the list of films I have seen this year, this stood out as one of the worst. It’s the same old cheesy unfunny black comedy which we get every year. It’s bad plain and simple.

BEN HUR.

Most film goers know the deal here – Hollywood stuck for ideas, try to remake a classic with a 2016 twist and it bombs completely. Looking back all I really remember from this film is Morgan Freeman is in it. Apart from the rare case of the Jungle Book – Hollywood needs to let classic films stay classic, remakes like this just hurt the original and will turn future views away.

Now you see me 2.

Writing my top 10 list was difficult, writing this was easy and it’s because of these top 5 films – these came to mind straight away starting with this. Now I saw this on a plane which I am thankful for, I would have been pissed off if I had paid for this. The film takes place a year after the first one and it just goes downhill from there, I like to think that they were going for its so bad its good but it even fails at that. The performances are all over the place and the twist ending doesn’t make sense at all.

Alice through the looking Glass.

Disney nearly had a perfect year until this came out – I know the first one make over the billion dollars but lighting doesn’t strike twice and it sure as hell doesn’t strike when you have Johnny Depp and Sacha Baron Cohen going nuts and wacky in the same film. I have read the book and was quite looking forward to seeing a film version but this was not it, hopefully, one day I will see one. This was trying to be a blockbuster but it ended up being a joke – How many small- or medium-sized films were never funded or released because the entire Hollywood studio apparatus has devoted itself to churning out listless fantasies that are machine-tooled for maximum repeatability and exploitability while claiming to be magical and wonderful? This is not artistry. It’s con artistry.

Gods of Egypt.

Now the true pain of 2016 comes to light, It’s a film that reeks of money, big swooping shots stretching on for digitally created miles and golden costumes glinting, but it’s money badly spent. The story is lurid and camp, which could have been quite fun if Proyas had embraced it, but he tries to give it a weight it can’t support, forcing needlessly dense mythology that confuses convolution with depth. With all the toys at his disposal here Proyas might have been expected to at least throw in some exciting action, but there’s an afterthought, samey quality to the set pieces, the majority finding our heroes jumping off a ledge and hoping for the best. It’s not even spirited enough to be enjoyably awful.

Independence Day: Resurgence.

You know if Will Smith turns you down nowadays it must be a bad and bad it was! This will now be forever remembered as an example of Hollywood that they should never fund sequels to beloved 90s action films, you are hoping for the Aliens to win so that you will never have to sit through another one of these again but the corporate transparency of its purpose is completely eclipsed by the goofiness of its role in the plot, and the breathtakingly stupid dialogue it inspires. A valuable lesson that you can take away is: Nostalgia is a powerful thing, but just because you ache for the past doesn’t mean that the present isn’t significantly worse.

Zoolander 2.

20 minutes! that’s how long I had to sit through this film before turning it off to the tune of utter disbelief on how bad it was. The best way to view this film is by skipping it entirely, after 15 years they should have just left it alone it now falls under the category of doing more damage to the original. The movie suffers from the same faults as Dumb and Dumber 2 in that it tried reusing old jokes which worked 15 years put fall flat today. Ben Stiller needs to look at this mistake before he turns into the next Adam Sandler. This is not worth anyone’s time – this is why it takes the top spot of the worst films of 2016.

Make sure to check out Shaun’s Top 10 Films of 2016.

Tweet us your #Worst10 films of 2016 @ReelTimeDublin and we’ll judge you publicly for them!