Starting from the bottom and working our way to the top, we begin with the dreaded Worst Movie of the Year award. A dishonor that distinguishes a film as being wholly unworthy of your money and time. Although in fairness, the first 4 of these 5 nominees were movies I actually wanted to see. With that considered, I'm sure there are plenty of worse films that are more worthy of being nominees in this category, but in my own personal experience, these were the 5 worst movies I saw in 2015.
Worst Movie of the Year Nominees:
Black Mass While the story of the notorious Boston crime lord "Whitey" Bulger is an interesting one, I find that Black Mass does it little justice. This broody film reduces Bulger to an over-the-top evil caricature with a contradictory sensitive side that feels disingenous and downright silly. A weak script turns this boring movie into a largely forgettable mess. |
Run All Night Liam Neeson is milking his action star run down to the last drop, and Run All Night is another mediocre cash-in to add to the list. It has a premise similar to Taken, only now Neeson's an ex-hitman turned deadbeat drunk father who must protect his son from his old crime lord boss. It has decent dynamic between Neeson and Ed Harris, but this act is getting old. No pun intended. |
Tomorrowland Director Brad Bird really missed the mark with this Disney feature film. What should have been an exciting and imaginative adventure ends up being dull and lifeless. Even the star power of George Clooney and Hugh Laurie couldn't redeem it. I'd rather spend two hours in line for a ride at Disneyland's Tomorrowland than ever watch this movie again. |
Paper Towns After being surprisingly pleased by last year's cancer-ridden teenage romance The Fault in Our Stars, I was excited to see Paper Towns. I even read the book in anticipation of the film, but unfortunately this adaption leaves much to be desired. The film sugarcoats the dark mystery that drives the story, and the fun teenage hijinks are less effective and even annoying at times. |
Our Brand is Crisis Based on a true story, political strategist "Calamity Jane" Bodine is hired to help the former Bolivian President Castillo return to power. Castillo's story is solid, but Sandra Bullock's quirky take on Jane coupled with Billy Bob Thorton's pervy performance really grated my nerves. If I could, I'd gladly back those 2 hours of my life. |
And the Winner Is...
Tomorrowland
Worst Movie of the Year
The possibilities of Tomorrowland were as endless as they were promising, and yet the end result was an uninspired mess of a movie with poor dialogue, disappointing special effects, and a thick layer of cheese. The plot and characters were bland, and the utopian Tomorrowland itself was little more than an ill-conceived tease. Given the talent behind it, I was left dumbfounded by the overall quality of Tomorrowland. The movie is a dismal effort in nearly every way. If you've seen the trailer, you've already seen the best moments that the film has to offer. Watching Tomorrowland is a sure-fire way to make you long for yesterday, before you ever had to endure such a disappointing film. For that, I hereby crown Tomorrowland as the worst movie of 2015.