With each coming year comes a slew of movies to be excited for. Some of these wind up living up to expectations, while some fall short and leave a sour taste in our mouths. I didn't find myself disappointed by all that many films this year, but there are some that I had hopes for that unfortunately just let me down. I'm not a fan of worst of the year lists, so take this as my year in review on the negative side of things, as I count down the 10 films that disappointed me the most this year. If you're expecting to see Joker: Folie a Deux here, don't, I am a devout hater of the first film so I had no expectations for what wound up being one of the bigger disasters of the year. Also don't expect to see any of the Sony Spider-Man villain movies here, we all knew they would stink. There are some films I enjoyed but not to the extend I wanted to like Maria, Y2K, Cuckoo, and Snack Shack, but for the most part the films below wound up not being my cup of tea.
#10 - Maxxxine
This is the lone movie in the top 10 that I do actually like. Mia Goth is great, I love the ensemble, I love the look of it. The issue here is that my expectations were sky high after loving X and Pearl, and despite its positives this closing entry to the trilogy falls a bit flat in comparison. The biggest flaw this movie holds is a wild identity crisis. At times it's an 80s slasher, others it's a crime mystery, others it's a film trying to dissect Hollywood, and sadly these different plotlines fail to mesh properly. It isn't a bad film, but when looking at it compared to the two that came before it just feels like a sad way to close out what was such an exciting start to a surprise trilogy.
#9 - The Mouse Trap
Should this have been something I was looking forward to? Absolutely not. But ever since Winnie the Pooh hit the public domain and made his way to bad cheap horror I've grown an appetite for this nonsense. This being the first to come with Mickey Mouse had me excited for some stupid fun, but this is just really really bad. It can be fun at times in a 'so bad it's good' way, but as time has passed I've grown to really have a sour taste in my mouth for this. All we needed was someone dressed as Mickey slashing people, but instead we have a bland story with a bunch of off screen kills. I knew it wasn't going to be good, but I wish it was a more entertaining form of bad.
#8 - The Crow
Again, this is one I knew would likely disappoint me, but one I wanted so badly to be good. The Crow from 1994 is one of my favourite comic book movies, and with the tragedy that befell that production we honestly shouldn't have seen a new attempt at the story. But we got one anyways, and with Bill Skarsgard in the titular role I had hope that we could get something close to how cool the original film was. But instead, this feels like Jared Leto's Joker as it takes an iconic character and makes them look and feel like a Hot Topic ad. It tries so hard to be alternative and cool that it ultimately feels cringey, and with more of a focus on the love story we don't even get to the action until around halfway in. Just a complete and utter misfire.
#7 - Spaceman
This is one that was so close to being one I enjoyed but just didn't quite hit the mark. Before its release on Netflix there was some quiet but strong buzz going on for it, and as a big fan of Adam Sandler's more dramatic work like Punch Drunk Love and Uncut Gems, I wound up being pretty exciting for Spaceman. The end result honestly just made me a bit sad, as it felt like something that should have been up my alley but just never got there. The music and meditative take on sci-fi very much worked for me, but it never felt like the film was going anywhere interesting, leaving me with nothing but decent visuals and a weird Paul Dano spider doing ASMR. I was ready to love this, and it sadly fell flat for me.
#6 - The Garfield Movie
For some reason I was really excited about the idea of a new Garfield movie. The Bill Murray ones are bad but I have some nostalgia for them, and the character is just too good to keep pumping out bad movies. I didn't like the trailer though, and I should have seen that as an omen for what was to come because I was predictably let down by the end result. It takes a turn narratively away from what works in a Garfield story, turning it into a very generic runaway movie where he finds a long lost parent. The animation isn't terrible but the voice acting is weak and the film just isn't funny. Wanted to have a good time with this and was sadly let down.
#5 - Boy Kills World
This was first put on my radar as part of TIFF's Midnight Madness program from last year. With Bill Skarsgard leading a pretty great cast, and an emphasis on over the top action, I thought this would be right up my alley. Skarsgard's character is deaf and mute, which isn't a problem by any means, the problem is that his thoughts are spoken by a cheesy old school video game voiceover that sucks a ton of life out of the film. The action is mostly decent, but the story is pretty uninteresting and that use of voiceover grows to feel like nails on a chalkboard over the course of the movie. I was ready to have a blast with this and it just wasn't what I was looking for.
#4 - Emilia Perez
This is a hot topic in the film world right now, and while my initial thoughts out of TIFF swayed ever so slightly on the positive, Emilia Perez has soured on me quite a bit. Coming out of Cannes with a ton of buzz I had high hopes for this as an energetic crime musical with stellar acting. The performances are admittedly strong, but this is a real mess of a movie, featuring some of the worst musical numbers I've ever seen. There is the shell of a good story here, but it becomes bogged down by terrible creative choices, making all the awards recognition director Jacques Audiard has receive baffling to me. The film has also gained criticism from the Mexican community in its depiction of their culture, criticism not helped by the fact that Audiard, a French filmmaker, reportedly did no research into Mexican culture before making the film. This has all in all just turned into a big mess from a PR standpoint, and with the film still winning awards the noise isn't getting quieter anytime soon.
#3 - Salem's Lot
I'm a massive Stephen King fan and especially a bit fan of this story. Years of delays and up in the air release news had me very skeptical, but my love of the story still had me craving this ever since it was announced. Sadly this largely missed the mark. The third act is admittedly fun, but the film tries to stuff a massive book that works because it takes its time to create dread and unease into a two hour movie that flies through important moments. Big moments don't land because we aren't given enough time with these characters, and the film plays its hand far too early for the tension to have any chance to build. I wanted to love this so badly, and it's a shame because Bill Pullman feels perfect for the lead role, but this one just didn't work out.
#2 - Argylle
I know most people were just annoyed by how much this trailer played early in the year, but I'm a big Matthew Vaughn fan so I was still very excited. The man behind Kingsman and X-Men: First Class doing a new spy comedy thriller? Sign me up. I love the cast, I love Vaughn's style, but in the end this is a movie that bites itself in the ass far too much. Bryce Dallas Howard sells the anxious author well, but there's a whole other side of her character that she just doesn't feel right for. The film has the twists and turns you expect from a spy movie, but then keeps on making more and more until the twists just feel tedious rather than exciting. It's also not a great looking movie, with some moments of really bad green screen and CGI. The action is mostly good, and I do like the cast, but I was sorely disappointed by how convoluted and messy this wound up being, leaving it a film I found myself constantly trying and failing to enjoy while I watched it.
#1 - Megalopolis
Any time an iconic filmmaker comes out with a new film you kind of have to hold a sense of anticipation for it. When the man that made The Godfather and Apocalypse Now self finances his decades long passion project, how can you not be pumped? Well, in some cases that passion project winds up being a giant disaster, one so bad that for a long time no studio even wants to distribute the film in fear of losing money just on exhibition costs. Megalopolis is a spectacular failure, taking big and bold ideas and delivering something that is at best laughable. The dialogue is awful, the acting feels like parody, and the visuals are somehow either fantastic or truly hideous. It almost doesn't feel like a real movie at times, with a baffling ending and an ensemble of characters named after Romans except for Aubrey Plaza as 'Wow Platinum'. This is truly one of the year's worst films, and one that carried lofty expectations making it no doubt the biggest disappointment of the year.
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