Movies

Top 5 Worst Movies of 2017

Which movies caused more headaches than entertainment this year?

Published

7 years ago

December 12, 2017

2017 has been a pretty good year for film — unfortunately, it has also delivered some terrible and downright ridiculous movies that even the most forgiving fan may have found difficult to watch. We’ve rounded up the 5 worst that left us wanting a whole lot more.

5. Baywatch

A lot of people may have fond, nostalgic memories of the Baywatch TV series and thought this film adaptation could provide some light laughs and action. It was clearly supposed to follow the model of the first 21 Jump Street movie reboot; you know, the ‘misfit buddy-cop type duo investigate an implausible criminal conspiracy with a lot of interspersed pop-culture references and crude comedic dialogue’?. Unfortunately, it didn’t nail the subtlety and charm that Jump Street did, and ended up just being an incoherent mess that that not even The Rock managed to save.

4. The Mummy

Tom Cruise is usually box-office gold due to the impressive record he boasts with big-name franchises, but The Mummy ended up being the exception. This film was supposed to be the launchpad for Universal Studios’ ‘Dark Universe’, an interconnected set of movies drawing on the most famous horror icons such as the Mummy, Frankenstein, Dracula, the Wolfman, and a slew of other notable creatures and characters. What should have been a well-told and self-contained story ended up being a colour-by-numbers script that completely fails to engage the audience or establish any reason to care about its own characters or a wider world. What was supposed to evoke feelings of macabre horror ended up just being a bland miss-hit that likely jeopardises the feasibility of continuing with this universe at all.

3. Underworld: Blood Wars

This is another franchise with extensive entries that seems to have outstayed its welcome, which is a shame considering that the first couple of Underworld movies were enjoyable action-horror romps. They featured some talented actors in Kate Beckinsale, Michael Sheen, and Bill Nighy, but the talent has slowly seeped out of the subsequent projects, as has the quality out of the scripts. Barring the action scenes, the rest of the movie feels incredibly rote and phoned in, carrying none of the energy and intrigue that were exhibited previously.

2. Arsenal

Way back when, Nicolas Cage was a bonafide movie star who delivered solid performances in movies like 8mm, Face/Off, Lord of War, and even more recently in Kick-Ass. That said, he has had his disappointments in travesties like Ghost Rider, Drive Angry and The Wicker Man, which has resulted in his stock dropping quite notably. He won’t be helped by his appearance in this weird knock-off version of Taken, which lacks all the novelty of the action-kidnapping genre, and is riddled with bizarre plot holes like the protagonist somehow taking on deadly gangsters… when he’s an everyman construction worker. Cage is really struggling to remain relevant, and unfortunately his last few projects seem to point towards him disappearing into obscurity quite soon.

1. The Emoji Movie

The artistic bar isn’t all that high for animated movies designed to be middle-of-the-road fun for the entire family, but somehow, even with that in mind, The Emoji Movie managed to completely miss the mark with audiences and critics alike. What was supposed to be a fun and clever deconstruction of pop-culture, in the vein of previous films like The Lego Movie and Inside Out, ended up lacking a lot of the heart that those two showed and playing out like a ‘me-too’ cash grab while emojis are relevant. Unfortunately, what could’ve been fun ends up feeling laborious and with a bit of a cynical undertone that sticks out like a sore thumb.

We’ve counted down what we think have been some of Hollywood’s mishaps for 2017, which films have you seen that you wish you’d rather skipped out on? Let us know in the comments below, or on Facebook and Twitter.