Einstein once said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Clearly, Johnny Depp, Kevin James, Adam Sandler, Liam Neeson, Neill Blomkamp and the Wachowskis were not scholars of Einstein. Once more that band of cinematic rascals is part of an offensive list of the year's worst film talents. Let's be honest, most of them are veterans of the list by now, but thanks to the human centipede of talent agents and casting directors that seem to completely ignore recent track records and overall ability, they still get work. They will continue to get work. They will continue to be horrendous. And that's why we can't have nice things. All in all, 2015 has actually been a fairly poor year for film. It feels like the nervous deep breath before the excitement of 2016's blockbuster packed slate, and a lot of the time it's gone far from swimmingly. There were some close run things: if it wasn't for Hugh Jackman's delightfully silly performance in Pan, it would have definitely made it. And it's REALLY tempting to put Alice Through The Looking Glass on here on account of that bloody awful trailer. But what are we without rules?
20. Aloha
Rotten Tomatoes: 19% It's one of the great tragedies of Hollywood that Cameron Crowe represented himself as a prodigiously talented film-maker with both Jerry Maguire and the enchanting Almost Famous. Now, having survived the sophomore slump (or at least following up his first big success with another one), the director has made three disappointing films (okay, Vanilla Sky has its cult appeal) and one flat out terrible one. It seems that the former music journalist has now deferred to making great music documentaries (both The Union and Pearl Jam Twenty are highly recommended), and has forgotten what it means to make films about real people that are actually endurable. Aloha is a badly made film hamstrung by terrible execution, unrelatable, badly drawn characters and a premise that marries sickly romance with a dastardly Scooby Doo villain plot. It seems in the quest to be original, Crowe forgot about the need to also be, you know, good.
