10 Films That Made Audiences Dumber

Academics can debate which decade created “post content” filmmaking, but in 2001 it had a new poster child in the form of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, which proved that not only could you adapt a video game into a successful movie, you could convince an Oscar winner to take the lead role.

It was a dangerous precedent to set. If a movie this lousy can take $275 million, why bother to create anything good?

Even at 100 minutes, with a lengthy end credits sequence, Tomb Raider has a feeling of sturm und drang that a big summer movie ought not to have. The writing is flat, the direction is lifeless and the supporting cast all look like they’d rather be elsewhere. No movie where Angelina Jolie takes a lot of showers and Daniel Craig is the love interest should be this dispiriting.

Hollywood didn’t draw the line at adapting video games to the screen either, turning toy lines, board games and even the humble Ouija board into franchises. Somewhere in Hollywood there must be a script called Paper Cup: The Motion Picture.