47. The Hobbit (2012)
The Hobbit drew this year of disappointing movies to a close by being the last disappointment of 2012. Fans of the book crammed in to the cinema to see Peter Jackson's first part and the vast majority left underwhelmed. No one can find fault with the cinematography, the actors Andy Serkis or Martin Freeman who did an excellent job as Bilbo Baggins but everything else was pretty much a let down. The story did not justify the the nearly three hour running time, it was padded out with repetitive and dull action scenes which did nothing to break up the slow pace of the film. Even with its bloated length, for some reason Jackson still couldn't find the time to give all the dwarfs a proper introduction but we did get a boring, half hour dinner party at the beginning. And the experimentation with 48fps has also divided opinion with some people saying it looks great while others say it made the film look like a cheap documentary. There is noting wrong with pushing the boundaries of established film making methods but it appears that directors like Jackson, George Lucas and James Cameron have forgotten about telling a good story and become obsessed with the tools, be it an overuse of CGI or 3D or both.
46. Crash (2004)
The Oscars are never a full proof indicator of quality film making, that's why Avatar and Titanic won so many unworthy Academy Awards. Crash was another example of a slightly above average film somehow winning the Best Picture prize. Not many people had seen the film before it was catapulted into the mainstream consciousness by the Oscars and hordes of general public ran to the nearest multiplex to see what the fuss was about. Although it is full of good performances, the heavy handed movie about racial tension in LA was finger-wagging as it was nauseating. A not-so-special script and a pace that is only matched by your grandmother's stair lift, this was one bandwagon that Hollywood shouldn't have jumped on.
45. The Beach (2000)
Ewan McGregor was going to star in this film about a backpacker who is given a map to a paradise on Earth but dropped out due to a falling out with director Danny Boyle. On the request of the studio, the main character was turned into an American and Leonardo DiCaprio was cast in his first film since the huge box office flop that was Titanic. Based on the novel by Alex Garland, the film was destroyed by critics who labeled it as a pretentious mess. It even pissed off the whole of Thailand by its depiction that the country is a paradise.....a paradise for drug takers and traffickers! Also during production, the beach where the film was shot was altered significantly by the studio to the point it did permanent damage to the ecosystem, the case dragged on in the Thai courts until 2006. We expected better from Danny Boyle than this rubbish.
44. Wild Wild West (1999)
This steam-punk cowboy adaption of the 60s TV series went through the hands of a number of actors and directors including Richard Donner and Tom Cruise. But it eventually became a Will Smith movie, an actor at his peak and in the eyes of film studios, a star who was guaranteed to bring in the box office receipts. But the film was panned and won for a number of Razzie awards including Worst Picture, where the original star of the TV show, Robert Conrad accepted the awards. Will Smith later apologized for the film and understood why Robert Conrad had a problem with the film;
''When there's a Fresh Prince movie, I hope I'm so far buried under something . No, it's funny because I could never understand why Robert Conrad was so upset with Wild Wild West. And now I get it. It's like, 'That's my baby! I put my blood, sweat and tears into that!' So I'm going to apologize to Mr. Conrad for that because I didn't realize. I was young and immature. So much pain and joy went into The Fresh Prince that my greatest desire would be that it's left alone. But I'm sure some kid someday is going to be fantastic and it's going to be bigger than it was with me. And I'm going to be angry ''
It also appears that producer Jon Peters was obsessed with giant spiders like the one that appeared in the climax of Wild Wild West. When Kevin Smith was working with Peters on a new potential Superman film, he had three demands;
''The first demand was that Superman not wear the suit, the second was that Superman not fly, and the third was to have Superman fight a giant spider in the third act.''
Not surprising that those demands were never met but that didn't stop Peters from demanding a giant spider in the film version of The Sandman.
43. Hangover Part 2 (2011)
The first Hangover film was a surprise hit with audiences and critics alike. The bromance about four friends who go to Vegas for a stag weekend managed to outclass other similar films in the genre by actually being quite funny. And as it made over $450 Million on a budget of £35 Million, rest assured the studio sat up and took notice....and by took notice I mean they green lit Hangover Part 2....and by Hangover Part 2 I mean it was exactly the same as Hangover Part 1 except the location shifted from Vegas to Thailand. Unsurprisingly, the sequel was less loved by critics who called it ''lazy'' for copy and pasting large sections of the first film but it was still a box office smash and that is why we have Hangover 3 to look forward to in 2013.