12 Most Disappointing Movies From Summer 2016
4. Free State Of Jones
The Buzz: A dramatic retelling of Newton Knight's rebellion against the Confederacy, starring Matthew McConaughey and Gugu Mbatha-Raw, written and directed by multiple Oscar nominee Gary Ross (Seabiscuit, The Hunger Games). This one's got Oscar contender written all over it.
What We Got: Though McConaughey really tries his hardest to make this compelling and powerful, Free State of Jones is a stunningly dull rendition of a fascinating true story, and clocks in at a wildly excessive 139 minutes to boot.
There's some passable action and it intermittently intrigues, but long stretches are straight-up boring, Ross' direction is surprisingly wonky, and the cinematography looks straight up like a made-for-TV re-enactment.
The saddest thing of all is that someone spent $50 million on this thing and lost an absolute fortune. Chalk it up to another case of failed Oscar bait, sadly.