13 Movie Protagonists You're Desperate To See Lose

This next one is an example of how having a protagonist who's impossible to root for can more or less sink the entire film.

Eli Roth's thoroughly underwhelming Torture Porn flick centres around three tourists who fall into the clutches of Elite Hunting, a sinister organization where rich people pay for the opportunity to torture kidnapped tourists to death. Paxton (Jay Hernandez) is the only one to survive but he goes through absolute hell in Hostel's final act. It's ironic in the worst way that even that isn't enough to make viewers root for him.

Throughout the movie, Paxton is a rude, disrespectful misogynist who's only interested in getting laid and shows no respect to anyone aside from his two companions (who are also repulsive). His obsession with sex is actually partly what leads them to Elite Hunting. A stranger in Amsterdam (who's secretly allied with Elite Hunting) tells them that there are loads of easy women in Slovakia and they decide to make the long journey there just because of that. That's totally normal decision-making, right?

Because Paxton and the other leads are so unlikable it's difficult to give a shred of a damn about their fates, and that ruins any sense of tension. Paxton is ultimately the first kill in the film's 2007 sequel and once again, it's hard to care. It actually turns out that he had a girlfriend back in the States all this time, so he was treating her like trash too.