20 Worst Movies Of 2017 (So Far)

5. Arsenal

Arsenal is as much a cinematic cry for help by fallen talents Nic Cage and John Cusack as it is an actual film, and rather calamitously, neither is particularly out of place alongside Adrian Grenier in this bargain bin familial vengeance flick.

Grenier plays a blue collar guy who grew up tough but straight and who is forced into a murky world when his brother is kidnapped by Cage's gangster and must enlist the help of Cusack's detective to help. It's basically a Taken knock-off, but with the ludicrous conceit that the hero would be able to fight vicious gangsters despite just being a construction worker.

This should have been straight-to-DVD fare that you'd never notice, but the presence of Cusack and Cage gives it a sort of haunted relevance, and the elevation really doesn't help it. It just ends up playing like a vehicle for Cage to try and powerhouse, as if he's discovered that the best way to stay relevant is to choose increasingly terrible films to chew the scenery in and look the "best" in.

It doesn't work here at all.