Gregg’s Top 5 Duds of 2014
December 29th, 2014 by Gregg Senko
Oh yes, there were many more than five, and I’m sure Tammy was one of them, but I did not have any hope for that anyway. The following five films were works I had gone into with an open mind and wide eyes. In hindsight, they were wallet vacuums, stealing my money on account that someone responsible for them thought they were putting out a good product. I’ve got all the bases covered here too; comedy, family, action, etc. Most of all though, these five movies delivered boredom more than anything else.
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There were plenty of great releases that arrived on store shelves this year, but let’s be honest. Will any year really compare to what came out in 2012? I mean, last year for Blu-rays was like what 1939 was for cinemas. It was only twelve months ago when the year’s releases included E.T., Jaws, Singin’ in the Rain and Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventures. I may be starting this article off on the wrong foot, but last year was just too awesome to not tip the hat to again. While 2013 may not be loaded up with the classics that last year had, there are still more than enough great releases to load up your shopping cart with. Let’s get to it!
Super heroes and regular humans alike had their work cut out for them in 2013. The DC universe witnessed the advent of the Forever Evil storyline that saw everyone’s favorite do-gooders beat down and removed from the picture (temporarily anyway). Marvel is experiencing the return of Galactus, so you can bet earth is on his menu again. Meanwhile, The Walking Dead delivered its consistently high quality storyline of survival amidst a world of zombie fodder. But with all the awesomeness that filled the comic book landscape of this year, which ones are deserving of being the best in their class?
Before we get to the Why So Blu staff picks for favorite films of 2013 next month, I thought now would be a good time to write that negative-Nancy article on the other side of the coin. Okay, so I know we’re not even at Thanksgiving yet, but I figure there isn’t going to be a major dud in the next 40 days to make this list. This year had no shortage of disappointment at the cinema. There were films that let me down, like Iron Man 3 (also known as Normal Man 1), films that really stunk and almost made this list, like White House Down, and films that were just flat out rotten eggs, like…
It was to my dismay in recent days when I was home for lunch and found a black screen when I turned on Showtime. It wasn’t that moment that provided the maligned surprise as I’ll occasionally get the same black screen when I turn on ESPN at times. This is usually corrected by waiting a minute or so, or going to another channel, then flipping back, except this time, flipping back did not provide the desired effect. Instead, I was introduced to this message of doom…
Comic books can be a thing of beauty, even in their darkest tales. Unfortunately one issue plaguing them today is lack of originality. That is certainly not to say it’s an issue across the board as there are great, unique titles like Chew and Punk Rock Jesus. Still, store shelves are often lined with watered-down stories and titles that are mere carbon copies of one another. It wasn’t until very recently that I came across one particular story that caught my eye. I discovered it on everybody’s favorite project-launching platform; Kickstarter. While Kickstarter is where dreams can be made, this book itself goes much deeper than someone’s hope to see their work in print.
Where does one start with this film? If you’ve caught even the smallest fragment of critic talk on this picture, you know it’s been labeled as everything from star-studded to vulgar. The cast contains some of Hollywood’s most prominent names like Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Richard Gere, Naomi Watts and Kate Winslet just to name a few…and that’s literally just a few of the actors in the prominent cast. I made it a point not to look up the reasoning behind the film’s rather bland title, just to see if the film itself would unveil the mystery. It never did give that up, but where it kept quite on a title, it went all out everywhere else.
A co-worker first told me about this film some months back, of which I thought he was joking. When he persisted that there really was a Hansel & Gretel movie coming out, I made a mad dash to my phone and checked out the trailer. My initial thought was, “What’s this? The latest trend on the heels of Abe Lincoln hunting vampires? What’s next? Napoleon: Sasquatch Hunter?” The film’s preview didn’t exactly light my fire, but with Gemma Arterton and Jeremy Renner headlining the movie, I figured I’d give it a go.
It seems like the last time anybody was talking about genies in the mainstream, Disney was releasing Aladdin on Blu-ray. Well, the age-old Middle Eastern mythos is back, this time on the pages of Jinnrise, a new mini-series from IDW comics. The title brings forth a concoction of sci-fi with the wish-granting super beings in what intends to be a high octane collision course.
New from Image imprint Top Cow Productions, Inc., a five-part mini-series titled Son of Merlin debuted its first issue on January 9th. The story has a bit of a Dresden Files experience to it, combining ancient magic with the modern day. The story ultimately focuses on a genius professor at MIT by the name of Simon Ambrose. A disciple of science, Ambrose puts little belief in anything else. It’s not until he encounters an un-openable book and a seemingly crazy but attractive female that his eyes start to see a world he was previously unaware of.
Warning: This review contains spoilers from The Amazing Spider-Man #700. Following quickly on the heels of its predecessor, the inaugural issue of The Superior Spider-Man made its debut this past week. It was the final issue of the long-standing The Amazing Spider-Man series that brought us to this point. Fans were in an uproar in what happened in that issue and the chain of events that brought us to the new, the improved, The Superior Spider-Man.
On December 26, 2004, a massive earthquake occurred on the floor of the Indian Ocean. This violent undersea action set forth a chain of events that caused an enormous amount of pressure and force upward and outward. The end product was a tsunami and resulting devastation unlike any the world had seen before. The casualties numbered over a quarter million spread over southeast Asia, destroying entire towns, lives and displacing the living from their relatives. In the case of one particular family, an immense natural disaster was not going to keep them apart. But without the use of computers, phone lines or radios, finding one another would seem like nothing short of The Impossible.
While Zero Dark Thirty is going to get its mass release in January, you can whet your appetite in the meantime with the independent film SEAL Team Six. I can’t make a comparison between this and Zero Dark Thirty, but I can say SEAL Team Six achieves moments of proficiency with its smaller scale approach while still aiming for the feel of realism.
Earlier this month I released my worst films of 2012. That was probably one of the easiest lists I ever put together. The good ones from the year the Mayan calendar ended were a little more difficult to assemble. It was another year of superheroes at the box office which brought in super dividends for their studios. Disney lost big with John Carter, but cashed in on Wreck-It Ralph. Channing Tatum had four…err, three films on the agenda for the year, both doing very well. Then there’s the highly anticipated Tolkien work, The Hobbit, which took viewers on another journey through Middle Earth (with some really bad CGI). But while there may be one ring to rule them all, it was the following ten works that were the crowning achievements of film for me in 2012.
I couldn’t sum up the Blu-ray releases of 2012 better than Brian White’s article in which he mentioned standouts such as the Bond collection, Universal Monsters and so on. It’s almost as if the studios got together and said, “Hey, if the world does end on 12/21/12, we better go out with a bang.” Had that fictional conversation took place, they certainly lived up to their aspirations. It was definitely much easier assembling a list of top 10 cinema releases this year than it was Blu-rays. Now onto the rankings!
If you’re on the fence about getting into comic book reading or not, now is as good a time as any. In all honesty, this is a great time to delve into the pop culture art form. The stories and artwork that grace the pages of many of today’s titles are entertaining if not exceptional reads. Looking for a few good titles to let your imagination escape? This list will provide the best of what we saw in 2012.
I don’t remember being as disappointed by movies during the course of 2012 than I was in any other year. I mean, there were some genuinely terrible productions released this year. Now I try and see as many films as possible, but this time around, I eventually had to put the brakes on because of the seemingly incessant waste of time and money I was spending on them. It wasn’t quite big enough for a top ten list, but it came awfully close. Doom on you, Hollywood. You screwed up a lot this year.
