Since 1992
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By Lucas Allen
With the good, there must also come the bad. While 2018 is certainly a memorable year for movies, some unmemorable titles made their way to the screen with little to no success.
These are the kind of movies that weren’t meant to be seen on the silver screen no matter how much talent and effort was put into them behind the scenes. Here are five titles that are best left to rot in the dungeons of online streaming.
5. Breaking In
This umpteenth entry in the home invasion genre doesn’t bring anything new or interesting to make it stand out. Gabrielle Union gives a pretty good performance as the protective mother, but she doesn’t do enough to rise above a bland and mediocre script. All you get is a small group of thieves, some frightened children, and a big house the filmmakers couldn’t bother to show off a lot. They didn’t do a good job making Panic Room for the urban crowd when they could’ve come up with something more fun and action-packed with the concept, and that’s the real offense.
4. The Girl in the Spider’s Web
If you can’t be bothered to create a follow-up to 2011’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” without Rooney Mara or Daniel Craig, then don’t bother making it at all. Instead, we have a good visual director like Fede Alvarez with a solid Claire Foy as Lisbeth Salander wasted on a by-the-numbers, action movie script lifting plot elements from recent James Bond films. This not only ruined a once great series of foreign-made thrillers, but it also ruins the good name of author Stieg Larsson. In a year of great sequels, this one disappoints on every level.
3. Rampage
Many may agree that Dwayne Johnson fatigue has started to phase in judging by the box office failure of this film and “Skyscraper.” But if the “Die Hard/Towering Inferno” knockoff is the better movie, it’s easy to see why this film really failed. It doesn’t know which tone to use right, the villains are pathetic, the science makes no sense, and the climax becomes one bad joke. You can’t blame The Rock for trying to make a bad movie fun, but he should know better how to pick his movies.
2. Peppermint
Like a bad candy cane, this one leaves a bad taste in your mouth. The star power of Jennifer Garner didn’t do much to elevate this dreadful revenge thriller that knocked off both Death Wish and common sense. The lead character’s motivations made her out as more of a bad guy than a vigilante, which makes the movie’s villains look very incompetent. Everyone involved in this film will have to write it off their resume after they sit in the corner and think about what they’ve done.
1. Mile 22
Audiences are not stupid when they want to watch an action movie. We can enjoy the explosions, but we have to care about the story and the characters enough to really enjoy it. But with this movie, only zero effort was put into this film. No character is likable, the editing and camerawork are a complete mess, and the three-act structure is non-existent to the point it just ends as quickly as it started. In the end, it’s certainly not a movie but somebody’s internet video that’s only viewable on the smallest of screens. Another year gone and another begins with all new ways to love and hate the movies we watch. There’s going to be plenty of good ones, but also some bad ones to avoid.
PHOTO: Mark Wahlberg in “Mile 22,” Lucas Allen’s worst movie of 2018. (Studio publicity photo)
