We took a vote and what follows is a countdown of the ten films we barely tolerated this year.
How'd we do? Consult our list of the year's releases and tell us your own biggest offenders in the comments below. Don't hold back, it's best not to bottle things up.
10. Independence Day: Resurgence
Entirely unnecessary alien invasion sequel that takes ages to get going. Fails to create a convincing future world or interesting characters, so why should we care when they’re destroyed? (Rochelle Siemienowicz)
9. Ben-Hur
Some remakes are interesting; some are even good. You will even find folks who have a kind word for William Wyler’s 1959 Ben-Hur (not me.) But this never seemed like a good idea. (Peter Galvin)
8. Point Break
The original was stupid but alive with strong performances, vivid action and even satire. This is dead on arrival. (PG)
7. Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice
This brooding clash between gods and monsters landed in cinemas with a thud mid-year, weighed down by a cumbersome plot, endless momentum-killing flashback sequences and a damsel fixation that's straight out of the Stone Age. Zack Snyder devotes two hours to mythologising the spat between the two DC headliners as an epic clash of religious and political ideologies - only for the sulking man-children to make up for no reason other than their mums shared the same name. Gimme a break. Better yet, gimme a good popcorn movie. (Fiona Williams)
6. Warcraft
An epic fantasy saga has to start somewhere. Problem is, by the end of this confused and unfocused film the saga still hadn’t started. (Anthony Morris)
5. War on Everyone
A couple of gleefully crooked cops running wild in small town America really should have been a lot more fun than this stop-start collection of scenes that barely come together as a film. (AM)
4. Gods of Egypt
Lashings of gold paint and insane special effects can’t cover up this crazy mish-mash of accents, sub-plots and mythical plundering. A grand folly and a terrible mess, though with some enjoyable crazy high camp moments. (RS)
3. Absolutely Fabulous
Edina and Patsy have always been tragic and grotesque, but confined to half-hour segments and a small screen they could be hilarious. Blown up to big screen proportions and feature length, they’re unbearable. An unfunny chore. (RS)
2. The Girl on the Train
A mechanical screenplay doesn’t give Emily Blunt – or any of the other actors – anything work with. A dreary film that feels like a thin puzzle with no real insight to offer beyond its solving. (RS)
1. Zoolander 2
In a year of ho-hum franchise retreads, we held out hope that the return of the really, really, ridiculously good looking supermodel might offer something other than lame callbacks to catchphrases from 15 years ago, and a dull parade of fashion somebodies eager to be seen to be 'in on the joke'. We'd have happily gone along with the plus-sized plot about a pop star's assassination and its tenuous links to said supermodel's signature look, if any of the convoluted nonsense was the least bit funny. It wasn't. It was so big a buzzkill, in fact, it caused this writer to question the life choices that culminated in her having to sit through it. For that, for so much more besides, it's the easy choice for worst. film. of. the. year. (FW)
Dishonourable mentions:
Alice Through The Looking Glass
Dirty Grandpa
Deadpool
How we voted
Our team of critics each voted for their least favourite films of the year, and the votes were tallied into the top ten. Simple. Participants were: Rochelle Siemienowicz, Fiona Williams, Peter Galvin and Anthony Morris.
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