3.06.2010

Bad Movies in which the Titular Subjects Are Mostly Irrelevant

Having just watched a bad movie in which the titular subject was mostly irrelevant to the larger plot, I wanted to warn everyone about three such films (sorry if you like one or more of these movies and are thus enraged by my blog post.)
  1. Inglorious Basterds. We watched this last night. The titular subject in this case is a fictional group of Jewish-American soldiers led by Brad Pitt who wage a guerrilla campaign against the Nazis in occupied France. The only problem is that 90% of the movie is boring dialogue in German with only about 10 minutes (out of 2.5 hours!) given over to the Basterds actually doing anything. If you like boring German dialogue in a movie that seems like a weird adaptation from the stage, though, you might like it.
  2. Watchmen (sorry, K, different tastes and all...) We watched this a few weeks ago. The titular subject is a group of super heroes, all but one of whom don't have any "real" super powers, just ass-kicking karate moves and spandex. The thing is, the main plot of the movie is set years after The Watchmen have disbanded, so rather than it really being a super-hero movie, it's a long, weird rumination on...nuclear war? World peace? Tight pants? I'm not sure.
  3. Gangs of New York. Now, almost everyone hates this movie, so this should be an easy sell. For me, the thing that really sucked about it is...wait for it...the almost TOTAL ABSENCE OF GANGS OF NEW YORK! 90% of the movie is, again, boring dialogue, albeit in English, and even the big climactic battle scene isn't really between gangs, it's between Leonardo di Caprio (with a ponytail), Daniel Day Lewis, and the Union Army. Of the three, this one probably sucked the most.
Bonus round: while I hardly need belabor the obvious, the Star Wars prequels were the worst films ever made. Just considering the titles, though, they fit well within the category I'm considering here; WTF was "The Phantom Menace?" "Attack of the Clones" didn't even have the clones attacking anyone until the very end, at they were still good guys at that point. "Revenge of the Sith" is kind of accurate, except that it's never established what they're enacting revenge for in the first place!!!

Also: Jar-Jar.

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