No one expects their movie to be a bomb. When many movie fans head to the cinema, they rarely expect to leave disappointed that they spent their hard-earned money to see one of these bombs. However, they occur all the time, and often receive the world-famous Golden Raspberry Award for their hard work.
One movie on the Razzies website on the year's worst list is "Jack and Jill," but most people went into that movie expecting it to be bad. Here is a look at the movies of 2011 that could have been good but proved to be disappointing.
"The Green Hornet"
The bar on superhero comic book adaptations is rising. Instead of being geek entertainment, movies like "The Dark Knight" and "Iron Man" have set the bar pretty high and prestige directors are coming aboard to create these comic book fantasies. A strong example of this is "The Green Hornet." Michel Gondry signed on to direct the Seth Rogen-penned film, so fans knew it was going to be something very different.
It all seemed to go wrong, though. The director who gave the world the wonderful "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" directed a jumbled mess with a largely unlikable superhero in a sloppy, dangerous story. Our hero rides around town, destroying everything in sight, and then the viewer is expected to side with him against a cliched foreign villain. It is boring and trite, and Rogen makes a horrible superhero.
"Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides"
Rob Marshall ("Chicago") took over the director's chair on "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" and came in with a giant handicap from the start. Everyone loves Captain Jack Sparrow. However, the best thing about Captain Jack is that he is the supporting character that steals the movie away from its leads. In this fourth edition of the "Pirates" franchise, Jack is the lead character and asked to carry the entire movie.
The story that grounded all three movies in the trilogy was the love story between Will and Elizabeth. With them out of the way, all remaining in this latest installment is a jump from one set piece to the next with no thought to why and no rhyme or reason. The supporting characters, outside of Barbossa and new bad guy Blackbeard (Ian McShane), are weak. By the time we reach the end, no one really cares anymore about the plot anyway. Captain Jack, as great a character as he is, can't save this movie from drowning.
"The Hangover Part II"
The first "Hangover" was a groundbreaking, hard R-rated gross out comedy. Lead actors Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zach Galifianakis were perfect foils for each other, and everything seemed fresh. It was easily the most inventive R-rated comedy in years.
That is what makes the sequel so disappointing. The only thing that changes here is the location, from Las Vegas to Bangkok.
The setup for "The Hangover Part II" was the same, with the three guys getting wasted before waking up not remembering what happened the night before. The gross out gags are similar to the first; there is nothing fresh here at all. The only thing that adds any newness to the proceedings is a subplot with Paul Giamatti that leads nowhere and doesn't move the main plot. What is most disappointing in all is that it became the highest grossing R-rated comedy ever, signaling a third retread in the near future.
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