TEN WORST FOREIGN MOVIES OF 2017 PART ONE
TEN WORST FOREIGN MOVIES OF 2017
By Solomon Obi
Every year is filled with great movies that remind us of the wonder and joy that can only be found in the cinema. Some movies will be remembered for years to come because of their artistic merit, creative vision, and successful execution of that vision. This list is not about those films. 2017 has been an absolutely cracking year in film we've had an absolute wealth of quality drama, smart sci-fi, ground-breaking horror, funny, grown-up superhero movies and now STAR WARS!!! But along with the hits there'll always be the misses.
No one sets out to make a bad movie. Instead, it’s time to focus on the failures, the duds, the godawful messes that should never have been cleared for release. Some of the films on this list were clearly doomed from the start, but others had solid premises or creative visions which were somehow lost in the Hollywood movie making machine.
Either way, they all crashed and burned in one way or another. With that in mind, however, perhaps readers should do more than just stare and gawk at these abysmal misfires.
It takes a tremendous amount of effort to make a movie, even a bad one, and even he worst entries on this list surely have at least some redeeming qualities, be it conceptually, thematically, or one element of the execution which just works on a whole other level from the rest of the film.
Below are the worst foreign movies of 2017
10) GHOST IN THE SHELL
Live-action adaptations of animated works are always a risky proposition, but it seemed like if there was one property that would make for a smooth transition, it would be Ghost in the Shell. Originally a manga, the 1995 anime version is perhaps the single most influential Japanese movie outside of Godzilla, and its distinct style was hugely influential on the look and feel of The Matrix, which in turn helped shape the course of action cinema in the 21st century.
It’s a shame, then, that the live-action version of Ghost in the Shell managed to fail on so many levels. Sure, the production design is top notch, but the story is stripped of nearly all its thematic resonance and a whitewashed Scarlett Johnansson is terribly utilized in the lead role. Not even the presence of the great “Beat” Takeshi Kitano can save Ghost in the Shell from the soulless guidance of director Rupert Sanders, who previously directed the similarly underwhelming Snow White and the Huntsman.
9) JUSTICE LEAGUE
Perhaps the greatest “what could have been” story of 2017, the behind-the-scenes story of Zack Snyder and Joss Whedon’s Justice League has been major pop culture news for months. Ultimately, the finished film is a manic mess, pulled in too many directions by Snyder’s original vision, Whedon’s quirky touch, and the meddling executives at Warner Bros.
There are two-to-three movies worth of content jammed into Justice League ‘s two-hour running time, and, despite moments of brilliance (such as the continued perfection of Henry Cavill as Superman, CGI moustache-removal notwithstanding), the end result is a schizophrenic disaster zone, racing from plot point to plot point like a stitched-together Frankenstein monster of dissonant tone, uneven pacing, and unaddressed plot holes.
Would it have been better if Warner Brothers had stuck squarely to Zack Snyder’s original vision? Maybe, maybe not. It’s impossible to know. Maybe the movie still would have sucked. But at least it would have been Snyder’s film, and not a shamelessly vapid corporate product.
8) FIFTY SHADES DARKER
We almost feel a little bit sad about having this on the list. It's not that this is a badly made film director James Foley has had a good go, it's just that it's such an unbelievably stupid story packed with terrible dialogue. In this one there's a bit about a sleazy boss, a helicopter crash and a troubled ex and Kim Basinger gets slapped in the face, but it's all just (horrible) decoration for the (not even that kinky) shagging scenes.
By Solomon Obi
Every year is filled with great movies that remind us of the wonder and joy that can only be found in the cinema. Some movies will be remembered for years to come because of their artistic merit, creative vision, and successful execution of that vision. This list is not about those films. 2017 has been an absolutely cracking year in film we've had an absolute wealth of quality drama, smart sci-fi, ground-breaking horror, funny, grown-up superhero movies and now STAR WARS!!! But along with the hits there'll always be the misses.
No one sets out to make a bad movie. Instead, it’s time to focus on the failures, the duds, the godawful messes that should never have been cleared for release. Some of the films on this list were clearly doomed from the start, but others had solid premises or creative visions which were somehow lost in the Hollywood movie making machine.
Either way, they all crashed and burned in one way or another. With that in mind, however, perhaps readers should do more than just stare and gawk at these abysmal misfires.
It takes a tremendous amount of effort to make a movie, even a bad one, and even he worst entries on this list surely have at least some redeeming qualities, be it conceptually, thematically, or one element of the execution which just works on a whole other level from the rest of the film.
Below are the worst foreign movies of 2017
10) GHOST IN THE SHELL
Live-action adaptations of animated works are always a risky proposition, but it seemed like if there was one property that would make for a smooth transition, it would be Ghost in the Shell. Originally a manga, the 1995 anime version is perhaps the single most influential Japanese movie outside of Godzilla, and its distinct style was hugely influential on the look and feel of The Matrix, which in turn helped shape the course of action cinema in the 21st century.
It’s a shame, then, that the live-action version of Ghost in the Shell managed to fail on so many levels. Sure, the production design is top notch, but the story is stripped of nearly all its thematic resonance and a whitewashed Scarlett Johnansson is terribly utilized in the lead role. Not even the presence of the great “Beat” Takeshi Kitano can save Ghost in the Shell from the soulless guidance of director Rupert Sanders, who previously directed the similarly underwhelming Snow White and the Huntsman.
9) JUSTICE LEAGUE
Perhaps the greatest “what could have been” story of 2017, the behind-the-scenes story of Zack Snyder and Joss Whedon’s Justice League has been major pop culture news for months. Ultimately, the finished film is a manic mess, pulled in too many directions by Snyder’s original vision, Whedon’s quirky touch, and the meddling executives at Warner Bros.
There are two-to-three movies worth of content jammed into Justice League ‘s two-hour running time, and, despite moments of brilliance (such as the continued perfection of Henry Cavill as Superman, CGI moustache-removal notwithstanding), the end result is a schizophrenic disaster zone, racing from plot point to plot point like a stitched-together Frankenstein monster of dissonant tone, uneven pacing, and unaddressed plot holes.
Would it have been better if Warner Brothers had stuck squarely to Zack Snyder’s original vision? Maybe, maybe not. It’s impossible to know. Maybe the movie still would have sucked. But at least it would have been Snyder’s film, and not a shamelessly vapid corporate product.
8) FIFTY SHADES DARKER
We almost feel a little bit sad about having this on the list. It's not that this is a badly made film director James Foley has had a good go, it's just that it's such an unbelievably stupid story packed with terrible dialogue. In this one there's a bit about a sleazy boss, a helicopter crash and a troubled ex and Kim Basinger gets slapped in the face, but it's all just (horrible) decoration for the (not even that kinky) shagging scenes.
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