The Star Wars Force Awakens film was up longer, because i needed to take some time off, the Christmas holiday was just around the corner, which gave me two choices, anger my family, deal with the consequences of not spending time or take some time off and come back strong in 2016. The main reason for the top five worst films of 2015 is because, i always wanted to do one, and the concept of a mini list of movies. Before Reeltime took life, i used to have a Podcast, with my friend Tim, couple years ago, we had created something special, a little podcast called "The Movie Bin," a fresh look at movies, we had a following a great beginning, but after sometime, we both went our separate ways, not because of the podcast, but because of limited time, we really had no time, and by the time we published, we were at it again, it sucked to much out of us, so we decided to end things. Afterwards i went on my own, the drive to write reviews, and a second chance to do what i love, and then the Reeltime took life, and my little podcast became an idea, and it Transcended to become the Reeltime Movie Review. The Reeltime has never done "The Worst of 2015," it will be my opinion, and some may disagree, and that's OK, reviews are there for folks to read about the film, or read different opinions on the film.
- Jem and the Holograms: The 2015 dated film based off of an animated series in 1985-1988; A music company owner, Jerrica Benton; Her singing alter-ego, Jem. She also has a band called the Holograms, the girls dress in colorful outfits, reminds me of a Cindy Lauper take off, and believe me young people now a days don't know who she is, pretty sad because her music is awesome. The series back in the day was produced by Marvel/Hasbro, the toy line and the comic giant. The Japanese studio of Toei Doga, did all the animation for the series, and back in the day the series worked, because it was animated and the audiences were different, not like today where the audience notices everything, down to the clothes the actors wear. My wife comments on the clothing, she's very critical, but back in the day things were a bit easier, folks weren't as critical, they tolerated more; That's why you have thousands of one hit wonders, in music and film. The film has Molly Ringwald, Juliette Lewis, Chris Pratt, Dwayne Johnson, and Jimmy Fallen. The special appearances are cool, but not enough to give this film any hope, or chance to rise. I like music oriented films but in the case for Jem, this film really fell short. The problem is that our younger audience can't relate, i mean yes it's a girl band, cool enough, but doesn't mean it will work in 2015; Because the animated series was done in the 80's and sometimes even with a great concept such as Jem was good back then, which could relate to. The young girls dressed like their character counter parts, the audience today can't relate, because the style is gone, the girls don't dress and their music stars unless your a Lady Gaga fan, or Katy Perry the weird dress is'nt there, so the audience is bored with a great concept that worked in the 80s. The story dreams, sisters trying to make it big, almost like an American Idol on drugs. The film not relating with the audience is probably the biggest issue, plus the animated series might have worked back in the day, but audiences in 2015 need sometime more.
- Fantastic Four: An alternate universe, a family of four, altering effects on the family giving them abilities beyond imagination. Ben Grimm's body has become rock like, his strength increased ten fold, Sue Storm invisible to the naked eye, Johnny Storm can manipulate fire, and become consumed by it, Reed Richards ability to bend his limbs in extraordinary places, yup the guy does bend, almost like stretch Armstrong, but without the gel inside. Either way my intro was shorter, a lot shorter than the films origin, because that's pretty much the gist of the story. Origins can get either weird, or boring, depending on how it was written. Fantastic four the only thing it had, and it isn't much, was the cast, not as beloved as the previous two films but at least they picked a decent cast. Films could have big time writers, but if the screenplay doesn't work, regardless of who wrote it, the film will fail. Fantastic Four had two movies before this one, already the audience has become skeptical, with that being said, a third film was a huge gamble. Fantastic Four comics have so many wonderful stories, and it features the bad of bad, Dr. Doom. Doom the greatest Marvel villain, and yet the studio can't get anything right with the character. The story was rushed, and the film paid the price, yet the studios still haven't learned, so they lost money on what could've been wonderful. FF had many issues, another issue which killed the film was it's 100 min run time, to short of a run time, they crammed to much in, and went to long on the origin, and let's not even talk about the pacing, that would be another 300 words. FF film came out after a slew of blockbuster summer films, August was the end of the summer movies, and FF being an anchor couldn't hold the ship from drifting away. Hollywood has a tendency to make movies without looking at the story, they believe because it's a superhero thing it will work, take a look at all the Punisher films, they pretty much sucked, because the studios did not take there time to look at the final product. Frank Castle's story is the easiest to make on film, but all the films origins were wrong, and the film flopped even with the actors in the film. Let's go back to FF, if the studios took their time, FF would've probably been a great movie, but with the lack in focus and having the writers edit, the film paid the ultimate price. FF is an example of having a big time writing crew, and what can happen if you rush, don't pay attention; If they paid attention to detail, then there film would've succeeded.
- Unfriended: Number three top five worst films of 2015, a horror thriller from a computer side of it. Friends get online in the evening, which is understandable because what is there better to do on a Friday night. So the merry band of teens, connect online, only to find another party with malicious intent, an anonymous user. The film starts off pretty good, but the whole online thing starts to get old. If your going to make a film about online thing then give the audience a break from it, at least have the characters remove themselves from the computer, a bit. Have them meet at a local cafe, or somewhere they could all talk, nope to easy, because the film continued online, i guess the filmmakers wanted to drive the audience either sick, or angry. Unfriended was like a roller coaster ride, the slow movement up to the highest point, before the fall making your stomach churn, as the coaster drops you. I felt like i was in an elevator, the sound of classical music echoing inside, the only hope you have is to wait for the door to open, which takes a lifetime. The characters only stayed in their locations, homes, yes the film continued online, which i hated, it bored me, and seeing that i love horror films, this was a huge disappointment. Another issues i had was the spirit, killer, first it was a teen girl who supposedly committed suicide because of the bulling of her friends, or at least she thought friends. How did her spirit, ghost happen to communicate with everyone online, an intelligent ghost, or in this case a demon. Really, the supernatural entity had enough power to kill all those kids online, and everything went silent. The story of revenge, i get, but having the girl come back as a demon killing the people involved is just stupid. I could see if the girl was alive and coming up with some kinda plan, setting up her bullies, and then taking them out one by one. But, to have the demon control things to the point were the very stupid teenagers see it as the user, and later we find out that it was the girl all the time, is ridicules in very way, sorry not buying it. Like i said a demon possessing a girl, i understand, but having it control the situation to the point that it knows how to use a computer is to much for me to handle. This movie sucks so much, i would rather binge watch the Flintstones animated series foe a week. Unfriended is a weak film, especially as a horror film, the story down to the stupid dialog you get. Go watch the Blair Witch Project, at least that found footage film had a story to tell.
- Jupiter Ascending: The new film starring Mila Kunis, Channing Tatum, Sean Bean, and Eddie Redmayne. A Wachowski production, also written and directed by the creative siblings. The main issue with this film, and i really say main, because everything else is done well, special effects down to the acting. The core which i believe is the story to any film, or idea that you have to create nothing to something beautiful. The core is important because it releases the characters, world, ideas, challenges, everything that sets the stage to your unique complex world, which is not JA. The problem here is the filmmakers focused on the effects, fighting scenes, and the story or the core of the film paid a huge price. The film becomes a boxing match without the story line, the punches, hooks, everything else is humdrum because the boxers do not care about the proper stance, defensive poster, everything that a great boxer does in order to get a win.The champion is no longer the issue here because, nobody cares who wins, the characters do not put the effort into the fight. The flow is disrupted, and the fun and excitement is gone. The film was beautiful, but it missed out on what made it beautiful, what happened to that beauty, where did it come from; The small things that make a story great were overlooked for the fight scenes, and effects. Don't get me wrong, the concept, beautiful effects are in, but the characters are almost card board cut outs, not the actors fault, they only could do so much for what they had. Horrible because the Wachwski's are one of my favorite filmmakers, and with that being said writing this kills me because they really make great films, but it happens, it all comes down to the final material, and here the final material did not live up to what it should've been, a wonderful well crafted film. Hey, I'm real when it comes to this review thing, it easy to say the film is awesome, but when you sit down and take the film apart, like the three acts, act one should be the intro, act two you better have something going, and in act three which is the closer, the audiences should have a sense on the story, characters, and the wrap up, unless your making a trilogy, but here it was not the case. JA would've been s good T.V. series, because at least in that medium the characters would've had a real chance to shine. The film could've been a three part saga, but the filmmakers decide to push a huge story into a two hour running time, i understand editing, time restraints, all that stuff but do not insult my intelligence and think that the folks watching the film don't know whats going on, because the film bombed at the box office, my favorite movie siblings decided to go the Hollywood way and there film failed because of it.
- Taken 3: What do you get when you sit down at the movies, popcorn in your hand, the awful long commercials that come with it, and by the time the trailers hit, your anticipation for the film is almost numb. Usually when a movie flashes before you on screen you get the title, and here it was Taken 3. Wow another film where some gets taken, who will get taken this time around? as the film progressed you'd think someone, something will be taken, nope, not even Bryan's daughter, oh? she was taken in the first film, dang got that wrong. The cast is back, Liam Neeson (Bryan Mills), Maggie Grace (Kim Mills), and Famke Janssen (Lenore St. John). With new characters, like Forest Whitaker (Frank Dotzler), and Dougray Scott (Stuart St. John). The story is about murder, yup, this time the writers forget it's a taken movie. Lenore is killed by a mysterious dude that wants Mills out of the picture, but the story takes you in a flurry of events, fight scenes, running, fighting again, the absence of blood because they went from R to PG-13. Remember i mentioned the popcorn feel at the movies, around about this time you look at your friend, wife, and say, "When are they going to take someone," in reality it will never happen, because the film continues with the fast, badly edited action scenes which almost makes you sick. I get the revenge thing, they even have the inspector, the best of the best, Frank Dotzler after Mills, which by the way any CSI unit will tell you that the bad guys in Mills apartment was all a set up. Let me explain, number one the bad guys came in, killed Lenore and supposedly left no trace, yeah right. They never had the chance to inspect the crime scene, why? because Mills botched it up right? wrong, because the writer got lazy and decided to do the action part of the story instead of the story, OK i get that Mills escaped, and got away, but afterwards have the great inspector actually inspect the scene, not just in a cut. Have him find the extra boot marks on the ground, that are not the PD or Mills. Nope the investigative team sucked. Remember the video camera feed scene, where Mills acts like he is an FBI agent, checks out the video and realizes what has happened. Mills wasn't cleared, and the story went on, what ever happened to the great inspector, guess evidence has no meaning in this action film. Movies like this anger me because you know at some point the cops, whole team acted like mall cops instead of who they really are, Police, FBI, a team of intelligent people that can deduct true acts, especially when someone is involved in a murder. The fast, cut, badly edited action sequences were the focus, not the story, and when a studio does that it kills the movie. If i wanted to see speed action, i could've rented a bad martial arts film. Remember the theater i mentioned earlier, the popcorn type feel, by the end of the film, still nobody was taken, you feel almost ripped off, nobody was taken in film, not even his friends. The mastermind behind everything, was Stuart St. John, which makes no real sense, the writer was grasping to make the final film epic, but instead he got a rental out of it. The five dollar films you get in a basket at Walmart, yes i have seen the Taken 3 there.
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