Category Archives: The Worst

The Legend of Tarzan review — Swinging and Missing

June 30, 2016 flawintheiris

Directed by David Yates | Written by Adam Cozad and Craig Brewer, adapting a story by Edgar Rice Burroughs | 109 min | ▲△△△△ In 1984, Warner Bros released a big-budget bomb called Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord Of The Apes. It was an effort to reframe Tarzan as a period drama, starring French actor Christopher Lambert…Read More

Reviews: Creative Control, Misconduct, The Benefactor, Queen of Earth, MI-5

May 16, 2016 flawintheiris

Creative Control Directed by Benjamin Dickinson | Written by Dickinson and Micah Bloomberg | 97 min. | ▲▲▲▲△ | On DVD, Blu-Ray, and VOD May 17 My first impression of Creative Control was that star/director/writer Dickinson is a narcotized Noah Baumbach. Not a terribly generous thought, but that's what I was thinking. As I went deeper into his…Read More

The Finest Hours review — Terminally hokey nautical tale

January 29, 2016 flawintheiris

Directed by Craig Gillespie | Written by Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy, and Eric Johnson, based on a book by Casey Sherman and Michael J. Tougias | 117 min | ▲△△△△ We've seen a lot of movies set in the early 1950s lately—the earnest, lush romance Brooklyn, the austere indie Carol. Now we have a movie that doesn't…Read More

Fantastic Four review — A descent into superhero awfulness

August 10, 2015 flawintheiris

Directed by Josh Trank, Written by Trank, Simon Kinberg, and Jeremy Slater, based on the Marvel comic by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby The Fantastic Four I grew up with was written and illustrated by Canadian comic creator John Byrne. Before superhero comics got all mature and gritty with Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns, these…Read More

Pixels review — It’s pretty bad, folks

July 30, 2015 flawintheiris

Directed by Chris Columbus, written by Tim Herlihy and Timothy Dowling, based on a short film by Patrick Jean There was no way I could miss the critical drubbing Pixels received when it opened last weekend. Reviews were practically unanimous in their negative assessment of the film, from one side of the critical community to…Read More

Jurassic World review — Better off extinct

June 18, 2015 flawintheiris

Directed by Colin Trevorrow, Written by Trevorrow, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver and Derek Connolly, based on the Michael Crichton book Jurassic Park Wherein a superhero dinosaur, genetically engineered to be bigger, smarter, and tougher than all who came before, finds freedom from enslavement, then crushes and eats all who oppressed her. It's a tale of redemption,…Read More

50 Shades of Grey review — Gives soft porn a bad name

February 19, 2015 flawintheiris

Directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson, written by Kelly Marcel from the novel by EL James | 125 min | Netflix, Amazon Prime, Crave I knew this picture was in trouble when early on the heroine of the piece, college student Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson), dressed in her unpretentious print blouse, arrives at a phallic glass and…Read More

Dracula Untold review — Anemic and uninspired

October 14, 2014 flawintheiris

Directed by Gary Shore, written by Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless, with characters by Bram Stoker | 92 min | On Demand I always feel it's important to mention the origin of characters showing up in movies. In this case, Dracula Untold is a prequel of sorts to Bram Stoker's Dracula. I wish it came with a disclaimer:…Read More

Star Trek Into Darkness review

May 21, 2013 flawintheiris

Directed by JJ Abrams, Written by Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof, based on the Gene Roddenberry TV series | Prime Video It's been reported that JJ Abrams didn't grow up having been a big fan of Star Trek. I've had trouble finding the direct quote online, but the impression I got from having…Read More

The Words review

September 6, 2012 flawintheiris

The poster is the best thing about this picture Written and Directed by Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal It's not very often I get to see a movie that fails as spectacularly as this one. And not in the usual way, from laziness or the factory-tooled mediocrity of many Hollywood movies. This doesn't fail…Read More