The Five Most Disappointing Movies Of 2012

This year I saw and reviewed over 130 movies here. And now that the calender has flipped, it's time for all kinds of best and worst lists. This week we've posted the Five Worst Movies, and the Five Most Surprising Movies.  And now it's time for The Five Most Disappointing Movies of 2012.  Movies that  fell short, way short of expectations or flat out bombed.

2012 was not overly memorable at the movies.   Yes, revenues were way up but so were ticket prices.  And sadly, there were some real disappointing flicks this year, as there are every year.  There were a ton of extremely average movies made last year.  That to me was the prevailing takeaway from 2012.  To qualify for this list, it's based on when they were released to local theaters.

The Five Most Disappointing Movies Of 2012

1/  Cloud Atlas -  Tom Hanks and Halle Berry star in this adaptation of a huge and popular book.  This is the poster child of why not all books come to the movies effectively.  Long, boring, complicated, and tedious.   Laden with special effects, and intersecting stories that will leave you dizzy and sick to your stomach.  I hate putting Hanks on a list like this, but his projects lately have a bit to be desired.  This was also a tremendous financial flop.  Gigantic budget, and no one went.

2/  Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close -  This was released nationwide in January after a soft and delayed opening in late 2011.   Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock star in this 9-11 movie.  Again, a big and moving book.  There are those that really loved this movie and were really moved by it. But overall this suffered from false advertising. Hanks and Bullock are barely in this movie time-wise, and overall this is entirely too long.  Not all books transfer well.  This misses badly all the way around. I can't even say I liked the kid who was in every single scene, when Hanks and Bullock were not.

3/  John Carter - Tons of hype.  Then tons of yawns.   Huge budget and again, no one went.  Lots of computer generated stuff that 20 years ago would have been awesome.  This movie looks "late to the party."   There is nothing special about any of this including the special effects. Plus, the movies signature scene, the one on the trailers and the posters, lasts about 60 seconds.  This sadly, was a disaster.  Should have been made early 1990's. The effects would have been more inspired then. Now it's just old news.

4/  The Master -  Great cast led by Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and Joaquin Phoenix both who may be up for Oscars for this movie.  Very strange, they are both way better in this movie than this pointless, go nowhere movie.  For such a good lead and supporting cast, this is a total snoozer.  Let Hollywood pat itself all it wants to on their collective backs, steer clear with Netflix. 

5/  This is 40 -  They ran trailers in theaters for  6 months for this Christmas comedy.  The trailers looked pretty funny, and entertaining.  What we got was 10 minutes of fun, spread out over a 2 hour and 20 minute movie.  Much of this is 6th grade mentality, and nothing really new.   Even the lovely, and quirky Leslie Mann can save her husbands Judd Apatow's ill-advised and unoriginal movie.  Judd, it's time to grow up.

There's the Five Most Disappointing Movies of 2012.   Next are the Five Best Movies Of 2012.  It'll be up this week.  If you have an opinion or thought, feel free to email me, scott@wqmx.com

Let's recap too the Five Most Disappointing Movies of 2011, and see how they match up.