Most Disappointing Movies of 2009

I haven't posted a note or blog in awhile, so I thought I'd return as we are entering the heart of movie awards season.

Withing the next few weeks, I'm going to post my Top 10 Movies of 2009, my Top Performers of 2009, and Most Anticipated of 2010 (those movies that haven't already been released in theaters). I thought I'd preface those with the films that, in my opinion, were the most disappointing of this last year. This isn't to say that all of these movies are completely terrible (though some certainly are), and I even like a couple of them. Rather, these are the movies that I expected to be much better than they turned out to be.

5. Extract - I still kind of liked this one, as it still had moments of brilliance. Jason Bateman and Mila Kunis were great as the leads, and there were fantastic supporting turns by Ben Affleck, J.K. Simmons, and Clifton Collins Jr. I must say, though, that Kristen Wiig was sadly underused. Somehow the film just didn't seem to come together, and the jokes and tone of the film were confusingly choppy. I don't think it was bad direction. While I'm not a fan of Mike Judge's TV work (King of the Hill), his movie credits (Office Space and Idiocracy) are impeccable. I will certainly have to rewatch this one, if only in the hope that I'll find something better in it another time around

4. Year One - I don't have much to say about this one, as it was just so tragically horrible. When I first heard of this one in the summer of 2008, I thought, "Wow, this one could be pretty funny." With Jack Black and Michael Cera in the lead roles and Harold Ramis (Groundhog Day, Caddyshack) directing, this one should have been so good. After a surprisingly funny opening, the movie took a drastic turn for the worse. Even a slew of supporting roles and cameos by the likes of David Cross, Vinnie Jones, Olivia Wilde, Bill Hader, and Paul Rudd couldn't save this mess. And Oliver Platt's character was way too creepy.

3. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - With the same writers who, just earlier this year, gave us the incredible Star Trek reboot, and loving the original Transformers movie from 2007 (which they also wrote), I could not have expected such an utter failure. I'm even a fan of most of Michael Bay's movies (The Rock, Bad Boys 1&2, The Island), while most people just scoff. How so many cool action scenes (i.e. Optimus Prime taking on three Decepticons in the forest), ended up surround by so many terrible jokes, lines, plot devices, and characters, I have no idea. If Michael Bay wants me to keep me interested, he'd better make Transformers 3 a masterpiece.

2. Where the Wild Things Are - Did I think this was a terrible movie? No. Did I think it was lacking something? Absolutely. As a big fan of the book as a kid, and knowing Spike Jonze's talent (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation), I was really looking forward to this one. This is a tricky one to explain. I understand the difficulty of adapting such a short children's book into a feature-length film, and I was fine with the thin storyline and slightly dark tone. There was just something about it though, and it seemed more dull and depressing than thoughtful and dark. That said, the set design and visuals are beautiful, and I'll be revisiting this one on DVD to give it another go.

1. The Invention of Lying - I was a huge fan of Ricky Gervais' underseen comedy from 2008, Ghost Town. With such an impressive comedy ensemble in addition to Gervais, including Jennifer Garner, Jonah Hill, Louis C.K., Rob Lowe, and Tina Fey, combined with a thought-provoking premise, I expected this one to be a sure-fire hit. What I got was a mess of misfiring jokes, a choppy story, mostly boring performances outside of Gervais, and an unsatisfying ending. The best parts of the movie were the brief cameos by Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Edward Norton. I'm not sure I want to risk suffering through this one again to see if its better the second time.

Honorable mention: Fanboys - I remembered this one after I had made my list. I don't know what it was about this movie, but it just didn't work. After waiting so long to see it, and being a huge Star Wars fan, it was so terribly disappointing. With a few funny jokes, it just couldn't pull its act together. I don't blame the performers or director, but rather their studio The Weinstein Company, who have been notorious for destroying their own movies. The only exception was Inglourious Basterds, because no one messes with the Q.