They can\u2019t all be winners, like the entries on our list of the 25 best movies of 2018.<\/p>\n
The year brought plenty of clunkers, too, from R-rated puppet comedies (The Happytime Murders<\/em>) to biopics (Gotti<\/em>) to sequels (Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald<\/em>) to remakes (Death Wish<\/em>) to reboots (The Predator<\/em>) to whatever in the world that Robin Hood<\/em>movie was.<\/p>\n Hold your nose as we briefly revisit these 10 stinkers.<\/p>\n The sequel to Jurassic World <\/em>promised to bring the film\u2019s genetically modified dinosaurs off the island and onto the mainland. The possibilities seemed endless: Would the dinos rampage across the United States? Would the military transform them into living weapons? At the very least, audiences expected an upgrade from Jurassic Park: The Lost World <\/em>(1997), which unleashed the prehistoric beasts on San Diego. Alas, Fallen Kingdom <\/em>decided to confine the dinosaurs to a single house. And while \u201cvelociraptors in a mansion\u201d isn\u2019t the worst idea, the film\u2019s lackluster story and absence of character development made audiences even more nostalgic for the days of Laura Dern and Sam Neill. \u2014 Gwynne Watkins<\/em><\/p>\n Dwayne Johnson gets himself and his family embroiled with some evildoers doing evil in a burning 240-floor, uh, building. What do you call a really tall building that touches the sky? Never mind. Even Steven Seagal was able to pull off a good Die Hard<\/em> rip-off, but this free-falling head scratcher couldn\u2019t hold Under Siege<\/em>\u2019s water bottle. Could it be possible that you can have too much of a good thing? The Rock has had a few clunkers recently, with Baywatch<\/em>, Rampage<\/em> and Skyscraper<\/em>. The latter does have at least two things going for it: Neve Campbell is great, and the production employed over 3,000 people. So there\u2019s that. \u2014 John Santo<\/em><\/p>\n Director Eli Roth insisted he wasn\u2019t making a \u201cpro-gun\u201d movie, but the timing couldn\u2019t have been worse for Bruce Willis\u2019s spin on the 1970s Charles Bronson bullet-fest: Its marketing blitz arrived around the same time a gunman opened fire at a high school in Parkland, Fla., and killed 17 students. Death Wish<\/em> is hardly the first \u2014 and is surely not the last \u2014 film to glorify gun violence, but that was just one of the many problems this ill-fated remake faced, like the boneheaded decision to base it in Chicago as real-life shootings continue to plague the city. As a movie, it\u2019s shallow, too self-serious, and, worst of all, boring. \u2014 Kevin Polowy<\/em><\/p>\n Hear ye, hear ye: Here are the crimes that the second entry in J.K. Rowling\u2019s Harry Potter <\/em>prequel franchise stands accused of: (1) Needlessly warping Wizarding World mythology<\/u>; (2) making major continuity mistakes<\/u>; (3) forgetting to feature any fantastic beasts; (4) shamelessly cribbing from The Empire Strikes Back<\/em>; (5) continuing to employ Johnny Depp. Verdict: Guilty on all counts. \u2014 Ethan Alter<\/em><\/p>\n Even without the real-world controversy<\/u> that engulfed Shane Black\u2019s misbegotten franchise reboot, it\u2019s hard to imagine anyone coming out of The Predator <\/em>eager to see a sequel. Black\u2019s way with (profane) words and a gifted cast couldn\u2019t enliven a prolonged Predator-and-mouse game marred by drab visuals and so-so action. Like the song goes, maybe it\u2019s time to let the old aliens die. \u2014 E.A.<\/em><\/p>\n When a space station runs a particle-accelerator test, the crew is sent into an alternate dimension and handed the recipe for a disastrous movie. Sure, this was never originally supposed to be a Cloverfield<\/em> movie in the first place, but with some reshoots, a Super Bowl commercial that dropped the movie on us like Beyonc\u00e9 dropping an album of Hoobastank covers, and a Netflix premiere, J.J. Abrams and company dropped this turd of a movie on its unsuspecting audience. Crass, lads, very crass. \u2014 J.S.<\/em><\/p>\n Robin Hood<\/em> has all the personality of a magazine\u2019s cologne insert. The year\u2019s most expensive commercial for cool leather jackets, Robin (sorry, he\u2019s called Rob, <\/em>as played by the otherwise likable Taron Egerton) used bows and arrows like they were AK-47s. Marian (played by Eve Hewson) wore clothing straight out of a Forever 21 catalog. The medieval characters attended a \u2026 casino night in a castle? All of this is to say that the movie didn\u2019t belong to any era, but unfortunately was put in theaters during ours. \u2014 Will Lerner<\/em><\/p>\n Adv<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n As huge Henson fans, we were admittedly excited to finally see Jim Henson\u2019s idea for a \u201cMuppet murder mystery\u201d come to life. But under the direction of son Brian Henson (who oversaw the underappreciated TV series Farscape<\/em>) The Happytime Murders<\/em> turned what could have been a fun, biting satire into a hodgepodge of badly written, over-the-top sexual humor and a mystery so boring we forgot what it was by the time the credits rolled. But don\u2019t feel too bad for Happytime<\/em>\u2019s star Melissa McCarthy. Her performance in Can You Ever Forgive<\/em>? was one of the year\u2019s best. \u2014 Adam Garcia<\/em><\/p>\n With a 0 percent Rotten Tomatoes score, this justly ridiculed biopic of New York City\u2019s own Dapper Don definitely isn\u2019t the next Godfather<\/em> or Goodfellas<\/em>. Heck, it isn\u2019t even the next Mobsters<\/em><\/u>. To his credit, John Travolta did his homework on John Gotti<\/u>, but the film lacks a basic understanding of the cinematic language to say nothing of good storytelling. In that way, it\u2019s the anti-Roma. \u2014 E.A.<\/em><\/p>\n Call it this year\u2019s The Book of Henry<\/em>. Critics seemed to be salivating as they sharpened their knives to cut up this ill-conceived, overwrought, predictable and, worst of all, painfully manipulative drama about intersecting family story lines between New York City and rural Spain. This Is Us<\/em> creator Dan Fogelman\u2019s cinematic endeavor deserved all the grief it got from reviewers \u2014 the movie seems to function by only making us care about its characters by killing off people they love \u2014 and the director\u2019s public rebuttal of themcertainly didn\u2019t do him any favors. Speaking of critics, bonus hate points for ripping off the title of the excellent 2014 Roger Ebert documentary. \u2014 K.P.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n They can\u2019t all be winners, like the entries on our list of the 25 best movies of 2018. The year brought plenty of clunkers, too, from R-rated puppet comedies (The Happytime Murders) to biopics (Gotti) to sequels (Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald) to remakes (Death Wish) to reboots (The Predator) to whatever in the world …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":57657,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[391],"tags":[3416,3418,3414,3419,3415,3417],"yoast_head":"\n10. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n
9. Skyscraper<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n
8. Death Wish<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n
7. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n
6. The Predator<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n
5. The Cloverfield Paradox<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n
4. Robin Hood<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n
\r\n \t
3. The Happytime Murders<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n
2. Gotti<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n
1. Life Itself<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n