The Worst Films of 2013

The Worst Films of 2013

A Madea Christmas - Madea is back for her worst film yet, along with Larry the Cable Guy.
Grown Ups 2 - Adam Sandler sequel. Need we say more?
Movie 43 - What a horrible, horrible waste of many talented actors. The biggest mess of the year.
Scary Movie 5 - Um, no thank you. Not at all.
After Earth - Will and Jaden couldn't save this awful tribute to Scientology.
The Lone Ranger - How do you waste $200 million? Watch this movie to find out.
The Hangover Part III - Did we really need another? No. The worst by far of the three in this series.
Getaway - Selena Gomez and Ethan Hawke in the year's worst action film.
R.I.P.D. - Another summer stinkeroo, with a super annoying Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds.
Paranoia - Harrison Ford and Gary Oldman went down in flames in this uber-flop.

Not the worst, but the Biggest Disappointments:

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty - I was expecting so much more from Ben Stiller. Love Kristen Wiig though.
Man of Steel - The first half of this was great. Then it turned into "Superman" versus "Transformers" and it fell apart. And went on and on much too long.
Grudge Match - Considering the talent, including Stallone and DeNiro (phoning in another take-the-money-and-run performance), not to mention Alan Arkin and Kim Basinger, it's a huge disappointment.
The Great Gatsby - Sure, the film was a big hit. The visuals were stunning, the empty story disappointing.
Oz: The Great and Powerful -  This lackluster, grating prequel to "The Wizard of Oz" featured shoddy special effects, a smirking James Franco and an annoying talking monkey.

The Most Overrated Films of the Year

These films are also not bad per se, but not worthy of all the excessive critical praise heaped on them.

The Place Beyond the Pines - The handsome Ryan Gosling continues to be one of cinema's most intriguing actors, but this heavy-handed, overlong drama was uneven, slow and sluggish. As least the section with Gosling was the best part of the film.
Prisoners - This drama starring Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal was well-acted and stirring, but also slow-moving and epically overlong (2 hours, 33 minutes) for a crime drama. It also misused one of my favorite actresses, Viola Davis.
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues - I may get some flak for this one, as it has many fans from the 2004 film. Will Ferrell is a talented, often funny comedian, but the problem is that excessive stupidity is truly funny for about 5 minutes, better suited for a sketch (or in commercials) than a 115-minute movie. Its 74% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes is genuinely baffling.
Lee Daniels' The Butler - The movie is mildly entertaining and well-acted, especially by Forest Whitaker, but it has many more flaws, including weak plotting, overacting by Oprah and a gallery of distracting cameos by actors who look nothing like the historical figures they're supposed to represent (except for Jane Fonda, memorable as Nancy Reagan). Baffling is the number of SAG Award nominations it received.