12.30.2004

Simply the worst.

Year-end movie lists are the number two best thing about the end of the year. But why, oh why, is the focus always on best, best, best? Lists of the worst are always so much more enjoyable because lots of someone else's money spent on ideas that utterly fail make life that much sweeter. Here, then, is a list of links to lists of the worst movies of 2004:

Msnbc.com—predictable but still fun, though can we just always consider any Christmas movie post-A Christmas Story terrible?

Newsweek (via msnbc.com)—titled "Most Disappointing," which makes for an easy way to include films by Lars Von Trier and and Jean-Pierre Jeunet without losing artistic cred. But who cares if you don't put your name on the damn thing?

The Dicks from Time magazine chime in here and here. Unfortunately, you'll have to scroll through their 10 best to get to their one (argh) worst. Always a disappointment. However, major kudos to Richard Schickel for putting the kibosh on the loathsome and, worse, tediously boring, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Must we be subjected to another Charlie Kaufman script full of unlikeable characters endlessy agonizing through nifty metaworlds?

The EW critics, Owen G. and Lisa S. Perfectly OK, though Control Room seems out of place. Call me gullible.

Finally, Filmthreat's 10 Worst Unseen Movies of 2004, though, judging by the above, a few people did manage to see Dogville. If nobody sees them, are they really that bad? Or does that make them worse? Or when will someone manage to put out a list of the worst movies of all time and just include one movie, The English Patient? Consider it done, then.

ADDENDUM:

Here's Slate's David Edelstein's list of best and worst. Because he's a good critic, he almost convinced me to see Eternal Sunshine... again. Almost.

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