The Ten Worst Films of 2010

Now it's time to take a look at the worst films of 2010. The absolute dregs of the bunch. Films so bad I will never speak of them again but will hopefully steer you clear of them unless you had the major mis-fortune of suffering through them as I did.

Romantic comedies took a major beating in 2010. I have five of them on my list this year. It seems as if Hollywood fails to grasp that audiences are not stupid because each one uses the same formula without little to no exception. Here are the steps to every romantic comedy these days. Let's see how familiar these are to all of you.

1) The man and woman meet cute in an unexpected and usually very silly manner.

2) The man is immediately attracted to the woman but the woman is hesitant because she has been in a bad relationship or is presently in one. Most of the time she truly dislikes the man for a while to keep the "tension" going.

3) They run into each other again and soon begin dating.

4) Things start to become serious despite the advice of each one's best friend.

5) Somehow the man does something wrong and the two split even though we know they are so good for one another.

6) The two unexpectedly run into each other at the end and discover they really do love one another and will live happily ever after.

7) Chances are the female lead will be Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Lopez, Katherine Heigl or Diane Lane with a male lead who is handsome, rugged, shirtless and oddly single.

And there you have it. The plot of every romantic comedy for the last year and then some. I dare say many of you out there would write something better, or at least more original. But as long as teenage girls flock to see these films the formula will remain the same and Hollywood will continue to churn them out on a monthly to bi-monthly basis. Romantic comedies have gotten so bad I almost yearn for an explosion or car chase to liven things up. One of the movies on this list actually had that but it didn't help.

Without further adieu here are my choices of the ten worst films of 2010 in descending order.

10) EAT PRAY LOVE - Even Hollywood's top female star, Julia Roberts, couldn't escape falling into a romantic formula. Based on a popular novel, Roberts plays an unhappily married woman who gets divorced and then sets out on a world wide trip to find herself. Of course she also finds love along the way several times before finally settling on the hunky Javier Bardem (whose weak performance is the highlight of the movie. Thankfully he would redeem himself later with his powerful, Oscar nominated performance in Biutiful to restore my faith in him). This film runs on for an agonizing 133 minutes and is nothing more than a postcard for vacations.

9) JACKASS 3-D - I will say two things about this movie. First is that I admittedly laughed hard two or three times during this. Second is that it actually made better use of 3-D than most of the big budget films of 2010 did. I have never seen the series nor the first two movies of the series but decided to give this one a chance. Despite laughing hard a few times I spent most of the movie totally repulsed. More than once I had to turn away from the screen and one scene so sickened me that I can literally gag when trying to describe it to someone. In the end watching a bunch of idiots hurt themselves was not very entertaining to me.

8) THE BACK UP PLAN - Jennifer Lopez' 2010 entry is this ridiculous film about a woman so wanting to be pregnant she finally decides to take the artificial insemination route and conceives twins. Wouldn't you know it but the very day she finds out she meets who could be the man of her dreams. Will he accept her pregnancy? It's Jennifer Lopez so are you kidding?

7) LITTLE FOCKERS - If any film proves once and for all that movie series should stop after the second film (after the first in many cases) it is Little Fockers. All of the original cast returns but this time they have little to nothing to do. Most of the action takes place in Chicago at the home of the Fockers (Ben Stiller, Teri Polo) who now have twins in the family. Now you would think with that title that perhaps the children would play a vital role in the film. You would be wrong. They are there simply to provide the movie's albeit cute title. Owen Wilson is back in a ridiculously large role when he doesn't even belong in the movie. There is no reason for his character to even be in Chicago save for the conceit of the screen writers. Robert DeNiro looks absolutely embarrassed to be collecting a paycheck because that is all he does here. Veteran character actor Harvey Keitel is wasted in a bit part. You would think that teaming him with his veteran co-star DeNiro would be magical but their two scenes together are awkward and embarrassing. The female characters are completely wasted and Ben Stiller is left holding the bag. Let's hope that despite it making over $100 million dollars (which scored bonuses of $30 million to Stiller, DeNiro and Wilson) that the Fockers will finally be put to rest.

6) KILLERS - This is one romantic comedy that I can't believe ever made it past the drawing board. To think some Hollywood executive actually green lit the story of a hired assassin (Ashton Kutcher, this generation's worst actor) who falls in love with a woman (Katherine Heigl) who has been recently dumped and is on vacation with her overbearing parents (Tom Selleck and Catherine O'Hara in performances that give the film the little life it has). She falls for him, too, but doesn't discover his secret until well after any woman with a hint of intelligence would have. After they get married she decides to join her husband in the family trade and it only gets worse from there. This is one of the most ridiculous films I have seen in years and the last act is filled with twists that are either groan or laughter inducing.

5) THE BOUNTY HUNTER - Here is the one romantic comedy that actually included chases, gunfights and explosions and still couldn't liven things up. Gerard Butler plays the title character who discovers that his next assignment is Jennifer Aniston, his ex-wife who happens to be a reporter working on the cover-up of a murder. Soon enough the two of them find themselves teaming up while trying to stay alive. The two leads have no chemistry together and the stupid script puts them in situations that you could only find in a bad movie.

4) GROWN UPS - It wouldn't be a ten worst list without an Adam Sandler movie on it. This man just kills me. It is evident how talented he is yet he refuses to stop making movies where sex and bathroom humor are at the forefront the whole time. What's worse is that most of his movies have a coming attraction that looks mildly amusing but always ends up showing the film's best gags. Sandler wastes his talents yet again and this time drags Kevin James and Chris Rock down with him. Rob Schneider and David Spade also appear but what talent they must have is totally beyond me. This is a comedy bereft of any decent laughs.

3) SKYLINE - This is an astonishingly bad science-fiction film about aliens that invade California and the group of survivors in a condo that fight to stay alive. The script couldn't have been less informative. We don't get a single moment with a scientist (hell I would have taken a high school science student) attempting to explain the invasion or any idea of the terror in the streets. We are stuck with the most boring group of characters you can find played by some of the stiffest actors currently employed (Ashton Kutcher must have been busy). Worst of all the special effects are fake and obvious. Had this been an homage to the great bad movies of the 1950's it would have been so much better but it takes itself much too seriously.

2) VAMPIRES SUCK - From the talent less creators of Date Movie, Epic Movie, Meet the Spartans and Disaster Movie comes this awful comedy that is supposed to be a spoof of the Twilight movies but is just a one joke movie whose one joke is stupid. These directors don't get that to spoof something means more than just re-shooting a scene and throwing prat falls and sex jokes into it. You need a little cleverness, originality and wall to wall jokes flying at you all at once. These guys have none of the talent needed and this turns into the worst comedy I have seen in years.

1) SEX AND THE CITY 2 - I have picked this movie as the worst of 2010 over Vampires Suck simply because it aspired to be so much more. This is an agonizingly bad film that finds our heroines still crying about relationships even after they spend a good portion of the movie in Abu Dhabi at the behest of a prince. Yes you read that write. what's worse is that the screenplay is condescending to its audience. On more than once occasion Sarah Jessica Parker's Carrie Preston narrates (as she did in all the tv episodes) a scene after the scene is over and simply explains what happened in the scene we already saw. It's as if the writer (and director) thought its audience so stupid the narration had to explain everything. Things like that make me as an audience member really angry and once that happens the movie has lost me and what's worse is that I had to suffer through a shocking two hours and thirty minutes of this mess. Two hours and thirty minutes for a romantic comedy?

May Hollywood learn and do better in 2011. But we all know that won't be the case.