Franchises filled up movie screens this year, but some of 2011's best films ...
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Worst films of 2011
I will go out of my way to see some movies I missed in their original theatrical release for Top 10 consideration. But I don't have enough of a masochistic streak to do that for worst film consideration, which is why purportedly dreadful movies such as Jack & Jill are not on my list. (After last year's scabrous comedy Grown-Ups, I will not see an Adam Sandler movie unless I must review it.)
Of the movies I did see, I especially hated:
1. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
When Keith Richards shows up to coherently contribute exposition about the Fountain of Youth, you know the fun is being well and truly leached from the Pirates movies. In fact, the whole franchise resembles the skeletal pirates of the first movie, dead but still mysteriously ambulatory.
2. New Year's Eve
Truly painful shmaltz in the template of Garry Marshall's hit Valentine's Day. I just have to think of the buffed, polished Jon Bon Jovi and Katherine Heigl on the screen together to give myself a case of the heebie-jeebies.
Source: Winnipeg Free Press