Hard to believe that we are in April already and we have been treated to a wide range of great and not so great movies in the first quarter of the year.
It Follows
While there have been a whole host of films that we have fallen over ourselves to praise, there have been some that have left us bitterly disappointed.
We are nearly a third of the way through 2015 and we take a look at some of the worst films of the year so far - sadly, there were far too many to choose from.
- It Follows
It Follows is a movie that almost everyone has been raving about and yet it is the film that left me the most disappointed so far this year.
The trailer was a really tense watch and It Follows was being tipped as a major game changer... sadly, it didn't live up to this hype for me and I found a rather insipid watch.
While I liked the idea of the film and thought the opening was quite an interesting watch, sadly, this movie runs out of steam and gets a little jumbled as lost as it goes on.
There are moments of eeriness and some tension, but it never has you jumping out of your chair. The trailer was incredibly intriguing and atmospheric and yet much of that was missing in the film - which was a surprise and a major shame.
It Follows marked only the second feature film for director and writer David Robert Mitchell, who brought together a great cast that included Maika Monroe and Keir Gilchrist: two actors to keep an eye on over the next year or so.
- Insurgent
The Divergent series of books really are a terrific read and are some of the best young adultnovels to be released in recent years... it is such a shame that this has not transferred on to the big screen.
Divergent was released at the beginning of 2014, and while it is a solid film, all of the tension and uncertainty that is in the book was missing - not to mention the incredibly interesting characters.
A year on, and Shailene Woodley is back in the lead role of Tris Prior as she leads an all-star cast in Insurgent, which sees Robert Schwentke in the director's chair this time around.
Sadly, a change of director has not improved things for this franchise as Insurgent is as uninspiring as the first. The pace of the movie is all wrong, the characters are as dull as dishwater, and the action is all just a little too run of the mill - resulting in a film that has nothing to get excited about or engrossed in.
It is such a shame to see a great book series fail so badly as a film franchise - particularly when you see The Hunger Games being adapted so well and enjoying major success. Allegiant, which is the final book, is set to be split into two movies but I would pull the plug on this franchise right now.
- Taken 3
It was back in 2008 when we were introduced to the character of Bryan Mills for the first time in the terrific Taken - a movie that changed the direction of Liam Neeson's career and turned him into an action star.
Seven years on, and Taken 3 hit the big screen as Mills was back in action and is desperately trying to clear his name after being accused of murder. The movie saw Olivier Megaton back in the director's chair, while Maggie Grace and Famke Janssen were also back.
Despite the fact that Taken was a terrific action film, it should never have been given a sequel as the movies have got progressively worse since the first - Taken 3 is the worst so far.
Taken 3 is just really lazy filmmaking with an outrageous storyline that is packed full of major plot holes. Sadly, the script and the director are more concerned with delivering the action set pieces that they have forgotten to actually develop the story and the characters.
Neeson does his best with what he is given, but Mills is not the same intriguing and interesting character that he was in the first film. Taken 3 is a sluggish film and is a movie that has been made for the sake of being made. Shame to see such a great film character reduced to this.
- The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death
The horror movie genre has been one of the weakest in recent years - The Conjuring was the last really good horror film that I had the pleasure of watching. The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death is the second horror film to make it into our Top 5 Worst Films of 2015 countdown and it hit the big screen at the beginning of the year.
The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death is a sequel to the 2012 film The Woman In Black, which was a terrific adaptation of the novel of the same name by Susan Hill. However, this sequel didn't come close to matching its predecessor for chills and scares.
There is no denying that The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death is visually a very beautiful film and, at times, quite atmospheric, but director Tom Harper has never been able to move that through to genuine jumps and scares.
The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death treads a very predictable path and the overuse of the Woman In Black herself took away the tension that the first film revelled in so beautifully.
Perhaps a little too much has gone into how the film looks when more needed to be invested in the story and the development of some rather dull characters.
Because The Woman In Black was a big financially successful film, it comes as no surprise that a sequel was made - however, quite what releasing a movie that was incredibly inferior to the first archives I am not quite sure.
- Mortdecai
To say that Johnny Depp has had a run of bad luck at the box office of late would be an understatement - he really has made some not so great films in recent years.
He returned to the big screen at the beginning of the years with comedy Mortdecai, as he reunited with director David Koepp for the first time since Secret Window back in 2004.
I am a big fan of Depp, but this is another movie that was way off the mark for an actor of his calibre - quite what he saw in this script when he read it is anyone's guess. Despite being promoted as a comedy, Mortdecai is a film that is desperately unfunny - not to mention incredibly dull.
It is painful to watch such a talented bunch of actors - which included Gwyneth Paltrow, Ewan McGregor, and Paul Bettany - all flap around in a movie that is a colossal misfire. What were they all thinking when they signed up to star?
There is nothing here that saves this movie and it really is one of worst that Depp has starred in during his career.
Other movies that have missed the mark include Fifty Shades of Grey, Get Hard, The Boy Next Door, and Unfinished Business.
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