Top 5 Duds of 2011

And they are, in alphabetical order:
- 23:59
- Aku Tak Bodoh
- Beastly
- Legendary Amazons (楊門女將之軍令如山 / Yang Men Nu Jiang Zhi Jun Ling Ru Shan)
- The Ultimate Winner (赢家 / Ying Jia)

5 of the worst this year, that shameful waste of celluloid that had the audacity to be screened to paying audiences anywhere around the world, and to think that 3/5 belonged to our sunny little island. Are we facing a dearth of ideas, or are we reaching a saturation point where local films no longer are of respectable quality, and that anything goes so long as they can try to make a quick buck at the box office?

23:59 by Gilbert Chan was riddled with horror film cliches and complete disregard to army protocols despite it being touted as an army horror story, with weak scares generated and would have found a proper place should it be rebranded as an accidental comedy. How it made more than a million dollars is plain baffling. Lee Nanxing's The Ultimate Winner was so overtly preaching religion, with its television qualities just being overwhelming, that it became a turnoff even without its illogical plot making things worst. Pure laziness was seen in Aku Tak Bodoh which adapted lock, stock and barrel from Jack Neo's I Not Stupid Too, down to the dated jokes. Neo's protege Boris Boo could have worked harder on this, but is developing a knack for making cinematic flops. Whether he completes a hat-trick with another bottom 10 entry in 2012 remains to be seen, but my money's on it.

Big names do not guarantee success as well. Legendary Amazons that had the likes of veterans Cheng Pei Pei, Kathy Chow and heralded the return of Cecelia Cheung was funny, then you realize it was supposed to be all serious, and with Jackie Chan's producing cred, you'd half expect him to come up with some money to complete all the raw CG effects, and to have proper location shoots than to film fight scenes under multiple spotlights in a soundstage. Then there's Beastly being the ultimate stinker as it proudly tells the story of an arrogant prick in what would be a modern update to a fairy tale.

All these films should be avoided with a ten foot pole, but if you're up for some comedy and post-screening bitching session, then by all means pick up any of these films to do just that. If you'd like to see the expanded list of 10 Duds of 2011, then head on down to movieXclusive.com by clicking on the logo below.