Rush Hour 2 Award: Any Candidates? (1 Viewer)

[steve jaros]

The Rush Hour 2 award is a prize i give to any movie that meets two criteria. 1) It has to be godawful, and 2) it must earn at least $200 mil in the USA. Last year, the namesake captured this valuable token, and we awarded one to the Mummy Returns as well. But what about this year?

I thought Scooby Doo would be a prime candidate - it certainly meets criteria 1. But it may not bag #2.

The other current possibility is MIB 2. It looks like a cinch to meet the money mark, but i'm wavering on whether it is actually 'godawful' or merely pretty bad...

Any ideas?

 

[Carl Johnson]

I don't think that Rush Hour 2 is godawful...

 

[Damin J Toell]

I don't think that Rush Hour 2 is godawful...

I can't really imagine someone going in to see Rush Hour 2 and finding it to be godawful. What else would one expect, knowing it's a sequel to Rush Hour?
DJ

 

[Mitty]

Does it also have to be a pointless sequel?
'Cause the sequel to both of the films (MIB2, Rush Hour 2) exist for NO other reason than the fact that the first made obscene amounts of money.
If not, I think the granddaddy of all supremely lousy blockbusters has to be Independence Day, a movie whose audience seemed to celebrate and revel in its awfulness.

 

[Dennis Heller]

How much did Wild Wild West make? If over $200 mil., then there's your winner.

 

[Richard WWW]

First of all, Steve says he will give the award to ANY film that meets his two criteria.

Secondly, he is asking for this year's nominees. I think we've probably seen all the crappy films this year that are gonna do 200 mil. I don't anticipate Scooby hitting the mark, though I imagine MIB 2 will. So I would say MIB 2 will win by default.

How much did Pearl Harbor make? Did it pass up 200 mil? Cuz if so, I'd say that turkey beat out Rush Hour 2 AND the Mummy. And actually, I liked Rush Hour 2. Sure, there were some major flaws, and it wasn't high art, but like the guy said...It was a sequel to Rush Hour. Some of it was funny and cute. I wasn't upset that I spent the money for a matinee.

 

[steve jaros]

Replies to Richard Damin, and Dennis:
Dennis - WWW didn't come close to 200, it barely scraped over 100.
Richard - No, PH stopped at 198+ million. Just missed. But yes i agree it would have been awared a 'rushy' had it rang the bell.
Damin: I liked Rush Hour, gave it a thumbs up. It's one of the reasons i was so disappointed in RH2.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

As an action comedy sequel, Rush Hour 2 was FAR from awful! That aside, it wasn't in the same League of Badness as some of the other titles under discussion anyway. . .

 

[Malcolm R]

Nomination: "Attack of the Clones"

I was very excited considering the early reviews, but it ended up being "godawful" in my view.

 

[Alex Spindler]

MIB II definitely gets my vote. How the heck could someone spend $140 million on this and get effects and jokes completely inferior to the original is beyond me.

 

[steve jaros]

Alex - Now that you've put it that way, i intend to agree. Parts of MIB2 look schlocky, even though they spent tons of money.

Plus, 1:28 running time?

Malcolm R - i'd give a vote to Episode I as well.

 

[John Thomas]

I thought both Rush Hour movies were entertaining. Definitely not a movie to use for the title of such an award.

 

[Bill J]

I skipped Rush Hour 2 because Rush Hour is the worst movie of all-time, in my opinion.

 

[Carl Johnson]

Well I bought Rush Hour 2 because I thought that the first one was an excellent action/adventure comedy

 

[Scott Weinberg]

Ok, interesting question. (I'll cast my vote on Rush Hour 2: I think it's crap!) As far as 'other' nominees, we may be a bit limited in that (as of today) only 41 films have ever grossed over $200 million domestically.
In the interest of helping people cast their votes, I'll list the members of the $200 million club:

• Armageddon
  The Mummy Returns
  The Exorcist
  Terminator 2: Judgment Day
  Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
  Back to the Future
  Mission: Impossible 2
  Saving Private Ryan
  Aladdin
  Ghost
  Mrs. Doubtfire
  Rush Hour 2
  The Lost World: Jurassic Park
  Cast Away
  Beverly Hills Cop
  Ghostbusters
  Twister
  Raiders of the Lost Ark
  Toy Story 2
  Men in Black
  Batman
  Monsters, Inc.
  How the Grinch Stole Christmas
  Jaws
  Shrek
  Home Alone
  The Empire Strikes Back
  Attack of the Clones
  The Sixth Sense
  Independence Day
  Return of the Jedi
  Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
  The Lion King
  Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
  Forrest Gump
  Jurassic Park
  Spider-Man
  The Phantom Menace
  E.T. the Extra Terrestrial
  Star Wars
  Titanic

Of those movies, the only ones I'd call 'real crap' are The Mummy Returns, Rush Hour 2, and Twister, although I'm not a big fan of The Lost World, Mission: Impossible 2, Mrs. Doubtfire or Men in Black.
(Thanks to www.boxofficemojo.com for the box-office stats.)

 

[Seth Paxton]

I really found RH2 to be pretty funny. Not that far off the original for me, which honestly caught me by surprise.

I am also one of the people that thought MIB2 wasn't too bad. At least a little better than Ghostbusters 2 which was another sequel that wasn't the original but tried to continue in the same type of humor as the first. Both suffer from the actual narrative not having the same life as the original.


From Scott's list my opinion of really bad films:

Mummy Returns (oh, that horrible CGI monster at the end)
M:I 2 (what a sloppy mess - aka, "101 Things You Can't Do on a Motorcycle")
Twister (terrible story, terrible flying cow)
Lost World (though it had a couple of good action sequences)

Armageddon and Phantom Menace are films I do not like, but I can find some pleasure in them in spots.

 

[JasenP]

The Rush Hour films bother me because Chris Tucker's mouth gets in the way of an otherwise potentially entertaining Jackie Chan film.


How about the re-release of E.T.? Can we count that?

 

[steve jaros]

JasenP - i echo ()))))))))))() your sentiments. Tucker is insufferable in RH2.

Not that i always find him that way. I enjoyed RH1.

 

[Alex Spindler]

Oh man. I had already flushed the Mummy Returns 'experience' from my brain. I really enjoyed the first one as a 'B-movie sleeper' with broad action and some creative special effects. They used their leads to good effect and weren't especially unfriendly in their approach. Plus, they managed to balance comedy, action, and a little horror better than they deserved to.
The sequel, however, was a completely different story. They introduce a ridiculous subplot, bring back characters that shouldn't have been brought back and provided anemic action scenes. But the worst result was a recycling of scenes and special effects in a remarkably inferior manner (Wall of Sand/Wall of Water). Plus, they made the leads completely unlikeable and depressing throughout and had no suitable comic relief.
I'll second The Mummy Returns for sure.