…according to AOL:

http://www.aol.com/article/2014/07/27/movie-stars-10-biggest-flops/20937644/

I’m familiar with pretty much all the movies mentioned, but have only seen four of them: The Marlon Brando version of The Island of Dr. Moreau, the George Clooney Batman and Robin, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Last Action Hero, and Denzel Washington’s The Mighty Quinn.

I felt that The Island of Dr. Moreau was close to being a good “weird” movie.  Like many, I was familiar with all the rumors of on-set problems during the film’s production, perhaps most notorious being the feud between actor Val Kilmer and replacement director John Frankenheimer (the original director, Richard Stanley, was booted from the project).  Still, I didn’t think the film was a total disaster and I felt Val Kilmer’s creepy Montgomery just about stole the show.  Lest I sound like I feel the movie is actually some “lost treasure”, I would hasten to add that this version of the H. G. Wells story is nowhere near the classic of the original deeply weird (but in a very good way) Island of Lost Souls.

Similarly, Batman and Robin, I felt, while not all that good, wasn’t all that much different from the far less criticized Batman Forever (coincidentally enough starring Val Kilmer in the title role!).  Joel Schumacher took over the Batman franchise after director Tim Burton left and, as mentioned, his first whack at it, Batman Forever, came and went without as much gnashing of the teeth as his George Clooney starring follow up.  To me, both films carry just about the same level of silliness/outrageousness.  I suppose the big difference are the “bat-nipples”, which were exclusive to the later film.  Ah well, neither of them rates all that high for me, though as with The Island of Dr. Moreau, I found Val Kilmer’s presence in the film interesting despite the at times awful dialogue his character spouts (examples can be found the trailer below).  Mr. Kilmer made for an intriguing Bruce Wayne/Batman and it would have been interesting to see him in a more “serious” version of the film.

The Last Action Hero, on the other hand, deserved every ounce of scorn it received upon its original release.  One has to understand that back in 1993 Mr. Schwarzenneger was at the very height of his popularity and it seemed he could do absolutely no wrong.  Add to this the fact that he was again pairing up with his Predator director, John McTiernan, and movie fans such as myself were absolutely dying to see what new action film they could concoct.  But leaked early pre-release word was that the film was, quite literally, a bomb, and whatever enthusiasm many felt was tempered.  In this case, the rumors proved correct. The Last Action Hero was a lame dud of a film, a supposedly funny “movie reality intruding on reality” minus any real humor mixed with action setpieces that were curiously lifeless.  Watching the trailer below, one can feel the mix just ain’t working.  Still, the movie had a pretty decent heavy metal score…

Finally, I remember very little about The Mighty Quinn.  Saw it in the theater when it was originally released in 1989 and I vaguely recall thinking it was an “ok” movie at best and could have featured a more intriguing mystery.  Apart from that, I don’t remember all that much else.

Perhaps that’s for the best?