I Gave My Least Favorite Movies a 2nd Chance...

Added: 2026-05-15

[00:00:00]For years, the half-star section of my letterbox account has haunted me. These are movies that I don't even really remember that I apparently thought were the worst of the worst. And they're sitting next to actual certified stinkers like Red One, Queen Kong, and Monkey Up. So, I thought, let me revisit these disasters and give them a second chance. Maybe I've changed. Maybe there's something to them, or maybe I was right all along. Or maybe they're even worse than I remember them being.

[00:00:23]Let's kick this off from worst to best.

[00:00:25]Gary Chapman's Valiant, the only film he ever directed, is an animated film that tells the story of a pigeon named Valiant who enlists in the Royal Homing pigeon service to help fight in World War II. Film stars Euan McGregor as Valiant and Ricky Jerves as Bugsy. It is the only film to remain at half a star on this list. I saw Valiant in theaters, believe it or not. In fact, on a rewatch, I actually recognized a handful of scenes from my childhood, which was surprising considering plot-wise, I remember none of this. But Valiant clearly stuck with me and not in a necessarily good way. I was eight by the time Valiant released, which I bring up because I can pretty definitively say that it was at 8 years old that I realized movies can unfortunately suck.

[00:01:04]Kids like everything that's put in front of them naturally. So that's the beauty of cinema. But even as a child, I could apparently recognize that this was What is so bad about Valiant?

[00:01:13]Well, for starters, the animation is quite bad, even for 2005. I will say the film was apparently made on a pretty small budget. So, it is impressive that they got this out there at all. But that doesn't take away from the fact that it's unfortunately just very unpleasant to look at. Also, a movie like Hoodwin, another movie that looks visually pretty bad and dated, actually saves itself in being genuinely hilarious and entertaining. The look never holds it back. In fact, I would argue it's part of the charm. The thing about Valiant is that none of it is very funny. I mean, you got to try pretty hard to get away with war movie satire centering around Hitler. And while Valiant isn't by any means offensive about anything, it is just kind of stupid. Adults certainly wouldn't find a lot of this funny, and kids, I mean, just forget about it. The result is a really forgettable and downright drag of a watch. It's not even the best Euan McGregor voice acting of 2005. Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland is one of the worst looking movies I've ever seen in my life. It makes every complaint about muddy CGI in studio films these days look a bit silly. It's actually been all uphill since this.

[00:02:14]This is Tim Burton's adaptation of, well, Alice in Wonderland, as well as Through the Looking Glass. On paper, Burton seems like one of the best filmmakers of 2010 to get his hands on this material. Call me insane, but I'm actually one of the rare Charlie and the Chocolate Factory defenders. There are parts of that film I find visually stunning, and I would expect a certain level of the same vibrancy here. But no, I I could not be more off. I first watched this film at home, actually, with some extended family where I was just kind of taking it. It was something my eyes could look at in that moment.

[00:02:43]But I'm pretty sure an uncle or a cousin or somebody in the family walked out halfway commenting on how stupid it was.

[00:02:49]Which, not unlike my valiant moment, was kind of a wake-up call that I didn't have to sit there and just accept what I was looking at. To be honest, I don't remember finishing the film. I probably went ahead and did something more fulfilling with my time, which could have been anything. But I've clearly felt sour about the film ever since. And revisiting it in full, yeah, it's pretty bad. Aside from being visually horrendous to look at, the film is also just generally weightless. Beyond the fact that you don't really feel a sense of space when watching these characters maneuvering the world, you also don't really care about them either. These last two decades, Tim Burton is kind of known to go autopilot mode every now and then. And this is, from what I've seen, the most egregious example. I recognize an interesting story with interesting characters beneath the sludge. It's why I had to put it above Valiant. It's probably why so many people are weirdly forgiving of this film on Letterbox. It seems like a middle school girl film as far as I know. But when there's nothing to really grasp onto, on top of being an actual eyes sore, I fail to really see the point of any of this. This is where I start to open my heart a bit. Shark Boy and Lava Girl is a classic. We can all agree on that. No, but I speak for a lot of people when I say that it is looked at as a bit of a joke. Rightfully so. Look at it. The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl by Robert Rodriguez tells the story of a bullied boy named Max who is brought into the world of his own madeup superheroes where he must fight off bullies from his real life to save planet Drool. Like a lot of kids who grew up in the 2000s, Robert Rodriguez was my guy. And by that I mean I just really love the Spy Kids movies.

[00:04:15]I wasn't tapped into the other stuff quite yet. Which is to say, I was hyped for this film. And god do I remember being disappointed. Off memory, what didn't work about this is it's just too much. Just too damn much. The film, cool as it is conceptually, is way too weird for its own good, bordering on being fully incoherent. My thoughts are pretty much the same after re-watching it. I actually think this is weirdly more jarring as an adult. And to Rodriguez's credit, here and in the third Spy Kids film, he uses CGI in such a way that's so excessive and absurd, it actually feels like I'm in the mind of a child.

[00:04:47]It's why a film like Spy Kids 3D worked really well for me at that age. It's child logic, its bright colors, its cool ass kids. That's what I want to watch.

[00:04:55]Shark Boy and Lava Girl goes even further with it and in doing so kind of loses me. Uh, believe it or not, at a certain point, this is just stupid.

[00:05:02]Spy Kids 3D, while equally ugly at times, mattered to me. I thought this world was sick. I care deeply about Juny and Carmen, whereas Max is just kind of there. His whole thing is he just gets bullied, which I wonder why. Do something, man. And Shark Boy and Lava Girl have appropriately as much character depth as you'd expect coming from the mind of a child. It's absurd in a way I do admire. And I should note that every word out of Lionus's mouth is comedy gold. It's definitely not a half star by any means, but this should be better. I I wish this was better. This one I can speak on. I was a big fan of the original BFG book as a kid. I remember finding it really disturbing and delightfully weird. So, when I heard Steven Spielberg was directing an adaptation, I was ready. But I vividly remember sitting in the theater going to see this as a teenager and being extremely disappointed by the whole thing. I actually felt embarrassed by the fact that I was sitting there watching it. That's that's a bad feeling to have. Why I felt the need to revisit this one specifically is I've started looking at Spielberg's work a bit closer since film school, and I've come to at the very least appreciate damn near everything I've seen from him. I was also just a lot less open-minded in high school, so maybe there's a chance this would work on me better now. It doesn't.

[00:06:14]It's I think this is just a bad movie.

[00:06:16]But I will say it's not the worst thing in the world. If the BFG is great at anything, the CGI is is pretty good. I don't know if after Alice in Wonderland and Shark Boy and Lava Girl, I'm just impressed at anything, but there is a level of detail to the CGI throughout.

[00:06:30]Not to mention, it's also quite vibrant at times. Spielberg does know how to make a pretty image. Go figure. Film is also generally pretty sweet and harmless. It's It's definitely a cozy watch, but maybe it's a little too cozy.

[00:06:41]Talk about melatonin in the form of a film. This is prime sleeping material.

[00:06:45]It is boring. Charming as it is, there's nothing particularly striking about anything here. Bilbert directs this competently, but not with his usual creative quirk that would fit right in with this story, it makes absolutely no sense to me why this is so stale. It doesn't help that the film moves at a glacial pace, which I have to assume is because there isn't much story here to begin with. But I'd argue, why are we why are we dragging it out? Why is this almost 2 hours long? Why can't this just be a tight 80minute adventure that's about as long as this has before getting stale? Basically, as soon as they end up in Buckingham Palace, an already slow movie comes to a grinding halt, and you really start to wonder why the movie is still happening at all. This all might seem a bit harsh for what is a cute and relatively harmless movie for families about a big friendly giant played by Mark Ryland, but coming from one of the greatest entertainers behind the camera, it's pretty shocking at how boring this movie is. A bit of a miss. One of the biggest mysteries here is 17 Again. 17 Again, if you didn't know, is a 2009 teen comedy about a former high school basketball star, now 37 years old, and hitting rock bottom, who miraculously becomes 17 Again. It stars Matthew Perry and Zack Efron in what are two iconic roles for the both of them. I saw it in theaters, watched it a lot as a kid, and for some reason had it at half a star on Letterbox. But instead of ignoring it and just updating to an appropriate rating, I thought maybe I was cooking. I remember this being one of my sister's favorite movies, and she has generally bad taste, so that's that's why we're here. Anyway, I rewatched it this week, remembering most of it, and it's fine.

[00:08:17]This movie is literally fine. Definitely a little weird, but fine. I watched a part of Big with Tom Hanks recently, too. A film that has a somewhat similar premise to this, but that somehow dodges every weird and dicey bullet that comes with its premise and walks away not sleazy or weird, but relatively sweet.

[00:08:33]17 again definitely gets away with what it's doing, but it's not I wouldn't call it sweet. It feels a lot weaker only because this guy is such a dumbass. I when I think of great teen comedies with fantasy elements like Back to the Future and Freaky Friday, these films tend to work really well because of how much I root for the kids. They're flawed but lovable. 17 again is funny because it's just some guy. It's certainly entertaining, but it's not something I feel much stronger about. It's fine. The truly exceptional part about this is Zack Efron in my opinion. I thought he was great. You can tell he's putting everything he has into this film, using it as a chance to expand out of High School Musical. And as we've seen by now, he does have the chops. All these years later, I'm just like, I wish we had more Zack Efron. I' I'd watch more of him. Now we're talking. I'd seen The Cat in the Hat a couple times before this rewatch, but not once throughout my childhood did I feel like I really understood what I had just seen. I never felt like I had a grasp on iconic production designer Bo Welch's one and only directorial effort, The Cat in the Hat. and re-watching it as an adult, I can see why that is. This is an insane movie. This is an adaptation of Dr. Seuss's beloved children's book of the same name. A book that didn't have much of a story to begin with, and neither does the movie, really. It's about a cat in a hat who shows up and wres havoc.

[00:09:47]Basically, as soon as Cat shows up, the film turns into one long montage. That's really all this is. For that reason, I find this film fascinating structurally, but I also just think it's one of the most unique movies I've ever seen. The fact that this is operating off of pure manic energy for basically an hour straight is crazy. That someone even thought to build a movie around the story and for the adaptation to be this is absolutely insane to me. Coming from Bo Welch, the production designer behind a lot of Tim Burton classics, this unsurprisingly looks absolutely phenomenal in the production design, made even better by the fact that it's Emanuel Lubetsky behind the camera shooting. I mean, Jesus. Not to mention Mike Myers is also going all out as the titular cat. Alec Baldwin is clearly having a lot of fun in this movie. The kids seem to be having fun. The runtime, I'd argue, is perfect. I can't be too mad at this movie. But it does suck that underneath all of this craftsmanship and humor and joy. Is a deeply annoying movie. A big shame that this all amounts to something that plays like a kid screaming in your ear for 80 minutes. For that reason, I can totally see why critics and audiences, but more specifically parents probably, despise this film. But it also makes sense why it has a small but passionate group of shooters who, like myself, are just kind of grateful it exists at all. Is it a good movie? No. I don't really want to watch it again at all. But there is something admirable about it from the outside. Certainly not a half-star movie by any means. Perhaps the film that's haunted me the most on this list has been Norah Efron's Julie and Julia, 2009 romcom about Julie Powell, an NYC blogger who decides to prepare all the recipes in Julia Child's cookbook, intertwined with Child's Own journey into becoming a culinary icon. For years, I've watched my friends log this film on Letterbox, giving it anywhere from three to five stars, talking about how sweet and nice and fun it is, while my ass just sat there with the half-star rating that I don't remember giving it.

[00:11:40]For some reason, growing up, I grew to resent this film. It looked too sweet and corny and lame for my taste as a kid. And for whatever reason, that was enough. It shouldn't even really belong in this video at all because I don't think I ever actually watched it. I was hating on the outside for years. I got to be the only guy that's ever had beef with Julie and Julia. So, I felt like I had to rewatch it. I felt like I needed to actually give this movie a chance.

[00:12:04]And now that I've seen it, uh, yeah, it's a it's literally a good movie. I don't think Julie and Julia is a perfect movie by any means. It's dragged down quite a bit by the Julie of it all, which is serviceable, but not nearly as interesting as the Julia stuff. That said, this is an extremely likable movie, which makes it even funnier that I have this at half a star. Where it succeeds, where a lot of other romcoms fall short and feel lame, is in how genuine and warm many of these relationships feel. Realistic, that's up for debate, but I do feel the connection between Julie and Eric. I certainly feel it between Julie and Paul, although that's really just Meryill Streep and Stanley Tucci. It is also a movie that consists mostly of nice stuff to look at. Good food, fun times, beautiful rooms, and really great Merryill Street performance. There's also an Alexander Despla score to tie it all together. It being from 2009, I hear so much fantastic Mr. Fox in this score. Some ideas are even a little copypaste if I'm going to be real, but that's fine by me.

[00:12:59]To put it simply, it's not easy to get something this naturally cozy on film and have it be compelling at the same time. But Julia and Julia somehow works.

[00:13:07]Movies like this used to make over a hundred million dollars, by the way. How does that make you feel? It is a bit long, sure, but I was incredibly charmed. Let's pretend the half star never happened. So, I do have my reasons for this. Hear me out. My history with Steven Soderberg's Contagion is I saw this on a first date in middle school.

[00:13:23]It was actually my first date ever. And me being completely clueless, not doing any research into the film beforehand, thought that this would be my opportunity to finally get my first kiss. Suffice to say, I didn't get a kiss. Not a kissable movie this one. the film about social distancing and no physical contact didn't really have a window for me to make my move. And that was enough of a reason for me to give this half a star on Letterboxed.

[00:13:45]Whenever I set up my account, that's what I went with. And I didn't think about it again until 2020 when everyone started logging this movie and talked about how scary but good it really was.

[00:13:55]Contagion, if you're unaware, is a movie about an airborne virus that spreads across the globe and sends everyone into panic. This is a really interesting movie, too. I mean, it's obviously the best thing here, given that it's the last film on this list. It's the only great movie on this list. Steven Soderberg is, after all, pretty reliable. But what was so interesting to me was the fact that it really does feel effortless. A combination of jumping between so many different characters, naturally keeping us invested that way.

[00:14:21]Paired with the fact that this situation feels eerily familiar to the CO 19 pandemic made this an uncomfortable reminder, certainly, but also a bit of a breeze to watch. Soderberg's expert attention to shot coverage and pace lends itself really well to something this mechanical and anxietyinducing.

[00:14:36]It's not as good, but it has a similar quality to Moneyball in its edit where if you sit down with the intent of just watching a couple scenes, you're going to end up finishing the film. It's just that riveting. The whole thing feels cold, isolating, and darkly surreal.

[00:14:49]It's amazing that Soderberg knew how to capture this moment so vividly. In general, it is just a little funny to me that one of the best films about the pandemic and the effect it had on society was made a full decade before it even happened. For that reason, I I kind of have to call this a pretty great movie. And well, that's it. I left out a few because I didn't want to be here all day. But if this goes over well, who knows? Maybe we can go back into the trenches for part two. If I learned anything through this challenge, it's that it's actually quite hard to find a genuine half-star movie. While I do think being critical of what we're watching is important and a very good thing, I also think it's funny enough worth opening your heart a little to films originally considered dumpster fires. Maybe there's something really beautiful about Shark Boy and Lava Girl at the center. Maybe The Cat in the Hat should be celebrated as one of the most unique children's films to come out of the studio system. Or maybe we were right all along. And Valiant really does just suck. Thanks for watching.

[00:15:41]Go watch your least favorite movies and form your new opinions. Thank you to the patrons for supporting the channel. And before you head out, I want to thank this week's sponsor, Squarespace, the all-in-one website platform for entrepreneurs to stand out and succeed online. With Squarespace's collection of cuttingedge design tools, anyone can build a bespoke online presence that perfectly fits their brand or business.

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