Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/919364
maltatoday SUNDAY 24 DECEMBER 2017 31 This Week worst films of 2017 THE WORST 5. Bright Sunshine In The French actress-director duo of Claire Denis and Juliette Binoche looked like a fantastic idea on paper. It's a pity, then, that this direction- less, ambling and rambling collage of a woman's latter-day romantic entanglements managed to feel both fluffy and deadweight. A missed opportunity by a highly talented team, and perhaps the only real dud to be screened at this year's – once again – brilliant Valletta Film Festival. 3. A Christmas Prince Well, there has to be at least one of these on the list. With Netflix emerg- ing as an industry game-changer even on the feature-length scene – over and above their rich selection of now internationally-available cat- alogue of TV shows – it's no surprise that the streaming service would want to capitalise on holiday cheer. With clunky dialogue and acting to match, 'A Christmas Prince' – in which an ambitious young reporter (Rose McIver) is sent to interview the flaky playboy prince (Ben Lamb) of the the invented Eastern European country of Aldovia, where every- one miraculously speaks in crisp British accents – is bound to become a "so bad it's good" favourite. 4. La La Land Damien Chazelle's follow-up to the brutal and thrilling jazz-mentor-vs-drumming-prodigy drama Whiplash made a lot of noise when it was mistakenly announced as this year's Best Picture winner at the Academy Awards thanks to envelope-based cock-up, with the honours ultimately going to the LGBT coming-of-age story Moonlight. But its showering of 14 nominations was enough of an abomination (and something of an embarrassment) already. This is a hokey, cynical movie masquer- ading as a poignant and humane one, and no amount of earnest emoting from its attractive leads can rise above the contrived artificiality of its existence. 2. Alien: Covenant Ridley Scott returns to direct the genre-defining sci-fi horror franchise that made his name and, once again, leads us all to ponder how maybe, just maybe, Alien (XXXX) might have been a fluke. A supreme waste of both cast and setting, this is a by-the-numbers schlock-thriller that runs the risk of actually undoing the greatness of the originals... which is saying a lot, considering the damage that the Scott-directed Prometheus (2013) and the not-Scott directed Alien: Resurrection (1997) have already done. 1. King Arthur: Legend of the Sword A King Arthur franchise (non)started directed by the British gangster-geezer rallying point Guy Ritchie was always going to be a hard sell, but the ensuing mess that resulted with his attempt to give an urban criminal twist to Arthurian myth (hint: the once and future king is a benevolent pimp, in this version) just collapses under its own weight. Though this is also down to the director juggling this multi-genre "epic" – it is also a fantasy movie in which Jude Law's throne-usurping profes- sional sneerer is something of a Saruman fig- ure – with the grace of a one-armed circus performer attempting to juggle hot coals. (Dis)honourable mentions: The Mummy, Valentine's Day (Netflix), Ghost in the Shell