Top 10: Best 'flop' rank movies

 

1. Donnie Darko (2001) - Richard Kelly

 

 

2. Let the Fire Burn (2013, documentary) - Jason Osder 

 

3. Citizen Kane (1941) - Orson Welles

 

 

4. Stan & Ollie (2018) - Jon S. Baird

 

 

5. The Great Beauty/La Grande Bellezza (2013) - Paolo Sorrentino  

6. Somewhere (2010) - Sofia Coppola

 

 

7. Black Snake Moan (2006) - Craig Brewer

 

 

8. Embrace of the Serpent/El Abrazo de la Serpiente (2015) - Ciro Guerra  

 

9. Far from Heaven (2002) - Todd Haynes

10. I Saw the Devil/악마를 보았다/惡魔를 보았다 (Agmareul boatda) (2010) - Kim Jee-Woon

Selected from 98 reviews labeled 'flop'

 

Previous Top 10 lists:

Best action movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best adapted movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best adventure movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best big flop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best B/W movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best true story movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best big hit movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best biopic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best 'box office success' movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best car chases in movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best comedies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best cop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date        
Best crime movies reviewed by Film Excess to date         
Best debut movies reviewed by Film Excess to date     
Best Danish movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best Disney movies reviewed by Film Excess to date     
Best documentaries reviewed by Film Excess to date  
Best dramas reviewed by Film Excess to date  
Best drama-thrillers reviewed by Film Excess to date 
Best dramedies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Best drug-themed movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Best UK movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Best epic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date  

Best erotic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Best family movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Best fantasy movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Best films about filmmaking 

Best first-of-franchise movies

What do you think of the list?
Which flop movies would make your personal Top 10?

I Saw the Devil/악마를 보았다/惡魔를 보았다 (Agmareul boatda) (2010) or, Cat and Mouse - Korean Style

♥♥♥♥♥

3 Film Excess nominations:

Best Cinematography:  Mo-gae Lee (lost to Wally Phister for Inception)
Best Practical Effects (lost to Inception)
Best Music: Mowg (lost to Treme S1)

+ Best Korean Movie of the Year
+ Best Revenge movie of the Year
+ Most Violent Movie of the Year

A cool, minimalistic poster for Kim Jee-Woon's I Saw the Devil

A strong intelligence agent's girlfriend gets coincidentally murdered and dismembered by a merciless serial killer who drives a school van. The agent consequently takes two weeks off work to hunt and inflict a comparable pain upon the guilty man.

I find it really wild that it is possible in South Korea to find the money to make as big, ambitious and crazy a film as I Saw the Devil. SPOILER The maddest thing about it, from a Western standpoint at least, must be that it is initially quite hard to sympathize with its hero, because he lets the serial killer go again and again, so that more innocents are beat up, killed and/or raped, just so he can capture and maim the lunatic some more. Crazy is also the enormous amount of violent and explicit sufferings depicted, which makes I Saw the Devil an almost sadistic film to watch for some, but as a connoisseur in film violence I have to compliment the filmmakers for their achievement in this arena of suffering. I Saw the Devil is a runaway train of gasping, writhing, looking away and whooping for audiences that can take it.
The film doesn't shy away from the local predilection for the melodramatic, and certain plot details hardly make sense, but then the film clearly aims for the operatic and super-realistic, meaning that which transgresses the boundaries of 'realism', which makes the criticism a mute point. Byung-hun Lee (The Magnificent Seven (2016)) is bad-ass as the grieving hero, and Min-sik Choi (Oldboy (2003)) is extremely menacing and out of control as the terrorizing mass-murderer villain. 
The score, by Mowg (The Last Stand (2013)), is outstanding, highlighting the stampede-like feel of the blood hunt. The film's action scenes are carried out supremely; the violence is extreme and will be too much for many. The cinematography, by Mo-gae Lee (The Good, the Bad, the Weird/Joheunnom Nabbeunnom Isanghannom (2008)) is detail-oriented, full of surplus and ingenuity, very strong work.
The film is written by Hoon-jung Park (The Unjust/Boo-dang-geo-rae (2010)) and directed by Kim Jee-Woon (A Bittersweet Life/Dalkomhan Insaeng (2005)). It is one of the most exciting and singular cinema experiences.

Related posts:

Kim Jee-Woon:  2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
The Last Stand (2013) - Arnold's great comeback

Watch a clip for the film here

Cost: 6 mil. $
Box office: 12.7 mil. $
= Flop
[I Saw the Devil was released August 12 and runs 144 minutes. It was only allowed release in its native South Korea after 7 cuts of 80-90 seconds of material were made. It opened #61 in just 2 theaters to a 13k $ first weekend in North America, where it peaked in 15 theaters and grossed a paltry 129k $ (1 % of the total gross). The film made the vast majority of its gross at home in South Korea: 12 mil. $ (94.5 %). And most of the rest in Japan with 0.5 mil. $ there (3.9 %). The film has inspired an unofficial 2014 Bollywood remake. I Saw the Devil is certified fresh at 80 % with a 7.2 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of I Saw the Devil?