Top 10: The best big flop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

1. We Need to Talk about Kevin (2011) - Lynne Ramsay

2. Anything Else (2003) - Woody Allen 

3. City Island (2009) - Raymond De Felitta

4. Braindead/Dead Alive (1992) - Peter Jackson

5. Dogville (2003) - Lars Von Trier

6. 54 (1998) - Mark Christopher

7. Children of Men (2006) - Alfonso Cuarón

8. The Devil's Backbone/El Espinoza del Diablo (2001) - Guillermo del Toro

9. Blade Runner (1982) - Ridley Scott 

10. 55 Days at Peking (1963) - Nicholas Ray, Guy Green, Andrew Marton

Other great big flop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date (in alphabetical order)

25th Hour (2002)
Albert Nobbs (2011) 
All Is Lost (2013) 
Amos & Andrew (1993) 
The Believer (2001) 
Bound (1996)
Dark Water (2005) 
Dazed and Confused (1993) 

Good big flop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date (in alphabetical order)

Art School Confidential (2006) 
Attack the Block (2011) 
The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans/Bad Lieutenant (2009) 
Catch-22 (1970) 
Celebrity (1998) 
Cimarron (1960) 
Collateral Damage (2002) 
The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001) 
Dinner for Schmucks/Dinner with Schmucks (2010) 
Il Divo/Il Divo - La Spettacolare Vita di Giulio Andreotti (2008)
Dogtooth/Κυνόδοντας (Kynodontas) (2009) 
Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (2010) 
Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995) 
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011) 
In Real Life/Det Andet Liv (2014) 
Maniac (2012) 
Melancholia (2011) 
Mesrine: Killer Instinct + Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1/Mesrine: L'Instinct de Mort + Mesrine: L'ennemi public n°1 (2008) 
Northwest/Nordvest (2013) 
The Paperboy (2012)
Rango (2011) 
The Sitter (2011) 
Thirteen Days (2000) 
Tusk (2014)
We Shall Overcome/Drømmen (2006) 

Mediocre or poor big flop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date (in alphabetical order)

15 Minutes (2001) 
16 Blocks (2006) 
A Dangerous Method (2011) 
A Home at the End of the World (2004) 
Arthur (2011) 
Bandidas (2006) 
Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) 
Deathwatch (2002) 
The Doom Generation (1995) 
Dreamcatcher (2003) 
Dreamgirls (2006) 
Dune (1984) 
The Frighteners (1996) 
Girl Most Likely/Imogene (2012) 
John Carter (2012) 
John Dies at the End (2012) 
The Mechanic (2011) 
Night of the Living Dead (1990) 
Promised Land (2012) 
Spider (2002) 

[63 titles in all]

Previous Top 10 lists:

The best action movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
The best adapted movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
The best adventure movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
The best B/W movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 
The best true story movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

What do you think of the list?
What big flop movies would be on your top 10? 

54 (1998) or, Disco, Baby, Yeah!

♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Music Movie of the Year + Best New York Movie of the Year + Best Period Movie of the Year

Glamorous poster for Mark Christopher's 54

QUICK REVIEW:

We are at New York's Studio 54 disco, and the 80s are right around the corner: A young dreamer from Jersey arrives and is lucky enough to get a job there; sex, drugs, some fame and lots of disco follow.

54 is an excellent guilty pleasure full of lovely young people: Ryan Phillippe (Flags of Our Fathers (2006)) is criminally hot here, and so is Salma Hayek (30 Rock (2009-13)). Neve Campbell (Scream 4 (2011)) does well, and Mike Myers (Wayne's World (1992)) is phenomenal here in his first dramatic movie role as the cynical, superficial impresario of the seemingly never-ending party.
The development of the story is pretty imperceptible, sometimes nearing banality, elegantly avoiding real crises.
54's original 93 min. cut appears as a celebration of Studio 54, disco and good parties. I ate it raw.
However, the film was envisioned quite differently by its writer-director Mark Christopher (Pizza (2005)), who was forced by Miramax to re-shoot and cut out several parts of his original vision, downgrading gay and sex scenes. A 105 min. director's cut, which includes 30 min. of footage that is not in the original cut, has since been released to acclaim. - I really want to see this version as well!
If you want to read more about how a bad test screening and the infamous Weinstein brothers took apart Christopher's original version, you can do so here.

 

Related post:

 

1998 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess  

Watch the infectious trailer for the film here

Cost: 13 mil. $
Box office: 16.7 mil. $ (US only)
= Big flop, with some uncertainty
[54 made a paltry 99k £ in the UK, which is the only foreign result I've been able to find. - It was a big flop. Had Miramax left it alone, it might have succeeded as a more risqué film, similar to Boogie Nights (1997). - We will never know now.]

What do you think of 54, original and director's cut, depending on what you've seen?