That's Easy: Buffalo 66

John Hawkins has a brief list of his least favorite movies of all time. His readers have added to it in the comments.

Mine’s easy: 1998’s Buffalo 66.

The weekend it premiered, my wife and I were in Phoenix to watch a couple of mutual friends get married. After the wedding was over, we had nothing to do that Saturday night, so we drove around looking for a movie. I had wanted to see Soldier, a Kurt Russell film written by the co-writer of Blade Runner and pitched as a quasi-sequel (it’s set in the same future). We missed the start of it, but Buffalo 66 was playing in an adjacent theater.

“Ebert gave it three stars“, I said, “how bad can it be?”

Longest two hours of our lives.

Good cast, playing dreadful characters, employing awful acting, and speaking terrible dialogue. And the film looked bleak, ugly and dank.

My rule now is, if Roger Ebert gives it three stars and it’s a mainstream Hollywood film, maybe. If Ebert gives it three stars and it’s a quirky independent film, or worse–a political documentary–forgetaboutit.