My History with Cruel World (2005)

One of my dad’s favourite past times is going to yard sales.  He likes the thrill of hunting for cheap, second-hand goods of any and all kinds.  I don’t share that love, but I do appreciate some of the things that we end up with.  The reason that there is a Playstation 3 in this house is yard sales.  We’ve had an uncountable number of lawnmowers, bicycles, and small tractors from yard sales.  We have even had a baseball pitching machine because my dad got it for cheap.  Obviously, since this the Sunday “Bad” Movie post for this week, I end up with a lot of movies that were purchased for a minimum amount of money as well.

About two years ago, my dad came home with a DVD containing four horror films.  He bought it for a dollar thinking that I would like the movies.  The movies included Night of the Living Dead (which I have about five copies of, since it’s included in so many sets), Razor Eaters, Hindsight, and this week’s movie, Cruel World.  I thought I might be interested in the movies as well.  I mean, I’ll watch almost anything, and I do like horror films.  This set seemed like a set that I would feel fine watching.  The time of actually opening the set would come in October 2011, during a horror film binge that I had.  I decided that the movie I would watch was going to be Cruel World.

The reasons that I chose to watch Cruel World before any of the other movies in the set are still clear in my mind.  The first and easiest to describe is the fact that I own the movie.  That’s the easiest access you can possibly have to a movie.  If you own it, you don’t need to search too hard to find it.  You know where it is stored.  It’s right there for you to watch.  The second reason that I chose to watch Cruel World was the two cast members who were advertised.  It stars Edward Furlong, who I knew from things like American History X and Terminator 2: Judgement Day.  I had never had any real problems with him in what I knew him from.  The other person that I knew was in Cruel World was Jaime Pressly, who I had seen in DOA: Dead or Alive and My Name is Earl.  I enjoyed My Name is Earl.  Both of them, to me at least, seemed somewhat promising.  The third reason that I initially watched Cruel World was the premise.  The movie is about a reality show in which the contestants are killed off when they are eliminated.  The premise itself sounded entertaining, and I could imagine it being a great film if done in the right way.  I still stand by that.  If someone were to take the premise and craft it in the right way, it would make for a great horror flick.  Dead Set succeeded in doing something similar, though not exactly the same in terms of a premise.  Cruel World did not succeed.  Cruel World is an hour and a half of wasted potential.

Now, I’m the kind of guy who will give a movie some extra credit if it has potential.  If the story seems like it could make for a good movie, but it happened to be in the wrong director’s hands, I will be more positive about a movie.  Movies are supposed to be about story and character.  Having a story that could be made into a good movie is better than a bad movie with a bad story or no story at all.  The story of Cruel World is a bad story, and it’s a bad movie, so it doesn’t get the positivity from me on that front.  The potential of the concept is there, but what I saw on the screen was terrible.  The acting was terrible.  The cinematography was terrible.  The story and direction were terrible.  Everything about Cruel World was terrible, and it hurt because I thought the idea could have so much potential to make for a captivating horror tale.

Cruel World ended up being my least favourite movie that I watched in 2011.  Let me specify, movie that I watched, not movie that was released.  Cruel World is a 2005 movie.  I hated the movie before I rewatched it for this post, and I still feel the same way after having seen it again.  The only thing that I really feel different about is the acting.  Most of it isn’t bad.  It’s only the two villains of Cruel World that give horrendous performances.  If it weren’t for those two actors, I might have felt better about the movie.  Without the two of them, I might even say that Cruel World is a watchable movie (for people who aren’t me).

Over the two years since my first watch of Cruel World, I had doubts about my distaste for the movie.  There was no way that it could possibly be as bad as my memory was telling me.  I had to have been overreacting to not liking the movie.  After seeing it again, I know that I was initially correct.  This is a terrible movie that I plan on never watching again.  I hope that you plan on never watching it as well, because it would be a waste of an hour and a half of your life.

There are a few notes that I would like to make before ending this post:

• If you have any suggestions for future Sunday “Bad” Movies, feel free to leave a comment below or message me on Twitter.  I do read the comments, and I do use that Twitter account, so I will see your suggestions.  You can also leave any questions about the Sunday "Bad" Movies there.
• Jaime Pressly was in two previous movies in the Sunday “Bad” Movies posts.  Those two movies were The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure and Torque.