Director Joel Schumacher's home-invasion drama stars two Oscar winners, Nicole Kidman and Nicolas Cage. So how bad could it be? Extremely. Signing up for a screenplay like this was an unfathomable choice, at least for Kidman. (Let's face it, the Cage rule is to make at least four bad films for every good one.) "I just feel like there had to have been Soviet blackmailers involved," my local video-store clerk said as he handed over the DVD of Trespass, released less than a month after its video-on-demand/theatrical rollout. Kidman is the neglected wife, Cage a diamond broker who secretly mortgaged their home to the hilt. Her performance is wan and his is cold, even when they're clinging together on the floor, awaiting death. The home invaders are familiar types: a hunk, a jittery stripper and a slavering muscleman whose principal duty is to up the rape-fear factor. It's all titillation, though; these yahoos aren't remotely scary. I never thought I'd say this, but here is a movie that made me look back fondly on both versions of Michael Haneke's Funny Games, in which at least the brutality was honest and the threats vivid.
The Top 10 Everything of 2011
- Top 10 Albums
- Top 10 Animal Stories
- Top 10 Apologies
- Top 10 Business Blunders
- Top 10 Buzzwords
- Top 10 Comebacks
- Top 10 Consumer-Spending Trends
- Top 10 Crime Stories
- Top 10 Campaign-Debate Moments
- Top 10 Best Fashion Moments
- Top 10 Worst Fashion Moments
- Top 10 Feuds
- Top 10 Fiction Books
- Top 10 Fleeting Celebrities
- Top 10 Food Trends
- Top 10 Gadgets
- Top 10 Green Trends
- Top 10 Marriage Stories
- Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs
- Top 10 Memes
- Top 10 Movie Performances
- Top 10 Worst Movies
- Top 10 Best Movies
- Top 10 New Findings in Parenting
- Top 10 New Species
- Top 10 Nonfiction Books
- Top 10 Numbers
- Top 10 Oddball-News Stories
- Top 10 Overreported Stories
- Top 10 People Not Running for President
- Top 10 Plays and Musicals
- Top 10 Political Gaffes
- Top 10 Protest Signs
- Top 10 Quotes
- Top 10 Religion Stories
- Top 10 Ridiculously Obvious Study Findings
- Top 10 Scandals
- Top 10 Smart-Phone Apps
- Top 10 Songs
- Top 10 Space Moments
- Top 10 Sports Moments
- Top 10 Toys
- Top 10 TV Ads
- Top 10 TV Episodes
- Top 10 TV Series
- Top 10 Best Tweets
- Top 10 Worst Tweets
- Top 10 U.S.-News Stories
- Top 10 Underreported Stories
- Top 10 Video Games
- Top 10 Creative Videos
- Top 10 Viral Videos
- Top 10 World-News Stories
- Top 10 Photos of the Year
In 54 wide-ranging lists, TIME surveys the highs and lows, the good and the bad, of the past 12 months