This might be painful for you, but it’s important to remember. Join us as we think back to 2011′s most forgettable flicks.

Battle: Los Angeles

Battle: Los Angeles shocked everyone when it enjoyed a surprisingly bigger opening than anyone expected. It actually started a trend of studios eager to buy anything that featured a science fiction plotline, no matter how flimsy. Though not a terrible movie (Michelle Rodriguez gets punched by an alien), it was just missing a certain ingredient and proved almost instantly forgettable. If memory serves, they kill the aliens with water or something.

The Green Hornet

Seth Rogen lost all that weight for nothing. It took a lot of effort to bring The Green Hornet to the screen, but sadly, most of that effort was spent wrangling the behind-the-scenes egos of director Michel Gondry and almost star Stephen Chow. Another obstacle the film faced was being overshadowed by the release of The Green Lantern. The name similarities only confused the baby, and The Green Hornet was asked to stop coming around so much.

The Rite

Anthony Hopkins versus demons should be a no-brainer hit. In 1993. However, he’s got too many crappy movies in his past for audiences to bother with this generic exorcism tale. Let’s just all rewatch that movie where he acts like a monkey.

2nd place was last week’s “can sex friends be best friends?” romantic comedy No Strings Attached, which got $13.6 million from audiences but didn’t ask for a big commitment or anything. The third place slot being filled by Jason Statham replacing busted carburetors  in The Mechanic, with$11.5 million.

More deliriously exciting box office numbers can be found at Box Office Mojo.

There’s no denying that Anthony Hopkins is talented. In fact, he’s arguably one of our greatest living actors. But when a career spans more than four decades, even the best and the brightest are bound to make some awful films. Will Hopkins latest film, The Rite, fall into that category? While we’ll have to wait and see, the January release date certainly doesn’t bode well. But if the film does prove to be a dud, it will be in good company. Actually, it will be in Bad Company. Here’s a look at nine of Anthony Hopkins‘ worst films.

RT = Rotten Tomatoes Fresh Rating

Freejack (1992) – RT = 17%

In Freejack, Hopkins plays a wealthy industrialist from the future. Of course, the film was made in 1992, and the future in question (the year 2009) is now the past, which is weird.

At any rate, in 2009, the rich pay to kidnap people from the past in order to steal their healthy bodies. If someone from the past escapes before they are harvested, they are known as a Freejack, and Mick Jagger is sent to hunt them down.

I wonder why this film bombed.

Meet Joe Black (1998) – RT = 50%

Spoiler alert: Meet Joe Black sucks. Not only that, but the original version is three hours long, which doesn’t help matters at all.

The plot involves a rich old man (Hopkins) giving the grim reaper (Joe Black) a tour of earth in exchange for a temporary reprieve from death, and the two go on a series of adventures involving corporate mergers and union disputes. How exciting.

The Wolfman (2010) – RT = 33%

While most of the films on this list are from the 1990′s, last years remake of The Wolfman proved that you’re never to old to make a really bad movie.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) – RT = 53%

In all fairness, Anthony Hopkins is only the narrator, so it’s hardly his fault that the film was awful. But even so, anyone who was associated with tarnishing this beloved children’s classic deserves to be publicly shamed.

Instinct (1999) – RT = 27%

Pairing Anthony Hopkins with Cuba Gooding Jr. is like covering a steak with ketchup. But that didn’t stop the producers of Instinct.

The plot involves a missing anthropologist (Hopkins) who resurfaces in Africa and kills a group of park rangers. As it turns out, Hopkins’ character has been living with gorillas during his absence, and only killed the rangers after they attacked his new ape friends. It’s like Gorillas in the Mist, but infinitely more stupid.

The Road to Wellville (1994) – RT = 44%

The Road to Wellville is fictionalized account of the life of John Harvey Kellogg, a nineteenth-century health nut with a penchant for enemas and nutritional supplements. I’m not a fan of the film, but based on what I just described, wouldn’t you have loved to have been in on the pitch meeting?

Kellogg went on to create Corn Flakes, and the film is about as exciting as that sounds. Also, it’s a comedy, so if you find breakfast cereal funny, you should definitely check it out.

Hannibal (2000) – RT = 39%

How do you follow Silence of the Lambs, the critically acclaimed psychological thriller that swept all-five of the major Academy Awards? You don’t. Actress Jodi Foster and director Jonathan Demme understood this, but apparently Anthony Hopkins didn’t get the memo. I’m assuming the producers gave Hopkins a dump truck full of money, because that’s the only way his involvement makes sense.

On its own, it’s not the worst film in the world. But given the fact that it’s the sequel to such an impressive film, it was probably doomed from the start.

Slipstream (2007) – RT = 23%

To be fair, Slipstream, a film written, directed by and starring Anthony Hopkins, has its defenders. Among them, film critic Roger Ebert, who called the film the most experimental of the year. But when the words “vanity project” keep popping up in other reviews, it’s definitely a bad sign.

Bad Company (2002) – RT = 10%

I love Chris Rock, but if he’s in a film, chances are it will suck. That’s science talking. Throw director Joel Schumacher and producer Jerry Bruckheimer into the mix, and you’ve got yourself a bona fide crap fest. You could have brought in the reanimated corpse of Laurence Olivier, and it still wouldn’t have saved Bad Company.

In the film, Hopkins plays a CIA agent who is put in charge of training a street hustler (Chris Rock) for a sensitive mission. What does the CIA need with a street hustler? As it happens, the hustler is the long-lost twin brother of a CIA agent (also played by Rock) who was killed in action, and the agency needs him as a stand in. Sound stupid? It is. And to make matters worse, the terrorism-heavy plot didn’t sit well with studio executives in the wake of the September 11th attacks, and the film was delayed for several months.

The trailer for The Rite looks like a fairly standard exorcism movie at first. It’s got a young priest, Anthony Hopkins as an old priest, freaky-deaky kids, and people getting hit by cars. Then, all of a sudden, the Vatican whips out Minority Report technology. How long have they had that and why don’t they share? Don’t they know how many missing children we could help locate using that technology? Unless…

Check out the trailer after the jump…

The Rite Trailer – Watch more Movie Trailers

(Apple)

Director: Mikael Hafstrom

Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Colin O’Donoghue, Alice Braga

Synopsis: An American priest travels to Italy to study at an exorcism school.

Release Date: January 28, 2011

It’s about to get projectile vomit-y in here!! In an apparent bid to recruit more kids to the priesthood, there are two new movies centering around exorcisms in the Hollywood pipeline. Priests are so hot right now. They’re the new vampires.

First up, Anthony Hopkins has signed on for the supernatural thriller The Rite. He’ll play a Vatican-sanctioned exorcist whose methods are untraditional. In other words, he’s a priest who doesn’t follow the rules. Good luck finding a volunteer to stay after Sunday School to bang out erasers with you. (THR)

The Hangover‘s Zach Galifianakis will portray an exorcist/slacker in Miracle Workers. The comedy tells the story of two friends who pose as exorcists until they encounter a truly malevolent evil. Shouldn’t be a problem for Zach. He worked with Mike Tyson and survived. A demon would only rape him half as much. (Dread Central)