15 Worst Movies Filmed in Oregon
Kristi Turnquist | The Oregonian/OregonLive Kristi Turnquist The Oregonian www.facebook.com kristi.turnquist
Plenty of memorable movies have filmed in Oregon, but we've seen our share of stinkers, too. Here are 15 that were either disappointing, considering the talent involved, or doomed from the start (Madonna, we're looking at you.)
/pf/resources/images/oregonlive/favicon.ico?d=1375
oregonlive
The Oregonian/File

15 Worst Movies Filmed in Oregon: By Kristi Turnquist, Oregonian/OregonLive

Plenty of memorable movies have filmed in Oregon, but we've seen our share of stinkers, too. Here are 15 that were either disappointing, considering the talent involved, or doomed from the start (Madonna, we're looking at you.)

15. Rooster Cogburn (1975)

John Wayne revisited his Oscar-winning "True Grit" role, and Katharine Hepburn co-starred. Filming included locations in Bend and Grants Pass. So why wasn't "Rooster Cogburn" better? Film critic Roger Ebert wrote that Wayne and Hepburn are great stars, and "Just to see them on the screen is to remember dozens of roles, many of them great, that shaped them almost into elemental forces. The problem with 'Rooster Cogburn' is that those memories become mostly painful. We remember Hepburn in 'The African Queen' and Wayne in 'True Grit' (1969), and then we've got to watch the actors themselves conspire in a ripoff of some of their finest moments."

14. Paint Your Wagon (1969)

The movie version of the Broadway musical filmed in Baker (now called Baker City) back in the '60s, and many a colorful tale's been told about the chaos behind the scenes. The location was near "a hippie camp," Turner Classic Movies reports, "which gave the production a cheap source of longhaired extras." Lee Marvin sang (!) and Clint Eastwood and Jean Seberg costarred in a big-money, lugubrious Gold Rush-era Western. As the TCM entry says, reviews were "decidedly negative."

13. The River Wild (1994)

Meryl Streep played an action heroine in this thriller that combined whitewater rafting, marital discord and bad guys. Filming locations included Grants Pass. Again, critics weren't impressed. The Entertainment Weekly review said, "it's a cheesy, dawdling, plot-hole-riddled thriller. Compared with this one, a truly ingenious pulse-pounder such as Speed begins to look like Shakespeare."

12. Feast of Love (2007)

The adaptation of Charles Baxter's novel had a fine cast (Morgan Freeman, Greg Kinnear, Stana Katic) but the stories of various characters falling in and out of love didn't add up to much. The New York Times review called it "a hollow contrivance masquerading as a wise and witty contemporary gloss on 'A Midsummer Night's Dream.'" Portland locations included Reed College and the Fresh Pot coffee shop on North Mississippi Avenue.

11. Extraordinary Measures (2010)

Brendan Fraser, Harrison Ford and Keri Russell starred in this drama about a father desperate to find a cure when his children are stricken with a grave disease, and the scientist who may have found a life-saving drug. The Salon review said the movie was "about as dramatically taut as your garden-variety board meeting." The Hollywood Reporter review said, "the picture is dragged down by too many turgid confrontations and predictable epiphanies."Locations included Portland, Manzanita, Estacada, and St. Paul.

10. Assassins (1995)

Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Banderas played competing hitmen in a drama directed by Richard Donner. The Entertainment Weekly review said the movie "has a few suspenseful confrontations, but to get to them you have to wade through countless scenes of monosyllabic brooding, all shot in the kind of elegantly sterile beige and slate tones that suggest someone’s half-baked idea of a 'minimalist' thriller." The film shot in Washington, Puerto Rico and Portland.

9. The Hunted (2003)

Benicio Del Toro and Tommy Lee Jones starred in a thriller about a homicidal veteran hiding out in the Oregon woods, and the crusty FBI man who's on his trail. Entertainment Weekly called the movie "derivative and unintentionally funny," adding "at least the leafy Oregon locations are pretty." The movie filmed in Portland (including the Hawthorne Bridge), Oregon City, and Salem, among others.

8. Love at Large (1990)

Alan Rudolph directed this modern noir/comedy/muddle about private detectives investigating who's cheating on who, and so on. Tom Berenger, Elizabeth Perkins and Anne Archer starred and Neil Young also turned up. Roger Ebert wrote, "Alan Rudolph has made movies like this before. The difference is, I've liked them before," adding "'Love at Large' doesn't work, but at least it doesn't fail because it's safe and predictable." Locations included Portland and Bend.

7. The Postman (1997)

Kevin Costner didn't repeat rgw directing/starring success of "Dancing with Wolves" with this post-apocalyptic flop. It's set in the then-future of 2013, after a catastrophe has wiped out signs of civilization and militias prey on survivors. Costner plays a guy who comes across the uniform of a U.S. Postal Service worker and raises hope government has been restored. Kenneth Turan wrote in the L.A. Times that the movie is "goofy and gee-whiz when it isn't being post-apocalyptic glum." Locations included Central Oregon.

6. Swordfish (2001)

John Travolta, Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry starred in this crime/heist flick, which opened to terrible reviews. The New York times wrote, "the dominant tone masquerading as humor is a snide, rancid nihilism devoid of laughs, unless wholesale destruction and gloating stupidity are what tickle your funny bone." The movie shot some sequences in Redmond and other Central Oregon locations.

5. Dr. Giggles (1992)

Larry Drake ("L.A. Law") played a disturbed man who escapes from a mental institution, and starts killing people in this horror flick with touches of black comedy. The New York Times' Vincent Canby wrote "the screenplay is stitched together from variations on cliches used by or about the medical community. As the mad doctor removes a bullet from his own stomach, he chortles, 'Physician, heal thyself.'" The movie filmed mostly in Portland.

4. How to Beat the High Cost of Living (1980)

Jane Curtin, Susan Saint James and Jessica Lange starred in this supposedly wacky comedy about three suburban women in Eugene who feel the inflation heat and so short of money they decide to steal a bunch of cash from a mall. The New York Times review called it "a feeble housefly of a comedy" that "moves around erratically but it never goes anyplace." Locations included Eugene and the Valley River Center mall.

3. Frozen Assets (1992)

Corbin Bernsen and Shelley Long were trying to make a go of an Oregon sperm bank in this comedy, which received horrible reviews. Roger Ebert wrote: "I felt like I was an eyewitness to a disaster. If I had been an actor in the film, I would have wondered why all the characters in this movie seem dumber than the average roadkill... This is a movie to watch in appalled silence. To call it the year's worst would be a kindness." Locations included Portland and the Columbia Gorge.

2. The Temp (1993)

Timothy Hutton, Faye Dunaway and Lara Flynn Boyle starred in this thriller about cookie company executives and an evil temp worker. I am not making this up. Variety's review said the movie was "moronic, derivative, artificial and pointless." The movie filmed in Portland and on the North Coast.

1. Body of Evidence (1993)

And here's the worst of the bunch, Madonna playing a Portland gallery-owner who's accused of murder after her much-older lover expires after one of their S&M bedroom bouts. Willem Dafoe plays Madonna's defense lawyer. He has kinky sex with her, too. Entertainment Weekly's review called this "A preposterous erotic thriller from the 'Basic Instinct' fingernails-ripped-my-flesh school, 'Body of Evidence' is shamelessly — and, on occasion, amusingly — unadulterated trash." The movie filmed in Portland, to our everlasting shame.

25 Best Movies Filmed in Oregon