A Wry Salute to Last Year’s Stinkers

Enough with the Ten Best Lists and all the awards. How about some acknowledgement of the movies that left us holding our noses as we left the theater last year (or, more likely, that most of us actively avoided, thanks to trailers and TV ads that played more like alarm bells than promotional fare)?

Enter “Ebert & Roeper,” which devotes this week’s half-hour installment (6:30 p.m. Sunday, KABC) to the worst films of 2001.

Remember “Down to Earth,” with Chris Rock? Or “Joe Dirt,” with David Spade? What about “Town & Country,” with Warren Beatty, Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton and Garry Shandling?

These three and about a dozen more make the lists of critics Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper. The choices are all safe and predictable, leaving nothing for the pair to quibble about, except in the case of “3000 Miles to Graceland,” for which Roeper expresses mild regard despite Ebert’s trashing.

The mandate at work here is simply to have fun; viewers interested in analysis of why a film didn’t work will have to look elsewhere. The criticism doesn’t go much beyond wisecracks, with most of the blame being doled out to the performers rather than to writers, directors, producers or studio executives. Of the star of “Corky Romano,” Roeper says, “There are 10,000 guys working at Kinkos and they’re all funnier than Chris Kattan.” And “Domestic Disturbance” prompts him to liken John Travolta’s ability to find bombs in which to appear to “a German shepherd on high alert.”

But if the commentary lacks incisiveness, the film clips do not. When it comes to describing shortcomings, they speak eloquently.

They’re short, though, so you won’t leave holding your nose.