Early year moviegoing can be excruciating. Besides playing catch-up in January with the previous year's awards bait, there usually isn't much reason to go to the theater until well after the end of flu season.

In an effort to get the full perspective on a given movie year, I always try to watch some of the early year garbage. And thanks to Hastings' free movie rentals last Sunday, I was able to check out a slew of early 2015's cinematic highlights. In the case of most of these titles, "free" was definitely the right price.

Mortdecai

I appreciate the audacity of this Johnny Depp caper. It's really going for a specific, crazy comic tone. Too bad none of it works. The film is like a "Pink Panther" rip-off where the audience is expected to admire a doofus character like we've known him from previous films. It's just another off-the-wall Depp caricature masquerading as a performance. Grade: D+

50 Shades of Grey

An insufferable slog of a movie, and not even remotely as sexy or scandalous as advertised. It's an aimless story about two unrealistic characters engaging in a preposterous series of non-events. There's going to be two more of these?!? Grade: D-

Blackhat

Chris "Thor" Hemsworth plays the hunkiest computer hacker on the planet in this meandering thriller from Michael Mann ("Heat"). Mann is an exciting filmmaker when he's backed by a decent script. This story is a mess, so Mann overcompensates by indulging in his worst visual habits. Grade: C

Hot Tub Time Machine 2

John Cusack has appeared in a lot of lousy straight-to-video thrillers lately. Still, Cusack had the good sense to pass on this too-late sequel to the surprisingly funny 2010 film. Funny people are squandered in this mean-spirited, lazy rehash. Grade: C-

Taken 3

The final installment in a franchise that probably shouldn't have been a franchise. Liam Neeson is framed for murder and running from the law - preventing him from beating the snot out of bad guys for too much of the film's runtime. The story is preposterous (not in a fun way), and the action is shot with a herky-jerky lack of confidence. "Mad Max: Fury Road" should be required viewing before any director works on a Hollywood action movie. "Taken 3" Grade: C

The Wedding Ringer

Kevin Hart is hilarious. His movies are terrible. Here's another dog - a bromance movie about a friendless groom and his for-hire best man. This is the most preposterous fantasy film of Josh Gad's career, and that's including the one where he plays a singing snowman. Grade: C-

Paddington

I turned on this talking bear movie for the kids expecting it to be on the level of those "Air Bud" talking dog movies. "Paddington," however, is a lovingly told and engaging kids adventure that doesn't assault parents with obnoxious voices or fart jokes. It's British and way better than, say, that live-action "Yogi Bear" movie made by us, the ugly Americans. Grade: B+

Regarding Disney's Matterhorn movie

In last week's column, I pitched my ideas for big budget movie franchises based on Disney theme-park attractions. I imagined a scenario for a Matterhorn-themed movie, but I failed to mention the existing Walt Disney production that inspired the ride.

A reader pointed me to the 1959 film "Third Man on the Mountain," about a Swiss climber taking on the famed peak. The film's production was also featured in an episode of "Walt Disney Presents."

Disney made another "Witch Mountain" movie with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, so a remake of this seems inevitable. Enjoy the original before it's ruined by a CGI yeti.

Tyler Wilson can be reached at [email protected].