2 Movies Billy Bob Thornton Hates So Much He Can't Discuss Them

Although he's publicly criticized a few movies he was involved in, Billy Bob Thornton has a strong dislike for two films that he had no part in.

While it's not uncommon for an actor, filmmaker, or both to express their distaste for a project they weren't involved in, Thornton's opinion speaks to a larger issue he has with how Hollywood approaches stories that have a personal significance to him.

One movie he certainly didn't have a connection with is Michael Bay's Armageddon, which the Academy Award-winning screenwriter called a '2-hour piece of trash' that he only starred in to pay off debts from one of his divorces, despite being the highest-grossing film of 1998 and holding up as a peculiarly well-cast blockbuster best enjoyed with your brain turned off.

However, the story of All the Pretty Horses is an entirely different case, as Thornton poured his heart and soul into his directorial passion project, only to be thwarted by the notorious industry figure Harvey Weinstein, who mercilessly butchered the film, even though star Matt Damon and his friend Ben Affleck strongly believe that the original version is a masterpiece.

Thornton's disapproval stems in part from his roots, having been born and raised in Arkansas, a state that shares a border with Mississippi. He tends to dislike movies that fail to grasp the complexities of the Southern region, especially when they're titled after neighboring states, a sentiment he's previously expressed, mainly due to his concerns over the sensationalization of actual events.

'I sang in an R&B group, and a lot of my buddies were black,' he explained. 'I just hung around across the tracks a lot. I know the people well enough. Sometimes, I'll watch a Black filmmaker's movie and go, 'Naw, that's not it.' Mostly in terms of dialogue. And these things they make, like Ghosts of Mississippi or Mississippi Burning, are just ridiculous. I can't even discuss those.'

Ghosts of Mississippi, a 1996 courtroom drama directed by Rob Reiner, was based on the trial of Byron De La Beckwith, a white supremacist who was finally convicted of the murder of civil rights activist Medgar Evers in 1994, 30 years after two separate trials ended in hung juries, allowing him to walk free.

Similarly, Alan Parker's Mississippi Burning won an Oscar and earned six additional nominations, including 'Best Picture', 'Best Director', and 'Best Actor' for Gene Hackman, but was widely panned for its fictionalization and dramatization of the Ku Klux Klan's murder of three civil rights activists. Despite the differences in their reception, Thornton has made it clear that he despises them equally.