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You Can’t Please Everyone: Negative Reviews Of Some Of The Best Loved Films In Cinema History

Oliver lyttelton.

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As you may have noticed, the review embargo on “ The Dark Knight Rises ” broke yesterday, and the word, including that from our own Todd Gilchrist , is mostly good. We say mostly, because as with most films, there are objections from a few reviews — Christy Lemire from the Associated Press , Marshall Fine at Hollywood & Fine , Christopher Tookey at the Daily Mail , Devin Faraci at Bad Ass Digest — coming in on the negative side of the fence. And as has become increasingly common in the last few years — particularly with Christopher Nolan ‘s films,  Pixar  movies, and even “ The Avengers ” — the fans are in uproar at the sheer concept that reviewers dare give a negative notice to “The Dark Knight Rises” (regardless of the fact that these fans haven’t yet seen the film for themselves).

Comment sections have been deluged with idiot children Bat-fans, not just angry about negative reviews, but merely “good” ones — Playlist contributor James Rocchi has attracted ire for his 3/5 take on the film over at Movies.com . With chatter around ‘Rises’ only to increase in the next few days, we thought it seemed like a good time to remind everyone: everything gets a bad review at some point.

Some films are more divisive than others, and there were a few films — “ Singin’ In The Rain ,” “ Seven Samurai ,” “ North By Northwest ,” “ The Godfather ” — that we couldn’t find bad reviews from serious critics for. But generally speaking, there’s an always an outlier, and we’ve collected reviews from the releases of ten of the most beloved and acclaimed releases in history to prove our point. That’s not to say that the reviews below are wrong — most make their points well, and some are positively insightful. The fanboy trend of being unable to let any criticism pass is an insidious one: you should seek to challenge your views on a film, not shout down people for pointing out any possible flaws.

But for those who say they don’t listen to critics, we’ve also grabbed some excerpts of user reviews from the IMDB boards, to again show that opinion isn’t a black and white thing. And also because they’re funny. Read on for more, and feel free to speak up in the comments section and let us know what movies have set you against the critical grain.

“Citizen Kane” “The picture is very exciting to anyone who gets excited about how things are done in the movies… and in these things there is no doubt the picture is dramatic. But what goes on between the dramatic high points, the story? No. What goes on is talk and more talk. And while the stage may stand for this, the movies don’t.” – Otis Ferguson, The New Republic

“I watch movies constantly, an i rarely see movies that i have troubles watching all the way through. For one of my classes at school, i needed to watch afi’s top 10 movies. This movie was ranked at number one and I have no idea why. This movie was so boring I had to watch it several times because i kept falling asleep and missing certain parts. Fine, it was clever having Rosebud, and the importance of youth, but i felt that this is an example of a movie, that could be told in about 5 minutes, rather than stretching it out into one of the longest and most boring movies that i have ever seen. Now, i was also shocked at the acting. i generally find that acting supports a relatively weak script, however in this movie’s case, i felt that the relatively weak script was supporting the awful acting. i personally was not very impressed with the acting strictly because the reactions felt very forced and everything was very overdone. all in all i was not impressed at all with this film, regardless of past ratings.” – tennisislife67, IMDB

“The Godfather Part II” ‘The Godfather, Part II’… is not very far along before one realizes that it hasn’t anything more to say. Everything of any interest was thoroughly covered in the original film, but like many people who have nothing to say, ‘Part II’ won’t shut up… Even if ‘Part II’ were a lot more cohesive, revealing and exciting than it is, it probably would have run the risk of appearing to be the self-parody it now seems. Looking very expensive but spiritually desperate, ‘Part II’ has the air of a very long, very elaborate revue sketch. Nothing is sacred… Mr. Pacino, so fine the first time out, goes through the film looking glum, sighing wearily as he orders the execution of an old associate or a brother, winding up very lonely and powerful, which is just about the way he wound up before. Mr. De Niro, one of our best young actors, is interesting as the young Vito until, toward the end of his section of the film, he starts giving a nightclub imitation of Mr. Brando’s elderly Vito.” – Vincent Canby, New York Times

I really don’t understand the obsession with the Godfather trilogy, brought up with society around me proclaiming it to be a classic I rented the first and found it just bearable! Determined on my task of watching all three I rented the second, I barely made it through, i found the storyline confusing and didn’t see any of the quotes used in ‘You’ve got Mail’! Please don’t think that the only films I watch are chick flicks, I do like more serious, older films but … oh dear… maybe I just can’t relate to Italian mafia families, I must have wiped this film from my mind as I can hardly remember the storyline! I do not which to be stereotypical but maybe this really is a film for men! Please tell me there are other people out there who feel this way about these films! I can’t understand how they always get to the top of ‘Great film Lists’! If asked by a friend whether to watch this film I would say no, unless I wanted to punish them! P.S I still haven’t watched number three!!  – laura5578, IMDB

“Casablanca” “The love story that takes us from time to time into the past is horribly wooden, and clichés everywhere lower the tension.” — William Whitebait, The New Statesman

“So I finally got around to watching Casablanca, one of the greatest movies ever made, or so I’ve always heard. Does it live up to its hype? In a word, no. It was maudlin and melodramatic; Ingrid Bergman was homely, no matter how many softening effects were used in the close-ups of her face (did a rodent gnaw off the sides of her nose? To say nothing of that masculine jawbone and those underdeveloped lips…); Humphrey Bogart was about as slick and charismatic as the Hunchback of Notre-Dame; and the story was undisguised war propaganda. One would have to have the mental age of 5 to think this movie was in any way great. Watchable, yes, but not great, and certainly not deserving of being on the IMDb top 250. The movie was fast-paced, which was both good and bad: good because it would’ve been unbearable to watch otherwise, and bad because it didn’t give the viewer time to get attached to any of the characters (which is just as well, since as I’ve said, it was war propaganda and so the less effective, the better). – le_chiffre-1 , IMDB

“Raging Bull” “Robert De Niro is one of the most repugnant and unlikeable screen protagonists in some time… the director excels at whipping up an emotional storm, but seems unaware that there is any need for quieter, more introspective scenes in drama… the scenes it does choose to show are almost perversely chosen to alienate the audience – Joseph McBride, Variety

Oh my is this film terrible. I really wanted to like this film, honest; in fact, I bought it before actually seeing it. Seriously though, this film is grossly pregnant; there is nothing there; it’s fluff; get it? Forgebodit!! Boxing movies are stupid enough as is, next to football flicks of course. However, I thought, “Well it’s a Scorsese flick, he’ll do something meaningful.” Nope!!! Just a bunch of swearing, violent, irrational, testosterone-junkie wops walking around beating their women saying forgebodit. Peachy, let me tell ya; in fact, I want my time back, dig. This film is boring, redundant, annoying, and meaningless. The cinematography is somewhat sharp, but then again, somewhat sharp is just dull. One last thing, just because a film is black/white does not make it art…K?…K. – Kevin Cordia, IMDB

“Lawrence Of Arabia” “It is such a laboriously large conveyance of eye-filling outdoor spectacle—such as brilliant display of endless desert and camels and Arabs and sheiks and skirmishes with Turks and explosions and arguments with British military men—that the possibly human, moving T. E. Lawrence is lost in it. We know little more about this strange man when it is over than we did when it begins… The fault seems to lie, first in the concept of telling the story of this self-tortured man against a background of action that has the characteristic of a mammoth Western film. The nature of Lawrence cannot be captured in grand Super-Panavision shots of sunrise on the desert or in scenes of him arguing with a shrewd old British general in a massive Moorish hall… The fault is also in the lengthy but surprisingly lusterless dialogue of Robert Bolt’s over-written screenplay. Seldom has so little been said in so many words… sadly, this bold Sam Spiegel picture lacks the personal magnetism, the haunting strain of mysticism and poetry that we’ve been thinking all these years would be dominant when a film about Lawrence the mystic and the poet was made. It reduces a legendary figure to conventional movie-hero size amidst magnificent and exotic scenery but a conventional lot of action-film cliches. – Bosley Crowther, The New York Times

The first thing I’m looking for in a movie is “historical accuracy”.Since the movie takes its name from the leading character Lawrence let me ask you a question to those who casted a top-ten vote for this movie?Do you really know how Lawrence looked like?Six foot two inch Peter O’Toole differed strikingly with the real Lawrence, who was almost nine inches shorter.Lawrence was not a gung-ho drama queen who lead a nation to freedom.Most scenes such as the attack on Aqaba were heavily fictionalized from the writings of Lawrence.You can easily question how much he is reliable.Lawrence mentions in his Seven Pillars of Wisdom that he was raped by the Turkish Bey which was called into question by the historians.(Check out the article : Lawrence of Arabia ‘made up’ sex attack by Turk troops By Elizabeth Day) Not only most scenes are heavily fictionalized but some characters are a bunch of fiction too like Sheriff Ali,Mr. Dryden and Colonel Brighton. The movie neither tells you anything from the Turkish point point of view nor does it tell anything about the real Arab points. Yes it’s a well-know truth that the Arabs were tricked into fighting against the Turks by the British and they have been paying the price by being belittled by the westerners for centuries.But the movie shows us only a bunch of Bedouin tribes which are desert dwelling nomadic people. Not every Arab is (and was)a Bedouin. The historians say that the real Lawrence actually shunned the limelight, as evidenced by his attempts after the war to hide under various assumed names but the British officers certainly did not the find the attack outrageous since the Great(!) British Empire can finally be positioned at a table with the French to take care of the rest of the Turkish empire.And according to Wikipedia the film’s portrayal of General Allenby as a cynical, manipulative superior to Lawrence is not entirely accurate either. Allenby and Lawrence respected and liked each other, and Lawrence once said of Allenby that he was “an admiration of mine”… There are people who claim that such fictionalization was necessary to dramatize the great Lawrence character but I say “watch out! The devil lurks in the little details” – shutterbug_iconium, IMDB

“The Searchers” “The Searchers” is somewhat disappointing. There is a feeling that it could have been so much more. Overlong and repetitious at 119 minutes, there are subtleties in the basically simple story that are not adequately explained… Wayne is a bitter, taciturn individual throughout and the reasons for his attitude are left to the imagination of the viewer… The John Ford directorial stamp is unmistakable. It concentrates on the characters and establishes a definite mood. It’s not sufficient, however, to overcome many of the weaknesses of the story.” – Ronald Holloway, Variety

I was bored, it’s Sunday and sat down really looking forward to this supposedly great western to fill the evening void. Maybe I’m not qualified to comment fully as I didn’t make it past half an hour. I figure if a film hasn’t grabbed me by then it probably won’t get any better. Usually a rubbish film will grab you then go downhill but this………. well, first off I’m English and even I know that those funny things sticking out the earth don’t come from Texas they’re somewhere in Utah. That’s the first insult. It may be great scenery but great scenery a great film it doth not make. And there’s nothing glorious about glorious Technicolor either. It’s like being hit on the head with a sledgehammer. Then, oh I dunno just that dumb acting from that time, those stupid children full of beans and cockadoodle dandy acting just irritate the hell out of me as if lots of energy will make up for real acting. Embarrassing. The story just plods along and doesn’t build any tension whatsoever with a lot of hammy acting by our stars more fit for a TV show. Then it’s just cliché after cliché and the end result is wishing the maker of this film would stop insulting my intelligence and pi** off. I disliked John Wayne as a small boy because I thought he was boring. I think he’s boring now. If you wanna watch a good Western with interest and real characters, story development, tension and drama that sucks you in watch Unforgiven. I’ll never forgive this pile of dross. – jackbenimble, IMDB

“2001: A Space Odyssey” “A major achievement in cinematography and special effects, “2001” lacks dramatic appeal to a large degree and only conveys suspense after the halfway mark…. The plot, so-called, uses up almost two hours in exposition of scientific advances in space travel and communications, before anything happens, [including] the surprisingly dull prolog… Film ends on a confused note, never really tackling the ‘other life’ situation and evidently leaving interpretation up to the individual viewer. To many this will smack of indecision or hasty scripting.” — Robert B. Frederick, Variety

“This is certainly one of the most boring and meaningless films I have ever seen in my life. I love science and science fiction both. They are in fact 2 of my main interests in life. This movie still bored me beyond description! The accolades being heaped upon this hunk of garbage is hilarious. The most amusing tendency among the fans of this movie is ridiculing those who think it is boring and meaningless as stupid, ignorant or both. I am a professional in the computer design and engineering business. I am not stupid. And guess what? This movie is still boring and meaningless… It’s a collection of very long, very boring scenes that never seem to end… For those who will attempt to dismiss my comment along with the other people they have dismissed let me be perfectly clear. I understood everything in the film. It is simply a terrible film. This pseudo-intellectual drivel is a director who thinks he’s quite brilliant in his high school level presentation and vision of the journey of man. Of course he is very wrong indeed!… It’s disjointed. It lacks cohesiveness. It adds elements of science fiction, horror, fantasy, and pre-teen created entertainment. It also fails to deliver in any of these categories. Stop attacking those who do not like this film. They aren’t nearly as stupid as is implied here… There is nothing brilliant about meaningless film that must be “interpreted” by the few viewers who claim they have the answer. Thats just incompetent lazy film making.” – tom_jones, IMDB

“Chinatown” “The most acclaimed private-eye saga since ‘The Big Sleep’ has the torpor of a wake… Evans and Polankski are masters of Hollywood ‘dramatic organization.’ They ram home what they see as major points… ‘Chinatown’ brings to question not only their lack of subtlety, but their hypocrisy… Polanski never favors compassion over carnage. He has none of Towne’s emotional stakes in the film… Polanski smothers Towne’s script. He never lets in any air… Polanski revels in artifice. Every shot in ‘Chinatown’ locks into a larger puzzle, and each character’s smirk hides a secret.” – Michael Sragow, New York Magazine

“Got two hours of your life to waste? Want to wonder watch the same actor who scared you in the Shining bore you to death? Want to wish you had not already cleaned out the cat’s litter? I have the film for you. Two hours of the most excruciating boredom watching male chauvinistic pigs who think there is nothing wrong in raping, beating or in general any other form of abusing women, sprinkle in some under-age sex with your own daughter (how ironic that three years later the film’s director will be charged with such an offence – was he planning his own future? Oh, sorry I forget 15 is too old for him) and add a cherry on top for being absolutely pointless and you have Chinatown. If anyone can tell me what Chinatown has to do with the film’s plot I will give you the cherry myself. And before you all start jumping on me I do understand the ‘rape’ refers to the water supply controversies of the early 1910’s. However, please, seriously, do not tell me that you enjoyed this film. I am only saying what everyone else is too scared to say – it really is not that good a film.” – b-jhoree, IMDB

“Die Hard” “On a technical level, there’s a lot to be said for ‘Die Hard.’ It’s when we get to some of the unnecessary adornments of the script that the movie shoots itself in the foot… the filmmakers introduce a gratuitous and unnecessary additional character: the deputy police chief (Paul Gleason), who doubts that the guy on the other end of the radio is really a New York cop at all. As nearly as I can tell, the deputy chief is in the movie for only one purpose: to be consistently wrong at every step of the way and to provide a phony counterpoint to Willis’ progress. The character is so willfully useless, so dumb, so much a product of the Idiot Plot Syndrome, that all by himself he successfully undermines the last half of the movie. Thrillers like this need to be well-oiled machines, with not a single wasted moment. Inappropriate and wrongheaded interruptions reveal the fragile nature of the plot and prevent it from working. Without the deputy chief and all that he represents, “Die Hard” would have been a more than passable thriller. With him, it’s a mess… you can’t go wrong if all of the characters in your movie are at least as intelligent as most of the characters in your audience.” – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

This film has almost everything that I despise. I do like the action, explosions, and Alan Rickman since he stars as Severus Snape in the seven Harry Potter flicks. Rickman is excellent at playing the bad guy. Bruce Willis thinks he is so cool; however, but nothing but a fool. So the two stars are for Rickman and the action. The subtraction of eight stars is for the ballooning votes that this movie has been given, the violence, the nudity, the vulgarity, Bruce Willis, the mindless acting by the majority, the length of the film, and finally not giving Rickman more lines. Yes, it’s a slight obsession with Rickman as it seems, but I had to think of eight reasons and ran out of ideas. So if you like or love this imbecilic claptrap, you will most likely disagree with me and jump to conclusions while forming stereotypes. I don’t blame you. I only wish Hollywood wouldn’t contribute to the degenerating of our civilization where people don’t care about humans they don’t know – jamesolio, IMDB

“Raiders Of The Lost Ark” “But “Raiders” is a machine-tooled adventure in the pulp-esoterica spirit of Edgar Rice Burroughs; it appears that Lucas and Spielberg think just like the marketing division… But Spielberg’s technique may be too much for the genre: the opening sequence, set in South America, with Indy Jones entering a forbidden temple and fending off traps, snares, poisoned darts, tarantulas, stone doors with metal teeth, and the biggest damn boulder you’ve ever seen, is so thrill-packed you don’t have time to breathe—or to enjoy yourself much, either… you know that Spielberg, having gone sky-high at the start, must have at least seventeen other climaxes to come, and that the movie isn’t going to be an adventure but a competition… there’s no exhilaration in this dumb, motor excitement… Yet, with the manicured wide-screen images and the scale of this production, klunkiness sticks out in a way that it didn’t in the serials, which were usually all of a piece… It’s a shocker when the big-time directors provide a rationale for the marketing division—when they say, as Spielberg does, that “the real movie-lovers are still children.” And there’s no doubt he means that in a congratulatory sense. The whole collapsing industry is being inspired by old Saturday-afternoon serials, and the three biggest American moviemakers are hooked on technological playthings and techniques.” Pauline Kael, The New Yorker

I’ve been avoiding Indiana Jones like the plague until tonight when I decided to see what it’s all about. And boy was I in for a treat! I was laughing so hard at every action scene! The music was so laughable, Harrison Ford played worse than Paris Hilton sings and every cliché imaginable was there. The plot is virtually non-existent during the first half of the movie and when the real action finally kicks in, you see Dr. Jones escaping from difficult situations with unbelievable ease, the ridiculous music score serving as another way of applauding his actions. Those were the best bits. Because then you have the totally random ending that turns your laughter into a WTF expression. The characters are paper-thin – not to mention Spielberg’s obsession with the Germans (or anyone non-American or non-Jewish) who have to be depicted as either superevil or superstupid. Unintentionally funny, totally predictable and a waste of money and film. How anyone with an average IQ can enjoy this is beyond me. – grybop, IMDB  

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The 75 worst movies of all time, according to critics

• We turned to review aggregator Metacritic to find out what the worst movies of all time are, based on critic reviews.
• They include two controversial political documentaries from Dinesh D'Souza, as well as ill-advised sequels.
• A recent addition includes 2019's "Haunting of Sharon Tate."

To find out which movies film critics have been collectively hated the most, Insider turned to the reviews aggregator Metacritic to compile this list of the most critically panned movies in history. 

From ill-advised sequels like "Scary Movie 5" and "Caddyshack II" to two dubious political documentaries by conservative filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza, these films drew the ire of critics and provoked the repulsion of many.

Most recently, 2019's critically panned "Haunting of Sharon Tate," starring Hilary Duff, made the list, as did "Grizzly II: Revenge," which was originally filmed in 1983 but didn't debut until this year.

Here are the 75 worst movies of all time, according to critics:

Note: Only movies with seven or more online reviews appear in the ranking, so it skews toward more recent films.

John Lynch contributed to a previous version of this post.

75. "Don Peyote" (2014)

Critic score:  14/100

User score:  3.0/10

What critics said:  "There's no rhythm or rules, and the beyond-indifferent camerawork and community-access-TV-grade effects help nothing." —  The Dissolve

74. "The In Crowd" (2000)

User score:  2.3/10

What critics said:  "Isn't a movie, it's Gorgonzola, a crumbly summertime stinker veined with pop-cultural fungus." —  Entertainment Weekly

73. "Cabin Fever" (2016)

User score:  2.6/10

What critics said:  "It doesn't help that what passes for acting here seems more like a table read." —  Los Angeles Times

72. "Bolero" (1984)

Critic score : 13/100

User score : N/A

What critics said : "Erotic, surely, only for the very easily pleased, with Dereks J and B and Cannon Films converging to form a matrix of sustained, tawdry silliness." — Time Out

71. "Love, Wedding, Marriage" (2011)

Critic score:  13/100

User score:  3.1/10

What critics said:  "Only old pros James Brolin and Jane Seymour, as Eva's colorfully squabbling parents, occasionally rouse the film beyond its fate as fodder for a Snuggie-wrapped slumber." —  Time Out

70. "Daddy Day Camp" (2007)

User score:  1.8/10

What critics said:  "Filling in for Eddie Murphy in a septically humored kiddie sequel to 'Daddy Day Care,' Gooding gives a mug-job performance that consists mainly of reacting (again and again) to nasty smells." —  Entertainment Weekly

69. "Fascination" (2005)

User score:  N/A

What critics said:  "Glacially paced, self-consciously acted and narratively risible." —  Variety

68. "Fair Game" (1995)

What critics said:  "A thriller primarily about the movement of Cindy Crawford's breasts beneath a succession of ever-smaller T-shirts." —  Entertainment Weekly

67. "Freddy Got Fingered" (2001)

User score:  5.6/10

What critics said:  "The movie is simply not professional. It's not, even by the lowest standards of Republic B-westerns in the '30s or bad, cheap horror films in the '50s, releasable." —  The Washington Post

66. "A Beautiful Life" (2009)

User score:  1.7/10

What critics said:  "This laughably clichéd dive into sexual masochism and hardscrabble survival replaces story with outline and characters with place holders." —  The New York Times

65. "Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2" (2015)

User score:  2.4/10

What critics said:  "While the original was no classic, it had a few mild laughs and the plus-sized actor displayed a certain buffoonish charm. Such is not the case with this painfully unfunny, slapdash follow-up in which the title character is so relentlessly obnoxious that you'll be cheering for the villains." —  The Hollywood Reporter

64. "Down to You" (2000)

User score:  6.4/10

What critics said:  "The confusion it mistakes for true soul-searching is about as realistic a look at the politics of youthful attraction as one of those 'Did somebody say McDonald's?' commercials is a look at mainstream American family values. Did somebody say McCheese?" —  Austin Chronicle

63. "Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood" (1988)

What critics said:  "Only a mote of humor graces the film, and that is Jason's cunning ability to come up with ever more dreadful weapons for each successive crime, graduating from stake to machete to circular saw. Dare we hope, in Part VIII, for a neutron bomb to obliterate the series altogether?" —  Chicago Tribune

62. "Ski Patrol" (1990)

Critic score :  13/100

User score: N/A

What critics said: "Movies don't get more derivative or less comic than this." — New York Times

61. "New Best Friend" (2002)

User score:  4.8/10

What critics said:  "A lurid, unsavory mix of 'Reefer Madness' hysteria, drive-in sleaze, and the queasy morality of '80s slasher film." —  The AV Club

60. "Cannonball Run II" (1984)

What critics said:  "Burt Reynolds and a host of notable performers seem to be having a hell of a good time wandering through this meandering, episodic farce, but rarely is their good mood shared by the viewer." —  TV Guide

59. "Nothing But Trouble" (1991)

What critics said : "Unfortunately this isn't even half as fun as the shortest bumper-car ride, with the cast lost in a sea of unfunny situations and badly executed antique jokes on loan from The Munsters all obviously puzzled about why they are actually there." — Empire

58. "The Avengers" (1998)

Critic score:  12/100

User score:  2.5/10

What critics said:  "It's a film to gall fans of the old television series and perplex anyone else." —  The New York Times

57. "Nothing Left to Fear" (2013)

User score:  3.5/10

What critics said:  "It's stale B-movie rubbish of a barely watchable sort, albeit slightly more depressing than many of its genre compatriots." —  The Dissolve

56. "Strange Wilderness" (2008)

User score:  5.1/10

What critics said:  "Aside from the waste of a talented cast, the only thing that really caught my attention was the tomblike silence of the audience--at least until the bong jokes started." —  Chicago Reader

55. "Cocktail" (1988)

Critic score:  124/100

What critics said:  "There isn't a scene in 'Cocktail' that isn't cheap and dumb, and whether its camp entertainment value compensates for its contempt for women is a question. 'Cocktail' makes beer commercials look deep, makes 'Top Gun' look like 'Hamlet.'" —  Boston Globe

54. "Left Behind" (2014)

What critics said:  "This failed epic — really, an epic failure — would barely be noticed, were it not for former Oscar-winner Nicolas Cage taking on a 'Sharknado'-quality remake of a Kirk Cameron movie." —  New York Daily News

53. "The Emoji Movie" (2017)

Critic score: 12/100

User score: 2.0/10

What critics said: "A work so completely devoid of wit, style, intelligence or basic entertainment value that it makes that movie based on the Angry Birds app seem like a pure artistic statement by comparison." — RogerEbert.com

52. "Slackers" (2002)

User score: 4.5/10

What critics said: "'Slackers' is supposed to be a gross-out comedy, but the tastelessness of its jokes is nothing compared to its sheer cluelessness." — Salon

51. "The Adventures of Pluto Nash" (2002)

User score: 4.8/10

What critics said: "A limp Eddie Murphy vehicle that even he seems embarrassed to be part of." — The Globe and Mail

50. "The Master of Disguise" (2002)

User score: 2.4/10

What critics said: "The individual scenes are just random, uninspired riffs by Carvey or awkwardly flat cameos by the likes of Jesse Ventura and Olympic sprinter Michael Johnson." — New York Daily News

49. "King's Ransom" (2005)

Critic score: 11/100

User score:  1.4/10

What critics said: "Generic hip-hop soundtrack? Check. Aerial stock footage of milieu? Check. Hardy-har homophobia and misogyny? Check. Emasculated sub-Gump white dude played by Jay Mohr? Double check." — Entertainment Weekly

48. "Persecuted" (2014)

User score:  3.4/10

What critics said: "This terrible attempt at a political thriller for the religious right is aimed not at Christians in general but at a certain breed of them, the kind who feel as if the rest of the world were engaged in a giant conspiracy against their interpretation of good and truth." — The New York Times

47. "3 Strikes" (2000)

User score:  4.0/10

What critics said: "Feels like a very long late-night comedy sketch that occasionally veers beyond tastelessness toward something worse." — The New York Times

46. "Mortal Kombat: Annihilation" (1997)

Critic score:  11/100

User score:  8.0/10

What critics said: "It's cynical and it's depressing, and I would lock a child in a room before I'd show him 'Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.'" — L.A. Weekly

45. "Love, Weddings and Other Disasters" (2020)

Critic score :  11/100

User score:  N/A

What critics said: "The scenes with Keaton and Irons, too, rise above the mediocrity-unto-badness of Love, Weddings & Other Disasters on the strength of the actors' charisma alone." — Boston Globe

44. "Date Movie" (2006)

User score:  2.9/10

What critics said:  "'Comedy is hard,' said Steve Martin. For the writers of 'Date Movie,' it's apparently impossible." — New York Daily News

43. "Pinocchio" (2002)

What critics said:  "It's an oddity that will be avoided by millions of people, this new Pinocchio. Osama bin Laden could attend a showing in Times Square and be confident of remaining hidden." — The New York Times

42. "Death Wish II" (1982)

Critic score : 11/100

User score : 7.8/10

What critics said : "The shamelessly rehashed Death Wish II finds Kersey in L.A., methodically hunting down those responsible for his daughter's death (just as she's recovering from her assault in the first Death Wish)." — EW

41. "Nine Lives" (2016)

User score:  2.8/10

What critics said:  "At 87 torturous, laugh-free minutes, the film could change the most avid cat fancier into a kitty hater." — Rolling Stone

40. "Scary Movie 5" (2013)

User score:  2.7/10

What critics said:  "'Scary Movie V' murdered my capacity to feel joy. " — Village Voice

39. "Some Kind of Beautiful" (2015)

User score:  5.0/10

What critics said:  "Some kind of hideous, a perfect storm of romantic-comedy awfulness that seems to set the ailing genre back decades with the sheer force of its ineptitude." — Variety

38. "Whipped" (2000)

Critic score:  10/100

User score:  6.3/10

What critics said:  "Ugly. And unpleasant. And clueless on a grand scale." — San Francisco Chronicle

37. "Unplanned" (2019)

Critic score: 10/100

User score : 9.4/10

What critics said: "Unplanned isn't a good movie, but it's effective propaganda — or, at least, it is if you belong to the group it's targeting: those who believe that abortion in America, though a legal right, is really a crime. It's hard to imagine the movie drawing many viewers outside that self-selected demographic." — Variety

36. "Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers" (1995)

User score:  5.6/10

What critics said:  "Not even the addition of satanic rituals, farm implements or a Howard Stern-like shock jock (Leo Geter) is enough to paint over the creaky trappings." — Variety

35. "Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo" (2019)

Critic score : 10/100

What critics said: "No filmmaker has ever loved anything as much as Abdellatif Kechiche loves butts." — Indiewire

34. "Johnny Be Good" (1988)

What critics said : "But mostly the satire is as dated as the recruiters' plaid jackets, as lame as the Johnny Walker joke." — New York Times

33. "Saturn 3" (1980)

Critic score: 9/100

What critics said:  "The level of intelligence of the screenplay of 'Saturn 3' is shockingly low - the story is so dumb it would be laughed out of any junior high school class in the country - and yet the movie was financed. Why?" — Chicago Sun-Times

32. "Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star" (2011)

User score:  2/10

What critics said:  "This may be the worst movie Pauly Shore has ever been in. Think about that." — The New York Times

31. "Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000" (2000)

Critic score:   9/100

What critics said:  "A picture that will be hailed without controversy as the worst of its kind ever made." — Slate

30. "The Tortured" (2012)

User score: 4.2/10

What critics said:  "Lean, nasty, and patently absurd, 'The Tortured' plays like one long scream of agony." — Village Voice

29. "Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2" (2004)

User score:  1.8/10

What critics said:  "So bad that I predict there will be drinking games set around viewing it someday." — The Washington Post

28. "Alone in the Dark" (2005)

User score:  1.6/10

What critics said:  "So mind-blowingly horrible that it teeters on the edge of cinematic immortality." — San Francisco Chronicle

27. "Atlas Shrugged III: Who Is John Galt?" (2014)

User score:  3.0/10

What critics said:  "The movie's so slipshod and half-assed that I almost feel for Rand, whose ideas have proved enduring enough that they at least deserve a fair representation, if only for the sake of refutation." — Village Voice

26. "Meet The Spartans" (2008)

User score:  2.8/10

What critics said:  "Gamely alternates between unfunny gay jokes and violent pratfalls for a good 80 minutes, finding time for not one, but two musical dance numbers set to 'I Will Survive.'" — The AV Club

25. "Dirty Love" (2005)

What critics said:  "Dirty Love wasn't written and directed, it was committed. Here is a film so pitiful, it doesn't rise to the level of badness. It is hopelessly incompetent." — Chicago Sun-Times

24. "State Property" (2002)

User score:  4.9/10

What critics said:  "Result is a fairly good-looking video shot down by a hackneyed script, atrocious acting and a total lack of redeeming social value." — Variety

23. "The Mangler" (1995)

Critic score:   8/100

What critics said:  "It is not a compliment to suggest that a demonically possessed piece of machinery embarked on a bloodthirsty rampage has more personality than most of the flesh-and-blood characters in 'The Mangler,' a horror movie based on a Stephen King story." — The New York Times

22. "The Haunting of Sharon Tate" (2019)

Critic score: 8/100

User score: 2.9/10

What critics said: "A run-of-the-mill home invasion thriller, and while Farrands is a solid genre craftsman — as evidenced by his similarly creepy true-crime film from earlier this year, The Amityville Murders — his taste remains suspect." — Los Angeles Times

21. "Among Ravens" (2014)

User score:  1.6/10

What critics said:  "Featuring unlikeable characters, preposterously contrived plotting, ham-fisted dialogue and strained attempts at poeticism, Among Ravens is a misfire on every level." — The Hollywood Reporter

20. "Septic Man" (2014)

Summary:   "Jack, a sewage worker who's determined to uncover the cause of the town's water contamination crisis, gets trapped underground in a septic tank and undergoes a hideous transformation."

What critics said:  "Beyond its mere unfunniness and stupidity, Septic Man is criminally unimaginative." — The Dissolve

19. "Transylmania" (2009)

User score:  8.7/10

What critics said:  "The current vogue for all things vampiric is ripe for a satirical drubbing, but this repulsive comedy is part of the problem, not the solution." — Chicago Reader

18. "Grizzly II: Revenge" (2020)

Critic score :  7/100

What critics said:  "It's a pity Grizzly II: Revenge isn't giddy-bad, the way Tommy Wiseau's 'The Room' delights so many. But it's here, it's seriously disoriented and disorienting." — Chicago Tribune 

17. "Is That a Gun in Your Pocket?" (2016)

Critic score:   7/100

User score:  2.7/10

What critics said:  "The movie tries to wrap an important social message in comedy, but it's unpalatable all the way through." — Los Angeles Times

16. "Miss March" (2009)

User score:  4.3/10

What critics said:  "Writer-director-stars Zach Cregger and Trevor Moore, of the Whitest Kids U'Know, here prove the crassest, most maladroit moviemakers you know." —  Entertainment Weekly

15. "Screwed" (2000)

User score:  8.2/10

What critics said:  "A confusedly misconceived hybrid of interracial buddy comedy and imitation Marx Brothers farce." — The New York Times

14. "The Hottie & the Nottie" (2008)

What critics said:  "Great actors make the craft look easy. In the Paris Hilton comedy 'The Hottie and the Nottie,' acting looks very, very difficult." — New York Post

13. "Caddyshack II" (1988)

What critics said: "'Caddyshack II,' a feeble follow-up to the 1980 laff riot, is lamer than a duck with bunions, and dumber than grubs. It's patronizing and clumsily manipulative, and top banana Jackie Mason is upstaged by the gopher puppet." — The Washington Post

12. "Baby Geniuses" (1999)

Critic score:   6/100

What critics said:  "Bad films are easy to make, but a film as unpleasant as Baby Geniuses' achieves a kind of grandeur." — Chicago Sun-Times

11. "National Lampoon's Gold Diggers" (2004)

What critics said:  "So stupefyingly hideous that after watching it, you'll need to bathe in 10 gallons of disinfectant, get a full-body scrub and shampoo with vinegar to remove the scummy residue that remains." — The Washington Post

10. "The Human Centipede III (Final Sequence)" (2015)

Critic score:  5/100

What critics said:  "It's only fitting that a series that began with the concept of linking the digestive tracts of three people would end by feasting on its own sh-t." — The Dissolve

9. "Vulgar" (2002)

User score:  2.2/10

What critics said:  "Sure to appear in everyone's worst-of lists at year's end, to say nothing of a few bad dreams, Bryan Johnson's Vulgar is an unclassifiably awful study in self- and audience-abuse." — Village Voice

8. "Strippers" (2000)

What critics said:  "Unbelievably awful celluloid-waster." — New York Post

7. "Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party" (2016)

Critic score:  2/100

User score:  4.7/10

What critics said:  "Little more than an extended version of the kind of political screeds that can be found online with only a minimum of effort, this is just a terrible movie." —  RogerEbert.com

6. "The Singing Forest" (2003)

Critic score:  1/100

User score:  3/10

What critics said:  "'The Singing Forest' was written and directed by Jorge Ameer, whose film 'Strippers' opened three years ago and remained the single worst movie I had ever reviewed -- until now." — The New York Times

5. "The Garbage Pail Kids Movie" (1987)

Critic score: 1/100

User score: 0.8/10

What critics said: "Imagine parents sitting in the audience with their naughty children (who used their Cabbage Patch dolls as driveway obstructions for their Big Wheel obstacle courses) and feeling ruefully double-crassed." — Slant

4. "United Passions" (2015)

User score:  0.7/10

What critics said:  "As propaganda, 'United Passions' is as subtle as an anvil to the temple. As drama, it's not merely ham-fisted, but pork-shouldered, bacon-wristed, and sausage-elbowed." — Village Voice

3. "Bio-Dome" (1996)

User score:  7.1/10

What critics said:  "The sheer ineptitude of the movie is supposed to be funny, but there's no lunacy behind it: Shore and his writers are like comedians on Prozac, smiling through the fart jokes without a hint of desperation." — The New Yorker

2. "Chaos" (2005)

What critics said:  "Writer-director David DeFalco's ugly, pointless and dishonest remake of Craven's remake." — L.A. Weekly

1. "Death of a Nation" (2018)

What critics said:  "D'Souza fans and Trump apologists will flock to this, misguided moths to a misleading flame. In that way, it's a perfect representation of the current climate. In every other way, it's a mess." — Arizona Republic

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Latest stories, the worst movie of all time, according to critics, based on the reviews, these bad movies might just be the worst ever made..

Great movies are few and far between. Mediocre movies are a dime a dozen. But truly bad movies—meaning the honestly unwatchable—are special. As bad movie lovers, we turned to the critics for a look at the worst movies of all time. These are the films with reviews so abysmal, it's hard to believe anyone made it through them at all.

Our list comes from Rotten Tomatoes' worst movies ever , which are ranked based on their score (most of these couldn't climb above 0 percent), and also how many bad reviews they got. Read on, if you dare, and find out if any of your favorite guilty pleasures made the list of total turkeys. And for our own picks of the best of the worst, discover  The Worst Movie That Came Out the Year You Graduated .

50 | The In Crowd (2000)

Rotten Tomatoes score: 2 percent

And for movies on the opposite end of the Rotten Tomatoes spectrum,  These Are the Top-Rated Movies on Rotten Tomatoes .

49 | Crossover (2006)

48 | epic movie (2007).

And for films that are actually worth watching, find out The Best Movie That Came Out the Year You Graduated, According to Critics .

47 | Left Behind (2014)

Rotten Tomatoes score: 1 percent

46 | Disaster Movie (2008)

45 | daddy day camp (2007), 44 | the master of disguise (2002), 43 | alone in the dark (2005), 42 | twisted (2004), 41 | dark tide (2012).

Rotten Tomatoes score: 0 percent

40 | Stolen (2010)

39 | constellation (2005), 38 | folks (1992), 37 | police academy 4 - citizens on patrol (1987), 36 | simon sez (1999), 35 | precious cargo (2016), 34 | max steel (2016), 33 | transylmania (2009), 32 | killing me softly (2003), 31 | merci docteur ray (2002), 30 | a low down dirty shame (1994), 29 | bolero (1984), 28 | homecoming (2009), 27 | highlander ii: the quickening (1991).

And for the second movies in their series that were much better, check out these 20 Movie Sequels Better Than the Original .

26 | The Disappointments Room (2016)

25 | staying alive (1983), 24 | look who’s talking now (1993), 23 | mac and me (1988), 22 | redline (2007), 21 | cabin fever (2016), 20 | shadow conspiracy (1997), 19 | 3 strikes (2000), 18 | wagons east (1994), 17 | problem child (1990), 16 | return to the blue lagoon (1991), 15 | the nutcracker in 3d (2010), 14 | stratton (2018), 13 | london fields (2018), 12 | dark crimes (2018), 11 | bucky larson: born to be a star (2011).

Rotten Tomatoes score: 3 percent

10 | The Ridiculous 6 (2015)

And for more on how this superstar's   movies stack up, check out Ranking Every Adam Sandler Movie, From Worst Reviewed to Best

9 | Jaws: The Revenge (1987)

8 | the last days of american crime (2020), 7 | national lampoon’s gold diggers (2004), 6 | superbabies: baby geniuses 2 (2004), 5 | pinocchio (2002), 4 | gotti (2018).

And for more films actors wish we would forget, revisit The Worst Movies Starring Oscar-Winning Actors .

3 | A Thousand Words (2012)

2 | one missed call (2008).

And for more horror movies that got panned, These Are the Worst Horror Movies of All Time, According to Critics .

1 | Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002)

And if you can't get enough of bad movies,  These Are the Movies on Rotten Tomatoes With 0 Percent Ratings .

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The 35 worst movies of all time, according to critics

From ill-advised sequels like scary movie 5 to a bad documentary about hillary clinton, movie critics have deemed these films the worst of the worst, article bookmarked.

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While the moviegoing public will often flock in large numbers to enjoy bad movies (see: Suicide Squad ), professional critics are, by contrast, quick to pile condemnation on films that strike them as inferior.

To find out which movies critics have deemed the worst of the worst, we turned to review aggregator Metacritic to compile this list of the most critically panned films in history.

From ill-advised sequels like Scary Movie 5 to a dubious documentary about Hillary Clinton, these films drew the ire of critics and provoked the repulsion of many.

Here are the 35 worst movies of all time, according to critics:

Note: Only movies with seven or more online reviews appear in the ranking, so it skews toward more recent films.

35. 3 Strikes (2000)​

Critic score: 11/100

User score: 4.0/10

Summary: “[Brian Hooks] plays a character who is just released from jail following his second offence. The state has adopted a three strikes rule and his next offence will possibly land him in prison for life.”

What critics said: “Feels like a very long late-night comedy sketch that occasionally veers beyond tastelessness toward something worse.” — The New York Times

34. Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997)

User score: 8.0/10

Summary: “In defiance of the Elder Gods, the evil Outworlders are back to wreak hell on Earth. Earth's last hope is the mighty Liu Kang and his explosive fighting friends. They're all that stand between life… and annihilation!”

What critics said: “It's cynical and it's depressing, and I would lock a child in a room before I'd show him Mortal Kombat: Annihilation .” — L.A. Weekly

33. Date Movie (2006)​

User score: 2.9/10

Summary: “The twisted minds of two of the six screenwriters behind Scary Movie skewer the romantic comedy genre.”

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What critics said: “'Comedy is hard,' said Steve Martin. For the writers of Date Movie , it's apparently impossible.” — New York Daily News

32. Pinocchio (2002)

Summary: “Roberto Benigni brings one of the world's most famous and beloved tales magically to the screen.”

What critics said: “It's an oddity that will be avoided by millions of people, this new Pinocchio. Osama bin Laden could attend a showing in Times Square and be confident of remaining hidden.” — The New York Times

31. Nine Lives (2016)

User score: 2.8/10

Summary: “Tom Brand (Kevin Spacey) is a daredevil billionaire at the top of his game. ... Tom has a terrible accident. When he wakes he discovers he is trapped in the body of a cat.”

What critics said: “At 87 torturous, laugh-free minutes, the film could change the most avid cat fancier into a kitty hater.” — Rolling Stone

30. Scary Movie 5 (2013)​

User score: 2.7/10

Summary: “A couple begin to experience paranormal activity after bringing their newborn son home from the hospital. With the help of surveillance cameras and various experts, they learn they're being stalked by a nefarious demon, but in a funny way.”

What critics said: “ Scary Movie V murdered my capacity to feel joy. ” — Village Voice

29. Some Kind of Beautiful (2015)​

User score: 5.0/10

Summary: “Richard (Pierce Brosnan) is a successful college professor who gives up a steady stream of one-night stands and beautiful undergrads for fatherhood with much younger Kate (Jessica Alba).”

What critics said: “Some kind of hideous, a perfect storm of romantic-comedy awfulness that seems to set the ailing genre back decades with the sheer force of its ineptitude.” — Variety

28. Whipped (2000)​

Critic score: 10/100

User score: 6.3/10

Summary: “Every Sunday a group of friends get together to discuss their woman-chasing escapades. One week they discover that they are all picking up on the same girl.”

What critics said: “Ugly. And unpleasant. And clueless on a grand scale.” — San Francisco Chronicle

27. Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star (2011)​

Critic score: 9/100

User score: 2/10

Summary: “Bucky is a small town grocery bagger, going nowhere in life – until he discovers that his conservative parents were once adult film stars!”

What critics said: “This may be the worst movie Pauly Shore has ever been in. Think about that. ” — The New York Times

26. Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 (2000)​

Summary: “In the year 3000, after the alien Psychlos conquer Earth, killing most of the humans so that they can strip the Earth of its resources, one man comes out of hiding in search of other surviving humans and hoping to overthrow the aliens.”

What critics said: “A picture that will be hailed without controversy as the worst of its kind ever made.” — Slate

25. The Tortured (2012)​

User score: 4.2/10

Summary: “Craig and Elise had all the ingredients for an ideal life... Then, on one sunny day, their perfect world is irrevocably shattered. Leaving their five year old son, Ben, alone for only a moment, Craig is horrified to see him being abducted from their own front yard.”

What critics said: “Lean, nasty, and patently absurd, The Tortured plays like one long scream of agony.” — Village Voice

24. Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2 (2004)

User score: 1.8/10

Summary: “The adventure continues with a new generation of talking toddlers. This time, the baby geniuses find themselves at the centre of a nefarious scheme led by powerful media mogul Bill Biscane (Jon Voight) to use his state-of-the-art satellite system to control the minds of the world's population.”

What critics said: “So bad that I predict there will be drinking games set around viewing it someday.” — The Washington Post

23. Alone in the Dark (2005)​

User score: 1.6/10

Summary: “Based on the best-selling Atari videogame series, this film features Edward Carnby (Christian Slater), a private investigator specialising in unexplainable supernatural phenomena.”

What critics said: “So mind-blowingly horrible that it teeters on the edge of cinematic immortality.” — San Francisco Chronicle

22. Atlas Shrugged III: Who Is John Galt? (2014)​

User score: 3.0/10

Summary: “Approaching collapse, the nation's economy is quickly eroding. As crime and fear take over the countryside, the government continues to exert its brutal force against the nation's most productive who are mysteriously vanishing - leaving behind a wake of despair.”

What critics said: “The movie's so slipshod and half-assed that I almost feel for Rand, whose ideas have proved enduring enough that they at least deserve a fair representation, if only for the sake of refutation.” — Village Voice

21. Meet The Spartans (2008)​

Summary: “The heroic Leonidas, armed with nothing by leather underwear and a cape, leads a ragtag group of 13 — count 'em, 13! — Spartans to defend their homeland against the invading Persians (whose ranks include Ghost Rider, Rocky Balboa, the Transformers, and a hunchbacked Paris Hilton).”

What critics said: “Gamely alternates between unfunny gay jokes and violent pratfalls for a good 80 minutes, finding time for not one, but two musical dance numbers set to 'I Will Survive.'” — The AV Club

20. Dirty Love (2005)​

Summary: “In the slapstick comedy Dirty Love , Jenny McCarthy is gorgeous, goofy and gross all at once in this hilarious take on one woman's chaotic quest for true love.”

What critics said: “Dirty Love wasn't written and directed, it was committed. Here is a film so pitiful, it doesn't rise to the level of badness. It is hopelessly incompetent.” — Chicago Sun-Times

19. State Property (2002)

User score: 4.9/10

Summary: “Frustrated with being broke, 'Beans' (Beanie Sigel) decides that the only way to grasp the 'American Dream' is to take it. State Property follows Beans and his crew, the 'ABM' as they take over the city, creating mayhem as their empire builds.”

What critics said: “Result is a fairly good-looking video shot down by a hackneyed script, atrocious acting and a total lack of redeeming social value.” — Variety

18. The Mangler (1995)​

Critic score: 8/100

User score: N/A

Summary: “A laundry-folding machine has been possessed by a demon from Hell, causing it to develop homicidal tendencies.”

What critics said: “It is not a compliment to suggest that a demonically possessed piece of machinery embarked on a bloodthirsty rampage has more personality than most of the flesh-and-blood characters in The Mangler , a horror movie based on a Stephen King story.” — The New York Times

17. Among Ravens (2014)​

Summary: “An annual 4th of July weekend hosted by troubled couple Wendy (Amy Smart) and Ellis (Josh Leonard) is seen through the eyes of Joey (Johnny Sequoia), Wendy's ten year old daughter.”

What critics said: “Featuring unlikeable characters, preposterously contrived plotting, ham-fisted dialogue and strained attempts at poeticism, Among Ravens is a misfire on every level.” — The Hollywood Reporter

16. Septic Man (2014)​

User score: 2.6/10

Summary: “Jack, a sewage worker who’s determined to uncover the cause of the town’s water contamination crisis, gets trapped underground in a septic tank and undergoes a hideous transformation.”

What critics said: “Beyond its mere unfunniness and stupidity, Septic Man is criminally unimaginative.” — The Dissolve

15. Transylmania (2009)​

User score: 8.7/10

Summary: “Spoof horror in which a group of college kids do a semester abroad in Romania and realise that if the partying doesn't kill them, the vampires just might!”

What critics said: “The current vogue for all things vampiric is ripe for a satirical drubbing, but this repulsive comedy is part of the problem, not the solution.” — Chicago Reader

14. Is That a Gun in Your Pocket? (2016)​

Critic score: 7/100

Summary: “If there’s one thing the men of Rockford, Texas love as much as their women, it’s their guns. But life in this idyllic town is turned upside-down when a gun incident at a neighborhood school spurs stay-at-home mom Jenna (Andrea Anders) to rethink Rockford’s obsessive gun culture.”

What critics said: “The movie tries to wrap an important social message in comedy, but it’s unpalatable all the way through.” — Los Angeles Times

13. Miss March (2009)​

User score: 4.3/10

Summary: “Miss March tells the story of a young man who awakens from a four-year coma to hear that his once virginal high-school sweetheart has since become a naked centerfold in Playboy magazine.”

What critics said: “Writer-director-stars Zach Cregger and Trevor Moore, of the Whitest Kids U'Know, here prove the crassest, most maladroit moviemakers you know.” — Entertainment Weekly

12. Screwed (2000)​

User score: 8.2/10

Summary: “Working for a wealthy boss, a chauffeur kidnaps her dog and holds it for ransom. Accidentally the boss gets the dog back and thinks the chauffer has been kidnapped.”

What critics said: “A confusedly misconceived hybrid of interracial buddy comedy and imitation Marx Brothers farce.” — The New York Times

11. The Hottie & the Nottie (2008)

User score: 2.3/10

Summary: “A woman agrees to go on a date with a man only if he finds a suitor for her unattractive best friend.”

What critics said: “Great actors make the craft look easy. In the Paris Hilton comedy 'The Hottie and the Nottie,' acting looks very, very difficult.” — New York Post

10. Baby Geniuses (1999)​

Critic score: 6/100

Summary: “Two doctors set out to dominate the world once they discover they can crack the code to a secret baby language.”

What critics said: “Bad films are easy to make, but a film as unpleasant as Baby Geniuses ' achieves a kind of grandeur.” — Chicago Sun-Times

9. National Lampoon's Gold Diggers (2004)

User score: 2.5/10

Summary: “National Lampoon breaks new comedic ground as it explores the misadventures of two completely incompetent con men who, in desperation, turn their attention to the art of gold digging.”

What critics said: “So stupefyingly hideous that after watching it, you'll need to bathe in 10 gallons of disinfectant, get a full-body scrub and shampoo with vinegar to remove the scummy residue that remains.” — The Washington Post

8. The Human Centipede III (Final Sequence) (2015)​

Critic score: 5/100

Summary: “Taking inspiration from The Human Centipede films, the warden of a notorious and troubled prison looks to create a 500-person human centipede as a solution to his problems.”

What critics said: “It’s only fitting that a series that began with the concept of linking the digestive tracts of three people would end by feasting on its own sh-t.” — The Dissolve

7. Vulgar (2002)

User score: 2.2/10

Summary: “A man who performs as a children's birthday party clown tries to piece his life back together after being gang-raped.”

What critics said: “Sure to appear in everyone's worst-of lists at year's end, to say nothing of a few bad dreams, Bryan Johnson's Vulgar is an unclassifiably awful study in self- and audience-abuse.” — Village Voice

6. Strippers (2000)​

Summary: “Alan is having an horrendous day... he loses his job, money is missing from his bank account, he is evicted from his apartment, misses a date with his girlfriend and much more.”

What critics said: “Unbelievably awful celluloid-waster.” — New York Post

5. Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party (2016)​

Critic score: 2/100

User score: 4.7/10

Summary: “Dinesh D'Souza analyses the history of the Democratic Party and what he thinks are Hillary Clinton's true motivations.”

What critics said: “Little more than an extended version of the kind of political screeds that can be found online with only a minimum of effort, this is just a terrible movie.” — RogerEbert.com

4. The Singing Forest (2003)​

Critic score: 1/100

User score: 3/10

Summary: “Two lovers, killed during the Holocaust, are reincarnated. The first soul to return now has a twenty two year old daughter who is now in love with her father's past life lover.”

What critics said: “ The Singing Forest was written and directed by Jorge Ameer, whose film Strippers opened three years ago and remained the single worst movie I had ever reviewed — until now.” — The New York Times

3. United Passions (2015)

User score: 0.7/10

Summary: “Three men—Jules Rimet (Gérard Depardieu), Joao Havelange (Sam Neill) and Sepp Blatter (Tim Roth)—establish FIFA and help make the World Cup the most popular sporting event in the world.”

What critics said: “As propaganda, United Passions is as subtle as an anvil to the temple. As drama, it’s not merely ham-fisted, but pork-shouldered, bacon-wristed, and sausage-elbowed.” — Village Voice

2. Bio-Dome (1996)​

User score: 7.1/10

Summary: “Five brave scientists are forced to face life forms more perplexing, more terrifying, more annoying than anything they've ever encountered: Pauly Shore and Stephen Baldwin.”

What critics said: “The sheer ineptitude of the movie is supposed to be funny, but there's no lunacy behind it: Shore and his writers are like comedians on Prozac, smiling through the fart jokes without a hint of desperation.” — The New Yorker

1. Chaos (2005)​

Summary: “Quite definitely one of the most brutal displays of violence ever set to celluloid, Chaos is a dark fairy tale of two young happy teens whose rose-colored contact lenses tint their wooded path a little too densely.”

What critics said: “Writer-director David DeFalco's ugly, pointless and dishonest remake of Craven's remake.” — L.A. Weekly

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The Best of the Worst-Ranked Rotten Tomatoes Movies, Including Corey Feldman and Pauly Shore Classics

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Before 'Kaos,' Jeff Goldblum’s Most Menacing Performance Was in This Neo-Noir Crime Thriller

I’m sorry but the kid at the start of 'a quiet place' deserved it, this is simply the best line clint eastwood has ever had in a movie.

Over the years, masses of movie lovers have come to rely on the review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes as a source they can trust as to whether a film is worth watching or not. It’s not a bad system: the site averages the good and bad reviews of each film and comes up with a percentage score and a status of either fresh or rotten. But there are many large and small factors that can easily affect the accuracy of this system. Whether it’s that most of the critics who reviewed a particular film are not “top critics” (the status given to professional critics at the most trustworthy of entertainment sites), or that only a very small number (maybe only one, in fact) of reviews are actually accumulated for a movie’s score, Rotten Tomatoes is not infallible. Below are some of the films that may have been given a raw deal thanks to the RT system. Give them a shot, won’t you?

1) Bio-Dome – 4%

Viva los bio-dome! For those who remember that incorrectly stated Spanish sentence, this is a shout-out to one of the most ridiculous, absurd movies in Pauly Shore ’s portfolio. And that’s stating a lot. Yes, it’s dumb, it’s trashy, it’s got Pauly Shore and the least respected Baldwin brother ( Stephen Baldwin ) running the show. But it is a stoner comedy for the ages. When these two nitwits get locked inside an experimental bio-dome for a year, they need to make the best of it. That means eating all the stored food supplies, sucking down tanks of nitrous oxide, and hitting on the two gorgeous (of course) female scientists in the dome, one of which is played by pop singer Kylie Minogue . However, after a major rager and an attempted bombing by Dr. Noah Faulkner (the always annoying William Atherton from Ghostbusters , the guy who shut down the team’s containment unit), Pauly and company pull together to make the bio-dome an ecological success! I love a good underdog story.

2) Dream a Little Dream – 0%

This would only really mean something to a fan of the Coreys: the eighties/nineties actors Corey Haim and Corey Feldman , who starred in a number of movies together. This wasn’t one of their most popular. They reached their height in The Lost Boys , and did a pretty good job with License to Drive as well. But Dream a Little Dream is not without its good points. First of all, it’s one of the only movies in which Feldman got top billing over Haim, which is just plain interesting to see. Also, it features a supernatural premise in which an old man’s soul trades places with that of Feldman’s, and Feldman must spend much of the movie figuring out how to switch bodies back. The answer is, of course, love. Doesn’t that just warm your heart?

RELATED: 'Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker' Is Now the Worst-Reviewed 'Star Wars' Movie

3) Fantastic Four – 7%

Fantastic Four (2015) was Fox’s attempt to reboot the Marvel comics property after two less-than-successful entries in the franchise. Even the Silver Surfer himself couldn’t save the aforementioned sequel. The 2015 version stars a fresh cast of talented young actors ( Miles Teller , Kate Mara , Michael B. Jordan , etc...) and a premise based more on the Ultimate Universe of the Marvel mythology. While it’s not nearly what fans had hoped for, it’s head and shoulders above the previous incarnations, and a solid attempt at kickstarting the franchise back into life. No doubt Disney will soon save this beloved property from mediocrity, but until then, this movie remains the best of what Fox could offer with the material at hand. It deserves better than the critical killing that it received.

4) Cool World – 0%

This movie was a deep dive into a dark world mixing animation and live action – something that doesn’t come along very often. Even Who Framed Roger Rabbit ’s voluptuous Jessica Rabbit didn’t come close to the crazy adult content present in this film. That’s not to say that Kim Basinger ’s cartoon form is enough to promote a viewing here. The point is that this is some wild, wacky material that deserves some attention, if just for the rarity of the experience itself. Plus, this is where Brad Pitt came into the public knowledge, and he’s never looked better or cooler. Hey, it’s in the title.

5) National Lampoon’s Senior Trip – 0%

Now this really is a movie that deserved better. It was a classic stoner teen comedy, with a plethora of talent behind it, including the hilarious Matt Frewer as the principal, who will sink to any depths for a laugh, Tommy Chong of Cheech and Chong fame as the pill-head bus driver, Kevin McDonald , my own personal favorite member of The Kids in the Hall comedy troupe as a psychotic Star Trek-obsessed crossing guard, and the very first appearance of the MCU’s Hawkeye, Jeremy Renner , as, well… the popular idiot in charge of the proceedings. It was funny, it was poignant (to a degree), and it was just a really, really fun watch. Watch this movie. You will laugh.

6) The Stoned Age – 0%

Now this one is a real obscurity. It was a movie about two dudes driving around in the seventies trying to find chicks. The plot deepens about a half an inch, but it’s a fun ride, with a kick-ass soundtrack featuring "Blue Oyster Cult," a bunch of seventies easter eggs including Frankie Avalon , and a whole bunch of ridiculous pot-fueled jokes, many of which make their landing. It’s also the first appearance of the very talented Clifton Collins, Jr. , and features an ending about what really matters in relationships, and about how to handle bullies, even if they’re your friends. This may all sound trite, but when mixed together, it forms a really funny, nostalgic, cohesive whole.

7) An American Werewolf in Paris – 7%

How do you follow up a cult classic gem like An American Werewolf in London ? Not like this. However, the sequel did have many things going for it. The cast included Tom Everett Scott , who has made quite a few vehicles better for having had him, as well as Julie Delpy , the French actress who made Before Sunrise and Before Sunset such beautiful experiences. Further, the werewolf transformation technology was pretty good for its time. The supporting cast, featuring Vince Vieluf and fan favorite Phil Buckman afforded the proceedings much in the way of comedy and action. I remember seeing this movie in a theater and being pleasantly surprised when the audience did a standing ovation after Buckman parkoured his way out of a basement window, escaping from an imprisoned werewolf. I had to stand up and applaud myself. It was bad-ass.

KEEP READING: 'Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker' Is Now the Worst-Reviewed 'Star Wars' Movie

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33 Shockingly Bad Movies That Are Considered The "Worst" Ever, Even Though Some Are Pretty Good

I have no words.

BuzzFeed Staff

Rotten Tomatoes has a ranking of the "100 worst movies of all time," according to reviews by critics. Below are 33 of the most popular ones, some of which you probably love, and others that, well, no comment.

1. all about steve (2009) — 6% on rotten tomatoes.

What it's about : "Convinced that a CCN cameraman is her true love, an eccentric crossword puzzler trails him as he travels all over the country, hoping to convince him that they belong together."

Who's in it :  Sandra Bullock , Bradley Cooper , Ken Jeong , and Thomas Haden Church

Here's the trailer:

View this video on YouTube

2. 365 days (2020) — 0% on rotten tomatoes.

What it's about : "Massimo is a member of the Sicilian Mafia family, and Laura is a sales director. She does not expect that, while trying to save her relationship on a trip to Sicily, Massimo will kidnap her and give her 365 days to fall in love with him."

Who's in it : Michele Morrone and Anna-Maria Sieklucka

Unfortunately, there's no trailer for 365 Days , but here's the trailer for its sequel, The Next 365 Days , which also has a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes:

3. From Justin to Kelly (2003) — 8% on Rotten Tomatoes

What it's about : "A waitress from Texas and a college student from Pennsylvania meet during spring break in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and come together through their shared love of singing."

Who's in it :  Kelly Clarkson , Justin Guarini, and Anika Noni Rose

4. Catwoman (2004) — 8% on Rotten Tomatoes

What it's about : "A shy woman (endowed with the speed, reflexes, and senses of a cat) walks a thin line between criminal and hero, even as a detective doggedly pursues her, fascinated by both of her personas."

Who's in it :  Halle Berry , Sharon Stone, Benjamin Bratt, Frances Conroy, and Alex Borstein

5. Playing for Keeps (2012) — 4% on Rotten Tomatoes

What it's about : "A former sports star who's fallen on hard times starts coaching his son's soccer team as a way to get his life together. His attempts to become an adult are met with challenges from the attractive soccer moms who pursue him at every turn."

Who's in it : Gerard Butler, Jessica Biel, Dennis Quaid, Uma Thurman, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Judy Greer

6. Movie 43 (2013) — 4% on Rotten Tomatoes

What it's about : "A series of interconnected short films follows a washed-up producer as he pitches wild storylines that feature some of the biggest stars in Hollywood."

Who's in it : Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Emma Stone, Common, Kate Winslet, Anna Faris, and Chris Pratt

7. Twisted (2004) — 2% on Rotten Tomatoes

What it's about : "Jessica, whose father killed her mother and then killed himself, is a police officer. While investigating a murder, she finds herself in the center of her own investigation, when her former lovers start being murdered."

Who's in it : Ashley Judd, Samuel L. Jackson, and Andy Garcia

8. Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997) — 4% on Rotten Tomatoes

What it's about : "A computer hacker breaks into the computer system of the Seabourn Legend cruise liner and sets it speeding on a collision course into a gigantic oil tanker."

Who's in it : Sandra Bullock, Willem Dafoe, and Jason Patric

9. Jack and Jill (2011) — 3% on Rotten Tomatoes

What it's about : "Family guy Jack Sadelstein prepares for the annual event he dreads: the Thanksgiving visit of his fraternal twin sister, the needy and passive-aggressive Jill, who then refuses to leave."

Who's in it : Adam Sandler, Al Pacino, Katie Holmes, and David Spade

10. Serving Sara (2002) — 4% on Rotten Tomatoes

What it's about : "A process server tries to serve an elusive female target."

Who's in it : Matthew Perry, Elizabeth Hurley, Cedric the Entertainer, Terry Crews, and Jerry Stiller

11. Fantasy Island (2020) — 8% on Rotten Tomatoes

What it's about : "When the owner and operator of a luxurious island invites a collection of guests to live out their most elaborate fantasies in relative seclusion, chaos quickly descends."

Who's in it : Lucy Hale, Michael Peña, Jimmy O. Yang, Austin Stowell, Ryan Hansen, and Maggie Q

12. Meet the Spartans (2008) — 2% on Rotten Tomatoes

What it's about : "A spoof of  300  and many other movies, shows, and pop culture events. King Leonidas of Sparta and his army of 12 go to war against Xerxes of Persia to fight to the death for Sparta's freedom."

Who's in it : Carmen Electra, Ike Barinholtz, Tiffany Haddish, and Sean Maguire

13. The Master of Disguise (2002) — 1% on Rotten Tomatoes

What it's about : "An Italian waiter fights off a criminal mastermind with his inherited powers of disguise."

Who's in it : Dana Carvey, Harold Gould, James Brolin, and Jennifer Esposito

14. Staying Alive (1983) — 0% on Rotten Tomatoes

What it's about : "The sequel to Saturday Night Fever . Five years later, Tony Manero is strutting toward his biggest challenge yet: succeeding as a dancer on the Broadway stage."

Who's in it : John Travolta and Finola Hughes

15. Because I Said So (2007) — 4% on Rotten Tomatoes

What it's about : "A meddling mother tries to set her daughter up with the right man so her kid won't follow in her footsteps."

Who's in it : Diane Keaton, Mandy Moore, Tom Everett Scott, Lauren Graham, and Piper Perabo

16. Nina (2016) — 2% on Rotten Tomatoes

What it's about : "The story of the late jazz musician and classical pianist Nina Simone, including her rise to fame and relationship with her manager, Clifton Henderson."

Who's in it : Zoe Saldaña and David Oyelowo

17. Cocktail (1988) — 9% on Rotten Tomatoes

What it's about : "A talented New York City bartender takes a job at a bar in Jamaica and falls in love."

Who's in it : Tom Cruise, Elisabeth Shue, and Bryan Brown

18. Glitter (2001) — 6% on Rotten Tomatoes

What it's about : "A young singer dates a disc jockey who helps her get into the music business, but their relationship becomes complicated as she ascends to super stardom."

Who's in it : Mariah Carey, Da Brat, Terrence Howard, Padma Lakshmi, and Eric Benét

19. Disaster Movie (2008) — 1% on Rotten Tomatoes

What it's about : "Over the course of one evening, an unsuspecting group of twenty-somethings finds themselves bombarded by a series of natural disasters and catastrophic events."

Who's in it : Carmen Electra, Vanessa Lachey, Kim Kardashian, and Ike Barinholtz

20. Baby Geniuses (1999) — 2% on Rotten Tomatoes

What it's about : "Scientists hold super-intelligent, talking babies captive, but things take a turn for the worse when a mix-up occurs between a baby genius and its twin."

Who's in it : Kathleen Turner, Christopher Lloyd, Kim Cattrall, and Ruby Dee

21. Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2 (2004) — 0% on Rotten Tomatoes

What it's about : "A group of smart-talking toddlers find themselves at the center of a media mogul's experiment to crack the code to baby talk. The toddlers must race against time for the sake of babies everywhere."

Who's in it : Jon Voight, Scott Baio, and Justin Chatwin

22. Norbit (2007) — 9% on Rotten Tomatoes

What it's about : "A mild-mannered guy who is married to a monstrous woman meets the woman of his dreams and schemes to find a way to be with her."

Who's in it : Eddie Murphy, Cuba Gooding Jr., Thandiwe Newton, and Terry Crews

23. Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 (2015) — 6% on Rotten Tomatoes

What it's about : "After six years of keeping our malls safe, Paul Blart has earned a well-deserved vacation. He heads to Las Vegas with his teenage daughter before she heads off to college...but safety never takes a holiday, and when duty calls, Blart answers."

Who's in it : Kevin James, Raini Rodriguez, David Henrie, and Ana Gasteyer

24. One for the Money (2012) — 2% on Rotten Tomatoes

What it's about : "Unemployed and newly divorced Stephanie Plum lands a job at her cousin's bail-bond business where her first assignment puts her on the trail of a wanted local cop from her romantic past."

Who's in it : Katherine Heigl, Debbie Reynolds, Daniel Sunjata, Sherri Shepherd, and Jason O'Mara

25. Material Girls (2006) — 4% on Rotten Tomatoes

What it's about : "Two wealthy sisters, both heiresses to their family's cosmetics fortune, are given a wake-up call when a scandal and ensuing investigation strip them of their wealth."

Who's in it : Hilary Duff, Haylie Duff, and Anjelica Huston

26. Scary Movie V (2013) — 4% on Rotten Tomatoes

What it's about : "A couple begins to experience some unusual activity after bringing their lost nieces and nephew home. With the help of home-surveillance cameras, they learn they're being stalked by a nefarious demon."

Who's in it : Simon Rex, Ashley Tisdale, Lindsay Lohan, Charlie Sheen, Snoop Dogg, and Darrell Hammond

27. Daddy Day Camp (2007) — 1% on Rotten Tomatoes

What it's about : "Seeking to offer his son the satisfying summer camp experience that eluded him as a child, the operator of a neighborhood daycare center opens his own camp, only to face financial hardship and stiff competition from a rival camp."

Who's in it : Cuba Gooding Jr., Tamala Jones, Lochlyn Munro, and Richard Gant

28. Problem Child (1990) — 0% on Rotten Tomatoes

What it's about : "A young boy is just short of a monster. He is adopted by a loving man and his wacky wife. The laughs keep coming as the boy pushes them to their limits."

Who's in it : John Ritter, Jack Warden, Gilbert Gottfried, Amy Yasbeck, and Michael Richards

29. Gigli (2003) — 6% on Rotten Tomatoes

What it's about : "Larry Gigli is assigned by a crime boss to kidnap the brother of a prominent district attorney. A beautiful woman known only as Ricki is sent to stay with him to make sure he doesn't mess up the job."

Who's in it : Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez, and Justin Bartha

30. Mother's Day (2016) — 8% on Rotten Tomatoes

What it's about : "Three generations come together in the week leading up to Mother's Day."

Who's in it : Julia Roberts, Jennifer Aniston, Kate Hudson, Jason Sudeikis, Timothy Olyphant, and Shay Mitchell

31. Boo 2! A Madea Halloween (2017) — 4% on Rotten Tomatoes

What it's about : "Madea, Bam, and Hattie venture to a haunted campground, and the group must run for their lives when monsters, goblins, and the boogeyman are unleashed."

Who's in it : Tyler Perry, Cassi Davis, Patrice Lovely, and Brock O'Hurn

32. The Last Airbender (2010) — 5% on Rotten Tomatoes

What it's about : "Aang, a young successor to a long line of Avatars, must master all four elements and stop the Fire Nation from enslaving the Water Tribes and the Earth Kingdom."

Who's in it : Dev Patel, Aasif Mandvi, Noah Ringer, and Nicola Peltz

33. The Emoji Movie (2017) — 6% on Rotten Tomatoes

What it's about : "Gene, a multi-expressional emoji, sets out on a journey to become a normal emoji."

Who's in it : James Corden, Anna Faris, Maya Rudolph, Jennifer Coolidge, Patrick Stewart, Sofía Vergara, and Christina Aguilera

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Bad Behaviour

“Never give in to hope.” Lucy ( Jennifer Connelly ) writes these words on the white board while attending a “semi-silent retreat”. The retreat’s atmosphere is tense, and Lucy is uptight and irritated, all of which defeats the whole purpose of a retreat. Judging from the motivational tapes she listens to in the car, and the fact she has attended this thing at all, Lucy is steeped in this self-help world. From the looks of it, it doesn’t seem to be helping. “Never give in to hope” is a pretty bleak statement, but we find out later she’s actually quoting the guru at this event, a smiling weird sage named Elon Bello ( Ben Whishaw ). Maybe Lucy is trying to imagine herself into Elon’s charmed circle of blissed-out enlightenment. Maybe she’s skeptical. Maybe she wants to be picked as Elon’s favorite and quotes him to get brownie points. It’s hard to tell.

It’s hard to tell about a lot of things in Alice Englert’s “Bad Behaviour”. The script, also by Englert, is ambitious in its exploration of the fraught ties between a mother and daughter, the two women so similar and yet separated by distrust and old wounds. The story is split between Lucy at the retreat and Lucy’s daughter Dylan (Englert, again), on location in New Zealand, working as a stuntwoman. This is meant to be a bifurcated tale, but Lucy’s journey is so much more compelling than Dylan’s, who mainly seems to be a giggly playful person, crushing on a fellow stunt guy, and avoiding her mother’s phone calls. Every time the film cuts away to a Dylan section, everything deflates. Dylan does eventually rise in importance in the second half of the film, but by then it’s too late.

Lucy’s journey is the real guts of “Bad Behaviour” and Connelly gives her best performance in years, mainly because Lucy is the best role she’s had in years. Lucy is all prickly defenses, all corners and angles. The other people at the retreat clock her immediately as not “one of them”. Three younger women interrogate her, and their dead eyes looking at her tell Lucy they have no interest in getting to know her, and they definitely don’t respect her as an “elder”. Her life experience means nothing to them. Lucy is a demanding role, and Connelly at times looks ravaged by the emotions tearing her up from the inside. Connelly outdoes herself.

Dasha Nekrasova plays the narcissistic Beverly, lazily self-satisfied, saying what Elon wants to hear, and looking on at other people with bored indifference. Dasha very quickly becomes Elon’s “favorite”: he laughs with pleasure when he sees her and tells the other participants to just follow Beverly’s lead. She is enlightened already; she can show them. Lucy is triggered by Beverly in a really outsized way. She can’t get a grip. She starts to deteriorate. Once the deterioration begins, it can’t be stopped.

How can Dylan giggling and flouncing around, somersaulting down the hallway, scrolling on her phone, compete with the Lucy’s breakdown? She can’t. The mother-daughter relationship is supposed to be central, at least the idea of it, but by the time Lucy and Dylan are brought back together, it’s hard to connect the dots. Something doesn’t add up. Every scene involving Lucy reveals a little bit more, while every scene involving Dylan just sits there onscreen, a flat wall revealing nothing.

“Bad Behaviour” is a frustrating watch. Englert doesn’t wrestle the material into a manageable form, and struggles to find a consistent tone. The retreat is rich ground for mockery. In fact, the retreat begs to be mocked (perhaps not to the level of “Semi-Tough,” but close). The guru’s name is Elon , for God’s sake. It’s a “ semi -silent retreat”. The retreat can’t even commit fully to silence! This is very funny, but nothing is made of it. Maybe the humor is unintentional. Beyond a couple glimpses of Elon not practicing what he preaches, the retreat and the desires behind such ventures aren’t interrogated. There isn’t a real point of view in operation. This gives the film a muffled inert feeling.

The only game in town here is Connelly’s masterful portrayal of a woman in the process of disintegrating, going beyond the pale of every norm there is, throwing off the restraints of a lifetime. It’s nice to see Connelly playing a prickly unfriendly woman, defensive but very intelligent. Her eyes are sharp. She doesn’t look at people. She sizes them up. Her performance is fascinating, and it deserves a better, more focused movie.

Sheila O'Malley

Sheila O’Malley received a BFA in Theatre from the University of Rhode Island and a Master’s in Acting from the Actors Studio MFA Program. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

• Jennifer Connelly as Lucy
• Alice Englert as Dylan
• Ben Whishaw as Elon Bello
• Ana Scotney as Petunia
• Dasha Nekrasova as Beverly
• Karan Gill as Leonard Gow
• Alice Englert

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The 15 most beloved so-bad-they're-good movies (ranked according to their rotten tomatoes scores).

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The key to a great 'so-bad-it's-good' movie is that it doesn't know how terrible it is. There's this constant feeling that someone put unrestrained effort into making it and the fact it's also so bad can, somehow, make it great in its own way. What must have been entire years of people's lives and huge amounts of their capital go into what amounts to 100-ish minutes of accidental comedy.

RELATED:  10 So Bad Its Good Comedies That Are Funny For The Wrong Reasons

These movies are best enjoyed with friends and an attitude that's prepared something that's mindblowing in all the wrong ways, and many are available on streaming services online. Due to their awful ratings on both IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes, they're also often available for free.

Updated on November 14th, 2021 by Mark Birrell:  So-bad-it's-good movies have become an art form in their right at this point, and the fact that they can only truly be made by accident makes them quite rare too. The best of the worst have, for the longest time, been closely guarded secrets by only the most masochistic cineastes but, in more recent years, the funniest so-bad-it's-good movies have gained enough notoriety to appear on widely accessible streaming services, and should be sought out for anyone looking for a unique experience.

Fateful Findings (2013)

Rotten tomatoes score: no critics consensus.

• Available to purchase on Prime Video 

Writer/director/producer/actor Neil Breen has become one of a number of modern filmmakers to live up to the standard set by the legendary Tommy Wiseau, his distinctly awful idiosyncracies moving beyond 'so-bad-it's-good' to something more akin to 'so-bad-it's-art'.

Breen's low-budget high-ego movies often cast him as some kind of superhuman–or even Christlike–figure but his third movie rather tamely just casts him as the world's greatest hacker who is able to use his powers to undo all corruption in society. The nonsensical plot is typical of most notably bad productions but it's Breen's overall sense of timing, mixed with the awkward performances of the entire cast, that truly elevate  Fateful Findings  to the realm of unintentional comedy gold.

Samurai Cop (1991)

• Available on Tubi

This movie has the most luscious hair ever seen on film, and it's a wig that the main star wears in about half the movie because of reshoots after he shaved his head.

Edited into swiss cheese so that actors could be in scenes together without having shot them as such, you'll cry laughing at the attempts at comedy and sexiness. Stilted acting from everyone, as well as jarring tonal shifts, make this an iconic favorite of bad movie fans.

Miami Connection (1987)

Rotten tomatoes score: 68%.

• Available on Pluto TV and Tubi

Evil ninjas, '80s club 'rock' so hardcore that one of the lyrics is "friends for eternity, stick together through thick or thin", martial arts that's super light on the 'arts', about half a dozen shirtless men sharing a miniature apartment,  Miami Connection is the leader in all of these fields.

The music is awful but, at the same time, also incredibly catchy and oddly quotable. The actors are clearly giving their all and their failures are so entertaining. The action in the movie is so close to being good but it ends up just too silly, and shot so strangely, that it's mesmerically confusing. A true classic of so-bad-it's-good movies.

Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)

Rotten tomatoes score: 66%.

Ed Wood was a director who couldn't grasp why he liked cinema so much, but he pressed right on making things anyway and this was his opus. Sets that make liberal use of curtains if they bother with a background at all, narration over far too much of everything, and hilarious effects, makeup, and writing come together in this so-bad-it's-good movie. One stretch of road gets so much screentime, it should've been credited.

RELATED:  Sleepaway Camp & 9 More Forgotten So-Bad-It's-Good '80s Horror Movies

The movie's big 'star', Bela Lugosi, died before production ended (or really began) and Wood hired a chiropractor to pull a cape across his face to finish the scenes they needed. Narration connected the loose Lugosi Dracula-ish scenes to a story about grave-robbing aliens and zombies, and of course, it all went tragically wrong.

Jupiter Ascending (2015)

Rotten tomatoes score: 28%.

Huge stars, reliable character actors, a huge budget, and the creative brainpower of the iconic Wachowskis.  Jupiter Ascending   was meant to be a massive hit when it was released  and came close in many ways, but it was quickly revealed to be the definition of a flop .

From Mila Kunis and Channing Tatum's lack of onscreen chemistry to Eddie Redmayne's scenery-chewing performance, the movie is a messy experience and not even Sean Bean's character helping out with mountains of exposition can make it coherent.

The Room (2003)

Rotten tomatoes score: 23%.

Perhaps the most famous so-bad-it's-good movie ever made and for good reason. The subject of  The Disaster Artist , writer, producer, director, and star Tommy Wiseau made something so unintentionally fascinating  that it transcended genre and form.

Tuxedo football-tossing games, inexplicable conversations, overlong softcore weirdness primarily featuring Tommy's glutes, clueless characters, and whiplash tonal changes confound the audience at every turn. It must be seen to be believed.

Wish Upon (2017)

Rotten tomatoes score: 19%.

• Available on Tubi, Crackle, and Fubo TV

Wish Upon  is a fairly derivative teen horror movie about a musical wish box that acts like the famous Monkey's Paw, with the tone and plot straddling a line between  Final Destination   and  Goosebumps . In this respect, it's quite normal but this is a movie where it's best to turn on the subtitles because it would be a crime to miss any of its howlingly hilarious dialogue.

Unconvincing teenage slang always sticks out like a sore thumb in screenplays and there are few movies that hinge on it as hard as  Wish Upon  does. Lines like "Maybe in the multiverse, neither of us farted" are magnificently excruciating, not to mention the neverending world-class insults such as "I mean, she's supey smegma. Like, ultimate smegma."

Birdemic: Shock and Terror (2010)

Rotten tomatoes score: 18%.

• Available on Tubi and Prime Video

Birdemic has everything a viewer could want in a so-bad-it's-good movie. The special effects are so terribly unconvincing that they mock the phrase itself. The acting is so painfully bad it makes the entire cast seem plucked off the street on the day of shooting.

RELATED:  10 Movies Where The Acting Is So Bad It’s Good

For half the story, the audience is bombarded with some of the most hamfistedly moralistic messaging ever seen in a movie, and then it becomes something entirely funnier as birds straight out of a 1996 windows screensaver assault the heroes.

The Happening (2008)

• Available on HBO Max

Writer and director M. Night Shyamalan had been falling out of favor with both critics and audiences for some time before  The Happening   came out. But, for many people, this confounding take on the Hollywood disaster movie was the final straw. For others though, it was a landmark in an emerging genre of almost avant-garde comedy, regardless of whether or not it was intended to be.

Performances are, again, a big highlight in this bigger-budgeted  Birdemic , and made all the more interesting and entertaining by the fact that they're coming from remarkably expensive and experienced actors. Though, it's easy to see how anyone could struggle with the material. The non-sequiturs alone in Shyamalan's progressively nonsensical script are enough to make a person's head spin, and that's not counting one of the most famously underwhelming plot twists in movie history .

The Wicker Man (2006)

Rotten tomatoes score: 15%.

• Available to purchase on Prime Video

Not to be confused with Robin Hardy's 1973 original movie  The Wicker Man , which is by all rights a classic of the horror genre, this 2006 remake starring none other than the overacting champion of the world himself, Mr. Nicolas Cage, was famously hated by critics and general audiences on release.

Part of this is certainly because of its direct link to a much better movie, which this can be viewed as some kind of tarnishing of, but the 2006 version of  The Wicker Man  is no ordinarily bad movie. Its bizarre storytelling and performance choices denote a far less experienced director and star than it had. But, as many of the now-infamous clips of Cage's acting in the movie demonstrate, it has a strangely compelling energy running through it that often results in hilariously unexpected moments.

Batman & Robin (1997)

Rotten tomatoes score: 12%.

Batman & Robin was so bad that it put the very successful series of live-action  Batman  movies in a deep freeze for several years. Joel Schumacher went full camp with his second effort and nobody in the cast takes things seriously, save for a few select scenes with Bruce and Alfred. But otherwise, it's ice and plant puns all the way!

This isn't really a good choice for hardcore Batman fans. But fans of tacky word-based puns and misplaced '60s razzmatazz will feel right at home.

The Incredible Melting Man (1977)

Rotten tomatoes score: 7%.

• Available on Paramount+

No one can ever accuse  The Incredible Melting Man  of false advertising, except for maybe the "incredible" part. But, mostly, the audience gets what it pays for here.

Released the same year as  Star Wars , this sci-fi story of a radioactive astronaut who wanders around the hills attacking people and, well, melting is as unremarkable as they come, if a little humorous due to its simplicity. But the copious make-up effects that it entails, some of which were from the renowned Rick Baker, have helped it to stand out as a grossly entertaining oddity from an era of significant progress in genre filmmaking.

Troll 2 (1990)

Rotten tomatoes score: 5%.

• Available on Hulu and Paramount+

How could producers possibly top the grandeur and majesty of Troll ? Well, this didn't do it but Troll 2  was definitely a good laugh for audiences with the right mindset.

RELATED:  10 Funniest Quotes From Troll 2

It starts by removing all the trolls, adding in wonderfully 'blarty' keyboard music, making every actor both weird to look at and behave in ways that defy explanation and these are the foundations of the infamously bad  Troll 2 .

Battlefield Earth (2000)

Rotten tomatoes score: 3%.

• Available on Netflix

Needlessly tilted camera angles and goofy aliens are mixed with an Oscar-winning actor giving a Razzie-winning performance in  Battlefield Earth and seekers of movies so bad they're good will be fully rewarded by choosing this notorious trainwreck.

Battlefield Earth is a triumph of wrong decisions for an entire blockbuster-length feature. The story makes no sense, there are plotholes galore, the aforementioned cameras have one leg shorter than the other for 97% of the movie, and those are just the filmmaking gaffes. Fans of John Travolta will never be able to look at him quite the same way again after viewing this movie.

Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966)

Rotten tomatoes score: 0%.

This is the movie that put the 'cult' in cult classic. When a suburban family spends the night at a little house with the confusing Torgo, their lives are forever changed. As will the lives of anyone watching, if they manage to sit through this entire thing, that is.

Most other so-bad-it's-good movies have some redeeming features in one respect or another, but not Manos . Acting? Insipid. Storyline? Incomprehensible. Editing? A testament to wrongness. Music? Bad and used in ways that human ears were not meant to suffer through. And yet, somehow, beyond all likelihood, it forces laughter from viewers whether they want it to or not. It's endlessly bizarre.

NEXT:  10 Best So-Bad-They're-Good Horror Movies On Netflix

• rotten tomatoes

Poor Things Review

12 Jan 2024

Poor Things

The original 1992 novel by Alasdair Gray on which  Poor Things  was based — or, to give it its full, appropriately ludicrous title,  Poor Things: Episodes From The Early Life Of Archibald McCandless M.D., Scottish Public Health Officer  — was never seriously considered as obvious film fodder before director Yorgos Lanthimos came along. It’s a curious, meandering tome, told by at least four narrators of varying degrees of reliability, documenting a unique take on the Frankenstein mythology: the coming-of-age of Bella Baxter, a young woman powered by the brain of her own baby who learns about feminism, social justice and sexual mores in Victorian Glasgow.

Lanthimos matches Gray’s sensibilities like a close cousin. Perhaps cinema’s best absurdist, the Greek filmmaker has always been able to tread a delicate line between ridiculous dark comedy and rich emotional and political truths, from  The Killing Of A Sacred Deer  to  The Favourite ; he and screenwriter Tony McNamara — a co-writer of  The Favourite , and creator of similarly ahistorical romp  The Great  — have here fashioned a surreal steampunk spectacular, a riotous dissection of gender dynamics, and perhaps the most nakedly entertaining entry in Lanthimos’ swellingly accomplished career.

It is funnier, swearier and hornier than Gray’s original novel, necessarily trimmed in certain places, beefed up in others. The final part of the book, which hands the narrator-reins to Bella and completely recalibrates everything that went before it, is boldly excised; in its place, the perspective and the focus shifts from the gentle-hearted Archibald McCandlesss (here renamed Max McCandles) to Bella herself, the themes of patriarchy and female agency lifted to the surface.

Emma Stone has turned in maybe her richest, most interesting, utterly fearless performance yet.

That decision hands the centre-stage to Bella, and to Emma Stone. She makes the very most of that spotlight. Clearly still intoxicated by her collaboration with the director on  The Favourite , Stone has turned in maybe her richest, most interesting, utterly fearless performance yet. She begins as a literal baby, an acting challenge that in the wrong hands could feel like a drama-school exercise; with Stone at the wheel, it’s odd, keenly observed, full of texture and wisdom. Bella’s progression is both incremental and rapid: beginning non-verbally, she slowly builds a vocabulary, ending the film as a thesaurus-verbose polymath, gleeful in her curiosity, incautious in her lack of filter. Watching her work is a constant, unpredictable thrill.

This is a consciously silly role, and requires a huge amount of nudity — a coming-of-age in every sense of the word ‘coming’ — but Stone has always been just as good at the intuitive, subtle notes as the big, outrageous ones. Just as Bella learns to be, Stone is in total command of her body as an instrument, wielding it with a surgeon’s precision in sketching a journey of enlightenment.

That journey is shaped by the men of her life, who seem to represent different expressions of masculinity: there is her proxy father Godwin, played by a stately and stubborn and typically stellar Willem Dafoe, whom Bella refers to as ‘God’. There is her gentle husband-to-be Max (Ramy Youssef, impressive in what is effectively his film debut). And there is Duncan Wedderburn, her first lover, played by Mark Ruffalo. Like a kind of big-screen take on  The Fast Show ’s 13th Duke of Wybourne, Duncan is the definition of cad. Ruffalo, endlessly droll, offers up gems like, “At the risk of being immodest, you’ve just been thrice fucked by the very best,” with a preposterous English accent, a raised eyebrow, and a rakish twiddle of his moustache.

As Bella and Duncan embark on a kind of gaudy Grand Tour — which involves seeing the world, vomiting up custard tarts, and repeatedly “furious jumping” each other — the gorgeous imagery from prolific Irish cinematographer Robbie Ryan shifts from Gothic black-and-white to a hyperreal saturated colour palette, blossoming just as Bella’s own social and cultural palette expands too. Her perspective is a kind of alt-Victorian dreamscape, with psychedelic skies and realism-be-damned diversions. The off-kilter tone is only firmed up by Jerskin Fendrix’s brilliantly daffy, discordant score, as if Mica Levi soundtracked a CBBC show.

The combined effect leaves you with a giddy cinematic high: like eating too many pastel de natas laced with hallucinogens. Yet Lanthimos again somehow finds an absurdist line dripping in substance. He, McNamara and Stone ultimately grant Bella her agency and self-possession — and with it, the most infectiously bizarre, cocktail-clinking happy ending in cinema history. A goat is involved. Hardly obvious film fodder — but that’s what we’ve come to expect from this lot.

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Rotten Tomatoes can make or break a film's success — is that a problem?

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Rotten Tomatoes has been a go-to source for movie reviews for years - and its ratings can make or break a film's success. But some say the site has major flaws in its ratings system.

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New Horror Movie Finally Gets Its Scary Bad Reviews at the Last Minute Before Release

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Move over Siri and Alexa... AIA is here to help. Unfortunately, there's not much any kind of artifical intelligence can do about this Rotten Tomatoes score. AfrAId is receiving some unbelievably frightening reviews, and the latest Blumhouse production currently registers only 19% on the Tomatometer against 16 critiques as a result. The horror film’s review embargo didn’t lift until the very last minute, which is always a glaring warning sign. Typically, a studio arguably does something of this nature in order to keep terrible word of mouth from spreading, and in this case it seems they were right to wait. The New York Times’ Elisabeth Vincentelli writes:

This scenario’s predictability could be forgiven were the movie effective on any level, but it just isn’t, from Cho and Waterston’s wooden performances to jump scares that would not startle Scooby-Doo.

Charlotte Simmons of We Got This Covered gives AfrAId a 1.5-out-4 rating, and the assessment delivers perhaps the most entertaining and hilarious lines of all the reviews available online:

Alexa, send this underbaked, untethered failure back to the cutting room; AfrAId locks a genuinely fantastic idea behind a firewall of abysmal storytelling.

Dennis Harvey of Variety adds:

When crises start occurring at the halfway mark, they pile on too quickly to underwhelming effect, sacrificing credibility for excitement that never really materializes.

At least A.A. Dowd of IGN found some cinematic solace thanks to the film’s stars, which is led by Harold & Kumar’s Cho and Fantastic Beasts' Katherine Waterston. Dowd, who scores AfrAId 4 out of 10, says:

The stars are about the only reason to boot up this preposterous thriller, which ends up playing less like a critique of AI technology than another daydream about its power.

Afraid Still Has Legit Chance at Box Office Success

AfrAId is one of a handful of new and underwhelming titles opening on the final weekend of 2024’s summer movie season. But John Cho and Katerine Waterston’s big-screen battle against the dangerous in-home artificial intelligence assistant known as AIA has more than just dreadful reviews and a poor Rotten Tomatoes score to overcome. The latest Blumhouse production also stumbles out of the gates financially, too.

On Thursday, August 29, advance screenings of AfrAId dropped in theaters long before today’s review embargo lifted, and the results are not good. Blumhouse’s latest dip in the horror genre pool only brought in $400,000 during its preview showtimes (per The Numbers ). For a film that was predicted to make between $7 million and $12 million over the holiday weekend, AfrAId is off to a horrific start.

By comparison, Blumhouse’s Night Swim started its theatrical run back in January by making $1.45 million during its Thursday previews. Director Bryce McGuire’s horror flick went on to make $54.7 million worldwide. And another Blumhouse production, Imaginary ($725,000), didn’t fare as well as Night Swim, but it still made more than AfrAId did from its previews.

Shocking Horror Remake's Box Office Forecast Predicts Scary Numbers

Blumhouse’s latest macabre movie will likely make plenty of moolah over its opening weekend, which happens to fall on Friday the 13th.

Imaginary went on to amass $43.6 million globally. Now, this is where things take a turn toward the light. While AfrAId didn’t perform well on Thursday, it could still rebound over the four-day holiday weekend. Much like AfrAId , both Night Swim and Imaginary received scathing reviews from the critics, which resulted in 20% and 24% Tomatometer ratings respectively.

So, the film could still become a profitable production despite the poor reviews, RT score and Thursday previews. But, even if AfrAId makes a killing at the box office, though, its doubtful anybody will ever regard the diabolical artificial intelligence story as one of Blumhouse’s best movies.

AfrAId is now playing in theaters.

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Longlegs’ on VOD, an Unforgettable Serial Killer Horror-Thriller Starring a Never-Creepier Nicolas Cage

Where to stream:.

• Nicolas Cage

Is ‘Longlegs’ Based on A True Story?

New movies on streaming: ‘inside out 2,’ ‘longlegs,’ + more, ‘longlegs’ comes to digital, but will ‘longlegs’ be streaming on hulu, ‘land of bad’ solidifies russell crowe as a netflix king — without making any actual netflix movies.

Longlegs ( now streaming on VOD services like Amazon Prime Video ) is the year’s biggest horror phenomenon: A creepy and effective marketing campaign and the promise of an on-brand-as-ever unhinged Nicolas Cage performance resulted in $100 million at the box office, a huge take for an artsy serial killer thriller with a $10 million budget, on an indie imprint (NEON). It boasts further cred via star Maika Monroe, of It Follows fame, and finds writer/director Osgood Perkins – son of Psycho star Anthony Perkins – jumping from promising horror filmmaker to full-fledged auteur. 

LONGLEGS : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Note: This movie takes place in a world where Satanism isn’t just hooey bull roar. I think. Something extraworldly is going on here, and it starts in the 1970s with a partial reveal of Longlegs (Cage) greeting young Lee Harker (Lauren Acala) outside her lonely and isolated home in rural Oregon. The tight aspect ratio broadens as we jump to the ’90s, and learn that Lee survived the encounter despite its more disturbing elements. She’s now FBI Agent Lee Harker (Monroe) – perhaps better described as FBI Agent Lee Harker With the Haunted Middle-Distance Stare. What happened 20ish years ago? We’ll get to that. For now, she’s the rare female FBI agent, Clarice Starling-style. In a room surrounded by men. And I think she’s psychic? A serial killer is out there and she and her partner get to knocking on doors and she just feels that he’s in that house over there. And she’s right. 

Next she’s paired with Agent Carter (Blair Underwood), who’s on a particularly troublesome serial killer case: Longlegs. Lee says nothing about her childhood encounter with the man – she either doesn’t remember or doesn’t make the connection or doesn’t want to do either. For decades, Longlegs has been central to a nigh-impenetrable mystery for law enforcement, leaving cryptic letters in Satanic code at crime scenes that are all similar in the sense that fathers murder their spouses and children and then kill themselves – but there’s no trace of Longlegs to be found. Physical, anyway. Psychic, though? Oh man. I dunno. How do you measure vibes and voodoo? “He murders them, but not in person,” puzzles Carter. And so Lee and her somewhat dodgy “powers” are assigned to the case, because this has been going on too damn long and there’s desperation in the air. 

And so Lee gets to decoding the cryptograms and falling asleep on the floor in front of arrays of grisly crime scene photos. Her house is a spartan cabin. Does she have friends? I dunno. She calls her mother Ruth (Alicia Witt), who asks, “Are you still saying your prayers?” (Note: She’s not.) Lee and Carter pursue clues that direct them toward some dodgy numerology, occult whatnot and some creepy lifelike life-size dolls of young girls. Now, we saw some of Cage’s visage in the opening moments, but we see it in all its glory not long after, so it’s no spoiler to say Longlegs has a pale, explosion-at-the-plastic-surgery-factory face, the kind of face you don’t forget. And his voice? Piiiiiiinnnnnnched. It seems to fairly accurately reflect the torment happening inside his headbone. We see him out in public at a hardware store and the terminally bored girl behind the register at the mom-and-pop says, “Daddy! That gross guy is back again!” Longlegs, we learn, also really likes T. Rex. What can I say? Early glam rock can be pretty terrific. Inspiring, too. Say what you will about the guy, but you can’t say he has bad taste in tunes.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: The Silence of the Lambs , Se7en and Zodiac are all obvious touchstones, and It Follows seems to bear some influence on the pacing and eerie atmosphere. But listening to my raised hackles whispering, the vibe is all David Lynch a la Mullholland Dr. or Inland Empire .

Performance Worth Watching: It’s always a hell of a ride when Cage comes unglued, isn’t it? Kiernan Shipka turns up in a slightly-longer-than-a-cameo role that chills you down to your mitochondria. But Monroe is Longlegs ’ anchor, playing a woman who seems slightly detached from reality, like an alien in a human suit; her solemnity hints at the loneliness, sorrow and depression percolating beneath the surface.

Memorable Dialogue: Longlegs lets rip: “Daddy! Mommy! Unmake me! And save me from the hell of living!”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: Longlegs is this year’s prominent exercise in laughter-as-defense-mechanism – it’s the only way to cope with a 100-minute submersion in a world where unearthly inexplicable evil can be supplicated by deranged men. Not that the film is egregiously supernatural; the devil lurks in the margins around these here parts. Demons are not conjured in displays heavy with visual effects. They’re visible only within the minds of the characters and audience, all of whom are trapped in this setting, which functions with the incongruity and maddening illogic of a surrealist dream. 

Perkins drops in near-subliminal red-saturated shots of snakes, fixates on Monroe’s glassy empty eyes, forces us to contemplate the decay within people and their settings. The mood is malignant. Voidlike. Poisoned. Hopeless? Maybe, but the protagonists fight the good fight. The tone is so quietly extreme it borders on absurdity, with sets designed to feel cold and empty or sweltering and decaying. Cage is the peak of the rollercoaster, appearing in only a handful of scenes to pluck the one nerve that simultaneously gives you a chill and makes you laugh. 

So it’s a highly effective film, an exemplary creeper uninterested in being neat and tidy. It wriggles out of the grip of easy genre classification, falling into the chasm between occult horror outings and reality-based procedurals. Narratively, it’s scattered upon opening, and comes together and frays apart a few times as the story plays out. The details matter; the details don’t matter. This will trouble viewers who prize orderliness and logic, but atmosphere is Perkins’ emphasis, and that atmosphere is necrotic, spiked with searing imagery and the blackest, bleakest comedy.

This essentially is a movie about compromise in a world where morality is a seed sowed in an arid desert. Agent Lee’s case involves distressing birthday cards, Satanic ephemera, submerged memories that won’t stay drowned. The clues seem to add up, but then they kind of don’t – how can you quantify madness? The madness of a man reflecting the madness of the world? Chaos, as the throw pillow in my family room reads, reigns. And it rarely reigns more ruthlessly than in Longlegs . 

Our Call: STREAM IT. Sweet dreams, kids: Longlegs is unforgettable, for better or worse.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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