The films listed here have achieved a significant level of infamy through critical and popular consensus as being among the worst films ever made. The films have either been cited by a combination of reputable sources as the worst movie of the year, or been on such a source's list of worst movies. Examples of such sources include the Golden Raspberry Awards ("Razzies"), Roger Ebert's list of most hated films, and the Internet Movie Database's "Bottom 100" list.
While B-movies aren't generally presented or accepted as fine cinema in the first place, some of the films from this genre have become known for being markedly worse than others. Some of these are the result of filmmakers who couldn't perceive their own incompetence[citation needed] (examples of which include Ed Wood and Coleman Francis), or whose creative vision outstrips their technical or financial resources, such as Roger Corman. Other examples include many films featured on the television spoof show Mystery Science Theater 3000. In its 10-year run on television, this show brought many extremely obscure, poorly made films into the public consciousness.
However, some B-movies have become cult classics, partly as a result of their peculiarities. Fans of low-budget cult films often use the phrase "so bad it's good" to describe movies that are so poorly made that they actually become an entertaining "comedy of errors." Unlike more mundane bad films, these films actually develop an ardent fan following who love them because of their poor quality, because normally, the bevy of errors (technical or artistic) or wildly contrived plots are unlikely to be seen elsewhere.
A semi-autobiographical quasi-documentary about transvestism, starring and directed by Ed Wood. After a nightmarish dream sequence, Glen undergoes psychotherapy to help cure his affliction. Bela Lugosi appears in this film, as he did in several other Wood films during the twilight of his career. Many of Wood's fans and critic Leonard Maltin insist that this was far worse than Plan 9 from Outer Space; Maltin considers it the worst movie ever made. In his book Cult Movies 3, Danny Peary suggests that this is actually a radical, if ineptly made, film that presents a far more personal story than is contained in films by more well-respected auteurs. This film was included in the 2004 DVD documentary The 50 Worst Movies Ever Made.
An Ed Wood-style science fiction film, originally shot and exhibited in 3D, featuring an actor dressed in a gorilla suit and what looks almost like a diving helmet. The film is listed in Michael Sauter's book The Worst Movies of All Time among "The Baddest of the B's". It is also featured in The Book of Lists 10 worst movie list, in The Fifty Worst Films of All Time, and in the 2004 DVD documentary The 50 Worst Movies Ever Made. It was featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000[1] and was a childhood favorite of author Stephen King.[2]
Plan 9 was labeled the "Worst Film Ever" by the Golden Turkey Awards. This movie marked the final appearance of Bela Lugosi. Wood idolized Lugosi, and before Lugosi's death, he shot several minutes of Lugosi extemporizing. This was then placed in the movie (and repeated several times). Following Lugosi's death, the character was then played by Tom Mason, the chiropractor of Wood's wife at the time, who played his scenes holding the character's cape in front of his face. Wood was apparently undeterred by the numerous physical differences — such as height and build — that distinguished Mason from Lugosi; i.e., that Mason was nearly bald while Lugosi retained a full head of hair until his death. (Years later, one video distributor made light of this, adding the blurb "Almost Starring Bela Lugosi" on the tape box.) Due to difficulty in finding a willing distributor, the film was not released until 1959. The film has played regularly at the New Orleans Worst Film Festival. This film was included in the 2004 DVD documentary The 50 Worst Movies Ever Made. Plan 9 was also mocked on the television series Seinfeld, by Jerry in the episode "The Chinese Restaurant," where he said,
...this isn't like plans one through eight. This is plan nine; this is the one that worked! The worst movie ever made!
In 1994, Tim Burton directed Ed Wood which was loosely based on the trials and tribulations of making Plan 9. In the television series The X-Files, Fox Mulder watches Plan 9 whenever he needs to focus on a difficult problem, claiming that the film is so incredibly bad that it shuts down the logic centers of his brain, allowing him to make intuitive leaps of logic. In the 1996 edition of Cult Flicks and Trash Pics, the authors state that
...the film has become so famous for its own badness that it's now beyond criticism.
An incoherent film by Coleman Francis shot silently with added narration. It features a seminude prologue completely unrelated to the rest of the film, and a scientist turning into a monster played by Tor Johnson. Leonard Maltin's TV and Movie Guide calls it "one of the worst films ever made".[3]Bill Warren said "It may very well be the worst non-pornoscience fiction movie ever made."[4] Numerous amateur reviews of Plan 9 from Outer Space have cited this film as an example of something worse. Also featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000.
"Manos" The Hands of Fate has an opening nine-minute sequence in which nothing much happens but endless driving through the countryside, due to the opening credits being left out.[5]
A Herschell Gordon Lewis-directed film, Monster was begun as Terror at Halfday by Bill Rebane, who would later go on to make The Giant Spider Invasion (another infamous bomb); the film was left incomplete, only to be purchased by Lewis, who reportedly needed a second film to release on a double bill, and who shot some additional footage. The picture consists mostly of men sitting around drinking coffee and talking; the ending consists of a long speech by the narrator informing us that "there was no monster." All Movie Guide calls the film a "surreal anti-masterpiece".[6] At one time it held the #1 spot on the IMDb Bottom 100. Also featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000.[7]
When Martian children get to see Santa Claus only on TV, their parents decide to abduct Santa to make them happy. Like many others in this category, it has been featured in Mystery Science Theater 3000[8] and is also included in the IMDb's worst 100. Also cited on a 10-worst list in The Book of Lists, in The Fifty Worst Films of All Time, and in the 2004 DVD documentary The 50 Worst Movies Ever Made. It features an early screen appearance by Pia Zadora. The Canadian TV channel Space: The Imagination Station airs this film every Christmas as a "salute" to bad sci-fi. KPTS in Wichita, Kansas aired this on Christmas Eve 2005 as family-friendly entertainment. The movie's theme song, "Hurray for Santy Claus," has been described as an "off-tune, hideously infectious jingle."[9]
A low-budget horror film made by El Paso fertilizer salesman Hal Warren. The film gained cult popularity by being featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000.[10] It has held the #1 movie on the IMDb Bottom 100 repeatedly. Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino owns a rare 35 mm copy of the film, and has stated that it is his favorite "comedy".[5] It also has a 9% rating at Rotten Tomatoes,[11] and the one positive review linked on Rotten Tomatoes is for its Mystery Science Theater appearance rather than the film itself (which the reviewer, Mike Bracken, calls "unwatchable").[12]
Troll 2 is the unofficial sequel of the Empire Pictures film Troll, even though there is no relation between their stories. There are no actual trolls in Troll 2, only goblins. The film's hallmarks include atrocious acting, plastic masks for the goblins, an incoherent and sometimes downright incomprehensible plot, and some of the worst dialogue ever written. Recently, Michael Nelson riffed this movie as part of Rifftrax series of films.
Star vehicles
Some films listed here starred A-list actors whom critics felt were either badly miscast, paired or grouped with other stars with whom they did not share viable chemistry, or cast in an otherwise poorly-made film that relied entirely on their star power.
A Howard Hughes-funded box-office disaster featuring John Wayne as Genghis Khan and the redheaded Susan Hayward as a Tatar princess. The movie was filmed in Utah downwind from an atomic testing range in Nevada and is often blamed for the cancer deaths of many of the cast and crew, including Hayward, Wayne, Agnes Moorehead,[13] Mexican actor Pedro Armendariz and director Dick Powell (although according to an A&E NetworkBiography episode, Wayne also typically smoked five packs of cigarettes a day). The film appears in Michael Sauter's book The Worst Movies of All Time and made the 10-worst list in The Book of Lists. Hughes thought the movie was so bad that he bought up every copy (which cost him about $12 million), and he refused to distribute the film until 1974, when Paramount reached a deal with him. This would be the last film that Hughes would produce.
A biopic starring Omar Sharif as iconic revolutionary Che Guevara, this made the decision to ignore the formative pre-Cuban revolution sections of Che's life as described in the autobiographical book The Motorcycle Diaries. It was criticised for Sharif's lackluster performance, Jack Palance's decision to play Fidel Castro as a comedic buffoon, its poorly shot action scenes, and dialogue. This averaged 3.5/10 on the IMDb,[14] When released in Argentina, some disgusted theatregoers threw Molotov cocktails at the screen.[15]
An adaptation of Mae West'sBroadway musical of the same name is widely considered one of the most embarrassing sex comedies ever made, which Variety dubbed "a cruel, unnecessary and mostly unfunny musical comedy",[16] as an overweight 83-year old (at the time of filming) West maintained her sex kitten role while uttering quips such as "I'm the girl who works for Paramount all day, and Fox all night", and who croaked a duet with new sixth husband Sir Michael Barrington (a 34-year old Timothy Dalton), a disco rendition of "Love Will Keep Us Together". The film also featured cameos by Ringo Starr, Tony Curtis, a makeup-less Alice Cooper singing Van McCoy'sNext, Next while dressed like Elton John, and Dom Deluise warbling the Beatles' "Honey Pie."
Although the movie had a cast of prominent stars, including Laurence Olivier (during the twilight of his film career, in which he had taken many critically panned roles due to his failing health, meaning he could no longer act on stage, and so only films were left), this war epic "won" four Razzies: Worst Picture, Worst Actor (Olivier), Worst Director (Terence Young), and Worst Screenplay. It was named Worst Movie of the Year by Esquire. This movie was also criticized for being financed and produced by the Unification Church, and Sun Myung Moon was a "Special Advisor" to the film. It has never been released on video or DVD.
Starring the Oscar-nominated actor Ryan O'Neal, this film was widely panned by critics upon its release. It won five Razzies, including Worst Picture. With an estimated budget of $10 million, Burn Hollywood Burn only grossed approximately $45,000, making it a tremendous box office failure. Roger Ebert gave the film a rare zero out of four stars, calling it a "spectacularly bad film — incompetent, unfunny, ill-conceived, badly executed, lamely written, and acted by people who look trapped in the headlights."[17] It is also on his "most hated" list.[18] In the documentary Directed by Alan Smithee, Director Arthur Hiller stated he had his credit replaced with Alan Smithee not for publicity, but because the film was re-edited in an MTV-style without his involvement.
Battlefield Earth was a box office bomb, earning back only $27.9 million of its $73 million budget and bankrupting Franchise Pictures.Based on the first half of L. Ron Hubbard's thousand-page novel of the same name, starring John Travolta. Heavily hyped by the Church of Scientology, it had the third worst 3,000-theater-plus opening weekend up to that time. More than one reviewer called the film "Travolting".[19][20] Rob Vaux called the film a "crime against celluloid".[21] Several describe the pain experienced while watching it.[22] It has a three percent Rotten Tomatoes rating (listing 3 positive reviews out of 96).[23] The film won seven Golden Raspberry Awards, including Worst Picture and Worst Screen Couple (John Travolta and "anyone on the screen with him").[24] In 2005, an eighth Razzie (for Worst "Drama" of Our First 25 Years) was awarded to the film.[25] Maxim magazine printed, "Even Quentin Tarantino couldn't revive Travolta's career after this movie." To further cement its status in bad cinema, a RiffTrax commentary featuring Kevin Murphy, Mike Nelson and Bill Corbett from Mystery Science Theater 3000 was released in early 2007 after being off-the-air for nearly eight years.
This action movie, starring Lucy Liu and Antonio Banderas, was universally panned by critics, earning a rare zero percent rating (with 103 reviews) on Rotten Tomatoes.[26] Rotten Tomatoes editors also ranked the film as the worst-reviewed film listed on the website.[27] Critics variously described the film as "A picture for idiots," "Boring to an amazing degree," "A fine achievement in stupidity and dullness," "Dreadful," "Gives new meaning to the word incoherent," and "the film is bad on just about every level." One critic even called it "Simplistic: Bullets Vs. Humans."[28]
A movie featuring Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck that was declared by many to be the worst movie of 2003. Originally a black comedy with no romantic subplot, the producers demanded script rewrites throughout filming, hoping to cash in on the Lopez-Affleck romance that was big news in celebrity-watching publications of the time such as Us and People. This film only grossed $6 million, making it one of the biggest box office bombs of all time. Many especially avoided it because they thought it was just a vehicle for the Lopez-Affleck relationship. Some reviewers dubbed the film "The ultimate turkey of all time" — perhaps aptly, considering one notorious scene in the film involved Lopez's character's sex talk to Affleck's character as she invited him to perform oral sex on her: "It's turkey time." "What?" "Gobble, gobble." Winner of seven Razzies (including 2005's Worst "Comedy" of Our First 25 Years[25]).
An action film about racing exotic cars. It has a zero percent rating at Rotten Tomatoes, [33] and has a 3 out of 10 star rating at the IMDb. [34]. This movie stars Eddie Griffin, Nadia Bjorlin, and Nathan Phillips and became best known for Griffin's behind-the-scenes incident, when he crashed a rare Ferrari Enzo worth over $1 million for the movie's promotion.
On July 242007, Lindsay Lohan - in the wake of her arrest for cocaine possession - withdrew from a scheduled appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno to promote her starring role as a stripper in the film I Know Who Killed Me. Leno instead interviewed comedian Rob Schneider, who satirically impersonated the actress. No preview screenings were arranged for film reviewers.[35] RottenTomatoes.com shows a 7% approval rating from critics with the consensus statement: "Distasteful and ludicrously plotted".[36] It currently holds an 18% rating on Metacritic, which indicates "extreme dislike or disgust." One reviewer wrote, "Much like the career of its star, I Know Who Killed Me opens promisingly, starts to stumble in the middle and has gotten so laughably ridiculous by the final act that you can't take it seriously at all."[37] The film opened at #9 on opening weekend, with $3.4 million dollars.[38]
Bad crossover
Sometimes stars in other fields, such as music, will attempt to parlay their existing fame into a movie career. If this works well enough the star can have a dual career in both fields, or move on exclusively to a film career. Other times, this turns out to have been a mistake and they often stop after the first try.
A semi-autobiographical movie about Mariah Carey in which she plays Billie Frank, a very thinly-veiled Carey-like performer. Critics universally panned it for seeming to be a vanity film intended only to enhance Carey's singing career. Carey had pushed for the project as early as 1997, but its release just ten days after the September 11, 2001 attacks, coupled with the poor reception of Carey's next album (her first since signing a $100 million recording contract), not only damaged Carey's career, but may have been a factor that drove her to a physical breakdown.[39] Website Retrocrush commented, "Only Mariah Carey could play herself in a movie and fuck it up."[40]Metacritic.com gave it a 14 out of 100,[41] Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 7% rating[42] and it earned five nominations[43] and one "win" for Carey as Worst Actress[44] at the 2001 Golden Raspberry Awards.
The Britney Spears movie received unanimously negative reviews, mostly panning Spears's acting ability. It received Golden Raspberry nominations for Worst Film, Worst Screen Couple, Most Flatulent Teen-Targeted Movie, Worst Director, Worst Screenplay, and won the Golden Raspberry for the Worst Original Song, "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman."
The hastily-made movie From Justin to Kelly spent only two weeks in the cinemas.
American Idol finalists Kelly Clarkson and Justin Guarini star in this movie musical. It stayed in theaters for only two weeks before being released to stores on DVD six weeks later. The film was rushed into production to capitalize on the popularity of the TV series American Idol. When asked about why she did the film, Clarkson told Time Magazine, "Two words: Contractually obligated!" On Metacritic.com, it has a score of 14/100 points;[45] Rotten Tomatoes lists only 5 positive reviews out of 57 in total.[46] As of July 2007, it is in the number nine position in the IMDb bottom 100 with a score of 1.8 out of 10. The film was awarded a special Razzie (for Worst "Musical" of Our First 25 Years) in 2005; however, it was nominated for four Teen Choice Awards. Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote,
...for the panting masses of American Idol fans who imagine winning and going to live happily ever after in Lotusland, the message couldn't be clearer. You, too, might one day end up starring in the motion picture equivalent of Cheez Whiz.
Poor comedy
Some comedic films fail because they are simply not funny. Sometimes they fail due to poor writing or acting, or because they just "try too hard." Other times they fail because of an attempt by a comedic actor to try something different or a non-comedic actor to attempt comedy. Finally, some "comedy" films cross into bad taste in their attempt.
Writer and star Bill Cosby appeared on various talk shows denouncing the movie and warning people against wasting their time or money on it. Scott Weinberg at DVD Talk said, "Movies this bad should be handled with Teflon gloves and a pair of tongs."[47] It won three Razzies for Worst Picture, Worst Actor, and Worst Screenplay. Cosby accepted the awards in person, on the condition that they be made from 24-karat (99.999%) gold and Italian marble.[48] This film was also one of Cosby's last forays into feature films before his semi-retirement from the silver screen. He followed the film up with Ghost Dad.
A comedy starring Sylvester Stallone along with Golden Girls star Estelle Getty, about a cop whose elderly mother meddles in his life, to the point of going on raids and chases with him. The film won three Razzies: one each for Stallone and Getty, as well as for Worst Screenplay. It also has a 6% rating at Rotten Tomatoes.[49] In a 2006 interview with Ain't It Cool News, Stallone himself referred to it as "maybe one of the worst films in the entire solar system, including alien productions we’ve never seen", that "a flatworm could write a better script", and "in some countries – China, I believe – running [the movie] once a week on government television has lowered the birth rate to zero. If they ran it twice a week, I believe in twenty years China would be extinct."[50]
Of this Tom Green comedy vehicle, which he gave zero out of four stars, Roger Ebert wrote:
This movie doesn't scrape the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn't the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn't below the bottom of the barrel. This movie doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence with barrels... The day may come when Freddy Got Fingered is seen as a milestone of neo-surrealism. The day may never come when it is seen as funny.[51]
Tom Green was awarded five Razzies, including Worst Picture, for this film;[44] he accepted the awards in person, arriving with his own red carpet to walk on and used his acceptance speech to mock and heap scorn on the audience, as well as the film. "I want to say I didn't deserve this... dear god, I want to say that." He was then forcefully removed from the stage after refusing to stop playing the harmonica. [52]
The script for this Eddie Murphy film went through numerous revisions, and sat unreleased for two years after filming was completed, until its release in August 2002. The movie cost $110 million to make and market, but earned just $7.1 million worldwide. A majority of critics lambasted the awful acting, terrible dialogue, and lack of humor. It was nominated for five Razzies: Worst Picture, Worst Actor (Murphy, who was also nominated for I Spy and Showtime), Worst Screenplay, Worst Screen Couple (Eddie Murphy with Either Owen Wilson in I Spy, Robert De Niro in Showtime or Himself cloned in Pluto Nash) and Worst Director (Ron Underwood).[31] Murphy did not promote the film upon its release. Pluto Nash has a 6% rating at Rotten Tomatoes.[53]
Starring Dana Carvey, James Brolin, and Harold Gould, it received moderate commercial success when in 2002, earning around $40 million at the box office. The film was, however, panned by critics. The plot was considered sophomoric even for a purported children's movie, compounding the fact that there were several "disguises" that would clearly not be recognized by youngsters (Tony Montana from Scarface, for example). In addition, there were many indications that the film was rushed; for example, there are scenes hinted at in the trailers that do not appear in the actual movie. Also, the cinematography and special effects are considered quite poor for a movie released in 2002, especially when the camera very obviously turns away from a Disguisey as he is coming out of/going into a disguise. It has (as of July 31, 2007) the 9th lowest rating on Rotten Tomatoes, 2.2/10, was on the IMDb bottom 100 following its release. It was also named one of the worst comedies ever by former Mystery Science Theater 3000 host Michael J. Nelson. Empire magazine went as far as calling it the worst film ever made, and claiming it was "a film about idiots, made by idiots, for idiots."
Written by and starring Jenny McCarthy, it "won" four Razzie awards, for Worst Picture, Worst Director (John Asher), Worst Screenplay and Worst Actress (McCarthy).[54] It also has a score of 8% on Rotten Tomatoes.[55] Roger Ebert said in his review, "On the basis of Dirty Love, I am not certain that anyone involved has ever seen a movie, or knows what one is," and on star Jenny McCarthy, he wrote, "I feel sorry for her."[56]
A Jeff Byrd directed kidnapping farce concerning greed that starred Anthony Anderson. It is one of the few films to receive a 0% at Rotten Tomatoes[57] and it ranked 23rd worst at metacritic's list of worst films.[58] One review joked that being gagged and tortured would be more amusing.
Former superhero Jack (Tim Allen) is called back to work to transform an unlikely group of ragtag kids into superheroes at a private academy. The film's release was held up by a lawsuit filed by Fox and Marvel Comics, who claimed it plagiarized the X-Men films (it was originally scheduled to be released two weeks before X-Men: The Last Stand). It also has a plot that is very similar to Sky High, released less than a year before.[59] The film also holds a 2% critic ranking at Rotten Tomatoes.[60]
Exploitation
Filmmakers sometimes try to overuse content considered taboo or shocking by the general populace as a means to draw in curious film-goers (see shock value). When executed poorly, this method can backfire. These films are commonly cult classics, however, as the overdone scenes of nudity, death, violence and gore are often so poorly executed that they become more humorous than shocking. Such films include:
The 1970 film based on the book of the same name by Gore Vidal starring Raquel Welch, Mae West, and Farrah Fawcett rose controversy due to scenes that seemed a bit questionable for the time period. It also started with an X but then had to be cut down to an R. Some stars from the 40's and 50's were also shocked to upset to see footage from their films seen as sexual in-jokes, even some, like Loretta Young, suing them to remove the footage. There were also conflicts between Raquel Welch and Mae West on the set. Critics have panned the film, with Time Magazine saying "Myra Breckinridge is about as funny as a child molester. It is an insult to intelligence, an affront to sensibility and an abomination to the eye." Gore Vidal, the author of the book, has also blamed it for having the book stop selling for a decade.
A large amount of hype was put behind promoting the sex and nudity in this NC-17 film, but the results were critically derided.[61] Most of the hype revolved around the film's star, Elizabeth Berkley, who only two years before had been one of the stars of the teenage sitcomSaved by the Bell (in which she played a young feminist, which is ironic considering the objectification of her character in this film). The film won seven of the thirteen Razzie Awards for which it was nominated. It possibly ruined the career of Elizabeth Berkley, and the writer, Joe Eszterhas, has had difficulty living down the embarrassment as well. The film, however, has garnered a cult following over the years. The edited R-rated version removes much of the gratuitous nudity and replaces it with story elements that make the plot understandable. In a bold move, Superstation TBS broadcast the film on television in their prime time schedule, but added digitally animated solid black underwear to hide breasts and genitalia.
Sequels, prequels, and remakes
Often, an attempt is made to capitalize on the popularity of a successful film by making a sequel (or prequel), or if the film is old enough, remaking the movie altogether[62]. These films often do not live up to their predecessor. Some factors resulting in poor performance are:
Different continuity which makes a film a sequel in name only
Budgetary constraints
The film may not feature the stars associated with the original
The film may not be made by the same filmmakers
The target audience's lack of interest in furthering the story of the predecessor
Declining actors attempting to reprise roles from the height of their career for which they are no longer suited
While they are usually considered inferior to the original, others end up being poorly done movies in and of themselves and sometimes taint the film they were meant to emulate or continue.
The fourth 3 Ninjas movie — and universally considered the worst of the series[citation needed] — starred none of the original actors, excluding a near-cameo role by Victor Wong, and was directed by tween-friendly director Sean McNamara. The film also starred Hulk Hogan and Loni Anderson. The movie has zero positive reviews at Rotten Tomatoes,[63] is the 22nd worst movie (with a score of 2.0 out of 10) as rated by the users of IMDb[64] as of July, 2007, and grossed only $375,805 domestically.
Although the original movie was not well received, this sequel inspired many critics to add it to their list of the worst movies ever. It was '#1' on the IMDb bottom 100 for a few months (as of July, 2007, it has moved to #9), and had a 0% rating at Rotten Tomatoes.[65] The third movie, Baby Geniuses 3, is currently in production.[66]
This sequel to the Jim Carrey movie The Mask, without Jim Carrey, is #27 on the IMDb Bottom 100 list as of July, 2007, and had a 4% rating at Rotten Tomatoes.[67] The movie was so bad, even star Jamie Kennedy said that he regretted doing it.
The fourth and final film in the Jaws series ignores the events of the preceding and more successful Jaws 3-D, and uses a plot involving a shark seemingly plotting to kill the surviving members of the Brody family. At the end, the shark is heard to "roar" repeatedly (which is physically impossible) before being hit with a sailboat driven by Sheriff Brody's wife and exploding. It was nominated for the Worst Picture award in the 1987 Golden Raspberry Awards, and won an award for "Worst Special Effects." It has a 0% rating at Rotten Tomatoes.[68]
Sequel to Speed, starring Sandra Bullock (reprising her role from the previous movie), Jason Patric, and Willem Dafoe and notably not starring Keanu Reeves of the original film. Speed 2 was both a critical and box office flop. It received a "BOMB" rating from Leonard Maltin; in his Movie and Video Guide, Maltin comments "Did anyone read the script before signing on for this one?" The film was nominated for eight Razzies and won for Worst Remake or Sequel. It currently has a 23 out of 100 rating on Metacritic.com[69]
The sequel to the critically acclaimed 1980s comedy Caddyshack took home two Razzies for Worst Original Song and Worst Supporting Actor (Dan Aykroyd) and was nominated for two others including Worst Picture. It holds a 0% from 8 critics at Rotten Tomatoes[70] and a rating of 3.4 out of 10 on IMDb, as of July, 2007.[71] The film was also listed on ESPN Page2's "Worst Sports Movies Ever" at number 4,[72] in contrast to the original Caddyshack being listed at number 8 on the "Top 20 [Best] Sports Movies of All-Time".[73]Caddyshack II continues to appear on numerous worst movies ever and worst sequels lists including a number 2 spot on the Entertainment Weekly list of Worst Sequels Ever. [74][75]
A follow up to the 1999sleeperDeuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, Rob Schneider reprises his role as the inept gigolo who travels to Amsterdam to see his friend, T.J. The critically reviled film just broke even on its $22 million budget at the U.S. box office before bombing overseas. The film became the subject of a heated debate between star Schneider and movie critic Patrick Goldstein, who wrote an article about studios producing terrible movies, citing this film as one of its examples. In January 2005, Goldstein of the Los Angeles Times said in an article that Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo was overlooked for an Academy Award because "nobody had the foresight to invent a category for Best Running Penis Joke Delivered by a Third-Rate Comic."
Schneider responded two weeks later with full-page ads in Daily Variety and The Hollywood Reporter where he said,
Well, Mr. Goldstein, I decided to do some research to find out what awards you have won. I went online and found that you have won nothing. Absolutely nothing. No journalistic awards of any kind ... Maybe you didn't win a Pulitzer Prize because they haven't invented a category for Best Third-Rate, Unfunny Pompous Reporter Who's Never Been Acknowledged by His Peers... Most of the world [has] no idea of your existence. I can honestly say that if I sat with your colleagues at a luncheon, afterwards they'd say, 'You know, that Rob Schneider is a pretty intelligent guy' ... whereas, if you sat with my colleagues, after lunch, you would just be beaten beyond recognition. [76]
Film critic Roger Ebert responded to Schneider saying
Reading this, I was about to observe that Schneider can dish it out but he can't take it. Then I found he's not so good at dishing it out, either. I went online and found that Patrick Goldstein has won a National Headliner Award, a Los Angeles Press Club Award, a RockCritics.com award, and the Publicists' Guild award for lifetime achievement.
But Schneider is correct, and Patrick Goldstein has not yet won a Pulitzer Prize. Therefore, Goldstein is not qualified to complain that Columbia financed "Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo" while passing on the opportunity to participate in "Million Dollar Baby," "Ray," "The Aviator," "Sideways" and "Finding Neverland." As chance would have it, I have won the Pulitzer Prize, and so I am qualified. Speaking in my official capacity as a Pulitzer Prize winner, Mr. Schneider, your movie sucks.
This sequel to the 2002 sleeper hit Van Wilder has Kal Penn reprising his role as Taj, but does not feature Ryan Reynolds as the main character of the original. The movie flopped at the box office, only earning slightly over $2.3 million in its opening weekend. The movie shot up to #1 on the IMDb worst movies list for a period, but has moved back down and off the list as of July, 2007, and now holds a 3.4/10 rating. It also has a 5% rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
This film was neither a critical nor a financial success.[77][78] It was mocked for the script, and over-extending the campy attitude (comprised of smirky one-liners, blatantly ludicrous stunts, and loud sound effects) of its predecessor, Batman Forever.[79][80]
In his review of the film, critic Leonard Maltin found that "the 'story' often makes no sense" and that the "action and effects are loud, gargantuan, and ultimately numbing"; however he gave the film 2 1/2 out of 4 stars. Author Mark S. Reinhart added by saying "The combination of Batman & Robin's terrible script, ridiculous costuming, garish sets, uninspired direction, etc. made the film into the appalling dump heap that it is.[81]" In Mike Nelson's Movie Megacheese, Nelson writes of this movie: "It's the worst thing ever. Yes, it's the single worst thing that we as human beings have ever produced in recorded history." Star George Clooney joked that the costume department went wrong by giving his suit nipples, and decided to refund the money of any fan he meets who paid to see the film (if they like it or not).
This is considered to be the weakest entry in the Star Trek film franchise. The creator of the franchise, Gene Roddenberry, considered it to be "apocryphal at best", regarding elements of the film as non-canon.[82] In addition to a weak premise, it contained plot points that contradicted the established fictional Star Trek history. Directed by William Shatner, some critics saw it as an ego vehicle for Shatner.[83] This movie won the 1989 Razzie Award for Worst Picture, beating The Karate Kid Part III and Road House.
Upon release, this film was met with harsh criticism by both critics and audiences. Fans of the original film were less than pleased with the concept of Immortals being aliens from Planet Zeist and with the unexplained revival of Ramirez. Highlander II's apparent failure has been seen by some as a result of the bonding company's interference with the work of director Russell Mulcahy,[citation needed] who walked out of the film's world premiere after viewing its first 15 minutes. For similar reasons, Christopher Lambert threatened to walk out of the project when it was nearing fruition, but he didn't, due to contract obligation. Roger Ebert said famously that Highlander II: The Quickening was "almost awesome in its badness."[84]
Regarded as the film that killed the franchise by many critics and even the original producer, Ilya Salkind of the first three films, this sequel had such noble intentions by Christopher Reeve, who played the Man of Steel and was also co-writer of this film. After the disappointment that was Superman III, even though it was financially successful, it left a bad taste in audiences' mouths (due to the shamelessly campy/comedic tone left by director Richard Lester and the presence of comedian Richard Pryor). The series was sold to the Cannon Group, who were managed by Israeli producer Menahem Golan and his cousin Yoram Globus, and were known to make poor quality pictures. The film was universally panned by critics and fans alike, who were disgusted by the film's plot and special effects, which paled in comparison to the earlier films, and performed poorly at the box office. The budget was drastically cut from an estimated $40 million to $17 million and many of the top SFX team left over pay disputes. The film was also cut from 140 minutes to a mere 89, even though it was said that all the visual effects were completed. The majority of the film was shot in England, and little effort was made to hide this fact. It would be nearly 20 years until a new Superman film would be made - a film which disregarded Superman III and IV entirely.
Poorly executed adaptation
Many directors successfully adapt a book, play or story from another medium into a film. While a perfect conversion is never possible, some attempts take far too many liberties with the original story, frequently with disastrous results to the final film and the director's reputation.
One of the biggest box office bombs in cinematic history (losing $21 million)[85], loosely based on the Marvel Comicscharacter created by Steve Gerber and starring Lea Thompson, Tim Robbins, and Jeffrey Jones, in which only the two central characters are retained and look (somewhat) but don't behave similarly to their comics counterparts. Executive producer George Lucas disowned it shortly after its release. In his Movie Guide, Leonard Maltin calls the film a "hopeless mess of a movie." The film was also among Siskel and Ebert's picks for the "Worst Films of 1986." The film was adapted by Willard Huyck and his wife Gloria Katz and directed by Huyck, with no input from Gerber, who supported the film only until it did not succeed, seeing that his taste and the public's often did not mesh, and that they did about this film. Huyck and Katz were once considered "luminaries",[86] but have not made a film since.
The movie was much less well-received than its predecessor.[87] Though it still possessed the visual spirit of the first movie, it greatly lacked the level of authenticity in both special effects and fight choreography. Additionally, Annihilation suffered from an overly large and homogenous cast, employed to depict as many Mortal Kombat characters as possible, with a subsequent drop in characterization; in fact, several characters (e.g. Noob Saibot) make only unidentified cameo appearances. The cast was almost entirely different with only Robin Shou (Liu Kang) and Talisa Soto (Kitana) returning to reprise their roles from the first film. The only other actor to return was Keith Cooke, the actor who portrayed Reptile in the first film. He was recast as the new Sub-Zero. The part of Mileena was performed by Soto's stunt-double, Dana Hee. The budget for Annihilation was $40 million, but the movie grossed only $36 million in the U.S., with an opening weekend take of $16 million.[88] This represented a drop of 50% of the original movie's total domestic gross ($70 million). Worldwide, the film only grossed $51 million, versus the first film's worldwide take of $122 million.
Ostensibly based on the DC Comics character and starring Halle Berry, the film resembles next to nothing of its source material. In the movie, Catwoman has super powers, which she lacks in the comics. Her lycracatsuit was replaced with slashed leather pants, a bra, and a mask-cap, and she leaps from rooftop to rooftop in stiletto heels (her suit mysteriously gets skimpier as the movie progresses). As the movie character differs so widely from her comic source, the character has been cited as "Catwoman In Name Only".[89] One of the choice fighting scenes makes use of a face beauty cream that when applied gives the wearer invincibility. It has a 9% rating at Rotten Tomatoes,[90] and was declared "arguably the worst superhero film ever made" by the Orlando Sentinel. The Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville) put it more bluntly:
Me-ouch!
Winner of four Razzies for Worst Picture, Worst Actress, Worst Director (Pitof), and Worst Screenplay.[25] In a move clearly designed to salvage at least some of her reputation, Berry accepted her Razzie in person (with her Best Actress Oscar in hand), and in her acceptance speech she attempted to distance herself from having said yes to taking the role, somewhat disingenuously saying,
First of all, I want to thank Warner Brothers. Thank you for putting me in this piece of shit, God-awful movie... It's just what my career needed.
When this Uwe Boll directed movie — loosely based on a series of video games by Infogrames/Atari — was released in January 2005, critics panned it for a variety of reasons, including poor script and production values, overuse of slow-motion and quick cuts to optimize the gory content, almost no connection to the game, and bad acting. On the commentary of the DVD, Boll remarks that several of the scenes weren't depicted quite as he'd imagined them. This is something of an understatement, one review said the movie was "so poorly built, so horribly acted and so sloppily stitched together that it's not even at the straight-to-DVD level." This movie received 1% at Rotten Tomatoes[91] and is regularly on the IMDb Bottom 100.[92] Critic Rob Vaux states that this movie is so bad that "the other practitioners of cinematic drivel can rest a little easier now; they can walk in the daylight with their heads held high, a smile on their lips and a song in their hearts. It's okay, they'll tell themselves. I didn't make Alone in the Dark."[93] Screenwriter Blair Ericksonwrote about his experience dealing with Boll and his original script, which was closer to the actual game itself, and Boll's script change demands at SomethingAwful.com.
Sequel to Saturday Night Fever, directed by Sylvester Stallone and starring John Travolta. Panned by critics despite bringing in $68 million at the box office, the film was ranked the Worst Sequel Ever by Entertainment Weekly and it has a 0% rating at Rotten Tomatoes[94] The film was nominated for two Razzies, including Worst Actor (Travolta) and Worst New Star (Finola Hughes). The film is also listed on Roger Ebert's Most Hated Films
A sequel to the critically acclaimed, phenomenally successful 1992 thriller Basic Instinct starring Sharon Stone and Michael Douglas. Basic Instinct did well at the box office, while the sequel flopped, and "won" four Razzie awards, among them Worst Picture, Worst Actress (Sharon Stone), Worst Sequel and Worst Screenplay. It was also nominated for Worst Supporting Actor (David Thewlis) and Worst Screen Couple, those nominees being "Sharon Stone's lopsided breasts." While being panned by critics, it was dubbed as "Basically, It Stinks, Too," a nickname which quickly caught on. It also boasts a 7% rotten rating at Rotten Tomatoes.[95]
Audience polls
The films listed and ranked on audience polls tend to vary from one poll to another. One problem affecting audience polls is "downvoting"; when users with a vendetta against a film (or genre of films) give the lowest possible rating to intentionally lower the film's rank. An example would be a user with a vendetta against "Paris Hilton films" would give the lowest rating to all films she has starred in. Another problem is when users vote on films they have not seen.
Crossover is considered the seventh worst movie of all time according to the IMDb poll, but does not rank at all on both the everyonesacritic.net poll or Metacritic poll.[92][96][58]
According to the IMDb's polls, as of August 122007, the top ten worst rated movies are:
^Okuda, Michael (1996). Star Trek Chronology: The History of the Future, revised edition. New York: Pocket Books. pp. vii. ISBN0-671-53610-9. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
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