The Worst Movies Ever Made, According to Critics

There’s a perverse sort of pleasure in a worst-of list, and if you’ve failed on Rotten Tomatoes, you’ve hit the big-time. The website aggregates critics around the country to give big-picture reviews of films. Our top 10 (bottom 10?) on this list are widely referred to around the web as “one of the worst movies ever made,” due to their infamy on Rotten Tomatoes. None of them earned more than a 2 percent rating. Where are some legendary bombs? With a 3 percent rating, the John Travolta disaster “Battlefield: Earth” only ranks at No. 61. And when no movie in the bottom 50 earned more than a 2 percent average, the number of critics reviewing a film will push a film closer to the dreaded title of Worst Movie Ever. (Looking for more bad films? Here are Tom Hanks’ Most Regrettable Movies.) 

Year Released: 2001

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 2 percent

Number of Reviews: 51

U.S. Box Office Gross: $623,400

Critic quote: “Call it Dude, Where's My Horse?” Marrit Ingman, Austin Chronicle

Dylan McDermott, James Van Der Beek, and Usher join forces in this misguided attempt to capitalize on that “Young Guns,” teen-idol western spirit. McDermott and his crew of lawmen protect the ladies they love from mangy outlaws led by the better-than-this Alfred Molina. Actually, everyone is better than this.

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Year Released:  2012

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 2 percent

Number of Reviews: 52

U.S. Box Office Gross: $26.4 million

Critic quote: “An ungainly mix of flat-footed gumshoeing and strained attempts at hilarity, all delivered with an unconvincing Joizy vibe.” Sheri Linden, Los Angeles Times

Katherine Heigl plays a bail-bond recovery agent who goes after her high school ex, a vice cop accused of murder. Debbie Reynolds does little to polish her legend with her appearance here.

Year Released: 2000

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 2 percent

Number of Reviews: 60

U.S. Box Office Gross: $5.3 million

Critic quote: “The In Crowd isn't a movie, it's Gorgonzola, a crumbly summertime stinker veined with pop-cultural fungus.” Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly

This cheap knockoff of the nasty rich kid genre is lacking A-List stars. Its best effort is Matthew Settle, who didn’t jump far afield a few years later when he played Rufus on “Gossip Girl.”

Year Released: 2006

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 2 percent

Number of Reviews: 65

U.S. Box Office Gross: $7 million

Critic quote: “The inspirational sports movie cliches notwithstanding, ‘Crossover’ is just bad filmmaking that does not serve either its cast or its audience well.” Tim Cogshell, Boxoffice magazine

Wesley Jonathan and Anthony Mackie play young Detroit basketball players who take their street game to the big time in Los Angeles.

Year Released: 2007

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 2 percent

Number of Reviews: 65

U.S. Box Office Gross: $39.7

Critic quote: "The most excruciating, unfunny film you'll see this year ... if not your entire lifetime." Jamie Russell, BBC.com

The makers of “Scary Movie” and “Date Movie” returned with a send-up of fantasy hits, including “The Chronicles of Narnia” and “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” Critics had had enough.

Year Released: 2014

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 1 percent

Number of Reviews: 70

U.S. Box Office Gross: $14 million

Critic quote: “It's indeed terrible-god-awful, a less interesting, more convoluted version of the original ‘Left Behind.’” Matthew Paul Turner, The Daily Beast

Nicolas Cage stars in this remake of the Kirk Cameron film, returning to the idea of the Christian rapture, and those on Earth who miss out. The producers settled two lawsuits with the makers of the original film in a fight over the rights to the novel.

Year Released: 2008

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 1 percent

Number of Reviews: 74 

U.S. Box Office Gross: $14. 2 million

Critic quote: “Writer/directors Friedberg and Seltzer are a scourge. They're a plague on our cinematic landscape, a national shame, a danger to our culture.” Josh Rosenblatt, Austin Chronicle

The makers of “Epic Movie” beat their record bad reviews the next year, with this send-up of tornado, asteroid, and earthquake movies, which garnered even worse criticism. The film’s biggest star: Kim Kardashian.

Year Released: 2007

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 1 percent

Number of Reviews: 81

U.S. Box Office Gross: $13.2 million

Sample quote: “Poison ivy jokes. Poop jokes. Runaway bus jokes. Young love jokes. Skunk jokes. Some fake fatherly tender moments. Vomit jokes. This film has them all.” Tom Long, Detroit News

Cuba Gooding Jr. buys his former day camp and faces a day-camp-owning nemesis in a movie that was definitely not “Daddy Day Care.”

Year Released: 2002

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 1 percent

Number of Reviews: 104

U.S. Box Office Gross: $40.4 million

Sample quote: “George W. Bush in the flesh would have been much funnier than this movie's impersonation.” Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

Dana Carvey brings his impressions to the big screen as Pistachio, an Italian waiter who has inherited his family’s gift for mimicry. James Brolin, not known for playing people from Italy, appears as Pistachio’s father, Fabbrizio.

Year Released: 2005

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 1 percent

Number of Reviews: 123

U.S. Box Office Gross: $5.1 million

Critic quote: “A violent and incomprehensible piece of gibberish.” Rex Reed, Observer

It’s never promising when your 2005 movie is based on a 1992 Atari game and is directed by Hollywood’s most derided director, Uwe Boll. Christian Slater plays a supernatural detective who recruits Tara Reid to help him uncover a demon-worshipping, long-lost, fictional tribe.

Year Released: 2004

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 1 percent

Number of Reviews: 135

U.S. Box Office Gross: $25.2 million

Critic quote: “A suspense thriller without thrills or suspense.” Jorge Morales, Village Voice

Philip Kaufman’s place in the cinema firmament had already been secured as the director of “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” and “The Right Stuff” when he made this star-studded film. Ashley Judd plays a detective whose exes keep turning up dead; Andy Garcia is her partner and Samuel L. Jackson the police commissioner.

Year Released: 2012

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0 percent

Number of Reviews: 20

U.S. Box Office Gross: $1.1 million

Critic quote: “It is often impossible to figure out what's going on.” Stephen Holden, New York Times

When only 20 critics review a movie starring an Oscar winner like Halle Berry, times are tough. Berry plays a traumatized shark expert who has to lead a businessman on a dangerous dive.

Year Released: 2009

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0 percent 

Number of Reviews: 20

U.S. Box Office Gross: $7,300

Critic quote: “No one is able to make much of the disposable script, but Hamm is so limited by the period trappings that it seems as if he simply wandered onto the wrong set.” Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News

Jon Hamm was flying high with “Mad Men” when this time-jumping murder mystery was released. Its earnings were probably less than a week’s catering for the TV show.

Year Released: 2005

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0 percent

Number of Reviews: 20 

U.S. Box Office Gross: $306,500

Critic quote: “Neither the camera nor the script can focus.” Scott Brown, Entertainment Weekly

When a Southern woman (Rae Dawn Chong) dies, she names her estranged brother, played by ’70s screen idol Billy Dee Williams, as her executor. Critics agreed the movie was tedious and meandering.

Year Released: 1992

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0 percent

Number of Reviews: 20

U.S. Box Office Gross: $5.9 million

Critic quote: “The film's appeal will depend largely on whether you feel like laughing at senile dementia and automobile accidents.” Michael Upchurch, Seattle Times

Veteran pros Don Ameche and Anne Jackson are the target of lots of old-people jokes when Tom Selleck plays the well-heeled son who brings his parents to live with him.

Year Released: 1987

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0 percent

Number of Reviews: 20

U.S. Box Office Gross: $28.1 million

Sample quote: “Oh dear … oh dear, oh dear…” Ian Freer, Empire Magazine

You know the drill: Steve Guttenberg plays the cut-rate Bill Murray cop, this time charged with training ordinary citizens. G.W. Bailey bellows. Michael Winslow makes noises.

Year Released: 1999

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0 percent

Number of Reviews: 20

U.S. Box Office Gross: $292,200

Critic quote: “Movies and Rodman would seem to be made for each other, but the pictures will have to start getting better than this one.” Kevin Thompson, Los Angeles Times

Chicago Bulls star Dennis Rodman teams up with bro-comedy star Dane Cook when Rodman plays an Interpol agent working a case on the French Riviera. None of those words seem like they belong in the same sentence.

Year Released: 2016

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0 percent

Number of Reviews: 22

Critic quote: “This lazily directed and sloppily written heist non-thriller unspools like one of those amusement park distractions where tourists play at being in a movie.” Peter Howell, Toronto Star

Don’t let Bruce Willis on the poster fool you. His role as a nasty crime boss is wee; the real story, such as it is, belongs to Claire Forlani as a jewel thief and “Saved by the Bell” star Mark-Paul Gosselaar as the ex she drags along for the heist.

Year Released: 2016

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0 percent

Number of Reviews: 21

U.S. Box Office Gross: $3.8 million

Critic quote: “A movie based on a toy should be a whole lot more fun than this.” Christy Lemire, RogerEbert.com

A teen with superpowers teams up with a geeky alien (typecast Josh Brener of “Silicon Valley”) in a title that sounds like a parody of a superhero movie.

Year Released: 2009

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0 percent

Number of Reviews: 21

U.S. Box Office Gross: $408,229

Critic quote: “If your idea of a good time is laughing with repulsion at a humpbacked Romanian nympho with a torture-loving midget dad, or tittering every time a bong appears, a darkened theater awaits you.” Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times

This raunchy vampire sex comedy takes college students to a Romanian castle for a semester abroad. Featuring Tony Denman, also (not) known for “Sorority Boys” and “National Lampoon’s Dorm Daze.”

Year Released: 2002

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0 percent

Number of Reviews: 23

U.S. Box Office Gross: $7.8 million

Critic quote: “A turgid erotic thriller that plays like Zalman King-meets-vintage Brian De Palma without the latter's wit or style.” David Rooney, Variety

It should have been a no-brainer. Two pretty people (Heather Graham and Joseph Fiennes) team up with Chen Kaige, the respected director of “Farewell, My Concubine.” Unfortunately, this attempt at eroticism was indeed a no-brainer, and a massive flop.

Year Released: 2002

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0 percent

Number of Reviews: 21

U.S. Box Office Gross: $19,600

Critic quote: “Tries too hard to be madcap.” Robert Dominguez, New York Daily News

1960s popstar and fashion icon Jane Birkin plays a fake psychiatrist whose patient witnessed a murder in that rarest cinematic entry, a Merchant-Ivory-produced comedy.

Year Released: 1994

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0 percent

Number of Reviews: 21

U.S. Box Office Gross: $29.4 million

Critic quote: “Here is a movie about guns. Take away the guns, and the movie would be about nothing much.” Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Keenen Ivory Wayans wrote, directed, and starred with Jada Pinkett Smith in this retired cop action comedy. One of the better known movies on this list, it received no love from the critics.

Year Released: 1984

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0 percent

Number of Reviews: 23

U.S. Box Office Gross: $8.9 million

Critic quote: “Bad as Bolero is, it is unfortunately not bad enough.” David Richards, Washington Post

Sex symbol Bo Derek followed up her breakthrough in “10” with what was supposed to be an erotic period piece, filmed in Spain and Morocco by her husband, John Derek.

Year Released: 2009

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0 percent

Number of Reviews: 24

U.S. Box Office Gross: $8.5 million

Critic quote: “Homecoming is coldly efficient for what it is. But what it is is trash.” Stephen Holden, New York Times

This revenge thriller stars Mischa Barton of “The O.C.” as a crazy ex-girlfriend stalking her man and his new love.

Year Released: 1991

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0 percent

Number of Reviews: 24

U.S. Box Office Gross: $15.6 million

Critic quote: “‘Highlander 2: The Quickening’ is the most hilariously incomprehensible movie I've seen in many a long day — a movie almost awesome in its badness.” Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

When the first movie’s catchphrase is “There can be only one,” a sequel seems ill-advised. Christopher Lambert returns as the time- and space-traveling macho hero.

Related: 20 Movie Character Deaths That Were Devastating

Year Released: 2016

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0 percent

Number of Reviews: 26

U.S. Box Office Gross: $2.4 million

Critic quote: “There simply isn't enough freshness in the script to warrant another journey inside a dark old house.” Stephen Farber, Hollywood Reporter

Kate Beckinsale goes blond and moves with her family to a spooky old house in upstate New York in a movie with a title made for savage critics.

Year Released: 1986

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0 percent

Number of Reviews: 26

U.S. Box Office Gross: $127 million

Critic quote: “As always Travolta is urban gorgeous and very charming. The rest of the film is neither.” Richard Corliss, Time magazine

It’s a testament to the massive success of “Saturday Night Fever” that the sequel, despite abysmal reviews, was a huge hit. John Travolta’s Tony Manero teaches dance and dreams of making it big on Broadway.

Year Released: 1993

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0 percent

Number of Reviews: 25

U.S. Box Office Gross: $9.4 million

Critic quote: “There is absolutely no chemistry between Travolta and Alley, who are supposed to be passionate about one another. Strangers on the set could have generated more sparks on-screen.” Owen McNally, Hartford Courant

John Travolta shows up again on our list, this time with Kirstie Alley in the third installment of talking-baby movies. This time, though, it’s the dogs who won’t shut their yaps.

Year Released: 1988

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0 percent

Number of Reviews: 27

U.S. Box Office Gross: $5.9 million

Critic quote: “A blatant commercial for McDonald's and Coca-Cola disguised as an E.T. rip-off.” Peter Travers, People magazine

A kid, a lost alien, and rampant product placement. The only difference between this and “E.T.” (other than quality and box office) is that this time, the boy is in a wheelchair.

Year Released: 2007

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0 percent

Number of Reviews: 27

U.S. Box Office Gross: $6.9 million

Critic quote: “It's not so much a film as a cheesy garage calendar scantily-clad, over-made up 'cheap' women as hood-ornaments.” Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel

Producer Daniel Sadek gave his luxury sports car collection a starring role in this tale of street-racing and seduction.

Year Released: 2016

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0 percent

Number of Reviews: 29

U.S. Box Office Gross: $39,065

Critic quote: “One to avoid.” Peter Bradshaw, Guardian

A flesh-eating virus comes after college buddies in a remote cabin.

Year Released: 1997

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0 percent

Number of Reviews: 28

U.S. Box Office Gross: $2.3 million

Critic quote: “Bland, interminable chase scenes take up so much of the story — the hackneyed plot doesn't need much exposition — that the sheer repetitiveness begins to amaze you.” Lisa Alspector, Chicago Reader

Charlie Sheen plays a presidential aide who uncovers a plot to assassinate the president, in a film with such accomplished actors as Donald Sutherland, Linda Hamilton, and Sam Waterston.

Year Released: 2000

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0 percent

Number of Reviews: 29

U.S. Box Office Gross: $9.8 million

Critic quote: “Unoriginal and insulting, 3 Strikes goes down without scoring a single chuckle.” Dave Larsen, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

An ex-con tries to go straight but is mixed up in a police shooting in this wannabe comedy by DJ Pooh.

Year Released: 1994

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0 percent

Number of Reviews: 29

U.S. Box Office Gross: $3.7 million

Critic quote: “A sunshiney hodgepodge of bad jokes, nice scenery and reverse stereotypes.” Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune

John Candy and Richard Lewis star in this Old West comedy that was widely — and unfavorably — compared to the Mel Brooks classic “Blazing Saddles.”

Year Released: 1990

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0 percent

Number of Reviews: 29

U.S. Box Office Gross: $53.5 million

Critic quote: “Some kids are born bad. Others achieve badness. And some have badness thrust upon them. The same can be said of movies.” Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer

John Ritter met his wife, Amy Yasbeck, on the set of this film, so perhaps it’s not all bad. But that didn’t get them a pass from critics, who did not favor the comedy about an infertile couple who adopt a monstrous child.

Year Released: 1991

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0 percent

Number of Reviews: 31

U.S. Box Office Gross: $2.3 million

Critic quote: “When an old scallawag spies on Lilli bathing naked in a waterfall, we civilized viewers are primed to condemn him. But we're all scallawags here.” Mark Caro, Chicago Tribune

Brooke Shields wisely opted out of this sequel, starring Milla Jovovich as a girl who falls in love with her adopted brother after they are shipwrecked on a deserted island.

Year Released: 2013

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0 percent

Number of Reviews: 32

U.S. Box Office Gross: $20.5 million

Critic quote: “Delivering the cinematic equivalent of a lump of coal in a Christmas stocking, The Nutcracker in 3D is an apparent Scrooge-like attempt by Russian filmmaker Andrei Konchalovsky to forever ruin children's associations with the classic Yuletide ballet.” Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter

The Rat King, played by John Turturro, looks like a Nazi. The nutcracker is called N.C. There is no ballet.

Year Released: 2018

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0 percent

Number of Reviews: 35

U.S. Box Office Gross: $249,800

Critic quote: “Quite simply, horrendous — a trashy, tortured misfire from beginning to end.” Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times

Based on the popular novel, this film stars Amber Heard as a psychic who begins love affairs with three men, knowing one of them will murder her.

Year Released: 2017

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0 percent

Number of Reviews: 36

U.S. Box Office Gross: $95,743

Critic quote: “A stale espionage thriller that possesses all the pulse-pounding intrigue of waiting in line at the DMV.” Michael Rechtshaffen, Los Angeles Times

Dominic Cooper and Connie Nielsen play the leads in this action thriller about MI6 agents trying to stop a villain with chemical weapons.

Year Released: 2016

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0 percent

Number of Reviews: 36

U.S. Box Office Gross: $4 million

Critic quote: “When it comes to its underlying racial message, 'The Ridiculous Six' still grates, and there are obvious moments when it appears to be punching down almost without realizing it.” Matthew Rozsa, Salon.com

Adam Sandler co-wrote and stars in this reviled comedy about an orphan raised by Native Americans who discovers his brothers are outlaws.

Year Released: 2016

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0 percent

Number of Reviews: 37

International Box Office Gross: $26,672

Critic quote: “That this exercise in vulgarity was made at all is shameful.” Johnny Oleksinski, New York Post

Jim Carrey goes dark in this thriller, also known as “Dark Crimes,” about a detective who discovers the murder he is investigating has uncanny parallels to a novel. 

Year Released: 2020

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0 percent

Number of Reviews: 43

U.S. Box Office Gross: Netflix only

Critic quote: “The filmmakers' ideological muddle reads as cynically opportunistic as any of the actual characters.” Jesse Hassenger, AV Club

A heist film is set against a dystopian backdrop, as a trio tries to pull one last job before a government signal wipes out all crime forever.

Year Released: 2003

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0 percent

Number of Reviews: 44

U.S. Box Office Gross: $403,200

Critic quote: “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.” Jen Chaney, Washington Post

It’s not often you get a film pairing Will Friedle of “Boy Meets World” with TV legend Louise Lasser (“Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman”). If that weren’t convoluted enough, there’s the plot: Two broke guys try to rob two old women. After they’re arrested, the women take them in and they all get married, but the old women, who have lost their money, plot to murder their young husbands. (This movie was originally called “Lady Killers,” but is clearly not to be confused with "The Ladykillers" from 1955 starring Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers or the 2004 version starring Tom Hanks.)

Year Released: 2004

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0 percent

Number of Reviews: 46

U.S. Box Office Gross: $9.1 million

Critic quote: “That's the thing about children when it comes to movies: They're not that discriminating. They can be perilously easy to please, which is why it's important that their parents protect them from films like ‘Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2.’” Ellen Fox, Chicago Tribune

The babies are back, with secret communication that allows them to gang up on Jon Voight’s evil mastermind and baby kidnapper. This time, Scott Baio joins up as a baby genius daddy in this Golden Raspberry nominee for worst film.

Year Released: 2002

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0 percent

Number of Reviews: 55

U.S. Box Office Gross: $3.7 million

Critic quote: “I can't say this enough: This movie is about an adult male dressed in pink jammies.” Stephen Hunter, Washington Post

Critics didn’t enjoy Roberto Benigni’s clowning in this live-action fairy tale, but its fate was sealed when American actors were brought in to sloppily dub the voices.

Year Released: 2018

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0 percent

Number of Reviews: 58

U.S. Box Office Gross: $4.3 million

Critic quote: “I'd rather wake up next to a severed horse head than ever watch 'Gotti' again.” Johnny Oleksinski, New York Post

John Travolta plays the notorious mafia boss with an impressive hairpiece. The film is directed by Kevin Connolly, best known as an actor on “Entourage.” Critics weren’t happy with any of it.

Year Released: 2012

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0 percent

Number of Reviews: 59

U.S. Box Office Gross: $18.4 million

Critic quote: “Does Eddie Murphy actually have any range, or is it just an illusion created by a few early edgy roles and, later, a lot of CGI makeup and fat suits?” Bilge Ebiri, New York magazine

Eddie Murphy plays a slick talker who magically has only 1,000 words left to speak; when they’re gone, he will be, too. Rotten Tomatoes audiences liked this film far better than critics, giving it a 47 percent rating, a testimony to Murphy’s enduring charms.

Year Released: 2008

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0 percent

Number of Reviews: 81

U.S. Box Office Gross: $26.9 million

Critic quote: “The unintentional camp makes for some eye-rolling interest early on, and French director Eric Valette does manage a few hair-raising moments, but by then, the movie has missed by a mile.” Tom Meek, Boston Phoenix

Nineties fixtures Shannon Sossamyn and Ed Burns star in this horror flick as they investigate murders where the victims hear their own deaths on a cell phone call.

Year Released: 2002

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0 percent

Number of Reviews: 118

U.S. Box Office Gross: $14.3 million

Critic quote: “It's like watching a movie version of Mad magazine's Spy vs. Spy, but minus the humor.” Leah Rozen, People magazine

Lucy Liu and Antonio Banderas betray their acting chops in this tale of rival secret agents who join forces to defeat the thief of a nanorobot that causes heart attacks, but don’t exactly trust each other. The film was made by Thai director Wych Kaosayananda, who, on this film, goes by the aptly chosen pseudonym Kaos.