The movies listed below are the most hated, but it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re the worst. They just have a history of being cinematic punching bags. Critics hate them, regular filmgoers hate them, everyone hates them. For the most part, the hate is warranted. Though it is fair to say that some of these movies don’t deserve quite as much flak as they get.
It should be noted that Troll 2 and The Room have too much of a cult following to be including on this list. Too many people appreciate the sheer ineptitude to actually hate these movies.
The movies listed below, on the other hand, don’t even come close to approaching so-bad-it’s-good territory. People just hate them because they’re plain old bad or because they ruined a perfectly good franchise.
10. Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
The first Star Wars prequel isn’t half as bad as people say. The issue, rather, is that it didn’t live up to the sixteen year wait. After building up so much hype for the next installment in the blockbuster franchise, The Phantom Menace simply failed to deliver. Critics and fans weren’t in love with Return of the Jedi, but the response was overall a positive one.
Say what you will about ewoks, but most people found it a fitting end to a classic trilogy. The Phantom Menace, on the other hand, was an incredibly rough start to what would end up being a subpar trilogy.
To be fair, even the newer, more critically acclaimed Star Wars flicks have gotten plenty of backlash. Let the record show that Star Wars fans are just really hard to please. If one thing doesn’t gel, the entire movie is a disaster.
Sure, plenty of things don’t gel in The Phantom Menace, but people seem to pick on it more because it’s a letdown than anything else. People don’t necessarily think it’s one of the worst movies ever made. They just wish they didn’t wait so long to see mind-numbing comic relief, midi-chlorians, and (as harsh as this may be) an incompetent child actor playing the lead.
9. Movie 43
Movie 43 is a collection of juvenile fart jokes featuring talented actors and actresses. That’s why people don’t like it. People don’t want to see Oscar-nominated actors making testicle and poop jokes. Bad comedies are easy to come by, but they don’t come much worse than Movie 43. With a 4% on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s safe to say that critics weren’t exactly fond of this dud. As odd as it may seem, Anna Faris asking Chris Pratt to poop on her didn’t make critics bust a gut.
It also didn’t make audiences jump for joy. The so-called “Citizen Kane of awful” got a D on Cinemascore and the Rotten Tomatoes audience rating is a measly 24%. Movie 43 is a dud by all accounts. The only thing harder than watching the movie is trying to forgive yourself for wasting so much time watching an animated cat pee on Josh Duhamel. The image will haunt you long after the credits roll.
8. Ghostbusters (2016)
People do not like when classic characters or stories are messed with in any way. Need proof? Look back at the comments section of any casting article where the main character is a different race or gender.
“The Human Torch is black now? Let’s boycott the movie! This Dizzy Flores is not the character I remember from the Starship Troopers novel!” People sure do like consistency. They also like Ghostbusters and hate Melissa McCarthy. With that in mind, it shouldn’t have been a surprise when millions of angry internet users hopped onto YouTube to leave a dislike on the latest Ghostbusters trailer.
The reaction to Ghostbusters existence is largely more negative than the reaction to the movie itself. The B+ Cinemascore shows that the people who were willing to give it a chance liked it. The problem is that most people are pretty set on avoiding the all-female reboot of the Bill Murray classic.
It’s hated because it’s not the Ghostbusters that they grew up seeing. Few people are going out of their way to analyze what’s wrong with the movie itself. Instead, they’re hating on the movie because they’re upset they couldn’t get a proper sequel or a true reboot.
Deciding whether or not to include this movie was tough. On one hand, critics really dug it and the less biased viewers thought it was perfectly fine. On the other hand, it broke some not-so-good YouTube records. Due to the spiteful reaction to the movie, it had to make its way onto the list.
Sure, some people gave it a chance and enjoyed it, but there are still innumerable people who are fired up because of the fact that a couple SNL alumni came along and took the spots of their favorite actors.
7. Gigli
It would be easy to just take the top ten from IMDb’s bottom 100 and call it a day, but that list happens to feature a lot of lesser known movies that, while absolutely awful, haven’t been seen by nearly enough people to warrant a place on this list. However, with 43,000 ratings and an overall average of 2.4 out of 10, Gigli earns easily its place in the bottom 100. It’s one of the most mainstream movies featured on the list, and it absolutely belongs there.
Bennifer may have come to an end, but this romantic comedy will always haunt people’s memories. Widely regarded as one of the worst movies ever made, Gigli is an incoherent mess with absolutely nothing go for it. Critics hate it, audiences hate it, your dog probably hates it. Gigli helped taint the careers of both stars because, honestly, why wouldn’t it? Sure, they recovered, but it’s hard to wash the taste of this garbage out of your mouth after viewing it.
6. Super Mario Bros
How could anyone involved in this movie not automatically assume everyone would hate it? Actually, the two leads were so knowledgeable about its inevitable quality that they spent most of their time on the set drunk.
Super Mario Bros, the pseudo-fantasy game, was transformed into a gritty sci-fi action film with a humanoid Bowser, a raunchy nightclub scene, and not a single damn mushroom. It barely resembled the source material, which is almost as bad as the fact that it’s an atrocious movie.
Listen, drastically changing the source material isn’t always going to please people, but they’ll be more forgiving if the movie can stand on its own. Super Mario Bros can’t. People hated the movie upon its release and opinion hasn’t changed.
This is partially because it doesn’t resemble the video game at all and partially because it was a tonal mess with phoned-in performances and lazy dialogue. There has yet to be a well-received video game movie, but this bad boy takes the cake as the worst of the worst.