Making a good movie is hard, but you can argue that it’s even harder to make a bad movie.
I’m not talking about a movie people don’t like; I mean films that are so universally hated that they have a 0% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
That’s really hard to do, but it didn’t stop these movies from “accomplishing” that feat.
The Ridiculous 6
In the 2010s, Netflix signed a movie deal with Adam Sandler and Happy Madison Productions. The first is 2015’s The Ridiculous 6, featuring an ensemble cast that mixes Sandler’s usual colleagues (Rob Schneider) with some newcomers (Taylor Lautner, Luke Wilson).
It was a terrible first impression for Sandler’s Netflix movies; The Ridiculous 6 is filled with the poor-in-taste, outdated Sandler comedy that plagues his worst movies.
Redline
Following the success of the Fast and Furious franchise in the 2000s, it was only a matter of time before we saw intimators. Ironically, Redline‘s name comes from the original working title of 2001’s The Fast and the Furious.
It should have borrowed more than that, such as better writing and action sequences. Moviegoers want to watch something more than expensive cars driving fast.
Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2
I’m not sure who decided we needed a sequel to 1999’s Baby Geniuses, but I’d wager they were soon out of a job.
While the original film made a profit at the box office, Baby Geniuses 2 bombed. Its retooled cast (trading out Kathleen Turner and Christopher Lloyd for Jon Voight and Scott Baio) didn’t help either.
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Pinocchio
Believe it or not, there have been countless live-action adaptations of Pinocchio that have failed to resonate with critics. For example, as someone who grew up a big Drew Carrey fan, I remember countless jokes about Geppetto.
None are as bad as 2002’s Pinocchio, however. Originally based in Italy, the Italian version isn’t a bad movie, so what makes it worthy of a 0% score on Rotten Tomatoes? The English-dubbed recut is downright atrocious.
Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever
Billed as Antonio Banderas vs. Lucy Liu, the real battle was to see how many critics would trash the movie. Director Wych Kaosayananda has infamously said he has never seen the finished film. In 2007, Rotten Tomatoes dubbed it the worst-reviewed movie in its history.
Ironically, the movie had a video game spin-off for the Game Boy Advance that was actually pretty good!
Wagons East!
This one is more depressing than anything else.
You’d figure a comedy starring John Candy and Richard Lewis would be destined for greatness. However, Candy’s health was in poor condition at the time; he would die of a heart attack before production was completed.
Look Who’s Talking Now!
What’s better than two movies about talking babies? A third movie, but this time it has talking dogs!
I can’t blame the studio for this; the first two Look Who’s Talking films made over $400 million at the box office. The formula was clearly working, but it turned out that it was best to stick with the talking babies.
Problem Child
Sometimes, movies that are a critical disaster can persevere and succeed at the box office. One example is 1990’s Problem Child, starring John Ritter, Michael Richards, and Gilbert Gottfried.
Despite having a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an overall average review score of 2.3/10, it was a box office success, grossing over $70 million worldwide. It even spawned two sequels!
Staying Alive
You wouldn’t expect the sequel to Saturday Night Fever to be a stinker, but that’s the case with 1983’s Staying Alive.
It even avoids the pitfall of most poorly received sequels and has John Travolta reprise his role as Tony Manero. So what’s the issue with Staying Alive? It fails to double down on what made the original great and instead focuses too much on a bunch of dance numbers. If you ask me, that sounds a lot like the Joker sequel.
National Lampoon’s Gold Diggers
I have a confession: I like some modern National Lampoon movies, particularly Van Wilder. It’s nowhere near as iconic as the classics like Vacation and Animal House, but it’s still good for a couple of innocent laughs.
Gold Diggers, however, is an embarrassment in every possible way. Worst of all, it tries so hard to cash in on crude humor but can’t follow through, thanks to its PG-13 rating.
Alarum
This movie came out this year, and I had no idea it existed! Based on its 0% score on Rotten Tomatoes, maybe that’s a good thing.
Someone needs to tell Sylvester Stallone that he doesn’t have to keep taking these roles. The Creed movies proved he’s still a capable actor in the right setting.
Max Steel
It’s time to admit how old I am: I don’t remember anything about Max Steel. The toys debuted in 1999, and the animated series followed a year later, which means I was a little too old to be its target demographic.
Still, we live in a world where the Marvel Cinematic Universe is one of the biggest movie events every year, and the Transformers franchise saw several films make hundreds of millions of dollars, so someone decided to give Max Steel a shot to succeed.
It did anything but.
John Henry
When I think of John Henry, I think of the folklore tales I learned about him in school. I think of the stories we’d read about how he outperformed a steam-powered rock drill only to die due to an overwhelming amount of energy and stress exerted on his body.
What I don’t think about is his story being adapted for a modern-day movie in which John Henry is a good guy who fights gang members with a sledgehammer.
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