LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 24: Chris Pine attends the Los Angeles premiere of “Poolman” … [+]
Critics have made their picks for the worst movies of 2024, which includes films featuring the likes of Chris Pine, Dennis Quaid, Zack Snyder and even Mickey Mouse.
While Hollywood gave fans plenty of reasons to cheer about with such critical successes as Inside Out 2, Deadpool & Wolverine and Longlegs—and more recently films like The Brutalist, A Complete Unknown and Nosferatu—the film industry produced its share of critical duds, too.
Some of the films that met the ire of critics were big-budget films, while others were independent films that featured the work of A-list stars.
Listed below are some of the films targeted by critics from their “worst” lists of 2024.
Variety movie critics Owen Gleiberman and Peter Debruge each had a list of that they thought were the five worst movies that played in theaters in 2024.
Gleiberman’s pick for the fifth worst movie of the year was Lisa Frankenstein—directed by Zelda Williams, who is the daughter of late acting icon Robin Williams—and written by Juno Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody.
Gleiberman wrote of the monster-themed romantic comedy, “It’s an undead teenage slasher romance that feels like the world’s most needlessly overcomplicated SNL sketch.”
The End—a survival comedy starring Tilda Swinton and Michael Shannon—earned the No. 4 spot on Gleiberman’s worst films list, while Reagan, starring Dennis Quaid as President Ronald Regan, earned the No. 3 spot.
“Released just in time to grease the wheels for Trump’s victory, this schlock Ronald Reagan biopic was a hit in theaters, playing to an audience of make-TV-movies-bad-again nostalgists,” Gleiberman wrote of the film.
Gleiberman wasn’t the only critic who panned Reagan. The film also earned a collective 18% “rotten” rating from 68 Rotten Tomatoes critics, but that didn’t deter audiences from going to see the movie anyway.
No. 2 on the Variety critic’s list was the genre-mashing satire Rumours, starring Cate Blanchett, while Chris Pine earned the dishonorable distinction of making the No. 1 worst film on Gleiberman’s list with Poolman.
“Even if you’re a fan of Chris Pine, you may stare slack-jawed at this absurdist disaster of an L.A. noir, which he directed, co-wrote, and stars in,” the critic wrote in Variety.
Variety critic Peter Debruge named the Netflix-produced sci-fi space opus Rebel Moon: Director’s Cut as his pick for the fifth-worst film of 2024.
“Honestly, can you think of anything more gratuitous or unnecessary than a two-part Star Wars knockoff directed by pop-culture remix artist Zack Snyder? How about a bloodier (but weirdly sexless) six-hour director’s cut of that same movie,” Debruge wrote.
No. 4 on Debruge’s list was the big-screen adaptation of Crockett Johnson’s classic children’s book Harold and the Purple Crayon, starring Zachary Levi. Meanwhile, writer-director Johnny Mack’s church movie spoof Not Another Church Movie—starring Vivica A. Fox and Mickey Rourke—took the No. 3 spot on the critic’s “worst” list.
No. 2 on Debruge’s list was the Mickey Mouse-skewering horror movie The Mouse Trap, the latest film to brutally take advantage of a beloved character becoming available to slice and dice in the public domain, a la Winnie-the-Pooh.
“The film provides zero scares and countless questions, like why can he teleport, and why would anyone scream after seeing a guy in a Mickey Mouse mask?” Debruge asks in his review.
No. 1 on Debruge’s worst movies list is writer-director Luc Besson’s crime thriller DogMan, starring Caleb Landry Jones.
“Besson’s third-rate Joker rip-off is ill-conceived on every level — a convoluted act of misplaced empathy in which a police psychologist struggles to tame a deeply traumatized outsider who was literally raised in a doghouse,” Debruge wrote.
While some individual critics named the worst movies of 2024, critic aggregation sites like Metacritic also assembled a list of the worst films cinemas had to offer this past year.
Metacritic’s list consisted of 15 films, which included high profile animated releases like The Garfield Movie (No. 14) and the disastrous remake of The Crow starring Bill Skarsgård (No. 13).
Also making Metacritic’s “worst” movies list was director Eli Roth’s adaptation of the blockbuster video game Borderlands (No. 8) and Marvel’s movie dud Madame Web (No.6), starring Dakota Johnson.
Earning the No. 1 spot on Metacritic’s worst movies of 2024 list was the obscure sci-fi horror comedy Lumina, which only featured one notable name—Eric Roberts—who only appeared in a cameo role.
Metacritic’s summary of the film noted that it was the only film that earned a single-digit Metascore ranking (6 out of 100) all year.
“You may laugh at parts of Lumina—critics definitely did, while noting that the humor was not intended—but the nearly two-hour film is probably far too long to justify watching it ironically,” the Metacritic summary read in part.
Here is the entire list of Metacritic’s worst 15 movies of 2024, along with their respective Metascores.
15. Killer Heat (33)
14. The Garfield Movie (31)
13. The Crow (30)
12. Poolman (29)
11. AfrAId (28)
10. Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 (27)
9. Mary (27)
8. Borderlands (26)
7. History of Evil (26)
6. Madame Web (26)
5. Krazy House (23)
4. Reagan (22)
3. Duchess (22)
2. City of Dreams (14)
1. Lumina (6)
While Rotten Tomatoes didn’t release a list citing the worst films of 2024, a search of the site reveals that the review aggregator did give one film a 0% “rotten” rating this year.
The Sylvester Stallone action film Armor earned the lowly score—based on 23 reviews—when it was released in November.
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