- 7 weeks ago
From Scientology-fueled disasters to CGI catastrophes, cinema has given us some truly spectacular failures! Join us as we count down the absolute worst movie from each year of the millennium so far. Our cinematic hall of shame includes everything from bizarre vanity projects to franchise-killing adaptations. Which cinematic disaster do you think was the absolute worst?
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00:00Six to eight weeks, a little ibuprofen, can heal up just fine.
00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're taking a look at the worst movie of each year since the start of the new millennium.
00:12My soulmate.net, I like that because I got a little soul.
00:202000, Battlefield Earth.
00:22This movie was doomed from the start.
00:24It began as a passion project for John Travolta, who has been practicing Scientology since 1975.
00:31To do anything less is a disgrace to my entire family life.
00:35In 1982, the founder of Scientology, a sci-fi author named L. Ron Hubbard, published a novel titled Battlefield Earth, a saga of the year 3000.
00:46Travolta wished to adapt the novel, but producers constantly squirmed away in disgust and hesitation.
00:52Obviously, this is going to take a while.
00:53It was later picked up by an independent company, and Travolta contributed some of his own personal wealth to help finance the film.
01:01It nearly killed his career.
01:02There must be some mistake.
01:04Battlefield Earth is one of the worst movies of all time, filled with horrible production values and a bizarre overuse of tilted camera angles.
01:12The producers were right to stay away from this one.
01:152001, Glitter.
01:17World-famous singer Mariah Carey stars in Glitter as Billy Frank.
01:21Billy is a club dancer who meets and falls in love with a DJ named Julian Black, who goes by the nickname Dice, and helps Billy pursue a career in music.
01:30Much like John Travolta and Battlefield Earth, Carey had been planning the project for years.
01:35And like Battlefield Earth, the results were not worth the wait.
01:39This is not working.
01:40The glitter can't overpower the artist.
01:41Okay, could we clean this up?
01:45Glitter was widely lambasted for its story and acting, particularly that of Carey herself.
01:51Yeah, but you know what?
01:51I'm having a good time, so...
01:53Carey has since disowned the film, telling Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live that she deeply regrets making glitter, and that its negative reputation nearly ruined her career.
02:032002, Ballistic, X vs. Sever.
02:06Right off the bat, what kind of messy title is that?
02:10Is that the best you can do?
02:11Perhaps unsurprisingly, the awful title pretends the movie to come.
02:15Despite starring the typically reliable Antonio Banderas and Lucy Liu, Ballistic is not a good movie.
02:222002 was filled with some bad films, including Master of Disguise and Swept Away.
02:27I'll give you a Christmas tree, I'll give you an Easter egg.
02:35But Ballistic is on another plane of awful.
02:38In fact, it is the worst-reviewed movie on Rotten Tomatoes, holding a 0% rating with 118 reviews.
02:45General audiences didn't take to it either, as it grossed just $20 million on an inflated $70 million budget.
02:52It was a spectacular failure on all fronts.
02:55What happens if somebody gets too much foam in their latte?
02:572003, The Room.
02:59Serving as one of the most famous bad movies ever made, The Room is enormously popular as a cinematic laughingstock.
03:05Ha ha ha, what a story, Mark.
03:08Led by the grossly inexperienced Tommy Wiseau, The Room is not just bad, it's incompetent.
03:15Very few movies are truly awful.
03:17Even the bad movies are usually well-produced and competently filmed.
03:21Just look at Gigli, the other infamous movie from 2003.
03:24The Room looks, sounds, and plays like an amateur production, with acting to match, as well as a general lack of technical filmmaking knowledge,
03:32and a messy script that constantly meanders and leaves subplots unresolved.
03:37You are tearing me apart, Lisa!
03:40It's widely enjoyed on an ironic, so-bad-it's-good basis, but as a genuine film, there's absolutely nothing redeeming about The Room.
03:47Hi, doggie.
03:48You're my favorite customer.
03:49Thanks a lot.
03:50Bye.
03:51Bye-bye.
03:512004, Catwoman.
03:54Spider-Man was released in 2002, becoming the then-sixth-highest-grossing film of all time, and launching the modern superhero craze.
04:03In 2004, it was Catwoman's time to shine, like a freshly bathed coat of fur.
04:08Unfortunately, Catwoman was more like a turd left in the litter box.
04:12I'm sorry!
04:15Sorry.
04:18Sorry's not nearly enough.
04:20Unlike some of the blander superhero films, Catwoman is genuinely incompetent.
04:25It isn't very well written, and it's clumsily directed by an inexperienced visual effects supervisor,
04:30while Halle Berry proves surprisingly hard to watch as Patience Phillips.
04:34Oh, you're crazy.
04:36You are a crazy cat lady.
04:38And despite the director having years' worth of visual effects experience, the CGI of Catwoman wasn't up to par, even for the time.
04:46You know it's bad when Catwoman is considered worse than Super Baby's Baby Geniuses 2.
04:522005, Alone in the Dark.
04:542005 saw the release of Son of the Mask, a truly dreadful sequel to the beloved 1994 Jim Carrey original.
05:01You're just too good to be true.
05:03Can't take my eyes off you.
05:05You feel like heaven or t-
05:06But even that wasn't the worst film of the year.
05:09That distinction belongs to Uwe Boll's Alone in the Dark.
05:12Boll is an infamous German director known for his terrible video game adaptations, and Alone in the Dark is his crowning achievement.
05:26Loosely based on the video game The New Nightmare, Alone in the Dark contains a surprisingly competent cast, including Christian Slater and Stephen Dorff.
05:34But even they couldn't save the film, which was filled with cheap special effects, typical direction from Bull, and a lackluster Tara Reid as Slater's archaeologist girlfriend.
05:44Give me one reason why I should ever even speak to you again.
05:482006, Basic Instinct 2.
05:50This is worse than chess love, isn't it?
05:54This time you knew right from the start what I was.
05:59And you let it happen again, didn't you?
06:02In 1992, an erotic thriller called Basic Instinct was released to incredible popularity, grossing over $350 million and shocking audiences with its graphic sexuality.
06:14It also made the 34-year-old Sharon Stone an international sex symbol.
06:18For some bizarre reason, a sequel was released in 2006, with a 48-year-old Stone reprising her iconic role as Catherine Trammell.
06:26The movie was widely lambasted for its awful script and ludicrous storyline, and Stone's lead performance was often criticized for being flat and unimpressive.
06:35You don't seem too upset by what's happened.
06:39Of course I am, I'm traumatized.
06:41It simply didn't work, and a potential third film was immediately cancelled owing to its awful box office performance.
06:47I guess we're out of time for today.
06:492007, Norbit.
06:51It's a shame that the once great Eddie Murphy resorted to making movies like this.
07:05Norbit is one of many movies in which Murphy plays several different characters, three to be exact.
07:11But one of them is a morbidly obese woman, and another is a Chinese-American that sees Murphy donning yellow face.
07:17The gimmick worked in The Nutty Professor, but it didn't work here.
07:20The film was often criticized for being cruel and bigoted, with most of the jokes being aimed at overweight individuals and black stereotypes.
07:28And Murphy earned three different Razzie awards for his performances.
07:31Murphy is far better than this.
07:33Boy, if you tell me why it has to hurt so GD much.
07:372008, The Happening.
07:392008 was a pretty bad year for movies, as it also saw the release of One Missed Call and Mike Myers' dreadful The Love Guru.
07:46But nothing compares to the mind-boggling, unintentional hilarity of The Happening.
07:51What? No!
07:52This movie killed all the momentum that M. Night Shyamalan had built with The Sixth Sense and Signs.
07:58After this, he was known as a once-promising director who had squandered his potential.
08:02The Happening has undergone a critical re-evaluation in recent years, as an homage to the horrible B-movies of the 1950s.
08:09But it doesn't really work as one of those, either.
08:11Plastic. I'm talking to a plastic plant.
08:16Shyamalan's writing is incoherent and his direction is sloppy.
08:20And Mark Wahlberg gives a career-worst performance as high school science teacher Elliot Moore.
08:25Hey, guys.
08:29Nothing.
08:312009, Dragon Ball Evolution.
08:33Serving as the first live-action adaptation of the popular Dragon Ball manga and anime,
08:38Dragon Ball Evolution did nothing but disappoint millions.
08:41You got a couple of dings there you might want to try puffing out.
08:44Directed by James Wong of Final Destination and The One fame,
08:47Dragon Ball Evolution was seven years in the making.
08:50Unfortunately, its paltry $30 million budget could never do justice to the imaginative source material.
08:57The small budget makes itself quite obvious,
08:59as the movie is filled with poor acting and unconvincing special effects.
09:03A-me!
09:04A-me!
09:06As it will!
09:09A-me!
09:12Again!
09:14A-me!
09:15A-me!
09:15A-me!
09:16A-me!
09:16A-me!
09:17A-me!
09:17Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama does not like the film, and screenwriter Ben Ramsey
09:28admitted to the DAO of Dragon Ball that he had zero passion for the project and that
09:33he wrote the film solely for the money.
09:35It shows…
09:362010 – The Last Airbender
09:38If The Happening didn't tank Shyamalan's career, then The Last Airbender certainly
09:42did.
09:432009 and 2010 saw a horrible one-two punch of live-action adaptations, with The Last
09:51Airbender following Dragon Ball Evolution into the cinematic abyss.
09:55Based on the beloved, Emmy and Peabody-winning animated program of the same name, The Last
10:00Airbender is one of the most horribly put-together movies ever made.
10:04Absolutely nothing went right here, and virtually every aspect of its production was widely mocked
10:09and criticized, particularly the casting and acting.
10:12Shyamalan's incomprehensible screenplay, the lack of faithfulness to the show, and
10:17the truly embarrassing visual effects.
10:19It's an inexplicably awful movie, considering the money and award-winning talent behind it.
10:24For a moment, I had my honor back.
10:272011 – Jack and Jill
10:29This year saw the release of the grossly disappointing The Green Lantern, but that looks like a masterpiece
10:34next to the Adam Sandler-led Jack and Jill.
10:37This movie sees Sandler playing two roles, Eddie Murphy-style.
10:41The ad executive, Jack Sadelstein, and his incredibly annoying twin sister, Jill.
10:46Oh, will you stop it already, and these sweet potatoes need salt?
10:50Sandler has produced some stinkers over the years, including Bucky Larson, Born to Be
10:54a Star, which was also released in 2011.
10:57But Jack and Jill is special, just not in a good way.
11:00In fact, it's the first movie in history to be nominated for 12 Razzie Awards, and also
11:05the first to sweep, winning in all ten categories.
11:09It's a true career low for all involved, including Sandler and the inexplicably present
11:14Al Pacino.
11:15All copies, destroy them.
11:19You want me to play it again?
11:20Has anybody seen this?
11:21Nobody has seen this.
11:22They have to be found and talked to.
11:25Alright.
11:262012 – A Thousand Words
11:34The second Eddie Murphy movie to grace this list, A Thousand Words came just five years
11:38after the awful Norbit, and nearly killed the comedian's career.
11:42Murphy plays a literary agent named Jack McCall, who is forced to use limited words and gestures
11:47owing to a magic Bodhi tree that will end his life if he talks too much.
11:51My talking is not making me sick.
11:54Oh really?
11:55The concept of the loud and energetic Murphy being forced into silence is somewhat intriguing
12:00and funny, but it simply doesn't work in practice.
12:03The premise is also far too absurd, and Steve Koren's script is poorly written and formulaic.
12:08Koren also wrote Jack and Jill with Adam Sandler, making this a double dose of awfulness.
12:13I forgive you.
12:152013 – Movie 43
12:17This is one of those once-in-a-lifetime movies that has movie buffs and critics shaking their
12:22heads in confusion, wondering how such talent could have resulted in such an end product.
12:26It's horrific.
12:27This movie contains virtually every megastar of the early 2010s, and it was directed by
12:33a slew of competent filmmakers, including Peter Farrelly, Elizabeth Banks, James Gunn,
12:38and Brett Ratner.
12:39Yet the movie was so unimaginably awful that it belied belief.
12:42You take that back!
12:43You son of a bitch!
12:44You take it back!
12:45None of the 14 segments worked in any capacity, and the scripts proved so unfunny that they
12:51somehow managed to make these world-class performers look like fools.
12:56What a travesty.
12:572014 – Left Behind
12:59Nicolas Cage is one of the most perplexing actors of our generation.
13:04He's clearly very talented and has starred in some incredible movies, but he's also appeared
13:08in some of the most irredeemable films of the past 20 years.
13:12Left Behind is one of them.
13:14I know you all want answers, and believe me, so do I, and I'll do my best to get them,
13:18but right now, I have to do my job so that we're all safe.
13:22Cage stars as Rayford Steele, an airline pilot who is left stranded in the air with his passengers
13:27after the rapture causes people on the ground to disappear.
13:30Left Behind can't help but remind viewers of Airplane, complete with some horrible acting
13:35and ghastly special effects. But Airplane was trying to be funny. Left Behind isn't.
13:41The result is unintentional hilarity and one of the worst movies of the 21st century.
13:45Irene knew this was coming. In detail. How could that be possible?
13:522015 – Fifty Shades of Grey
13:54It's important that you know you can leave at any time.
13:562015 was one of the worst years in modern movie history, filled with films like Fantastic Four,
14:02The Ridiculous Six, United Passions, and Fifty Shades of Grey.
14:06People wanted to hate this film, as E.L. James' source novel was critically derided and quite
14:11controversial. While this movie gets a lot of flack, it's not because of the novel.
14:15It's because the movie is genuinely bad.
14:17I don't think I'd fit in here.
14:25Look at me.
14:26The filmmaking and acting are poor, but no one came into this movie expecting Oscar-worthy material.
14:31But even the sensual sequences were boring due to the uncommitted performances and general
14:36tameness of the acts themselves. This was softcore when fans wanted hardcore,
14:40and it made for a horrible viewing experience for all demographics.
14:44I don't do romance.
14:50My tastes are very singular.
14:55You wouldn't understand.
14:562016 – Norm of the North
14:59It's very rare that an animated film is this bad, but Norm of the North is really bad.
15:04And on top of all that, Mr. Green is watching a swank natural…
15:10Not that natural.
15:11The story concerns an arctic polar bear named Norm, who travels to New York City and becomes the mascot
15:17for a condo development company. The cast includes the talented Rob Schneider, Heather Graham, Ken Jeong,
15:23and Bill Nighy, but even they can't elevate the pedestrian material. This is a lazily produced
15:29film, complete with subpar animation, poor voice acting by the otherwise notable cast, and a terrible
15:35script. Disney and Pixar have set an incredibly high standard for animated films, so it makes it even
15:41harder for efforts like Norm of the North to even come close to.
15:44It's not over yet, Norm. You can still do something.
15:472017 – The Emoji Movie Speaking of awful animated movies,
15:51The Emoji Movie, which may be the worst animated film ever made, gotta be top five, right?
15:56Okay, looks like it's gonna be meh.
15:582017 also saw the release of the grossly disappointing Death Note, but The Emoji Movie is so unbelievably bad,
16:05that it quickly entered the annals of Hollywood infamy. Despite a strong voice cast, the Emoji Movie
16:11was hated upon announcement owing to its goofy concept. But as The Lego Movie proved three years
16:16earlier, strong writing and filmmaking can make even the silliest concepts work. But this was a poorly
16:22made movie on all counts, especially the script by Tony Leondis, Eric Siegel, and Mike White.
16:28The blatant product placement certainly didn't help.
16:302018 – Gotti
16:38Holmes and Watson was a contender, but were giving this spot to Gotti instead.
16:42It's just amazing how John Travolta managed to match Battlefield Earth.
16:45We're not a piece of work. It's a big job, but there's no two ways about it. It's gotta be done.
16:51Gotti is a biopic of the late American gangster John Gotti, who served as the boss of the infamous
16:56Gambino crime family. Martin Scorsese makes it look easy because this
17:00mob drama is a truly horrible piece of work. Travolta is terrible as John Gotti,
17:06and both the writing and directing are pedestrian.
17:08I was so pissed off! Tell me! Tell me!
17:11I had to read about it! It is on the cover of the paper!
17:14It's an unbelievably bland film about a captivating true story.
17:18The movie was also accused of interfering on Rotten Tomatoes, as the audience score was curiously high,
17:24and eventually linked to the movie's distributor, MoviePass Ventures.
17:282019 – Cats
17:29It's amazing how poorly Cats turned out. Despite 2019 seeing the release of John Travolta's The Fanatic,
17:35and the insulting Laquisha, Cats managed to out-crap them all.
17:39It's a bit too bad, but it's a bit too bad!
17:44It's a bit too bad!
17:46Despite the amazing cast, the popular source material, and a powerful director in Tom Hooper,
17:51who has directed three actors to Academy Awards, Cats was outlandishly bad.
17:56The trailer was widely mocked and memed, and served as a portent of things to come.
18:01While it's certainly not the movie's only flaw, Cats was relentlessly criticized for its creepy and
18:06crappy visual effects, which contained numerous glitches and errors that made the movie seem
18:10unfinished. Universal later released a patch to fix the more egregious CGI errors,
18:16so apparently we're patching movies now. That bodes well for the future.
18:312020 – Doolittle
18:332020 was an unusual year for movies, many of which were questionable at best.
18:38Netflix generated some intense controversy for streaming cuties, but despite the controversial
18:42poster and subject matter, the movie received strong reviews. What didn't earn strong reviews
18:48was Doolittle, which served as Robert Downey Jr.'s first major role following his departure from the MCU.
18:53That's not good, as far as I'm concerned.
18:56The movie was widely criticized for its pedestrian humor, incomprehensible story,
19:01and terrible visual effects. Downey makes for a decent Dr. Doolittle,
19:05minus his abhorrent Welsh accent, but one good performance does not a good movie make.
19:10This was given a January release for a reason.
19:13Sit down, John.
19:17Don't embarrass me in front of the crew.
19:202021 – Music
19:22Never before had we watched an entire movie with our mouths hanging open. That changed after Music,
19:34the barbaric vanity project from Sia. The singer's long-time buddy and dancer,
19:39Maddie Ziegler, stars as Music Gamble, a non-verbal autistic girl who comes under the care of her
19:45troublesome half-sister. Music is enormously offensive in virtually every capacity. Ziegler's
19:52casting was controversial, as was the movie's depiction of autism and its use of restraints.
19:58And even ignoring that and the bizarre Twitter firestorm that resulted, the movie itself is also just
20:04trash, using autism as a tool to tell a schmaltzy story filled with terrible dialogue. Maybe its
20:10heart was in the right place, but that doesn't count for much when you manage to offend everyone watching.
20:15In Ghana, my younger brother was the same way. He liked to be held to feel safe.
20:22Where's he now?
20:24He is dead now.
20:27It's all right.
20:282022 – Morbius
20:30So what do you say?
20:33We go out with a fight?
20:34Sometimes a movie is so terrible that it brings the internet together through a lovable collection
20:39of fantastic memes. Morbius was that movie, and it was the welcome bomb that we all needed after
20:45two years of COVID. You know those fake trailers at the start of Tropic Thunder?
20:50This time, it's different.
20:55Who left the fridge open?
20:56Morbius is like one of those trailers, but real and 100 minutes long. It's terrible.
21:03Awful. Unwatchable.
21:05But enough about the movie.
21:06Let's talk about how the entire thing was posted to Twitter in 52 minute long videos,
21:11or how the whole script was uploaded through individual tweets. That's just genius,
21:16and way more fun than Morbius could ever hope to be.
21:19I've become something different. I feel a kinship with these creatures. They
21:26they would tear anyone else apart, but they welcome me. Like a brother.
21:31How are you?
21:36Great.
21:40You don't gotta pretend, Lee. You know Barney wouldn't want to watch you sulking like this.
21:45Phoned in is the best way to describe Expendables 4. It's not often that you see movies so clearly
21:51unfinished as this. It's obvious that this ugly thing was stitched together at the last minute,
21:56and probably out of unusable footage. Sylvester Stallone was barely present,
22:02and even when he did bother to show up, he was clearly checked out. In fact,
22:06most of the beloved cast are painfully absent. Adding to the pain, the abysmal dialogue was almost
22:12certainly written by AI. And judging by the nightmarish lighting and visual effects,
22:17the whole movie was probably shot in a warehouse over a long weekend. It's a cheap and incompetently
22:23made movie. Not to mention a disgrace to the Expendables name.
22:27Next time, tell me on a pony ride, okay?
22:312024. Madam Web.
22:33Okay, well, this is what we're gonna do, okay? We're just gonna, like, lay low for a little bit.
22:39And, um, I'll figure out how to get out of this.
22:42Seriously, what is Sony doing? Craven, Morbius, and Madam Web has to be the trifecta of terrible
22:48superhero movies. The terrible trilogy from hell. Once again, we have an obscure superhero
22:54character hoping to make her big break in the movies. And once again, it flounders thanks to
22:59some truly inept filmmaking. Madam Web has what could be the worst script in modern memory. Full
23:05of gaping plot holes and truly terrible lines that we can't believe someone actually wrote,
23:11let alone agreed to say. They actually had the nerve to reword the iconic speech from Spider-Man.
23:16And the less said about the atrocious editing and ADR, the better. Sony must be stopped. This
23:22can't go on much longer. And when you take on the responsibility,
23:28great power will come. Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring
23:33the bell to get notified about our latest videos. You have the option to be notified for occasional
23:39videos or all of them. If you're on your phone, make sure you go into your settings and switch on
23:44notifications. 2025, Snow White.
23:57Up until 2025, the Disney live action remakes have ranged from surprisingly decent to utterly
24:03forgettable. Ironically, the live action remake to Disney's first animated feature ended up being
24:08arguably their worst offense. Mark Webb's adaptation of Snow White received the usual criticisms of bland
24:22CGI, gray color palettes, and unnecessary changes from the source material. However, here, Gal Gadot's
24:28straight-up awkward performance as the Evil Queen received the most negative attention when this film
24:33premiered in March 2025. Though the film was a flop at the box office, mocking the film and its lead
24:39performance on social media became a bit of a viral trend, if that counts for anything.
24:44Take her to the forest.
24:47Kill her.
24:49Cut out her heart.
24:52Put it in this box.
24:53On your return,
24:56you will have anything your heart desires.
24:59What do you think is the worst movie of the 21st century? Let us know in the comments.
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