Top 20 Most Unwatchable Movies

“The Emoji Movie” is classified as an animated comedy. Well, that’s half right. This film is definitely animated - we aren’t arguing with that. But “comedy” - that’s pushing the definition of the term. Unless that term refers to the hysterical amount of obvious and cringe product placements. Because in that case, “The Emoji Movie” was perfect. But if we’re talking actual funny stuff, allow us to quote Alonso Duralde of TheWrap, who called the film, “soul-crushing.” If there was an “unwatchable” emoji, that’s the one we would be using right now.

How could a movie starring Will Smith, Edward Norton, Keira Knightley, Kate Winslet, and Helen Mirren be unwatchable? It’s not easy, but 2016’s “Collateral Beauty” managed to do it. After tragedy strikes Will Smith’s character, he writes letters to Love, Time, and Death in an attempt to find answers and an understanding of the universe. This could either be deep and powerful or emotionally manipulative. Guess which one it was? Sitting through “Collateral Beauty” means feeling the obvious and superficial jerking of your tears. We love a good movie cry as much as the next person. But we don’t when it feels like it’s being forced out of us to cover up poor writing.

With Michael Fassbender in the lead role and promising source material, “The Snowman” could’ve been 100% watchable. This psychological thriller is about a police inspector chasing a serial killer who leaves snowmen at his crime scenes. Sounds simple enough right? WRONG! As critics pointed out, the film’s plot was all over the place and kinda hard to comprehend. This takes us back to that 100% comment we made earlier. You see, according to director Tomas Alfredson - due to the short pre-production schedule and budget issues during production, 10-15% of the script didn’t get shot.

To some, superhero movies are like pizza… even the bad ones are still pretty good. While we have yet to experience a pizza we didn’t finish, 2015’s “Fantastic Four” is a superhero movie we just can’t get through. Given the film’s 9% Rotten Tomatoes score, we aren’t alone. Not that the 2005 “Fantastic Four” film was anything great - but it was better than this one. Acting, directing, editing, the 2015 reboot failed on all levels. Let’s hope the planned reboot finally puts the fantastic back into “Fantastic Four.” In any case, it doesn’t get worse than this.

We could use a thousand words to tell you why this 2012 film is utterly unwatchable, but all we need is one…. Unfunny! Given his early work, we don’t use the word “unfunny” lightly about anything Eddie Murphy does. But when it comes to “A Thousand Words,” it’s unwatchably true. To be fair, the uber-talented actor and comedian isn’t working with anything here. Not to mention the fact that the film is all about Murphy having to stop talking - thus taking away the man’s greatest comedic strength.

A white student pretends to be black to get a scholarship to university. Are you cringing yet? Okay, wait for it…. To complete his ruse, the guy uses a massive amount of tanning pills to look darker. Let the cringing begin! While the filmmakers may have had the best of intentions to explore racism in American society, those intentions were very much not fulfilled. Instead, the blackface-esque makeup was widely criticized. Even beyond that, the movie was a well-intentioned mess that, as one critic put it, approached the topic “on the level of a dim-witted sitcom.”

John Gotti is one of the most famous New York mob bosses of all time. His life was filled with drama, crime, and intrigue… perfect for a Hollywood movie. However, when it comes to the 2018 biopic about the man, well let’s just say it should’ve been whacked before it ever saw the light of day. The film went through years of development with multiple directors coming on and getting out. Maybe they read the script and jumped ship since the writing was a main point of contention for many critics. Speaking of critics, we’re talking 0% on Rotten Tomatoes (and we assume that’s only the ones who made it through the entire film).

Andy Warhol is a pop-art god and one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. However, his 1965 film, “Empire” had to make this list. Not because it wasn’t an avant-garde masterpiece that explored our concepts of time. But because it is 8 hours and 5 minutes long! Yup, that’s right. The film is a slo-mo view of the Empire State Building for 8 hours and 5 minutes. We’re not sure if Warhol intended for people to sit there for all 29,100 seconds but… let us know if you could.

From “Wayne’s World,” to “Austin Powers,” to “Shrek,” Mike Myers had an amazing run of comedic success in the 90s and early aughts. Then in 2008 came “The Love Guru” - one of the most unfunny comedies of the century so far. This Razzie Award winner for Worst Picture was so bad, and so panned by both audiences and critics, that Myers’ career almost came to a screeching halt. He hasn’t written another film or been the star of a non-animated movie, since then. It probably would’ve been better for him if nobody had watched it.

Harmony Korine burst onto the scene with his script for the controversial coming-of-age film, “Kids” in 1995. For his next film, he wrote the screenplay - and got behind the camera to direct. That movie was “Gummo” - an experimental and disturbing film about… well, that’s hard to say. The movie incorporates vignette and non-narrative storytelling along with graphic content to make for a very different movie. One that people generally have strong emotions about. They love it or they hate it. With more falling into the latter category and many of those probably finding it unwatchable as well.

When Jim Carrey turned down $10 million to make a sequel to his hit 1994 film “The Mask,” that should’ve been the end of it. But when the studios have a hit movie, they have a hard time letting go of the idea of sucking every last possible penny from the property. That’s how you get things like “Son of the Mask/” Instead of Jim Carrey, you have Jamie Kennedy. Instead of top-notch physical comedy, you have an overreliance on special effects. Instead of a lot of laughs, you have very, very, very few. Richard Roeper called it the closest he’d “come to walking out halfway through the film.” Agreed!

Director Uwe Boll made a name for himself in the 2000s. Unfortunately for him, that name was synonymous with making really bad movies - often adaptations of video games. The gold standard people always point to is “Alone in the Dark.” With a 1% Rotten Tomatoes rating and a CinemaScore audience grade of “F,” this thing is pure awful. Acting, directing, writing, this film fails on all levels. You’d be better off literally sitting alone in the dark than subjecting your eyes to even a few of this film’s 96 minutes.

Hey, if you’re looking for celebrity cameos, then “Zoolander 2” might be one of the most watchable movies of all time. The problem is that a celebrity’s presence alone isn’t automatically funny. You have to write them jokes! There are only so many cameos and Blue Steel faces they can throw at us before we realize we haven’t lol’d in a while. Sure, living up to the audience’s expectations after the first film was going to be hard. But you know what you do if you can’t make a good sequel? Just don’t make it!

While the term “unwatchable” is generally associated with a bad product, that isn’t always the case. As with the 1967 documentary “Titicut Follies.” In fact, the film was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. No, in this case, the unwatchable nature of the film is the subject matter itself. Filmed over 29 days at the Massachusetts Bridgewater State Hospital for the criminally insane, the film captured the harsh and disturbing realities of the institution and the patients therein. It’s definitely worth watching… if you can.

“Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom” was Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini’s final film - and undoubtedly his most controversial. To some, it’s a masterpiece. To others, it’s disturbing, repugnant and, to quote the TV Guide review, “nearly unwatchable.” Loosely based on a novel by Marquis de Sade, the film sets itself in World War II Italy where a bunch of rich libertines kidnap teenagers and torture them. We don’t need to say any more for you to understand how this one could be hard to watch, do we?

2004’s “Catwoman” won more awards than many other superhero films. Unfortunately, they were Golden Raspberry Awards - and of the film’s seven nominations, it won Worst Picture, Worst Actress (Halle Berry), Worst Director, and Worst Screenplay. If by some miracle you make it through the first part of the movie, just wait until Berry and Benjamin Bratt play basketball. The downright ridiculousness of that one-on-one scene will have you saying enough is enough. You’d think that maybe this is one of those ‘so bad it’s good’ movies. But no, it’s just so bad it’s bad (and unwatchable).

Adam Sandler is an enigma. While he has made some of the funniest movies we’ve seen, he’s also made a bunch that are downright unwatchable. Case in point, “Jack and Jill.” Basically, the joke here is that Sandler is playing both twin siblings - Jack and Jill. And that’s it. This is a one-joke movie and that one joke isn’t very funny to begin with. Okay yes, it does have Al Pacino in it, and he - as always - is worth watching. However, even the great Pacino can only save the film for so long before the unfunny and unwatchableness of it becomes overwhelming.

In 2007, it was announced that M. Night Shyamalan had signed on to make three live-action films based on the animated series, “Avatar: The Last Airbender.” Hold on. We know what you’re thinking… didn’t they only make one movie? Yes, they did. And you know why? Because the one they made was so terrible, they canceled the plans for the other two. Shyamalan took a beloved property with an interesting, deep, and exciting world and made it, well, really boring! If you’re a fan of the series, you’ll hate it know what could’ve been. If you’ve never seen the show, you’ll just hate it. Either way, making it through this one is harder than bending the air.

Now, no one probably thinks that a movie called “Cannibal Holocaust” is going to be a fun, family-friendly viewing experience. But, this 1980 Italian horror film is even more disturbing than you might imagine. Gruesome might not be a strong enough word to describe some of the sexual violence and animal cruelty that assaults the viewer in this movie. Even those who wrote positive reviews of the film often noted the imagery as “truly repugnant” and “sometimes unwatchable.” Just so you know what you’re getting into if you do decide to give it a shot.

We’re sure some of you saw this one coming from a mile away. Bad, unwatchable, worst ever - there are so many adjectives that have been used to describe “Battlefield Earth” - and they are all well-deserved. Based on a novel by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, the film was a passion project for John Travolta, who saw it as part one of a two-part telling of the novel. However, when this film bombed as hard as it did, that put an end to any chance of a second film getting made. Well, that’s a silver lining at least.