Top 21 Worst Movies of Each Year (2000 - 2020)

This movie was doomed from the start. It began as a passion project for John Travolta, who has been practicing Scientology since 1975. In 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.” Travolta wished to adapt the novel, but producers constantly squirmed away in disgust and hesitation. It was later picked up by an independent company, and Travolta contributed some of his own personal wealth to help finance the film. It nearly killed his career. “Battlefield Earth” is one of the worst movies of all time, filled with horrible production values and a bizarre overuse of tilted camera angles. The producers were right to stay away from this one.

World-famous singer Mariah Carey stars in “Glitter” as Billie Frank. Billie is a club dancer who meets and falls in love with a DJ named Julian Black, who goes by the nickname Dice and helps Billie pursue a music career. Much like John Travolta and “Battlefield Earth,” Carey had been planning the project for years. And like “Battlefield Earth,” the results were not worth the wait. “Glitter” was widely lambasted for its story and acting, particularly that of Carey herself. Carey 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.

Right off the bat - what kind of messy title is that? Perhaps unsurprisingly, the awful title portents the horrible movie to come. Despite starring the typically reliable Antonio Banderas and Lucy Liu, “Ballistic” is a horrible, horrible movie. 2002 was filled with some bad films, (xref) including “Master of Disguise” and “Swept Away,” but “Ballistic” is on another plane of awful. In fact, it is the worst reviewed-movie on Rotten Tomatoes, holding a 0% rating with 118 reviews. General audiences didn’t take to it either, as it grossed just $20 million on an inflated $70 million budget. It was a spectacular failure on all fronts.

Serving as one of the most famous “bad” movies ever made, “The Room” is enormously popular as a cinematic laughing stock. Led by the grossly inexperienced Tommy Wiseau, “The Room” is not just bad. It’s incompetent. Very few movies are truly awful; even the “bad” movies are usually well-produced and competently filmed. Just look at “Gigli,” the other infamous movie from 2003. “The Room” looks, sounds, and plays like an amateur production, complete with some truly horrendous acting, a general lack of technical filmmaking knowledge, and a messy script that constantly meanders and leaves subplots unresolved. It’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.”

“Spider-Man” was released in 2002, becoming the then sixth highest-grossing film of all time and launching the modern superhero craze. In 2004, it was Catwoman’s time to shine, like a freshly-bathed coat of fur. Unfortunately, “Catwoman” was more a turd left in the litter box. Unlike some of the blander superhero films, “Catwoman” is genuinely incompetent. It’s horribly written and clumsily directed by an inexperienced visual effects supervisor, and Halle Berry proves surprisingly awful as Patience Phillips. And despite the director having years’ worth of visual effects experience, the CGI of “Catwoman” looked dreadful - even for the time. (xref) You know it’s bad when “Catwoman” is considered worse than “Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2.”

2005 saw the release of “Son of the Mask,” a truly dreadful sequel to the beloved 1994 Jim Carrey original. But even that wasn’t the worst film of the year. That distinction belongs to Uwe Boll’s “Alone in the Dark.” Boll is an infamous German director known for his terrible video game adaptations, and “Alone in the Dark” is his crowning achievement. Loosely based on the video game “The New Nightmare,” “Alone in the Dark” contains a surprisingly competent cast, including Christian Slater and Stephen Dorff. But even they couldn’t save the film, which was filled with cheap special effects, typically awful direction from Boll, and a horrible Tara Reid as Slater’s archaeologist girlfriend.

In 1992, an erotic thriller called “Basic Instinct” was released to incredible popularity, grossing over $350 million and shocking audiences with its graphic sexuality. It also made the 34-year-old Sharon Stone an international sex symbol. For some bizarre reason, a sequel was released in 2006, with a 48-year-old Stone reprising her iconic role as Catherine Tramell. The movie was widely lambasted for its awful script and ludicrous storyline, and Stone’s lead performance was often criticized for being flat and unimpressive. It simply didn’t work, and a potential third film was immediately canceled owing to its awful box office performance.

It’s a shame that the once-great Eddie Murphy resorted to making movies like this. “Norbit” is another one of those movies in which Murphy plays several different characters - three to be exact. But one of them is a morbidly obese woman, and another is a Chinese-American that sees Murphy donning yellowface. The gimmick worked in “The Nutty Professor,” but it didn’t work here. The film was often criticized for being cruel and bigoted (with most of the jokes being aimed at overweight individuals and black stereotypes), and Murphy earned three different Razzie awards for his performances. Murphy is far better than this.

2008 was a pretty bad year for movies, as it also saw the release of “One Missed Call” and Mike Myers’ dreadful “The Love Guru.” But nothing compares to the mind-boggling, unintentional hilarity of “The Happening.” This movie killed all the momentum that M. Night Shyamalan had built with “The Sixth Sense” and “Signs.” After this, he was known as a once-promising director who had squandered his potential. “The Happening” has undergone a critical re-evaluation in recent years as an homage to the horrible B-movies of the 1950s. But it doesn’t really work as one of those, either. Shyamalan’s writing is incoherent and his direction sloppy, and Mark Wahlberg gives a career-worst performance as high school science teacher Elliot Moore.

Serving as the first live-action adaptation of the popular “Dragon Ball” manga and anime, “Dragonball Evolution” did nothing but disappoint millions. Directed by James Wong of “Final Destination” and “The One” fame, “Dragonball Evolution” was seven years in the making. Unfortunately, its paltry $30 million budget could never do justice to the imaginative source material. The small budget makes itself quite obvious, as the movie is filled with poor acting and unconvincing special effects. “Dragon Ball” creator Akira Toriyama does not like the film, and screenwriter Ben Ramsey admitted to The Dao of Dragon Ball that he had zero passion for the project and that he wrote the film solely for the money. It shows.

If “The Happening” didn’t tank Shyamalan’s career, then “The Last Airbender” certainly did. 2009 and 2010 saw a horrible one-two punch of live-action adaptations, with “The Last Airbender” following “Dragonball Evolution” into the cinematic abyss. Based on the beloved Emmy and Peabody-winning animated program of the same name, “The Last Airbender” is one of the most horribly put-together movies ever made. Absolutely nothing went right here, and virtually every aspect of its production was widely mocked and criticized - particularly the casting and acting, Shyamalan’s incomprehensible screenplay, the lack of faithfulness to the show, and the truly embarrassing visual effects. It’s an inexplicably awful movie, considering the money and award-winning talent behind it.

This year saw the release of the grossly disappointing “The Green Lantern,” but that looks like a masterpiece next to the Adam Sandler-led “Jack and Jill.” This movie sees Sandler playing two roles, Eddie Murphy style - the ad executive Jack Sadelstein and his incredibly annoying twin sister, Jill. Sandler has produced some stinkers over the years (xref) (including “Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star,” which was also released in 2011), but “Jack and Jill” is a special kind of awful. In fact, it’s the first movie in history to be nominated for twelve Razzie Awards… and also the first to sweep, winning in all ten categories. It’s a true career low for all involved, including Sandler and the inexplicably present Al Pacino.

The second Eddie Murphy movie to grace this list, “A Thousand Words” came just five years after the awful “Norbit” and nearly killed the comedian’s career. Murphy plays a literary agent named Jack McCall, who is forced to use limited words and gestures owing to a magic Bodhi Tree that will end his life if he talks too much. The concept of the loud and energetic Murphy being forced into silence is somewhat intriguing and funny, but it simply doesn’t work in practice. The premise is also far too absurd, and Steve Koren’s script is poorly written and formulaic. Koren also co-wrote “Jack and Jill” with Adam Sandler, making this a double dose of awfulness.

This is one of those once-in-a-lifetime movies that has movie buffs and critics shaking their heads in confusion, wondering how such talent could have resulted in such an awful end product. This movie contains virtually every megastar of the early 2010s, and it was directed by a slew of competent filmmakers, including Peter Farrelly, Elizabeth Banks, James Gunn, and Brett Ratner. Yet the movie was so unimaginably awful that it belied belief. None of the fourteen segments worked in any capacity, and the scripts proved so awful and unfunny that they somehow managed to make these world-class performers look like fools. What a travesty.

Nicolas Cage is one of the most perplexing actors of our generation. He’s clearly very talented and has starred in some incredible movies, but he’s also appeared in some of the most irredeemable films of the past twenty years. “Left Behind” is one of them. Cage stars as Rayford Steele, an airline pilot who is left stranded in the air with his passengers after the Rapture causes people on the ground to disappear. “Left Behind” can’t help but remind viewers of “Airplane!”, complete with some horrible acting and ghastly special effects. But “Airplane!” was trying to be funny. “Left Behind” isn’t. The result is unintentional hilarity and one of the worst movies of the 21st century.

2015 was one of the worst years in modern movie history, filled with horrid films like “Fantastic Four,” “The Ridiculous 6,” “United Passions,” and “Fifty Shades of Grey.” People wanted to hate this film, as E. L. James’ source novel was critically derided and quite controversial. And while this movie gets a lot of flack, it’s not because of the novel. It’s because the movie is genuinely bad. The filmmaking and acting are poor, but no one came into this movie expecting Oscar-worthy material. But even the sensual sequences were boring due to the uncommitted performances and general tameness of the acts themselves. This was softcore when fans wanted hardcore, and it made for a horrible viewing experience for all demographics.

It’s very rare that an animated film is this bad. But “Norm of the North” is really bad. The story concerns an Arctic polar bear named Norm who travels to New York City and becomes the mascot for a condo development company. The cast includes the talented Rob Schneider, Heather Graham, Ken Jeong, and Bill Nighy, but even they can’t elevate the pedestrian material. This is a lazily-produced film, complete with subpar animation, poor voice acting by the otherwise notable cast, and a terrible script. Disney and Pixar have set an incredibly high standard for animated films, and it makes poor efforts like “Norm of the North” seem that much more awful.

Speaking of awful animated movies - “The Emoji Movie,” which may be the worst animated film ever made. Gotta be top five, right? 2017 also saw the release of the grossly disappointing “Death Note,” but “The Emoji Movie” is so unbelievably bad that it quickly entered the annals of Hollywood infamy. Despite a strong voice cast, “The Emoji Movie” was hated upon announcement owing to its goofy concept. But as “The Lego Movie” proved three years earlier, strong writing and filmmaking can make even the silliest concepts work. But this was a poorly-made movie on all counts - especially the awful script by Tony Leondis, Eric Siegel, and Mike White. The blatant product placement certainly didn’t help.

“Holmes & Watson” was terrible, but we’re giving this spot to “Gotti.” It’s just amazing how John Travolta managed to match “Battlefield Earth.” “Gotti” is a biopic of the late American gangster John Gotti, who served as the boss of the famous Gambino crime family. Martin Scorsese makes it look easy because this mob drama is a truly horrible piece of work. Travolta and his late wife, Kelly Preston, are both terrible as John and Victoria Gotti, and both the writing and directing are pedestrian. It’s an unbelievably bland film about a captivating true story. The movie was also accused of interferencing on Rotten Tomatoes, as the audience score was curiously high and eventually linked to the movie’s distributor, MoviePass Ventures.

It’s amazing how poorly “Cats” turned out. Despite 2019 seeing the releases of John Travolta’s “The Fanatic” and the insulting “Loqueesha,” “Cats” managed to out-crap them all. Despite the amazing cast, the popular source material, and a powerful director in Tom Hooper (who has directed three actors to Academy Awards), “Cats” was outlandishly bad. The trailer was widely mocked and memed, and served as a portent of things to come. While it’s certainly not the movie’s only flaw, “Cats” was relentlessly criticized for its creepy and crappy visual effects, which contained numerous glitches and errors that made the movie seem unfinished. Universal later released a patch to fix the more egregious CGI errors, so apparently we’re patching movies now. That bodes well for the future.

2020 was an unusual year for movies, many of which were questionable at best. Netflix generated some intense controversy for streaming “Cuties,” but despite the controversial poster and subject matter, the movie received strong reviews. What didn’t earn strong reviews was “Doolittle,” which served as Robert Downey Jr.’s first major role following his departure from the MCU. The movie was widely criticized for its pedestrian humor, incomprehensible story, and terrible visual effects. Downey makes for a decent Dr. Doolittle (minus his abhorrent Welsh accent), but one good performance does not a good movie make. This was given a January release for a reason.