The worst movies of the past 20 years, according to Metacritic

The last 20 years have given us movie greats like “Lord of the Rings”, “Moonlight” and “Parasite”. The last two decades have also given us real bombs.

To revisit some of those hiccups, we turn to Metacritic, an entertainment review site that consolidates the scores of internet movie reviews, assigns a weight to each score, and calculates a weighted average. Basically instead of reading a lot of movie reviews, Metacritic just gives you an aggregate score of zero to 100.

Ready to take a trip down memory lane? Here are the worst movies released each year, for the past 20 years, according to Metacritic.

(A quick note on our methodology: we’ve left out movies that aren’t rated or rated NC-17. We prefer not to write summaries of these movie storylines on our work computers. Additionally, Metacritic omits them. movies that received less than seven reviews, so we removed them from our list as well.)

2020: “Love, marriages and other catastrophes”

It’s one of those romantic comedies with an ensemble cast – including Diane Keaton playing a blind woman – and multiple storylines that all converge in one way or another. In a year where COVID-19 has ruined many marriages, maybe this movie just wasn’t the right vibe?

Metascore: 11 (based on seven reviews)

2019: “The Haunting of Sharon Tate”

Hillary Duff plays Sharon Tate in this dramatized account of her murder at the hands of the cult of Charles Manson. Los Angeles Times critics called it a “fishy B-thriller” and The Wrap called it “insanely tasteless.” The Wrap also predicted it would be one of the worst – if not the worst – movies of the year. It turns out they were right!

Metascore: 8 (based on 10 reviews)

2018: “Death of a nation”

The movie was directed by conservative expert Dinesh D’Souza and compares Donald Trump to Abraham Lincoln (and Democrats to the Nazis) in the opening moments of the trailer, so you probably get the gist of it. But beyond its clear political agenda, critics say the movie was just plain bad: “The one thing stopping me from dubbing this one of the dumbest movies of any kind I’ve ever had is seen in my life is the fact that I’m not quite certain that something so miserably constructed and artistically bankrupt as this is actually considered a movie in the first place, ”wrote Peter Sobczynski in his critical.

Metascore: 1 (based on eight reviews)

2017: “The Emoji Movie”

This is an animated film about the emojis that live inside your phone. It’s a quirky idea, but critics say the writers haven’t been able to turn the concept into some truly fun moments. Apparently, the star cast of voice actors – including Maya Rudolph, Jennifer Coolidge, Patrick Stewart, Anna Faris, and at least five other very famous people – were also unable to carry the film.

Metascore: 12 (based on 26 reviews)

2016: “Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party”

Another Dinesh D’Souza production that failed with critics. “In the past, I’ve given D’Souza the benefit of the doubt, doing everything I can to be more objective,” wrote Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic critic. “But this thing is madness.”

Metascore: 2 (based on 17 reviews)

2015: “A kind of beautiful”

Pierce Brosnan, Salma Hayek and Jessica Alba embody a love triangle in this romantic comedy. But critics seem to think that the talents of these actors are wasted in this film full of clichés and misogyny.

Metascore: 11 (based on nine reviews)

2014: “Septic man”

“Septic Man” is a horror film in which a man is trapped in a septic tank – which, to be fair, is a horrific premise. But critics found the film neither scary nor funny, just boring.

Metascore: 8 (based on seven reviews)

2013: “Horror movie 5”

The fifth installment of the “Scary Movie” series targets the horror film “Paranormal Activity”, but critics say the parody missed the mark. This is an understatement. The Washington Post critic called it a “lazy, boring, vile, and tragically funny attempt to parody a horror movie that is sure to kill brain cells and could signal the impending apocalypse.”

Metascore: 11 (based on 16 reviews)

2012: “A little corner of paradise”

Kate Hudson plays a beautiful and funny single woman with a crush on her doctor. Then she got cancer. You can see where this is going, right? The consensus seems to be that the film was too stereotypical to be interesting. But Whoopi Goldberg is playing God, so at least that has it for that.

Metascore: 14 (based on 20 reviews)

2011: “Bucky Larson: Born to be a Star”

Bucky Larson was a buckskin-toothed grocery store worker, his life “going nowhere” (as the trailer says) until he found out his parents were pornstars. He moved to California to follow in their footsteps. The premise sounds pretty funny, but the jokes just didn’t seem to land. “It’s a lousy movie to watch and a slightly smelly movie to watch, actually,” Roger Moore wrote in the Orlando Sentinel.

Metascore: 9 (based on 13 reviews)

2010: “The vampires suck”

Critics were not a fan of this parody of the popular “Twilight” saga, very much in the style of the “Scary Movie” parody. They said it was filled with bad jokes and dated humor.

Metascore: 18 (based on 17 reviews)

2009: “Miss March”

The principle alone is chaotic: a teenager falls into a coma on prom night, wakes up four years later and realizes that his virginal date is now a “Playboy” model. He wants to find her, detours follow. It’s predictably scorching, but not very funny, the reviews wrote. However, the Boston Globe’s review of the film is funny enough: “‘Miss March’ is a sex comedy that appears to have been made by people who have never had sex.”

Metascore: 7 (based on 15 reviews)

2008: “The hottie and the nottie”

It’s even hard to describe this movie in a harmless way. Basically, the protagonist has a crush on Paris Hilton, but her “nottie” roommate with crooked teeth and body hair gets in the way of their relationship. The reviews from critics were universally terrible.

Metascore: 7 (based on 18 reviews)

2007: “Dads day camp”

Two dads decide to go back to summer camp to spend more time with their children. Men? In charge of childcare ?? They couldn’t do that! It’s a sequel to “Daddy Day Care” that no one asked for.

Metascore: 13 (based on 19 reviews)

2006: “Rendezvous film”

The folks from “Scary Movie” are once again on this list. This time they parody the whole genre of romantic comedy. A few reviewers admit it made them laugh once, but if that’s the best you can say for a comedy, it’s not great.

Metascore: 11 (based on 18 reviews)

2005: “Alone in the dark”

“Alone in the Dark” is (fairly) based on the video game of the same name, and reviews suggest that fans of the game are just playing it instead of watching the movie.

Metascore: 9 (based on 25 reviews)

2004: “Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2”

Jon Voight plays an evil German with a plan to control the minds of everyone on the planet… but not if those superhero toddlers had something to do with it! Cute? Sinister? The two? Critics say the plot was too confusing for kids and too boring for adults.

Metascore: 9 (based on 19 reviews)

2003: “From Justin to Kelly”

Two “American Idol” favorites, Kelly Clarkson and Justin Guarini, are trying to switch from singing to acting… and it doesn’t really work. The reviews make the movie really boring.

Metascore: 14 (based on 16 reviews)

2002: “Vulgar”

The film centers on a professional clown who is violently raped and then blackmailed by the rapist. But is it also a comedy? It’s impossible to imagine why Lions Gate, the independent distributor who released ‘Monster’s Ball’, would bother with this garbage, ”the San Francisco Chronicle review read.

Metascore: 5 (based on 10 reviews)

2001: “Sequins”

Mariah Carey plays a troubled childhood pop star in this infamous film. What exactly is so bad? Critics have called it joyless, tedious, ridiculous, and unintentionally hilarious. Could the movie be so bad that it is good? No, not even that.

Metascore: 14 (based on 23 reviews)