The bottom of barrel was full of bad horror movies, bad video game adaptations and more of Sony’s pettiness towards the MCU. This year featured no honorable mentions for the first time in a good while. This list will include movies only, no TV / series, comedy specials, documentaries or spinoffs. Streaming service movies will be included as well as theatrical releases…obviously.
So, without further ado, let’s get it started:
10) Lift – Kevin Hart’s attempt to change genres is admirable but falls short of the mark with a cliche plot, bad CGI & lazy writing.
9) Argylle – despite a star-studded cast & a big-name director, this spy thriller forgot how to make a good movie with a cohesive story. The marketing for this movie was all over the place & gave away major plot points that ruined the overall experience.
8) Night Swim – Did they think that a movie about a haunted swimming pool would work? This movie feels like cheaply made horror movies of the 2000s, where there was an overreliance on jump scares & loud scores.
7) Atlas – Jennifer Lopez’s downward spiral in 2024 was entertaining in a bad way. Her album / biopic over on Prime Video was a major flop. This Netflix original film didn’t do her any favors. The idea of her teaming with AI for a space mission seemed a bit much but the execution of the movie was so lacking. Lopez has zero interest in this film and makes her character so dull & uninteresting.
6) Tarot – Another uninteresting horror revolving around a group of teenagers who make every wrong choice possible. Movies like this one & “Ouija”, “The Gallows” & “Truth or Dare” are prime example that the horror genre can be the biggest cash grab when using the smallest amount of effort.
5) Borderlands – Why is it when a film studio gets the rights to a video game franchise, they let filmmakers who have never heard or played the game at all make the movie? We got some good adaptations recently, “Sonic”, “Super Mario”, “The Last of Us” & “Fallout”. This movie felt like cash grab once the trailer came out. Everyone was mis casted, no one really cared, bad CGI & lazy writing.
4) Rebel Moon: The Scargiver – Zack Synder’s off brand “Star Wars” sequel was a total snooze fest. The first film was OK at best, but the sequel comes across as uninteresting & forgettable.
3) Madam Web – How can you make a superhero movie WITHOUT superheroes? The biggest red flag for this movie came when Dakota Johnson & Sydney Sweeney were bad mouthing the movie the week of its release. Thank God, Sony finally wised up and stopped making these movies. If they’re not going to release the 3rd “Spider-Verse” film, then at this point, all of their Marvel properties need to go back to their rightful owners.
2) Joker: Folie A Deux – Once this was announced as a musical, that should’ve been the first of trouble. Lady Gaga brings nothing to film other than another name on the marquee. Joaquin Phoenix does not seem to enjoy the film, nor does it seem like story followed the previous film. A fantastic previous film that gained notoriety for the wrong reason & gave Phoenix an Oscar, is followed up by terrible dumpster fire of a sequel.
1) The Strangers: Chapter 1 – This film was marketed as fresh take on an already established franchise & failed miserably. The original 2008 film is an underrated classic while its 2018 sequel was a disappointment. This attempt to reboot this franchise failed because rather than retell the story in a different & add something new, they told the exact same story, shot by shot, beat for beat while removing everything that made the original film great.